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

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

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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

Content about Content about Content Marketoonist cartoon

Content about Content about Content

I drew this week’s cartoon inspired by today’s content overload and the circular creator economy. When I left college in the 90s, I moved to Prague and found a job at Velvet, an English-language magazine for the booming but close-knit expat scene. At that strange time when Eastern Europe opened up, there were more than 20 different English-language newspapers and… Read More

Misalignment at Speed Marketoonist cartoon

Misalignment at Speed

A friend sent me a William Blair research report this week that characterized enterprise AI adoption as “a mile wide and an inch deep.” Just about every organization has started to use AI tools in some fashion. But there’s little orchestration of how those tools are actually used. And very little alignment across the enterprise. A 2025 MIT report suggested… Read More

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About Marketoonist

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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