One of my great friends and colleagues (let's call him Neil) once told me there are three things he requires from his job: 1. I need to be challenged and learning new things. 2. I need to be paid equitably for working hard.

I actually love how people talk about Millennials as if it were a real thing. As if everyone between the ages of 15 and 35 fit into some neat, easy-to-manipulate grouping. Of course it has been that way forever. But it really all began (thanks to marketing) with the Baby Boomers and then Gen X and then Gen Y, which is now combined with Gen Z and called Millennials.

[Note to copywriters: Don't hate me.] As a young boy growing up n the 1960s, I was fully immersed in the world of Don Draper. TV commercials, radio commercials, newspaper ads, magazine ads, billboards... even product packaging. The first word I recall recognizing and reading at the tender age of 5 was "Tide", as in the Procter & Gamble detergent.

Imagine you are planning a road trip from Boston to Los Angeles and the best your GPS can do is give you some general guidance on how to get there: Head West at the nearest entrance to a highway. Now imagine there is no navigational system at all.

There is nothing "fair" about life. Some get everything while others get nothing. Some are brilliant while others are idiots. Some live long, healthy lives and others die young. That's the way it is. I accept it. But what I cannot and will not accept is the idiotic babbling of a billionaire who has nothing useful to say, yet refuses to stay quiet.

On any given day, depending upon how granular one gets, chief marketing officers are focused on literally dozens of marketing objectives. Sometimes it gets very complex and even complicated keeping track of which strategies and tactics are targeted against which goals.

Once upon a time, McDonald's was the king of fast food. In my opinion, it owed that lofty position to three primary factors: 1.  Price: Mickey D's was always less expensive than it's closest competitors. 2.  Convenience: The golden arches were open from sunrise to moonrise – breakfast, lunch and dinner – and were located on almost every street corner.

WARNING: This Post Contains Graphic Comments About Our Industry. Ad Age ran a story this morning proudly announcing that Lyft, as part of its search for a lead creative agency, is "putting a call out for a "wildcard" agency on Twitter." And in less than a moment, my mind exploded.

Have you seen the new IHOP logo? It is being lauded as a clever transition from a traditional and tired, frown-faced logo to a modern, social media friendly, emoticon-ready logo. And after all, isn't that what every logo is supposed to be?

It's the time of the season. High school seniors are donning caps and gowns, assembling in auditoriums and saying goodbye-hello to the past and the future. It is, whether they realize it or not (I did not), a seminal moment.