by David Burn | Jun 29, 2004 | Advertising
“I am one who believes that one of the greatest dangers of advertising is not that of misleading people, but that of boring them to death.” -Leo Burnett
The nearest I’ve come to pursuing real creative glory is the time Linda Harless said I was one campaign away from a job at Goodby. That felt good. I could finally taste it, the elusive fruit of respectability. This was in November of 2000, right after Tom Evans fired me for being “contentious.” I’ve been let go two other times, including this morning from Slack Barshinger for lack of enthusiasm (for their work). So, I’m three out of seven. What is one to do? I’m not being rhetorical here. What I MUST DO is hold out for a mentor. I need to work for someone I respect, on a personal and professional level. Because I tend to respect ability over authority, that someone will naturally need to be a great creative leader. In this city today, that might mean Steffan Postaer. It might mean Jim Schmidt, Matt Brennock, Dennis Ryan, Cheryl Berman, Mark Tutssel, Bob Scarpelli, or Mark Figliulo.
by David Burn | May 24, 2004 | Advertising
According to New York Press, the city’s self-proclaimed “premier alternative newspaper,” Donny Deutsch is one of New York’s most loathsome characters.
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Donny Deutsch
Ad Man
DEUTSCH REPRESENTS THE latest trend in that most loathsome of New York traditions: the selling of adolescent greed, egomania and narcissism as charisma and depth of character. The chief of David Deutsch Associates (sic.) says he only hires “Jews, chicks and fags,” and is known for tearing off his shirt during office hours and saying—without irony—things like, “I can kick the ass of any CEO in advertising!” Think Steven Seagal meets Charlotte Beers. The “Elvis of Advertising” has been dabbling with a CNBC talk show and even told New York magazine that he’d consider running for mayor. Qualifications: good at selling shit, does lots of pushups. Look out, Bloomie.
by David Burn | May 23, 2004 | Advertising
Naomi Klein, Canadian journalist and author, caught my attention with her forthright reporting from Iraq. Which led me to her book-length anti-capitalist critique, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies, a work I find perversely fascinating, given my occupation as a corporate scribe. Ironically, the No Logo Web site leverages the No Logo brand quite well.
by David Burn | May 22, 2004 | Advertising, Politics
Sticker Nation of Ashville, NC is offering a quality adhesive product with phrasing of your chosing at a very reasonable price.
by David Burn | Apr 13, 2004 | Advertising, Art, Chicago
While riding the CTA Brown Line to work the other day I saw a Sun Times “We Are Brighter” print ad defaced by a culture-busting media activist. The activist placed a printed message constructed of black type on white computer paper over the paid piece. It said, “More Art. Less Ads.” How can one blame this concerned person for the suggestion? There ought to be more art inside the gray tube. Art to comfort the cattle, I mean people, being carted daily to their sordid and sometimes noble destinies throughout the city.
by David Burn | Mar 14, 2004 | Advertising, Art, Chicago, Food & Beverage
Our Saturday consisted of a forty year retrospective of Lee Bontecou’s imaginative, inspired work at the Museum of Contemporary Art, wine flights at Bin 36 in Marina City, and exquisite food and drink care of Mexican master, author and star of his own show, Rick Bayless and the wonderful Frontera Grill staff. We’ve been meaning to attend the MCA for a while now. We sort of stumbled upon Bin 36, the modernist wine bar in the lobby of House of Blues Hotel. Frontera was a celebration of my new job–Senior Writer at Slack Barshinger, a prominent b-to-b agency on N. Michigan Avenue with eBay, Underwriters Lab, AC Nielsen, Dean Foods, Harris Bank, American Dairy Products Institute, Tellabs, Smurfit-Stone, Silgan Containers, and Tetra Pak (among others) for clients.
by David Burn | Feb 26, 2004 | Advertising, Chicago
A good segment of the Chicago ad industry exists in a handful of interconnected buildings on North Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive. In the main cluster–111 East Wacker, 233 N. Michigan, and 225 N. Michigan–you can take an elevator up to Frankel, Ogilvy, Y+R, Burrell, Slack Barshinger, or Cramer Krasselt. Nearby on Randolph, Element 79 and DDB share an address (200 East) and fortress-like scraper of sky.
