Confessions of a Grumpy Advertising Man

What it really takes to succeed with advertising, branding and social media.


Through a series of stand-alone essays on advertising, marketing, social media and the writing life, “Confessions of a Grumpy Advertising Man” provides guidance for our online age – a sanity check for others struggling to maintain consistency and quality in marketing. This book can help you be aware of both the dilemmas facing marketers today as well as the choices you’ll have to make at every step.


What you get.


There's a story writers love to tell: a client hires a copywriter to produce an ad; the writer gets the input and goes away; he comes back two weeks later to deliver the work and the client says, "That's not very much copy. How long did it take you to write that?" The copywriter says, "About 25 years."


That's a good summation of what's in here – lots and lots of real-world experience. There are lessons on how to be a better marketer, how to succeed as a freelancer, and how to be a more effective writer. Guidance on the essentials of marketing and branding. And some iconoclastic thoughts on social marketing.


Sneak peek: 


Branding is not a single event, it’s an ongoing, never-ending process throughout the life of any business. And every marketing decision you take can make or break your brand. But don’t panic – I’ve broken branding down into bite-sized pieces based.


Maybe an analogy would help. Let’s say you decide you’d like to be trained to shoot. Would you prefer to be trained by someone who bought their first gun last month, or someone who’s been through years of military and police training on all kinds of firearms? That’s pretty much the situation that people in your marketing shoes are facing today.


This is the voice of experience speaking: In order to produce impressive, compelling, effective advertising, it takes training and experience, typically with ad agencies with talented account, media and research folk, along with highly talented creative staff … In order to produce social media, you need computer knowledge.


Remember, guns don’t kill people, bad ads do.