Advertising is usually about executive ego; it’s not really about sales, honestly.

By a longer way of entrance into this post, years ago — when I was 25 (now 41) — my first college friend got married. I had just broken up with a girl I was with in AmeriCorps, who I figured at 23 I would marry (ha!), so I went to this wedding solo. All my friends were with people, so it was very odd. I came back to my ESPN existence and wrote a screenplay called First to Fall. This screenplay is broadly one of the worst things ever written. However — HOWEVER! — there is a good scene where the main male characters discuss the best NIKE ad of all-time, and settle on this one:

I personally still think that’s the best one ever, but I know there are different viewpoints there.

Anyway, that screenplay never got finished, and that guy has now been married 17 years with three kids. I’ve been married, divorced, remarried, and still kinda plod along. Life is weird, eh?

I’ve worked in marketing, advertising, and sales in my existence. I have never understood advertising conceptually, even when working…