A Valid Picture ID

OK. So we buy a house in Phoenix, having relocated from New Orleans. In preparation, my wife starts contacting the various services—electric, gas, telephone, cable. For almost all of them, it goes as you would expect. They confirm the address, check the cancel order from the previous owner, and agree to [...]

Viewing People through Your Own Lens

This is an odd follow up to my post from yesterday. I was commenting to a friend this week about how I found myself looking at people differently, based on the work I was doing. That work essentially gives me a new lens, a new perspective on how people interact and what type [...]

You Need to Start Right

I’ve been writing about companies’ creative not matching up with their core brand or message. I really see only two possible reasons why. One, it could simply be poor execution. The other, comes down to not truly understanding what the creative is intended to do.

Before embarking on a new ad, promotion, or [...]

Underdoing It at Overstock

I wonder if the good people at Overstock.com really have a message about who they are and what they represent. Their initial ads focused on a women sexually describing that it was all about “the O”.

Now, they apparently have some state of the art delivery system so that nothing gets between you and your [...]

Content as Perspective

For those of you that have been reading my posts regularly, you know that I have little tolerance for silly ads that lack content and that only those messages that get to the heart of the brand are worth sending. Something I’ve seen recently on HGTV (which is an iteration and longer form of [...]

Should Have Included Nextel

When I wrote yesterday about ads missing the mark, I should have included Nextel in the mix. They had the perfect opportunity to show how they help real people work smarter and decided to go for humor instead. Let me set the stage.

Nextel has two new commercials. One is a group of [...]

Some Ads Miss the Mark

National advertising campaigns don’t come cheap. The concept, production, placement and associated commissions add up quickly. Even a pure cable TV run will end up costing in the hundreds of thousands. So, if you are going to make that kind of investment, you want an ad that makes sense, gets the message [...]

Our Own Bias

We have certain biases about what we do, the products we sell and the organizations we represent. It’s only natural. We get so involved in it because we live it every day. But we assume that since we feel or believe a certain way others should as well.

“This is such an important [...]

Mixed Messages

Jenny Craig’s change in marketing message has been good. Instead of focusing on people reaching some sort of ideal weight or size, they have taken a page from SlimFast, encouraging customers to reach a goal that is appropriate for them. They use messages like “a size healthier” to get the point across. [...]

Incomplete Execution

We are right in the middle of the 39th Annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Every year, for as long as I can remember, visitors have been subjected to the original banner advertising—an airplane circling the grounds with an ad attached to its tail. Normally, the ads are for area bars, encouraging [...]