Updated Articles and Resources

By Paul Suggett, About.com Guide

Well Done Abercrombie & Fitch Created: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 Updated: Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Have you heard the latest rantings and silliness from Abercrombie and Fitch (A&F) CEO Mike Jeffries? Well, they’re not new actually. He made them in 2006, in an interview with Salon Magazine....
Juggling is for Circus Performers Created: Monday, May 13, 2013 Updated: Monday, May 13, 2013
We’ve talked before about time management with advertising, marketing and design agencies. As they say, time is money. It’s also quality. There’s an old adage that sums up the iss...
Vintage Ads From America Created: Tuesday, May 07, 2013 Updated: Tuesday, May 07, 2013
In parts one and two of this three part series, we looked at the 1940s and 1950s, and a small sampling of the advertising that came out of the US in those two decades. Now, in this final chapter, w...
What Was Hyundai Thinking? Created: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 Updated: Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Make no mistake, the Hyundai Suicide ad was designed to get attention. It was all done to make the dumb thing go viral. The creatives at Innocean knew this, they’re clearly not that short-sig...
Vintage Ads From America Created: Monday, April 29, 2013 Updated: Monday, April 29, 2013
In part one of this series, we looked at some of the major events that happened in the 1940s, and how they affected the world of advertising, marketing and design. Not surprisingly, the ads themsel...
Vintage Ads From America Created: Friday, April 26, 2013 Updated: Monday, April 29, 2013
The popularity of the show Mad Men has brought to light some examples of advertising that the advertising industry would like to forget. In particular, the way we advertise to men and women. Times ...
Fallout from The Boston Marathon Created: Friday, April 19, 2013 Updated: Friday, April 19, 2013
The Boston Marathon attack that left three innocent people dead, and hundreds wounded, continues to leave our nation shaken and outraged. And the news and politics being what it is these days, it w...
Learn From the Skunk and the Bear Created: Tuesday, April 16, 2013 Updated: Tuesday, April 16, 2013
What do skunks and bears have to do with advertising, marketing and design? On the surface, not very much. Bit dig a little deeper, and you’ll see major relevance. We all know of the skunk, a...
Good and Bad “As Seen on TV” Products Created: Saturday, April 13, 2013 Updated: Saturday, April 13, 2013
In part one of this story, we covered six products that do not live up to the advertising claims. They included the Eggstractor, the GripGo, StirCrazy, InstaHang, the Steam Buddy, and the most ridi...
Good and Bad “As Seen on TV” Products Created: Friday, April 05, 2013 Updated: Saturday, April 13, 2013
It’s hard to believe, in this day and age, that a product can be advertised on TV making claims it just cannot live up to. Sadly, many of the “As Seen on TV” products fall far fro...
April Fools’ Day 2013 Created: Tuesday, April 02, 2013 Updated: Tuesday, April 02, 2013
However April Fools' Day came about, it’s now firmly part of pop culture, and the biggest brands (and their agencies) cannot help themselves. They come out with more and more inventive ways t...
Shooting Fish in a Barrel Created: Thursday, March 28, 2013 Updated: Thursday, March 28, 2013
Whether your book has just a spattering of spec, or it is made up of nothing but spec, you need to make sure you are challenging yourself. And to do that, you need to stay away from the following c...
Inspiration Jolt Created: Wednesday, March 27, 2013 Updated: Wednesday, March 27, 2013
There are many ways you can approach a project when you’re feeling stuck in a rut, but how many times have you looked at the brief and said “I wonder what a comedian would make of all t...
Working Late Created: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 Updated: Tuesday, March 26, 2013
There are many professions that require regular hours with occasional marathon work sessions. Advertising, marketing and design falls into this category. So do positions in law and order, politics,...
Pepsi Changes Bottle Shape After 17 Years Created: Monday, March 25, 2013 Updated: Monday, March 25, 2013
It is baffling to think that Pepsi is spending millions and millions of dollars on a brand new bottle, when it is no more interesting or different than the current one. In fact, some may argue that...
How to Write an Advertorial Created: Sunday, March 17, 2013 Updated: Wednesday, March 20, 2013
In part one of this special how-to feature, we discussed the first four ways to ensure your advertorial has every chance of being a success. Those tips were: 1. Make it interesting 2. Research the...
