Mr. Clean and I had a falling out. I’m not sure it’s gonna be OK.

Sometimes you just want a relationship to go back to when it was simple. But things are rarely simple these days. There’s so many ways we interact these days with social media being so important to everyone. It used to be you could just turn things off and chill at home and no one would […]

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, the client, and the market. […]

Process without purpose

I’m a huge fan of process. Having a great idea can’t really help you or your clients if you don’t have the process that gets you from a great idea to a great execution. Without great execution you end up with a so so. All the great studios, production companies, agencies and anyone who consistently produces […]

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 to my knowledge no one […]

Ritual and Creativity

Sharpened pencils. A quit room. A still mind. That certain type of background music. Preparation is often the key to getting the most out of the time you set aside for creative work. And doing the same thing each time is one of the best ways to do that. I like to prepare myself a […]

Figure and Ground: Why everyone and no one is a photographer in the age of Instagram

I’ve seen a whole lot of change in advertising and media production business over the years. Mainly in the transition in the media we use to communicate with audiences and the technology we are using to create the communication. Back in the mid 90s I worked at an agency where the principal was experimenting with pre-consumer digital […]

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 years old she announced she […]

Sneaking the Sage

My grandfather wasn’t known for communication skills. He rarely talked to me or anyone besides his golf buddies and my grandmother. He was also a man of conviction. One conviction was that Thanksgiving stuffing must contain copious amounts of sage. My stepmother did not share his conviction that sage was a necessary ingredient on turkey […]

Scientism vs. Creativity

For those who don’t know, scietism is the excessive belief in the power of scientific knowledge and techniques. This to me sounds a lot like the ad industry over the last decade with it’s obsession over data, technology and measurement. In some ways, these obsessions have overtaken the core business practice that agencies were designed […]

Just make something.

Just make something already. Yeah, go make anything. Really, anything at all. Anything that speaks to you. Even better, something that will speak truth to others and should be heard. Something with a perspective that’s worth seeing just for its beauty. Ad people are making too much shit these days. Yes, shit. Absolute shit! Web […]