Phyllis Kenner Robinson was born in New York City on Oct. 22, 1921. At age seven she declared her desire to become a poet. A few years later, she updated her ambitions. Unlike her peers, she knew she wanted to write advertisements from an early age. "I can remember that as a kid I was influenced just by the vitality of some of the retail store advertising that was going on," she said. When other little girls in …
A Nice Surprise from Travelocity
When you book a vacation spot that you've never visited before, the anticipation of good things to come can quickly turn to anxieties realized upon arrival. In this new commercial, Travelocity doesn't hide from this built-in stress in the vacation booking process—instead, they deftly use it as a selling point. https://youtu.be/ItS8X0SjT4s The core of the 'Seize Your Someday' idea tracks back to the product …
The Ad Business Has A Problem with Boys Clubs, a.k.a. Creep Rings
The ad business is a Boys Club of the highest order. Zoe Scaman, a strategist, recently reaffirmed this fact and set the Interwebs on fire with her front-line reporting of the abuse she endured while working in agencies not her own. Her narrative is both raw and ugly as can be. Painful though it is, I encourage you to click over and read it. I tell you these stories not to be sensationalist and not to seek out …
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Deloitte Digital Wants to Make ‘Brand’ A C-Suite Priority
How do brand managers convince their peers inside the company that the company they work for competes on brand? How do these same brand managers move the discussion away from brand identity to brand experience and prove that better brand experiences lead to more sales, greater customer satisfaction, and increased valuations? Maggie Windsor Gross, head of strategy, studios at Deloitte Digital, has thought a lot …
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Ad Chatter, Season 2, Episode 7: Apple, Motel 6, Rory Sutherland, Cannes, and Cryptocurrency
Ad Chatter, now in its second season, has "gone global" with the addition of London-based strategist Toby Donaldson in the recording booth. Toby adds a lot of value to the mix. He started writing articles for Adpulp last year and the site is stronger for his contributions. In this 40-minute episode Toby, Dan Goldgeier, and I explore Apple's new privacy pitch, new work from Motel 6, Rory Sutherland's latest call to …
Chris Jones for Arkansas Governor
Chris Jones is a Democratic candidate for governor of Arkansas. He's also a well-educated family man and man of faith. He has charisma and all the back story needed to help capture the state's attention. https://youtu.be/iYMznvmx2oU It's about time. That's a smart way to say what many Americans are feeling. It's about time to recognize and officially apologize for the nation's original sins—slavery and …
How To Get Clients To Respect and Adopt ‘Creative Solutions’
Rory Sutherland roars like a lion. The Vice-Chairman of Ogilvy UK appears on Campaign's podcast, wherein he pontificates at length about the agency business and how it has been boxed into a corner by clients and so-called partners who are anything but. Sutherland argues for the power of creativity to change the score for brands. He suggests that ad men and women fight their way out of this problem. …
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Bill Bernbach, Ad Legend
Bill Bernbach is the most quoted, most respected, and most beloved advertising man in history. The Jewish kid from Brooklyn changed the score on Madison Avenue, and we continue to thank him for that. Bernbach graduated from NYU in 1933. After working in the creative department at Grey—where he met Ned Doyle—he formed Doyle Dane Bernbach in 1949. Bernbach is credited with inventing and promoting the …
Is This Seat Open? Tall Tales from the Southwest Airlines Vault
Companies are groupings of people; therefore, companies are often rich in story. Then there are companies led by mavericks, where stories flow like booze at an open bar holiday party. “Is This Seat Open?,” is a new podcast produced by L.A. Times Studios and At Will Media in partnership with Southwest Airlines. In celebration of Southwest’s 50th anniversary, the 20-episode audio series features first-hand stories …
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What’s Orkin Up To?
I am imagining the pitch that led to the following commercials... "It's like Toy Story, but the toys are benign admirers of the human form, especially when the human form is in the shape of an Orkin pest eradication specialist." https://youtu.be/1_L6uZWy9T4 Putting the anthropomorphic fantasia aside, where is the death to bugs denouement here? Where's the annoying hum of the mosquito? Those time-tested cues …
