F.A.Q.
Q. Do you have a specialty?
A. The emphasis as always, for anyone who cares about brands for a living, is on the genesis, cultivation and implementation of great ideas. Having said that, I believe the relationship a brand has with its individual customers is at the core of brand building today. Brands and brand managers must move to humanize the advertising experience, which means a stripping away of all the artifice. It's time for brands to stop speaking at people, and begin to speak with people. I'm about helping brands do that at every point of contact.
Q. What advantages do you see in being so honest and forthcoming on the web?
A. The web is human gathering place. All I'm doing is inviting people to engage me in converstion. This is simply a new form of an ancient practice--connecting with a community through story. Sure this particular space is commercial in nature, but behind every commerical enterprise are real life humans beings.
Q. How did you get interested in Advertising as a profession?
A. When I walked away from Franklin + Marshall with a degree in English, my mom--who worked as V.P. of Account Planning on Kraft and Dial at QLM in Princeton--began to suggest, "Why don't you become a copywriter?" whenever I wavered on the career fence, which was often in my twenties. Anyway, my answer usually went something like this, "No way. I'm not giving my talent to The Man." Then I grew up.
Q. Do "real writers" sell out when they choose to work in advertising?
A. No. Real writers sell. If you want to produce creative works for a living, someone, somewhere, with a name and a face and an open wallet must purchase your best efforts. I realized that for me that meant one of four routes. Sell to the literary establishment in New York. Sell to the film industry in L.A. Go into advertising. Or become a journalist. Now that I'm on the inside looking out, I see how interconnected these four industries are. It's the Marketplace of Ideas and the point is to be an active participant in that daily exchange.
Q. Is there a place for values-based decision making in the advertising equation?
A. Of course. Everyone has values and we all test them daily against whatever set of circumstances life hands us. And each person must draw their own line in the sand. I've done a lot of work for alcohol purveyors, and I'm okay with that. But I would prefer not to work on something I'm fundementally opposed to, like hand guns.
Q. Where do you get all this passion for the business?
A. My grandpa always used to say, you've got to love your work and love going to work. Up until the time I was infected with the ad bug while living in Portland in 1994, I did not love going to work. Advertising is a craft, and to practice this craft means to constantly shape new ideas. But that's truly just the beginning. Once you have Big Ideas to move forward with, you must then steer them through a maze of decision makers to see them produced. That's a practice I honor and find deeply engaging.