Disclosure first: I sell advertising for a living. It’s in my best interest to believe everything I’m about to write — and to convince you. At 6am on Wednesday, November 5, I believe it anyway. Last night on CNN, I watched John McCain deliver a gracious and respectful concession speech. I saw Barack Obama deliver […]
Wednesday, November 5 is the first full day without political advertising. No more “Gordon Smith voted to confiscate money from widows and orphans nine times!” No more “Jeff Merkley likes to drown kittens! And he hates our troops!” I’m paraphrasing from memory, of course. It may be Smith who drowns kittens, and Merkley who rips […]
My wife, who knits, tipped me off to a lovely little dispute in the world of knitting blogs. It’s been resolved [UPDATE: the original resolution has since been reversed. See below], but since I’ll do just about anything to generate weekend traffic, I thought I’d stir it up again here. The short version is that […]
A couple of weeks ago a Portland radio station ran commercials for four straight days for an auto dealer — and got the name of the store wrong. This past weekend, another Portland radio station ran an entire weekend’s worth of commercials for a financial advisor — with incorrect contact information. The good news, from […]
In Influence, the Science of Persuasion, Robert Cialdini cites experiments demonstrating that people are more likely to comply with your request if you give a reason. The reason doesn’t even have to make much sense. Copywriting instructors have incorporated the “Reason Why” technique into their lessons. Mr. Toskana’s obviously been studying up on this stuff […]