Mad Woman Blog

I have always had a sweet spot for Twix. It is, as many of you know, a delicious, mouthwatering combination of chocolate, caramel and cookies. And I can proudly say that whenever I am in a tough spot — which does happen from time to time given my Mad Woman persona — I “Chew things over with Twix”. (Yep, I too, have been watching the ads.) But just so you know, my overwhelming love of Twix also stems from the fact that this sumptuous two-finger sweetie is single-handedly responsible for one of the funniest episodes in my career.

It happened sometime in the last millennium when I was working as a Creative Director for a Saatchi & Saatchi agency in London. (For the 13 of you who avidly read my blog — I have a confession to make. I am a Brit — a Londoner born and bred in fact. So suffice to say, I’ve worked for Mad British agencies over the years as well as American ones.)

Anyway, given my heritage, and my love of all things American except grits — apologies, but this Brit cannot stand grits — I was asked to go to our sister agency in New York to review a brand campaign for the aforementioned Twix. Said campaign was being developed in the US by Americans, for, er Europeans. (No further comment on the wisdom of this decision will be made here, other than to point out that asking Americans to develop a Twix campaign for Europeans is the transatlantic equivalent of asking Californians to develop the next New Jersey Tourist board campaign, and keeping your fingers crossed that they’ll understand the people, the culture and the “what-sup-witch-yew?’ accents while they’re doing it.) (more…)

I was thrilled last week when I got a call from the WBJ about the Women Who Mean Business awards. Honestly, my pulse started racing, my heart began pounding, and my head started swelling immediately. “This is it!” I thought. “They’ve decided that my name was missing from this year’s wonderful group of honorees and want to add me to the list even though I wasn’t even nominated!”

Wrong! The call from my friends at the Washington Business Journal was simply to inquire about my availability to actually interview the winners and produce a video of the results. In other words, they were after a “Woman Who Means Video Production Business.” Now that, dear readers, was a little removed from the female honoree glory I was hoping for, but it’s still a pretty cool thing to be asked to do. I therefore accepted the invitation immediately and resolved to do a brilliant Katie Couric impression on the night.

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I’ve heard myself utter the words “It’s time to refresh your brand when…” a lot lately. In fact, it’s been my most uttered statement of the month, along with “Andrew, can we get your college applications finished today.” (But that’s a whole other story.)

So, as I’ve imparted such advice to numerous clients and potential clients in the last few weeks, I thought I’d share some of my thoughts with you, my fellow citizens of Washington DC.

And as I do, I’m also going to include the thoughts of my fellow mad men and women at Brainwave, who have debated this “brand refresh” topic vociferously this month in online forums where the most important marketing issues of our time are discussed — issues such as Don Draper’s true advertising ability for instance.

So when is it time to refresh your brand and your image? Well, here are some little clues: (more…)

Copywriting is an art. A good copywriter can communicate his or her message with humor, biting sarcasm, and powerful prose, and write lines that will be remembered for days, if not months, on end. I’m pleased to say that there are great copywriters working all over America — but unfortunately not many of them have been in evidence this election season.

I have to confess that I have been totally depressed by the barrage of banal TV ads that has descended upon us these last few months — so depressed in fact that I actually considered starting my own PAC and taking to the airwaves in protest. For the record, I would have called my PAC “Americans for good ads, and against sleep-inducing drivel”, and I would have lobbied the public to vote against any politician who ran an ad that was badly written and produced in any way at all.

However, as I do not have a Rolodex full of massively wealthy donors to fund me, I gave up the thought of my one-woman crusade to improve political advertising, and looked for other ways to fulfill my insatiable appetite for great copywriting. And I found it — on the mall on October 30. (more…)

Christine O’Donnell thinks she’s me. I swear, she actually does. In a commercial released by her campaign recently, this candidate for the US Senate confidently declared, “I’m you!”. So as ridiculous as it sounds, it appears that Christine O’Donnell’s image consultants have convinced her that the path to the US Senate can be achieved by persuading the American people that she’s just like, well, yours truly, Flora Nicholas. Awesome.

Now I can well understand the need for such boldness, because dear Christine is having a teeny, weeny bit of a PR problem at the moment. She has after all been caught on camera admitting that she’s dabbled in witchcraft, and also expressing her belief that scientists have created mice with fully functioning human brains. (This among a litany of other credibility sapping statements and episodes too.)

So it is abundantly clear to anyone in our profession, and indeed anyone with half a brain — mice included — that Ms. O’Donnell needs a huge, immediate and total image makeover. But honestly, trying to improve her image and her senate election chances by claiming she’s actually me may not help her in the slightest. And let me explain why. (more…)

In the real world, the world where the actual Don Drapers work, madness has reigned this year. It’s been evident in ad campaigns, new product launches, the behavior of famous brand representatives and even in the handling of crisis management PR campaigns. So I really couldn’t go any further with my blog, without commenting on the craziness that has occurred in the last few months.

Where to start? Well, first of all, there was Toyota. Up until this year, Toyota was viewed as a solid, reliable, good value and innovative car company. Its ad campaign was based on a tagline of “Toyota. Moving forward.” Advertising rule no 1: If you’re going to make a claim in your advertising, it better be true and you’d better be able to prove it. No worries there. This year, Toyota cars have been “moving forward” all by themselves with no help from anybody whatsoever — including their drivers. They were going rogue on interstates and accelerating down highways, turnpikes and byways with nothing, apart from good luck in some instances, to stop them. It has been months since the Toyota news broke. The company’s troubles are still going on. And inexplicably, so is the use of its “Moving Forward” tag line. (more…)

The TV show “Mad Men” is currently ruling the airwaves. And rightfully so. It’s one of the best drama series ever to hit the small screen, and in my humble little opinion, the best series about advertising bar none. How do I know? Well, I’ve spent nearly 30 years working as a copywriter and creative director at some of the world’s top agencies. So suffice to say, I’ve met the Mad Men, created campaigns for Mad Clients and experienced the crazy, funny and unforgettable life at Mad Agencies. I’ve been so inspired by the series that I’ve decided that it’s time to share my adventures in advertising with the unsuspecting world at large. So welcome to my blog. Here you’ll find the stories, musings, tips and advice of, yep I have to confess, a totally and utterly Mad Woman.