A Few Wrong Reasons to Reject a Tagline

Taglines are tricky. Chances are, most writers and marketers have rejected a great tagline for the wrong reason.

Fall TV & Old Habits that Die Hard

Call me old school, but I still get excited about the Fall TV season.

There's something about a train...

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The Pillsbury Dough Boy and Other Icons of My Youth

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As a boy, I adored advertising icons. Something about them just clicked with me. They were always right up there with my favorite cartoon characters (Bugs Bunny, etc.) and super heroes (Batman, etc). I still love them today and I think it’s fair to say that my early fond association with these fun icons played a big role in my chosen career as an advertising copywriter. Tony the Tiger, Toucan Sam, The Trix Rabbit (yes, a LOT of them were breakfast cereal characters, and yes, I still find great joy in a bowl of cereal), The Jolly Green Giant, and of course, the Pillsbury Doughboy. Poppin’ Fresh, to be more precise.

RIP, Les Waas – the Man Behind the Mr. Softee Jingle

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You can hear it in your head already, can't you? The simple mention of Mr. Softee brings that perennial jingle to mind in an instant, without even having to think about it. (But just for fun, or in the very unusual case that you don't know it, you can listen to the jingle here.)

So I was sad to read in the NY Times earlier this year of the passing of Les Waas, the man behind that immensely catchy jingle.

My Bagel Shop

I wrote recently about my occasional bout of performance anxiety. No, not sexually. At the Starbucks counter. There's another place I frequent that should, but for some odd reason doesn’t, give me performance anxiety. It’s my little bagel shop in New Rochelle, H&R Bialy. Best. Damn. Bagels. Especially when they’re hot and fresh, which is like 90% of the time. (Sorry, can't link to them. They don't have a website. Don't need one.)

H & R Bialy, New Rochelle NY

To be honest, the shop is almost, not quite, but almost, a hole in the wall.

Performance Anxiety at Starbucks

For a number of years, I got my morning coffee on the street, from the coffee cart guy. The cart and the vendor changed sometimes, based on my office location or walking route, but the routine was pretty standard. And the coffee was damn good.

Rossini and the Wabbit; or, the Undeniable Impact of Looney Tunes on a Child’s Appreciation of Classical Music

To this day, I cannot listen to Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” without picturing Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.

I know I’m not alone.

BuzzFeed & the Rise of Post-Literate Media

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Every now and then I read something that’s a little alarming, disheartening, or discouraging as a copywriter working in a digital world. I’ve seen provocative headlines in LinkedIn group posts and on blogs and other sites questioning the validity of the copywriter in this day and age (“Are Copywriters Going Extinct?” / “Are Copywriters Being Replaced by Algorithms?”). I often scan these pieces, sometimes laughing at the ideas, because I don’t truly think we will ever live in a marketing world that needs no words. Or will we?