Tak Tik Boom

Stealing For Success

Back in my agency days I was a pretty good copywriter. Not great and not terrible, but pretty good.

I like to think that if I had focused more on creative work and less on agency management I could have been better. Of course, this is the kind of bullshit we all tell ourselves to excuse our mediocrity.

In my career I had a few hit campaigns (way too few). While
these hits lasted a brief time,

Strange Tales Of Christmas

Apple's mobile operating system -- iOS -- is used on the iPhone and the iPad.

The iOS system has a small share of the mobile device market. Only about 13% of mobile devices (phones and tablets) use it.

Google's Android system is the clear and dominant leader with about 80% of worldwide share.

And yet, there are some very strange data coming out of this holiday season's mobile retail sales.

A

Cloning Television In 2014

Here at The Ad Contrarian World Headquarters we've been grumbling for years about how the theory behind much of online advertising is a delusion.

The theory goes something like this:

Consumers are no longer strongly influenced by the interruption model of advertising (TV, radio, print, billboards, etc.) In order to be effective, marketers must gain consumers' permission (the permission model)

The Story Behind the Story

Thanks to Lorraine Mace of The Writer's ABC Checklist blog for featuring my story on the true WW2 crime that inspired Wolfsangel.

10 TV Spots We Don't Need To See In 2014

Here at The Ad Contrarian World Headquarters we are trying to do everything possible to re-establish the idea that ads should be interesting.

Our thinking is that maybe if we make ads interesting we can get all the data monkeys to shut up for a few minutes.

In order to inspire creative people to do better, here are 10 TV spots that we've all seen a thousand times and we really don't need to

Returning Monday

The Ad Contrarian will return on Monday with another year of strongly-held, ill-informed opinions. Keep that dial tuned right here.

Wolfsangel amongst "Best of 2013"

Very chuffed to see Wolfsangel on Josie Barton's "Best of 2013" list. Many thanks to Jo and Jaffa for their ongoing support.