Out..................All The Way Out!

San Paulo, Brazil is a city of over 11 million people. It is a beautiful place. It is experiencing dramatic growth throughout the region. The people who run San Paulo have become fed up with the thousands of outdoor billboards that are popping up all over the scenic city. They have taken steps to ban any and all outdoor billboards from this day on. In overly commercial USA -- San Francisco, Austin and other cities are watching closely and considering outdoor advertising bans as well. There are currently four USA states that have some sort of outdoor advertising ban ---- they are Alaska, Hawaii, Maine and Vermont.

Magazines are not Dead

I get over 30 magazines a month. Is that excessive? On every flight I take, I have 10-15 magazines to read through. I typically knock out each magazine I get within 2-3 days of it being in my mailbox. I rip pages out, send copies to friends and business associates and make notes in the margins. I make my magazines work.

People will always be loyal to their favorite magazines and will always find time to read them -- usually at their leisure and most often at home. And magazine readers are affluent, influential and involved. That can't be a bad thing.

Here are a few of my favorite magazines:

New York
New Yorker
Los Angeles
Portfolio
Atlantic
Architectural Digest
Esquire
Rolling Stone
Blender
Spin
Paste
Men's Health
Outdoors
The Week
WIRED
Fast Company
Time
Newsweek
U S News
Forbes
Fortune
Money
Travel & Leisure
Sports Illustrated
ESPN
AdWeek
BrandWeek
Advertisng Age
Campaign
Shoot

Why Are There So Many Bad Ads Out There?

You'd think that the folks who have to approve (and pay for) all these local TV commercials, would take a vested interest in how their ads come across. Here are some of the "Dont''s" I just can't tolerate in low budget, local TV commercials......

Don't Yell At Me
Don't Have Your Spokesperson Read a Script
Don't Splash The Screen With Super Bright Colors
Don't Repeat Your Phone # More Than Twice
Don't Put In A Kid, Just Because..........
Don't Put In A Puppy, Just Because...........
Don't Use The Local Weather Guy / Girl