Bob Garfield retires

Bob Garfield, a prominent writer for Ad Age, has decided to retire. He writes the column, Ad Review on the website, and is highly respected in the industry. He recently posted a fair well write up, entitled, “Garfield Says Adieu“. It is extremely well written and insightful. He tells his own story of how he got to be where he is today. He also discusses some of the worst ads he has seen throughout his career. And as a highly respected ad critic, his opinion could make or break some companies. He said that one of the most offensive ads he has ever seen was for For Eyes Optical in 1994. Before he wrote a column about how terrible it was, he actually called the ad agency who produced it, and advised them to pull the campaign. He said it was, “a humanitarian gesture, you might say.”

An ad he gave the thumbs up to was the Budweiser ad from 2000, which made the phrase “whassup!” a cultural phenomenon. He goes on to talk about many other campaigns over time that he thought stood out as great. And he also talks about campaigns he initially dismissed but wound up being highly successful. The whole article in its’ entirety is very well written, and gives a great insight to the world of advertising. It is definitely worth checking out!