Monday Morning Memo
College Isn’t for Everyone
The smartest thing I ever did was drop out of college on the second day. What I wanted to learn, they couldn’t teach me, so I left to figure it out on my own. That was 37 years ago. A number of years later I wrote a series of New York Times and Wall Street &hellip Continue reading
Ad Strategy vs. Ad Writing
Ad strategy is more difficult to teach than ad writing. Ad writing, essentially, is to choose: 1. an intriguing angle of approach into the subject matter and 2. the sharpest words and phrases to make your point. Ad strategy, essentially, is to choose: 1. the point you need to make. Bad strategy happens when you: &hellip Continue reading
What I Do Today Is Important
For I Am Exchanging a Day of My Life For It. Quixote sees the turning of the windmill as the flailing arms of a giant that must be defeated. Peter Pan will remain young only if he can escape a tick-tocking crocodile that has swallowed a clock. In 1904, old Mrs. Snow spoke of her &hellip Continue reading
Secret Messages – Embedded Codes
Finally, an authentic, encoded message. And you’ll never guess where. The Da Vinci Code was published in 2003, exactly 10 years ago. The book has been denounced as an attack on the Catholic church and sharply criticized for its historical and scientific inaccuracies, but that hasn’t keep it from selling more than 80 million copies &hellip Continue reading
Becoming Bulletproof
Fear is the bullet that eliminates happiness. Fear is the bullet that kills the dream. Fear is the assassin of success. Why not become bulletproof in 2 easy steps? 1. Make peace with the possibility of failure. 2. Amputate your sense of shame. “Failure is not an option” is the platitude of people who have &hellip Continue reading
Rise of the Corporate Assassin
If you’re not being criticized today, then no one was listening when you spoke. Welcome to the time of the witch-hunt. This is that time when angry cyber-terrorists post incendiary online reviews and pretend their only motive is to protect the public. This is that time when corporate assassins take pleasure in shooting elephants from &hellip Continue reading
Ancient Advertising Wisdom
I’ve never seen a business fail due to “reaching the wrong people.” So why does every business owner instinctively believe that “reaching the right people” is the key to successful advertising? Who, exactly, do you not want to know about you? Who isn’t qualified to repeat the good things they’ve heard about you? And when &hellip Continue reading
How to Be Liked
The Private Advice of Harry Connick, Jr. Chandler Canterbury is a child actor with a dazzling future. Immediately following the world premiere of When Angels Sing, a not-yet-released movie young Canterbury made with Willie Nelson, Connie Britton, Lyle Lovett, Fionnula Flanagan, Kris Kristofferson and Harry Connick, Jr., Harry grabbed a microphone and told a funny &hellip Continue reading
Unusual Creatures
If I had any sense, if I had half the brains God gave an aardvark, I’d talk about politics or religion and fewer people would be annoyed. But aardvarks look at me with pity because I’m foolish. My social filter is so misaligned that I’m going to share with you my thoughts about planning. “Plan your &hellip Continue reading
Voices of Books
Been Read, Being Read, Will be Read Jeff says I have a confirmation bias, a strong attraction to information that reinforces my convictions and helps me prove my point. That makes sense. I’m an ad writer. Does anyone really want their ad writer to be unbiased? The job of the ad writer is to: 1. &hellip Continue reading
