I woke up this morning with this urgent message screaming in my head. I was writing copy as I stretched. Must blog. Must lash out the only way I know how. Must do something about our broken political system. Yeah, as if I can. As if any of us can. I stopped trying to do that when I switched majors in college at 18 years of age. A degree in political science wouldn't do it. Even then, I saw the brokenness of our country, our world. And my inability to change it.
And so I gave up and became an advertising major. I can control what people like and dislike, I figured. I'm good at persuasive writing, creating interesting, fun ads and news stories that move products and services. In particular, I know how to entertain through advertising. And then I became disillusioned with that, as the conglomerates bought up everything media and the whole ad game changed, not for the better.
And always, I meditated and mostly pretended to live a Zen existence, as if it didn't matter what the idiots in Washington or the monsters in Bahrain did. But even with meditation today, I find I'm compelled to speak out, call out the idiots in Washington. And the monsters among us.
It's a broken system. People, we need to start screaming "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." People are losing their homes to banks while bankers claim $9 million bonuses. Each. Each year. From tax dollars we've given them, because they were "too big to fail." And we continue to foster the "trickle down theory" of giving tax breaks to the top 2%, the Kochs and the GEs. While the silent majority (yes, we've become those fools again) eats it. And pays for it. Find the error in that picture without being an economist. It's not hard.
We continue to war when in 2011, we've had a long enough history on this planet, for even the dimmest witted of us to see that war only begets more war, more awfulness.
The mean, greedy bastards who make millions sucking off the American political system want to cut "Obamacare" and Medicare and everything else that even halfway portends to good social services for our citizenry. While we pour trillions into a war machine that only cripples our young who serve and those upon whom we wage this incessant madness.
We are a corrupt government. We are no better than Egypt. In fact, the economic disparities and social inequalities are scary similar. And I'm afraid that economically, we're closer to Greece. Or Rome, when Nero fiddled. Arrogance is going to do us in.
I think I understand why Americans are so fat. We overeat because we're trying to escape this crude, unequal system under which we live where the middle class is taxed to death. Where we borrow to the hilt from those to whom we give aid, like China. While the Cheneys and the Department of Defense contractors continue to profit on war that only destroys everything.
I'm mad as hell. I'm going to meditate now.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Chrysler, Audi & "Badvertising"
I'm watching auto companies waste even more money. This time, on "badvertising": Advertising that misses the mark, that's not consistent from medium to medium, that's created by a handful of agencies. Splintered messages. Nothing focused. Nothing that's going to move a lot of product.
From the flap with @ChryslerAutos dropping the F bomb on Twitter, after the (I think) brilliant use of Eminem's brand to relaunch Chrysler during the Super Bowl, I'm amazed at how many snafus and guffaws the advertising industry makes today. Methinks it's because the big agencies are too big. Purchased by conglomerates, like all media related industries today. And thinking social media too small to fight for, to keep it under their roof. Wieden & Kennedy does brilliant TV for Chrysler, but some obviously clueless company is tweeting? And tweeting poorly. W&K should be handling the entire account. That's the way ad agencies used to work. And we'd fight to keep all the biz under our one roof. So everything matched.
No so, today. Social media has gotten away from the good, creative agencies. They either don't understand it or they think it's insignificant. It's not. It's imperative. And it needs to be wrapped into the overall branding efforts, along with the TV, print, online, out-of-home, etc.
Audi's recent big deal at the Super Bowl, where they were going to make a huge statement with social media, was a disaster. And they didn't. I retweeted our Hawaii blogger who was in their social media contest and never once looked at the Audi advertising. Didn't even know it was for Audi, really, as the hashtag was something really stupid like #ProgressIs. Had not a clue what it was even about. And Audi's tweets are boring, product placement only. So I unfollowed them.
Ad agencies need to get their acts together and be the full service marketing arms they once were. The creative and the clients are suffering.
From the flap with @ChryslerAutos dropping the F bomb on Twitter, after the (I think) brilliant use of Eminem's brand to relaunch Chrysler during the Super Bowl, I'm amazed at how many snafus and guffaws the advertising industry makes today. Methinks it's because the big agencies are too big. Purchased by conglomerates, like all media related industries today. And thinking social media too small to fight for, to keep it under their roof. Wieden & Kennedy does brilliant TV for Chrysler, but some obviously clueless company is tweeting? And tweeting poorly. W&K should be handling the entire account. That's the way ad agencies used to work. And we'd fight to keep all the biz under our one roof. So everything matched.
No so, today. Social media has gotten away from the good, creative agencies. They either don't understand it or they think it's insignificant. It's not. It's imperative. And it needs to be wrapped into the overall branding efforts, along with the TV, print, online, out-of-home, etc.
