I hate most TV commercials with the white-hot fire of a thousand suns—so it takes something special to get me riled. Enter Liberty Mutual, the company whose car insurance commercials
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Author: The Cranky Creative
Copywriter. Ad critic. Blogger. Head crank at The Cranky Creative.
Anxiety and creativity: How they’re linked, tips to cope
The Cranky Creative explores the link between creative people and anxiety. Plus, tips for keeping the demons at bay. I jolted awake, gasping for breath. My heart was racing. My
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Start the New Year right with wisdom from Pema Chodron
The Cranky Creative shares life-changing words from someone a lot smarter than he is. Happy New Year, Cranky readers! I’d like to tell you about a book I’ve been reading
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The company holiday card that never was
Back when I was a young copywriter in 1992 or ’93, I was asked to write the company holiday card. This was no small honor—the place employed six or seven
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Critiquing the creative of a ransom email scam
“Hello! I’m a hacker who cracked your email.” Last week, I received an email from my own email address. It was sent by a purported hacker who claimed to know
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Incompetent people don’t know they’re incompetent
It’s true. Science has proven what many of us always suspected: Incompetent people don’t know they’re incompetent. Welcome to one of my favorite news stories ever, clipped from my local
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A Cranky Creative Thanksgiving
This week, I share my thoughts on a recent freelance copywriting assignment and the things I’m thankful for this year . . . Happy Thanksgiving, my fellow creatives! It’s November
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Exploring the effects of positive and negative motivation on worker happiness and productivity
AKA, how to crush the life (and love) out of your employees. I saw a TED Talk recently that got straight to the heart of one of the greatest frustrations
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When “nice” is not kind: The dark side of workplace niceness culture
On my last day at the direct marketing agency where I had worked for two years, I scrolled through my LinkedIn newsfeed and spotted an article that seemed written just
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“Should I quit my job?” 16 signs it’s time to move on
If you are so unhappy at work that you find yourself Googling “Should I quit my job?”, then Houston, you have a problem. Here are 16 signs it may be
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No, the client is not always right
Can we finally put to rest the tired and pernicious notion that “the client is always right”? It’s not true, and marketing people who work from this mindset are doing
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