30 May 2005

Give Me Flack

I have to do some positive PR for The Flack, Peter Himler's PR Blog.

Peter is one of those 'honest' Flacks (and remember, you're hearing this from an ad hack, so if you're a bit wary about trusting me…oh, well). Mr. Himler's irreverent musings are seasoned with more than a dollop of industry-deprecation (in his postings, he's not afraid to link to places like PR Watch).

An answer of his to a recent comment in his blog:
"There are many, many redeeming aspects of public relations. Richard Edelman (and I) believe that transparency in what we do will be the key to redemption for our industry's reputation. It is one of the reasons I'm penning this blog: to show how PR plays out in what we read and watch."
PR is in dire need of a crackerjack, no B*lls**t PR professional. Peter Himler is just the guy for the job.

Turmoil reigns at Mitsubishi

Here's a fellow who doesn't need to read my book. Good for him.

From AutoWeek a few weeks ago:
Executive departures overshadow launch of redesigned Eclipse … Some say (Dave) Schembri butted heads with the marketing department over how the Eclipse should be marketed. They say market studies showed the car should be aimed at men ages 25 to 40. But Schembri argued for courting baby boomers, too, they say.
And a week or so later, it's obvious that Mr. Schembri won:
The primary target customers are singles and married couples aged 25 to 35. The secondary customers are baby boomers with older children and empty nesters looking for a personal car.

Thanks, AdRants

I'm truly appreciative of Steve Hall's mention of my book in his AdRants blog. I emailed him a press release and he not only tossed something up, but linked to Paramount Books.

AdRants could be touted as the advertising blog, but that somehow sounds rather blah and overblown. It's lots of fun, crammed with up-to-date info and insightful comments about the wacky world of advertising and marketing. A regular stop for me. From their web site:

Adrants was recently named best individual weblog on general marketing and advertising topics by industry publisher MarketingSherpa. The survey was conducted during the month of May with more than 800 MarketingSherpa readers examining and voting on 29 Blogs in six categories.

Other every day stops include Brand Autopsy. I love these guys, John Moore and Paul Williams. No B.S. No pulled punches. And funny.

Although the funniest and most outrageous ad blog around is Hugh MacLeod's gapingvoid. He's trying to get publishers interested in a book idea titled How to Be Creative. I wanna read it. But what I really want is a book of his cartoons.

29 May 2005

Nobody Wants a Geezer

I'm not a big promoter of Baby Boomers as victims simply because we're being ignored by most advertising and marketing. The word victim should be used to describe real victims.

But I do think it's dumb (read "bad business") to dismiss such a vital, affluent, and huge consumer demographic.

However, here's a fellow who feels a bit like he's a victim. He says he's not a Baby Boomer - missed it by a few years - but the fact is that the rise of births actually started in 1943. So he's one whether he likes it or not.

B&C Article

Here's a piece I penned for Broadcasting & Cable Magazine -- thanks to Len Stein of Visibility and Editor/Publisher P.J. Bednarski. It's about Baby Boomers and infomercials. Actually, the article is a mini-version of a chapter from my book.

Len is an independent PR professional — and did a great job promoting Advertising to Baby Boomers. Paramount Books is one of his clients. Because of Len, advance reader copies and some first editions are in the right hands -- so we'll see what happens...

(BTW, I didn't come up with the title of the B&C piece. You can talk fast to Baby Boomers. Just make sure to enunciate....)