MAD001
Back In The Good Old Dayz.

MAD002
The Journey To Great.

MAD003
The Wherewithal Of A Legend.

MAD004
Laugh Out Loud.

MAD005
The Battle For Coca-Cola

MAD006
The Battle For Coca-Cola
Rages On.

MAD007
Ain't Nothing Like
The Real Thing, Maybe.

MAD008
Last Blast Of Cool.

MAD009
The Death Of Advertising.

MAD010
Working Twice As Hard

MAD011
I Don't Mean To Say
I Told You So, But...

MAD012
Global Cooling

MAD013
It Is Futile to Resist,

MAD014
Are Consumers Smarter
Then We Are?.

MAD015
The Four Great Myths
Of Global Branding.

MAD016
Mr Bevis Butts Heads
At Mitsubishi

MAD017
Agility In The Marketplace

MAD018
Mitsu Who?

MAD019
The Best Laid Plans
Of Mice And Men.

MAD020
The Future As I See It.

MAD021
Dare to Be Great:
The Mad Genius of "The Matrix
"

MAD022
Some Nerve:

MAD023
The Boy who Broke My Heart

MAD024
Mitsubishi's New Marketing Boss
Out Of The Frying Pan.

MAD025
Too Busy For Temptation

MAD026
The One True Thing

MAD027
Concept Is Stronger Than Fact.

MAD028
I Create, Therefore I Am.

MAD029
Value Perception In A World
Gone Mad With "Cool"

MAD030
The Lost Art Of Persuasion

MAD031
The Future of Advertising

The Brand

MAD032
The Future of Advertising

The Targets

MAD033
The Future of Advertising

The Grid

MAD034
The Future of Advertising

The Swarm

MAD035
Technology

Making The Message Meaningful

MAD036
The Only Business That Matters Is The One You're In.

MAD037
Fight Club. Final Round.

MAD038
Nightmare On Madison Avenue

MAD039
Want A Friend? Buy A Dog.

MAD040
Dead Men Talking.

MAD041
When Ideas Fail.

MAD042
424,867 Empty Suits.

MAD043
If Plutarch Toiled At Y&R.

MAD044
What Ever Happened To The
Big Idea?

MAD045
Messing With Myth And Legend

MAD046
The Post-Advertising Era Is Here

MAD047
Making It Up As We Go.

MAD048
Confessions Of A" Liar For Hire"

MAD049
Good, Bad and Ugly At the Moment of Truth

MAD050
The Voices Of Experience

MAD051
The Toughest Woman Alive.

MAD053
Nobody Is Paying Attention.

MAD054
A Post-Advertising "Big Idea".

MAD055
The Value Of A Paying Pustomer.

MAD056
Emergence Of the "Empire of One".

MAD057
All customers Are Created Equal

MAD058
Playing God An Other Atrocities

MAD059
Happy Fucking Birthday To Me

MAD060
The City That Spawned
The Age Of Advertising.
.

MAD061
The Death Of Dumb
Fear And Self Loathing In Advertising.

MAD063
The Greatest Success Metric Is Sales.

MAD064
No, Thank You

MAD065
Foot In (Word Of) Mouth Disease

MAD066
The True Cool

MAD067
2006. Nothing Sticks.

MAD068
In the Begining, There Was The End.

MAD069
Resolution, Schmezolution

MAD070
Facing Up To Mortality

MAD071
Boomers Downshift
To Neutral

MAD072
The Rise And Fall
Of The Creative Class

MAD073
Google Goes To DefCon5

MAD074
What's Love Got To Do With It?

MAD075
Looking Beyond Creativity.

MAD076
Champagne Brand
Beer Marketing Budget

MAD077
Size Matters. ( Not.)

MAD078
Divided, But Not Conquered

MAD079
Tired Of Being Wired.

MAD080
Amtrak: Third World Nation On Wheels.

MAD081
New Music Means
New Marketing.

MAD082
Automotive Advertising Hits A Dead End.

MAD083
The Power Of A Simple Idea.

MAD084
Has Advertising Lost
Control Of The
Creative Process?

