Z-Files

John Long, formerly the executive creative director at Ogilvy and now in the same role at LG’s in-house agency, is an entertaining and insightful advertising critic.He has a thread going on Twitter called…

Here is life imitating art.Thanks to Olson Zaltman friend-of-the-family Nancy Cox for calling my attention to a partnership between the dating app Bumble and the Apple TV+ hit show, Ted Lasso. Bumble has…

It’s election season, so here is a branding lesson from President William Henry Harrison. If you know him at all, it is probably as the dude who caught pneumonia during his inauguration…

The new holiday campaign from Ocean Spray is the best.It begins with a glum, drably dressed family sitting silently around the Thanksgiving table. Then dad brings out a tray of…

Metaphors can convey brutal truths in a way that rational arguments cannot.It has taken new British Prime Minister Liz Truss only about six weeks to convince everyone of her incompetence.…

Thanks to OZ’s Kathy Shaw for sending along news about McDonald’s Adult Happy Meal rollout.  Apparently, since its introduction last week, it has been more popular than McDonald’s bargained for.…

Although global warming is a slow-rolling catastrophe for humanity, it ranks only 24th among the list of issues that Americans will consider when they vote in November. Most people aren’t…

Courtesy Unsplash/Pablo Heimplatz We're proud that the Olson Zaltman Z-Files is ranked #38 in Feedspot's list of the web's Top 100 market research blogs.

This summer I won a silent auction for a case of plant-based sausage for about $25. That’s dinner for a month at less than a $1/night – I was shocked…

Are you familiar with the book Six Word Memoirs?  In it, famous and not-so-famous people capture the meaning of their lives in six words.  For example, Aimee Mann wrote, “Couldn’t…

We’ll keep this simple.This research has been around for a few years, but it made the rounds on Marketing Twitter again this week and is always worth keeping in mind.…

A new study in the Journal of Marketing Research is exceedingly insightful. Or, perhaps better put, it is damn insightful.It is titled, “The Power of Profanity” and explores the impact…