Steffan Postaer has just compared advertising to fly-fishing. Norman Maclean would not be pleased. Brand advertising in its highest form is like fly-fishing: sleek, urbane, wise. Think glorious anthems, the launch of new campaigns. Fishing with lures is one step down. It’s brand advertising, packaged and distilled. Though not a lavish opus, it still requires craftsmanship. Grinder TV, the churn and burn of most …
Duck Overplays His Hand and Other Tales of Mad Men
Season two is a wrap. Damn these things fly by quickly. …
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Vinny Warren, Someone Ran Off With Your Concept
The party responsible: 60 Frames. [UPDATE] BusinessWeek spoke to Charles Stone III, the director of the original “Wassup” commercial. Stone says, Budweiser never owned the rights to the idea. He’d originally made it as a short film independent of the brand, and Budweiser had only leased the rights, paying a mere $37,000 for five years of use. Back then, people gave him a hard time about the low price. Now Stone, a …
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Two Copywriters Who Blog Right Up In This Thing
Benjamin Palmer, CEO of The Barbarian Group, wants to hire people like Danny G and me. We review people's portfolios here quite often and one thing that stands out is how few advertising copywriters actually blog. It's really amazing. An entire copywriting Web site might consist of 500 words. What's needed now are copywriters who not just write entire Web sites, but actively blog. For creatives, maybe look for …
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From Wasilla To Madison Avenue
An ability to babble nonsensically and make people believe it. An ability to use a little sex appeal to get ahead. Sarah Palin is perfect for the ad industry. It's the subject of my new column on Talent Zoo, which you can read after the jump. …
Bob Hoffman’s Secrets Are Out In The Open
The difference between a great agency and a good one--or a great creative team and a good one--is not what they can make, it's what they can sell. It has long been my contention that 90% of the people in this business can create One Show-level work. But only 10% of the people in this business can sell it. Bob Hoffman, CEO of Hoffman/Lewis, has been exploring the reasons why. He blames meetings that take on …
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There’s No “I” In Team
Court Crandall, founder of Ground Zero, believes in looking for "players with character." He describes two such "players" in a touching piece published in Adweek. The longer you do this job, the more you find that doing good work is the price of entry and it's all the other stuff that separates the folks you really like from the ones you can't live without. In 15 years of owning Ground Zero, there haven't been many …
If You Call It Art, It’s Art. Yes, It’s That Easy.
ATTN: STEVE GRASSE SEEKS TO JOIN MATTHEW BARNEY AND DAMIEN HIRST AMONG THE RANKS OF THE WORLD’S FOREMOST CONCEPTUAL ARTISTS To the uneducated viewer, Bikini Bandits might appear to be nothing more than eye-candy. However, the creator of the series, has much loftier ideas. In fact, Gyro Worldwide CEO, Steve Grasse, sees Bikini Bandits as a post-feminist attack on the way women are portrayed in modern culture, …
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