Washington Post business section editors thought it might be fun to gather some present day ad people in a room and ask them about AMC's "Mad Men" while taking their photos. The writer on the job also had a good time, as evidenced by this nostalgia-laden missive. In 1960, the ad industry was a Gotham-based priesthood. Advertisers bowed before the adman's implied knowledge of consumer desire, bolstered by his …
Ad Men. Circus Characters. What’s The Diff?
We're terribly late to this story, but it's worth picking up on. Did you know that Alex Bogusky looks to P.T. Barnum as an insipration? Yep. In fact, CP+B calls their attention-getting antics Hooplanetics, a term that simultaneously pays homage to Barnum while laughing at Tom Cruise and crew. Bogusky and friends even wrote a book about it. Sadly, the book was only made available for a short while. Amazon and all the …
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Walmart-Style Travelogue
Agency Tart reporting from the front lines of Adlandia, confirms that this is a tough business. In Boston today for a huge online branding presentation to my biggest client. My nemesis agency was there as the client’s overall brand presence. What corporate ass-kissing fuckheads. Anyway, our travel booker-person made me share a room with a project manager on the team. Agency Tart does not share rooms. We all got …
Walker’s Words
Marketing bloggers, like Jackie Huba, are loving Rob Walker's new book, Buying In. But Huba wanted more than a read through, she wanted to question the Savannah-based author and New York Times Magazine columnist directly. Here's one of her questions and Walker's response: Q: Is "I buy, therefore I am" just as common today as it was 100 years ago? A: I think it's more true. A century ago, you wouldn't sell deodorant …
P&G CMO Steps Down
Jim Stengel, P&G's Chief Marketing Officer since 2001, is stepping down, to be replaced by Marc Pritchard, former head of P&G's cosmetics business. Stengel's worked for P&G for 25 years. Ad Age reports that his last day will be Oct. 31. Why's he leaving? Was he pushed out? He's only 53 and, according to AdWeek, he's got big plans for the future: [A] P&G rep [said]...Stengel was simply ready to move on. "Jim feels …
If You Want to Have Some Say, Become A Client
Dave Linne, 47, a former creative director at Leo Burnett is now in a new role at ConAgra. That's right, he is now a client. As senior VP-advertising, global market strategy, Linne believes he will have more impact on the work, according to Ad Age. Creatives at Nitro, DDB/San Francisco, Venables Bell & Partners, Element 79 and Wondergroup will now be dealing with one of their own. Could be interesting for all …
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The Smaller The Pond, The Bigger The Fish
Joe Erwin of Greenville, SC agency, Erwin-Penland wrote a piece for Ad Age on attracting creative talent to smaller markets. He suggests mining the local talent pool for all its worth and employing PR tactics. He also suggests "investing considerable resources in promoting the surrounding area" as Erwin-Penland has done with "Food for Thought: A Convention of Unconventional Creativity." This three-day celebration, …
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Femvertising
Omnicom is forming a new consultancy to help marketers reach women. The new unit is named G23 — G as in Group, 23 as in the pair of chromosomes that carries the sex differences between women and men. The power of women in the marketplace is undisputed. Surveys indicate that female consumers in the United States buy or influence the buying of more than 75 percent of all goods. “Targeting women is something that is at …