Heartbreaking Ads
I enjoyed Herschell Gordon Lewis’ column about car copy (“Does Your Car Love You…or Regard You as a Flat Tire?” Curmudgeon-at-Large, DIRECT, March 1).
On the radio recently I heard an ad that ranks with the best of them: “Avoid the heartbreak of a boring sedan.” For years, as a child, I wondered about the heartbreak of psoriasis, thinking it must be some unmentionable disease. Now, as an adult, I consider it a bizarre use of “heartbreak” and have figured it came from a different time, filled with radio soap operas and not very sophisticated listeners. I guess some things never change.
Kappy Bowers
Do It Yourself
I couldn’t agree more with the focus of Victoria James’ May 15 Career Busters column (“You’re the CEO of Me Inc.”).
The need to advance one’s DM knowledge rests squarely on our own shoulders.
I plan to treat this article as a blueprint to prevent slumps that periodically occur in my career.
Shirley Frazier
President
Sweet Survival
Paterson, NJ
I enjoyed Victoria James’ May 15 column in DIRECT. However, even if you do most of the “right” things, your career can still become stagnant due to what I call ACS (anti-commuting syndrome). This is where your lifestyle is such that you will stay in that lower-paying job because it’s only 10 minutes from your house and all the “big time” jobs involve either moving to the “big city” or commuting. OK, so it’s also a pretty nice place to work, but a nonprofit only pays so much.
It’s a horrible syndrome that is not easily overcome. I have a graduate degree in management and marketing and over 10 years of marketing experience in the publishing/association industry. I am not a slug and have always been ambitious to a degree, but once you become accustomed to a short commute it has to be a mighty fine offer to lure one away into the mad, mad world of road rage and high gas prices.
Thanks for the article. I am sure it made many people think about where they are and where they are going.
Maureen Peterson
Direct Marketing Manager
Naval Institute Press
Annapolis, MD
The Maven Scores Again
I love reading practical, instructive, by-the-numbers design advice like Tom Collins’ May 1 column in DIRECT. I wanted to e-mail it to an internal company mailing list, but learned beforehand that we cannot display the “Before” or the “makeover” improvement in the electronic version.
Too bad! The input is first-rate, and motivating, too.
I always go to Tom’s column first.
Phil Brown
Moore Response Marketing Services
Bannockburn, IL
It is a pleasure to read Tom Collins’ Makeover Maven. As a copy director with a mostly direct marketing background, it’s mind-numbing how many creative executions I see daily that resemble the ads he revises.
I wonder, though, if he’s not preaching to the choir by being in a magazine like DIRECT. (Probably not as much as I suspect, unfortunately.) But it’s a shame there aren’t more columns like Tom’s in trade pubs like Adweek and Ad Age, where they could really make an impact on the practitioners of advertainment.
Justin Russell
Tom Collins’ redo of the irrational Rational Software ad (The Makeover Maven, DIRECT, June) was terrific — a thoughtful makeover of an ineffectual, image-driven space ad.
Herb Laney
President/Owner
Spilsbury Inc.
Oak Brook, IL
Another Side of Chicago
Just read Ray Schultz’s recent column (“The Great Plains,” Direct Hit, June). As a person who grew up in Chicago and loves it as a place to do business, the piece is a powerful indictment of some Chicago companies.
For every big company coming to the end of its life cycle, there is an entrepreneurial organization growing. That is particularly true in Chicago, which has incredible resources in its people, finances and infrastructure.
We would be delighted to have you tour Eli’s Cheesecake World one day and learn how we took my dad’s signature dessert and turned it into one of the country’s most popular specialty desserts. Also we would love to have you dine at Eli’s the Place for Steak, where it first started.
Marc Schulman
President
Eli’s the Place for Steak
Chicago
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