www.eddreistadt.com

I've been reading a lot about cutting the cord lately, which is interesting because I did just that about six months ago.

After what seemed to be the millionth time I scrolled through all the channels not finding a single thing I wanted to watch, I asked myself what I'd miss if it just went away. The answer has turned out to be: "Not much."

Here's a link to Brandware Drillbits Blog which has a link to a story in Forbes on how 8.3 billion video ads were watched last month. (Credit for where I saw it first and all that.)

Back in the 90s, I was on the tourism conference speaking circuit and gave a talk on this new thing called the Internet. The key point I'd make is that the world now belongs to the clever rather than the rich.

Kickstarter is an amazing concept. I know this first hand because my daughter Becky used it a while back to fund the printing of her book, Tigerbuttah (available here for only $14.95, plus shipping.)

All the money for producing the book and then some was raised in about a week. She owns the resulting book outright and did the whole project without a publisher.

I spent the early part of my career in the advertising agency business.

Agencies are a lot of fun because they house wonderfully creative people, many who just wouldn't fit into a corporate environment, but whose talents were desperately needed by our corporate clients.

The day came when I made the jump to client-side. I had a brief stay at Busch Gardens Tampa as the Promotions Director and then a 10-year stint at Busch Gardens Williamsburg as the VP of Marketing.

Back in the day when I first got involved with Internet marketing through a partnership between Busch Entertainment Corporation, the city of Blacksburg, Viriginia and Virginia Tech, a lot of wild predictions were being made.

Work would become a thing you do, not a place you go (as I type this from my office at Brandware.) Creating content would shift from companies who own printing presses and TV networks to those who are clever (well, look at Facebook and YouTube versus cable viewship.)

I made a quick run to Target a week or two ago to grab a CD that was strongly suggested as a perfect birthday present.

I hadn't been in Target in ages and hadn't visited the CD rack for a millennium or two. I know the CD format is a bit of a dinosaur, but I wasn't prepared to see the measly one-island space and picked-over selection.

Well, fame anyway.

My first entry on the Brandware Drillbits Blog just appeared.

Call my agent if you'd like an autographed copy.

-Ed

It's been a long time now, but I still get reminders of the single strangest day of my life: The day I had Fabio take the first ride on Apollo's Chariot, the new roller coaster at the theme park where I worked as the Marketing VP.

In fact, I just received an email from a friend reporting a Fabio sighting. Apparently he's marketing protein drinks these days.

A few years back, I went on a cruise and had an experience my parents would have loved.

The central feature seemed to be the Big Buffet. Outrageous amounts of food available 24 hours a day, bringing to mind a song by Eric "Two Scoops" Moore.

I spent the first decade or so of my career in the advertising agency business.

Mad Men puts a smile on my face because those are the folks who taught me the business. I worked at a shop that recruited heavily out of New York and Chicago. They'd bring veterans down who wanted a slower pace, a better climate and a nice change when it came to cost of living.

So, given that background, you may be wondering why I've hung my hat at BrandwarePR.

Well, I'm convinced the age of paid advertising is coming to a screeching halt.