Justin Oberman

Freelance Creative Director

Oberman & Partners

Publicity & Promotions for Creative Leaders and Brands

Publicist, Promotor and Advertising Impresario

I am a copywriter. People who cannot write or do not want to write hire me for only one conceivable reason: to transmit to some audience a message or impression that will get them to react in a way that is to the person who hired me's advantage. 

In order to do that I help people and brands write things worth reading, or think of things worth writing about. Sometimes, even both at the same time.

Copywriting and Creative Coach, Creative + Brand Consultant for Hire, Available for talks + workshops.

Freelance Copywriter & Ghostwriter

The LA Jewish Home

Oversee (and sometimes even create) the advertising placed in the magazine
Oversee the marketing of the magazine
Write a column on marketing
Oversee the contest section
Oversee cover art

Marketing Director / Editor 

Laetro

Designed specifically for creatives by creatives, 
Laetro.com is a pay-as-you-go proprietary collaborative platform that seamlessly connects  businesses and brands with top-tier creative talent.

ECD Partner

Insign - Agence de communication

Collier.Simon

Generate Life Sciences, Cord Blood Registry, Community Colleges of Los Angeles, LastPass

(also worked a little on PayPal & Experian TikTok campaigns)

Associate Creative Director, Copy

Freelance

I use all the the extra knowledge I accumulate as a copywriter to write, research and verify thousands of questions for trivia apps, shows, websites, periodicals and quiz databases.

Freelance Quiz and Trivia Writer

The Adcom Group

Cleveland Clinic, GetGo, ACCO, New Business

Associate Creative Director, Writer

Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Hershey's (Whoppers Candy). Now ask me how I got the gig.

Freelance Senior Copywriter

Obercreative 

Here's the shpiel.

Whether it's with a click or a smile (or both), I'm a senior-level advertising copywriter, and content strategist with a knack for creating the kind of brand stories, content "gamification" and cheeky/satirical messaging that moves both people and products. 

What I love most about my job is the ability to collaborate with cool people to conjure up creative solutions for brands.

With over 10 years experience I prefer to inspire rather than dictate. As a senior creative, I've lead teams of copywriters, content and product managers, UX and graphic designers, front-end developers, and video producers... I believe strongly in treating every member of my team exactly how I would want to be treated and translating that level of attention to the consumer. 

Beyond TVC's & taglines, my specialties include 
• new business pitches 
• web & interactive copy
• experiential
• brand messaging
• content strategy 
• Direct Marketing copy (especially email and Facebook Ads)
• Game shows
• Crypto & ICO launches
• and writing. Lots and lots of writing

•Agencies: CP+B, Drumroll, Davis Elen, Crypto Media Group, Quigley-Simpson, Phenomenon, The Woo, Contend, Mosaic, Razorfish, Euro RSCG, MotherNY, EO Interactive, Bocca Digital, Lesli Ink, Bancs Media, and Street Attack

•Brands: Hershey’s, Spartan, Fannie Mae, Capital One, GreatCall/Jitterbug, Kiddie Academy, Chase Marriott Rewards, Chase Freedom,  Intuit, Lenovo, Motorola, DeLonghi, Microsoft, Oracle, Welches, PlutoTV,  Google, Citibank, Target, Verizon, Jaguar, Commonwealth Bank Australia, Virginia Lottery, Clearasil, AOL, Gagosian, COLD-EEZE, Blackwing Pencils, YINC, Pura D'or & 2-Minute Club, Caffe Furia, I am Yusani.

Freelance Copywriter / Creative Director

Brand Response Copywriter, Creative Director - I can talk like a direct marketer ✓ and create brand awareness ✓ at the same time. 🤯 DM me to learn how. | Advertising | Branding | Strategy |

I started an ad agency in 2020 during the pandemic.

Quietly grew it to 7 figures using nothing but organic LinkedIn posting and word of mouth.

Then, in 2023, I burned out.

