Interesting, insightful, and entertaining stories that touch on the business of advertising -- part of a series of mailers I sent out promoting my freelance writing back in the '90s. © Craig McNamara, 2022. For entertainment and free expression purposes; no copyright infringement is intended.

1. Adecdotes
A 1998-1999 promotional mailer campaign
from Craig McNamara, Freelance Writer
Special Remastered Edition
Stories from the world of advertising and marketing

2. Concept, text © 2022 Craig McNamara
All quoted material © by the respective owners
Quoth the maven
A good story is worth repeating. Especially if it can help bring you
business. That was my thinking behind these promotional messages I sent
out early in my freelance career. A series of short and quick-to-produce
mailers to keep my name in front of potential clients – and maybe justify the
advertising-related books on my shelf. I dubbed them “adecdotes” –
anecdotes about advertising. After an insightful or interesting story, I ended
by connecting the passage to a soft-sell pitch for me.
For this “remastered” collection, I updated the layouts and added a headline
for each entry. Oh, and I replaced my phone number with my web address,
craigmwriter.com – something I didn’t have back when I created these.

3. When I was growing up in North Dakota, the knowledge that the
Green Giant company was based in the adjacent state of Minnesota
was somewhat discomfiting; I didn’t like the idea that this lurid golem
probably could walk to my house in a day.
But he never did walk around. He just tilted his head back slightly and
issued that laugh – merry but too merry, bone-chilling, if you thought
about it coming from a sixty-foot biped standing over your house.
James Lileks
Fresh Lies, 1994
Save yourself from your most terrifying clients. Make a
freelance writer deal with them. Craig McNamara, craigmwriter.com
The Giant Next Door

4. A sign painter was painting a billboard one day and a man walked up
and asked him if he could give him a cigarette. The painter said yes
and offered him a Camel. The stranger thanked him with enthusiasm,
and said, “I’d walk a mile for a Camel.”
The sign painter was smart enough to report the incident as a
suggestion for a billboard and from this incident grew one of the best
and most familiar slogans in advertising.
Julian Lewis Watkins
The One Hundred Greatest Advertisements, 1949
Good ideas can come from anyone. Especially a freelance writer
with 15 years experience. Craig McNamara, craigmwriter.com
Bumming a slogan

5. The Carl Lewis board [For Nike] where he’s jumping off the end. I
walked into my partner’s office, he was laying it out, and he had Carl
in the middle of board, jumping, but the tissue overlay was jarred to
the side, so that when I walked in and looked at it, I said, “Hey, it’s
great, the way he’s going off the edge there.”
My partner looked at me and said, “What the hell are you talking
about?”
Stephen Kessler
Chiat/Day: The First Twenty Years, 1990
Sometimes inspiration is by accident. But you can still call a
good freelance writer on purpose. Craig McNamara, craigmwriter.com
Leap of Thought

6. “Gentlemen,” he said, “our research has proved that Haloid-Xerox has
minimum recognition. Our sample shows only 3 percent awareness
among your key customers. We believe a major reason is your
cumbersome name. We therefore recommend that you cut it in half.”
“That’s very valuable input,” they said. “And now that you have this
excellent documentation, what’s your recommendation?” [He] banged
his fist against the table ... as he said it crisp and clear: “Haloid!”
They sent [him] back to New York and changed their name to Xerox.”
George Lois and Bill Pitts
George, Be Careful: A Greek Florist’s Kid In The Roughhouse World Of Advertising, 1972
When you’re too close to the problem, a freelance writer
can offer some objectivity. Craig McNamara, craigmwriter.com
Choose Carefully

7. On his first day at the agency, [David] was led to a tiny cubicle, its
walls just two feet short of the ceiling ... In the next cubicle, he heard a
man in the midst of an emotional breakdown. “Man, I can’t stand it! I
can’t draw one more frame of this [expletive deleted] in this white
suit!” the fellow sobbed ...
In a few moments, David’s boss fetched him and introduced him to the
copywriter in the next office. “David ... we have a very important
assignment for the Man from Glad, and we need an art director to
take over the project ... ”
Randall Rothenberg,
Where the Suckers Moon: The Life and Death of an Advertising Campaign, 1994
Maybe nobody on staff wants that project, but to a freelance
writer, it’s a plum assignment. Craig McNamara, craigmwriter.com
Sad and Glad

