An equation.

Pissy mood today. Too many meetings, agencies, clients, friends, politicians who talk about what needs to be done without doing anything.

This is going to be very blunt therefore:

Vision + action = movement.

Vision without action is masturbation.
Action without vision is flailing.

Nincompoop Forest.

This is by Mark Fenske. I love it.

"Do not learn to compromise. Every time somebody has an idea, Nincompoop Forest grows up around that idea. It is made up of people who become trees. Clients, marketing researchers, creative directors, account people, anybody who can get in the way of an idea (intentionally or not) is a tree in Nincompoop Forest."

News Flash! Lifesavers are sweet.

This is a funny spot. It will do nothing for Lifesavers. It won't change their image. It won't make them cool. In fact, the idea that someone doesn't know what a muffin top is as the premise of a commercial, might make them even less cool. There is no information in the commercial. Outside of disseminating (or to be genderly-balanced, de-ovary-nating) the Lifesavers' name--which is confined literally to the last 50 or so frames of the spot--I see no purpose whatsoever in this execution. They'd have been better off buying a :04 and doing some nifty graphic crap with the logo. An utter waste of money. However, this is the kind of work traditional Madison Avenue extols. Duh.

http://creativity-online.com/?action=news:article&newsId=122277

I've never been a big fan of Jack Trout.

Jack Trout has always seemed to me to be an absolutist when it comes to advertising. You know, a best practices, Starch kind of guy. If you do this, then that will happen. I've always felt if business can be reduced to an if-then proposition we can all be replaced by software or be out-sourced to Bangalore and that hasn't happened yet, so people who can think, invent, create and act otherwise contrary still have, at least in some precincts, some perceived value.

Now, that said, I agree with Trout's column in this week's Forbes--not necessarily his examples--but his principle that there's more to good advertising than just creating an emotional connection. Read his column here: http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2007/11/26/trout-marketing-emotions-oped-cx_jt_1127trout.html

I've been saying in this space and in my rantings in front of the urinals at any number of agencies, that today every brand follows the same strategy. "I'm cool. Buy me and you will be too." Sometimes that works. But more often, more effective communication appeals to both the heart and the head. Think about meeting a person of your preferred gender (it's ok if you don't have a preferred gender. Ad Aged is a tolerant blog and accepts you for who you are no matter how freaking deviant you may be.) You might, on first blush be attracted to that person's bosoms (as my Yiddeshe mama would say), or her legs, ass or eyes. That might induce you to boink her. But, since most marketers claim they are looking for long-term, lifetime value, sooner or later other things count. Her intelligence. Generosity. Kindness. Ability to make a pie. In other words, there are rational reasons or a rational component of many decisions.

Of course we want to feel emotionally connected to brands. But we want to be rationally connected too.

How is this possible?

That Mike Huckabee is a leading Republican candidate and does not believe in evolution? I'd be ok with that if he were running on the Troglodyte ticket.

A game we can all play.

Take the person in your office with the oddest name and make a pharma commercial out of them. As in:

MAN: Heartburn was really burning up my life.
WOMAN: He couldn't eat. He couldn't sleep.
MAN: I couldn't play with my grandkids.
Then I asked my doctor about benezirbhutto.

MAN: He said it could help reduce heartburn caused by
acid reflux.

VO: Benezirbhutto should not be taken by people with
all four limbs, hair growing out of their ears,
lefthanders or people who use vowels. Serious side
effects may include death, heart failure, laughing
at Frank TV and voting Republican.

MAN: Ask your doctor if benezirbhutto is right for you.

VO: Benezirbhutto. Take back your life.

Are they trying to tell me something.

If you are one of my legion of faithful readers, you have heard me excoriate the HR function before, so this post should come as no surprise to you. I have just transitioned from a month of freelance to a full-time job as an executive creative director at a medium-sized (and growing) agency in the Interpublic stable of shops.

Today, though it is early yet, I still don't have a computer, desk lamp or printer--or access to the network--but I do have four garbage pails. Three regular, one for recycling.

Oh, and someone just left a bushel of Dunkin' Munchkins on my desk while I was in a meeting.

Garbage, Xmas-style.

A brief flip through the A-section of The New York Times this morning reveals these Ed-McCabean headlines.

"Let it snow. Let it snap. Let it send." (Sprint.)
"Who said holiday shopping was hard?" (Acura.)
"The hottest gifts. The reliable network." (Verizon.) And since Verizon insists on having about three headlines on a page:
"Give America's most reliable wireless network."
"Winter wonderland." (Links of London.)
"How they accessorize in 7th Heaven." (Harry Winston, and not bad.)
And now my absolute favorite for Macy's:
"Layers are Joyful."

Let's think about that for a minute--Layers are Joyful. Putting on a tee-shirt, then a shirt, then a sweater, then a vest, then a Joseph Abboud jacket is Joyful.

Joyful.
Talk about taking the soul and guts out of a word.

I don't understand this at all.

I have just started a new job. Ostensibly I am a big cheese, with a good (for advertising) salary and a title that my mother would be proud of if she weren't such a bitter and narcissistic termagant.

So answer this for me. Why is it nearly impossible to get a $79 printer for my office and a $29 desk lamp? And why have they instead regarded it as important to put a 12 fl. oz. bottle of Purell Instant Hand Sanitizer with Moisturizers and Vitamin E on my desk.

Did someone tell HR that my hands are dirty? Do they not like us using the washrooms to wash in?

And here's something else troubling me. Why do they call businesses firms, or the firm? I've looked around a fair bit and no one here seems particularly firm except for a secretary or two and the anti-harassment policy says I'm not allowed to notice that. If this were my firm, I'd call it a flaccid or a saggy. There's truth in advertising for ya.

Reclaim your soul.

In my peregrinations I came across an idea floated in the UK called "Buy Nothing Day." Here's some copy from their website:
"Saturday November 24h 2007 is Buy Nothing Day (UK), It's a day where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life. The rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from consumerism and live without shopping. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!"

Having a bit of the counter-culture in me, I live (almost inexplicably in 21st Century New York) below my means. I do not have a mortgage the size of a fat-woman's ass. I don't have a BMW, Mercedes, Bentley or even a Honda. I carry little or no credit card debt. And I don't define myself by shoes and clothes adorned with other people's names.

What's more, though I am not religious, the notion of a Sabbath, of a day of rest--a respite from getting and spending--has always appealed to me, at least theoretically. It would be nice if the days to honor our war dead or dead presidents or the birth of the US were more than excuses for sales and three-day weekends and football or some other foolish steroidally-agitated mayhem. I am not protesting the government or the fascism they propagate, any of the wars we are currently fighting, or anything else. I just think we all need time to think and talk and maybe hug our families.

That's my resolve in 2008. One day a month, I buy nothing. But the Times.