MAD085
If Advertising
Is Meaningless,
What Comes Next?

MAD086
Gen Y Bother?

MAD087
What Could Make A Grown Man Cry?

MAD088
I Have Seen The Future And It Doesn't Work.

MAD089
The Nature Of Fame.

MAD090
This Column Is About Absolutely Nothing.

MAD091
American Business Is In Need Of An Extreme Makeover...Now.

MAD092
Advertising Immunity. Can It Be Cured In Our Lifetime?

MAD093
Do You Have The Right
To Sing The Blues.

MAD094
The Best Place I Never Worked At .

MAD095
The Creeping Influence Of All Things Emo.

MAD096
Does Size Matter?

MAD097
"If It Don't Mean Shit,
Then It Ain't Worth Shit."

MAD098
"What's Wrong With
This Picture?

MAD099
Old School, New School, True School.

MAD100
Breathing New Life Into American Business.

MAD101
Getting Rich In A Niche .

MAD102
Endless Shelf Space and
Other Cyber Myths


MAD103
The Best Consultants
No Money Can Buy

MAD104
Spheres of Influence Combat Ad Evasion

MAD105
Faster, Faster, Faster.

MAD106
From Out of the Shadows, "Infectious Knowledge."

MAD107
Just a Brief Moment In Time.

MAD108
A Very Scary Holloween Story.

 


MAD001
Back In The Good Old Dayz
09-01-04
How large corporations are throwing money at ad agencies to make utter crap; the decline of creativity and innovation in advertising.

Michael Jackson; 1984; Pepsi; Band-Aid; MTV; Fed-Ex; Dr. Pepper; BBDO; NIKE; The Donny; Y&R NY and DDB; Wells, Rich, Greene; Papert, Koenig Lois; Della Femina Travisano; Rosenfeld, Sirowitz & Lawson; Carl Ally; Ammerati & Puris; Scali, McCabe & Sloves; Delehanty, and Kernit & Geller; Lee Clow; Dave Wieden.

Suppose You Gave An Olympic Games And Nobody Came? Making a winner out of losers in the Olympics through product placement and advertising; Global marketing; Samsung: style vs. performance.

The Folks Responsible for the Most Recent Arby's campaign. Arby’s spokesglove campaign, the campaign being up for grabs; W.B. Donner’s failed attempt at creating a new image for Arby’s.
 
MAD002
The Journey To Great
09-08-04
How great advertising is achieved; creative mismanagement; how to steal time to create great ads.

Drive On The Dark Side: Corvette. The change of leadership under GM; Chevrolet.

You Heard It Here First: Samsung. The change of Eric Kim’s role from Samsung’s Executive Vice President of Global Marketing Operations to Intel’s Chief Marketing Officer.

So Great They Make You Hate: Modernista. Converse commercial; Hummer Commercial; Drivers Wanted.

What Comes First (In Making Great Advertising)? Advertising in the corporate circle of life; payment process; “agency of record" standard for the "creative consortium."
 
MAD003
The Wherewithal of a Legend
09-15-04

Where You At?: Boost Mobile. Boost Mobile being progressive and cutting through the garbage of mediocre ads on TV.

What's Mine Is Mine.: MadAve War Story. How far will advertisers go to steal ideas? Calling in a bomb threat.

The Perception of Perception. Who cares about who is reading this article. Perception is reality. The greatest commercial of all time doesn't matter but the first commercial is important to know about.

 

MAD004

Laugh Out Loud
09-22-04

Let's see what you come up with and if we like it, we'll pay you for it; Doublethink vs. twice as stupid.

My Heroes. Mark Burnett for reinventing reality TV; Ian Bevis for pulling 75% of advertising budget from broadcast in 2004.

The Good Stuff : DHL Delivers. Discussion about good ad campaigns of the day.

Those Kids in that Spot Get Dowwwwn!: Lee Jeans. Ogling dancing women in denim.

 

MAD005
The Battle for Coca-Cola
09-22-04

American Idol and Coca-Cola, the need for a new campaign after the new CEO (Isdell) entered.