So, I closed my agency.

But before I did that, I had a stark realization. 

Besides the influx of business, my following on LinkedIn had grown to over 30k. 

I also realized that most of the people and brands that hired me did so because they liked my Linkedin posts. 

They liked the way I thought. 

I did this without taking classes from the gurus, paying attention to my metrics, or writing for the algorithm.

I figured, if I could do it for me, I could probably do it for other people as well.

So, I started offering ghostwriting services to high-level ad executives and solopreneurs in early 2023.

And the results were pretty phenomenal.

In just 6 months, I grew from zero clients to over 15

And on November 1st, 2023, I closed my ad agency for good. 

Since that day, I’ve taken my unconventional approach to branding and advertising  and started using it to ghostwrite and manage the personal brands of several high-profile executives, founders, business owners, and solopreneurs (but I can’t tell you who).

To scale the business, I partnered with LinkedIn B2B ad whisperer Aaron Zakowski to form Genius Scouts.

My Mission is to help people and brands write things worth reading and do things worth writing about.

Here are all the ways you can work with me:

GENIUS SCOUTS THE AGENCY

Need help building and managing your personal brand? Let the world's only full-service ad agency (but for people) do it for you. 

→ GO HERE: https://www.geniusscouts.com/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=JustinProfileLink

LAETRO 

Need help creating an ad campaign or with a marketing project? Let me put together a team for you. 

→ DM me

HIBACHI COPY

Just need copywriting help? Me, you (and whoever you think should be in there as well). Two days. All the copy you need. Done. 
→ GO HERE: www.hibachicopy.com

Email: justin@justinoberman.com
X: @obercr8ive

Creative Director / Copywriter

Oberman & Partners is a creative consultancy for brands and agencies that still believe in the magic of advertising. 

Known as the guy that brands and agencies call when they’re stuck or need a little extra creative juice, OBERMAN diagnoses the problem and (if necessary) puts together a unique team of PARTNERS (freelancers or other agencies) to solve them.

Wow. This Substack thing really works. Below are my results after just one day of rebranding my newsletter as OberThinking  and activating payment subscriber mode. 

Of course, and this is extremely important, I am not just rising from the earth like Adam. 

I’m totally leveraging my 58k followers on LinkedIn. 

But still. 

Since starting on Substack I have 

• Grown my newsletter from 700 subscribers to almost  4k in three month

• Gotten most of leads either directly from the newsletter or from people who have read it. 

• Earned almost 1k in subscriber fees on my first day of activating it. 

• #19 Rising in Business category 

That’s enough to convince me where I should start shifting my (and my clients) attention. 

Don’t get me wrong. I still plan on using LinkedIn.  Abd evennpksn to start using Facebook more. 

But just differently. 

It’s no longer the end goal. 

Getting oeople to subscribe to my newsletter is. 

I’ve got 3 clients that have already made the shift. 

Anyone want to be the fourth? 

Link to my newsletter in comments

Copywriter, Ghostwriter, Personal & Corporate Brand Advisor, Manager & Impresario. | I help people and brands write things worth reading and do things worth writing about. | I also teach how to write like a human with AI

Whitney Ruben: Our ads aren't working

Bill Bernbach: Where are you advertising?

Rubin: In the NY Post

Bill: Why?

Rubin: Because it has an 80% Jewish readership 

Bill: Why does that matter?

Rubin: Well, rye bread is a Jewish staple. 

Bill: So?

Rubin: So, shouldn't we advertise where the Jews are? 

Bill: That's lazy thinking. 

Rubin: How so?

Bill: Look, Levy's Jewish Rye is a great Jewish Rye... but from one Jew to another, let's face it, it's a packaged Jewish Rye. Every Jew knows that the only place t get good rye bread is fresh from the baker.

Rubin: So, how can we convince them to buy our packaged Jewish rye?

Bill: You can't. At least not without spending millions of dollars.

Rubin: Oy! So what do we do?

