“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!” -Theodore Levitt Puzzling over what people at ad agencies actually do with their days (and nights), Faris Yakob advises that "it’s important to remember that advertising is a drill, not a hole." What he means is ad agencies may consistently output ads, but that's not the business they're in. Agencies are in the business of solving a …
The Probelem With Conceived In California, But Made In China
President Obama wants "Made In America" to mean something again. And it's no wonder, when "Made In China" comes with as many human rights questions as it does. As you may have heard, over 300 employees at a Foxconn plant in Wuhan, China recently threatened to throw themselves off a building in a mass suicide. Foxconn manufactures consumer products for Apple, HP, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony and several other …
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Sketchers Dogged By Activists As Super Bowl Approaches
The Super Bowl is coming. The Super Bowl is coming. No Paul Revere's ghost hasn't started blogging herein, but The Super Bowl is coming. According to USA Today, Sketchers' Super Bowl ad will feature a French Bulldog and Mark Cuban, not Kim Kardashian (as it did last year). In response to Sketchers' new ad, a greyhound protection group has collected almost 50,000 signatures from folks who want the brand …
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KFC Tries To Be Finger Lickin’ Good Again
KFC is out to win hearts and minds with its latest family-based public relations campaign. The fast feeder gave one military family an emotional and unexpected reunion this week. The 17-year-old twin daughters of Capt. Cherissa Jackson arrived at a Baltimore-area restaurant to help KFC employees assemble gift packages, but the gift turned out to be all theirs. And check it out, the brand needn't bother making …
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Romeny’s Just Another Privileged Yankee, Says Gingrich
Because it is the season to do so, we've been observing TV ads from the Republican candidates, but have yet to feature any of Newt Gingrich's televised appeals in these pages. Here's some of his latest offerings, all with a familiar theme. Gingrich also launched a new microsite recently, called Stop Romey's Pious Baloney. Some on the right fear Gingrich's tearing down of the party's …
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Are The Fundamentals Of Advertising Fundamental Anymore?
Have you looked at this year's CA Advertising Annual? Did you see any print ads or commercials that made you, "Holy shit, that's cool'? Clearly, whatever innovation the advertising industry is doing is concentrated in new media technologies and tactics. So are the fundamentals worth teaching and practicing anymore? Why should we care about the future of print? Well, only for this reason: We have the power to ruin, …
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The Egg McMuffin of Copy Techniques
Copywriters labor for years hoping something good will happen. By something good, I mean the crafting of a line like "Where's the beef?" or "Plop plop fizz fizz oh what a relief it is." Copywriters want their line to become part of the cultural vernacular because no industry award can match that level of impact. It seems Arnold Worldwide is aiming for (but not quite reaching) this kind of thing with "The Egg …
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Boredom Is Desired, Because It Means Change Is Imminent
"I simply cannot imagine a smart person being bored, ever." -Luke Sullivan Copywriter, creative director, author and educator, Luke Sullivan, doesn't believe that creative people get bored. Good creative people are naturally interested in everything, curious about everything. They inhale the world. Sullivan also suggests that one not let on that they're bored with, or at, work. I understand why he's giving …
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