Daisy Ad

Tony Schwartz, the ad man who created the first negative political ad, died June 16 in Manhattan. He was 84.

Schwartz's ad, even though it was shown only once, marked the beginning of modern political advertising. The ad, called Daisy, showed a little girl picking petals from a daisy, then morphed into a nuclear explosion. It was designed for Lyndon Johnson's 1964 presidential campaign against Barry Goldwater, and played on fears that Goldwater had an itchy nuclear-trigger finger.

Here's the ad.

Why I can't concentrate

Here's a fascinating piece that helps to explain why I'm having trouble concentrating these days. I tend to skim stuff and find it hard to focus for any length of time. The reason? The Web is changing our brains.

How to dial a phone

Here's a how-to film from the 1930s, during the transition from operator calls to rotary dialing.

Looking for help

Here's what's happening with newspapers today -- cuts and downsizing and expecting print reporters to feel comfortable on camera. It's about survival, the owners say. Is there another way?

Blogs and news

Bloggers usually are content with doing riffs on the original reporting of main stream media folks -- most often the New York Times and the Washington Post. But here's a fascinating piece about a blogger who is doing some original reporting.

You have to question her ethics, however. Reporters need to be up front with their sources, not disingenuous.

TV writers' rooms

Interesting piece in the New York Times on the rooms that television writers work in. They vary from luxurious to austere and from 3x5 cards serving as story boards on the walls to monitors for each person. Good pictures as well. Read it and see the pictures here.