Author Archives: Roy H. Williams

In 1605, Quixote’s fearsome giants were windmills and Dulcinea1 was his beautiful, impossible dream. “What giants?” said Sancho Panza. “Those you see there,” answered his master, “with the long arms, and some have them nearly two leagues long.” “Look, your worship,” said Sancho. “What we see there are not giants but windmills, and what seem &hellip Continue reading »

My back is against the wall and I don’t know what to do. The vortex of this crisis is pulling me into a toxic blue quicksand of the soul. I struggle until hope is gone. The light is growing dim. I have no one to blame but myself. As I lift my weary eyes one &hellip Continue reading »

James Lipton asked Barbra Streisand the secret of her success. She responded by saying, “At the moment of commitment, the Universe conspires to assist you.” – September 8, 2003, while recording an episode of Inside the Actor’s Studiothat would air on March 21, 2004 Streisand was summarizing a quote usually attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832,) &hellip Continue reading »

I love Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon for the same reason I love Norman Rockwell. The people in those worlds are quirky but loveable, flawed but happy, sincere but imaginary. When you think about it, Lake Wobegon is a lot like Andy Griffith’s Mayberry, where the children are mischievous but good-hearted, racial tension is nonexistent and &hellip Continue reading »

“Two heads are better than one,” is often quoted but horribly wrong.  Trust me, I know. Anything with two heads is a monster. “Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the &hellip Continue reading »

My original plan was to make today’s memo the sequel to last week’s memo about media buying, but I decided not to go to the trouble. You see, I’m convinced no one believes me. I wrote last week’s memo to warn you of the extraordinary dangers of using Gross Rating Points as a guide to &hellip Continue reading »

Media Buying Lesson Number One I’ve never seen a business fail because they were reaching the wrong customer. But I’ve seen hundreds fail because they were saying the wrong things. Most ads answer questions no one was asking. How did we Americans become so fixated on “targeting the right customer” in our advertising? That question &hellip Continue reading »

People today are different, less naïve, less gullible, less open to suggestion than in the past. Christopher Isherwood describes this difference perfectly: “To live sanely in Los Angeles or, I suppose, in any other large American city, you have to cultivate the art of staying awake. You must learn to resist the unceasing hypnotic suggestions &hellip Continue reading »

1845: This is the year Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman will plant his final apple tree. Mark Twain is 10 years old, living the boyhood that will bring us Tom Sawyer. Florida will be added to the U.S. this year, raising the total number of states to 27. We think of life as being simpler, more idyllic &hellip Continue reading »

America contained about two and a half million people when we declared our independence in 1776. Today’s Portland, Oregon is bigger than that. The Constitution (1787) empowered every citizen who was white, male and a landowner. Minorities, women and poor people? Not so much. America was unlike Europe in that we didn’t divide our population &hellip Continue reading »