Madison Avenue's Tower of Babel: MadAve Low Tech. How Harry managed to work at two different AD agencies for three years.

A Mind Is a Terrible Thing To Have: Personal Rant. About Agency Reviews and working as the invisible man.

Uncle Marty Gets the Gold: Scorsese For AmEx.

 
MAD006
The Battle for Coca-Cola
Rages On
09-29-04

The brand character of Coke as a uniquely American product

Madison Avenue's Tower of Babel: MadAve Low Tech. The Interactive Advertising World Conference and Expo; Agencies not following up with the speed of technology, being too invested in the old model.

The Most Horrible Day Of My Life: Motown War Story. The day Harry wrecked 9 new Cadillac's.

 
MAD007
Ain't Nothing Like
the Real Thing. Maybe.
10-06-04

Cool American Campaign declaration of DoubleThink as a group, irrelevance of Coke's plans.

Working For A Living: Personal Rant. Working 9-5 is not easy, figure out what you want to do before you do it, do what you love, embrace family.

The problem Is Not Knowing What the Problem Is: Lifetime Value Modeling. Lifetime Value Modeling is taking performance metrics from the past to predict or project the Lifetime Value of a given customer in the future. This cannot hold true when metrics can only serve to tell you that your marketing efforts have failed.

 
MAD008
Last Blast of Cool
10-18-04

Review of the Coke campaign by DoubleThink, an homage to Coke by HW.

Making Things Matter : DoubleThink Looks At AllTell. Making what doesn't matter....matter. How to sell things to people who have everything plus a nugget of joy from HBR (Harvard Business Review).

The Hunt for Bread In October: Dealing with Headhunters. Ways to get past the corporate firewall and land a job.

 
MAD009
The Death of Advertising
10-20-04

Less impressions, advertising losing its grip on the consumers.

Sorry: Bill Clinton for AllTell. DoubleThink campaign in which BillClinton appears in commercials to sell wireless service by apologizing to random people about the Lewinsky incident.

The Greatest Man Who Never Lived: Tribute To Mark Anthony Christini. Harry's Good Friend and the Music Business.

 
MAD010
Working Twice as Hard
10-27-04

Reactions to DoubleThink campaign, retooling the campaign for Midwestern tastes.

The Only Story That Counts: Getting The Word Out, right. The Standard Railroad of the World creating stockholder value through value perception; creating brand mythology.

The Greatest Man Who Never Lived, Revisited: Last Laughs. Lawyer jokes; an ode to Mark Anthony Christini

 
MAD011
I Don't Mean to Say
I Told You So, But...
11-03-04

Proof that Anti-American sentiment is present around the world, support of the Cool American campaign.

Marketing To The Misunderstood: The Relaunch of Dr Pepper. Marketing Dr. Pepper to the alternative culture, the creation of mass marketing and reevaluation of the existing selective marketing strategy.

Good-bye AllTel: Were the sharks a bridge too far? The dissolution of the AllTel campaign

 
MAD012
Global Cooling
11-10-04

Repositioning the Cool American Campaign, more anti-American global sentiment from globalization.

The Rich Are Very Different : Battaglia, Rodeo Drives Up The Price. Battaglia and the need to pursue new clientele.

A Personal Rant: Ripped Off In Hollywood. Harry sounds off about a TV show he created; unpleasant feelings.

 
MAD013
It is Futile to Resist (Samsung)
11-17-04

Samsung's advertising account in review, a look at Samsung in Korea.

An Open Letter to a Frustrated Creative: Guest Rant. Lou Coranado's posting/warning about the creative industry

 
MAD014
Are Consumers
Smarter than We Are?
11-24-04

Consumers have more access to information and also more purchasing options than before.

The Holy Grail? Maybe.: Visable World segments Television spots; The introduction of Targeted TV advertising.

All Aboard : A Word on Some Personal Projects. About increasing web traffic and digital media over TV as a channel of infotainment.

