MEDIA COMMENTARY, MUSINGS, & GENERAL CRANKINESS
Posted in Advertising, Commentary on Jan 18th, 2012
This morning I wrote an email to a kid I heard was in the dumps. Thought someone else out there could possibly use the same chuck-on-the-shoulder. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Hello ____, [...]
Posted in Advertising, Commentary, General Crankiness on Jan 8th, 2012
Recently, Canadian ad blogger Heidi Ehlers, founder of Camp Black Bag, told me about a lesson she once learned from her mother. Heidi had just moped into a room to whine to her mother, “Momma, I am so bored.” And her mother responded, sagely if a little coldly, “No my dear, you are boring.” Sue [...]
Posted in Commentary, General Crankiness on Dec 16th, 2011
(Article I wrote for the Los Angeles Times.) My mother, a dyed-in-the-wool Minnesota Democrat, is sitting across the breakfast table from me. She’s reading the paper and comes across an ad for the big after-Thanksgiving sale at The Mall of America. “How can people even go to that place?” she laments. “It’s just a … [...]
Posted in Advertising, Commentary, digital on Nov 29th, 2011
Gareth Kay is one of the few certifiable digital experts out there and he proposes that there’s a subtle but important difference between big ideas and what he calls “long ideas.” These are ideas that are rich enough to be extended into digital and other channels for a long time. They are less brand ideas [...]
Posted in Advertising, Commentary, General Crankiness on Nov 6th, 2011
Distilled from a recent interview on blog radio with the delightful Heidi Ehlers, founder of Camp Black Bag – “The Boot Camp for Your Career.” * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * [...]
Posted in Advertising, Commentary, General Crankiness on Oct 27th, 2011
As expected, U.S. entries to Cannes were way down this year given the recent Zombie Apocalypse. Observers are surprised ad people continue to even exist given their worthlessness in a economy that now values productive trades like farmers, electricians, and mechanics. In fact, the few agencies still operating attribute their success almost entirely to being [...]
Posted in Advertising, Commentary on Sep 1st, 2011
Advertising is an itinerant business. I tell students when you step out of school and into the river of commerce, let the current take you where it may. Yes, you can have your target cities, your preferred agencies, but the creative process and the creative life are unpredictable and full of unexpected left turns. I [...]
Posted in Advertising, Commentary on Jun 20th, 2011
An excerpt from the 4th edition of “Hey Whipple, Squeeze This,” due out in February, 2012. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Remember how it felt the first time you held [...]
Posted in Commentary, Thirty Rooms To Hide In on Jun 13th, 2011
It’s so weird having a book on the market. It’s like sending your baby’s pictures out there. (“Please, please, no one say my baby ugly, my baby not ugly, little baby he not ugly.”) Then along comes Jane Nation’s review. Jane Nation is a cool website/blog with the descriptor “The World According To Women.” Which [...]
Posted in Advertising, Commentary on May 3rd, 2011
Change is rocking the advertising world and creatives with old-world skills like digital are out on the street. The smart money is on Whacky Arm-Flailing Inflatable Tube Men. Such was the theme last week, at Austin’s prestigious “South-By-South-WHACKY -ARM-FLAILING-INFLATABLE-TUBE-MEN Conference” where futurists crowded Sixth Street for a first look the next advancements in Inflatable Whacky [...]
|
