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  • A rusted, bent shopping cart overflowing with pixelated digital icons like shattered red hearts, a broken blue verified checkmark, and smiling emojis, set against a background of a crumbling, post-apocalyptic city street.
    March 5, 2026 The Cranky Creative

    Age of decay: the enshittification of everything

    Am I the only one noticing that everything is turning to crap? Crap ads. Crap

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  • Pringles Super Bowl LX ad "Pringleleo" featuring Sabrina Carpenter; a prime example of modern advertising’s decline into absurdism and celebrity worship.
    February 10, 2026 The Cranky Creative

    Bad ads for bad brains: the mutual dumbing down of ads and audiences

    Is the advertising industry dying because creatives are lazy, or because audiences are too dumb

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  • Nuclear explosion symbolizing the explosive fallout from calling out hypocrisy in the 'bold' ad industry
    January 21, 2026 The Cranky Creative

    The creative farce: why the world’s “boldest” thinkers are actually the biggest cowards

    If your “boldness” requires a permission slip from the HR department, you are not a

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  • 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

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  • 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

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  • In 1957, researchers experimented to see if subliminal messages could be used to increase sales of popcorn and Coca-Cola
    May 8, 2023 The Cranky Creative

    Subliminal messages in advertising … and Disney cartoons?

    A phallic shadow. The word “SEX” etched in ice. The American public has been bombarded

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  • Today's blog post talks about the top 10 reasons why people hate TV commercials
    February 28, 2023 The Cranky Creative

    The real reasons people hate TV commercials

    Oh, advertisers. It didn’t have to be this way. Once upon a time, consumers might

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  • The Cranky Creative explores where all the white people are in commercials
    January 5, 2022 The Cranky Creative

    What happened to white people in TV commercials?

    If you only watched TV, you might think that white people (including fumbling, bumbling white

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Cutting through the BS, one blog post at a time

a bright yellow softball inside a softball glove
May 25, 2022 The Cranky Creative

What a high school softball game taught me about life, people, and winning on my own

Let me tell you about the time I “broke the Matrix” in high school gym class, and what that taught me about life and living well. I remember it was

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The blue sky and white sands of Indian Rocks Beach in Florida overlooking the Gulf of Mexico
May 19, 2022 The Cranky Creative

Son of a beach! The Cranky Creative moves to Florida

I fell in love with Florida somewhere between Tampa International Airport’s main terminal and the Alamo Rent A Car. At that time — about eight years ago — the walk

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The Cranky Creative reviews the HomeGoods TV commercial, A Love Story with slogan, Go Finding.
April 26, 2022 The Cranky Creative

Ad Review: HomeGoods ‘Love Story’ commercial knows its audience

Personally, I don’t much like “A Love Story,” the 30-second TV commercial for HomeGoods. Watching it, I can’t help but think of the scene from that movie, As Good As

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The Cranky Creative reviews Progressive's Bundles TV commercial
April 17, 2022 The Cranky Creative

Progressive’s ‘Bundles’ commercial does creative right

Progressive‘s iconic “Flo” character debuted in 2008. And while the cast of characters in the company’s commercials has expanded since then to include names like Jamie and Dr. Rick, it’s

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Cranky Creative Ad Review: Jeremy's Razors: The Greatest Commercial Ever
March 29, 2022 The Cranky Creative

Jeremy’s Razors commercial takes on ‘woke’ Harry’s and Gillette

Are Americans growing tired of woke companies and brands? The Daily Wire thinks so. Witness this amazing commercial for Jeremy’s Razors — a non-woke alternative to shaving products from Harry’s

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free creative brief template
March 20, 2022 The Cranky Creative

Free marketing creative brief template [Updated for 2022]

The creative brief. It’s the cornerstone of any successful marketing campaign. And yet, many marketers don’t use it effectively — or at all. Well, now there’s no excuse. Download this

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Good, fast, cheap - pick two
March 2, 2022 The Cranky Creative

Good, fast, cheap. Pick two.

Creative professionals are talented people. But all too often, we copywriters, graphic designers, animators, videographers, and composers are asked (*cough cough* required) to do the impossible. Worse, we are expected

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the cranky creative blog live-blogs the commercials from super bowl LVI
February 12, 2022 The Cranky Creative

LIVE-BLOG: Super Bowl LVI commercials

Heads up, Cranky readers! Tune in at 6 p.m. Eastern Time as I live-blog all of the commercials from Super Bowl LVI. Watch the Cincinnati Bengals take on the Los

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The Cranky Creative blog expresses its love for graphic designers on Valentine's Day
January 30, 2022 The Cranky Creative

Why I love graphic designers (and why your brand needs a good one)

Plus, do’s and don’ts of working with your graphic designer. Light some candles, put on some music, and slip into something comfortable, Cranky readers. This Valentine’s Day, I’m sharing with

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The Cranky Creative reviews Sling TV's 'falling waitress' commercial
January 19, 2022 The Cranky Creative

Sling TV’s ‘falling waitress’ commercial is not funny

Oh, Sling. I like your live TV streaming service, I really do. But your brand’s TV commercials . . . Holy shit, your commercials. What on earth made you think

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The Cranky Creative. Photo of male copywriter hands typing on a laptop keyboard
January 16, 2022 The Cranky Creative

Should you think twice before becoming a copywriter?

A few weeks ago, while researching career stats for a client project, I stumbled across an article at The Balance titled “Think Twice Before Becoming a Copywriter.” The article subhead: “For

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Posts pagination

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Today’s Top Posts

  • Age of decay: the enshittification of everything
  • Liberty Mutual's branded idiocy: is this the future of advertising?
  • Subliminal messages in advertising ... and Disney cartoons?
  • My short-lived career as a United States Postal Service (USPS) mail carrier
  • Yes, the Gillette Venus Pubic Hair and Skin razor ad goes (down) there
  • What happened to white people in TV commercials?

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