Bill: Appeal to a wider audience

Rubin? You mean Gentiles? 

Bill: Why not? They already buy packaged bread. And they'd probably love the novelty of a rye one. 

Rubin: I guess so, but how do we do that? Isn't that expensive?

Bill: Not at all. Simply relocate all your current Jewish-targeted advertising to papers with a higher gentile readership. 

Rubin: Great! Let's do it.

FLASH FORWARD 3 YEARS

Rubin: Your plan worked. Should we make our ads less Jewish, looking to increase sales?

Bill: Not at all. In fact, I suggest doubling down on it. Let's add the word "Jewish" to Levy's Rye Bread so that it reads "Levy's Real Jewish Rye." 

Rubin: I don't know. People are liable to be anti-Semitic. Plus, "Jewish" could be a real turn-off to retailers. 

Bill: I think the opposite will happen. 

Rubin: How so?

Bill: I think people will associate the best rye bread with Jewish rye bread. And they'll ask for you by name. 

Rubin: I don't know if I want to be so Jewish.

Bill: For goodness' sake, Whitney, the bread's name is Levy's. They're not going to mistake you for being High Episcopalian. 

Rubin: So what do you suggest?

Bill: Let’s blast Jewish message all over New York

Rubin: You mean the New Yorker?

Bill: Well, there too. But no. I mean New York.

Rubin: The City?

Bill: Yes... Specifically in the Subways. 

Rubin: Why the Subways?

Bill: Because everyone uses subways. It will make your bread seem as ethnic as New York.

Rubin: OK, Bill

With some creative liberties, that's how the great Levy's Bread campaign came about. 

No 23 slide deck about DDB's philosophy. 

No 75-slide consumer insight deck 

No 55-slide media plan. 

Just a client with a problem, a young ad executive who knew how to look beyond the obvious, and a young agency filled with highly talented creative people to make it happen.  

The result was a campaign that didn't just usher in a new creative revolution in advertising and make DDB the hottest shop in town. 

But also became a significant symbol of diversity in the 60s. 

Even Malcolm was a fan.

You don't need to be DDB to know what good advertising is ;-)

RIP DDB.

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#oberthinking
#advertisinghistorytoday

#advertising #creative #marketing #copywriting

Levy's Bread DDB Ads

It took three months meeting over 4,000 people before Volkswagen chose DDB  as their agency.

They were not impressed by what they’d seen.

Which was hardly surprising.  

The year was 1959. 

US advertising was infatuated with data, research, focus groups, and the like. 

Almost every ad, commercial, and billboard was tested before, during, and after it ran. 

All of it was deeply analyzed in an attempt to make the message mean all things to all people. 

But more often than not, the results meant nothing to anyone. 

Except at least to the agency and the client.

The ad below was one of many ads for that campaign that changed everything. 

It turned an ugly German car (funded by Hitler, no less) into an icon. 

It didn’t just move needles. 

It changed minds.

It was magic.

And it spawned a creative revolution that changed the world of advertising forever. 

Well, at least for the next forty years. 

Our industry has again fallen under the spell of data. 

We spend days creating digital ads that are tested in real time. 

The only difference this time is that…

Instead of trying to make one ad mean all things to all people, now we try to make many ads mean something to just one person.

But once again…

More often than not, the results mean little to anyone.

Sounds like a ripe opportunity for disruption. 

I’m excited to see the ad that will spark the next creative revolution.

Hopefully, it will be yours. 

RIP DDB

👍 to share

#oberthinking
#advertisinghistorytoday

#advertising #creativity #marketing

The best marketing books aren’t about marketing.

This week I read  “No More Mr. Nice Guy”  (and before you judge, it’s not what you think). 

The book is ostensibly about men who’ve spent their lives seeking approval, avoiding conflict, and wondering why their relationships feel hollow. 

But if you strip away the therapeutic framework and you find something fascinating: 

A study in learned inhibition.

