Things That Go Backwards

Yellow legal pads used to be for people who used lots of paper and didn't want to pay the premium for more refined white paper. Now you pay extra for them.Stinky goat cheese used to be for poor people who couldn't afford the classier cow kind. Now it's a delicacy.It's easier to play the guitar than Guitar Hero.Note To AppleSomeone left me a voice mail at 3:30 yesterday afternoon. It didn't

Creative For Carpetbaggers

One ad phenomenon I always get a laugh out of is when Big Dumb Corporations and their Big Dumb Agencies introduce their product or service into a new market. They always try to link themselves to some stupid cliche about the area to demonstrate that they are "homies."So if some company is moving into LA, they take their icon and put sunglasses on it. Or if they are going into the Pacific

Brains Falling Out

How To Succeed In Social MediaThe smartest thing I've read about social media in a long time, from Monday Morning Memo:"Focus your attention on your customers. Social media will take care of itself."Thanks to Mike Hunt for this (c'mon, is that really your name?)Oh, It's All About Me!Has there ever been a bigger, stupider, more cliche-ridden campaign than Yahoo's new global "branding" campaign?

Free Speech Comes Full Circle

In the early 1960's, Berkeley students created something called the "Free Speech Movement." It incorporated some of the tactics of the civil rights movement of the 50's and helped give birth to the student activism that came to define the era.A significant component of the radical, hippie culture we think of when we see those amusing pictures of the 60's can be attributed to the influence of the

Everybody Lies About Sex

From time to time I reserve the right to abandon the horrors of advertising and write about something else. Today I feel like scribbling on a subject I am supremely unqualified to mouth off about and is likely to cause me nothing but trouble -- sex.The David Letterman and Roman Polanski "scandals" have me thinking about sex.I mean, more than usual.Let's start at the beginning.The beginning is

People Who Are Talented

There is a lovely and comforting school of thought that says each of us is exceptional at something.I may be a good dancer, and you are good at making money. Jack over there is good at basketball, and Susie is a great cook. We each have a high degree of talent at something and the trick is to find what that something is.I have found this to be an innocent and sometimes infantile point of view.It

The Perfect Client Brief

Courtesy of Kirk Citron via Swiss Miss.Perhaps, the perfect client brief.The client: Mick Jagger. The "agency": Andy Warhol

The Handsomest Man In The World

That's me. The handsomest.

What? You don't believe me?

I have affidavits from my mother, my wife, and several of my employees.

I have awards from the American Association of Old Fat Bald Guys.

What? You still don't believe? You think I'm lying?

Okay, maybe I'm not really the handsomest. Maybe I'm just trying to make a point.

The point is this. You would think that one of the first things

Nothing To Sell But Uncertainty

It's embarrassing to be in the ad business these days.Ad agencies don't know what they believe.In reaction to the dual onslaughts of the web and the recession, they have abandoned all principles.They go on and on about "the shifting nature of consumer behavior" and the need to "change the model."Change it to what?What's the role of advertising?Foolish clients can't see through the subterfuge.

Annals Of Marketing

Montblanc, the Swiss penmaker, has introduced a fountain pen to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi.The limited edition pen has an 18-carat solid gold, rhodium plated (whatever the hell that is) nib and is engraved with Gandhi's image.It sells for about $25,000.Montblanc's chief knucklehead in India said that the pen embodies Gandhi's "timeless philosophy of non-violence and respect for all living

Awesome Social Media Guru

Wonderful piece of silly but truthful animation. Thanks to Ad Broad for this.

The Fool

There's no bigger fool than the one who lives only in the present.The one who thinks that what he sees is all there is.The one who doesn't know where the present came from, and concomitantly, has no idea where it's going.The one who can only see what's in front of him and what's coming at him.The great pleasure of knowing something is appreciating where it fits. If you don't, you don't really

A Perfectly Balanced Narcissism

There was a time when a public display of narcissism was available to only the few: the talented, the beautiful, or the wealthy.You couldn't get a book published unless you had something interesting to say. You couldn't get your picture on a screen unless you were stunning to look at. You couldn't force your way into the public consciousness unless you had money to burn.Now, the seductive appeal