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Advertising News and Know-How
For advertising to impact buying decisions, people need to feel confident about spending money. Given the price of goods and the daily chaos emanating from The White House today, confident is not how people are feeling at this moment in time. Consumer sentiment plunged 11% this month to a preliminary reading of 50.8, the second-lowest reading on record going back to 1952. April’s reading was lower than anything …
Continue Reading about Surprise Surprise, Consumer Sentiment Is In the Dumpster →
In order to impress the new administration in Washington, soldiers from the Culture War have entered the sliding glass doors of America's most prominent retailers—a fact that increasingly threatens their ability to make their own business decisions and operate stores profitably. Three days into his job, Florida's new Attorney General James Uthmeier announced a class-action lawsuit that alleges Target Corp. did not …
Continue Reading about Make America the Land of White Male Conformity Again →
Google, Apple, Microsoft, et al, would rather kiss the Supreme Ruler's ring than provide accurate information to its customers. According to The Guardian, Google’s online and mobile calendars no longer include references to Black History Month, Women’s History Month and LGBTQ+ holidays, among other events. Google is also rolling back its previous commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in its …
Continue Reading about America’s Top Technology Firms No Longer A Reliable Source of Truth →
Last week, the Texas Senate announced its budget includes $498 million to revamp the Texas Film Incentive. The state wants to encourage film and TV production in the state, and to encourage the state's lawmakers, a group of famous actors with ties to Texas have made a video pitch. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson reunite in a “True Detective” moment in this new ad directed by series creator Nic Pizzolato. …
Continue Reading about McConaughey, Harrelson, and Friends Are “True to Texas” →
Mergers and acquisitions—it's one way to grow a company beholden to its shareholders. Ad industry holding companies know all about it, given that they regularly acquire and then "hold" what were once independent and innovate agencies. Earlier this month in what could become the merger of all mergers, Omnicom announced its intentions to acquire Interpublic Group in a deal worth $31 billion. In their official press …
Continue Reading about Holding Companies Seek Even Greater Profits In New M&A Deal →
Kyle Chayka is a staff writer at The New Yorker. He wrote a piece after the election about Elon Musk's impact on the Trump brand. Here's a small excerpt to chew on. It’s hard to overstate the success that a Trump-Musk axis has already had in rebranding Trump’s image.... In the company of Musk—redolent of angular Cybertrucks, reusable rockets, and humanity living on Mars—Trump appears not as an elderly, increasingly …
Continue Reading about Musk Rebranded Trump? That’s Not What Happened →
How many times have marketers been told—mostly by other marketers—that the new tech is the best tech? So many times...remember when every brand had to have a home in Second Life? It was an absurd thing to say then, as it is today when the new new thing has to be tested, twisted, and made useful to real people. Nevertheless, promoters gonna promote. And Fast Company is a favorite media vehicle of promoters. For …
Continue Reading about AI Is Not the Problem, Lack of Original Thinking Is the Problem →
Ageism is one of the most embarrassing problems in the advertising industry. It's a topic we continue to cover in these pages and a problem that lingers like the vilest of stenches. At the same time, some of the industry's smartest people are working on solutions. Jane Evans, author of Invisible to Invaluable: Unleashing the Power of Midlife Women and founder of Uninvisibility, says, "It’s safe to say that women …
Continue Reading about Visible Start Is A New Training Program for Women Over 45 →
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