Your parental guilt trip of the day.

Oh, how many times have I given my own children “the finger.” Thanks for the find Sir Ernie.

AC #69 Now Available.

The Thrity Rooms To Hide In Addition. John and Tug talk with Master Jedi Luke Sullivan about his new book Thirty Rooms To Hide In, creativity and getting out of advertising. It’s a great Sunday afternoon chat with almost no…

Sharpie + creative + styrofoam = awesome.

Oh, Sharpie, you are so delicious.

Your parental guilt trip of the day.

Oh, how many times have I given my own children “the finger.” Thanks for the find Sir Ernie.

Sharpie + creative + styrofoam = awesome.

Oh, Sharpie, you are so delicious.

AC #69 Now Available.

The Thrity Rooms To Hide In Addition.

John and Tug talk with Master Jedi Luke Sullivan about his new book Thirty Rooms To Hide In, creativity and getting out of advertising. It’s a great Sunday afternoon chat with almost no cursing and only minorly bothersome mouth sounds.

Give it a listen won’t you?

And stay tuned. ‘Coming in August 2011: The American Copywriter Reboot.

 

Click to preview book

 

Sharpie + creative + styrofoam = awesome.

Oh, Sharpie, you are so delicious.

AC #69 Now Available.

The Thrity Rooms To Hide In Addition.

John and Tug talk with Master Jedi Luke Sullivan about his new book Thirty Rooms To Hide In, creativity and getting out of advertising. It's a great Sunday afternoon chat with almost no cursing and only minorly bothersome mouth sounds.

Give it a listen won't you?

And stay tuned. 'Coming in August 2011: The American Copywriter Reboot.

 

Click to preview book

 

Your parental guilt trip of the day.

Oh, how many times have I given my own children “the finger.” Thanks for the find Sir Ernie.

What are you guys doing over there?

Yesterday we had an interesting lunch with a colleague about social media and at the end of the lunch, as we were saying our good-byes, an interesting question was asked, "what are you guys doing over there?" The question wasn’t in reference to someone being curious as to your current goings-ons, but rather to a group of people doing a body of work. The more I thought about that question, the more I tinkered with how it could be asked.

What are you guys doing over there? (Good Scenario 1)
You consistently bring fresh and new ideas to your client, which flabbergasts them. Oft-times they don’t know what you’re talking about, but are glad that you’re giving them options and educating them on current trends.

What are you guys doing over there? (Good Scenario 2)
You’re doing something that has peaked someone’s interest. Enough interest, in fact, that they’re wanting to talk to you more and explore some possibilities of future work relations.

What are you guys doing over there? (Bad Scenario)
Your client is doing the leading and they’re questioning your
motivation (and maybe more). Are you behind on the times? Are you just doing what the
client asks? Are you giving a care? In any case, it’s not good.


I’m sure there are more scenarios out there, but the question is out there and it’s one that you might want to ask yourself from time to time (a little inward constructive criticism never hurt).

So, good or bad, what are you guys doing over there?

World of World of Warcraft

Painfully funny because it is painfully true. I love a good Mage.

Advice for everybody in the ad/marketing game.

Bill Hicks offers everyone in our business a little advice. Thanks to Armano.

R.I.P. Harvey Korman

Too many of these this week. Here’s to you Mr. Korman. Thanks for the laughs.

Sidenote: There’s a "thing" in theatre about "breaking character." Sure, Conway is chewing the scenery here. But the real laughs come from Korman going ahead and laughing at him. Korman knew exactly what he was doing.

Disney brand standards apply. Even to Jack Sparrow.

Brandonpinto_p2

A guy learns the hard way that there are rules about playing Disney characters.

Via LA Mag and Joe.

For those who like to make up words.

Is blogging too much for you? Is micro-blogging too boggling to you? Has tumblr just opened another can of worms that you care to NOT look at? Really, sometimes, all we want (all we need) is one word to describe how we feel.

For those of us desiring just that, in comes Adocu — specializers of "nano-blogging." Here’s what Adocu says about their service:

adocu is a way to let your buddies and the world know what your doing.

Unlike other sites, your posts must be one word long. You can fit whatever you want in that word, just no spaces. That way it stays short and simple.

We like to call it nano-blogging 🙂

As you might have already figured out, Adocu (please ignore the your/you’re grammar mistake on their page, it was probably shortened to make a point) is perfect for all of us in advertising who LoveToMakeUpOurOwnWords — aka, URLs. Better yet, this is perfect for those of us that make up those one word/sentence tags (just take out the spaces!).

In any case, this is the latest craze that probably won’t take flight, but is interesting to check out.

Sorry, I suppose I could’ve just said: thisprobablywon’tgoanywherebutwhoknows.

Yeah, see not everyone can do this.

Lifeinsure_3

So, I’m not sure I get this exactly. I am pretty sure that I don’t want to.

I.D. a font.

Font

See how you do. Feel free to let us know your score. Best score here so far is 30…

When creatives get bored before consumers do.

I’ve always liked the Whiteboard ads. Yeah, yeah, I know a lot of you too-cool-for-schoolers are haters but I think the campaign is smart, differentiating, and appropriate for the brand. Top it off with the fact that is sells pretty hard, too. I’ve also always felt there was a real charm to the simplicity of the spots and the clever illustrations. But a great deal of that goes away, for me anyway, once you add the animation and the extra characters in with Azula.

So, here’s the question I’m posing to people who know or would like to posit: Did the campaign need to evolve for message or did the creatives simply get bored before we (or at least I) did?

American Copywriter salutes Hal Riney

20841

Here’s to a voice that stood out. Spoken and otherwise. A voice that I’m certain our industry will miss even more than we may suspect. If you’re a little young and stupid (which is perfectly acceptable), do yourself a favor and bone up on The Riney Way. You can start by absorbing what Jeff Goodby had to say about the man.

Here’s to you, Mr. Riney. We are believers.

Fuck Hungry Man.

A movie can improve your life. Seriously.