So Bad, It's Good.

Okay, maybe it's not "good." But it will make you laugh.There is a certain type of advertising that is so terrible, it's actually good. Jay Tannenbaum had this spot on his blog last week and it gave me an idea.Please send TAC spots (or links to spots) that are so bad, they're good. I'll post 'em. But we've got to maintain high standards. Bad enough isn't bad enough.

Imagine What They Could Have Found If They Had 17 Months

Listen up people. Here is some astounding news from the frontiers of marketing science.On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that after a 16 month study Comcast and Starcom MediaVest have concluded that people are more likely to watch commercials about products they're interested in.Now you may be asking yourself -- 'what kind of frickin' idiots need a 16-month research study to figure that

The 8-Year-Old Existentialist

Guest blogger Leo Krinsky, age 8, provides our thought for today.LEO: Mom, what's the point of living if we're all going to end up dead?MOM: Uh...LEO: And what's the point of eating delicious food if we just poop it all out?MOM: Uh...LEO: Really, Mom, what's the point of any of this?MOM: Uh...

Dirty Books

My entry last week called "I Didn't Know I Was A Pornographer" reminded me of my first paid writing job. It was for a company in Greenwich Village that published dirty novels. This was before dirty books got promoted to "pornography." I was determined to be a writer and I didn't care what I had to write.There were four of us. The editor was a guy with colorful shirts and earrings. This was

Accidental Branding

Digital media genius Cory Treffiletti (not just a smart guy but, more importantly, a regular TAC reader) wrote a recent post about a new book he reviewed entitled "Accidental Branding".While I haven't read the book (it has not been published yet), it appears to be about something I have discussed here before -- that branding, to a large extent, is a by-product.Here's an excerpt from a piece on

Blogging Blind

I really don't know anything about blogging other than I write something and press the publish button.All that stuff about Trackbacks and Technorati and Feeds and Diggs and Stumblewhatever and who-the-hell-knows-what is a mystery. So I'm trying to learn.I was reading up this afternoon and I found that I've been insulting my readers by not responding to their comments. My feeling has been that by

Gutless Wonders and Bad-Ass Bedwetters

I have spent some time recently reading advertising blogs. For the most part they're a depressing lot. The bloggers tend to fall into two categories:1. Gutless wonders2. Bad-ass bedwettersThe "gutless wonders" are the most depressing. They are bullies who anonymously attack other people and their work, but don't have the balls to state their own names or show their own work.The "bad-ass