Halloween

I hate Halloween.It's Christmas for the maladjusted.I'm taking the day off.SUBSCRIBE TO THE AD CONTRARIAN

The Ribbon, cont.

As a follow-up to last week's "The Ribbon", you might want to have a look at this and this from Ad Age.

The Yellow and Brown Process

Prospective clients want to believe that there is a method to the madness.More and more, success in winning new clients is not about the effectiveness of the advertising you create, but about how clever you are at articulating a convincing process behind your creative endeavors.Well, there are processes for doing just about everything an agency does. But when it comes to creating ideas, sorry,

Nobody Knows Anything

In Hollywood they have a saying: "Nobody knows anything." This explains how huge-budget, big-star, focus-group-approved movies manage to bomb on a regular basis.It is not dissimilar in advertising. Most of consumer behavior is perfectly obvious -- people like things that look nicer, taste better, work more dependably and cost less (see Salesmen & Sociologists.) But then there’s the mysterious

Stay Foolish

"Don’t let the noise of other people’s opinions drown out your own inner voice... Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”- Steve JobsSUBSCRIBE TO THE AD CONTRARIAN

The Ribbon

One of the things that worries me about the internet is the naive and foolish belief that it has, and will continue to have, a substantially empowering effect on the individual.Web advocates speak eloquently about how the advent of the internet has allowed individuals to influence communities, organizations, and enterprises in completely unique and original ways. While there is some truth to

Marketing Tips for Geniuses

DOTAC (Daughter of the Ad Contrarian) is in full college application mode, which means we've been traveling around looking at colleges. We've met some genius-type people on our visits but have witnessed some woefully inadequate marketing practices. If you're a college or university marketing or admissions officer, here are some tips:1. A visiting high school senior bases about 99% of his/her

Baloney Sandwich

I came across two marketing stories today that made me want to scream. Or even worse, update my blog.First from the Boston Globe. A story about how net research can explain everything in the universe."You can use online data to predict what consumers are doing across every facet of their lives," said Stephen DiMarco, chief marketing officer of Compete Inc., a Boston firm that tracks Web traffic.

And Speaking of Churchill

Yesterday we posted a quote from Winston Churchill. Apropos Sir Winston, guest blogger Simon Billing contributes this piece on the silliness of focus groups.May 28, 1940The Rt. Hon. W.S. ChurchillThe House of CommonsLondon W1Sir,Please find below the results of our focus groups on the speech you intend to make before Parliament next week. Please note that this research is qualitative in nature

Reality Check

"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results."--Winston ChurchillSUBSCRIBE TO THE AD CONTRARIAN

Marketing To Yourself

One of the great joys of being in the advertising and marketing business is the power to market to yourself.So if you're young and work for an NBA team, you blast the hip-hop music in the arena even though the average season ticket holder is an over-50, fat-ass white guy.And if you work on a car account, you write a spot your friends will think is cool, even though no one under 25 can afford a

TAC Predicts

Casey Stengel once said, "I never make predictions, particularly about the future." The Ad Contrarian does not have the wisdom to follow Casey's sage advice. TAC predicts:Within the next year there will be a very disturbing report/investigation/article on the influence of internet pornography on the sexual behavior of young people.This report will create headlines, a furor, lots of posturing

Start Your Own

I was talking to a young lady the other day. She went to a great college, studied advertising, and now has a job in an agency. She expected the ad business to be full of oddballs, eccentrics, and iconoclasts -- like in the movies.Instead, she said, everybody repeats the same 10 cliches, drops the same 3 agency names, and talks about the same ads.One of the problems is that it's getting harder to

Big, Dumb, Global Bozos

Every now and then some big, global agency comes sniffing around trying to buy us. Usually it’s because their agency in SF is a disaster, or they want to get their hands on one of our accounts.Recently it was driven home to me why we’ve never taken any of these guys seriously. The ceo of a very large agency came around. He’s sitting in our conference room. He leans across the conference table.

Big News from Brandweek

Stop the presses! Here's some huge news. Consumers favor brands that offer them good quality at a low price! Oh my god!"The 26,000 men and women polled... showed a strong inclination to brands that either saved them money or were perceived as having good value" is how Brandweek reported it.A company called Brand Keys did the survey. Apparently, they had to poll 26,000 people to figure this out.

Stick a Knife in My Head

We’ve been ranting for quite some time about how advertisers are missing a huge opportunity by always targeting young people.In short, people over 50 have 77% of the money and are the target for about 10% of all advertising (see "Aiming Low.") According to The New York Times it looks like some companies are starting to wake upHowever, with their typical heavy hand, most marketers will blow their

Absence of Choice

A recent post by Seth Godin in Seth's Blog called "Choice" had this to say: 'If I had to pick one word to describe what's new, what's different and what's important about now vs. then, it would be "choice."'As usual, TAC disagrees. What's new and different is absence of choice."Then" there was a mens' store, a pharmacy, a grocery, a shoe store, a fruit stand, a pizza joint, a coffee shop and a

Dull Men in Grey Suits

A piece called "Why Have Admen Lost Their Mojo?" in The New York Observer asks where have all the visionaries and scoundrels gone?The writer has a lot to say, but most of it is off target. The reason there are so few big personalities left in advertising is that advertising has been homogenized into submission by consolidation, globalization and corporatization.The ad business used to be an

Worst Idea of the Week. Any Week

CBS is planning a "reality" show in which the contestants compete to write the best ad jingle. This is not a joke. It's called Jingles. Apparently no one has told the programmers at CBS that nobody has used a jingle in advertising in about 20 years. They really ought to watch their network sometime.SUBSCRIBE TO THE AD CONTRARIAN

Overstimulated by the NBA

The new NBA season is soon to begin, so you can expect me to become even crankier. I used to love the NBA. Now, every time I go to a game I swear I'll never go back. Until the next game.The constant marketing drives me crazy. There is not a minute during the game when someone isn't trying to sell me something. And when they're not selling something the idiotic promotions and incessant music and

New Species of Human

According to most new age marketing gurus, there is apparently a whole new species of human being. This species has some interesting traits:1. Other than the internet, they don’t trust media.2. They are immune to marketing.3. They dislike advertising.4. They want a “conversation” with brands. This, of course, is a lot of nonsense. But it’s remarkable how widespread these beliefs are becoming in

Pudding Heads

DOTAC (Daughter of The Ad Contrarian) sent TAC this link. Apparently some geniuses called Pudding Media are going to provide you with free VOIP phone service if you will let them listen in on your calls and send you ads that relate to your conversation.Of course, this will not intrude on your privacy. "Mr. Maislos (chief executive) said that Pudding Media had considered the privacy question