Adpulp
Advertising News and Know-How
I’ve written recently about my skepticism of the worshippers of “brand storytelling” as the new Holy Grail of advertising. So, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Jim Signorelli’s book StoryBranding: Creating Standout Brands Through the Power of Story. …
Continue Reading about StoryBranding Gives You A Process, Not A Magic Formula →
If you're a rock fan, I highly recommend you check out "Sound City," a new documentary about a legendary LA recording studio that was all analog. No one denies the power of our new digital tools to make great music, but in the movie we hear musicians lament the brilliant imperfections of old-school recording methods. Is it the same way for advertising? In a world where the first thing we do is jump on a …
Continue Reading about Can Analog Thinking Shake Up Our Digital World? →
I was working and in meetings early Monday when Burger King's Twitter account got hacked. It was a problem for Burger King, for sure – plus a big headache. While the whole thing probably lasted a couple of hours, it spawned all sorts of breathless blog posts in reaction, with titles such as: “After Hack, Burger King Needed a Brand Publishing Response” “@BurgerKing Becomes McDonald's: What You Missed …
Continue Reading about Welcome to the Age of Social Media Rubbernecking →
If you read Digiday every day, you’d be convinced that all advertising agencies are terribly dysfunctional and they’re pretty much screwed like dinosaurs. Which, as we all know, has a slight kernel of truth sometimes. But article after article aims to hoist agencies on their own petards. This article from Giselle Abramovich, entitled, “What Brands Want Agencies To Fix,” caught my eye. Because it's emblematic of …
Continue Reading about Sorry, But Brands Don’t Really Want To Fix Agencies →
Here’s the one and only question I’ve been pondering about last night’s Super Bowl TV spots: Why was I instantly smitten with the Dodge RAM “So God Made A Farmer” spot but thought the Jeep "Whole Again" soldier tribute spot was crass and exploitative? I'm speaking of my immediate, visceral reaction to both commercials, which I hadn't seen prior to the game. Perhaps it was the rhetorical power of …
Continue Reading about Super Bowl Spots: Jeep Versus Dodge RAM And My Dual Reaction →
Here's a pretty direct newspaper ad that ran in the Times of India: The Huffington Post has more about the backstory on the ad: In the wake of a highly-publicized gang rape in which the 23-year-old female victim died from the injuries she sustained, the Indian newspaper printed an ad on January 22nd asking men to respect women -- as part of their manhood. What's interesting here is not that the ad ran -- …
Continue Reading about India Issues Its Men A Challenge Via The Newspaper →
Not long ago, I got an assignment for a technology company. They were an also-ran company in a crowded category, and they didn’t have a strong brand identity or any real unique benefits to tout. In a situation like that, there are basically two choices: concoct a story that may or many not be rooted in truth, or lie outright. Hey, sometimes storytelling on behalf a brand can be amazing: But as we've seen …
Continue Reading about Brand Storytelling Is Just A Fancier Way Of Lying, Right? →
Moving out here to Washington state last year, I've noticed that many local farmers have a higher profile than in other states, thanks to farm-to-table restaurants and farmers markets. But in general, I (and I suspect most city dwellers) have very little understanding of modern farming. Farming advocates are trying to change that, launching a web series called The Edge of Farming. The series was developed …
Continue Reading about The Edge of Farming Looks At What Many Of Us Rarely See →
All episodes of Ad Chatter are now available on Buzzsprout \ Apple Podcasts \ Spotify \ Stitcher \ Amazon Music \ Google Podcasts \ iHeartRadio
