Articles from AdWeek Advertising and branding

I recently cleaned out my Mullen office after 31 years at the agency and lugged my remaining books to my new office at Boston University. When I shared a photo of the transition, someone asked which of the many marketing and creativity books I'd collected over the years still held up. So I made a list. It doesn't include many of the more recent hits; it's too soon to tell if they'll truly hold up.

Some things are integral to the New York experience, and getting lost in Dr. Zizmor's subway ads (which have been up since at least the early '90s) is one of them. But one graphic design student doesn't see it that way. Hyo Hong finds them graphically offensive and has set out to clean them up. On the surface, her redesign makes a lot of sense for the dermatologist.

IDEA: Pinterest's new Guided Search function offers more structure to your Pinterest searches but retains an element of serendipity. It's programmed loosely enough that exploring certain topics can lead you in unexpected directions, like a tour guide who knows what you might want to see often before you do. To promote it, the site turned to Molecule, a new creative production company in San Francisco, for a series of online videos (including a two-minute launch spot) whose storytelling style is likewise less than rigid.

"Do you want to be perceived as rich and cuddly? Of course you do!" We've seen our share of crazy homemade ads for used cars. But this one, created by a Swedish art director known as Castor, ranks right up there with the best of them. "This is a personal ad for my Volvo 245GL '93," he writes. "Red. Five owners before me. Complete service journal by Volvo up until in 2009. Inspected until November 30. New battery and radiator. Summer and winter tires.