We lived for three to four years in Caracas. We spent most of our time in the city, at work or driving to the nearby Caribbean beaches. This blog has many stories about our work life in the country. But what about the countryside? For work we did shoot commercials outside the city; but we… Read More: Venezuelan Passage: Montesacro Cafetal and Rockefeller’s Estate »
Back before social media, getting an overnight announcement was very challenging, especially if you wanted to limit who got it. Easy to do now with an email blast, a tweet or a social media post. Not so then. Steelcase, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of office furniture, needed to rejuvenate its Canadian operation and… Read More: When the Dodgers Won the Day »
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: Nobel Prize Award Winning Book! »
Mi primer año de estudiar en Filadelfia, en los años 70, un amigo mío en el edificio de mi dormitorio me dijo que él tenía una moto que había dejado en Carolina de Norte. Él iba a mandarla a Filadelfia, pero me dijo era demasiado caro de hacerlo. Yo recientemente llegué a la costa este… Read More: Mis Diarios de Motocicleta »
The first year I was at school in Philadelphia, in the 1970s, a friend in my dorm told me that he had a motorcycle that he had left in North Carolina. He was going to ship it up to Philadelphia but it was expensive to ship it. I had only recently arrived at the East… Read More: My Motorcycle Diaries »
Every place, person and thing has a name, mostly applied locally and then eventually agreed upon by everyone else. When the US thought of appropriating and renaming the Gulf of Mexico, it was trying to change a centuries old agreed upon name. It didn’t work. It got me thinking about how we call places and… Read More: Misuri, Arquinsau, and Germany By Any Other Name »
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: Why Write Another Book About Creating Advertising? »
One example that randomness can bring order is the theory that an infinite number of monkeys hitting keys at random on a keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare. The odds of this happening are obviously infinitely small. There have… Read More: Infinite Monkeys Spell: Gazortenflap »
I have worked in both the US and Canada one thing I have found curious is that the markets have approached Diversity and Inclusion in two different ways. First the US: When I worked there twenty five years ago, there were quotas for “minorities” to appear in commercials. Clients required these quotas to be met… Read More: Diversity & Inclusion in Advertising; A Tale of Two Solitudes »
There were established rules that limited the use of well known persons in advertising to children in Canada. Then our client, General Mills, let us know they had signed a deal to launch a cereal, Pro*Stars in 1983, that would feature Wayne Gretzky, the Great One, on the package. It was the brainchild of Mike… Read More: Front Page Cereal Launch »