Audi's recent big deal at the Super Bowl, where they were going to make a huge statement with social media, was a disaster. And they didn't. I retweeted our Hawaii blogger who was in their social media contest and never once looked at the Audi advertising. Didn't even know it was for Audi, really, as the hashtag was something really stupid like #ProgressIs. Had not a clue what it was even about. And Audi's tweets are boring, product placement only. So I unfollowed them.
Ad agencies need to get their acts together and be the full service marketing arms they once were. The creative and the clients are suffering.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Injury
In the morning you took pretty pictures
before you told me you were leaving
that night. And then you went away
very quickly to someone I didn't know
but had prayed for. The father of my children
and a best friend closed the door on so many
years of never looking back. How strange
I thought that life would give me this
pain I would never recover from nor want to.
I will always remember you before the injury
and afterwards for how fiercely you fought
to live whole again. You never left the children.
You only left me.
In the morning you took pretty pictures
before you told me you were leaving
that night. And then you went away
very quickly to someone I didn't know
but had prayed for. The father of my children
and a best friend closed the door on so many
years of never looking back. How strange
I thought that life would give me this
pain I would never recover from nor want to.
I will always remember you before the injury
and afterwards for how fiercely you fought
to live whole again. You never left the children.
You only left me.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Love is Strange
I have been given great chances to love on this planet, in this life. Some were not-to-be-missed white-hot relationships and some were truly great loves. Some I've blown mightily. Some I've made magnificent. But always they've been felt at the deepest level. And they've all been important, historic, and shaped who I am. I bless all of these great loves of my life. And to borrow someone's great line, all of them were you.
But there's nothing, nothing that even comes close to the love I feel for my daughter and my son. My son because he's my first, my sought after, my soul longing to express itself in a new first creation. And he's so amazing. So insightful. He's like talking to my smarter self. I feel his great love, his compassion and understanding of life, which he's slow to express in his maleness, but it's there and it's deep. And sweet.
But ah, my daughter, my daughter. What kind of love is this? Love for myself, perhaps? We're so different, and yet so alike, in so many ways. Letting my son go to college and on into his own life was torture for me. And now, letting her go is agony. Missing her beautiful looks, her warmth, her calm intelligence, her fabulous wit, her simple beingness in the room with me. Watching her flower into her potential. I'm missing that.
To love this greatly is to feel so much. Sometimes I almost think it's better not to have loved at all. But it's not. It's not.
Maybe I should get a dog.
But there's nothing, nothing that even comes close to the love I feel for my daughter and my son. My son because he's my first, my sought after, my soul longing to express itself in a new first creation. And he's so amazing. So insightful. He's like talking to my smarter self. I feel his great love, his compassion and understanding of life, which he's slow to express in his maleness, but it's there and it's deep. And sweet.
But ah, my daughter, my daughter. What kind of love is this? Love for myself, perhaps? We're so different, and yet so alike, in so many ways. Letting my son go to college and on into his own life was torture for me. And now, letting her go is agony. Missing her beautiful looks, her warmth, her calm intelligence, her fabulous wit, her simple beingness in the room with me. Watching her flower into her potential. I'm missing that.
To love this greatly is to feel so much. Sometimes I almost think it's better not to have loved at all. But it's not. It's not.
Maybe I should get a dog.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Social Networking Du Jour
Erika Engle and I were actually having a "live" telecon tonight. She, the star "Buzz" biz columnist for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Me, a marketing director of Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor, a very fun, fascinating and "chicken skin" museum/visitor attraction at Pearl Harbor (#1 destination in HI).
Just sayin...the social community explosion is both heartwarming and almost overwhelming. The incredible closeness we've all attained and grow hourly via this "cold" electronic medium. Wow, a kazillion of us are on board with it. Fun, informative.
It's all about community, shared interest, and what we in Hawaii would call, "lotta Aloha." Planet-wide. Not to wax too sweet, but I think it works. Example: Iran online. How we've grown from Obama's using the web to covering Iran's election. What if we'd been tweeting, etc., this heavily when Bush was first elected? Actually some were. Actually glad I wasn't. TMI.
Stay tuned and if you watch TV, watch Stephen Colbert's hair grow.
Aloha pumehana
Just sayin...the social community explosion is both heartwarming and almost overwhelming. The incredible closeness we've all attained and grow hourly via this "cold" electronic medium. Wow, a kazillion of us are on board with it. Fun, informative.
It's all about community, shared interest, and what we in Hawaii would call, "lotta Aloha." Planet-wide. Not to wax too sweet, but I think it works. Example: Iran online. How we've grown from Obama's using the web to covering Iran's election. What if we'd been tweeting, etc., this heavily when Bush was first elected? Actually some were. Actually glad I wasn't. TMI.
Stay tuned and if you watch TV, watch Stephen Colbert's hair grow.
