Posted on 01/20/2009 6:26:53 AM PST by oblomov
I'm thrilled by the election of Barack Obama, and I don't want to miss a word he says. In fact, all the days since Nov. 4 have seemed a bit like Christmas morning, waking to his mellifluous voice that reveals yet another distinguished individual picked to head an operation that he or she is supremely qualified to lead and is not intent on undermining.
"You're acting like a groupie," says my husband. But for an ad person and former copywriter, it is especially thrilling to go from a guy who wielded the English language like a hacksaw to a real writer. And by all indications, that rare sub-species, a copywriter, a persuasive communicator like FDR or Churchill with the talent to capture ideas and emotions vividly yet succinctly, in words that touch people and move them to action. And yes, I know he has speechwriters, but also that he does some of the important stuff himself.
"There's not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there's the United States of America." A hundred words or so of great copywriting.
It's about more than rhetoric or style. And it will affect more than politics. Barack Obama's elevation of the public conversation signifies a renewal of respect for the people he is addressing. He doesn't condescend, he doesn't dumb it down. To borrow the words of a great San Francisco copywriter, it's a "conversation among equals."
And he can be an inspiration to all of us who contribute to the endless conversation we now carry on around the clock, around the world, in all conceivable channels, including advertising.
One of Obama's most poignant refrains came late in the campaign: "America, we are a better country than this." That resonated more for me than some of the "change" slogans that bear the stamp of multiple writers and sleepless nights on the campaign trail (change that works for you, change we can believe in, change we need, we are the change we're looking for, etc.).
"Yes We Can" comes from terrain familiar to us ad folks, but look what he did with it in the brilliant speech that spawned the YouTube videos.
I'm not crazy about "The American Recovery & Reinvestment Plan," but then I guess he has to leave some stuff to the staff.
And then there were the election-night words that even impressed William Kristol, not to mention the 39% of U.S. households with dogs.
"Sasha and Malia, I love you more than you can imagine, and you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House".
"Not bad," said Kristol. "It could be a tough four or eight years for conservatives."
The country has never been more in need of a great copywriter. May we be blessed and inspired by his gifts for many years to come.
Journalism majors routinely possess the lowest average SAT and ACT scores of all majors at American universities. Intellectuals, they ain't.
I can’t remember the name of the ad exective, but he wrote a book on marketing and used Gablinger’s beer as an example of failed strategy. He noted that the idea behind the product was good. It was the first light beer. But the product itself was awful. He said that the best marketing strategy would be for the company to sell less of it, therefore it would take longer for everyone to find how bad it was, and the company would remain in business. :)
These two San Fran amazons sure don't want anything about them out there.
Advertising is the bastion of poor grammar and the usurpation of vocabulary so it stands to reason she would love the vacuous batherings of the O.
Well, I found a LinkedIn profile for Millie Olson:
Millie OlsonCEO at Amazon Advertising
San Francisco Bay Area
Current Co-Founder/CEO at Amazon Advertising
Past EVP/Executive Creative Director at Ketchum Advertising
VP/Creative Director at JWT
VP/Associate Creative Director at Needham, Harper and Steers
Copywriter at N.W. Ayer
Editorial Assistant at Seventeen Magazine
Education Colorado College
Millie Olsons Experience
Co-Founder/CEO
Amazon Advertising
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)
1996 Present (13 years)
EVP/Executive Creative Director
Ketchum Advertising
(Marketing and Advertising industry)
1982 1994 (12 years)
VP/Creative Director
JWT
(Marketing and Advertising industry)
1977 1982 (5 years)
VP/Associate Creative Director
Needham, Harper and Steers
(Marketing and Advertising industry)
1973 1977 (4 years)
Copywriter
N.W. Ayer
(Marketing and Advertising industry)
1970 1973 (3 years)
Editorial Assistant
Seventeen Magazine
(Public Relations and Communications industry)
1969 1970 (1 year)
Millie Olsons Education
Colorado College
BA, English, 1964 1968
Additional Information
Millie Olsons Websites:
My Company
My Blog
Millie Olsons Groups:
Alliance of CEO’s
ZDS
This persons husband is ok with her fantasizing about another man like that? Sick..
Hmm , she left out his other poignant ones such as :
We are the ones we have been waiting for
and without the teleprompter ....
Uhh .. ummm. uhh .ummm. yeah that's what I said
Millie Olson, co-founder/president, Amazon Advertising, San Francisco
Excuse me miss but you got some kool-aid on your dress.”
The dress is soaked and dripping on the carpet.......
Wonder how much formal education this twit has to put aside her brains and spout this drivel???
Wonder what her words will sound like in a few months or years???
Millie Olson, co-founder/president, Amazon Advertising, San Francisco””
Another perfect example of why San Francisco whould be fenced in and de-contaminated with haste.
That ain’t Kool Aid pal.....it’s white, it’s gooey, and comes from black testicles!
Let’s pretend that there is no ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal’ America, but there are liberals and there are conservatives. And we just inaugurated a liberal.
If you are giddy every time you hear his voice or see him without a shirt on, you too are a liberal. There are no ‘conservatives’ who are ‘thrilled’ about Obama. There is no such a thing. There are only tremendous misconceptions about who IS and who is NOT conservative and what it is about Obama that they might occasionally agree with (when he is pretending to be a conservative to throw off the media).
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