This may not interest you much, but I coined the first phrase above about four years ago when the world’s economies started to fall apart. Not long before that we had been hearing moonshine from assorted idiots, economists and smug …
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Which of these out-of-touch liars and incompetents would you prefer to rip you off? Plus a Eureka moment: would this interest you?
My writing was greatly influenced by 17th and 18th century writers. I don’t think English has ever been better written. In a column I wrote for Marketing in December 1997 I quoted Dryden, “When I survey life, ’tis all a …
Read MoreThe unsung marketing genius: another breed of Madman
Would you like to know how one man managed to make marketing money work about ten times harder than it should? Well, there is a new book out called “Changing the world is the only fit work for a grown …
Read MoreWhat makes it all worthwhile? The people. People like Matt Kahn
Twenty odd years ago an American writer came to me looking for a job. He was called Matt Kahn. He showed me his work, and I thought he was pretty good. One piece impressed me so much that I use …
Read More“I don’t care what you say as long as you spell my name right” – The glories of marketing dyslexia, and what I think about social media
I’ve never mentioned this, but the radiant Chloe who keeps me in line suffers from slight dyslexia. Happily this doesn’t stop her doing a great job and bossing me around with great enthusiasm, undiminished by my brainless incompetence. So I …
Read MoreBig surprise at the Caples Awards
They gave me a Lifetime Achievement Award. Very kind of them as I once wrote they were the silliest award of all. That’s because they don’t take results into account – the thing John Caples was obsessed with all his …
Read MoreA saint who moves among us. How doth she love herself? Let me count the ways… You might like to light a joint before reading the last bit
What follows is part of a heartfelt message from Rachel Elnaugh, who won fame as founder of Red Letter Day, an internet business that went broke. She has reinvented herself as a mentor etc., teaching other people what she knows. …
Read MoreBill Cosby says something that needed saying
“They’re standing on the corner and they can’t speak English. I can’t even talk the way these people talk: Why you ain’t,Where you is,What he drive,Where he stay,Where he work,Who you be… And I blamed the kid until I heard …
Read MoreIn memory of a splendid man
Today Steve Thomas wrote to me saying “What about George Smith?” A very good question, for George who died just a few days ago was an ornament to a profession – or trade – with far too few. I said …
Read MoreWhat I hate about me … how people screw up, advice from Napoleon – and Pareto’s lost principle
I sent this out to the list yesterday, and a lot of people liked it, so I’m sticking it up here. Do you hate watching or listening yourself talk? I do. I rarely watch my stuff in full – and …
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