Tweet “He that hath no beard is less than a man.” ~ William Shakespeare, Bearded man. (I believe he also wrote plays.) Hemingway had a beard. So did Karl Marx, and Abraham Lincoln. Zeus himself — the supreme god and ruler of Olympus, thank you very much — had a […]

Tweet Good advertising ideas are grounded in truth. But truth isn’t always easy to find. Here’s a secret: the richest wellspring of truth at any client-side company is the Consumer Resources department. They’re the only department in the company that talks to consumers every day. And the only department whose […]

Tweet In October 2001, I got a phone call. Combe Incorporated needed a freelance consultant who could create the company’s first-ever integrated TV/digital campaign. I knew I could handle digital. That’s all I had been doing for the past 5 years. But I hadn’t created a TV commercial in so […]

Tweet It’s not easy to launch a new product when your competitor has a more than 150 year head start, and legend has it that King George IV declared it “A1”. Rational appeals, gorgeous food shots and feature/benefit advertising didn’t seem likely to persuade people to switch brands. Lea & […]

Tweet Advertising in the office machines category is rarely interesting, unless you find images of beige boxes and smiling corporate drones to be compelling stuff. Our client, Mita, wasn’t the biggest copier and fax company. They needed something dramatic and unusual to help open the doors for their salespeople. So […]

Tweet This direct marketing TV commercial I wrote helped AT&T earn a billion dollars in new receivables. You’d think this might make my client happy. But it accidentally set off a huge firestorm. The balance transfer program offer was stealing thousands of customers an hour from the big banks. Just […]

Tweet The Just For Men campaign starring Walt “Clyde” Frazier and Keith Hernandez is the most successful advertising campaign in Combe’s 63-year history. The company was working with Clyde and Keith in PR, not in advertising. But my boss at the time, John Lerch, said “Try doing something with both guys […]