Craig McNamara writes

"Is This the Best Ad Ever Written?" asks a 1990s self-promotional ad for Singapore's Ball Partnership ad agency.  A small torn-out classified ad reads: MEN WANTED for Hazardous Journey.  Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful.  Honour and recognition in case of success. -- Earnest Shackleton . Talk about painting a bleak picture.  But you may be surprised to discover that, when that ad ran in 1900, arctic explorer Shackleton found himself inundated with replies.  "Isn't the sheer strength of that advertisement, then, in its simplicity?  Isn't its sheer power in its honesty?" the copy further proposes (leading of course, to an endorsement of the agency's own advertising principles). I thought back to Shackleton's ad this week when I read the New York Times obit for venerated comedy writer Irving Brecher .  His career began in the early 1930s, when, as a 19-year-old movie theatre usher, he ...

"There are journeys that turn into legends" asserts this Louis Vuitton ad, presumably celebrating, albeit obliquely, Sean Connery's career.   (click to enlarge) Look closely and you may notice that the place/time copy following the headline seems to contain a little in-joke, Bahamas Islands, 10:07 -- 007, get it?   Despite the weathered charm of Mr. Connery, the ad seems pretty generic and awfully weak on any real connection to the product being sold.  Not like this one from the beginnings of his journey, over four decades ago: (Although, as noted here , this ad has its own drawback.)

In   "A book about the classic Avis advertising campaign of the 60s," (yes, that's really the title), the author details not only the beginnings of the "When you're #2, you try harder" Avis philosophy (first presented in the ad at left),  but also its decline. As a competitive strategy, it probably seemed bulletproof to some; after all, when you're not challenging the market leader for the #1 position, how much of a response should they really make?  Conventional marketing wisdom says that when you dominate the marketplace as Hertz did, acknowledging the competition only enhances their status. And for over four years, Avis used their ads to both raise their image and indirectly undermine the perceptions of Hertz (never even mentioning Hertz by name), without a real counterattack. That, however, changed in 1967, when Hertz switched agencies to Carl Alley, Inc., a shop as revered for its creative approach to advertising as Avis' agency, Doyle Dane Ber...