The best creative thinkers and doers write about what it takes to cut it in the world of art for commerce.

Need Inspiration? Break Away From Your Comfort Zone Mark Avnet 09/01/10 We all have to be wary of becoming experts only at the same things about which everyone in our crowd is also an expert

Don Draper Gets His Hat Handed to Him by Advertising Age, but Then Comes Back for More! Steffan Postaer 08/18/10 All were atwitter over the “Mad Men” premier this summer, because so much of the story had to do with moody Don Draper’s bungled interview with Advertising Age.

Creative Disagreements: Fighting With Purpose Rena Prizant 08/12/10 I don’t think I’ve worked on a single project where there has not been some sort of disagreement about creative work.

The Evolution of Advertising Brad Mislow 08/09/10 Gone are the days when the vast majority of eyeballs could be counted on to see your creative brilliance in a newspaper, magazine, billboard, or TV.

Advertisers: Are They Dreammakers or Frenemies? Steffan Postaer 08/02/10 Advertisers evoke our desires by creating dreams for us, also known as commercials, billboards, banners, and the like.

The Focus Group Has Decided the Focus Group Is Dead Brad Mislow 07/12/10 Focus groups ask for people’s honesty in an artificial environment. This is a problem.

Guppies F*cking and the New Hybrid Steffan Postaer 07/08/10 I work for the day when of all my colleagues are hybrids, with digital folks thinking high concept and their creative counterparts respecting utility.

Pay Your Freakin’ Interns! Brad Mislow 06/14/10 Interns can be invaluable in many ways, and that means they have value and should be compensated accordingly. Besides, it’s just the right thing to do.

Advertising Today Is Less Interested in Legs, More Interested in Tits Steffan Postaer 06/07/10 Back when building a brand supposedly took time, it was deemed critical that marketing ideas have legs, particularly advertising campaigns.

It's Not You. It's Your Agency Brad Mislow 05/17/10 If you have to ask yourself why you haven't met the client in person, why you never get asked to present ideas internally, or why your briefs feel like the same assignment, you’re not going to get anywhere at your current shop.

Is Symbolism a Friend or Foe? Rena Prizant 05/06/10 Advertising has made wide use of symbolism in campaign development, particularly in modern times. The reason is more psychological than anything else.

Is Fashion Advertising Always Vapid and Pretentious? Steffan Postaer 04/12/10 By definition, fashion is advertising, but not the kind you and I specialize in. Uncut and undiluted by narratives, fashion advertising projects the creativity of the fashion designer or the “House” from which it originates: Gucci, Prada, Channel, or Dior. For the most part, these iconic brands eschew advertising campaigns in the ad-agency sense of the word, preferring projection to conception. It is the line that matters.

How to Create the Perfect Tagline Rena Prizant 04/07/10 I was recently given a tagline creation assignment as part of a job interview. I thought it was an amazingly effective way to test my skills since it related directly to what I would be doing and the type of product they would work with. Eager to prove myself, I went to work. I did my company and product research, looked at competitors, etc. Then I thought, besides the standard headline-creating techniques, advancements in the brainstorming and creating of a tagline must be available.

Freelance, the New Full-Time Brad Mislow 03/22/10 To be clear, freelancers are not some creative underclass. They come with a price, as in a hefty day rate. They can rake it in if required to work late nights or weekends. They work, turn in an invoice, and then they’re out of there. Boom. Done. Next job.

Copywriters Need Feedback, Not Prescriptions Richard Turgeon 03/10/10 Edits happen. Where copy tends to get off track, though, is when the client (or manager) rewrites everything without reinforcing in any way their role as the informant and your role as the doer.

Here Lies Steffan Postaer Steffan Postaer 03/03/10 We define ourselves by our work. It becomes the who, what, where, how, and why of our lives. Can you deny it?

Being on Fire Tim Brunelle 02/15/10 Passion has a funny way of synthesizing and illuminating core truths. The bureaucracies, the lifeless traditions, and the status quo pale in the face of intense objectivity -- witness Ferdinand Piech, Phil Knight, or Steve Jobs. There’s a reason the person leading the way out of darkness is usually pictured holding a torch.

Super Bowl’s Guy Moron Has Had Enough to Drink Marshall Ross 02/05/10 Like we don’t have enough problems. There’s the deficit problem. The healthcare problem. The energy problem. The global warming problem. Now I fear we have a joke problem. At least when it comes to advertising.

Do Something Interesting. Work in Advertising. Brad Mislow 02/01/10 Isn’t the reason most of us got into advertising is because advertising itself is inherently interesting? Everyone, with whom I went to portfolio school and/or worked alongside in agency creative departments, all shared the same passion to not have a run-of-the-mill, trapped-in-a-cubicle, regular-old office job.

Oh, Pioneers! Feigning Expertise Ad Agencies Grapple With Social Media Steffan Postaer 01/04/10 Think about it. The experts and gurus of the Internet got their first computers 20 years ago (give or take), many much later. The inventors of Facebook, Craigslist, You Tube, Amazon and just about every dot com are not only still alive, they are still working. They are still pioneers, still learning as they go.

The Mystery of Motivation Joshua Miller 12/09/09 I am always amazed to witness how we as human beings hold the word and concept of “motivation” like some illusive mystery or outside force. We wait for its arrival, similar to how a little child waits for the tooth fairy to arrive and leave them some money.

Healthcare and Social Media and You Jaci Russo 12/02/09 The Healthcare and Pharmaceutical industries are quickly becoming major players in the social media empire because of their message, relevance and familiarity.

