An Ad Life.

Welcome to my blog. This will be a series of stories, observations and reminiscences about one person's long career as an agency and freelance copywriter and creative director. Enjoy.

Monthly Archives: July 2014

The 53-second Radio Commercial

Bob Prince was into it. He had my radio script in one hand, a Pall Mall in the other and the stopwatch on the table in front of him. “Iron City Beer has that clean, crisp taste …” he intoned.   Then, almost imperceptibly, he glanced at the stopwatch on the table in front of him, concluded that there was not…

A Mountain-Grown Eruption

If you’ve seen a Folgers Coffee TV commercial in the past 30 years, you’ve basically seen them all. It goes like this: Somebody is asleep. Somebody else makes coffee. The aroma of the coffee wakes the sleeping person up and draws them to the kitchen where they are handed a cup and once again inhale the aroma, only more deeply.…

Be All You Can Be … at Arlington

A few years ago, I was in Washington, D.C. for my niece’s graduation from Georgetown University. My wife and I stayed at a hotel across the Potomac in Arlington.  Early that Saturday morning she, her brother and I went out for an exercise walk and ended up in Arlington National Cemetery, an amazingly tranquil place at 7:30 am. Walking up…