Stalinism By The Bay

Thanks to Jay Tannenbaum for the idea for today's blog.When people fell out of favor in Stalinist Russia, they would be shipped off to Siberia and their likenesses would mysteriously disappear from official photographs. One day they'd be standing with the inner circle, next day the photo would be doctored to remove them.The San Francisco Giants have done that with Barry Bonds. I attended my first

I Didn't Know I Was A Pornographer

Two months ago I wrote a blog entry called "Interporn". It was a speculation on the issue of internet pornography.A few days ago, I was checking to see where traffic to this blog comes from. I wanted to see which keywords are leading people here. The number one keyword is not "advertising"; it's not "contrarian"; it's not "marketing" or "business" or anything to do with the advertising or

The Justification Business

Advertising today consists of two very different disciplines: Making ads, and making the justification for ads.The way ad agencies work (especially the big ones) is that most of the effort is spent making the justification for the ads -- research, planning, brand analysis, meetings, presentations, strategy sessions, briefs, conference calls, downloads, uploads, deep dives, off sites and insights

Why I Love Apple

On your right is a picture of my iPhone.I dropped it in the street. A car ran over it.It still works.Steve, I'm available for endorsements.

Hal Riney, RIP

I was once somewhere with Hal when someone asked him why he chose to work in San Francisco. His reply:"It's as far away from New York as I can get without drowning."

Marketing U

DOTAC (Daughter of the Ad Contrarian) is going to college in September, which means we went shopping for colleges this year.The best visit we had, and the school DOTAC fell in love with, followed some universal principles of marketing.First, they treated the customer right. When we arrived, they had DOTAC's schedule for the visit clearly and personally printed for her. She knew exactly what she

Snatching Defeat From Jaws Of Victory

Thanks to guest blogger John Joss for this contributionExamples of ‘new, improved’ product design of staggering stupidity that replaces a functional and effective product abound. Few examples plumb the depths of Schering-Plough’s raging incompetence with its Tinactin, an athlete’s-foot cure used by millions. Fewer are now using it, because the ‘new, improved’ packaging is deeply dysfunctional.The