November 30, 2009

Master Jedi Copywriter Luke Sullivan Speaks.

Luke Sullivan from Mediastash.tv on Vimeo. Via adland.

If you still don't own Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This, it's time to get yourself an early Christmas present.

Posted by John on November 30, 2009 at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Advertising , Books , Branding , Opinion , The Creative Life , The real world

August 04, 2008

God. And her agency.

Shoots take you outside from time to time. As golden hour approaches someone will inevitably say, "God is now our gaffer." In other instances, usually upon sight of any given natural wonder, you might hear, "God is one helluva creative director." But in Steffan Postaer's new book, "The Happy Soul Industry" God is a client. A client who needs a wayward ad man to fix her brand. God's brief? "Promote goodness in all its forms." The creative team at fictional Chloe, Night & Wiener pitch the idea of bringing people back to goodness through a campaign that asks one simple question: How Are You?

From the book :

Indeed, it was perhaps the most common question in the world, so mundane it had essentially lost all meaning. Yet, presented in the context of a bus stop ad, something marvelous and unexpected happened: The once rhetorical question became an emotional clarion.

Barry rubbed his whiskers, brightened.  “Everyone says ‘How are you?’ but what if we really meant it?”

Playing on this campaign idea, Postaer has also launched the "How Are You?" blog. A real online confessional for the advertising soul. Postaer is also promoting the book in Chicago and Los Angeles with a little help from the OAAA (who clearly still have some real love this little campaign).

Hmmm. Promoting a book in L.A., eh? Well, there are worse things than selling your soul to Hollywood.

Posted by John on August 04, 2008 at 04:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Advertising , Books , Brands , Copywriting , Entertainment , Pop Culture , The Creative Life

July 23, 2007

Hide your Harry Potter Shame.

For those of you who just can't admit in public that you're devouring the new Harry Potter book, there's this nifty user-generated solution. Handier than a Weasley product.

Posted by John on July 23, 2007 at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Books , Consumer Content , Pop Culture

September 12, 2006

AC #45 now available.

The Football & Philosphy Edition:

John and Tug meet on a Saturday afternoon in a noisy joint to watch football and talk ads. A new spot for DirecTV sparks a discussion regarding the relationship between Tolkien and Lewis (2:36) and, inevitably, Joseph Campbell and the Cosmogonic Cycle (9:13). After the break, the guys jump into a discussion of the NFL as a mega super brand (11:02). John finishes up the podcast at home by directing listeners to this intriguing post by Ernie Schenck, and encouraging listeners to send in audio comments about their own experiences (16:49). Not link-loved out, JJ rounds out the show by passing on this great bit of advice from Mack Simpson (20:30).

Sound mildly interesting? Listen to it now and find out.

Posted by John on September 12, 2006 at 09:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: AC News , Books , Entertainment , Food and Drink , Podcasting , Sports

August 08, 2006

Half of your advertising isn't wasted after all.

We've not read it yet, however, this new book looks interesting.   Entitled "What Sticks," the book is the result of five years of research into one billion's worth of campaigns from big, national marketers.

The book concludes that only 37% of advertising is wasted. Not, as John Wannamaker's famous quote suggests, 50%.

Anyone feel better? No?

It's reported that the book cites fear of failure on the part of marketers as the biggest obstacle to real change. If marketers can't allow, admit and analyze failure, there is little chance to learn what new avenues could be successful. Yep. No one ever got fired for putting TV on the plan.

It's time for CEOs and stockholders to give CMOs some room to maneuver and some permission to fail. We didn't get to the moon without some rockets blowing up. More ideas faster is how you stop making incremental changes and start making dramatic leaps. 37% lost in full experimentation is money spent infinitely better than 37% pissed away on old solutions which are losing potency.

Thanks to Ad Age.

Posted by John on August 08, 2006 at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Advertising , Books , Brave New Marketing , Current Affairs

February 20, 2006

Bein' Green

Here are some excerpts from "It's Not Easy Being Green and Other Things To Consider." Some are from Jim, some are from his friends and some are from the Muppets. I think this is just as he would have liked it.

We are primarily a company of creative people, whose art we are helping to bring to the world. At the same time, we recognize that business enables art "to happen," and that business plays an essential role in communicating art to a broad audience. As both artists and businesspersons, we understand the value of both worlds, and so we bring them together in a way that facilitates the realization of our artistic vision.

Jim Henson

In a company, the mannerisms and standards of the boss trickle down. Jim always let us shine. He never demanded – he knew we wanted to give 110%. He was the example and we wanted to go be as creative and hardworking as he was. He always used praise. He never had to tell us when it wasn't going well. We knew it and we'd work hard at turning it around. He was our inspiration. Still is.

Kevin Clash (Elmo)

Here's some simple advice: Always be yourself. Never take yourself too seriously. And beware of advice from experts, pigs and members of Parliament.

Kermit the Frog

Wake up in the morning
get yourself to work
Fraggles never fool around
Fraggles never shirk.
Your duty's always waiting
and duty must be done.
There's Ping-Pong games that must be played
and songs that must be sung.

Gobo and the Fraggles

Posted by Tug McTighe on February 20, 2006 at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Books

February 01, 2006

This just in: the Bait and Switch is bad.

