The Bitter Blogger

You know those lists of favorite blogs that bloggers have on their home pages? They're called "blog rolls." Kind of like egg rolls, except even greasier.

I've done a little survey of marketing and advertising blogs. You know how many blog rolls The Ad Contrarian appears on? None. Zippo. Bupkis. Nada.

Can you imagine that not one of these creepy low-life bloggers would include your and my

Proust And Advertising

Whenever an ad agency gets fired, I look forward to getting a nice laugh out of the bullshit PR release that always accompanies the firing.The client asserts how critical the agency has been to their success and how much they respect and admire the agency they're dumping.Marcel Proust said it best:"When two people part it is the one who is not in love who makes the tender speeches."Why You Read

Immune To Advertising?

Fish can’t see the ocean because they're swimming in it. Apparently there is a whole new breed of marketing pundit who can’t see advertising for the same reason.Advertising has become so pervasive that otherwise intelligent people think it’s not there. Seth Godin talks about "the death of traditional advertising"; ADWEEK talks about "today's post-advertising world."I wonder what world these

The People Who Always Get It Wrong

According to The People Who Always Get It Wrong (the press) the American love affair with the automobile is over. No less authority than The New York Times announced this on Sunday.In a piece entitled Putting The Dream Car Out To Pasture we are subjected to every America/Automobile cliché ever concocted, plus a generous helping of new age socio-babble.“Beyond the bad economic news may lurk a

Best Ad Of The Week

TAC is traveling. See you Monday. Meanwhile, best ad of the week.

Arguing From The Extreme

One of the really annoying habits of advertising people is arguing from the extreme.By arguing from the extreme, I mean taking the most extraordinary example of something and using this extraordinary case as if it were the norm.This has been going on for years. Whenever I would get in a discussion with someone about account planning I would always get an earful about "got milk?" Whenever I would

Vacationing Isn't Easy

Aloha.TAC is vacationing this week on a South Pacific island. In typical fashion, I'm only seeing the dark side. So maybe you can help.1. How am I supposed to stop thinking about all the gross stuff that's floating around invisibly in the pool?2. How am I supposed to stop thinking about the sharks that are patrolling the waters looking for tasty morsels like me?3. How come I can hit a golf ball