Maret 2013

Graduation Day

Today is my last official day in the agency business.

I'll sign some papers, de-commission my laptop (whatever the hell that means) and say goodbye to the agency I helped found over 20 years ago.

It's supposed to be a bittersweet occasion. But it's not. It's easy. The art of advertising is still interesting, but the agency business has lost its appeal.

While I do a lot of railing about brand

New Interview & Giveaway of Spirit of Lost Angels

Thank you to Laura of Colimetry for interviewing me and for hosting an Easter giveaway of Spirit of Lost Angels.

How to Make Your Manuscript Impress

Read JJ Marsh's enlightening article on how best to present your manuscript on the Triskele Books blog.

Coca-Cola: Fizzy Goes Fuzzy

Coca-Cola got all tangled up in its underwear last week.

At a marketing research whack-a-thon their senior manager for marketing strategy came out and said the unthinkable -- social media marketing is a big fat waste of time and money.

Well, he didn't actually use those words. What he said was...

"We didn't see any statistically significant relationship between our buzz and our short-term

The Cheats vs The Morons

I have to admit that I get a great deal of deliciously perverse pleasure from reading reports that online ad hustlers are picking the pockets of marketing morons and their clueless but oh-so-fashionable agencies.

Apparently there's a lot of hanky-panky going on in the "murky" world of online ad exchanges. An article in Adweek last week had this to say...

"Indeed, while the Web has never

Advertising Needs Old People

From The Wall Street Journal, March 3, 2013

According to the local mining lore here, senior geologists tend to do
their work the old-fashioned way. They avoid radar technology,
preferring instead to examine termite and ant mounds...They're famous in the often
cutthroat industry for their efficiency.

"I only hire old geologists," says Norman Slater, managing director of Slater Coal,....

Sneaky Little Bastards

For years, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission here at Ad Contrarian World Headquarters has been determined to expose the unreliable nature of most of what you read about digital advertising. There are three reasons for this:

1. The digital industry is full of sneaky little bastards whose "facts" and "data" usually turn out to be either intentionally misleading, willfully incomplete, or

Twitter And Reality

"Twitter is the new AP, I like to say, a place where journalists often break news, even before feeding it to their employers." Howard Kurtz - CNN Opinion

"...the number of Washington and New York journalists now using Twitter...
is increasing exponentially." Toby Harndon - The Telegraph
One of the startling things about Twitter is not that average idiots like you and me use it, but that serious

A Year in the Life of an Indie Author

Join our Triskele Books blog conversation, where different indie authors recount their first year.

Historical Fiction Club

Join Gillian Hamer, Jane Dixon Smith and myself on the Triskele Books blog chatting about Historical Fiction

Janet Warren Likes Walmart

Janet Warren was one one of those impossibly wonderful girls.

Not just pretty, not just smart, but nice and pleasant and friendly. Often her father would have letters to the editor published in The New York Times. She was a cheerleader with actual cheer.

Naturally, she had no idea I existed. But she lived in the next building, and her sister was friendly with my sister.

I was in Los Angeles

Value of the Author Collective

Hop on over to Awesome Indies to read my post about how author collectives can help indie publishers.

Exit Interview With Pope Benedict XVI

As you may have heard, there is an election going on at the Vatican. In 1268, electing a new Pope took over 2 years (that was before touch-screen voting.)

In order to keep my readers fully informed I recently traveled to Castel Gandolfo where I had an exit interview with newly retired Pope Benedict XVI (Roman numerals can only be used by Popes and Super Bowls. Look it up.)

Pope Benedict (real

Whatever Happened To Perspective?

Whatever happened to perspective?

There is so much bullshit-masquerading-as-information floating around that it has become impossible to get anyone's attention unless you take every little thing that happens and go hysterical about it.

Every petty fact or trend has to be embellished, embroidered, or exaggerated or no one will notice.

If unemployment goes up 1/10 of a percent, we hear that

Indie-friendly Book Reviewers

If you are an indie-published author and looking for the best way to get your book reviewed, read my post today on the Triskele Books Blog.

Forensic experts in writing

How can a forensic expert benefit your writing? Read our latest post on the Triskele Books blog.

Friday Fun Fest

People - 38,765, Comments - 0
Adweek publishes a pretty good blog called AdFreak. I read it sometimes. I was reading an interesting post there the other day and I noticed something.

There were 38,765 people who "liked" the blog on Facebook. And not a single comment on the post.

Can someone please explain this "engagement" thing to me again?

This Week's Fun Couple
Yesterday, Iran's president,

Researching Historical Fiction

Today I'm blogging about researching historical fiction on the Triskele Books blog.

A Note From A Friend

For all my whining and complaining, I have to admit that I've met some of my favorite people in the world in advertising. I have received a lot of very nice messages since I announced I was leaving my agency last week. This is one of my favorites. It makes me proud. It came from Jason Headley, a great writer -- I mean a real writer, as in novels, essays and screenplays -- director, and terrific

What's Everyone So Afraid Of?

I am sometimes approached by editors of advertising or media publications to write pieces for them. In the course of trying to convince me to contribute tendentious pieces to their publications (and not get paid), invariably the following sentence is uttered:

"We're so tired of all the bullshit"

Often when I attend a conference and one of those gee-whiz presentations about the latest online

Triskele Books News

Announcing a new blog and a June 2013 launch for 4 more Triskele Books!

And Now For Something Completely Different

On April 1, I will be leaving my post as chairman and ceo of Hoffman/Lewis.

After a while, being the oldest living adman on Earth loses its allure. I have recently celebrated my 40th anniversary in the agency business. It’s enough. I'm bored.

When you're young you can make excuses for being bored: you need the money, or it's only temporary, or soon you'll be moving up. At my age there's no

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