Steve Simpson
Past Perfect
Brand Marketing
David Ogilvy is the most familiar brand name in advertising. His fame lives on in the name of a global company, on the dust-jackets of two books worth reading (and [...]
Why Brands and Politics Don’t Mix
Brand Marketing
“Republicans buy shoes too.” -Michael Jordan The nomination of Elena Kagan to fill the seat of retiring Justice John Paul Stevens has reheated an issue that is now the most [...]
Rewriting the Book
Brand Marketing
The Apple iPad is now launched and even before the applause dies it will be confronted by a crowd of competitors: other PC makers moving in from one side and [...]
Revolution Diary
Brand Marketing
As I grow older (I am nearly 27), there are days in which the appeal of this revolutionist’s life palls. Month follows month, and it is always the same: the [...]
Hope, Change, Spam
Brand Marketing
They said this day would never come. They said our sights were set too high. They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned, to ever come together around a [...]
Why So Sad, Mad Men?
Brand Marketing
Someone halfway clever has probably already written the following end-of-the-year column: Donald Draper’s Review of the Year in Advertising for 1963 and Preview of 1964. Probably it will have “Draper” [...]
Confessions of a Scam Artist
Brand Marketing
Dear M., It was so good to hear news of you. I saw you quoted in a trade magazine, a week old, smuggled into my quarters here. I don’t know [...]
Advertising’s Cash for Clunkers
Brand Marketing
Green shoots are springing up all around us. Solar panels glitter like diamonds in dun-colored subdivisions. Shovels rhythmically turn topsoil to lay the foundation for a clean, smooth, buttery new [...]
Win a Kangaroo, Part II
Brand Marketing
A month ago a few paragraphs appeared here in praise of Howard Gossage, a 1960s’ San Francisco advertising man whose work anticipated our current concern with teasing the public into [...]
Win a Kangaroo!
Brand Marketing
Once, in San Francisco, there was a tradition in advertising circles that, although informally observed, seemed an invariable part of the copywriter’s portfolio review. After leafing through a few flimsy [...]