POV Archives

As Hollywood production declines, Chicago can rise

By Barbara Roche Apr 16, 2025

Chicago is bleeding business. Not a grindhouse film bleed. But more like a Tarantino-esque wound. Or wounds. As the Los Angeles production pipeline sputters—on-location fi...

From apples to lions: What the new Leo means to Chicago

By Colin Costello Jan 14, 2025

Almost every time former Reel Chicago editor Dan Patton wrote or edited an article about Leo Burnett, he’d get flak—from the iconic agency and our publisher alike—for cas...

What the Omnicom-IPG merger could mean for Chicago’s ad scene

By Reel Chicago Dec 9, 2024

The recent announcement of Omnicom Group’s $13B acquisition of Interpublic Group (IPG) has sent shockwaves through the global advertising industry, but what could this landma...

Sheila R. Brown on Eamonn Walker’s Chicago Fire departure

By Sheila R. Brown May 24, 2024

Last night was the final episode of One Chicago's Chicago Fire for Season 12. I literally cried during the final group scene because #ChiefBoden is leaving 51. When I began...

Chicago crews are hurting, where is the help?

By Reel Chicago Sep 22, 2023

Earlier this week, we ran a story about how IATSE local Mechanics Union 476 is hurting financially from the lack of work caused by the 143-day-old writers' strike and the 71-d...

The perils of culture watching

By Agents of Slang Jul 8, 2022

Two years ago, Irish singer / songwriter Imelda May released a poem titled You don’t get to be Racist and Irish. It was beautiful, but, more importantly, every line of it mad...

A reflection on Bill Murray’s response to his inappropriate behavior

By Barbara Roche May 3, 2022

Bill Murray, who is considered by his fans to be the coolest human alive, has come forward to address the complaint that had been filed against him last week for “inappropria...

Is Kanye redefining contemporary Christian music?

By Ina R. Bochian Aug 30, 2021

Ye’s Donda Listening Party in Chicago was controversial, anticipated, and legendary. This means it checked off all the boxes that one would come to expect from a Kanye ...

Sports fans: Where have they gone?

By Matt Burr, BTP Unite May 27, 2021

Much has been made of the break in professional sports between March 11th, when the Utah Jazz’s Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 and the sports world began its shutdo...

Imagine living in a world without a superhero

By Jim Glover Aug 31, 2020

Although most of us know that Chadwick Boseman, who died Friday night at the young age of 43 due to aggressive Colon Cancer, only played Black Panther in a movie, for most of u...

Thinking past the client ask

By Tarah Sperando Aug 12, 2019

If you always give clients what they ask for, you will eventually get fired Clients are clients for a reason, and they hire agencies for a reason. And while clients might t...

Melody Smith sets up Go Fund Me for breast cancer

By Colin Costello Jun 17, 2019

One of the great aspects about writing for Reel Chicago, and quite frankly sets us apart from other publications, is our ability to really dive into our own advertising, film, T...

An open letter to Jussie Smollett

By Colin Costello Feb 23, 2019

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and official policies of Reel Chicago and Reel 360 Dear Jus...

No host. No “obvi” winner. Here are our Oscar picks!

By Colin Costello Feb 23, 2019

Awards season finally comes to a curious, confounding and sometimes confusing end this Sunday when the Oscars announce their winners at the Dolby Theater. This year, there i...

The Chicago advertising connection to ‘Space Jam’

By Daniel Patton Sep 21, 2018

LeBron James scores off an assist from a Windy City boutique that launched Michael Jordan’s off-court media stardom In many ways, the thrill ignited by LeBron James’ de...

To the Reel staff from our publisher on Labor Day

By Barbara Roche Sep 3, 2018

Publisher, Barbara Roche gives a heartfelt thank you to the crew at Reel Chicago and Reel 360 Thank you to the crew at Reel Chicago and Reel 360, on Labor Day - and eve...

Reverse-engineering creative so it will seem scientific

By Steffan Postaer Aug 31, 2018

Every agency I ever worked at romanticized their data… a lot. —Steffan Postaer One of the things I’ve come to disdain about our business is how damn serious we...

Bogusky and me: a deep conversation by the shallow end

By Steffan Postaer Aug 6, 2018

Making work, really good work, was more important than drinking champagne and toasting about it Some years ago, I had the pleasure of conversing with Alex Bogusky bef...

A tale of two ecosystems: reef tank and ad agency

By Steffan Postaer Jul 27, 2018

The biological hierarchies of a reef ecosystem share much in common with the social intricacies of an ad agency I maintain a 180-gallon reef aquarium in my home. Try to...

Creative athletes remain relevant and stay in the game

By Steffan Postaer Jul 19, 2018

If a creative director isn’t banging away on every other brief at the agency, he or she begins the not-very-slow fade into irrelevance. My last post was about �...