I made my first foray into the freelance world in 2010 while working full-time at a job I hated. Copywriting jobs were few and far between where I lived, and
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Category: General
Advertising 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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Business buzzwords and corporate jargon I hate
The corporate world runs on business jargon—bullshitty buzzwords that mask the meaning of the things we want to say. Why do so many businesspeople muddle their messages with mush-mouthed words
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The Cranky Creative blog turns one
The Cranky Creative blog first lit the pixels of computer screens a year ago on July 4, 2018. Frustrated with the red tape, politics, and backstabbing stupidity that pervades the
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Meet Flint McGlaughlin, mad marketing genius
In a world where every Tom, Dick, and Jane on the Internet is a self-proclaimed marketing expert, it’s refreshing to see someone share no-BS marketing insights derived from rigorous testing
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How video games made me a marketing copywriter
Unofficially, my career as a marketing copywriter started in 1980 when I was 10. Then, as now, I loved video games. I loved the technology—cool-looking plastic boxes that pumped colorful
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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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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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