About Pooka
Imagine you had a friend who is able to look over your shoulder when you shop. They knew which things were worth buying, all the things you didn’t know about a particular product, and all the inside scoop on how the whether the customer service from that company is greater now.
Imagine a friend who had the most discriminating taste when it comes to new products are just plain old ones that are on the shelves. An imaginary friend that has worked for different companies of household names, helped promote them, and been in the board rooms with marketing and R&D and advertising folks. An imaginary friend, who, could tell you the difference between the truth of a product and the spin on its package.
Imaginary friends like that are sometimes referred to as a “pooka”.
You found that friend here. It’s me. I’m a critic of a unique sort. You could say I’m a product of consumerism and marketing ever since I was a small child.
See, I practically grew up in stores. Since about the age of three, I lived on a block surrounded by three shopping malls. My mother worked in one of them. My father was an engineer on another. The entirety of my afternoons were spent running around stores with my friends — watching people buy, watching stores sell, and racing through the aisles taking in packages, product designs, and store labels as my entry into the world of written communication and language.
If you’re the product of your environment, I’m a child of promotion and commerce.
So it’s probably no surprise that when I grew up and went to college, one of my first summer jobs was in a mall. First at one or two of the stores, but then in something that interested me even more: standing in the middle, taking surveys, and measuring people’s reactions to advertising, promotions and new products.
That shaped the way for my career — 20 years on Madison Avenue with some of the world’s largest ad agencies and some of the world’s most global clients. I’ve written ad campaigns for household names and small brands alike. I’ve won awards for my work.
Now I’m here to help you separate good products from bad products that just have really good spin.
As you can imagine, the list won’t be long. But it will be heartfelt.
Glad to be your friend. Let’s do some learning.