The Cranky Creative, Author at The Cranky Creative Blog

Image reminiscent of the final scene from the movie Planet of the Apes in which Charles Heston's astronaut character finds the ruined Statue of Liberty on the beach and realizes that mankind has destroyed itself

October 26, 2025 The Cranky Creative

How advertising created a nation of entitled assholes

It’s over. I’m done. For years, I’ve used The Cranky Creative to vent about the decline of the advertising industry. I’ve complained about the lazy concepts, the idiot creatives, the

August 27, 2025 The Cranky Creative

Let’s save Cracker Barrel! Ideas inside

Cracker Barrel is no longer changing it’s logo — that’s right, the company just announced it’s keeping the old design — but that doesn’t mean its problems are over. Far

August 24, 2025 The Cranky Creative

Cracker Barrel’s rebrand disaster: what’s really going on?

What started as just another bafflingly bad corporate rebrand has quickly escalated into a full-on scandal. As customers, employees, and rival companies pile on, the company’s “woke” policies, reports of

A collage of virtue-signaling ad campaigns that flopped: Bud Light, Pepsi, Jaguar and more

August 20, 2025 The Cranky Creative

Virtue, Inc.: How progressive politics hijacked business and marketing

Marketing used to be about connection — understanding what people wanted and selling it with style. Today, marketing has become a megaphone for progressive politics, preaching woke ideologies that alienate

This new American Eagle jeans ad featuring Sydney Sweeney is driving the woke mob mad.

July 29, 2025 The Cranky Creative

Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle jeans ad triggers woke freakout

Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle jeans ad is fun, flirty, and — gasp! — blonde. So naturally, the woke screeching class are calling it Nazi propaganda. Here’s why their meltdown is

Puma's AI-generated ad puts the advertising industry on notice

April 15, 2025 The Cranky Creative

Ad Review: Puma’s world’s first fully AI-generated ad

Sporting goods brand Puma released the first-ever AI-generated commercial on March 18, 2025 — and the ad world will never be the same. Partnering with digital agency Monks, Puma produced

A new-breed marketer doing the work of 10 specialists using AI apps for unprecedented productivity

March 26, 2025 The Cranky Creative

Vibe marketing: the future is here, your job is not

If you’re a marketer still plotting campaigns (and your career) like it’s the “old world” — say, six months back — then buckle up, because you’re about to get blindsided.

As AI gets smarter, humans are getting dumber

March 4, 2025 The Cranky Creative

As AI gets smarter, its use is making us dumber

With the release of xAI’s Grok 3 AI model and Microsoft’s announcement of a new quantum computing processor based on a novel state of matter, the world is about to

Liberty Mutual's branded idiocy: the future of advertising?

February 6, 2025 The Cranky Creative

Liberty Mutual’s branded idiocy: is this the future of advertising?

I admit, I didn’t used to “get” Liberty Mutual TV commercials. From the intelligence-insulting “Truth-Teller” ads, to LiMu Emu & Doug, to Zoltar and “Liberty Bibberty” and the utterly braindead

Joe Rogan interviews Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience

January 23, 2025 The Cranky Creative

Facebook firing its ‘fact checkers’ is a win for truth

I’ve seen a lot of emotional posts from people upset that Meta has put an end to its “fact checking” on Facebook. What they don’t realize is that Facebook’s “fact

January 20, 2025 The Cranky Creative

When AI rewrites your future: my career pivot so far

When my boss asked me back in 2018 whether I, a marketing copywriter, was concerned about AI, I scoffed. Little did I know that a few years later, AI would