Never give up. Never surrender.
I’m not certain whether quoting Tim Allen is a good thing or a bad thing. I only know that it’s the right thing. His utterance is the answer to a question I asked myself recently: Why do you keep fighting the fight about creative briefs? Tim Allen, a.k.a. Captain Jason Nesmith in the romp called […]
E86: A conversation with Steve Harrison
Airs October 5, 2022 This week, Henry Gomez and I take great pride in welcoming Steve Harrison, author of Can’t Sell Won’t Sell, a sober and compelling argument against the ad industry’s sad slide into prizing social justice over selling. Steve has earned his bona fides as a creative thinker and leader, having won a […]
Why creative briefs fail.
I tip my hat to Tim Brunelle, copywriter, creative director, strategist, lover of creative briefs, and a recent guest on The Brief Bros., for inspiring this post in response to a question put to him by my friend and co-host Henry Gomez. I’ll give you four reasons why I think a creative brief fails, plus […]
E85: A conversation with Tim Brunelle, who could be a third Brief Bros.
Airs September 28, 2022 This week, Henry Gomez and I are joined by another great creative from the Twin Cities, Tim Brunelle. Tim is a writer, creative director, strategist, leader and a fellow advocate for creative briefs. Tim came to our attention from our friend Mark Jenson, lecturer at the University of Minnesota’s Hubbard School […]
E84: A lively conversation with Professor Mark Ritson.
Airs September 21, 2022 This week, Henry Gomez and I are joined by a luminary in the field of marketing: Professor Mark Ritson. Professor Ritson has earned a well-deserved reputation for pulling no punches in his commentary on and assessment of marketers and their brand management. Henry is an alum of the two wildly popular […]
E83: Reviewing a creative brief by Crispin Porter Bogusky
Airs September 14, 2022 This week, Henry Gomez and I try something new and different: we share with you a real creative brief by a real ad agency. So we review both the brief itself and one TV spot that came from the brief. The agency is Crispin Porter Bogusky, a powerhouse creative shop whose […]
What a 70-year-old stone mason taught me about teaching creative brief writing.
In the summer of 1979, I was living in Tampa, Florida between my junior and senior years at the University of Tampa. My uncle, who was a senior legal-eagle at The Shriners, landed a summer job for me at a swimming pool company owned by one of the Shriners’ biggest donors. I don’t mind sharing […]
E82: Another Classics Creative Review
Airs September 7, 2022 This week, Henry Gomez and I return to Classics Creative Review with three television spots on The Drum’s list: World’s Best Ads of All Time, based on a reader survey. We start with a spot from Thailand called “Smoking Kid” by Ogilvy for the Thai Health Promotion Board. Next up is […]
Advertising creatives are not artists.
In my lifetime, I have known poets, novelists, a playwright, sculptors, painters, musicians, ballet and modern dancers, choreographers and a film-maker or two. Artists all. For a decade between the early 80s to the early 90s, I called myself a poet, more accurately a part-time poet. I read, wrote and taught poetry and published a […]
E81: A conversation with Gary Goldsmith, Department Chair, Creative Direction, ArtCenter College of Design.
Airs August 31, 2022 This week, Henry Gomez and I are joined by an industry veteran and legend, Gary Goldsmith. Today he is the Department Chair of Creative Direction for ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. But his resume includes stints as creative director at DDB and TBWA\Chiat\Day, as well as chairman and CCO of […]
