David Oakley's Why Is Your Name Upside Down?

We have a list of books we recommend over there ----> on the right side of the page. Lots of stuff that might inspire you or make you a better creative. Here's one that might do both, and will get you excited to be in an industry as fun as ours. Why Is Your Name Upside Down? Stories from a Life in Advertising by David Oakley. 

Oakley is the president and creative director at BooneOakley, a small independent advertising agency in Charlotte, NC. It’s a really good shop with nice, talented folks. Full disclosure here—I’ve met David and many of the people there, so I’m probably a little biased. Even so, I laughed much harder at this book than I thought I would. After 15 years in the business, sometimes reading books about the industry feels like, well, work. This one feels more like just grabbing a beer with a dude who tells really good stories.

BooneOakley opened with a ballsy, attention-grabbing stunt. During the 2000 presidential race, they ran a billboard that said “Gore 2000.” But what it showed was a photo of George W. Bush. Calls from the media started immediately. All the big names wanted to know who had screwed the pooch so badly. CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX. Oakley even received a call from the Vice Chairman of the Republican Party. Only after a few nervous days of incredible publicity did they reveal the punch line: the board was for 123hire.com, with the copy: “Today’s job opening: proofreader.” A really simple prank that turned a local billboard into national media coverage.

That is the M.O. of Oakley—he likes to take risks, make his clients famous and have fun doing it. Some of the stories here are how some of BooneOakley’s best, most over-the-top ideas came to be. Some are stories from the trenches of running a small agency in a small market. And some are personal stories from David, how he got into the business, how he met his wife (who also works with him), a few other random but always entertaining stories from his past. If you were to cut a trailer for a movie version of this book, you’d see a giant muffin fall on a car, a professional golfer tee off on a biscuit, a Silence of the Lambs basement moment as Oakley tries to buy a ping pong table for the office on the cheap, a client fired via tweet (don’t we all wish sometimes), a condom on a dog, a pole dancer, a live earthworm eaten by a human, some terrible golf, Celine Dion, Roseanne Cash, a kidney stone passed and what is certainly the only sex doll thrown from a rooftop during a new business pitch. And that would just be the 30-second cut of the trailer.

You don’t have to be in advertising to enjoy these stories. But if you are, you might actually learn something while you’re laughing your butt off. There’s a method to Oakley’s madness, and he drops some important lessons along the way. Even his craziest stories have morals to them. Well, most of them do. And you’ll be treated to some delightful writing, such as this: “Our moods were swinging like a pair of donkey balls.” (Surprising, visual, simple—everything a good simile requires.)

The stories are so random and improbable that you know they’re true. Advertising is random and improbable. I’ve had many moments in my career where I’ve stopped to look around and wondered, “How the hell did I get here?” I could totally relate. And what comes through more than anything is that Oakley is a guy who loves what he does. He loves the people around him, and he’s built an agency, a body of work and now a book that shows that advertising can be a blast. It should be, if you’re doing it right. And he shows that, despite the rumors, there are some really good people in this industry.

The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry

I read a handful of books on creative thinking and management every year. Some are more helpful than others. The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry is one I found full of good advice from both perspectives. In a nutshell, Henry's focus is on practices that help us make the most of our creative resources (time and energy). It also has some good advice about managing a creative environment. 

My review is below, along with some random notes (I post reviews of everything I read on my personal blog). 

Additionally, Henry runs The Accidental Creative podcast. And he has a new book out, Die Empty. I haven't read that book. If anyone has, let me know what you think of it. The title's a little cheesy, but he usually has smart stuff to say. 

Our 2013 Book Lists

Thirteen years ago, Greg turned me onto an idea that has become one of my favorite annual traditions. He and I (and anyone else we can convince to do it) keep reviews of every book we read. Then at the end of the year, we release a list of everything we read that year.

Here are our lists from 2013.