 
MAD015
The Four Great Myths of
Global Branding
12-01-04

The First Great Myth In Global Branding: Marketing Defines The Brand. The Second Great Myth In Global Branding. Advertising Defines The Brand. The Third Great Myth In Global Branding. A Consistent and Total Brand Experience Defines The Brand. The Fourth Great Myth In Global Branding. Brand Character Defines the Brand.

"January Is The New September.": Hocus Pocus at the Networks. Midseason premieres are more important than those at the start of the season changing attitudes in upfronts

 
MAD016
Mr. Bevis Butts Heads at Mitsubishi
12-18-04

Mitsubishi letting go of Mr. Bevis, the head marketing guy because of dwindling sales.

Been There Done That.: Bringing Ford Back From The Edge. A brief history of Ford automobiles and how corporate advertising helped to bring Ford back into the game

 
MAD017
Agility in the Marketplace
12-15-04

Rethinking the business enterprise model.

Be Careful What You Wish For: MadAve War Stories. Being unemployed and bad attitudes about working in the creative industry.

Turning Japanese: DoubleThink Takes On Mitsubishi. Covert market research on the Mitsubishi Eclipse.

 
MAD018
Mitsu Who?
12-22-04

More background about Mitsubishi's crisis.

So You're Looking For An Ad Agency?: Personal Rant. Criteria for any halfway decent ad agency.

What Makes A Guy Like Me, A Guy Like Me?: Teenage War Story. How Harry got his break in the creative business.

 
MAD019
The Best Laid Plans of
Mice and Men
12-29-04
Talk about the DoubleThink Mitsubishi campaign

Saga Of The Tragically Hip: More Mitsu Blues. More research that supports Mitsubishi's slow decline of influence among the youth market.

 
MAD020
The Future as I See It
01-13-05

The idea that Advertising will be replaced with various corporate sponsorships and cross-promotions.

Land Of The Rising Sun, Inc: Finding the Mitsubishi Way. The Mitsubishi way: difficulty translating Mitsubishi's company story into American homes.

 
MAD021
Dare to Be Great:
The Mad Genius of "The Matrix"
01-26-05
Ode to The Late, Great Dan Chracchiolo

Fight Club: Teaching Thinking. Harry and the pressures of teaching CSU students who are already fucked by life and don't even know it.

The hardships of finding and keeping a job.

 
MAD022
Some Nerve
02-02-05

Dealing with equal opportunity; putting a little color in advertising.

The nerve of Coke for ripping off the Cool American campaign.

Finding the Fatal Flaw: Value Perception Management. Reasons why a new business is either a success or a failure; creating a perception of value.

Fight Club, First Round. Harry's class at CSUCI and an investment scheme involving the students

 
MAD023
The Boy Who Broke My Heart
02-08-05
Harry's protégé gone wrong.

Once Upon A Time: Launching Disney's MouseWorks Books. Case study of how Smart Communications helped to improve the Mouseworks franchise and piggyback book sales with Snow White DVD release.

 
MAD024
Mitsubishi's New Marketing Boss Out of the Frying Pan
02-16-05
Dave Schembri's move from Mercedes to Mitsubishi.

We Have Met the Market and it is Us: Selling L'Ermitage Hotels to MadAve. The use of selective marketing in the Hotel Industry
 
MAD025
Too Busy for Temptation
02-23-05

A Tribute to Harry's friend David Melvin Franklin English. On being too busy for the things that matter most in life.

 
MAD026
The One True Thing
03-02-05
If you can't pinpoint that in the first five seconds of looking over those core messaging elements, Houston, we have a problem.
Drake's Gets The (Baked) Goods on the Competition: Case study of Drake's vs. Continental Brands (Hostess).
 
MAD027
Concept is Stronger Than Fact
03-09-05
Self-assurance that Advertising is still worth fighting the fight.
 
MAD028
I Create, Therefore I Am
03-15-05
Harry plays with a few words; the notion that there are no "original" ideas, only retreads of what has passed before.
 
MAD029
Value Perception in a World Gone Mad with "Cool"
03-23-05
Preoccupation with all things cool to overlook the fact   that we do not always need new things.
 
