Note: I wrote the following on September 16, 2001. Time heals all wounds. Almost. My daughter cries a few feet from where my wife and I embrace. It’s been five days since the tragedy, and each day brings with it a new range of emotions to explore. Or ignore. I’ve yet to feel rage, however. Though I know it’s as much in me as it is in you. As a young man, I would have screamed for vengeance by now, but…
You can’t watch a movie these days that isn’t laden with product placement. Whether someone is using an Apple computer (they almost always are), drinking a Coke or fumbling for a Trojan, everything you see in a movie or on television is there for a reason. It’s prime advertising space. Which made me wonder about Toyota when I saw this image this week under the headline, “Rebels in Control in Libya.” Yes, I know a lot of people drive Toyotas…
For as long as I’ve been a copywriter, I’ve worked around designers who touted Apple products. For years I blew them off as dogmatic brand ambassadors. I was a writer – all I needed was a pencil and pad of paper. Then, back in 2009, I bought a refurbished iMac. It was so brilliant, so quickly, that I immediately decided to turn my entire home and office into an Apple shop. Two years later and, well, I’m not going to…
With two days left before school starts, I’m inclined to run away with my kids to an island where we can be left to wonder, without the world shoving its will down our throats. But we won’t. Instead, we’ll fall into line with everyone else and suffer the bullshit. And smile. And pretend to be good little soldiers as we try to live up to society’s expectations of what that means. It’s hard to raise children and tell them to…
Advertising is intended to do one thing – get you to remember something long enough to take action. It’s all about memorability and recall. Make your advertising entertaining, cast and produce it well, and the next time you’re hungry, you’re grabbing a Snickers – because Snickers makes life “Better.” Add this spot to the Betty White Super Bowl effort, and it’s clear that this campaign has legs. *** Jim Mitchem
Today, Burger King put the creepy King on the guillotine. And you cheered. You didn’t like creepy King. You said he was soulless. Plasticky. But that is precisely why I loved him. The best thing about creepy King was that he was consistent. Something that consistent can be placed into any scenario and be made to work. Of course in CP+B‘s case, they also relied on really smart writers and designers, casted and directed perfectly and had enough swagger to make…