Greg's 2013 Book List

Jim's 2013 Book List

What great books did you read in 2013? The Best of Makin' Ads? Anyone? Anyone? [crickets]

Four Words That Will Kill Your Job Interview

A really smart co-worker recently wrote a post about four words that will end a job interview. Can you guess what they are?

I've done jail time.

I'm not a reader.

I don't watch TV.

I hate my co-workers.

The answer is here.

It's hard to promote books on Vine.

Jim and I compiled our most popular posts and a comprehensive review of portfolio schools into The Best of Makin' Ads, now available on blurb.com. Takes a little longer than six seconds to tell you about it, though.

The Best of Makin' Ads

This is post #797 for makinads.com. But if you want just the very best of the last 796, we've compiled them into this book, now available at blurb.

It's over 200 pages of our most popular posts. And it comes with a review of major portfolio schools - something we haven't put on our blog. We've listed websites, tuition, tracks, locations, application deadlines, and more for schools like 72U, the VCU Brandcenter and everything in between to help portfolio school hopefuls figure out which school's best for them.

Preview and order your copy at The Best of Makin' Ads here.

(High fives to our pal B.Thibbs who designed the cover.)

Truth In Advertising

Truth In Advertising is a new book by John Kenney. I haven't read it, but here's a promo for it.


I thought this was worth sharing for a few reasons:

• Focus groups can be like this. Especially the lady with all the issues, and the guy who changes his mind.
• The piece was funny, but I thought it was very over-acted. Subtlety always works best. If you want someone to act confused, don't have them scratch their head; have them bite their tongue in a way you barely notice. I promise - you'll notice.
• I find it interesting when books use social media as marketing. It's probably not a coincidence that authors with backgrounds in advertising do this best.

Source Materials for my Storytelling Class

This past quarter, I taught a storytelling class at Miami Ad School with some really talented, enthusiastic first-quarter writers. Here's a list of some of the source materials I used as examples and sometimes just stole from to make myself sound like I knew what I was talking about:

On Teaching and Writing Fiction by Wallace Stegner

On Writing by Stephen King

 The Comic Toolbox by John Vorhaus


Improv Wisdom by Patricia Madson

The Handbook of Short Story Writing, Volumes I and II, by Writer's Digest

Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon


The Moth Stories


This video from J.J. Abrams.

Various lists, such as this one by Elmore Leonard and this one by John Steinbeck

Writing samples from writers much better than myself, including Edward Abbey, James Agee, Sherwood Anderson, Donald Antrim, Roberto Bolaño, Richard Brautigan, Jon Clinch, Mark Costello, Patrick deWitt, A.M. Homes, Dan Kennedy, Chip Kidd, J Robert Lennon, Cormac McCarthy, David Mitchell, Tim O'Brien, Helen Oyeyemi, J.D. Salinger, Jim Shepard, Hunter S. Thompson and David Foster Wallace.

Luke Sullivan: One of the best pieces of creative advice I was ever given.

Most of you probably already subscribe to Luke's blog. But for those who haven't discovered it yet, here's a great piece:

One of the best pieces of creative advice I was ever given.

And yes, Anne Lamontt's Bird by Bird is a fantastic creative help. Almost as much as Luke's book.

Free Lobotomy by Tom Monahan

Just browsing around on issuu, I stumbled upon Tom Monahan's book The Do-It-Yourself Lobotomy. This book is a classic, and I'm a little floored that Monahan's offering it for free. (For those who don't know Tom wrote the Advertising section for Communication Arts for years before passing the torch to Ernie Schenck.)

Enjoy the book. And pass on the good news. You can read it here, or on the official issuu page. Should be some great summer reading.

Open publication - Free publishing - More creativity

The Idea Writers by Teressa Iezzi

Of the ad books I’ve read, this is by far the most comprehensive and up-to-date snapshot of where the advertising industry (if we can still call it that) is today and how we got here. Iezzi places today’s ad industry in a historical context, going back to the industry’s founding fathers like Rosser Reeves and David Ogilvy, the first creative revolution sparked by Bill Bernbach and DDB, on through the changing styles of epic television spots in the 80s and 90s. But the book is primarily about the current creative revolution, sparked by digital technology, and how evolving media is changing the jobs of copywriters (although most of the book is applicable to anyone in the creative department).