MAD030
The Lost Art of Persuasion
03-30-05
You don't get to BE persuasive, you either ARE persuasive or you ARE NOT persuasive; persuasion is a matter of shared values; the secret of being persuasive is to build confidence and credibility in your message over time.
 
MAD031
The Future of Advertising:
The Brand
04-06-05
The future of Advertising will be ruthlessly innovative. There will be no "sacred cows." There will be no "agencies of record." There will be no "Media Outlets." There will only be "the Brand," "The Targets," "The Grid," and "The Flow."
 
MAD032
Madison Avenue is
Too Drunk to Drive
03-14-05

RSS as a fast new emerging technology that advertisers should use in their bag-o-tricks.

The Future Of Advertising: The Targets. Distance or online learning and advertising on "the grid." Living in a virtual world where money is generated by advertising to support both the individual and the corporation.

 
MAD033
What a Week!
03-20-05

The 51st annual convention of the American Research Foundation in New York. Research shows that you can't inject people with your brand anymore; people have to come to you.

The Future of Advertising : "The Grid." Harry's view of how nanotechnology might affect humans in the future. Part man-part machine beings living in a computer constructed reality that controls time and space.

 
MAD034
Tick, Tick, Tick
03-20-05

The Birth of Advertising in Philadelphia, 1843.

Institute for Advanced Practices in Advertising, a way to change how things have been done for the past 239 years.

 
MAD035
Technology:
Making the Message Meaningful
04-04-05

Harry's lecture about how technology can improve our lives by making things more efficient. Outsourcing and how global competition is hurting us.

 
MAD036
The Only Business that Matters is What Business You're In
04-11-05
If a customer knows what you stand for, they will better understand how to reference your value.
 
MAD037
Fight Club: The Final Round
04-17-05
Harry's final thoughts about teaching at CSU. Gen X/Y analysis- apathy growing from anger/disenchantment.
 
MAD038
Nightmare on Madison Avenue
05-24-06
Harry has a strange dream about his experiences on Madison Avenue. Makes no sense.
 
MAD039
Not for public consumption.
 
MAD040
Dead Men Talking
06-08-05
Marketing is the only sector of business that has suffered falling productivity and rising costs, according to David Wolf. Harry's challenge to corporate America to "Step Up America" by donating their Ad budgets for a year to make America better.
 
MAD041
When Ideas Fail,
Words Come in Handy
06-15-05
Introduction of basic Madison Avenue Advertising Agency Business Model at the Institute for Advanced Practices In Advertising, the advertising industry's first and only public policy "think tank".
 
MAD042
Empty Suits
06-22-05
Clients have been ruthless in squeezing every nickel of waste from their advertising budgets. Harry makes a case for saying that if advertising agencies suddenly disappeared, clients might not be impacted very much.
 
MAD043
Had Plutarch Toiled Amongst the Young and Ruthless
06-29-05
Another war story masked as a sort of Greek Tragedy.
 
MAD044
Whatever Happened to the
Big Idea?
07-06-05

A Big Idea Changes Everything. That's the thing with a Big Idea. It makes everybody else look stupid for not having it first. And even dumber for having to react to the aftermath.

Nobody's laughing now as Hollywood twists in the wind trying to keep up with the Box Office performance of last years lovefest with "Passion of the Christ." Such is the Tsunami Effect of a Big Idea.

 
MAD045
Messing with Myth and Legend
07-15-05
Taking the myth out of being legendary. Meeting Bill Gates. Discussion about the online music industry, music buying vs. renting
 
MAD046
The Post-Advertising Era is Finally Here
07-20-05
What is Post-Advertising? Any meaningful marketing messaging that can compel the customer to begin or maintain an ongoing product relationship. Period. In other words, anything that works.
One of the key approaches that personify Post Advertising Era methodology is the development of new, dedicated media channels. (Such as Podcasting).
 
