Ji Lee, Creative Director at Google, speaks at the 99% conference about his personal endeavor in 2002 to break out of the creative constraints of his advertising job by creating his own art project. Ji’s ad-spoofing Bubble Project entailed printing out stickers in the shape of word bubbles and sticking them on advertisements all around New York City. Ji would return later to document what people would write into the bubbles. Amusing, political, and esoteric, the bubbles were a hit and spawned campaigns by others. Ji now advocates for using personal projects to provide an outlet for personal creative freedom, create platforms for others to collaborate, meet new people, and to learn new skills.

Robert Cialdini, professor of marketing at Arizona State University, studied for 3 years working in the fields of sales, fundraising, and advertising. In this short excerpt from the documentary “Social Reality” with Philip Zimbardo, Cialdini shares the 6 universal principals of influence he distilled from his experiences. If your interested in learning more, his book Influence: Science and Practice is a good quick read with practical advice and great anecdotes about his experiences researching this topic.

In an on-stage interview at the San Diego Ad Club, Alex Bogusky of Crispin Porter + Bogusky provides a behind the scenes look at many of the campaigns his company has worked on and shares some of his thoughts on various aspects of marketing. From Coke suing itself to Volkswagon’s Safe Happens, Alex has been constantly looking for ways to bring authenticity to messaging by “showing”, not “saying”.

Lee Clow and Alex Bogusky discuss the trends in today’s marketing and brand building. Specifically they discuss how integrating today’s culture of gaming is becoming more prominent in advertising and how they have incorporated the use of multiple forms of media to communicate brand messages. Lee Clow had famously worked on Apple’s advertising for years and Alex Bogusky is a rising star who’s worked on campaigns such as the Truth campaign and the Burger King games for the Xbox.

David Susskind interviews David Ogilvy about marketing, advertising and what America wants.

I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, rather than for illumination.
David Ogilvy

Presenting at FITC 2006, Ryan Honey and Orion Tait of Buck Design and Motion Graphics showcase 5 projects and provide a behind the scenes glimpse at the production process. Buck has completed projects for g4, MTV Movie Awards, Nike Battlegrounds, Cingular Wireless, and EA Games 007.