This month's letters to the editor.
Published October 2005
EMAIL THIS ARTICLE
PRINTER FRIENDLY
COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLEA Man and His Monkey
Reading about Paul Frank is such a breath of fresh air [How I Did It, August]. Finally, here's a successful entrepreneur I can relate to. This guy lived at home until he was 31, borrowed $5,000 from his friend's stepmom, and now he's kicking ass. There are a lot of entrepreneurs like Frank who didn't have trust funds, degrees from Ivy League schools followed by six-month tours of Europe, or successful family businesses that were handed to them. (Yes, I'm jealous.) I think that his story will touch them. It did me.
Matt Scott
Principal, Eagle Valley Medical Group
Hudson, Wis.
I'm proud to say that Paul Frank is my son. He continually amazes our family with his creativeness and generosity. When he has the time, he holds art camps for children and visits local schools to show the students how to create art.
Donna Sunich
Retired
Huntington Beach, Calif.
It is nice to know my family helped Paul Frank at the beginning. My great-grandfather, John Nelson, invented the sock-knitting machine, for which he was granted patents in 1869, 1876, and 1879. He incorporated the Nelson Knitting Co. in 1880. The Forest City Knitting Co. formed in 1891. These two companies manufactured the socks that were originally used to make the monkey dolls that became the inspiration for Paul Frank's cartoon character Julius. The red heel was added in 1932.
Barbara Gerry
Retired
Rockford, Ill.
But Is the Future Bright?
The last line of your August article on smart ads [The Future of Advertising Is Here, August] says it all: "As if you had a choice." All the futuristic technology in the world won't help ads be more effective until we move beyond the traditional assumption that advertising has to be interruptive.
True innovation in advertising would be creating campaigns that fit into the customer's world (rather than trying to disrupt it), are honest, are easy to use, and show the customer how to take action without demanding it. Most of all, we need to find ways to make ads that deliver information that people actually want.
Mark Stinson
President
Stinson Brand Innovation
Chicago
Seeing Claria on the list of trend-setting advertisers piqued my ire. Claria is a notorious purveyor of adware. I routinely remove Claria's products, which are flagged as threats by the major anti-spyware programs such as Spybot and Ad-Aware. Claria's products cross the line by showing excessive ads that degrade the performance of users' computers.
Aaron Woodin
President
PC Ventures
White Plains, N.Y.
I'd like less advertising. I ignore commercials. If I feel I'm being bothered by an intrusive advertisement, I make a conscious decision to never buy that product. The same goes for pop-up ads. If a company uses them, it can count me as one sale lost forever.
Mike Rogers
Owner
QuickTrivia.com
Seattle
It will be interesting to see which of these new forms of advertising will catch on. It seems to me that some of these new ideas are more creative than they are effective.
Ryan Treft
Ad manager
OnyxAdvertising.com
Salt Lake City
For a fee I would put an ad on my SUV. It would, of course, have to be something appropriate. I drive around in Orange County, Calif., so it would get a lot of exposure--and I wouldn't mind the extra cash.
Mary Platter
Property manager
Grove Investment Co.
Costa Mesa, Calif.
A-Blogging We Will Go
I think every business owner would benefit from reading Hillary Johnson's ode to the business section of the blogosphere [Why I Read Business Blogs, August]. Blogging is becoming the new media, and companies should hop onboard before they miss the boat.
Jim Turner
Chief managing partner
OneByOneMedia.com
Firestone, Colo.