MAD047
The Post-Advertising Era 1.0: Making it Up as We Go
07-27-05
The growing media trend of podcasting; podcasting is itself a contradiction; a blatant defiance of media. Micro markets will coalesce and break apart like molecular structures as trends and fads rise and break faster and faster. Targets will define their own messages which will define themselves
 
MAD048
The Post-Advertising Era 1.1: Confessions of a "Liar for Hire"
08-03-05
The tried and true theory of Dumbvertising to Americans; creating liars for hire. On meeting Angela Glenn for the first time; The idea that people would rather laugh than think.
 
MAD049
The Post-Advertising Era 1.2:
Good, Bad and Ugly at the Moment of Truth
08-10-05
Conversation with Angela Glenn about what is good, what is bad, and what is right. Truth in Advertising vs. truth in Design as two different things. The Post-Advertising Era begins with the moment they believe.
 
MAD050
The Post-Advertising Era 1.3.
The Voices of Experience
08-17-05
True believers are the society of loyal customers that are about to become worth their weight in increased sales in the Post-Advertising Era. Brand community as part of the importance of the Post-Advertising Era.
 
MAD051
The Post-Advertising Era 1.4.
The Toughest Woman Alive
08-24-05

Harry's friend Annett Wolf and her Wolf preservation and film project.

The Importance of Heroes. Today's consumers are far more skeptical about celebrity endorsements then they are about sponsors underwriting a film that seeks to illuminate a serious ecological issue or conservation concern.

 
MAD052
Donate
08-31-05
Link for donating to the Liberal Blogosphere for Hurricane Relief
 
MAD053
The Post-Advertising Era 1.5. Advertisers are Paying Full Price, But Nobody's Paying
Full Attention
09-07-05

Free speech and the withdrawal of Kanye West from the Pepsi campaign.

Harry's attempt at chain mail to start a campaign to lower gas prices in protest of the rise in gas prices

 
MAD054
The Post-Advertising Era 1.6.
The Birth of a Post-Advertising
Era "Big Idea"
09-14-05
Hurricane Katrina Relief. Gas price protest.
 
MAD055
The Post-Advertising Era 1.7.
The Value of a Paying Customer in the Post-Advertising Era
09-19-05
Value the customer. 20% of any customer base will generally be responsible for 80% of the sales.
 
MAD056
The Post-Advertising Era 1.8. Emergence of the
"Empire of One"
09-26-05
Re-emphasis on the "Me Generation" not being able to rely or count on the government for assistance.
 
MAD057
The Post-Advertising Era 1.9.
All Customers are
Created Equal
10-05-05
The Step Up America Campaign and how the plug was pulled from it. America's apathy for the poor.
 
MAD058
The Post-Advertising Era 2.0.
Playing God and Other Atrocities
10-12-05

Top-down communication in advertising does not work anymore. Bottom-up communication is part of the Post-Advertising Era.

The only person with the right to be considered godlike is the customer.

 
MAD059
Happy Fucking Birthday to Me
10-19-05
Harry's b-day. Looking back at how it is difficult to balance work and family when you are a workaholic and love your job.
 
MAD060
The City that Spawned
the Age of Advertising
10-26-05
Ode to Manhattan.
 
MAD061
The Death of Dumb
11-02-05
Dumbvertising doesn't work anymore. Again.
 
MAD062
Fear and Self-Loathing in Advertising
11-09-05
In defense of Mary Wells Lawrence, the death of respect, confidence and trust in Advertising, when newbies turn on you with a poison pen.
 
MAD063
The Greatest Success Metric is Sales
11-16-05
The impracticalities of relying on ROI as a measure of marketing success.
 
MAD064
No, Thank You
11-23-05
Harry says no to solicitors of shit; an homage to Thanksgiving.
 
MAD065
Foot In (Word of) Mouth Disease
11-30-05
Buzz Marketers threatened by the FTC, the Buzz Marketers revel in it.
 
MAD066
The True Cool
12-07-05
Harry's experience at the Newport Jazz Festival and witnessing Miles Davis perform. Defining cool.
 
MAD067
Nothing Sticks
12-28-05
A prediction that 2006 will be a year of constantly changing new tastes for new products.
 
MAD068
In the Beginning, There Was the End
01-04-06
The creation of Gasp the first agency of the Post-Advertising Era.
 
