This is for those who believe we can communicate and build brands purely by design.   Ha.   Here’s a thing. To connect consumers to brands, first think how people connect to people.   When we meet, we eye each other. And we assume. Stylish. Clean. Suave. Intriguing. Maybe. Loaded. Modest. Mad. Honest. Professional. Maybe. Hard-working. Smiley. Boozy. Fiery. Maybe.   Good start. But love at first sight is a myth.   Only when they speak, you feel the tingle.   Because it’s what people say that affirms who they are.   Their attitudes, offerings, tastes, stupidities, opinions, loves and…

  I killed a dog once.   It was in a past life, in 1987. Before becoming a copywriter, I ran a fireworks company and we did a show for a big posh horsey wedding in the south of England. Lots of Jaguars, gin, blinis, chequered dance floors, little gilt chairs, real estate prices, that sort of wedding.   The show started, a thunderous crash of titanium maroons and mauve rockets (titanium maroons are wicked. The flash is very bright and the bang would waken your dead aunt). The sky was all mauve and silver, the horsey folk looked up,…