Leo Burnett, Upshot, and Zipatoni are within earshot. Cross the bridge to the north, and you have BBDO, Draft, FCB, Laughlin Constable, Fusion Idea Lab and Campbell Mithun, all within a few blocks. Then, as in any healthy system, there’s interesting activity on the fringe–Point B and Hadrian’s Wall in River North, Tom Dick and Harry on Ravenswood in Lake View, and Storandt Pann Margolis in a converted theatre in historic downtown La Grange.
This dense concentration of “black turtlenecks” has the attention of the mainstream press. Sun Times columnist, Lewis Lazare covers the ad community on an almost daily basis. It’s a good read and an excellent source for information.
by David Burn | Feb 6, 2004 | Advertising
I have recently commented elsewhere on the new consumer promotion from Pepsi and their tie-in partner, Apple Computer. The commercial in support of the promotion, which debuted during the Super Bowl (to the tune of a 2.3 million dollar media buy) features kids who were sued by the Recording Industry Association of America for downloading copyrighted music. The hero of the spot, a fourteen year old girl from Staten Island declares, she will continue to download music for free and “there’s not a thing anyone can do about it.” The spot is made even more ironic by the use of “I Fought The Law,” a 1960s classic remade here by Green Day.
Pepsi and Apple are giving away 100 million free song downloads. This is an instant win game, where one looks under the cap for a winning code. As a consumer promotion this is brilliant work. The RIAA and its constituency wins by getting two huge and powerful marketers to share in their “this stuff shouldn’t be free” world view. Pepsi wins by tapping into what’s hot today among its core audience. Apple wins by gaining more market share for its iTunes product, now available for Windows users, as well. But what about the consumer? Does the consumer win?
One aspect in this debate that seems to be consistently overlooked is the fact that a digital download of recorded material does not equal a compact disc. Not only does the consumer miss out on the liner notes and such, but the sound quality of a downloaded file is most often inferior (due to file compression) to that of the original CD. My contention here is MP3 files are but samples of the real thing. And true fans of the music will download the songs AND buy the CD.
by David Burn | Nov 16, 2003 | Advertising, Literature
Steffan Postaer’s apocalyptic novel, The Last Generation is out. I have yet to order it from Amazon, but I soon will, as I look forward to learning more about the writer and the stories he tells. Mr. Postaer is a copywriter, like me, but unlike me he is Executive Creative Director at LB Works in Chicago and famous within the industry for his Altoids work.
Making ads is not all that different from making books. And knowing how to do both is a good thing, since making ads fails to satisfy the soul and making books rarely pays the bills.
by David Burn | Sep 3, 2003 | Advertising
Word of mouth has always been the best form of advertising. Think about the power of everyday people selling for and working for YOUR company. It’s huge.
Yesterday I dealt successfully with not one, but three corporate entities, and today I want to sing their praises. Waking up on Tuesday–after moving to Chicago over the weekend–with no household Internet connection in place (a disgruntling fact), I decided to try my luck at Starbucks, wherein lie the much touted Wi Fi connection from provider, T-Mobile. I have a Mac and am always worried about whether the developers of “the latest cool thing” took my minority computing preferences into consideration. I’m pleased to say my iBook instantly sniffed out the connection and within minutes I was on the Net updating Web sites and reading email, all while stimulated by iced espresso.
After Darby got off work we found our way down Lincoln to Trader Joe’s, the California grocery wholesaler. Amazing prices on quality stuff. Maybe the jaded Californians take it for granted, but after growing accustom to the outrageous prices at Whole Foods and Wild Oats, it’s nice to have an option like Trader Joe’s.
