I'm not a Teams Player
My life is noisy. I used to like noise and make quite a bit of it with guitars and stereos and things like that. But now I like things a...
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What is big? How I got into advertising.
It was about 30 years ago that I applied to the Texas Creative Program at the University of Texas and began my journey to advertising...
Humbled and honored.
I follow advertising like most people follow sports. And since there’s no ESPN for advertising (yet), it is left to the dedicated...
My Friday night lights.
If you’ve ever seen the movie Friday Night Lights, then you know what a big deal high school football is in Texas. The movie didn’t...
400 E. Randolph. Butterflies and urban skies.
Butterfly, butterfly. Wings on an urban sky. You get so high. Yeah, you get so high. In the urban sky. Sweet butterfly. When I got my...
Bodges. Skips. Faffing around.
For some reason, I’ve built up a bit of a following in the UK. Maybe it’s the Monty Python reference in the Kingdom of Failure logo. I...
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli. Life lessons from The Godfather.
There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who say The Godfather is their favorite movie of all time. And those who don’t. I am...
The Grateful Dead weren't musical geniuses. They were marketing geniuses.
When I was about 13, my mom and dad took us all to Colorado on a ski trip. Growing up in Houston, I had never seen snow or mountains...
The power of negativity.
Just as there can be no light without darkness, no love without hate, and no victory without defeat; so too can there be no Kingdom of...
The most creative city in America.
I grew up in Houston and got my first ad job in Chicago. There are two kinds of people who grow up in Texas. The ones who never leave and...
Falling down. The movie. The metaphor. And the consequences of gravity.
I think most people can agree that Michael Douglas will be most famously remembered for his role as Gordon Gecko in the movie, Wall...
What happens in Brazil does not stay in Brazil. That shit comes home with you.
I was at my first job in Detroit and I was doing well. I had gotten lucky with some work that won a few awards and got me a little press....
Get off my lawn. Ageism in advertising. A giant pain in my ass.
The guy who works on my car is named Jurgen. He’s of some sort of Eastern European descent. I don’t know where exactly. He doesn’t do...
The Butthole Surfers school of decision making.
Locust Abortion Technician was the third studio release from The Butthole Surfers. The album’s first song, “Sweat Loaf”, begins with an...
Choose your weapon. How to defeat the blank page.
As a hard-working copywriter, who’s been living by the pen for quite a while now, I’ve made a lot of ads. Some are good. Some are bad....
What’s the ad agency of the future? It’s the Beatles.
Before Covid hit, the main topic of advertising discussion was: What does the ad agency of the future look like? What’s the model going...
Working for Bob Seger. You can’t fire me because you’ve already fired me.
The first thing about this story that’s pretty crucial is that I didn’t really work for Bob Seger. The purpose of this blog is to tell...
The curious case of the constantly cursing co-worker.
The first thing I thought to myself was holy shit that woman can really curse. At first, I thought she was in a bad mood or had a...
Baby Corn Farmer.
I can’t think of too many jobs that require a writer to come up with as many ideas as quickly and as often as an advertising copywriter...
Bible Belted. Tales of ego, greed and betrayal in the town of Springfield, MO.
I took a detour after Los Angeles because things had started to get a little dicey out there. And when you see the word dicey and Los...