Category Archives: Advertising

Nobel Prize Award Winning Book!

In this season of awards – no wait! … awards always seem to be in season. Doesn’t having so many awards for so many different things dilute the value of any award? We are just getting through Nobel Season. Soon it will be time for Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Emmies, Grammies, Junos, ESPys and on… Read More »

Credibility Is the Sum of Many Small Cues

How do you decide whether to believe a message or not? As reviewed in Chapter Four of  Overcome AD-versity, there are three basic components to judging a message to be credible. The receiver of the message assesses the source’s expertise, trustworthiness and motivation. To do so, you have to read between the lines and read… Read More »

Our Ad Cost a Lot, So It Should Be Effective

It is true that you have to have enough money to produce the desired commercial well. But how much is enought? We are often asked how much of the budget should be spent on production versus media. There is no simple answer but there are some clear guidelines. The cost of production is the overhead… Read More »

Why Write Another Book About Creating Advertising?

After  many cocktail parties, I realized that most consumers see advertising and criticize it as if they knew what went in to creating it. They never think about the process, only the end result. When we look at an iceberg, we remark on its beauty without realizing that nine tenths of it are below water.… Read More »

Commercial Wearout

When I started in the advertising industry in New York, there was some obsession with commercial wear-out.  That is, at what point does the effectiveness of a commercial decline and render it less and less worth the media investment. In theory this makes a lot of sense if you buy into learning theory which holds… Read More »