Wednesday, May 16, 2007

I heart Mr. Ad Report Card

I'm officially in love with Seth Stevenson, author of Slate.com's Ad Report Card. Like most folks from the editorial side, I'm not a huge fan of advertising (even if it is the fuel of a free press, as the foyer of the Missourian liked to remind me every day of j-school). But despite my disdain for advertising, I am obsessed with Ad Report Card, mostly because Mr. Stevenson is freaking hilarious, especially when he digresses into something unrelated.

For example, consider this week's post. The fact that he manages to work a Ricky Williams "Pass the bong" joke into his assessment of the Clio awards is amazing.

Or take his review of ads for The Gap. In one of his classic asides, Seth talks about how Monica Lewinsky's famous blue dress was from The Gap, but that these days, the company is no longer fancy enough for White House interns. He then sums this up with one of the funniest sentences of all time: "It's just a sign of how badly things have gone for the brand: They can't even get world leaders to ejaculate on their clothes anymore."

There are many, many more . If you've got an afternoon to waste at work, I suggest reading all of them. And then you, too, will fall in love with Seth Stevenson.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can't say that I "heart" Seth Stevenson, but I certainly do admire his understanding that funny, slick, gimmicky ads don't sell product. Advertising agencies fall in love with winning awards for themselves and really don't focus on what sells their clients' products. That's where Seth's astute commentary comes in. More power to him.

Anonymous said...

I heart you.