The quality of Super Bowl ads often rivals the game itself, and yet every year brands will make missteps. Viewers will cringe, be bored, stop watching. Cartoonist Tom Fishburne sketches out the common stumbling blocks that leave brands writhing in the advertising pit of despair. READ»
As "Mad Men" and other shows based in the 1960s dot the fall TV lineup, those of us who actually work in the ad industry are translating those shows' themes to the here and now. What should we be thinking about on behalf of our brands?READ»
When it comes to workplace attire, we're no longer restricted to the all-business-all-the-time suits-and-ties of Mad Men-era office culture. But that doesn't mean employees are open to all styles in the workplace.READ»
Having a bona fide land line in the house is a prudent fail-safe against the plagues of the smartphone age: signal drop-outs, dead batteries, fetish objects with faulty engineering. But they're expensive and ugly to have around the ...READ»
Here's a breakdown of the decade's top
digital promotions--we're looking at you, Subservient Chicken--as
selected by industry leaders at the One Club, which recognizes
excellence in advertising.READ»
So with the season finale approaching this Sunday, and the startup’s very existence hanging in the balance, let us grade the leadership skills of the five guys who steered the company to this point: senior partners Roger Sterling, ...READ»
Two years ago, Burt Cooper advised Don Draper that "philanthropy is the gateway to power." Last night, Mad Men struck again! Ad man Ken Cosgrove made the case for pro bono service. In the episode called "Blowing Smoke," the firm of ...READ»
While
catching up with old episodes of "Mad Men," I was
brought up short by a show-stopping quote from Roger Sterling. Sterling, the
senior partner at the Sterling Cooper Agency, tells Creative Director Don
Draper that he's been ...READ»
As a rule I'm a 'never-before-noon' man. But one morning recently there it was, on top of the spread of magazines laid out for me on my desk. Cover story of The Atlantic Monthly, the magazine founded by Ralph Waldo Emerson and some cronies over a few drinks at the Parker House Hotel in Boston in 1857. Four words. "The End Of Men." READ»
South Korean ad company Chiel Worldwide just signed a deal to acquire The Barbarian Group, the Boston-based digital shop best known for its work on
Subservient Chicken and Esquire's augmented reality issue, and (ahem) its ...READ»
No show has so perfectly blended postwar Americana, raw sexual tension, office politics, and the five martini lunch quite like AMC’s Mad Men. Season 2 left viewers with enough questions to fill the trunk of a ’62 Cadillac, and ...READ»
With the new season of "Mad Men" here, we started reminiscing about the ad campaigns that Don Draper and crew have worked on, from Kodak to Lucky Strike. The ads vividly evoke the early 1960s--but what really happened to those brands back in the day? When did real life trump "Mad Men"? Read and find out.READ»
In the wake of Mad Men's Season Two finale, legendary profanity-spewing ad man George Lois checks in with his own take on the golden age of Madison Avenue. (Hint: he thinks it ain't the same these days.)READ»
This weekend, I turned on my cable box to find that I was now receiving about 20 more high definition channels than in the past. I could now watch wonderful shows like Rescue Me or Dirty Jobs in HD. And the best part of this was ...READ»