Most of the men who come to Rober Glover already know how to get what they want. 

They knew as children. Watch any three-year-old negotiate for ice cream and you’ll see sophisticated persuasion at work. 

You’ll see a human that understands (or is at least figuring out) attention-seeking, emotional leverage and strategic persistence. 

But somewhere between childhood and the cubicle, we learn that wanting things openly is unseemly. And that drawing attention to yourself is vulgar. And that the proper way to get what you need is to be so helpful, or so accommodating, or so relentlessly pleasant that people volunteer to give it to you.

(They rarely do.)

Which brings me to LinkedIn and personal branding, or even regular branding for that matter, and that word we keep using: 

Authentic.

When we talk about “being authentic” on social media, we usually mean sharing vulnerable moments or admitting our failures. And that can be valuable. But I think  we’re defining the term too narrowly, and in doing so, missing something important.

The three-year-old asking for ice cream is being utterly authentic not  because she’s sharing her deepest vulnerabilities, but because she hasn’t yet learned that desire is something to disguise.

She’s willing to be visible in her wanting. 

Being authentic doesn’t mean broadcasting your every unfiltered thought. 

It means not being afraid to do the things you need to do to get what you want.

Most of you who have problems making social media work for you are having these problems because you have spent decades learning the opposite lesson. 

You’ve been taught that the sophisticated professional doesn’t ask directly, doesn’t draw attention, doesn’t seek things like fame. 

So you wrap your ambitions in self-deprecation and soften your expertise with qualifying phrases and post tentatively, as if apologising for taking up space.

And that’s why your ideas don’t spread, why your businesses don’t grow, and why the opportunities go to people who seem somehow less qualified but inexplicably more visible.

What we call authenticity in adult discourse is often just inhibition wearing a respectable mask.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Being authentic doesn’t mean broadcasting your every unfiltered thought. 

It means not being afraid to do the things you need to do to get what you want.

If this resonated and you want to learn how to snap out of it sign up for my upcoming free masterclass. Or subscribe to my newsletter. 

Link to book in comments. 

#onebookaweek

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Personal branding has nothing to do with authenticity. 

According to her birth certificate, the woman in the picture below’s name was Josephine Esther Mentzer. But as a child she went by a nickname based on her middle name. 

Born in Corona, Queens, she was the daughter of Hungarian Jewish immigrants and worked in her father’s hardware store alongside eight siblings.

When she and her husband launched the company with four products in 1946, she added an accent mark to her nickname to make it sound French and began pronouncing it the way her father had, with his Hungarian accent.

She hinted at European aristocratic descent and told people she’d been raised by her Viennese mother in a sumptuous home in Flushing, Queens, with stables, a chauffeured car, and an Italian nurse. 

None of it was true.

But everyone suspected it. 

And yet the beauty brand she founded flourishes until today. 

Because she understood the one thing that most people who build personal brands miss. 

That the mythology around her wasn’t meant to replace an authentic product experience.

It was there to get people’s attention and give that experience meaning. 

That brands built purely on mythmaking, without substance, tend to collapse when reality disappoints. 

And that a fake aristocrat selling ineffective cream would have been forgotten by 1950.

She first learned the formulation of her products as a little girl, watching her chemist uncle in Queens. 

She and her husband manufactured them in a converted Manhattan restaurant. 

She’d make products during the day, sell them to beauty salons where she’d demonstrate them to women under hair dryers, and then continue making products through the night. 

As it turned out, her creams actually improved women’s skin.

And that’s how  “Estée Lauder” (a name that never quite existed, belonging to a woman everyone knew was never quite who she said she was) became one of the most authentic brands in cosmetics.

Because the reputation didn’t belong to her. 

That’s just how she got people’s attention. 

It belonged to the millions of women who built it in their own heads, from their own experiences, and most importantly, the evidence on their own skin.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Lesson: It’s OK to humbug people to get their attention, provided that the thing you are getting their attention for is of greater value than the humbug. 