The role of the copywriter has gone from writing television scripts and print headlines—pieces of one-way communication—to constructing and articulating more complex narratives that include longer-form content, cross-media experiences and dialogues between the brand and consumers (or consumers and other consumers). Iezzi covers some of the seminal cases that shaped this new landscape—BMW films, Whopper Sacrifice, Halo 3, and the Old Spice guy to name a few. She also conducts interviews with various people in the industry to get their take on how they do what they do. I was happy to see a few of my former students interviewed and credited with creating some of the best work in recent years.

The evolving nature of the industry makes it hard to capture “how it’s done.” One of the main things to take away from The Idea Writers is that there is no one right way. It’s no longer about simply being creative with what goes on the media. It’s about being creative with the media itself, the process, even the structure of the companies creating it. We’re in such a new and strange space that it’s hard to say exactly where we are. But this book gives a great overview of how we got here. A must read for anyone working or hoping to work in “advertising” today.

Jim's 2010 Book List

Greg posted his 2010 Book List a few days ago.

Here's my list from the past year:
JIM'S 2010 BOOK LIST

Or if you just want the quick favorites, you can go here.

Please, let us know what you're reading and what you think of it. We're usually mostly about advertising on this blog, but if you want to get us talking for a really long time, bring up your favorite books.

The 2010 GRC Book List

Since 1998, I've kept a list of the books I read each year. In 2000, I emailed it out to a group of friends and got so many responses I've made it an annual event.

It might not have much to do with advertising or putting your book together, but I thought I'd share it here as well.

Here's the link to the 2010 list. Enjoy.

(Jim keeps a similar list. I'm sure he'll be posting his shortly.)

Modernista Is Not For Everyone

If you go to Modernista's Website, you find a unique and inspiring message. "Modernista is not for everyone."

Many agencies will take a shot at any client they think they can win. But an agency with a good sense of who they are and who they want to be realizes that they can't be the right agency for every client. Like a brand, they have a character. Taking on the wrong clients will dilute that character pretty quickly.

Understanding what your agency's brand is can be just as important as understanding your clients' brands. But, as Tim Williams points out in Take A Stand For Your Brand, agencies can be surprisingly bad at defining and understanding their own brand. We tell our clients they can't be everything to everyone. We would be wise to heed our own advice.

Thinking is not wasted effort.

Natalie Goldberg, who wrote the how-to-write books Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind, encourages her students to write constantly. And she says every once in a while a student will ask, “But what do you do with what you write?” She answers, “I don’t know. What do you do with after you drink a glass of water?”

She means that you don’t have to do anything with it. It becomes a part of you. Maybe there’s a line or two you can use. Maybe a whole paragraph. Maybe nothing. But it’s not wasted effort. You write because you’re a writer. You art direct because you’re an art director. You come up with ideas because you’re creative.

So don’t be afraid of generating ideas you won’t use. Experiment with layouts. Write long body copy for a visual solution. And then you’ll be able to decide what, if anything, to do with them.

Performing is investing is selling

Recently, Jim was writing about audiobooks, and it got me thinking.

A few years ago, I listened to Tom Wolfe's book, A Man in Full on tape. (Yes, cassette tape.) It was read by David Ogden Stiers. Great actor. Great book. But having him read it to me was a little dull. As Jim wrote, it kind of felt like cheating to be listening instead of reading.

Last week, I finished listening to another audiobook. This one was The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt. A cast of actors performed for about 10 different characters. The production was complete with Foley effects from background music on the radio to doors slamming. When someone was on the phone, they sounded fuzzy. When they were in the other room, they sounded distant. When they interrupted each other, you actually heard. It less of an audiobook and more of a radio play. They weren't the best troupe of actors, but the whole experience was far superior to famous Steirs reading famous Wolfe.

