Marketoonist | Tom Fishburne

Marketoonist is the thought bubble of Tom Fishburne. Marketing cartoons, content marketing with a sense of humor, keynote speaking.

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This Week's Cartoon

Top of Mind Marketoonist cartoon

Top of Mind

In 2005, I drew a cartoon with a consumer and a brand tying the knot in a wedding ceremony. In her vows, the consumer says: “And I promise to be loyal, forsaking all other brands, unless your competitor is on deal, you’re out-of-stock or you’re just not meeting my need states at the time.” That cartoon was partly inspired by… Read More

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New Cannes Lions Award Category cartoon

Cannes Lions Humblebrags

Around 15,000 marketers descend this week on the French Riviera for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. And everyone else will feel like we’re there. As Agency SOS Founder John Kovacevich wrote a few years ago: “Prepare yourselves. Your (highly-placed, senior-level, expense-account-having) advertising friends are about to flood your feed with yacht and rosé photos. Later this week, when… Read More

New Self-Serving Study cartoon

New Self-Serving Study

Byron Sharp from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute has long been on the frontlines of debunking marketing myths, starting with “How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don’t Know” in 2010. Byron recently introduced me to the term SONK — “the Scientific-cation Of Non-Knowledge.” In an interview last year, Byron credits SONK to his mentor Andrew Ehrenberg. As Byron describes SONK: “You take trivial… Read More

Brand Origin Stories and Faux-thenticity Marketoonist cartoon

Brand Origin Stories and Faux-thenticity

Fake authenticity (or “faux-thenticity”) has long plagued marketing. Authenticity is set up as a sort of holy grail in branding, marked as an objective in countless creative briefs. The “origin story” in particular is a common lever to manufacture authenticity. Yet most framing of the origin story is heavily scripted, edited, and contrived. The more that a brand tries to… Read More

"Unprecedented with Precedent" Marketoonist cartoon

Unprecedented with Precedent

I drew this week’s cartoon on a paradox I keep seeing in innovation. Henry Ford famously said: “I invented nothing new. I simply assembled the discoveries of other men behind whom were centuries of work.” Ford’s original motor company cribbed ideas and inspiration everywhere from Singer sewing machines to P&G to Chicago slaughterhouses. Those borrowed innovations set the stage for… Read More

Client-Agency Creative Marketoonist cartoon

Client-Agency Creative

A couple years ago, I went to the Cannes Lions, the main show for advertising. There’s a giant gallery room in the basement of the main Palais building with all the work submitted for awards. As I walked past the ads and case studies, all I could think about was how the sausage gets made. The creative “idea” usually gets… Read More

Just Circling Back Marketoonist cartoon

Just Circling Back

Former ad copywriter and Gaping Void cartoonist Hugh MacLeod once wrote, “If you talked to people the way advertising talked to people, they’d punch you in the face.” It’s not just advertising that can be off-putting. The way businesses talk in lead generation is generally worse, partly because there’s the illusion of personalization. AI and personalization tech have made it… Read More

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Tom Fishburne is the Founder and CEO of Marketoonist, a content marketing studio that helps businesses reach their audiences with cartoons.

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