MAD069
Resolution, Schmezolution
01-11-06
Advertising as a dysfunctional business model. Resolving not to do anymore advertising clichés. Money well spent: better spent on improving current products or creating new ads?
 
MAD070
Facing Up to Mortality
01-18-06
Another threat that the days of advertising are numbered.
 
MAD071
Boomers Downshift to Neutral
01-25-06
As Boomers retire, the economy will change. Investments will move from equity markets to hard or low-risk investments, leaving Gen X & Y with a somewhat displaced economy.
 
MAD072
The Rise and Fall of the Creative Class
02-01-06
The creative class used to be comprised of artists and musicians. The creative index is in Long Beach as a potential creative hotbed. mportant to the economic relevance of many major cities.
Long Beach as a potential creative hotbed.
 
MAD073
Not for public consumption.
 
MAD074
Not for public consumption.
 
MAD075
Looking Beyond Creativity
02-22-06
Advertising and the creative process are a continuum, not a "one-off'. It's what creativity ENABLES that is important.
 
MAD076
Champagne Brand,
Beer Marketing Budget
03-01-06
When you have a champagne product to sell and a beer marketing budget to sell it with, you have to color outside the lines. You have to consider every link in the value chain. You have to figure out where the weak links are and how you can exploit them. You have to dig deep to find the leverage points that will afford you the best visability to your target audience. Never let the competition see you coming. They will stop you at every turn.

Brain beats brawn every time.
 
MAD077
Size Matters (Not)
03-08-06

Open-source creative. Resources for ideas reducing as media outlets grow larger. It is now possible for three guys and a Mac to take down a big agency.

The meeting of Gasp and Kajeet.

 
MAD078
Divided, But Not Conquered
03-15-06

Dividing and conquering the internet through market segmentation. Vulnerability of web statistics being fraud. The growth of search marketing or search engine marketing.

 
MAD079
Tired of Being Wiired
03-22-06

Harry denounces email and 6 point type. The new generation is wired and it has become a burden for traditional advertisers. Internet advertising is not very effective.

 
MAD080
Amtrak: Third World Country
on Wheels
03-30-06
Harry's bad experience with Amtrak. Six days of disaster on the rails. A warning for train travelers.
 
MAD081
New Music Means New Marketing
04-05-06
The music industry and the backlash to rights practices. How artists such as Prince, Public Enemy, and Dire Straits were able to beat the system and actually keep some of their earnings. The effect of downloading mp3's on the declining sales of cd's.
 
MAD082
Automotive Advertising
Hits a Dead End
04-12-06

Automotive advertising has lost its luster as many marketing CEO's and Exec's have confirmed. Most automotive advertising has become a blur, not only do the ads look similar, but the are also becoming similar. Harry argues that car companies and ad agencies miss the point of advertising the main purposes of a car.

 
MAD083
Not for public consumption.
 
MAD084
The Power of a Simple Idea
04-26-06
Advertising has become a form of real estate for legalized graffiti -- a grabfest for the attention of ADD sufferers. Things that affect creative control: clients, new technologies and having to learn them, the deconstruction movement (trend), mobility of technology allowing for freedom of work location.
 
MAD085
If Advertising is No Longer Meaningful, What Comes Net?
05-03-06

Americans have become less convinced and far less persuaded by advertising then at any time in our history. Nearly half of those who described themselves as highly loyal to a brand were no longer loyal a year later.

Axiom One: Advertising has had its day. Axiom Two: We are entering a new era. The Post-Advertising Era. Axiom Three: People ignore advertising because it is not meaningful to them any more.

 
MAD086
Gen Y Bother?
05-09-06
We can't get to them unless we gain control of their environment. Gen Y's purchasing power is not as great as their parents.
 
MAD087
What Could Make a
Grown Man Cry?
05-16-06

Harry laments how today's creativity will most likely not stand the test of time.

