Listen Up! Kid Lit With a Quiet Message That Needs Heard

September 16, 2019 Blathering interrupters are exhausting. We’ve all been cornered by them, whether it’s an over-talking, sentence-finishing workplace colleague, an opinionated family member at a holiday gathering, or a social acquaintance lobbing rhetorical questions into the mix with zero intention of awaiting an answer. More often than not, they appear as if they can’t … [Read more...]

Youth Say Anti-Vaping Ads, Most Initiatives Miss the Mark

July 22, 2019 As a former ad agency creative director, when I saw a bunch of Muppets trash-talking the Juul brand for an e-cigs PSA pitch I quickly went into “what the bleep” mode wondering how the branding could be so off the mark. I’m a huge fan of the former Truth Initiative campaign that used a ‘lift and reveal’ tonality of covert, corrupt tactics spotlighting the … [Read more...]

Will SF Ban on Juul E-Cigs Stop Youth Vaping? Ask Them.

July 20, 2019 Health advocate colleagues are confused as to why I’m not wildly applauding the SF ban on e-cigs, given my staunch stance against Juul and other flavored "vaping gone viral" profiteers that have targeted and hooked youth via high doses of nicotine...especially after co-viewing this week's CNBC special Vaporized with youth. To explain… Behavioral psychologists in … [Read more...]

Fighting Fire with Fire: How Would YOU Counter-Market Vaping?

June 19, 2019 As an ad industry creative director I’ve spent years using applied science to flip messages in healthier directions by tapping into the same tactics that marketers use to hook their audiences early and often. (Here’s how I use marketing tactics to sell 'reluctant readers' on reading for fun, or getting kids to 'eat green' by using Shrek against junk food drek … [Read more...]

Roll Red Roll: Sexual Assault Does Not Just Go Away, Neither Should This Story

June 16, 2019 “I can’t wait for this story to go away…” is uttered by a radio personality towards the end of the film Roll Red Roll, the true crime documentary exposing over 400 texts and digital data loops of evidence in the 2012 rape case involving small town football all-stars amidst the “Go Red” fan furor Steubenville, Ohio. As much as this very human reaction to trauma … [Read more...]