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Samsung debuts trailer at CES for “seamless integration of smart devices.”...
By definition film trailers are supposed to titillate and provoke a potential audience into becoming a legitimate one. Trailers are commercials and historically some of the best ever. Yet, red flags...
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On shining opportunities over the Bay. Manning the gyro Sub.
The call of duty beckons… In Adland, people come and people go. Turnover happens, now more than ever. Without long term incentives employees are not bound. Upheaval in our industry exasperates an...
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New H&R Block ad campaign giddily invites tax payers into the fold.
A gal walks into an H&R Block store and informs the accountant she hasn’t filed her taxes in years, dumping boxes of paperwork on his desk. At which point, the H&R Block Rep tells her to...
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Soaring new TV commercial for Red Bull indeed has wings.
I believe I can fly… Extreme sports typically don’t attract my attention. But I’m a huge fan of Red Bull’s latest TV commercial celebrating “crossing the line” in sports. There’s nothing outlandish...
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My Superbowl ad review: highlights, blackouts, and live blogging on Mashable.
One of my favorite “spots.” And so went another Super Bowl, like sands through the hourglass. I had the dubious honor of “live blogging” about the commercials for Mashable. I say dubious because I had...
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No new post since the Super Bowl. What kind of blogger am I?
Yikes. I just realized my last post went up the day after the Super Bowl. In social media time that’s like a million years ago. Lame I know. When I started Gods of Advertising waaaay back during the...
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Is turnover at an agency a sign of malignancy or merely a sign of the times?
“In the room the women come and go, Talking of Michaelangelo.” -T.S. Elliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Although completely irrelevant, I always think of Elliot’s line whenever people come...
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Reflections upon my presentation to SXSW on “Signs & Evolution of Ambient.”
“And another thing…” Finished my 15 minutes of SXSW fame, delivering a “quickie” presentation called Signs and the Evolution of Ambient. Bit nerve wracking this one, on account of the round robin...
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The tantrumy creative director. Anger is not passion especially when it’s...
Remind you of anyone in Adland? A gathering of ad agency people –who shall go nameless- were talking about some of the rip roaring screaming matches that used to take place between their old creative...
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Technology failure during presentations closest thing to Murphy’s Law in Adland.
Bang your head against the screen… Once again, I was in a huge meeting when technology let us down. A video failed to play with its accompanying audio. As one of my colleagues desperately tried to...
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The “Insane Shrink.” Dysfunction abounds in Adland but that doesn’t mean we...
We’re all a little batty… Last week, a team from my agency was talking with a new client in the technology space. “Onboarding,” if you’ll pardon the trendy expression. While speaking to us about her...
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The California Lottery exhorts us to “Believe in Something Bigger” via...
Kind of digging the new California Lottery campaign from LA’s David & Goliath. Powerball is coming to the Sunshine State and to herald its arrival we are exhorted to “Believe in Something Bigger.”...
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Kmart and Draft FCB’s “shippy” commercial delivers boffo results along with...
With nearly 9 million views as of this writing, K-Mart’s “Ship my Pants” commercial by Draft FCB is a hit. Conceptually, it’s a one trick pony, and a dirty one at that. The word ship gets punned with...
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Evil acts and social currency: what terrorism and modern marketing have in...
Flash mob? Like most of you I spent this week considering the horrific events in Boston. We watched the 24/7 news feed. Talked to our co-workers. Lessoned our children. We took part in yet another...
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Bleak Hyundai commercial (and others like it) advertises death of hope and...
God forgive me…for this commercial. What’s more unsettling? That a car commercial for Hyundai makes a commercial extolling clean emissions by depicting a botched suicide or that it is only the latest...
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Sweet but also strange. My reaction to resurrection of classic Altoids campaign.
Altoids, circa 1997 I wrote the above copy for Altoids in 1997. A year or so before, Mark Faulkner (art director) and I created the “Curiously Strong Mints” campaign for Altoids. The two of us would...
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New media inspires social responsibilty in corporations (whether they like it...
Social media has effected how corporations behave. For example, the way it has cajoled (or in some cases coerced) big businesses into acting like nice people instead of faceless, corporate entities....
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Cadillac’s head marketer blithely discusses pitch for his business. Prior to...
Happy handicapper, Cadillac’s Craig Bierley I’m not sure why newly appointed Cadillac advertising director, Craig Bierley chose to give an interview to Adweek about Cadillac’s agency review, which has...
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Back to Chicago: a meditation on nostalgia or as Don Draper called it, “the...
Chicago from my hotel, a visitor now. How are you with personal nostalgia? I’m definitely Love/Hate. For reasons I can’t quite articulate, I’m not always a fan of tripping down memory lane. Some...
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In Adoration of the old Masters: art history and finding inspiration in Adland.
Stealing from the best… Recently, I was able to use a modest but working knowledge of art history in the formation of a creative marketing idea. How about that? Apparently, those “vanity” classes I...
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