Arguing In Cyberspace

For those of you who like a good argument, I had a nice back and forth with some people on the Copyblogger blog. Copyblogger is a blog for people who are web marketers and want to learn how to do it better.The argument was motivated by a piece called "New Media Model For Creating Lifelong Customers" by Sonia Simone who writes one of the few literate web marketing blogs called Remarkable

Friday Is "Talk To A Naked Copywriter" Day

Here at TAC, we're always looking for better ways to inform and amuse. And, also, we're really tired of having to write a blog every day.So from now on, Friday is going to be Talk To A Naked Copywriter day. Here's how it works: Sometime during the week you, dear reader, send a question or comment about advertising to adcontrarian@gmail.com.TAC will pick one question or comment from those

Feel Free To Pull Your Hair Out

If you're full of shit, it's a great time to be in the advertising business.Advertising has always had a high bullshit factor. But recently we have risen to new levels of achievement.The ascendancy of "branding", "engagement" and "new media" means that nobody knows what the hell anyone else is talking about anymore. There are no actual facts, just mind-numbing jargon and fancy opinions.You can

Cliche Of The Week

If I have to read one more quote from one more brain-dead agency boob with the word “engagement” in it, someone’s going to die.The ”engagement” crowd is trying to convince us that the effectiveness of advertising is highly correlated to the level of “engagement” a consumer has in the surrounding content.Baloney. Ads have to stand on their own. Good ads are good anywhere. Bad ads stink everywhere.

Aren't We Lucky!

You're looking at social psychology professor Daniel Gilbert who directs a laboratory studying the nature of human happiness at Harvard. Dr. Gilbert’s “Stumbling on Happiness” was a best seller for 23 weeks and won the Royal Society Prize for Science Books last year.In an article in The New York Times on Tuesday, Dr. Gilbert said:"What we’ve been seeing in my lab, over and over again, is that

Three Secrets of Creativity

After 100 years in the ad business, I think I know the secrets to being a good creative person.Insomnia: Good ideas come at odd hours. You've got to be awake when they decide to show up.Fear of embarrassment: If you're not afraid of your friends making fun of your work, you'll never be any good.Will: A lot of people have talent. Only a few have the will to impose their talent. These people are

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$126,000,000 doesn't buy ya much these days.