 
MAD088
I Have Seen the Future
and It Doesn't Work
05-23-06
Harry and Angela go to a Design show and leave unimpressed. Harry is shocked to find that many of the design students do not have jobs, and that creative agencies are apathetic to students. Lack of interest in design schools may be a sign that professionals in the creative world are themselves uninspired.
 
MAD089
Not for public consumption.
 
MAD090
This Column is About Absolutely Nothing
06-07-06
Harry does nothing and finds nothing. The largest ad agencies are not doing anything new. Sometimes doing nothing is better than not doing anything in the long run especially in the case of Carly Fiorina vs. HP.
 
MAD091
The Battle American Business Needs
an Extreme Makeover... Now.
06-14-06

With television losing an amazing share of audience, the ability for industry to influence the vast American public is diminishing daily.

Solutions that could help big business redefine value in America.

 
MAD092
Advertising Immunity:
Can It Be Cured in Our Lifetime?
06-20-06
Anyone who has gotten to the point of Advertising Immunity is not impressed by a history lesson. They just disconnect at the programming fade out.
 
MAD093
Do You Have the Right to Sing the Blues?
06-28-06
The blues is not a matter of color. It's a matter of bad luck.
 
MAD094
The Best Agency I Never Worked at
07-05-06
Harry's ideal agency that never existed.
 
MAD095

The Creeping Influence
of Everything Emo

07-12-06
Now the new is far less interesting than the old.
Advertising is in danger of becoming infected by these (Emo) under thinkers and none of us have any ideas how to stamp them out before they bring down the herd.
 
MAD096
Does Size Matter?
07-19-06
The size of your agency doesn't matter when it comes to big ideas and getting them heard by the captains of industry. The size of your cajones is the only thing that counts.
Modernista, Strawberry Frog, & Mother - smaller agencies who are landing large accounts.
 
MAD097
"If it Don't Mean Shit, It Ain't Worth Shit"
07-20-06
We have to do our homework to create meaning for people so that they care enough about the message.
 
MAD098
What's Wrong with this Picture?
08-02-06

Today, agency holding companies are larger than a lot of their clients.

Offshore industry is launching a global onslaught against those brands we all know and love. And guess what? In many cases their quality is better, their price points are lower and their products are built to last.

 
MAD099
Old School, New School, True School
08-09-06
Our students are actually regressing as they progress through the educational system.
 
MAD100
Breathing New Life into
American Business
08-15-06

American business hasn't figured out a metric to quantify "esoteric." Well they better get a task force right on that, because that's where the market is heading and everybody knows it but the guys who used to call the shots.

When everything you know and believe is proving itself to be irrelevant, the best place to seek understanding is with the realization that you have a lot more to learn.

MAD101
Getting Rich In A Niche
08-23-06

Harry says, "Fuck Paris Hilton". The web is all about
shared interests. Your product or service is not invited to play just because you say it is.

MAD102
Endless Shelf Space and Other Cyber Myths
08-30-06
Ever wonder why nothing you go to the mall for is ever in stock and nothing you order on-line ever arrives the way you orderd it? Harry reveals the short falls of the "Long Tail"
MAD103
09-06-06
The Best Consultants No Money Can Buy.

Spend big bucks on clueless ad talent? Hell no. Harry rolls his own.

MAD104
09-13-06
Spheres of Influence Combat Ad Evasion  
You can run but you cannot hide from these insideous media manipulating share of mind snatchers  
MAD105
09-19-06
Faster, Faster, Faster.  
Harry bitches and moans about the fact that he no longer has any time to goof off and do nothing while making his $250 bucks an hour.  
MAD106
09-26-06
From Out of the Shadows, "Infectious Knowledge."  
An insideous tactic for influencing public opinion is brought to light  
MAD107  
Just a Brief Moment In Time.
10-04-06
An early morning interlude on the 405 freeway makes Harry wonder why TV spots have to be so meaningless to their intended audiences.  
MAD108
10-10-06
A Very Scary Holloween Story.  
What if everybody already has everything they need and other horros that beset the world of advertising.
MAD109
10-17-06
Possibly Not Our Finest Hour.  
Harry's "bah humbug" take on Holiday advertising to kids.