Hey, Donald Jr. Taste the rainbow.

Last night the Wrigley corporation was faced with a difficult situation. A really stupid analogy was made by Donald Trump Jr. comparing skittles to potential terrorist refugees. Not only did Wrigley's take the highroad, they shut the conversation down by saying continuing it could be misconstrued as marketing. And we…

Taking a knee on America’s brand: An advertising creative director’s take

When Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the pledge he gave his employer, the NFL, has a difficult brand problem. Many of its biggest customers started to say the NFL's stars are anti-American. Politics is somewhere most brands and anyone in business probably shouldn't go if it's not literally their…

An ad guy explains the election. Hillary: the packaged goods candidate

Hillary Clinton's campaign tactics, public statements and brand promise are all a lot more understandable than Donald Trump's, which I've previously written about. In fact, Hillary's campaign feel a lot like it could be for a packaged good's company than her competitor. After all, Proctor and Gamble's motto is "The…

Announcement. Fluid Films. Branded Content for Broadcast, the Web, and the Future.

A year ago I began a journey that started at my former employer. My job transitioned from being simply a writer to a video content creator. Not only did I love this new role, I discovered I had a real passion for it. I also believed in what I was…

Are we in a post-branding world?

Economic pressure has created a situation where marketers are asking for immediate results before they ask for perceived luxuries like brand recognition. Clients are demanding metrics that connect marketing to sales. Metrics for things like brand recognition are tough to tie to concrete things like sales and thus to ROI.…

The creative strategy (or lack there of). Making your advertising make sense.

Image by batega via Flickr One of the benefits of working as a creative freelancer for seven years is I got to see how different agencies brief their clients and creative teams on how they're planning to achieve advertising goals. Ideally, all this information is boiled down in a magical…