Tweet The word on the street is that top execs at Columbia Studios are quietly convinced that “The Social Network” is destined to become Hollywood’s next big franchise. A friend who’s a major Hollywood mogul agreed to talk to me about this, on conditions of anonymity. Our first meeting was […]

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 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 & […]