No words

Somehow, we have allowed our celebrities to get away with more. They can spend more, drive faster and now they can even abuse their spouse and we let it ride. Sure, there is temporary outrage but are there consequences to the greater organization? Is the NFL adequately held accountable for allowing several players to be…

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Half truths

There’s something that has always bothered me in advertising. It’s not the lies, those seem to eventually get weeded out by some government organization or consumer advocacy group. The thing I’m talking about are half-truths where the advertiser tells us one thing and omits another. This Andy Capp cartoon talks about one of them; one…

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Culture matters

Having grown up on several continents and coming from a multi-ethnic background, it’s safe to say that I am multi-cultural. I am also, I’d like to believe, open minded. Indeed, when I travel to places, I fully expect different cultures to both behave differently from one another and to communicate uniquely. In the communications field we…

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Ad evolution

Advertising has come a long way in very few years. Remember, this is mainstream, big newspaper advertising. I am personally very happy to see that large advertisers have the courage to genuinely keep up with social trends. Of course, this opens the debate regarding how far we are willing to go. Are progressives, for instance,…

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Simple but smart promo

In a world of continuous advertising and marketing promotions, it is difficult to grab our attention. Non-stop we receive countless promotional pitches, discounts and gimmicks. 20%, 50%, even 90% off the retail price, they promise. We get points and miles just for opening the door or filling out a raffle. I just received a promotional email from Dunkin’…

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A new language

It took time but it’s here, but mainstream advertisements are finally speaking a modern language. They are speaking to their demographic in the language of that demographic, no matter how much it might offend the fringes of the demographic. I am speaking of this Scope advertisement that shows us why youth would want to use…

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