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On negativity and creativity: the essay that explains it all.
Portrait of a young man as troubled copywriter… How many times have we in Adland heard variations on the following comment regarding a member of the creative department: “Jack has talent… if only he...
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Whether you like commercials or not, GE’s new ad campaign is truly remarkable.
The ambivalence in my lead is based on mitigating factors I will get to. First some praise. These new GE commercials are more than TV spots they are truly short films, carefully and wonderfully...
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Why hasn’t fashion advertising come to grips with our massive addiction to...
She’s surprisingly hard to find… In the latest issue of GQ are hundreds of fashion ads featuring hip, trendy people and not one of them is interacting with a smart phone or tablet. And yet, in reality...
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Is good design “proof of God?”
Intelligent design is divine! Did you know there are proofs of God’s existence? Neither did I. That is until my daughter informed me at dinner the other night. Camille is a student at Marin Catholic...
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Do I dare refute legendary adman, David Abbot’s treatise on “gang-bangs?”...
To: Agency Re: Gang Bangs Much cheering has gone out for a resurfaced 1994 memo written by the legendary UK adman, David Abbot (Abbot, Meade, Vickers) proclaiming contempt that his agency could take...
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Are you a hipster or a hater? Check out the latest alcohol advertising to...
“Wake me up when we’re cool.” What is it about spirit’s that leads to advertising that makes fun of people? Well, I’ll tell you. Since advertisers are not really allowed to talk about the intoxicating...
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On heretics and popular culture. Lord knows I’m one…providing, of course,...
“Serves ye right for Tweeting about thy Lord!” I’ve had a mild case of heresy all my life. Like alcoholism or diabetes, there is no cure. In some ways there’s not even a treatment. I just sort of deal...
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What is more shocking: that this Pornhub billboard got put up or that it was...
So Pornhub (a popular pornographic website) puts up a billboard in Times Square. It’s cute. Plays off of the obvious reason why people would traffic a site like Pornhub: to masturbate. For those...
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Creativity and bad behavior: Two of my favorite subjects!
Genius/Douchebag Apple’s founder, Steve Jobs died three year ago in October. And so I found myself re-reading passages from the best-selling biography, by Walter Isaacson. Among the book’s many...
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The ultimate irony: Why is the fear of actual creativity so rampant in Adland?
Why are client’s so difficult? Those of us in the creative department have asked the question so many times it has become rote. Clients are difficult. Period. Especially when it comes to buying and...
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Am I provoking a sleeping giant? I prefer to call it just being awake.
“Hey you!” Someone I greatly respect expressed concerns that my recent post documenting “bad client behavior” and “deeply challenging agency politics” was just inviting trouble. In other words he was...
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Despite odor of desperation and greed, holiday catalogs come early and often.
The true Nightmare before Christmas… You’re looking at the first pile of holiday catalogues to cram my home’s mailbox. They arrived October 15th, one half month before Halloween. Disgusting retail...
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The ultimate brand narcissism: marketers that think they “own” a color are...
A flash in the Internet pan… Back in the days of dial-up, I worked on the Earthlink account. As you may recall, Earthlink was, and maybe still is, an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Based in Atlanta,...
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Singing praises of popular music. It brings out the teen-ager in all of us.
My girls in girl mode, from a recent plane trip The weekend drive to the barn with my daughters is a mostly beautiful 20-mile trek north of Mill Valley to horse country in Nicasio. Normally, I listen...
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The stupification of news media: a virus of breathless hyperbole, meaningless...
All the news that’s fit to share… Have you noticed how online journalism and media purveyors have increasingly tarted up and/or dumbed down their content? Things have gotten way more visual, mimicking...
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“Ranthem” on United Airlines: from bad to worse on the less than friendly skies.
The bewildered gather… I did not think I would ever write a blog post about something so cliché as a terrible airline experience. Griping about shitty airlines on social media –not me. Yet, the...
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What do you call your agency? A parable for all the cynics in Adland.
Integrated shop. Unified model. Gyro refers to it as “Uno.” Call your agency (its culture, its model) what you will. And on some days those terms can be pretty brutal. As some of you know I’ve likened...
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It was seven years ago today…
“Blogging, eh…” Seven years ago in October, I began this blog. I’ve since written 882 posts. If I’m reading my stats correctly just over one million people have visited Gods of Advertising, far less...
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Caveat Emptor: Does advertising contribute to our indifference to things that...
What are you scared of? In Eula Biss’s new book, On Immunity: An Innoculation she writes about fears, rational and otherwise, associated with vaccinating ourselves against terrible diseases. It’s a...
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Gratitude in Adland: taking a moment for what we often take for granted.
For the refuge it provides… In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’m compelled to speak about gratitude. After all, gratitude is the very definition of giving thanks. Many of us (myself included) often...
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