More repercussions for the author who wrote a highly fictionalized, non-fiction book. See, people don't like it when they buy one thing but get actually get another. A cautionary tale to sear into your brain as you write your copy this week:  CNN.com - Agent drops 'Pieces' author - Feb 1, 2006.

Posted by John on February 01, 2006 at 07:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Books

January 24, 2006

Mini Green Book Review

It's Not Easy Being Green -- And other things to consider
by Jim Henson, The Muppets and Friends

My wife bought me this book for Christmas (not the Holidays), and it f'ing rules. If you like the Muppets -- and you can't read this web site if you don't -- I would urge you to go out and grab this book. It's basically one of those small, back of the toilet-type books. They have ones that collapse the philosophy of everyone from Voltaire to the Dalai Lama, and now they have one from Jim Henson.

The reason I think it's relevant to all of us is that Jim was first and foremost a creative person. He had an idea for something that didn't exist (marionettes + puppets) and invented something wholly new (The Muppets.)

But what keeps me going back to this book again and again is my realization that what Jim really was was a very smart, very sweet creative director. Check this out:

"As I try to zero in on what's important for the Muppets, I think it's a sense of innocence, naiveté – you know, the experience of a simple person meeting life. Even the most worldly of our characters is innocent. Our villains are innocent, really. And it's that innocence that I think is the connection to the audience."

"Simple is good" (This quote is followed by Jerry Juhl, one of the longtime Muppet performers.)

"We always used to kid Jim that after telling everybody "simple is good." he would turn around and try to product the most complicated work in the world and just about wipe out all of us – him most of all – in the process."

Sound familiar all you CDs out there?

Someone named Bernie Brillstein had this to say:

"Jim inspired people to be better than they thought they could be. To be more creative, more daring, more outrageous, and ultimately more successful. And he did it all without raising his voice."

"Jim didn't tell you what to do. He just was. And by him being what he was, he led and he taught. But by not answering, sometimes you answered your own question, and you could do more than you thought you could." - Frank Oz

And, finally, this one.

"The game on the Muppet Show was to upstage as much as you could. Jim loved upstaging and would reward you for it. I remember during the instrumental break on a production number featuring Miss Piggy, I had my character lean over the balcony backwards and play a trumpet solo upside down, and Jim was in hysterics. It was great to have a boss who really sanctioned and encouraged anarchy. - Dave Goelz

So go out there and get this book. It gets my highest rating. And while you're at it, go encourage some anarchy in your life, your work and in the lives and work of your friends.

Why not? It's only advertising after all.

Posted by Tug McTighe on January 24, 2006 at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Books , Entertainment , Pop Culture

September 05, 2005

What Donny has in common with agency creatives everywhere

Both get smacked around a little in David Kiley's cool Business Week column Brand New Day.

Mr. Kiley does not mince words about "The Donny's" new book or Donny himself in his review entitled: Donny Deutsch, The Book. It's Alot Like The Man. Sometimes Too Much Air.

While the review is not wholly negative, there are a few sections that make you inhale through your teeth in an "oooh, that smarts" kind of way. Behold this part of Mr. Kiley's take:

"Like any book of this type—part memoir, part “this is why I make so much money” rant—it succeeds in some places and falls obnoxiously flat in others. I like his chapter on women in the workplace. "Of the top ten executives at Deutsch, eight are women…when I was hiring , I wasn’t worried about man or woman, I was trying to find the best people—and the best people kept turning out to be women.” In a business where too few talented women get to the top, his philosophy is refreshing and laudable. But to know Donny even a little is to know that he just likes to be surrounded by women, especially attractive ones. So some will read this chapter with a snicker. Hint: one chapter title in the book is “It All Comes back to Babes.”

Mr. Kiley also relates an interesting tidbit regarding the (alleged) firing of a staffer who circulated a certain picture of Mr. Deutsch in a Speedo (If this anecdote is accurate, I feel compelled to remind Mr. Deutsch that real men don't ever wear Speedos unless the Olympics are in their future. Donny, I like you, but seriously, dude.)

Of course, Mr. Deutsch is not the only one who takes a poke from Mr. Kiley in the review. Here's what Mr. Kiley had to say about advertising creatives:

"I especially liked an incident recounted in the book in which Donny dressed down a creative team that was examining a book of award winning advertising for “inspiration.” Agency creatives can be a maddening lot. Some are great. Most are pains in the neck and are more interested in winning a trophy or spending a lot of money on production than solving a problem."

Okay, it's not like we haven't broached this very sentiment on the American Copywriter podcast and this very blog (see AC #4) but this does raise one's hackles a little (Hey, I can say stuff about my family but you'd better not). Of course, as creatives, I think we have to take responsibility for the image. I happen to believe most of us are more responsible than that. But, as we said in that now ancient podcast, the true root of the issue lies at the feet of agency mangement (and clients) who continue to pay creatives who win more awards greater sums of money than creatives who win fewer awards. Until we find a different (better?) way, things, understandably, aren't going to change. While I believe creatives are a special breed of human they are, in the end, still human.

Of course, both Mr. Deutsch and Mr. Kiley have standing invitations to be guests on our ever-growing little podcast (thanks to many of the eyes now reading this). The hosts would be interested in talking about any of the above topics. Especially the Speedos.

By the by, how long do you think it will be before Tug and I get big enough for something like this?

Posted by John on September 05, 2005 at 09:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Advertising , Books , Current Affairs , Pop Culture