You're now reading brand+content.
Commentary and critique about advertising, media, and what brands think we care about.
This idea started as a terrible attempt at a pun. But, I won’t get into it. I’d rather spend your attention span getting into this idea and why you should follow along.
I’ve spent nearly a decade in a love affair with advertising. Like with most good crush stories, it starts with a pair of rose-colored glasses appearing on your face and ends with disillusionment reminiscent of Tom Hansen of (500) Days of Summer fame.
Now that I’ve gone from industry event mainstay to underworked copywriter to overwhelmed trade journalist in what some could consider a crossroads for marketing and media, I have a ton of thoughts, and sporadic Twitter threads, Slack chats, and DM conversations just won’t cut it.
So, here we are. This is brand+content: an ankle-to-nose-deep dive into advertising, mass (and emerging) media, culture, and how the stories between the three intertwine. Or something like that.
If you click that button above, you’ll receive commentary, critiques, and thoughts about where advertising and media are going — and how it tangles with our current cultural issues — on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Some of you deserve a nice thing to read on your way home, and I hope this is something you can add to your roster of industry coverage.
Don’t expect news: I leave that to the experts at the trade publications. You know them: ADWEEK, The Drum, Variety, THR, AdAge, and similar publications. I’ll reference them and other faves a lot, so get your bookmark tools ready.
Do expect insights: Genuinely, I’m here to collect my thoughts in a way that makes sense to me, other creative-types, and people who want to talk about making the creative industries a better place to work in.
Think of me as one of those radio hosts you love listening to. My personal favorite is a fictional character: Robbie McGrath of Degrassi’s Canadian B-side, Radio Free Roscoe. He went by the alias Question Mark, started every discussion with a musing he or one of his co-hosts came across, and away they went.
So, here’s my first question to you: I know what I want to see out of this endeavor, what are you most interested in seeing? Let me know through the comments below (or tweet at me if you follow me, I’m on there often).
Look out for more later this February.
Bennett D. Bennett writes brand+content, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Currently, he leads marketing for HR staffing platform The Gradient, has bylines in The Drum and ADWEEK, and dabbles in fiction and songwriting. Talk to him about sports or music sometime, he’s on Twitter at @bennettdbennett.
I'm here to see you shine. xoxo
I think I'd personally love to see your insights on the pros a cons of different ad strategies and how you feel ad culture has changed over the years and what that means for consumers. Maybe dissections of an ad? While they'd be somewhat subjective, I thibk they'd give a great showing of techniques used, and after your opinion readers can decide for themselves whether or not they feel the advertisers made their message known