September 2011

Outliving My Usefulness

Okay, I think it's time to pack it in.

When super-puffed-up industry titans start agreeing with me, I have to believe my days as a contrarian are numbered.

I thought I had a nice safe little niche as a Luddite dinosaur, when all of a sudden I have the ceo of one of the world's largest advertising monstrosities and the editor-in-chief of a big publishing enterprise sounding like me. It's

Apple, Pepsi and Bullshit

Over the years, I have written a lot about Pepsi and Apple. These two companies have a few things in common, and one big thing that separates them.

They are both enormously successful. They are both conscientiously committed to innovation.

The difference is, when it comes to marketing, Apple keeps coming up with amazing successes while Pepsi keeps getting tangled up in its underwear.

It is my

The Evidence Of Our Own Eyes

One thing we have in the ad business today that we didn't have when I started 100 years ago is experts.

We had "creative geniuses," "stars" and "gurus." But we didn't have "experts."

In those days, advertising was believed to be the art of persuasion. Today it is believed to be the science of engagement.

We didn't have nearly the amount of data. The only "metric" that really mattered was sales

Winning Is The Best Deodorant

Last year the San Francisco Giants won the World Series. I have lived in the San Francisco bay area since the mid-1970's and, earthquakes aside, it was the biggest event I experienced here. Bigger than the Super Bowl wins of the 80's and 90's.

Last week, just 10 months after winning the World Series, the Giants fired their CEO.

The Giants have had a tough season, mostly the result of bad luck.

Return To Moneyball

Last night I had the good fortune to be invited to the "world premiere" of the movie Moneyball. It's a terrific film. If you like baseball, you'll love it. Even if you don't like baseball, I think you'll enjoy it. In July of 2008, I wrote a post about the book Moneyball. I thought I'd reprint it today.

The best book I ever read about advertising wasn't about advertising. It was about baseball.

Oh No, I'm Dead!

For the past four years, one of the mainstays of this blog has been making fun of the silly "______ Is Dead" brand of marketing journalism.

If you'd like to see your name on the byline of an article, but you have no idea what to write about, just pick any topic -- let's say "shopping" -- and write an article called "Shopping Is Dead."

The great thing is, you don't need any facts. You just make

At The Gate

"Welcome to Flight 81 to Chicago. We will begin boarding in just a few moments.

"Before we begin, families traveling with young children and people needing extra time to get down the jetway are welcome to pre-board now. Also, annoying people who are hanging around this desk and bugging the shit out of me are also welcome to board.

"When we begin boarding we will start with our First Class

Proactive Strategic Frameworks Enabling Actionable Insights

As a copywriter, one of the things that has always fried my ass is the assumption on the part of a certain type of account person or planner that I need them to hold my hand or I'll wind up wandering out into traffic and getting myself hurt.

The nonsense goes like this: creatives are silly little emotional children who can't be trusted to think straight and need grown-ups to show them the

Of Men And Magicians

"There are two kinds of geniuses: the 'ordinary' and the 'magicians'. An ordinary genius is a fellow whom you and I would be just as good as, if we were only many times better. There is no mystery as to how his mind works. Once we understand what they've done, we feel certain that we, too, could have done it. It is different with the magicians. Even after we understand what they have done

Clicking Toward Oblivion

"What was once digital advertising’s dirty little secret is now its big, ugly problem. Online ad performance figures are dismal..." Adweek, 8/24/11Just when you thought banner ads couldn't get any less effective, oops, click-through rates dropped another 10% last year.

Mashable reports that a Google study, seen as the "the industry standard" reported recently that click-through rates dropped

Mr. President, Here's An Idea

Here at The Ad Contrarian World Headquarters, we are always looking for ways to help our industry and our country. Later this week, President Obama is going to make an important speech about the economy. A few years ago, we had a fabulous idea for improving the economy. As usual, no one paid any attention. We are going to proffer it again today in the hope that the American people will see the