Hi, I'm Kelly, the co-founder, creative director, and senior copywriter at Category Archives for Advertising
Why most advertising fails
When you’ve been in advertising as long as I have, you learn that there is really only one reason why most advertising fails, and it’s called fear. How fear manifests with regard to advertising presents in an almost endless list … Continue reading
Positive advertising: a quick case study of Comcast vs Qwest
Comcast and Qwest/Century Link are their own worst enemies. Alone, each is already known for their startlingly poor reputations. Pitted against each other, they only make it worse. One of the first things you learn in the advertising profession is … Continue reading
Pink toenails and the end of gender rules
Hats off to J.Crew president and creative director Jenna Lyons who had the good taste, confidence, and authenticity to let marketing send an email out to their database featuring a photo of her son with his freshly painted neon pink … Continue reading
Congratulations, Starbucks, on your chest-thumping ad campaign
An open letter to Starbucks’ marketing department: Your latest ad headline reads, “Thanks to everyone who helped make us the country’s #1 best coffee, which includes our great baristas.” Could you possibly have worded that any worse? What exactly does … Continue reading
People love advertising
People like to complain about advertising. They see it on the internet, on the tele, on billboards, in magazines, and in the mail, and it annoys them. People would prefer to have their entertainment cakes and just stare at them … Continue reading
What Advertising Is Not, a List
Advertising is not push. Advertising is not slow. Advertising is not wasteful. Advertising is not wow. Advertising is not interruption. Advertising is not necessarily big, nor is it necessarily expensive. Advertising is not outside of most companies’ budgets. Advertising is … Continue reading
IBM Rewrites An Old Headline, and Does It Well
In the 1950s, IBM founder Thomas Watson, famously said “Good design is good business.” Truer words, regarding design, were never spoken. IBM is now running an advertisement with the headline, “Green business is good business.” This is a smart redux … Continue reading
Keeping Your Advertising on the Right Track
Advertising has gotten a bad rap by the very folks who have profited the most from it. Many companies who experience success in advertising also lose their shirt in it. There are two pretty simple reasons for that. They’re called … Continue reading
Twitter Tweets Are Advertisements
If you hate the idea of advertising because you think it’s an interruption or it’s too expensive, yet you love Twitter, you are just going to hate this post. But you should read it anyway because it will probably help … Continue reading