The Tom Wolfe book is like the creative team that says, “This idea is so good, it speaks for itself. Feast your eyes on this brilliance.” No one’s questioning the talent or the substance. But outside of the creative team, no one’s really invested in it either.

The Goldratt production was the creative team who took a great idea, sold it, and got it produced.

(In Tom Wolfe's defense, the jacket design for A Man in Full - and just about anything else - beats the cover of the Goldratt book.)

Some Light Reading

The other day at lunch, I read Paul Arden's It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be. It's kind of a hodge-podge of tips and insights about working in advertising, and a quick read.

Here are random quotes I would have underlined if I weren't borrowing the book:

Do not seek praise. Seek criticism.

If you ask the right question, you get the right answer.

Know your client’s aims. Most clients are corporate people protecting their own mortgages. They mistakenly see ideas as a risk rather than an advancement to their careers. Therefore their motivation might be quite different from their brief to you. Find out what the client’s real objective is.

It can’t be judged by description. It needs to be done (made) to exist.

The person who doesn’t make mistakes is unlikely to make anything.

The way to get unblocked is to lose our inhibitions and stop worrying about being right.

If you get stuck, draw with a different pen. Change your tools. It may free your thinking.

Get out of advertising. To be original, seek your inspiration from unexpected sources.

We all want to be proud of the company we work for. If you find people talking down [your agency], take issue with them…or, as a friend of mine did, fight somebody for talking disparagingly about the company he worked for. [this one seemed stupid at first, but then I began thinking that if you don't take offense when someone knocks your agency, then you must agree with them. Which begs the question, why are you still at that agency? And fighting other ad people, that sounds good to me. I'll warn you, though, I'll throw lots of leg kicks and try to take it to the ground]

If you can find a way of summing up what the client wants to feel about his company but cannot express himself, you’ve got him.

Don’t promise what you can’t deliver. If instead you undersell, pointing out the possible weaknesses and how to resolve them, should they occur, you are not only building a trusting relationship with your client but you’re able to solve any problems.

What do you do when your client won’t buy? Do it his way, then do it your way.

If you know the your client’s logo or product has to be big in an ad, don’t hope that it will fit in the corner somewhere unobtrusively. It won’t. Start your layout knowing that it’s a problem to be solved as an integral part of the ad.

The best blog post ever

We don't promote too many books on Makin' Ads. We'd encourage you to get very familiar with the annuals, first. That said...

If you're currently looking for a job...

If you're currently putting your student book together...

If you're about to go on a TV shoot...

If you're writing your first radio commercial...

If you're about to create you first award-winning piece...

Check out this book.

How I got unstuck

About a week ago I was in a serious rut. I was down on work. Down on our clients. Down on co-workers. Needless to say, it was a pretty unproductive few days.

Then I started listening to this podcast called The History of Jazz by Georgia State University professor, Dr. Gordon Vernick. (Look it up. Wish I could link you to it directly.)

I also started reading my co-worker's copy of Paul Arden's book It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be.

And on a bright sunny day, I accidentally took the bus too far and had to walk through a couple of neighborhoods I'd never explored on foot.

And suddenly, things were awesome. I liked work. And I've been very productive since.

If you're stuck, frustrated or down on work, it's not enough just to take a break. A walk around the building or a trip to the burrito joint across the street can sometimes help. But you really need to change your routine.

Inaugural Radio Thursday

I just finished re-reading Jim Aitchison’s Cutting Edge Radio. Such a helpful book.

So for the next several weeks, Thursdays at Makin’ Ads will be Radio Thursday, and I’ll post a quote I think may be helpful for young creatives. (Art directors, you should learn radio, too. It will help you be a better creative director later on.) We’ll keep it up until I run out of quotes.

So here’s the inaugural Radio Thursday quote:

Silly voices are another hallmark of poor radio. [It shows creatives] can’t think of an idea. They don’t put any effort into being creative.


Note: There are so many quotes in Cutting Edge Radio, I’m not going to attribute them all to their rightful owners. Just know they’re all from Aitchison’s book.