Have you ever felt like some company was buzzing around you, becoming so irritating and you couldn’t seem to bat them away. All they wanted was a little bit of your blood. Take the banks and cell phone companies. Somebody, please… take them… They are constantly sucking just a little bit of blood out of… Read More »
Our high school janitor was Mr. Mitchell. He was always dressed in a clean khaki uniform, usually attached to a wide hall broom. He took great care of his white, crewcut hair. Always tidy, he liked the place clean. One day, I heard him express his true feelings about his job – “It’s the students… Read More »
Often we hear arguments that ring sort of true when they otherwise should not. Some of these I call The Yao Ming Argument. It is when you take an exception and make it seem like the normal, the average. For example, as the US struggles with its messed up healthcare system, people continually point out to… Read More »
It is quite amazing how easy your job is. Just ask someone who doesn’t do it. At the same time, from your point of view, their job is amazingly easy. We get this every day in advertising because with digital tools it is not that challenging to make something that looks like an ad. But… Read More »
The Juno Awards was an annual private music industry awards ceremony for insiders, wearing tuxedos and gowns, until 1995. The organization that put it on was the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS). They had this crazy idea that they should be making money from it rather than losing or at best breaking even. They… Read More »
US Historian Daniel Boorstin, in his book The Image, noted that “The celebrity is a person who is known for his well-knownness.” That was in the 60s. People’s obsession with celebrity is even more so today. Why are people so obsessed with celebrities? One theory is the loss of the village. Our population and communications… Read More »
People in the U.S. like to treat their Constitution, and its associated Declaration of Independence, like religious works of biblical importance. Immutable. Virtually written by the hands of gods known as founding fathers. The high priests, the U.S. Supreme Court, spend a lot of time interpreting these documents for their laity. What is meant by… Read More »
One of the broadcast laws in Venezuela, back in the day, meant all commercials had to be shot using local Venezuelan talent. One of our clients, Revlon, was a stickler for having their commercials look as exactly like their worldwide creative as possible. Nevertheless, these had to be re-shot locally which could be quite a challenge… Read More »
Quite often we see “one off,” “stand alone,” “one shot” ads. These ads are designed for a single purpose – an event, a special offer, a single purpose. But they really miss the boat. Any advertising for a brand or product needs to be part of a continuing dialogue with your target consumers. It advances… Read More »
I was driving along on a city street in Toronto in my car, speaking, hands free, to a friend in California. As we were talking an ancient Ford Model T pulled right in front of me. The Model T was in amazing condition and it toodled along in front of me as we pulled up to… Read More »