Visiting The Land Of Make-Believe

Today, once again, we visit the land of make-believe.It's a land that is inhabited by a new species of human being. These new humans are very young and they're very different from us.They don't use or believe traditional media. They don't like to be marketed to.They get their information online -- where they develop brand relationships and have conversations with and about brands.They hate

Congratulations, Mr. President

Congratulations President Obama on winning the coveted Titanium Prize for your presidential advertising at the Cannes Advertising Festival. I'm sure it must be one of your proudest moments.Also congratulations are in order for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who won the Uranium Prize, and Kim Jong Il who won the Plutonium Prize.This Could Happen To You!Just in case you ever get the urge to to pontificate

Disintermediating The Extraterrestrials

Apparently, there aren't enough annoying opinions about advertising. Now we have politicians weighing in.Big Al Gore took some time off from saving the universe a few weeks ago to help us save the ad industry.Al explained that the future of advertising is -- take a deep breath -- VCAMs: Viewer Created Ad Messages.Al, who is co-founder of Current TV (a cable network that relies heavily on viewer

Take The "ARE YOU FACEBOOK-DUMB OR TWITTER-DUMB?" Quiz

Which kind of dumb are you?Here at TAC global headquarters, we have divided the world into two kinds of people -- those who are "Facebook-dumb," and those who are "Twitter-dumb."Facebook-dumb people think the world is interested in their pathetic lives. Twitter-dumb people think the world is interested in their idiotic

Someone Please Explain

I rarely criticize other agency's work. It's too easy to be a creative genius/cheap shot artist when you don't have to deal with the problems or the clients.But I have to say, Wendy's recent campaign has me completely baffled. "It's waaaay better than fast food.(R) It's Wendy's."Here's why I'm confused:Everyone in the world, except apparently Wendy's, knows that it is fast food.The 30% of the

Robbie And Ruthie Talk About Pickles

The phone rings:ROBBIE: Hello.

RUTHIE: Robert, it's your Aunt Ruthie.

ROBBIE: Hi Ruthie.

RUTHIE: Hello, darling.

ROBBIE: What's up?

RUTHIE: I'm calling to ask a favor.

ROBBIE: Sure.

RUTHIE: My pickles are selling very well, and Big Save says they'll put them in their supermarkets all across the country, but I have to do some advertising. So I thought as long as my nephew is a big

Please, God, Not Again

From The New York Times, advertising column last Wednesday:The growing prominence of the ’60s is partly a result of the election of Barack Obama, whose paeans to hope and youthful followers bring to mind the idealism associated with the ’60s.The decade “evokes a time when young people were seeking to change society,” said Tim Ellis, vice president for marketing at Volkswagen of America in

Sure To Fail

TAC is on vacation. This post originally appeared on May 30, 2008According to The New York Times, diving into the pool of idiotic online ideas this week is Coors Light. They are launching a "Code Blue" social media application on Facebook.“We talk a lot internally about ‘360-ing’ our innovations,” said Andy England, chief marketing officer at Coors Brewing...Wow. 360-ing the innovations!And what

The Real Poop On Marketing

TAC is on vacation. This post originally appeared on April 15, 2008A recent blog by AdBroad got me thinking that we may be flushing millions of dollars right down the old crapper.It turns out that in marketing today, poop is some valuable shit.A big-time Manhattan spa is offering a Japanese-style "Geisha Facial" which features all the goodness of real bird droppings.Peter Jones, an upscale

The Justification Business

TAC is on vacation. This post originally appeared on March 27, 2008.Creating advertising today consists of two very different disciplines: Making ads, and making the justification for ads.The way ad agencies work (especially, but not exclusively, the big ones) is that most of the effort is spent making the justification for the ads: research, planning, brand analysis, meetings, presentations,

Twitter Saves The World

First, the obvious.Twitterers in Iran have been sending us some pretty amazing stuff about what's going on there. This is the kind of unfiltered, real time, first-hand citizen reportage that is compelling in a way that traditional news sources rarely are. It was impossible before the internet.Now the gripe.The way some twitter maniacs are using this as a kind of justification for the idiotic

Cookie Monstrosity

TAC is on vacation. This post originally appeared on November 27, 2007One thing you can say about the internet with absolute certainty -- there has never been another invention that has spawned more idiotic ideas.The latest comes from Pepperidge Farm. From some retro universe they have launched a campaign called Connecting Through Cookies (I kid you not.) The centerpiece is a website called The

