A week from tomorrow is Black Friday. It used to have more meaning, but in recent years, the sales kick off on Thanksgiving Day. Each year, it seems advertising for holiday sales begins earlier than ever before. People complain about seeing Christmas decorations in August, but it apparently works as advertisers push the limits of what the purchasing public will accept.

This week’s podcast is all about advertising, starting with the first advertisements we remember seeing. From there, we confess to what capacity we’ve each worked in the advertising world. (If the podcast had chapter titles, this part would be “Shawn Hangs Out with Molly Hatchet!)

Even with digital recorders, TV still seems like the place for advertising. We discuss whether we even watch ads on television anymore (if we really ever did), before discussing ads that annoy us…and ads we like. (So, obviously, ads do get through to us.) Then on to the big question: has an advertisement ever convinced us to actually buy something? Has an ad annoyed us so much that it’s turned us off from purchasing something? Are there right and wrong ways to go about advertising?

We then take a moment to discuss the best and worst ads we’ve ever seen before discussing if we’ve ever tried advertising our books. (Answer: no and no!) And then we close it all out discussing the future of advertising. How invasive will it get?!

We’d love to hear about your favorite and most-hated ads in the comments, so jump in and have fun! (You’ll make the ghost of Earl Scheib sell his soul for just $99.95!)

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