About This Blog

This blog is not a critique of advertising in the usual sense.  I don’t intend to talk about focus groups, numbers, money spent, who’s switching agencies, which agencies are cool, or anything in that vein.  I will save that for others to speak about, intelligently and knowledgeably.

The subjects that I do intend to blog on are advertising as art and advertising and psychology:  what works (for me), and how it works, why it works, when it works and when (I believe) it may cease to work (let’s face it:  there may be nothing worse for an ad than staying too long at the fair).

I’ll also blog about the origin of the ideas in and for the advertisements.  So, think of the author of this blog as part critic, part ad detective — sort of like the Tune Detective, only…well…not.

One more thing:  this blog will include a regular feature, called “Who Signed Off On This?”  You can probably guess what it will be about.

About Me

Who, me?  Who am I, anyway? 

This is who I am:

I’m someone who’s been around long enough to have experienced (and, yes, to remember) Volkswagen’s great ad campaign  in the 1960s (yes, Volkswagen!).  I’m also someone who used to think that going to the annual show of commercials at the Groaning Board in Toronto (and, later, at the Bloor Cinema) was really fun.

This is who I’m not:

I don’t work in advertising.  Never have.  I don’t work in PR, marketing, or anything related to it.  My interest in advertising is no different than my interest in other forms of art and is, of necessity, related to my interest in the human psyche.