Adpulp

10/01/2025

Why buy Adpulp a coffee? It's not because we've earned it. No. It's never about that. It's about how YOU allocate discretionary income. And when you have a surplus to work with, as some of you do now, how you reward friends and favorite online characters. In some cases, you buy them a coffee! FWIW, it takes a lot of sustainably sourced, carefully roasted coffee to make Adpulp. Thank you for your generous support, and attention. We're now in our 21st year. Let's continue to do new things that matter.

Advertising News & Know How Since 2004

17/11/2024

When it’s not done for vanity, a rebrand is typically undertaken when the legacy brand is no longer culturally relevant or economically productive. Trump didn’t need a rebrand and he didn’t receive one. He made a new friend who happens to be richer, younger, and some would say cooler than the former and future President.

When it comes to rebranding, the Republican Party is another matter. Trump has managed to radically change the Grand Old Party’s brand. There’s nothing at all conservative about the GOP today. Politically speaking, the new leaders of the party are amateurs and extremists. In a weird twist, they are aware of this, proud of it, and have made it a selling point. It’s a feature, not a flaw.

Kyle Chayka is a staff writer at The New Yorker. He wrote a piece after the election about Elon Musk’s impact on the Trump brand. Here’s a small excerpt to chew on. It’s hard to overstate the success that a Trump-Musk axis has already had in rebranding Trump’s image.… In the company of Mus...

21/09/2024

Toxicity is at an all-time high, according to unnamed experts. There’s toxicity in the workplace, toxicity online, and toxicity in the air. Toxicity has even seeped into entire industries.

As a result, Virgin Active, a chain of health clubs in the U.K and beyond, is calling on people to rebel against the toxicity of the wellness industry in a new global campaign from Amsterdam-based agency We Are Pi.

Toxicity is at an all-time high, according to unnamed experts. There’s toxicity in the workplace, toxicity online, and toxicity in the air. Toxicity has even seeped into entire industries. As a result, Virgin Active, a chain of health clubs in the U.K and beyond, is calling on people to rebel agai...

15/08/2024

Two highly litigious rich men were served a dose of their own lawyerly medicine this week when the United Auto Workers filed federal labor charges against former President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The charges claim Trump and Musk used a live broadcast on the site formerly known as Twitter to threaten and intimidate workers who are planning to strike.

Two highly litigious rich men were served a dose of their own lawyerly medicine this week when the United Auto Workers filed federal labor charges against former President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The charges claim Trump and Musk used a live broadcast on the site formerly known as Twitt...

11/08/2024

McGarrah Jessee has launched a new social media agency, Look Squirrel.

The agency will be co-led by a former TikTok creative leader.

09/08/2024

Letter writing is a lost art. Think about it. When was the last time you handwrote or typed a personal letter and dropped it in the mail? When was the last time you received a real letter in the mail?

Maybe Google’s AI assistant (Gemini) can help to bring letter writing back into fashion. Seems like an innocent enough idea. Yet, the feel-good Team USA commercial where this idea is unveiled is receiving some blowback.

Letter writing is a lost art. Think about it. When was the last time you handwrote or typed a personal letter and dropped it in the mail? When was the last time you received a real letter in the mail? Maybe Google’s AI assistant (Gemini) can help to bring letter writing back into fashion. Seems [....

08/08/2024

Do you need "a little help" writing an important letter?

This spot stirred up controversy because people believe the little girl ought to write her own letter, with no help from her dad's AI assistant. And I hear that, but I also think it's natural for a parent to use the tools at hand to help a child solve a problem or perform a task.

This is for everyone watching compete on the world’s stage and thinking, that’s gonna be me someday. You got this, with a little help from Gemini. A...

05/08/2024

Caroline Gleich does not look like a Senator, and she’s wisely using this fact to her credit. Knowing how little faith American citizens have in Congress, why would you want to appear to be one of them? In a sane world, you’d do everything you could to distance yourself from the way it is in Washington today.

When you’re a ski mountaineer and climate activist from Utah, you naturally connect with Utah voters via things they already know and love—the outdoors and skiing.

Caroline Gleich does not look like a Senator, and she’s wisely using this fact to her credit. Knowing how little faith American citizens have in Congress, why would you want to appear to be one of them? In a sane world, you’d do everything you could to distance yourself from the way it is in [.....

31/07/2024

The Olympic Games in Paris provide an ideal setting, programming-wise, for brands to explore their own heroic journeys and present powerful narratives to a large and attentive audience.

Two car companies—Subaru and Hyundai—have chosen to follow this path and the results are notable. Subaru reminds us that “Love begins with trust,” and Hyundai reminds us that “It’s okay” to say no to the grinding routine of competitive sports and follow your truest passions instead.

The Olympic Games in Paris provide an ideal setting, programming-wise, for brands to explore their own heroic journeys and present powerful narratives to a large and attentive audience. Two car companies—Subaru and Hyundai—have chosen to follow this path and the results are notable. Subaru remin...

