Tragic collapse of judgement destroys many of the industry’s brightest creative minds. MINNEAPOLIS, MN— In a fatal turn of events, the entire advertising industry was buried under an avalanche of its own bullshit after years of ignoring troubling infrastructure problems eroding away at its credibility. “It was a mountain of pure…

We ad people aren’t exactly known for our quiet reserve and inhibition. We love a provocative idea. We’re open to trying new things. But not every whim is a good one. Here, I attempt to capture the most egregious fetishes—or fetish-like behaviors—I’ve observed in the business over the years. Maybe…

Why it’s OK to embrace boundaries In the ad business, there is no more thoughtlessly regurgitated cliché used to inspire creativity than “Think outside the box.” The implication is that the most creative ideas—those that break through, evoke emotion, and have real impact—all somehow live outside the box. The trouble…

In advertising, we take almost maniacal pleasure in discovering great ideas. Like bizarro anthropologists, we obsessively hunt these ideas down and study them inside-and-out as though they’re artifacts from an alien world. We salute the insights and creative briefs that inspired them. What we rarely seem to acknowledge are the…