If you ask me, that’s kind of what all good advertising does anyway. 

But more importantly, as this story proves, it applies to your personal brand just as much as to your corporate ones. 

Do you really believe that Musk, Bartlett or any of the people you admire with strong personal brands are truly being themselves? 

Acting like they do at home? 

They are not. 

Some of may be acting more natural than others. 

But they are  all acting. 

They are putting on a show. 

And the sooner you accept this and start building your character, the more successful you will be. 

Have fun 

#advertisinghistorytoday

Since everyone's impressions are down, I created a Mad Libs post generator for LinkedIn. Have fun. Link in comments.

I have bad news for every marketing professional reading this.

We're probably still going to be using LLMs to create content in 5 years.

I've talked to VCs. 
I've talked to private equity. 
I've talked to the "disruptors."

Nobody wants to take on OpenAI, Claude, or Google.

The sales cycle is too hard. 
Companies won't leave.

So here's the question: If we're stuck with LLMs, how do we make it work FOR us instead of us working THROUGH it?

What if the answer isn't another clone of my voice to create a LinkedIn posts platform?
What if the answer is building around it?

• Pulling yourself out of the LLM 80% of the time
• Build our own workflow tools that actually make you think differently
• Create an idea that helps you create more original content.

I'm not talking about trying to replace your LLMs
I'm trying to make it more irrelevant to your daily content creation.

Introducing Mad Links (A Mad Libs generator for your LinkedIn posts).

Is it a solution to any of the issues I discussed above?

No. 

But it's a lot of fun. 

Which, by the way, is an underappreciated technique for creating better content.

Link in comments

One of the interesting things about politely disagreeing with AIfluencers on social media is that they probably won't see it. 

The whole purpose of AI, from their point of view, is to let them avoid actually spending time on the platforms and communicating with people. 

I do not think that Ruben Hassid is one of those people. 

But oddly enough, it is also one of the reasons AI cannot do many of the things it claims it can. 

Like, for example, make your content feel more human. 

That's because language is not a delivery system. It's a collaboration. 

It's time to hold AInfluencers and AI companies philosophically accountable for the things that they say.

I talk about this and more in today's OberThinking newsletter. 

And speaking of collaboration, I created a fun ChatGPT to help prove this point. 

It's Mad Links, and it's essentially a Mad Libs post Generator for LinkedIn.

Link in comments 

On Thursday, I will release my Drunk Prompting guide for paid subscribers. 

If you'd rather avoid my philosophical musing on AI, you can just skip down to the bottom like a Craxker Jack Box and have some fun.

Link to newsletter in comments

This is the "Apple 1984 ad of political advertising.”

The year was 1964. President Johnson needed an agency for his campaign against Barry Goldwater. 

His choice? 

The creative revolutionaries at DDB are the same folks behind Volkswagen's groundbreaking "Think Small" campaign.

The legendary audio engineer Tony Schwartz was brought in to work on the project.

What they ended up producing stunned America.

On September 7, 1964, during NBC's Monday Night Movie, viewers watched as a little girl counted daisy petals. Suddenly, her innocent counting transformed into a missile launch countdown. 

Then... nuclear apocalypse.

No mention of Goldwater. 

No direct accusations. 

Just pure, raw emotion that played on voters' deepest fears about nuclear war.

The backlash was immediate. Johnson pulled it amid fierce criticism. 

The "Daisy" ad aired exactly once. But here's the twist - news stations nationwide couldn't stop replaying it. 

The ad went viral before "viral" existed.

Tony Schwartz called it "the first Rorschach test on the American public." 

He wasn't wrong. 

The spot revolutionized political advertising by showing the raw power of emotional storytelling over facts and figures.

Johnson won with 90% of the electoral votes. 

And whether or not the ad had anything to do with it, he, DDB, and Tony Schwartz wrote the playbook for modern political advertising: 

People don't vote for a candidate. They vote against the other guy. 

