19 2025 June
A Lesson In Marketing Strategy From the Cheetos Shape Hunt
Searching for Cheetos that are shaped like anything is a fairly idiotic way to spend your time. It’s also surprisingly popular despite its idiocy. The...
Read Now23 2025 May
Useless Rebranding and the Underappreciated Marketing Strategy of Doing Nothing
HBO rebranded to HBO Max, and then to Max … and now back to HBO Max. Meanwhile Google is losing their longstanding “I’m Feeling Lucky”...
Read Now02 2025 May
Why the Nike Backlash May Be Just the Beginning
When Jennifer and I wrote Beyond Diversity, one of the first things we talked about was blind spots. We knew that there would be things we...
Read Now28 2025 April
Inside the Marketing Savvy of the World’s Lightest Whiskey Bottle
Claiming that a product is the world’s most ___________ is the most common marketing gateway to empty hyperbole that is sure to inspire plenty of...
Read Now04 2025 April
The Sad Retreat of April Fool’s Day and What It Reveals About Our Culture
The week of April Fool’s Day, I regularly look forward to reading about all the brands taking risks, exploring their fun sides and doing something...
Read Now02 2025 April
Rimowa Sells Old, Beat-Up Suitcases and Demand Is Off the Charts
Buyback programs are getting popular among retailers in many categories but usually they are for products that are still in “sellable” condition that can be...
Read Now24 2025 March
Astronauts Are Leading the Quest to Prevent Space Advertising from Filling the Sky
The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), is a beautifully imagined group within the United Nations that aims to make sure space...
Read Now21 2025 March
Can Brand America Be Destroyed?
Diplomats and trading partners don’t trust the word of America anymore. Countries are hosting summits and meetings to discuss alliances specifically omitting the US. Politicians...
Read Now19 2025 March
The Tesla Resistance Is Real. Here’s What It Means …
Tesla owners are disguising their cars as a sign of resistance. There are plenty of YouTube videos with tips on how to hide the evidence that you’re...
Read Now12 2025 March
The Ultimate Movie Brand Partnership: Kleenex and IMDB Launch “The Kleenex Score”
There aren’t many brands that define their entire category so much that people literally use the brand name interchangeably to describe the product. Kleenex has...
Read Now17 2025 February
Is This the Age of the Obscured Brand Logo?
There was a longstanding joke among my agency friends about the type of feedback we would often get from corporate clients when presenting our creative...
Read Now09 2025 January
The Long Game of the Kardashians May Be Smarter Than You Think
Most of us know that reality TV is often heavily scripted and edited to tell an intentionally melodramatic story. Usually the on-screen participants have little...
Read Now03 2025 January
What We Can Learn From 2024 Most Hated Ads
The worst ads of the year, according to marketing publication The Drum, included Apple’s cringy ad showing the iPad literally crushing human creativity, Google showing how...
Read Now