Posh parties. Black-tie award shows. First-class flights and three-martini lunches. As ad budgets shrink, brands move capabilities in-house, and more people realize that the emperor has no clothes, advertising agencies
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TurboTax ad review: When creative trumps strategy
Working in advertising is fun, especially as a creative. We copywriters and graphic designers get paid to think up clever ways to communicate a brand’s messages. The problem comes when
Continue readingEar-ritating: How TV commercials misuse sound to get our attention
Sound is a powerful tool in advertising. Its ability to draw attention and evoke emotion is proven to affect sales. So why, then, do so many advertising soundtracks seem designed
Continue readingNo good: Super Bowl LIV commercials miss the mark
On Sunday night, Super Bowl advertisers spent $5.6 million for 30 seconds to make people go “ha!” or “aww”—only to have their costly TV commercials forgotten a moment later. The
Continue readingNew Year’s resolutions for TV advertisers
2019 was a banner year for bad TV commercials. Between Liberty Mutual’s bird-brained LiMu Emu commercials, Allstate’s “Mayhem” antics and Chevy’s not-so-real “Real People” ads, viewers had a lot of
Continue readingAdvertising quotes from the real-life Mad Men
I just finished watching all seven seasons of the hit TV show, “Mad Men,” which takes place in the 1960s at the start of the Golden Age of Advertising. It
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