Book collection celebrating 15 years of Marketoonist

This Week's Cartoon

Navigating Uncertainty cartoon

Navigating Uncertainty

Almost exactly five years ago, in early March 2020, I drew a cartoon that captured some of how I felt in that moment of uncertainty. It showed a group of of people in a meeting and one holding up a coin: “We need to update the forecast. Heads, this will blow over soon. Tails, it’s the end of the world.”… Read More

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Most Recent Cartoons

The Creative Review cartoon

The Creative Review

In 2006, I drew one of my most popular cartoons: “The 8 Types of Bad Creative Critics.” It featured common archetypes like “The Blender”, “The Waffler” and “The Crammer.” It seemed to strike a chord because many of us have been in bad creative reviews, on either side of the client/agency table. One agency even asked to print the cartoon… Read More

"Loyalty Programs" cartoon

Loyalty Programs

In 2012, I drew a cartoon of a shopper emptying her purse at checkout, saying “wait, I may have a card showing my loyalty to whatever store this is.” The loyalty program arms race has only accelerated since then — partly driven by brands trying to collect more first-party data. The checkout ask for an email address or phone number… Read More

AI Low Hanging Fruit cartoon

AI Low Hanging Fruit

With all the hype and promise of AI, including synthetic market research I wrote about last week and new advances like “Agenic AI”, adoption in business is facing barriers and obstacles. Deloitte published their latest State of Generative AI report last month, including this headline takeaway: “We see that most companies are transforming at the speed of organizational change, not… Read More

Market Research Pitfalls cartoon

Market Research Pitfalls

Early in my marketing career, at General Mills, we used to hold focus groups in a Minneapolis suburb called Eden Prairie. I once overheard a couple of our agency partners jokingly refer to this focus group ritual as going to see the “Oracles of Eden Prairie.” Whether new products, campaign strategy, or ad creative, the Oracles of Eden Prairie had… Read More

Digital Distractions and Finding Focus cartoon

Digital Distractions and Finding Focus

We need to find time for focus to do our best work. Ironically some of the tools we use to make us more productive are designed to steal focus. Distraction is the default setting. Some of this challenge relates to work norms. I love how Jeff Maurer joked about the “always on” expectations of Slack: “You CAN mute notifications: Just… Read More

Super Bowl Ad Formula cartoon

The Super Bowl Ad Formula

The Super Bowl is the biggest high wire act in marketing. The media alone costs $7 million for a 30 second spot to reach an audience of more than 100 million people. So this is when marketers pull out all the stops. And yet they also tend to play it safe by following tried-and-true conventions. You don’t want to mess… Read More

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