8. The artwork ... was a blatant rip-off of the Jaws campaign – lone swimmer on
the surface; huge shark loitering below. “Sharks,” the copy said. “Eyewitness
News. Five Parts This Week.” I couldn’t wait to show it to Lew ... I imagined
him saying, “Good work, kid. This’ll really get ‘em.”
What he actually did, though, was squint at the ad awhile, then say ... “I want
the skyline of Chicago put in behind the water ... I want to see the Hancock
Building.” “But Lew,” I said. ”There are no sharks in Lake Michigan.”
“I don’t give a [expletive deleted],” he said. “Put Chicago in there.”
Brandon Tartikoff,
The Last Great Ride, 1992
To your most difficult clients, a freelance writer can offer
patience and understanding. Craig McNamara, craigmwriter.com
Shark Snark

9. Gerald Lambert of the Lambert Pharmaceutical Company was looking
for an idea to increase the sales of Listerine. In an old medical book, he
found the word halitosis, from the Latin halisus, meaning exhalation.
Ad stories were written about people who became unpopular because
of offensive breath. The ads said: “The insidious thing about halitosis is
that you, yourself, never know when you have it. And since the subject is
so delicate, even your best friend won’t tell you.”
John Caples
How To Make Your Advertising Make Money, 1983
To find ideas, it helps to know where to look. A freelance
writer is one place to start. Craig McNamara, craigmwriter.com
A breath of stale air

10. The president of the Disney division overseeing the picture suddenly demanded
silence. He was, he said, forced ... to take the monster out of its cage. ... [He]
reached under the table, pretended to grab a small predatory animal from its
lair, and then, as if clutching the creature by the neck ... exhibited his empty,
claw-like hand to the people around the table. ...
“I’m going to put it back in its cage now,” the executive said...”and I never want
you to force me to bring it out again”... [He] asked the writer, “Do you know what
the monster is?” The writer shook his head. The executive said, “It’s our money.”
John Gregory Dunne
Monster: Living Off The Big Screen, 1997
When your budget is less than monstrous, a freelance
writer will handle it carefully. Craig McNamara, craigmwriter.com
The Monster Unleashed

11. When the advertising world went on a “creative” binge in the late 1960s, I
denounced award winners as lunatics. ... Three years ago, I woke up to the fact
that the majority of our campaigns, while impeccable as to positioning and
promise, contained no big idea. They were too dull to penetrate the filter which
consumers erect to protect themselves against the daily deluge of advertising.
Too dull to be remembered. Too dull to build a brand on. Too dull to sell. ...
In short, we were still sound, but we were no longer brilliant. Neither soundness
nor brilliance is any good by itself; each requires the other ...
David Ogilvy
The Unpublished David Ogilvy, 1986
To balance creativity with salesmanship, a freelance writer
is a sound, brilliant idea. Craig McNamara, craigmwriter.com
Reconsidering the lunatics

12. Design was no longer a fashionable typeface or a modern layout ... Design
became a process for solving communication problems. Any design decision
was okay as long as it solved the communication problem in a precise and
interesting way. And as I began thinking in this new way, my relationship with
clients began to change. I stopped trying to ram my aesthetic prejudices down
their throats. Why should clients have my tastes? They never went to my fancy
art school. We began to communicate on a different level. I talked to them
about solutions and ideas instead of design.
Bob Gill
Forget all the rules you ever learned about graphic design. Including the ones in this book, 1981
When you want to talk solutions and ideas instead of design,
call a freelance writer. Craig McNamara, craigmwriter.com
Rethinking design

13. He felt frozen, impaled by the strangeness and beauty of [the award
show] ... It was then he admitted to himself that he was indeed ... a
practitioner not of literature, not of fine arts, but of that most popular
of popular entertainments ... And by God, he was enjoying every
tawdry minute of it.
“I remember thinking to myself,” he recalls, “Why am I fighting this?” …
His carefully nurtured disdain ... for the blessing of The Others dissolved
and he found himself wanting desperately to win.
Doug Hill & Jeff Weingrad,
Saturday Night: A Backstage History Of Saturday Night Live, 1986
, Even freelance writers have known the lure of awards.
Some of us have even won a few. Craig McNamara, craigmwriter.com
Tawdry & Loving It

14. Bibendum, better known to most people as the Michelin Man ... came to
Edouard [Michelin] at an exhibition when he noticed a stack of tires that
resembled a human torso. The character’s name comes from the Latin nunc
est bibendum, meaning, “Let Us Drink,” based on the company’s slogan that
Michelin tires “swallow up all obstacles.”
Originally, the Michelin Man was a lusty, cigar-smoking fellow who drank and
partied in the best French tradition of jois de vivre. Although Bibendum has
given up smoking and drinking, he maintains his vigorous spirit.
Warren Dotz & Jim Morton,
What a Character! 20th Century American Advertising Icons, 1996
We all settle down as we age, but a good freelance writer
still has lively ideas. Craig McNamara, craigmwriter.com
Deflating the tire

