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These days, seeing a CEO appear in their company’s ads is quite common. But back in the 70’s, it was rare. So when NYC ad agency Scali McCabe Sloves convinced chicken processor Frank Perdue to star in his own ads, he was reluctant. But it turned him and his brand into a household name. That, and many other stories, are recounted in his wife Mitzi’s new book Tough Man, Tender Chicken: Business & Life Lessons from …

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In Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, Nir Eyal lays out a four-step process called the Hook Model for creating the types of products and services that keep people coming back for more. Although many of the examples he uses are online-oriented (Yelp, Twitter, The Bible App), there are plenty of lessons here for folks who make other things. I have to wonder if Eyal is simply looking for commonalities in all …

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When you are a lifestyle brand, you need to invent content for the social web constantly. You can write a blog post, update Twitter and so on, but do not get carried away with too many text-based solutions. This is the web, we need things to click (a.k.a. rich media) that will make us smile. That's why Lacoste, with help from BETC and BETC Digital in Paris, asked Vine and Instagram star Zach King to help promote …

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I suppose in a perfect world, a client in need of an advertising agency would point to an ad campaign they admire and say, “Let’s hire the people who did that.” We wouldn’t need the agency pitch process that is part ‘Dating Game,’ part dog and pony show, part theater, and part…well, part marketing services evaluation. Since we don’t live in that world, we need Peter Levitan and his book The Levitan Pitch: Buy This …

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Of all the mistakes I’ve made in my advertising career, perhaps the biggest ones were not staying partners with two art directors with whom I had a great working relationship. One left an agency I was working at, the other I left behind for another agency. Because, as I’ve learned the hard way, a great partner is as good, and as rare, as gold. It’s the nature of creative teams that Joshua Wolf Shenk explores in …

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Even on its worst days, working in an ad agency is still quite fun compared to the dreariness of regular corporate America. That's the point of this promo website and video for The Creative Circus featuring a fictional company called B.E.I.G.E. B.E.I.G.E. Recruitment Video from B.E.I.G.E. on Vimeo. Folks looking to avoid a career in dullsville are invited to attend the Creative Circus open house on September …

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