Account Planners Gone Wild

TAC is off the grid for a week. To keep the blog-addicted entertained, I will be re-posting some oldies but goodies. This post originally appeared on September 17, 2007The same day I posted "Smelly Volvo Families" an article appeared in Ad Age about the new Volvo campaign.The article focused on how Volvo's agency developed the idea for its new campaign. According to the article, the agency

The Revolution That Never Happened

If you're a frequent reader of this blog you know that one of our ongoing themes is that marketers and advertisers always overestimate the appeal of new things and underestimate the power of traditional consumer behavior.This is one of the reasons there is always so much hyperventilating about every new thing that comes along.A very good example of this is TiVo.TiVo looked like a slam-dunk from

What They Say and What They Mean

As everyone in advertising knows, there are two kinds of clients.The first kind is the good kind. They speak in plain English and give simple, clear direction.Then there is the second kind. They're watching a channel we don't get. They speak a language we don't understand.It sounds and looks like English but it's not. It has vowels and consonants just like English, but somehow they don't work the

I Don't Have To If I Don't Want To

Giving a talk today to a group of broadcast execs in a fancy ballroom, and all I can think about is going on vacation Friday, and I have a headache, and I have acid reflux, and the A's are losing 10-0, and I have not been able to hit the greens consistently with my approach shots, and I think my good blazer is in the cleaners, and the world just isn't fair, and I can't find the goddamn remote,

5 Fashionable Myths About Advertising

There is so much nonsense about advertising being promulgated these days that it's hard to keep your head on straight. Here are five fashionable myths that need debunking:1. Consumer Behavior Is Difficult To UnderstandMarketers spend enormous amounts of time and money looking for arcane reasons behind consumer behavior. In fact, about 90% of consumer behavior is perfectly obvious. They buy stuff

The Twitter Quiz

Now that Twitter has officially changed the world as we know it (see Time cover) it's time to see how much you know about Twitter.A revealing study of Twitter users was published last week by Harvard Business Publishing. Before I give you the link, take this little quiz derived from the study and see how you do.1. Among Twitter users, the median number of lifetime tweets per user is:a. 1b. 55c.

Flop Sweat

There's a wonderful term that comics use to describe their physical reaction when they're bombing -- flop sweat.Everyone in advertising who has to make presentations to large groups -- especially creative presentations -- knows the feeling.You're standing up there. You've rehearsed your presentation. You've prepared a few gags. You're going through it just like you imagined. And you're getting

Knuckleheads And Geniuses

One of the good things about working in advertising is that we touch lots of different kinds of businesses. If you have a curious mind, you are in a position to be constantly stimulated.In my current capacity I have to know something about the automobile business, the restaurant business, insurance, wine, beer, spirits, travel, golf, dairy, energy, and finance. And I have to know enough about

The Volume Knob And The Tone Knob

Let's say for a minute that social media maniacs really believe all the noise they make about consumers wanting to have relationships with brands, and conversations about them.Let's also say that all these wonderful relationships and conversations are happening online, like the maniacs say.Now let's have a listen to The Grumpy Brit..."If I think about brands with which, for the sake of argument

Whiners Never Quit

This is a warning. I'm going to do some major whining today. If you don't like to listen to overfed ad brats whine, I don't blame you. Now would be a good time to abort.One of the characteristics of blogging that makes it different from most other forms of writing is that you get almost instantaneous feedback.Each night, I post the next day's blog at midnight PDT. I wake up each morning at about

Eye Rolls And 'Yes, Buts'

I keep reading in the trades that the ad industry has been slow to adapt to the digital world and if we're not careful we'll be left behind.My experience has been different.My experience is that very often when we recommend digital solutions to sophisticated clients we get eye rolls and polite 'yes, buts.'My theory is that because I'm located in San Francisco, where digital is not such a shiny

It's A Wonderful World

"Advertising is a failure. When you don't have that good relationship, then you have to advertise..."Did you know that Coca-Cola is failing? And Apple is failing and McDonald's is failing and Proctor and Gamble is failing?

You didn't know that? Where have you been?

It's obvious. They have to advertise. Advertising is what you have to do when you're failing.

This is because the internet has