Most catastrophes come about through the concurrence of a number of errors, not just a single one. Our brains like to believe in single causes; our brains have challenges dealing with complexities. When we hear that an Earthquake on the Iran/Iraq border killed thousands, we resolve to stay away from earthquakes or Iran. But earthquakes… Read More: The Making of a Catastrophe »
Perhaps no other game has more intricate rules than golf. The lawyers love this game; they can quibble about its many nuanced rules for hours. No where else can you see championships changed by TV viewers calling in with rule challenges. Too many rules makes for a duller game. So, we have some additional rules that take… Read More: Canadian Rules Golf »
Our company was the first agency in Canada to start building websites on the internet back in 1994. We saw the internet as a new form of communications. We had opportunities and plunged forward. It took some figuring out, some investment and some staffing to organize into an area that was new to everyone. We… Read More: The Times We Knew It – But Blew It »
On October 17, 2018, the Canadian government legalized cannabis. The federal government left it up to the provinces to figure out distribution but it seems like no one really did the marketing calculations right. In Ontario, for example, orders are going unfilled despite a move to throttle demand by limiting distribution until next April. The… Read More: Never Introduce a Product Without the Product »
We travelled to the farthest western edge of Canada. Past where the continent ends, there is an archipelago of islands out in the Pacific that used to be called the Queen Charlotte Islands. Now it is called Haida Gwaii. It is no easy task to get there. We drove from Vancouver up the Fraser River… Read More: Voyage To SGang Gwaay »
My very first assignment at Young & Rubicam New York in 1972 was to work on the Rums of Puerto Rico account. The advertising goal was to promote the many rums that were produced on the island, which included Bacardi, Don Q, and many more that were less well known such as Ronrico, Ron Superior,… Read More: Getting the Test Kitchen Staff Drunk »
Watching retailers do their own commercials on TV often makes me cringe. Particularly car retailers. They start their commercials by yelling and keep it up. Their theory may be that all their energy makes the viewer think that something exciting is going on. But is just yelling enough? The result is a constant yelling throughout… Read More: If I’m Not Yelling, I’m Not Selling »
Are origin myths true? No matter, they set the trajectory.
In the mid-1970s, my parents arranged for a condo in Florida when I was living in New York. We had a family summer vacation, joined by my brother-in-law and sister and their two small girls, aged 5 and 6 who had come down from Canada. One day we were all heading off to dinner with… Read More: Stories Have Staying Power »
Necessity breeds invention. As a graduate student, one February I was reduced to living off of green beans and wieners. That motivated me and led to the publishing a highly cited study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, with the help of a very kind professor. As a poor grad student at the University of… Read More: Green Beans & the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology »