Shelby Hunt

In my opinion, Shelby D. Hunt is one of the greatest scholars that marketing has ever produced and ever will produce. I've only met him on once, but I gather from people who know him that he's the nicest and most generous scholar you could conceivably encounter. Unfortunately, he doesn't come across that way in print. Brilliant though his articles are – seminal, in fact – he comes across like Professor Pedantic. ‘I'm right, you're wrong', kind of thing. What's more, he refuses to modify his position on matters philosophical, which is admirable in many ways but isn't good for our field in others. Hence my critiques of his work. While some have accused me of going over the top, I really don't think I've treated him any worse than he treats others.

That said, I was pretty annoyed by the whole Rethinking Marketing business. I  don't know if you've read this particular edited book, but it was based on a  conference held way back in 1993. Hunt was one of the keynote speakers and I  was invited, I guess, as some kind of postmodern punchbag. We were invited to  contribute to the ensuing edited book and my chapter was an early draft of the  material that went into the 1995 book, Postmodern Marketing The only  difference was that I added a section on the great man entitled 'The Snarking of the Hunt: Deconstructing Shelby D'.

However, just prior to publication (i.e. in 1998!), I was informed that Hunt had withdrawn his chapter in protest about the way he'd been maltreated by yours truly. I knew absolutely nothing about this. The only indication I had that there was a problem was when I was asked to tone down the title of the section on Shelbs, which I was happy to do. Indeed, had I known he was unhappy, I would've removed the entire offending section. I'm not one to upset the great and good of our field, as you know...