How to Write an Advertorial Created: Sunday, March 17, 2013 Updated: Sunday, March 17, 2013
If you’re any kind of writer, be it a copywriter, someone in public relations, or a marketing writer, you will be asked to write an advertorial at some point in your career. Advertorials, als...
Let’s Talk Digital Created: Wednesday, March 13, 2013 Updated: Wednesday, March 13, 2013
As newspapers close up shop, and magazines push digital copies at cheaper prices, it seems certain that one day advertising will do most of its business in the online world. And without a solid fou...
What if Advertising Told The Whole Truth? Created: Friday, March 08, 2013 Updated: Friday, March 08, 2013
What if Ads Were 100% Honest? If we’re completely honest with ourselves, we know as either clients, account managers or creatives, we’d be setting ourselves an impossible task.
I’m Not Buying That One. Created: Wednesday, February 27, 2013 Updated: Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Advertising, at its best, is about focusing on the truth of a product or service in a way that is memorable, powerful, entertaining, or maybe even all three. Often, it’s about exaggerating a ...
Should Firms Be Even Using This Method? Created: Wednesday, February 27, 2013 Updated: Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Breakage is an accounting term that was first used to assess gift cards that had been sold, but had never been redeemed. When people bought gift cards, but those gift cards were not redeemed, it re...
Be Smart, But Don’t Show Off. Created: Sunday, February 24, 2013 Updated: Sunday, February 24, 2013
Many of today’s advertising creatives will approach a job wanting to do the coolest, most incredible pieces of work that they can. They want it to sing. They want it to be praised by other ag...
The Toxicity Of Gossip. Created: Sunday, February 24, 2013 Updated: Sunday, February 24, 2013
One of the biggest agency problems is gossip. Chinwagging. Chit-chat. Tittle-tattle. Call it what you will, it’s really destructive. And yet it is the downfall of morale in every ad agency an...
25 Great Advertising Quotations. Created: Sunday, February 17, 2013 Updated: Sunday, February 17, 2013
Looking forward often requires looking backwards, at where we have come from. In the case of advertising, many great people have given us a great deal of insight on the subject. All we have to do i...
Budget Does Not Dictate Quality. Created: Sunday, February 17, 2013 Updated: Sunday, February 17, 2013
Throughout your career, you will be faced with varying sizes of budgets. You may even be lucky enough to work on a spot that has a Super Bowl budget. Millions and millions of dollars (we’ll g...
What Are Your Reasons for Using Social Media? Created: Friday, February 15, 2013 Updated: Friday, February 15, 2013
Social media is everywhere, and it’s prolific. Sadly, only the best advertisers, marketers and corporations are using it correctly. Almost everyone else is merely clogging the system with ill...
The 2013 Super Bowl Ads Created: Friday, February 08, 2013 Updated: Friday, February 08, 2013
I have to say, after watching the offerings presented during Super Bowl XLVII, I was more than a little underwhelmed. To be honest, I’m having a hard time recalling any of the spots as I writ...
The Single Minded Proposition – What Is The SMP, And Why Is It Important? Created: Thursday, January 31, 2013 Updated: Thursday, January 31, 2013
If you’re new to advertising, you will hear people talking about the SMP (Single Minded Proposition), or sometimes the USP (Unique Selling Point / Unique Selling Proposition). They’re a...
Be Wary Of Gatecrashing Reddit Created: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 Updated: Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Reddit cannot be bought. You can’t get to the top spot with money, you need user upvotes. Sure, there are sponsored links, and you can pay for those. BUT, they do not appear in the numbered l...
Advertising Events of 2013 Created: Tuesday, January 29, 2013 Updated: Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Every year the calendar is filled with events that everyone in advertising, marketing and design should seriously consider attending. Some are bigger than others, some are broader, others quite nic...
Hypothetical Advertising Questions Created: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 Updated: Tuesday, January 22, 2013
The About.com Advertising channel gets many, many questions every month. Some we can’t answer because it would take too long to respond to every one. Some we can’t answer because weR...
Sorry For The Lobsters – A Review Of Neil French’s Advertising Memoirs. Created: Friday, January 18, 2013 Updated: Friday, January 18, 2013
Neil French is without a doubt one of the greatest advertisers, and copywriters, ever to work in the industry. A true creative thinker, with an incredible ability to contort words and phrases into ...