The copywriter Marc Librescu reviews an ad every day over at AdMonkey, and his analysis is sprinkledĀ with admirable sarcasm. I very much enjoyed his discussion of a mystifying Sequoia ad, which reveals the truck’s benefits for the growing consumer segment of Time Machine Movers.
Try that, F-150.
Archive for the 'General' Category
“The Itch” is a captivating article, which concerns, in part, theĀ murky reasons why some people have itches that never go away. Bad, bad itches. So read it and I promise you’ll stop complaining about your problems.
I love Gawande’s writing — he hasĀ that Gladwellian ability to lead you through a mystery at exactly the […]
Deconstructing The Girl Effect
Published by July 18th, 2008 in General, Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotion and Story. 7 Comments[ViaĀ a friend at McKinney] If you want some practice at making ideas stickier, I have a great case study for you. Rope aside 30 minutes and follow along with the process below. It concerns the work of a group called The Girl Effect. Here’s the game plan:
1. Start here. It’s a pdf document with […]
The birth of the terrorist fist-jab
Published by July 15th, 2008 in General, Unexpectedness and Emotion. 3 CommentsIt’s hard to track a sleazy idea to its source. For instance, who started the rumor that Snapple supports the KKK, or thatĀ Hilfiger is a racist? We’ll probably never know.
But, thanks to a mea culpa in Slate, we can now trace oneĀ bad (but sticky) idea to its origin. Remember the notion, now widely […]
Upgrade, don’t discard: The melodrama
Published by July 15th, 2008 in General, Concreteness, Emotion and Story. 0 CommentsSome students in Bob Sutton’s class on “Creating Infectious Engagement” wanted to persuade people to upgrade, not replace, their computers, for the sake of the environment. But where’s the emotion? Where’s the story? Well, voila: “Love the one you’re with.” With a star turn by Dan Wilson as the computer. (Doesn’t he worry about typecasting?)
You should drink 8 glasses of water per day.
Published by July 15th, 2008 in General, Unexpectedness, Concreteness and Credibility. 0 CommentsNope. It’s an urban legend. Nina Shen Rastogi explains.
A Girl Like Me
Published by July 15th, 2008 in General, Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility and Emotion. 3 CommentsI recently did a workshop with a group that’s working to remind people that racism still exists in America and must be actively fought. They pointed out that many people have, in a sense, declared victory on race — after all, haven’t the racist elements of the law been expunged? Haven’tĀ most of the overtly […]
“Choice” video
Published by March 11th, 2008 in General, Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness and Emotion. 11 CommentsCheck out this video. Don’t want to give anything away. It’s got quite a visceral punch. (via one of Chip’s students at Stanford)
The iTunes model has hit publishing. Our publisher, Random House, is sellingĀ individual chapters out of books. And Made to Stick is the guinea pig for this noble experiment. The chapters areĀ priced at $2.99 each. Check out the WSJ article on the launch or go directly to the commerce site andĀ load up your […]
I want to recommend a few business books that are near and dear to me (I’m leaving out books you would have already seen everywhere, like Gladwell’s books.). I’m sure I’m forgetting some, so consider this a work in progress.
The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz. If you haven’t read this book, stop everything and […]
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