Other Side of Advertising

tip from adgrunt Laters - One man's view from 40 years in the trenches of the advertising wars.

A memoir is made of memories, and in these memories I've changed only a very, very few actual names, dates, and places. And those only for reasons best considered as prudent.

All the other memories are exactly as they were. Or at least as they seemed to me. If some of them seem unpleasant or less then flattering...? Well, that's the way I remember them.

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

When I received the review copy of the book "Made to stick" by Chip and Dan Heath and started making dog-ears all over it I knew I had to share it with you all - at the same time I was kind of hogging it hoping to keep it my little secret ;) It's quite inspired by Malcolm Gladwell's The "Tipping Point", but an inspiring idea book in its own right where the brothers argue that the elusive thing that makes an idea stick can be boiled down to six critical elements:

Simplicity
Unexpectedness
Concreteness
Credibility
Emotions
Stories

Add sexy and you spell success.

A Big Life In Advertising

A Big Life (in advertising) - by Mary Wells

Under the Radar: Talking to Today's Cynical Consumer

WE ARE IN THE MIDST OF AN EPIDEMIC OF CYNICISM.

WHAT'S A SAATCHI...? (Brandingusa)

Looking to topple IPG, WPP, Omnicom and Publicis? Who isn't! Learn the tricks of the trade from Hoffman York, one agency that fought for their independence from Saatchi and Saatchi and won.

Tom Jordan, Hoffman York's creative director and author of recently published 'What's a Saatchi and How Come We Have Two of Them?' dropped by adland to share some pearls of wisdom with you adgrunts.

Click continue to read about Hoffman York and Tom Jordan, the Master of Marketing in the Mid-West!

Unspecial Effects for Graphic Designers

Graphic designer says: to hell with special effects.

The thesis of Unspecial Effects for Graphic Designers is that the most effective way for print to compete with the dazzling special effects of the hottest music videos or the latest alien movie is by going to the other extreme...to reality! To, in effect, say to the audience, "have you ever noticed this before? Even though it was right under your nose."

Creative Company: How St. Luke's Became "the Ad Agency to End All Ad Agencies"

Chapter 18 : Culture

Ogilvy on Advertising

How to run an advertising agency.

Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to Creating Great Ads, Second Edition

The Hack
by Luke Sullivan.

Many thanks to Luke Sullivan for e-mailing me this part of his book. - Dabitch

Yes, clients can misbehave. Thank God, most of them don't. And to account for all that awful work you see on TV every night, those bad clients must have a few friends in the business. They do. Like everything else in life, America's list of agencies makes up a big bell curve. There are a few truly great agencies, then a whole bunch of agencies that are just okay, and then a few bad ones.

What's the Big Idea?: How to Win with Outrageous Ideas (That Sell!)

The big idea will always be what great advertising is all about

WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA? (That Sell!)

'You'd be paranoic too if people were out to get you!' by George Lois. From the book; What's the big idea?

Mad Ave

If you're an ad geek like me (and you wouldn't be on this web site if you weren't) you might be afflicted with an ad book fetish. Well, get ready to squeeze a new tome on the bookshelf

MAD AVE: Award Winning Advertising of the 20th Century.

Standing on the Shoulder of Giants: Hermann Vaske's Conversations with the Masters of Advertising

It's only advertising. Nobody gets killed. The old saying about boxing champions "They never come back" does not apply to advertising. At the beginning of the seventies, Tim Mellors was the beloved wunderkind of British advertising. Then Mellors went into directing and failed. After an attempt to set up his own consultancy, which went bankrupt, Mellors ended up in the world of alcohol and drugs. Seven years back, Charles Saatchi and Jeremy Sinclair got the prodigal son back into their office.

No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies

As a private person, I have a passion for landscape, and I have never seen one improved by a billboard. Where every prospect pleases, man is at his vilest when he erects a billboard. When I retire from Madison Avenue, I am going to start a secret society of masked vigilantes who will travel around the world on silent motor bicycles, chopping down posters at the dark of the moon. How many juries will convict us when we are caught in these acts of beneficent citizenship?' -- David Ogilvy, founder of the Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency, in Confessions of an Advertising Man, 1963

Standing on the Shoulder of Giants: Hermann Vaske's Conversations with the Masters of Advertising

Paul Arden is one of the best advertising people in the entire world. As Saatchi & Saatchi's Creative Director he turned the agency in London's Charlotte Street into the Doyle Dane Bernbach of our times. Hermann Vaske spoke to Paul Arden in London.

P. Arden: Good, I'm glad you're prepared.

L.A: I prepared myself in the steam room.

P. Arden: Aha.

L.A: Did you always know what you wanted to do?

Cutting Edge Advertising II (v. 2)

As a cutting edge communicator, you need to know what is happening. You need to understand the changes. You need to see how they will impact on your own creative thinking process, because they will.

Benetton: the Family, the Business and the Brand

The Emperor's New Clothes Going further, Ponzano, the Veneto, 1992

For the new spring and summer campaign, Toscani had selected seven images conforming to a single theme: 'reality'.

Dick Sittig took his girlfriend to Cannes in late June for the International Advertising Film Festival - a pleasant enough break from the Nissan Fantasy campaign, particularly since the Energizer Bunny campaign Sittig had devised was favored to win the Grand Prix over almost two thousand other entries. Sittig was ready to celebrate. He checked into a $700-a-night hotel room, ate his share of cracked lobster claws, and waited for the official good news.

E: A Novel

from: Carla Browne-1/5/00, 3:05 pm
to: All Departments
re: I'm leaving now . . . but before I go there are some things you should know...!!!!

Set in a London ad agency desperate to land a coveted big account, e follows the bureaucratic bungling, cutthroat maneuvers, and outrageous sexual antics of a group of Miller-Shanks employees as they scheme, lie, lust, and claw their way up (and down) the company ladder. Written by a former advertising copywriter, this hilarious, dead-on-target novel marks the debut of a hip and exciting new voice in contemporary fiction. With the click of a mouse, Matt Beaumont brings the novel of letters into the twenty-first century, turning his merciless, unerring eye on today's Machiavellian corporate culture-with uproarious results.