FAULTS and FAUX pas

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The days after Christmas are mine fields in advertising. Did you get all the Santa-gift-Christmas commercials out of the system? People often work late on Christmas Eve in hopes of NOT hearing holiday messages on the 26th. B100 missed some. Saturday, when Beth and I were on the way to the QC to shop, we heard a Christmas Eve bar party run every half hour – 2 days too late. One of the cable channels ran a holiday spot yesterday.

All holidays have a little of this effect. Even seasons. Fix your air conditioning in October. Snowmobiles in May. These are bad. But Christmas is an orgy of buying messages and therefore the time you’re most likely to miss something.

I’m grateful to Mandy, because I think we came through clean this year.

Quote for 10/14/09: Philip Dusenberry on Profitable Writing

I have always believed that writing advertisements is the second most profitable form of writing. The first, of course, is ransom notes. - Philip Dusenberry

Blowing a FUSE: Misleading Diet Ads

I opened e-mail this morning and saw the above ad. (I‘ve cut off the product.) Ads like the one above give everyone a bad name. The difference between those pictures is WAY more than 35 pounds. Taking a pill without changing your life will not do that for you.

Lieing diet ads give the weight loss industry a bad name. People get suckered into the product. When they fail, they give up and remain unhealthy. Plus they give people false expectations. You can lose weight, but it takes more than a pill.


Lieing diet ads give the advertising industry a bad name. People assume that if some ads are misleading, then they all are. Note from someone that does this for a living: It is BAD business to mislead potential customers in your advertising. Sure you could gain short-term. But once people catch on, it will catch up with you.