15. I would say the concept behind the car phone, and the phone machine,
the speaker phone, the airline phone, the portable phone, the pay phone,
the cordless phone, the multi-line phone, the phone pager, the call
waiting, the call forwarding, call conferencing, speed dialing, direct
dialing and the redialing, is that we all have absolutely nothing to say,
and we’ve got to talk to someone about it right now. Cannot wait another
second. I mean come on, you’re at home you’re on the phone, you’re in
the car you’re makin’ calls, you get to work, “Any messages for me?”
You’ve got to give people a chance to miss you a little bit.
Jerry Seinfeld
SeinLanguage, 1993
When you miss a reliable freelance writer, remember the
new area code before you call. Craig McNamara, craigmwriter.com
Getting the message

16. [The client] loved the milk mustache campaign but had one request.
Could we look at it using celebrities?
If you have worked in an ad agency, you’ll know that many creative
people will have a knee-jerk negative reaction to a client’s creative
suggestion. That response, of course, is stupid and ultimately self-
defeating ... Many clients have had great ideas and I have been
fortunate to have benefited from them.
Jay Schulberg with Bernie Hogya and Sal Taibi
The Milk Mustache Book: A Behind-The-Scenes Look At American’s Favorite Advertising
Campaign, 1998
A good freelance writer isn’t averse to your ideas. Or even
(gasp!) your clients’ ideas. Craig McNamara, craigmwriter.com
That’s one for the client

17. Nora Ephron, our director on “Sleepless In Seattle,” once told me that someone
said to her about a particular rejection, “Don’t take this personally.” She
answered incredulously, “How am I supposed to take it? As a group?”
Yes, that is the answer, as it turns out. You have to take it as a group. This
sounds odd, but you take it as a group by saying “Next.” Personal humiliation
and career-dashing confrontations are endemic, impersonal, and constant. This
is the flip side of ambition: debilitating exhaustion and the constant threat of
defeat. Therefore every crisis can’t be taken too seriously or you won’t survive.
Lynda Obst
Hello, He Lied & Other Truths From The Hollywood Trenches, 1996
Hire a freelance writer who can take criticism, take rejection,
and even take direction. Craig McNamara, craigmwriter.com
ACCEPTING REJECTION

18. The [Dr. Seuss] cartoon that attracted … makers of Flit [insecticide] showed a
knight in armor, sprawled in his bed as a snarling dragon loomed over him. “Darn
it all,” the knight says, “Another Dragon. And just after I’d sprayed the whole castle
with Flit.” … The cartoon led to a seventeen-year Dr. Seuss advertising campaign
with the standing four-word cry for help: “Quick, Henry, the Flit!” … The Flit phrase
entered the American vernacular. … Flit sales increased wildly.
The nearest thing to criticism was an agency warning that sometimes the bugs
[Dr. Seuss] drew were too lovable to kill.
Judith & Neil Morgan
Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel: A Biography, 1995
For a freelance writer whose ad ideas aren’t just by accident,
say, “Quick, Henry, the phone!” Craig McNamara, craigmwriter.com
Flitting with Success

19. George Brice said, “Gentlemen, our creative director, Brooke
Parker.”
Brooke Parker said, “Well, I guess I’m supposed to tell you what
our philosophy is, and if I knew, I would.” He lit a cigarette. …
“I think advertising’s had it. I don’t think people believe in it
anymore. I think it’s a waste of money. I’m not even sure it’s moral.
… I don’t even know what to tell you. Half the time, I don’t even
know what I’m doing.”
Jack Dillon
The Advertising Man, 1972
Hire a freelance writer who knows when to speak up in
meetings – and when to shut up. Craig McNamara, craigmwriter.com
Hmm, interesting approach

20. He hates advertising, which he views as a global force of destruction. … (“An
advertiser will happily make you feel bad about yourself if that will make you
buy, say a Bic pen.”) This antipathy has made [George] Myer a a connoisseur
of brazen marketing; he is especially interested in examples of ad copy in
which the word-to-falsehood ratio approaches one. He once showed me a
magazine advertisement for a butter substitute called Country Crock.
“It’s not from the country; there is no crock,” he said. “Two words, two lies.”
David Owen
Taking Humor Seriously: George Myer, the funniest man behind the funniest show on TV,
The New Yorker, March 13, 2000
On the other hand, here are two words, and neither of
them are lies: Freelance writer. Craig McNamara, craigmwriter.com
(By the way, he wrote for “The Simpsons”)