Copyranter Brings His Rants, Middle Fingers To BuzzFeed
All about me. Also, about the "Mad Men"-like agency I worked at 20+ years ago.

Mark Duffy here, stepping out from behind the curtain.
Iāve been a New York City copywriter for more than 20 years, and Iāve been blogging and ranting about advertising as āCopyranterā since 2005.
Starting today, Iāll be writing and ranting here at BuzzFeed, as myself. Iām āgeekedā, as you fucking insufferable youngāuns say.
This isnāt my first venture into journalism. I actually started, post college, as a sports reporter and music reviewer, in the dark ages before computers took over newsrooms. More recently, I had a bitchinā ad column ā āLies Well Disguisedā ā on Gawker for a year. The New York Times, Slate, Mediaite, The Guardian, and the Queen of England have all praised Copyranter.
But Iāve spent the bulk of my career in the trenches of the ad industry. Indeed, the first ad agency I worked at was a creative shop (40 people) that wasnāt too far off from Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. If anything, it was sleazier and druggier than anything youāll see on AMC.
Some of the memories that stick with me from that era:
āOur top account executive was sleeping with a creative director, a copywriter (not me), an account supervisor, and, I believe, the married CEO of the firm, all at the same time. She later became president of the agency.
āAfter 5pm, said CEO would walk around the office rambling about ābig ideasā while smoking a fat joint laced with cocaine and who knows what else. (Heās been dead for five years). Often accompanying him on the tours was his best friend, a boxer/mob hitman with hair plugs, who casually told us about his kills.
āOur New Business guy, not the sharpest X-Acto knife in the drawer, got us in a lot of doors. He then died of a cocaine overdose in the CEOās pied-Ć -terre fuckpad.
We went from being an Ad Age hottest new creative agency to dead and bankrupt within three years. But oh, the parties.
I then found stability with a small New York City agency where I have been for the past 19 years. I live in āda Heightsā of Upper Manhattan with my beautiful wife, play drums, play full contact hockey (not that pussy shit Tim Robbins plays at Chelsea Piers), and play poker.
Iāll be keeping my copywriting chops active with some freelance work, which I donāt anticipate writing about here. (If I ever do, I will disclose it fully.)
And donāt worry, most of my posts are going to be much shorter than this; ad writing teaches you to get right to the fucking point.
So welcome to Copyranterās BuzzFeed page. I look forward to sharing with you and getting your feedback. Letās have some mad fun.