Tak Tik Boom

The Polluted Fountain Of Youth

Anyone who's ever had a parent knows one thing for sure: Old people think young people are idiots.

If you're young, your parents hate your music, hate your haircut, hate your friends, hate your language, hate your clothing... it's an inviolable rule of nature.

This is nothing new. It's been going on for generations. Ever since youth culture emerged about 100 years ago, every generation of

Lots Of Screwing But No Marriage

Well, the big news this weekend was that the honeymoon
between Omnicom and Publicis seems to be in trouble before we even get
to the foreplay.

According to The Wall Street Journal,

"...battles
over position and power are threatening to upend the slated $35 billion
"merger of equals" between advertising firms

Omnicom Group Inc. and

A Journey From Trad to Indie Publishing

Today on the Triskele Books blog, I interview author Ann Swinfen, as she talks about her journey from traditional to indie publishing.

Steve Jobs Hated "Branding"

Here at The Ad Contrarian Worldwide Headquarters, we have always taken a skeptical view of brand babble.

While we appreciate the value that certain types of brand equity confer, we are appalled by the misunderstandings and misrepresentations of how brands are built, and the dreadful lexicon of "branding."

Our views on the topic are summed up in a few little axioms we trot out whenever the

An Expensive Lesson In Web Strategy

Here at The Ad Contrarian World Headquarters we are well-known for believing that it is much more fun to identify problems than to offer solutions.

As a matter of fact, offering solutions is how we make money and the idea of giving them away free on a blog is just plain anathema to us.

Nonetheless, there are moments when we feel unaccountably generous and give million dollar advice away for

The Lifetime Value Of Stupidity

One of my all-time favorite dumb-guy marketing ideas is "lifetime value."

It is the fantasy that if you get a customer at a young age she'll stick with you for life. This nonsense is particularly popular in the automotive industry, where I misspent a lot of my agency career.

My conversations about lifetime value usually went something like this:

BOB: Why are we spending so much of our

Calling All Francophiles...

If you enjoy novels sent in France, you might want to enter the huge giveaway to celebrate the first anniversary of France Book Tours. Good luck!