On December 6, members of Google’s “Internal Access” program (early adopters, influencers, employees, and researchers) flooded the web with videos of Gemini as the “CHATGPT slayer.” And then, just as suddenly, it fell silent as the public availability of Gemini was pushed to a later date in 2024. With details of the sudden change limited in online searches, we looked for answers by interviewing the one source we were confident would have the answers, Google Bard. In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll find out what Bard had to say about the Gemini launch and the future of AI in marketing applications.

We’ve all seen them—60-second commercials that pop up during our favorite TV shows. In these commercials, everyone seems to be dancing, mountain biking, or kayaking to happy music while the list of potential side effects is described in the background. With revenues exceeding $600 billion, it is not surprising that pharmaceutical companies spent almost $8.1 billion last year on paid advertising, according to Endpoints News. Seventy percent of that was spent on linear TV. The top 10 pharma advertising brands alone contributed to a combined total of $1.68 billion in ad spend. But are they necessary? Do they work? In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll address those two questions. We’ll also explore what the rest of us marketers can learn from pharma advertising—TV advertising’s fourth-largest industry.

Does Gen Z spend their tax refunds differently than older taxpayers? The simple answer is, yes! Is now the time to talk about how tax refund season can fit into your marketing plans? Also, yes! After all, you know the old saying, “In this world nothing is certain, except death and taxes.” So, in this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll discuss Gen Z spending and how this generation spends (or pre-spends) their tax refunds differently from Millennials and other Americans. We’ll also discuss whether you should target their refund and how to best align and market your products or services to them during their annual influx of cash.

The doofus dad stereotype, which was a negative and inadvertent byproduct of the explosion in social change in the late 20th century, saw dads in not just ads but all media slide from their status as head of the household to the bumbling dads in popular TV series and commercials beginning in the mid-50s with Ralph Kramden. Just like purchasing a bad tie from Amazon or a bottle of cheap cologne, people only write about the doofus dad topic in the second and third weeks of June to commend Father’s Day every year. In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll try to do something different. Instead of just complaining, we’ll discuss fathers in advertising and the shifts we see happening.

Happy Mother’s Day! Mother’s Day is fast approaching, and an estimated 84% of U.S. adults will be celebrating this year. This day can bring a variety of emotions, and it can mean different things to different people, but at its core, it’s a day to celebrate the motherly figures in our lives and share our appreciation for all of the work, both visible and invisible, that they do every day.

Just about the only person in the world who hasn’t heard of ChatGPT, GPT-4, or OpenAI is this woman who quite literally has been living under a rock for the last 500 days. Depending on whom you are listening to, artificial intelligence (AI) is either going to put you out of a job, make you millions (if you follow some simple 10-step plan), or is the start of a technology apocalypse. In today’s Plain Talk, we’ll address the worries and excitement head-on. We’ll share what you need to know about the pros and cons of AI in marketing.

When we talk about diversity in marketing, we first have to identify that we’re talking about target audience diversity—racial, ethnic, and sexual diversity and inclusion. Marketing diversity can refer to a product or geographic diversification. This article is about the inclusion, exclusion, targeting, and stereotyping of women, minorities, and the LGBTQIA+ community and our industry’s efforts to improve. As marketers, our job is to be on the edge but not over the cliff. In college, we were told that we both mirror and mold our zeitgeist. So, while we were subject to the time and cultures of the said past times, we can and should still be judged for the directions we led.

It’s that time of the year in ad land when we take a look at the commercials produced at exorbitant cost and placed at, well, exorbitant cost to give brands (and ad agencies) their thirty seconds of Super Bowl fame. But something seemed a little different this year, and it’s not just the absence of twenty different cryptocurrencies running ads. When we previewed 86 or so Super Bowl and “Big Game” related commercials and teasers, we began to notice that almost every single one was funny (or tried to be, bless their hearts). In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll examine the sudden explosion of humor in advertising. We’ll also discuss why it’s happening now and what it means for the future of the business.

Online sales are booming! E-commerce is the way! Brick-and-mortar stores are over!

To these paraphrased headlines, I have two words: Amazon Go. Here are another two: Amazon Style. And two more: Amazon Fresh. Yes, the world’s largest e-commerce retailer is actively pursuing a physical retail footprint, and they aren’t only ones. In today’s Plain Talk, we’ll discuss e-commerce vs. retail and why consumers still overwhelmingly prefer the retail experience.

There’s an invisible battle waging in the background of the internet. The prize? Your attention. Brand websites, social media apps, and search engines are all vying for your attention by applying algorithms that facilitate showing you content based on the probability that you’ll want to see it. In today’s edition of Plain Talk, we’ll explore where digital targeting is evolving and how to utilize invited personalization.