“Karen” wants her privacy. Come to think of it, so does “Ken.” I like this commercial because it is awkward. For me, peak awkward happens when the coworkers speak in emoji. “Read heart emoji. Blue heart emoji. Puke emoji!” The spot offers the technorati a funny takedown of the quantified life and a well-earned poke […]
Twitter To World: Political Message Reach Should Be Earned, Not Bought
Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of @Twitter, and founder and CEO of Square, made some interesting Tweets today to announce Twitter’s new policy that bans all political advertising from the platform. We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. Why? A […]
Can We Quit All the Quitting, Already?
When the content firehose drowns a person in noise and distortion, it’s natural for the person to flee. To say enough already and quit. You may have heard that people have been leaving Facebook in droves. Some of your friends and family may have vacated the digital premises. Many Facebook users have begun to rethink […]
Nike Just Did It
Dan Wieden and his ad agency are many different things to many different people. As far as I’m concerned, he’s the copywriter’s copywriter. His game-changing tagline for Nike has always summed up the sports brand in three perfect syllables. Just Do It. The brand mantra is now 30 years old and Nike wants to let […]
Social Media Managers Are Brand Activists, Not Chorus Girls
Wired’s Jessi Hempel says what no one wants to admit: Women are preferred over men for social media management roles. Social media managers usually command less respect than PR managers, while taking on responsibility for an increasingly important distribution channel. The career has been referred to as the Pink Ghetto. Between 70 and 80 percent […]
Happiness Is A Tweetless Holiday
Holidays are full of travel, family, food, and for many people today, an unending stream of social media updates to their “smart” phone appendage. Sadly, this is where politics and the weight of the world can creep in. Tessa Films in Chicago believes we can put our phones down for the betterment of America and […]
Brevity Is The Soul of Wit, But Not On Twitter, Not Anymore
Twitter doubled down on its character limit this week. Users of the social media platform are now able to update in 280 characters—twice the previously allotted character count. The news isn’t going over particularly well in certain circles. At least two literary lions loathe the change. Twitter’s destroyed its USP. The whole point, for me, […]
Dodge Flexes Its Muscle Cars On Social
Content and social media marketing get beaten up by old school ad men for focusing on “the conversation,” instead of the sales pitch. I think the reality is a bit different than the reported complaints. Car companies, real estate companies, clothing companies, restaurants, and hotels all use social media to share their assets with the […]
Make Room For HR In Your Company’s Social Feeds
Not too long ago, people used to “break in” to advertising. That’s how hard it was to land a job at a top creative agency. Today, even the best agencies need to make an effort to recruit talent. Witness Brunner’s self-promotional efforts on Twitter: We offer careers where you’re not holed up over a laptop […]
31 Interesting Ad People To Follow On Twitter
Listicles are ridiculous. Lists, on the other hand, are often helpful and handy. Grocery lists, for example, keep one on task. Twitter lists can also be put to good use. Here’s a new list I made that’s comprised of 31 agency leaders who regularly drop knowledge on Twitter. Updated list of 31 interesting advertising people […]