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IHOP Feels Our Hunger—Is Uniquely Prepared to Feed Us Pancakes

"Right about now, we could all use a pancake." It's a presumptuous statement from IHOP, but it's also a true statement. We, the People, could use a pancake. https://youtu.be/6biyfxFSLvw I do like this bit of positioning: "For parents who've been making their own pancakes, and for night owls who missed staying up 'til dawn..." It's an admission that COVID wiped out our routines—not just how we work today, but …

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Stop Wasting Words

Do you ever notice that curious thing that happens when you really think about a word? You may sit there thinking what a strange collection of sounds and noises to mean something so specific, so nuanced. There's so much meaning from seemingly so little. Isn't language fascinating? How do we make complex associations from what are effectively refined grunts? Maybe our brains are magical. Then poof. The meaning …

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A Conversation Between Copywriters

S. Todd Anthony kindly requested a Zoom meeting with me last month. During the meeting, he asked me a lot of great questions about advertising, copywriting, clients, mentoring, and more. The full interview is available on his LinkedIn page, right now. It will also be published on Pinwheel's blog. For a taste, scroll down to the three questions I chose to highlight here. Todd is the executive creative director …

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Hunting Has Its Own Virtues, Virtue Signaling Isn’t One of Them

Here I find peace. Here we are free. Here the tradition continues. Here it's your season. Question. Why make a thinly veiled political advertisement (favoring one side) when the intent is to sell deer hunting equipment to all who hunt deer? Question. Who would be more likely to go deer hunting—Don Trump or Joe Biden? Free To Be You (Enter the No Judgment Zone) By using the words, "Here we are free" and "Here …

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Political Ads Get Properly Skewered By A Major League Baseball Team

Politics is such an ugly sport, unlike baseball. Baseball is life-sized chess with cleats. Baseball is also America's pastime, and politics is not. Politics is America's wasteland. And politics in a presidential election year is even worse. All of which leaves the American public hungry for something good, something original, and something fun. Something like this self-promo campaign from the Texas …

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I’ll Take ‘Creative Wizardry’ for $800, Alex

Diminish a once-powerful industry and lose all respect inside and outside the agency. What is influencer marketing? What is programmatic? What is artificial intelligence? There is a virulent strain of stupid on the loose in the business world today. The disease leads those infected to strip the soul of creativity from the marketing communications industry. Whether it's a content marketing disciple …

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Poets Are Particularly Adept At “Packaging” Big Ideas for Brands

Do copywriters write well in other forms? Does it matter? Yes and yes. For professional writers, there is the literary market, the entertainment market, the journalism market, and the advertising market. When you work in advertising, all of the sister industries are part of the big picture. When you go to bat for a brand, you rely on the same narrative structures that novelists use, you write dialogue like a …

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