01/07/2024

New episode from host Dan Goldgeier who chats with in-house ECD Kevin Frank about:
• Life at Apple
• How to lead creative teams and deliver effective feedback
• The importance of relationships to a creative career

‎Show Ad Chatter, Ep Ad Chatter Season 5, Episode 3: Kevin Frank Talks Apple, LinkedIn, and Leadership - Jun 30, 2024

22/05/2024

Dan Goldgeier chats with Steve Harrison about his new book, "The Howard Gossage Show: And what it can teach you about advertising, fun, fame and manipulating the media."

We have a returning guest! Host Dan Goldgeier chats with Steve Harrison about his new book, co-written with Dave Dye, “The Howard Gossage Show – and what it can teach you about advertising, fun, fame, and manipulating the media.” In this 29-minute podcast, Dan and Steve chat about: • What ma...

22/04/2024

In her Adweek piece, CMO Stephanie McCarty argues, “It’s time to be bold. It’s time to take risks. It’s time to burn the old playbooks and write a new one.” I like where she’s headed with this sentiment and I agree that the agency business can burn the current playbook, but I don’t agree that a new one is needed. The old playbook that called for big ideas that make brands famous worked well for Ad Legends like Leo Burnett, David Ogilvy, and Bill Bernbach. If given the chance, the old playbook can continue to guide today’s ad workers and create extraordinary value for clients.

Stephanie McCarty is chief marketing and communications officer at Taylor Morrison Homes, a home builder based in Scottsdale, Arizona. McCarty is top of mind for a lot of agency leaders at the moment, because she used her LinkedIn page to speak some hard truths about the agency business. When her Li...

12/04/2024

Medium is taking a stand on AI-generated writing. An email from Medium arrived in my inbox a few days ago describing changes that are coming to the publishing platform. Beginning May 1, 2024, stories with AI-generated writing (disclosed as such or not) are not allowed to be paywalled as part of Medi...

18/03/2024

The advertising business will be irrelevant if and when it gives up on the big idea and starts to value fast over famous. Human insights and big ideas can be aided by AI assistants, but there’s nothing new in the machine, just new formulations and iterations of everyone else’s work.

The advertising business will prosper when it remains a place for weirdos, eccentrics, and raconteurs with lots of big ideas and a burning passion to express them. The client team and data scientists can run the numbers all day, but someone else has to dream. If that someone is never encouraged to dream and never given the space to do so, that is a real and present danger to the ad industry, not AI.

How many times have marketers been told—mostly by other marketers—that the new tech is the best tech? So many times…remember when every brand had to have a home in Second Life? It was an absurd thing to say then, as it is today when the new new thing has to be tested, twisted, and made […]

15/03/2024

A Republican Super PAC is prepared to spend $50M to help defeat Trump.

Is the GOP on the verge of collapse? I doubt it, but there are obvious signs of decay, including the fact that a substantial chunk of Republican primary and caucus voters told pollsters that they would be so dissatisfied if Donald Trump became the party’s presidential nominee—and it looks like h...

21/02/2024

Last December, the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London published its annual Armed Conflict Survey. The survey paints a grim picture of rising violence in many regions across the globe, documenting a total of 183 conflicts for 2023, the highest number in three decades. For perspective, there are 195 countries in the world.

In response to these escalating conflicts and the lethal threats they present, Innocean Worldwide in Berlin created a campaign to support the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center in Budapest, Hungary.

Last December, the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London published its annual Armed Conflict Survey. The survey paints a grim picture of rising violence in many regions across the globe, documenting a total of 183 conflicts for 2023, the highest number in three decades. For perspec...

19/02/2024

Are you an advertising professional in your late 30s? Great. You have about five years, give or take, to make all the money you can and reach the highest position you can. Don’t let the opportunity pass you by, because soon you’ll be too old to achieve at the highest level. You’ll also be too old to get a new job or keep the one you have. Forget that you’re still young enough to reproduce or fight in a war, this is the ad biz and we all know that the ad business runs on the exalted enthusiasm of youth.

Are you an advertising professional in your late 30s? Great. You have about five years, give or take, to make all the money you can and reach the highest position you can. Don’t let the opportunity pass you by, because soon you’ll be too old to achieve at the highest level. You’ll also be too ...

16/02/2024

Jasper, Claud, Clara, Bixby, Cleo…these are some of the AI assistants eagerly awaiting your queries and your manufactured need for speed. The field is growing crowded, which makes sense when you understand how much money there is to be made.

The global artificial intelligence market, worth USD 136.55 Billion in 2022, is likely to grow at a 37.3% Compound Annual Growth Rate rate from 2023 to 2030. For that money to materialize, first tech companies need widespread adoption and a growing acceptance of the risks inherent to AI.

Jasper, Claud, Clara, Bixby, Cleo…these are some of the AI assistants eagerly awaiting your queries and your manufactured need for speed. The field is growing crowded, which makes sense when you understand how much money there is to be made. The global artificial intelligence market, worth USD 136...