Aloha pumehana
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Friends Indeed
You'll find them tweeting and giving good face, blogging and phoning it in by text. But today in this very fast paced media-centric world, we're communicating more than ever. It's interesting the shift. First we hid behind email where we learned to share very little since it can be used against you. Then with the new social media, we're sharing our deepest razor cuts in the morning and our late night laptop exploits. And we're writing again. I love it.
Many of us who were born communicators, majored in it and then made it our life profession, do it well. And we often do it with a purpose. Our clients, our companies where we're the communications pros, have great pages and info, of course. We're building biz brand and we know it.
But everyone else is just having fun and sharing stuff. And I like it, a lot.
The more we share, the more we have.
Aloha pumehana
Many of us who were born communicators, majored in it and then made it our life profession, do it well. And we often do it with a purpose. Our clients, our companies where we're the communications pros, have great pages and info, of course. We're building biz brand and we know it.
But everyone else is just having fun and sharing stuff. And I like it, a lot.
The more we share, the more we have.
Aloha pumehana
Monday, April 21, 2008
Agencies Need to Sell Ideas. Just Ask Jay.
The landscape is changing so rapidly in the ad biz. From the growth of new media to the predicted (it'll never happen) death of traditional media, entire ad agencies are now involved in the creation of ideas. It's no longer just the crazies in the creative departments who get to play with the big ideas. Today, ideas come from such formerly staid departments as media and brand strategy, for Google's sake!
Agencies have even renamed some of the jobs within their halls. For instance, the account people who previously were considered the nemesis of the creatives have been relabeled content managers, project managers, engagement managers—anything but boring account guys and gals, the suits. Because big ideas come from them, now, too.
And of course, agencies today are trying to figure out how to make money in this brave new world.
In the '80s, agencies started getting bigger, buying up the promotional agencies to keep on top of the trends and look competitive to their clients. Today, it's digital that's driving the conglomerates to purchase hot interactive shops to add to their menu of client services. But bottom line, agencies have to figure out how they're going to get paid for this new media and the expensive new players they've added to create it.
Which brings us to selling ideas instead of hours. Why do that? Well, Staples' "Easy" button campaign was created by their agency McCann. A very big idea. A successful media campaign. Staples' sales continue to soar. The campaign has legs. Staples is now manufacturing and selling Easy buttons instore—an additional profit item and awareness generator. And what did McCann get? A creative award or two. Some billable hours. Less than 15% media commissions, I'm sure. And the right to say, "That was easy." At least until Staples hires a new agency.
Always the innovator, Jay Chiat of Chiat/Day pioneered the selling of ideas instead of hours back in the '70s. Jay believed in taking on a new brand like the strange little Japanese Honda being introduced to America and writing his contract so that his agency received a percentage of Honda's success. Jay counted on extending a brand's reach through ideas so creative that everybody made a lot of money. And great brands were built. So at least when the client fired him—and they always did, eventually—at least he had a sizeable chunk of their success.
Maybe today's agencies aren't that sure of their work. Or maybe they think they must devise a different model since it's "different times." But it's not really all that different. Great work is great work that builds great brands across all media—traditional, new, soft, experiential, digital, you name it as it comes along. So why reinvent the wheel?
You want to make money, just channel Jay.
Agencies have even renamed some of the jobs within their halls. For instance, the account people who previously were considered the nemesis of the creatives have been relabeled content managers, project managers, engagement managers—anything but boring account guys and gals, the suits. Because big ideas come from them, now, too.
And of course, agencies today are trying to figure out how to make money in this brave new world.
In the '80s, agencies started getting bigger, buying up the promotional agencies to keep on top of the trends and look competitive to their clients. Today, it's digital that's driving the conglomerates to purchase hot interactive shops to add to their menu of client services. But bottom line, agencies have to figure out how they're going to get paid for this new media and the expensive new players they've added to create it.
Which brings us to selling ideas instead of hours. Why do that? Well, Staples' "Easy" button campaign was created by their agency McCann. A very big idea. A successful media campaign. Staples' sales continue to soar. The campaign has legs. Staples is now manufacturing and selling Easy buttons instore—an additional profit item and awareness generator. And what did McCann get? A creative award or two. Some billable hours. Less than 15% media commissions, I'm sure. And the right to say, "That was easy." At least until Staples hires a new agency.
Always the innovator, Jay Chiat of Chiat/Day pioneered the selling of ideas instead of hours back in the '70s. Jay believed in taking on a new brand like the strange little Japanese Honda being introduced to America and writing his contract so that his agency received a percentage of Honda's success. Jay counted on extending a brand's reach through ideas so creative that everybody made a lot of money. And great brands were built. So at least when the client fired him—and they always did, eventually—at least he had a sizeable chunk of their success.
Maybe today's agencies aren't that sure of their work. Or maybe they think they must devise a different model since it's "different times." But it's not really all that different. Great work is great work that builds great brands across all media—traditional, new, soft, experiential, digital, you name it as it comes along. So why reinvent the wheel?
You want to make money, just channel Jay.
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