Tough week for JD.

We had art everywhere. Movie posters and billboards and even ads in magazines. I’m not a fucking boomer, I promise. But I do miss being surrounded by the work of really talented people with a camera, a pencil, and some paint.

Can we stop talking about Piker now please? I'd never even heard of him two weeks ago, and now I wish I hadn't.

Notionally Trump claims exclusive (false) credit for it. But the Artemis mission has this uncanny quality, like an alternative timeline where things aren't all wretched, absurd and degenerate - rooted in science, human striving, injgenuity and purpose. The contrast w the war in the Gulf is so great.

Ezra Klein is becoming indistinguishable from Ross Douthat. Letting Trump apologists spout a bunch of nonsense and not challenging them on any of it. open.spotify.com/episode/44h9...

This piece is fascinating. Amazon is encouraging the use of AI to draft its famous "six-pagers" - which undermines the whole purpose of writing the document in the first place. Writing is thinking; pressing an AI button is not. www.bigtechnology.com/p/writing-cr...

I wrote in the book that Zombie Brands are all stuck on the same Spotify playlist. Then the Super Bowl proved the point. www.linkedin.com/posts/johnal...

Really enjoyed my chat with MUSE at The Clios about the inspiration for the book, the cure for zombification, and two brands that have avoided the disease all together. musebyclios.com/advertising/...

It's a clean sweep for ZOMBIE BRANDS: #1 in Advertising, Online Advertising, Writing for Advertising, and PR on Amazon's Hot New Releases. Excited that the ideas are resonating.

For months I've banged the drum that "not sure" has become the safe harbor answer for "Republicans who know Trump's probably wrong, but don't want to admit it." Today's Economist/YouGov Poll: Is Donald Trump racist? 41% of Republicans have No Opinion. d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/ec...

Hey @profgalloway.com the Resist and Unsubscribe website is down. DOS attack?

It's a clean sweep for ZOMBIE BRANDS: #1 in Advertising, Online Advertising, Writing for Advertising, and PR on Amazon's Hot New Releases. Excited that the ideas are resonating.

My God, the "For You" tab on Twitter is just an absolute cesspool of the worst people in the world.

And @admadlad.bsky.social made this: bsky.app/profile/did:...

Hey advertising/marketing Blueskyers. Trying to wean myself off Elon's hellsite and hang here, full time. Anyone got a good follow list I can steal?

The zombies are storming Bezosland. Book is #1 in new releases, PR.

ZOMBIE BRANDS is now #1 on Amazon's new releases in Advertising.

More copies for media and podcasts.

First paperbacks are in.

I'm excited to announce that my new book, ZOMBIE BRANDS, is now available for pre-order. zombie-brands.com

"During a Saturday-night town hall led by Bari Weiss, the recently named editor in chief of CBS News, most of Madison Avenue sought an off-ramp." Ouch. variety.com/2025/tv/news...

pantone reveal day should come with a trigger warning for disappointment it's literally landlord white

The agencies that have won three of the past five Network of the Year awards at Cannes have just been shuttered. Why is this happening? www.linkedin.com/posts/johnal...

Just don't see the logic of Coke bragging about how they made their holiday ad. The audience doesn't care--until they find out it was AI, then they hate it. www.mediapost.com/publications...

WPP Exec thinks middle-aged creatives only know how to make "posters." I offer my thoughts. www.linkedin.com/posts/johnal...

Oh, come on.

Guy has game.

"Someone who says I’m against abortion but is in favor of the death penalty is not really pro-life...Someone who says I’m against abortion but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life.” www.ncregister.com/cna/pope-leo...

A snapshot of Silicon Valley in 2025 is Mark Zuckerberg, now a MAGA-friendly mixed martial arts fan who doesn’t worry much about hate speech on his platforms and complains that corporate America isn’t masculine enough.

Let me just say a simple thing. Democrats have no obligation to provide the votes to fund the destruction of our democracy. If you want my vote for a bipartisan budget, there need to be protections to stop Trump's brazen lawlessness.

Oh look, @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social triples-down on Kirk doing politics "the right way."

Tomorrow, probably.

The president is intentionally killing non-combatants who pose no direct threat in violation of domestic, international and military law and his VP and chief policy adviser are promising an authoritarian crackdown on his political opponents. Just today. Democracy and the rule of law are on the line

We all make poor choices in life. But few are as bad as allowing yourself to be lectured about incitment and violent rhetoric by anyone who follows Donald Trump. Seriously. Make good life choices, folks.

One thing I did not include in my profile of Trump's BLS nominee, E.J. Antoni, is his boosting anti-Churchill far-right histories!

the right wing media ecosystem is so efficiently set up to take random posts from non public figures and turn them into pseudoevents. to the point where the entire social media system rn really just favors their viral propaganda machine.

The full video is worth watching. The brand new Model Y (updated version) breezes past the school bus lights, runs over a child, pauses, then keeps going. These vehicles are not safe @realdanodowd.bsky.social @resistaustin.bsky.social #teslatakedown #MuskMustFall cbsaustin.com/news/local/t...

And here's the logical endpoint of making viewpoint diversity the goal above all else.

Big week for Villanova alums. ✝️🏀

Every now and again I think of this post (from @janthonylong.bsky.social)

And they laughed at him

One of the great gags of the moment is the DHS spox using the Berkeley Free Speech movement as the banner on her account, where she posts about deporting academics.

But if you want to know just how bad things are for the brand, remember this: Depreciation reveals *everything*. It tells you exactly what consumers think about a product. Where does Tesla sit on depreciation? DFL. Below *Jaguar.* 4/

Bubble.

So Elon Musk appears to be using ringers to level up PoE2 characters so he can pretend he's a hardcore gamer on livestreams. Extremely pathetic. youtu.be/KE1NwHpwWzc?...

Rule by socially-maladjusted, emotionally-stunted druggie degenerate is going about as one might have imagined.

Musk is so funny. He has no idea how any company makes money so he thinks the answer is "do everything" versus "build tech products on top of advertising monopolies built on trillions of data points"

Clients keep talking about how they need more brand building, how they overinvested in 1:1/direct marketing, how they have to do bigger, bolder, more emotional work. And ad agencies keep talking about AI--which isn't good at any of those things. I don't get it.