Friday Follow-Up

Me and The PrezLast month I gave my client, the President, some brilliant advice. Like many clients, he seems to be doing a great job of ignoring it. Worst of all, the invoice remains unpaid.

The Last Honest Man In WashingtonJoe Biden, caught on tape yesterday: "It's easy being vice president — you don't have to do anything."

Which reminds me of a great quote from former veep Nelson Rockefeller

Conversations About Brands. Really? Where?

On Tuesday, in 3 Out Of 4 Don't Trust Their Friends we commented on a study out of Edelman that found that 75% of the people they polled don't have a high level of confidence in recommendations about businesses or products made by their friends or peers.

For people who don't read The Ad Contrarian, this finding may have come as a surprise. To Ad Contras, nothing new.

This finding calls into

Social Media Marketing Ecosystem Explained

Here at The Ad Contrarian world headquarters, there's nothing we like better than a good ecosystem.

So when we came across* this awesome ecosystem for social media marketing, well, how do you resist that?

Now, we know some of you Luddites just aren't up-to-date on these things. So, as a service to our readers, we are publishing the attached chart of the social media marketing ecosystem which we

3 Out Of 4 Don't Trust Their Friends

Oh, boy. The social media marketing crowd are going to have a hysterectomy over this one.

According to a new study called "Trust Barometer"* done by Edelman, 3 out of 4 people do not trust their friends and peers as credible sources of information about products or companies.

Not only that, in the past two years, the number of people who trust recommendations from friends and peers has dropped

The Best Idea Is No Idea

Back in the middle ages, when I was a creative director, there was a period in which I used to hear stuff like this...
"We're going to shoot this over-cranked..."
"We're going to use stop motion photography..."
"We're going to take stills and hand-tint each frame..."As I broke the storyboards over the creative teams' heads, I would explain to the them that production was not an idea.

Then there

If Someone Finds My Brain, Please Return It

If you no longer have use for your brain, and you would like to use your cranial cavity for, say, storing Pop Tarts, I would suggest you read "Why Brands Are Becoming Media."

I tried to read the whole thing but my little gray cells started to melt and ooze out my ears.

It is a horrifying example of the kind of social media double-talk that makes me want to go into the street and kill people.

Free Is The New Stupid

In October 2009, Newsday, a popular newspaper in the NYC area, began to charge $5 a month to subscribe to its online content. Newsday has about 400,000 daily readers and about 450,000 weekend readers. After three months, Newsday's online content had 35 paid subscribers.One of the dumbest ideas to have come out of the internet is the idea that everything on the web should be free.

This idea has

The Age of the Complicator, Part 4

"There are a lot of great technicians in advertising. And unfortunately they talk the best game. They know all the rules... They can give you fact after fact after fact. They are the scientists of advertising. But there’s one little rub. Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art."  Bill Bernbach, 1947
As advertising and marketing have become

The Age of the Complicator, Part 3

Today we continue with Part 3 of a 4-part series called "The Age of the Complicator."

One of the reasons advertising has become so complicated is that we have lost confidence in the creative process.

Nobody trusts creative directors any more. They used to lead, now they need to be led.

We used to trust that they understood business. We used to trust that they understood what motivated people.

Web Bashing: It's Not Just A Hobby, It's A Lifestyle.

Attention "TV Is Dead" ManiacsLast week's Super Bowl was the most watched show in the history of television.

Attention Web Advertising Hustlers
In the past two years clicking on web ads has dropped 50%.
If that isn't bad enough, 85% of the clicking is done by 8% of the people.

The Amazing Power Of Web Advertising (Yes, This is Irony)The wonderful Google spot that everyone in advertising is

Yes, Someone Is Hiring

I rarely mix this personal blog with agency business, but once in a while it makes sense.

I'm proud to say that we are single-handedly leading America out of The Great Recession. How, you ask? By doing some hiring. Yup, that ought to do it.

We need some good people for our San Francisco office and I’ve been wondering, where can we find the most brilliant minds in advertising?

Hmmm...thinking..

The Age of the Complicator, Part 2

Yesterday we began a 4-part series called The Age of the Complicator. This is Part 2.

The art of advertising is really quite simple: Find something that makes your product seem more appealing than the other guy's and find an interesting way to communicate it.

Put a straightforward idea like this into the hands of today's advertising professional, however, and he will quickly turn it into a

The Age of the Complicator, Part 1

Today we begin a 4-part series called "The Age of the Complicator."

There are two kinds of people. Simplifiers and complicators.

I have spent my advertising career (now going on its 200th year) trying to find simplifiers and avoid complicators.

Next to talent, the most important quality an ad person can have is the ability to simplify.

Every ad problem is a mystery. There are a million things

The Obligatory Super Bowl Post

It's Super Bowl Monday.  The day when every half-wit in America gets to play creative director -- including bloggers.

In order to keep my contrarian credentials, I'm not going to talk about the advertising.

Okay, maybe just a little.

A few observations.
When does John Madden get back?
Loved Sean Payton's guts 
Carrie Underwood missed the note on "...brave" by about 30 yards
The Who? Really?

Bob And The Beancast

Here at Ad Contrarian global headquarters, our first order of business is to call 'em as we see 'em.

Last week I got account planners all aflutter and atwitter when I said planning needed to die. Honestly, I didn't think it was so harsh. In a previous post I said it was the planners that needed to die, not the planning. But that was back when I was young and opinionated.

Naturally, lots of

Who's Making Money From Social Media?

The hysteria over social media raises an interesting question.

Are agencies all drooling about it because it's good for their clients? Or good for them?

Another way to pose the question is this: Who's actually benefiting from the social media frenzy? Marketers or agencies?

Evidence of the efficacy of social media is pretty thin on the ground. As with all marketing crazes, there are a few

Who Needs The "R"

Yesterday was February 1st.

Every February 1st I have the same thought. Why the extra R in February? Why?

Nobody needs it. Nobody uses it. Most people don't even pronounce it.

January doesn't have it. It's not Janruary. So why February?

Isn't this month crappy enough without giving it such a lousy name? All it has going for it is President's Day and,  honestly, with the last few presidents

The Social Value of Maniacs

Regular readers know two of my prejudices:

1. Skepticism about the power of social media.

2. The importance of marketing to the heavy user in a category.

Unless you are competing in a high interest category (entertainment, sports, wine, etc.) the idea that people are going to find online social interest in your brand is likely to be an expensive pipe dream.

The stuff that most of us sell --