This Braun ad I spotted in a recent issue of Redbook is so awful I’m not even sure where to begin. It presumably targets mothers who have a bit of disposable income and like to see their college-aged sons clean-shaven. So, to be fair to Braun, if you’re not one of these mothers already, pretend […]
Dear Trader Joe’s, I recently learned that you do basically zero advertising. I get it: Why waste money on print ads and circulars when you have a legion of rabid brand ambassadors talking up your plantain chips on the playground and telling people it is “totally worth the two-hour roundtrip drive” to go to the […]
I normally don’t work so late at night. But I’m giddy with excitement because Friday is National Punctuation Day. I’ll be lucky if I can fall asleep the next two nights. I’m kind of a punctuation junkie. I have a good handle on when to use the semi-colon (rarely) or the exclamation point (even more […]
In doing some competitive research for a client in the insurance industry, I learned this startling fact: You can actually buy Segway insurance from Progressive. See for yourself. So, what do you say to someone who has a Segway insurance policy? “It’s a good thing you’re covered — you can really get hurt cruising at […]
Dear Local Café, I think you guys are really nice. Like, the other day, you didn’t even give me a single dirty look when my one-year-old kept crawling behind the counter. Or when the three-year-old who accompanied us left sticky strawberry ice cream handprints on the table. (Okay, maybe that last one was my fault.) […]
When I turned 30, my best friend gave me a birthday card that read, “Happy Birthday, Ma’am.” Then on the inside: “Get used to it.” But I can’t. Six years and hundreds more “ma’ams” later, I still bristle every time I hear it. So when I read Natalie Angier’s article, “The Politics of Polite,” it, […]
I saw this on a bumper sticker a few weeks ago and have been thinking about it ever since. There are so many things right about this seemingly wrong tagline for the Montague Bookmill that it’s hard to know where to start. Can’t you almost hear the objections that would surely arise as it was […]
I’m on to you, Lorillard, Inc., manufacturers of noted cigarette brands Newport, Kent, True and Old Gold. And now the truth will come out. Yes, I’ll admit that as a 12-year-old, I snuck into the woods in back of my house to sneak a Newport with my friend Neil. But that was nearly 30 years […]
