social-creature

In Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between Who We Are and What We Buy, Rob Walker talks about “underground brands”–lifestyle symbols created by independent entrepreneurs. In fact, I actually think it’s easier to think of underground brands as “independent brands,” (cuz what does “underground” really mean, anyway?) much like independent music:
In popular music, independent music, [...]

i’ll admit right now that this is not what i ought to be writing about.
i’ve been travelling for more of the past month than i’ve been at home, and just coming up with things to write about that i had no time to follow through on. so now that i’ve finally gotten to shower in [...]

my good friend marsi frey was the visual effects producer on this goodby silverstein & partners spot for HP.

 
the flow of the whole thing has such a slick pace that it actually has the feel of more substantial scripted entertainment. that’s right, the ad is entertaining.
(not surprising considering Goodby and Silverstein predict that brands will [...]

while the rest of the do lab spent the last week preparing to syndicate our show for japan, i spent it putting together a powerpoint presentation. slide number 17, the one titled:
“Expanding Brands into Experience Platforms”
ended up featuring this image from lucent l’amour 2006 :

photo by: mickipedia
i figure, depending on how well the presentation has [...]

i don’t have much time to write here at the moment (and there’s a very good reason for that, which should be ready by next week) but i just saw something in a business week blog that begged to be mentioned.
at a very interesting meeting with ignited earlier this week, when i presented my perspective [...]

do 11 year olds really talk like sitcom writers now? i mean, it’s kinda funny… in a mildly disturbing sort of way. like one-liners are the next evolution of jr.’s “first words”…an eventually unmanageably annoying evolution, but, like the kids say… whatever.
check out these little Red “characters” (such as chill, grumpy, whatever, flirty) that were [...]

epuron ad by nordpol hamburg:

i always say that one of the most annoying things about people in advertising is the way that it’s like they stop being human when they come to work. like they forget, for instance, about examining what drives their own purchasing decisions when planning the process for others, or regard consumers like test subjects in [...]

just yanked this bit of rad from jeremiah owyang:

my favorite part is where she goes, “you don’t know anything about me.”
and he says, “i know everything about you sweetheart!” and starts spouting off all sorts of demographic statistics. perfect case in point about the difference between knowing your demo (defined by the market), and understanding [...]

It’s your campaign, you know.
You. The Client.
Sure, you’re hiring an agency to direct it, but YOU are paying for it. It belongs to you. Or even more precisely, it belongs to your brand. The ad agency is like the au pair you hire to make sure your baby gets the best care. It also happens [...]