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 »
Ratings seriously are off for NFL games this year and there are lots of theories why. The tumultuous US election is one reason being offered. That was a wilder reality show than the average NFL game. And people love the spontaneity of those reality shows. But could that be the only reason? One of the reasons we like sports… Read More: Sports and Loss of Spontaneity »
Be careful with translations. Relying on Google or any other digital translation can bring you problems, Not just small mistakes; but mistakes where the meaning is jumbled up and confusing. Effectively using a language that you to communicate with customers requires understanding the cultural context that it comes in. The title of this blog is… Read More: Between, Between and Drink a Chair »
Hello Berlitz! Hello Rosetta Stone! Het, Duolingo! You think we want to speak Mandarin fluently in 30 days – HAH! What we really want to know is the difference between “hashi” and “gohan” in a Japanese restaurant. What is a glass of “palinka”? What the heck is “chupe de camarones”? Should I order the “murgh cholay”… Read More: A Case for the Berlitz School of Menu »
We have seen a lot of commercials that just don’t sell. One reason can be the context of the message. By context, I meant the executional elements that round out the message and provide a framework for it. The strategy might be “Tide cleans clothes better.” But there needs to be a commercial execution around… Read More: Context Is Almost Everything In Advertising »
I had to phone to complain about a charge from my telecom solutions provider. I don’t know when they became a solutions provider instead of a telephone company. Here is what happened, and why I think that a lot of companies are training their customers to be jerks. The bigger the jerk customers become, the… Read More: Are Companies Training Customers to be Jerks? »
On a recent visit to Florida, I ended up seeing a lot of pharmaceutical commercials for all manner of pharmaceutical products that I had no idea about. The commercials all have a similar pattern. They introduce a product name, all seem to be something like “Prolaxatrol,” or some other made up name that might suggest… Read More: Footage to Minimize Anal Leakage & Possible Death »