What's it like to work in advertising? It's like this.

What's it like to create advertising for a living?

What’s it like to work at an ad agency? 

What’s to like – or not like – about certain ad campaigns? 

What do I like in how advertising in portrayed in movies and TV?
 
Find out here, in essays, articles, podcast scripts, and blog posts – nothing too heavy and written with wit and style. 

Like the writing on this blog?  It's like that, and more.

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TV star skewers Minneapolis advertising egos

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"Greetings to all you shameless hucksters and flim-flam men!" So began the opening remarks by host of the 1987 awards show for Minneapolis advertising. As the writer for the ceremony, I was responsible for his script, as well as the introduction for his surprise appearance: We asked ourselves … what person exemplifies the prestige and high standard of excellence for which this show is renowned? What person was secure enough in his or her own fame to share the spotlight with a series of commercials and print ads? Finally, what person possesses both a sense of humor and a sophistication to make the presentation vibrant and entertaining, yet respectful of the advertising it honors? These were the questions we asked ourselves. Unfortunately, we couldn’t come up with any answers, so we asked a couple more questions: Who was available? And who could we afford? Ladies and gentlemen, join us now in welcoming our host for the evening … national celebrity … television star … and the an
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Not just hyperbole

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Maybe you've seen this classic Guinness poster, created back in the '30s and assumed that it was nothing more than silly hyperbole: And you'd be partly right. The idea is actually based on the high iron content of Guinness (probably from the water used), though of course, the benefit of this is exaggerated to an unbelievable extent in the poster above. That didn't stop the image from becoming so iconic that a pint Guinness became known as a "girder." The image also inspired this parody from Heinekin some 40 years later (though its likely that many young drinkers never realized its source), that both fit the idea into its own ad format and made the male sexual subtext even more implicit: (Best not to take any of this too seriously, though. In reality, the pictures in the Heinken ad would have to be reversed.)
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Lois and Ogilvy on The Big Idea

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As a panelist on a TV talk show, ad man and creative revolutionary George Lois was once asked to define advertising. After listening to the more scholarly definitions offered up the other ad execs on the panel, George commented, “I think these guys and me are in a different business,” and offered a more blunt, visceral definition.    Lois:  “Advertising is poison gas. It should bring tears to your eyes. It should unhinge your nervous system. It should knock you out.” 1   That’s George in a nutshell. Visceral. Bombastic. But in a less provocative mood, he summed his approach up this way:    Lois:  “The common denominator of all my work is the unremitting quest for The Big Idea, because The Big Idea – a surprising solution to a marketing problem, expressed in memorable verbal and/or graphic imagery – is the authentic source of communicative power … [and] picks up force and speed because its element of surprise changes a habit or point of view.” 2 He capitalized the term quite intentional
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