Tag: copywriting
Creatives and their blind spots
My wife is very logical. He job is as an analyst. She sees how things work in a very logical step by step process. Things work in a chain like a machine. Input equals output. Often, I wish that I could see the world the way she does. I'm a…
A non-traditional Super Bowl Post Mortem. Or a reminder for the peanut gallery.
Hey Asshole in the Peanut Gallery from last night's #AdBowl, According to your tweet, you really hated the spot for XXXX last night. That creative team really blew their shot on the big stage of the Super Bowl. Man, if you had a chance to wow the tens of millions…
Creative Control
Who has creative control? It's a simple question with a complicated answer. When you're in the business of making money using your creativity there are many stakeholders, so no one person really has complete creative control. There's always someone else in the equation with whom you must negotiate. The boss,…
Breaking writer’s block
I've worked as a writer/ad creative and producer for over 20 years. Needless to say, I've felt blocked more than a few times. The most important thing about breaking writer's block is not to freak out. It's called writer's block because we all experience it from time to time and…
Learning to fly
My daughter is a smart kid and an excellent student. She's also pretty good at a lot of extracurricular things. She's still young, 11, maybe she'll be great at a one or two before she's an adult. One of the things she's good at is drums. When she was 8…
Lessons from a negative campaign
As we wind down to the last days of what seems to be the worst, most negative, election in our nation's history, it's a good time to see what an advertising and marketing pro can learn from it. I have a few takeaways. 1) None of this really applies in…
They’re both the best! Or is half the country crazy?
Advertising pros that have careers that last more than a couple years will find themselves working on more than one brand in a single category. I, for example, have worked on multiple hotel brands including Ritz Carleton and Hilton hotels. Multiple motorcycle brands including Kawasaki and Suzuki (twice). And multiple…
What’s in a Basket of Deplorables? An Ad Guy Explains
I wrote a few weeks ago on why negative advertising is so effective in politics but is much more rarely used in consumer brand advertising. But what about basket of deplorables? It seems a lot different. It's also been compared to Mitt's 47% comment. But that's the politics side of it…
Fear Mongering: The election explained by a creative director
If you ask the average person if they like negative ads or even think they work, they'd probably say "no they don't work and can they please just stop." But every campaign season there seems to be more and more negative ads. I'm predicting a record amount of negative advertising…