There are three distinct phases to proofreading process:
1. Just hurry up, will ya? Why is this taking so long?
2. You hack! An error got through!
3. Announcement: There will be a noontime hanging of the writer/proofreader. (Bring the kids!)
It’s true that by the time a document gets to the final stages, everyone involved is impatient to just be [...]
I’m always very nervous when an RFP crosses my desk and asks for work on spec as part of the process. It’s the same feeling I used to get at agencies when we’d be doing a new business pitch and the creative director would insist that we deliver creative as part of it. “If we [...]
Should advertising aimed at children be banned? Many countries around the world have already made this move, motivated by research that shows a direct connection between childhood obesity and junk-food ads. There is also growing concern that children are placing too high a value on consumer goods and brands, and that these brands are shaping [...]
Woe betide the business that has the idiocy, gumption and gall to hang one of those gawd-awful door hangers off my front door. Or even partially sticking out of my mailbox.
I don’t just hate those things because they’re ugly and tacky. I hate them because they create a serious security risk – and when [...]
Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The problem is, I don’t know which half. – John Wanamaker
I’ll tell you which half it is, Johnny. It’s the money you’re not spending to select, train, and inspire the people who actually meet with the customers that cared enough to call or visit your [...]
You can learn a lot while cowering under your desk. One day, while in just such a position, I learned a valuable lesson about putting a price on skill.
The year was 1984 and I was working in a retail art gallery. To celebrate Halifax’s first-ever Tall Ships festival, we were having a hanging (the good [...]
Oodles of years ago, when I was a bouncing-baby copywriter, I thought winning advertising awards was the most important thing on earth. I went to see the Cannes reel every year and reverentially read every Communications Arts Ad Annual, dreaming of day when one of mine might be included.
I wasn’t just looking to feed my [...]