Nothing Matters More Than Gratitude Tim Brunelle 11/30/09 If other people—not just you—want you to succeed, in fact, are grateful your company exists, then your infant company stands a much greater chance of sticking around. This has as much to do with the work you perform as the spirit of work you provide.

Three (or More) is a Crowd Brad Mislow 11/16/09 Clients love to mix things up in the ad biz. More and more, clients are awarding their business to more than one shop. There’s nothing new about it. It works like this...

Is it a "Viral" or a TV Commercial and What's The Difference Anyway? Steffan Postaer 10/28/09 The rules for creating video content are different than they used to be. You Tube and the like have given everyone the idea that making a commercial is now cheap, fast and easy.

The New Linguistics Tim Brunelle 10/05/09 Being a creative person has always been, in part, a job of competing with popular culture. Your real competition wasn’t just the ads created by other creatives, it was any great film, album, novel or distraction and the way in which that art adjusted our common understanding of a common tongue.

Why is Outrageous so Effective? Alan Whitley 09/21/09 As creatives, we focus a lot on accomplishing the client’s stated goals and adhering to approaches and tone that have been vetted. That’s usually a good thing if you favor continued employment...

In Advertising, and in General, We are No Longer Capable of Being Appalled Steffan Postaer 09/09/09 Remember appalling? Remember when being intrusive or disruptive was a bad thing? Whether it was a terrible TV commercial or a gruesome homicide, we used to grimace at the offensive, raise hell about it if necessary. We were capable of being aghast.

Becoming a Copywriter (circa 2009) Tim Brunelle 08/19/09 I wrote my first headline in 1992. It pretty much sucked. Since then it’s been a journey.

The Recession in Adland: Can Bad Times Have a Silver Lining? Steffan Postaer 08/12/09 There is brutal comedy in the misfortune of others. If/when one agency hears of another’s misfortune we cheer. In bigger agencies, creative groups on one floor often compete and root against creative groups from another.

Continued Education – A Sustainable Competitive Advantage Jaci Russo 07/29/09 What I am referring to is taking on the responsibility of bettering yourself, whenever and wherever possible. This could mean performing research on market trends, or simply paying attention to the world around you. The biggest mistake anyone can make, is assuming they already have all the answers.

Gossage On The Brain Tim Brunelle 07/08/09 Please make room in your beach bag this summer for a 324 page, 10 inch by 8 inch volume of the best advertising insights ever inscribed on paper. I’m speaking, of course, of The Book Of Gossage, published by The Copy Workshop, a collection of one book and much more.

So You Want to Be a Creative Michael Russo 07/01/09 The following are a few things that I have learned over the years that may be helpful as you begin your career as a creative in advertising.

Au revoir les enfants d’advertising! My final column from Cannes. Steffan Postaer 06/28/09 And so we’ve come to the end of another Cannes Festival, albeit a smaller, more restrained version.

Money for Something Brad Mislow 06/24/09 Free is all around nowadays, even in our sputtering economy. The iPhone has thousands of free apps. Some even have practical uses: radio streaming, FedEx package tracking, mobile friendly versions of the New York Times, a carpenter’s level, etc. Sorry, iBanjo. I still don’t see the point.

In the Eyes of the Beholder Steffan Postaer 06/01/09 One thing that has always driven me crazy about advertising is the grandiosity we agencies have when it comes to talking about ourselves. As soon as I became part of my agency’s creative leadership I became part of the “Who are we?” discussion.

Show Runners and the Future of Advertising Tim Brunelle 05/04/09 Job descriptions just don’t cut it anymore in advertising... These are symptoms, from the front lines, of a broken system. The roles inside every ad agency have changed tremendously because of technology in the past very few years.

The Digital Jump Brad Mislow 04/24/09 There was a time I was all about TV spots. I loved making them. I loved watching them. I loved the fact that it was the easiest way to describe my job, especially to my parents. Print and radio was great too, but nothing gave me career satisfaction as cranking out the big spot.

The Short of the Long Martin Bihl 04/06/09 I teach advertising at an arts university. Often they tell me that the reason they are in my class is that they want to use advertising as a job to support them while they get on their feet as artists...

4 Fool Proof Ways to Create Wealth NOW ! Joshua Miller 04/01/09 I don't know about you, but I am personally fed up with all the newsletters and emails from people and companies offering me their latest and greatest ideas, opportunities or products to improve my life...

Finding Inspiration Tim Brunelle 03/26/09 Advertising is the business of optimism and the business of creativity. It is our life’s work to encourage. So here’s a few thoughts, not on finding that elusive gig...

Integrated Marketing. For Guns and Roses, “it’s so easy.” For Ad Agencies, Not So Much. Steffan Postaer 03/16/09 Everything about Guns early “marketing” was a brilliant example of integrated marketing. A teaser campaign? Unofficial pseudo-bootleg? Sound familiar? That’s because it’s the same strategy countless brands...

Judgement Tim Brunelle 02/18/09 A few weekends ago I found myself in Albuquerque with four other smart advertising people to judge the New Mexican community’s body of advertising work. I wonder what Cormac McCarthy would have said about this state of affairs. Probably not much...

Insecurity In the Creative Department. It Happens To the Best of Us. Steffan Postaer 02/11/09 Busy time at the agency. Lots of pitches. Lots of production. Always plenty of meetings. Factor in the brutal economy and you’ve got pressure. Being both player and coach in the creative department, I feel this pressure like a barometer.