“Your mom and I are going to divorce next month.” Her father had meant to type “Disney” and quickly corrected his mistake. But poor Hannah was shaken. Another victim of autocorrect. In a recent New York Times article, Ben Zimmer writes about the often humorous (embarrassing, socially devastating) results of autocorrect. Wondering how autocorrect works? […]
I’ve written before about online ads that confuse and/or scare me. It’s time for an update on this topic. Since writing that post over two years ago, online ads haven’t gotten any less weird. Case in point: While checking out a minor league baseball team’s schedule, I saw two ads bookmarking the month of August. […]
Oh, small, earnest neighborhood florist — I can see how hard you’re working to get this right. Here you are in the heart of college country, with scores of students strolling past you every day, never stopping to browse or buy. You know an untapped market when you see one, and you’re even willing to […]
Former President Bill Clinton had faced tough questions before, but this time, the stakes were high. Clinton had never listened to “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” the NPR news quiz, let alone appeared as a contestant on the show. If he lost, he would let down his party and his country — especially Dave Parks […]
“First, do no harm,” is a phrase commonly associated with a physician’s commitment to the patient. Copywriters, too, should stick by this rule. So here’s an ethical dilemma for you: As a copywriter, what do you do when a client requests or, worse yet, insists that you do something not in her interest? Here’s a […]
The week before Father’s Day, I was flipping through the New York Times “Sunday Styles” section and came across this ad. It was for a department store I hadn’t heard of, and the caption was something like, “Hey Moms — give Dad what he really wants this Father’s Day.” What? To spend time with his […]
My 12-year-old neighbor, Phoebe, returned from a trip to Houston and couldn’t wait to tell me about the ice cream she’d discovered, Blue Bell, and the company’s super fun slogan, “We eat all we can, and sell the rest.” (Phoebe’s not aware that I write copy for a living, but she knows how I feel […]
“Is it wrong to hide the Dalai Lama’s posts?” I asked on Facebook a couple of years ago. “They’re just so frequent.”* I wonder if Tenzin Gyatso saw this recent profile in Fast Company, which featured Rufus Griscom talking about how to build online communities around your content. We liked what RG had to say. […]
I wonder if she could recommend a wine pairing?
Nine-year-old Martha Payne started a blog last month analyzing her school lunches. Boring, right? But, with over a million visitors in just six weeks, she has something to teach the likes of Michelle Obama and Jamie Oliver. Why is her blog so successful? She pretty much sums it up in her profile: “My dad says […]
