The other day, I was thinking about how a few books I’ve read have really helped to shape my thinking on advertising and branding. Then, I was curious about what books relevant to our industry my friends at b&a would recommend. Here’s what I came up with:
Ogilvy on Advertising – David Ogilvy. “I read [...]

Here are the best albums of 2008…in a kind of order and in my opinion only:

The Republic Tigers – Keep Color
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs
Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak
Pirate – 4041
Shearwater – Rook
Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við [...]

We’ve been asked to work with other agencies and vendors associated with clients many, many times. That’s not surprising, kind of comes with the territory. What does surprise me is the number of times clients have commented about how well we, “play nice,” with other companies. We’ve heard that so many times it makes me [...]

One of the things that has always interested me is breaking the pattern. When I read about companies and individuals that try to or do this it is inspiring. What I mean by breaking the pattern is challenging conventional thinking and assumptions. One of the issues that has gotten my attention lately is complacency. Companies and [...]

No, not mad at the situation, but at the responses.
Couple of points
Everything is not a crisis. One of our clients is year to date up 50% over last year.  They are expanding, growing at a remarkable pace. In every growing economy there are brands and companies that shrink and in every declining economy the brands that grow. [...]

I’ll give Crispin + Porter & Bogusky all due props: they know how to keep their name at the top of the controversial (and therefore coveted) list. The new CPB campaign for Burger King “Whopper Virgins,” is generating heat for the client and agency all over the world…and it hasn’t even released yet.
The campaign, which [...]

I’m reading the Advertising Age that just came in the mail. One article that caught my attention is about Heineken and its decreasing sales. Sales dropped 3.7% in July and August, even though total imports were on the rise.
So what sort of advertising was Heineken doing leading up to this period? None really. Nothing new. [...]

There are more than a few questions that come to mind surrounding this economic crisis the nation seems to be falling into. How did we get to this point? What sort of impact will the $700 billion bailout have in the short term? How about the long term? How can a select private group benefit [...]

I give up - I’m exhausted. I am a former believer, but things change and it’s time for all of us in the marketing world to rid ourselves of the word demographics. Even today I was once again dragged back into the meaningless dialog.
Demographics tend to be an archaic method to group people. While I [...]

After over a year and some months of negotiating, a painfully long time to wait for a sports fanatic like me, Big Ten Network and Time Warner Cable have finally reached an agreement. They will finally play nice so we can all watch some great programming.
http://www.bigtennetwork.com/corporate/Time-Warner-Cable-Statement.asp
Time Warner Cable and the Big Ten Network announced today [...]