Sometimes, the most powerful message is the one that taps into what voters are already thinking.

Fascinating fact: JFK had actually spotted DDB's potential first. He told Bobby to "Get me the agency that does the Volkswagen advertising" for his planned '64 campaign. We'll never know what they would have created for Kennedy. But we know the revolution they sparked for Johnson.

RIP DDB

I held my breath while punching until I felt dizzy.

Then I did it 30 more times.

That's how Jackie Chan invented drunken kung fu.

Turns out, if you want to use AI to help you be more creative, that's also how you should be prompting AI.

But nobody's teaching you that part.

Until I wrote the below Substack

Link in comments

Most CEOs can't answer one question:

"What do you own in the minds of your customers?"

Not what you sell. 
Not what you do. 
What you own.

Volvo owns safety.
Apple owns experience.
Tesla owns the future.

You? You're probably stuck at Level 1 — saying things instead of owning things.

Here's what that looks like:

- Your team describes your business differently depending on who's talking.
- Sales pitches one thing. Marketing says another. You say something else.
- Competitors copy your messaging in weeks.
- You're competing on features, not concepts.

This isn't a strategy problem. 
It's a clarity problem.

I help CEOs find what they own. Not through another strategy deck. Not through expensive consultants. Through a system that reveals the one concept your entire business can own.

The work:

Over 20 years, I've helped leaders at startups and Fortune 500s stop drifting and start owning. At Deloitte, I helped win $2B+ in deals by creating clarity in pitches. Now I work with founders and CEOs who want to claim mental territory — not just compete for scraps.

What changes:

When you know what you own, decisions become obvious. Your team aligns without meetings. Customers feel the pull before you sell. Growth becomes inevitable.

One CEO told me: "For the first time in five years, everyone is pulling in the same direction. Not because I told them to. Because they finally understand what we're building."

That's clarity.

Where to start:

Before you hire another agency to fix your homepage or a consultant to "do your positioning" (when they're really doing framing), try the CEO Clarity Starter Kit.

Find what you own in 60 minutes. Not months.

Link is in my bio.

Paul Syng

Watching LinkedIn "experts" complain about positioning is fascinating.

"It doesn't work. Category design is BS. My clients don't need it."

Then you look at their understanding of positioning.

And it's immediately clear.

They're complaining about English without knowing the alphabet.

They think positioning is:

- A messaging framework
- A value proposition
- Better differentiation
- Market segmentation
- Or (insert some vague delusion description/definition)

That's not positioning. 
That's marketing tactics.

Positioning is owning mental territory. 

A concept in someone's mind that you own. 

Not what you sell. 
What you mean.

But here's the pattern that kills me.

After complaining for half the post, they offer their groundbreaking "solution."

And it's always the same fucking garbage:

Their messaging template
Their tactical workshop
Their surface-level fix

The exact tactical approach doesn't work without a strategic foundation.

You can't skip strategy and jump to tactics. 
Then blame strategy when tactics fail.

If you've spent two weeks thinking about positioning, you don't get to dismiss what others have spent decades mastering.

And you definitely don't get to repackage your tactical bandaid as the "real solution."

The tells are always the same:

- Use "brand positioning" instead of positioning
- Confuse features with mental ownership
- Think positioning = messaging
- Treat it like a marketing project

'Real' positioning requires understanding what you own in someone's mind. 

Not what you sell. 
Not how you describe yourself. 

What mental territory belongs to you.

Here's the litmus test:

If your biggest competitor were to see your P&L, what would shock them?

If the answer is "nothing," you have no positioning.

'Real' positioning shows up in how you spend money. In what you're willing to sacrifice. In the decisions that look insane from the outside but are essential to who you are.

Your P&L doesn't lie. 
Your LinkedIn posts do.

Clarity for CEOs and Founders | Strategic Advisor | Helped 500+ founders claim mental territory | Creator of The Mental Monopoly System

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