Disqus - Latest Comments for adbroad

Re: Your Brand Day

adbroad — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:07:59 -0000

Hope Dear Jane is getting a percentage, Alan ;)

Re: Experimenting in Public

adbroad — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:32:40 -0000

I wanted to like Skimmer. I really did. Fallon in the days of Nancy Rice! Tried to load it a bunch of times, but no luck. Figured it was me and lack o bandwidth in the Chinese hotel I am staying in. Retried and retried, finally was able to load info for 1 app, not others. I realize it's a case of, how did you put it, Alan? Oh, yes: "I felt the lack of developer influence on Skimmer far more than I felt the lack of designer influence on Twhirl or Tweetdeck." Kudos to Fallon for trying to create elegant aggragator. Who says they all have to look like the insides of spaceships? Even more kudos to first creator who designs elegance that works.

Re: Does Creativity Still Matter?

adbroad — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:17:56 -0000

No, I'm not Fran, Tom. But wish I'd had the opportunity to work with Helmut.
http://adbroad.blogspot.com...

Re: Does Creativity Still Matter?

adbroad — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:07:48 -0000

Tom, I may be wrong on Selden going to Ogilvy. I was thinking of RIVA Fine who worked on Schweppes there. (So many madwomen, so many unknowns.) Perhaps DDB was smart enough to keep Rita. But why didn't Helmut (generous guy from what I've heard) give her a credit? Re. bug reference: if it was coined in 67, no surprise it was around when u started working on it in 69. Imagine what Helmut could have done with the interwebz...

Re: Does Creativity Still Matter?

adbroad — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:33:36 -0000

Great post, Alan. I think the underlying problem is that digital hasn't until now been considered part of the creative equation. Just like years ago, when art direction wasn't. Back in the day, creative was done by copywriters who'd slip copy under an AD's door to be illustrated. An AD once told me that the most laughable instruction he ever received was to "draw a man without a headache." Creative revolution in advertising happened once Bernbach put AD's and CWs in the same room. Same thing will happen, I think, once ADs and CWs are teamed with digital technologist from the first briefing--not as an afterthought to flesh out "their" idea and "make it go viral."

Speaking of 60s. @Tom Messner, @Vinny Warren. Here's the story I heard: Rita Selden was in Phyllis Robinson's group at Doyle Dane Bernbach. One day she was walking past the office of art director Helmut Krone and saw him staring at a photo of a VW. (Which wasn't called a Beetle until 1967.) The car looked perfect to the naked eye, but it had been rejected by VWs strict inspection team. He told her that, somehow, it would make a great ad. "Why don't you just say 'Lemon'?" she suggested. After DDB she went on to work at Ogilvy. Never heard about suicide. Nothing comes up about her on google. Figures ;)

Re: Did Motrin Suffer From NASCAR Blindness?

adbroad — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:53:48 -0000

Alan, great post. (And thanks for NASCAR link, how did I miss this?) Interesting to me that trawling twitter and web turns up less discussion about Taxi/Motrin's bumble than it does about whether or not Motrin Moms had the right to be pissed off.

Unsurprisingly, votes seem pretty evenly split between two camps: YES from people who are/were babywearers and NO from people never afforded this particular, um, pleasure. People without kids can't see how the spot is offensive, just like those who've never been on twitter can't see why fail whales make people around them go postal.

Re: Noah's interesting question: I think vocal minority does matter. Because it usually represents a much larger segment. I remember years ago, a single (handwritten) complaint to P&G rippled through the company and its agencies, ultimately resulting in a change to a product. Because the P&G head believed (rightly, I think) that one letter represents sentiment of many consumers less motivated to make effort to complain.

Re: Our Personal Prom Kings

adbroad — Tue, 27 May 2008 09:07:23 -0000

Excellent post, Toad. (My husband is a Thorlo evangelist, too.) I think the distinction you make between Prom King Brands and others is an essential bit of insight for marketers and the people they engage to make their marketing dreams happen (us). Seems every client approaches the strategy table as if they are Prom Kings, and it's our job to (ever so gently) redirect them to reality, from cluing them in as to why youtubing their new spot for shoe insoles won't make it go viral, to creating creative connections for them like your interesting idea of an advisory board of consumers you've managed to persuade, who will persuade others for you.

If Thorlo contacts you b/c of this post, please consider Mr. Broad for the board.

Re: My Brand Day - Morning Edition

adbroad — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:57:43 -0000

Wow. Impressive, Toad. This is even more revealing than knowing your Real Name. Ezekiel + Soy says a lot about a person. Look forward to your PM.

Re: mediabistro.com: AgencySpy

adbroad — Tue, 20 May 2008 23:27:11 -0000

Really enjoyed your coming out party, Alan. (Nice name for a Toad.) Interesting insights re. future of ad biz, especially need for "agencies to bring in the sort of people who truly understand that things have changed and that it's never going back to the way it was. Ever." The same sort of paradigm shift in thinking was called for years ago when Mad Men copywriters slipped ads under doors of art directors so they could "illustrate" them. Bernbach was first to insist that art & copy work together in the service of better creative. Likewise, some luminary will finally suss out that general and digital brains work better in tandem, not sequentially.