An ex partner.

This is a long one. But stick with me.

Years ago I worked at a prestigious agency (now gone) that had fallen on hard times. My partner at the time was a dozen years older than I and English and a very private person. We were friendly but not friends. And that was ok because we were respectful of each other's talents and we did good work together. Besides my partner had worked at Collett Dickinson Pierce, Delehanty Kurnit & Geller and Carl Ally--three of the best agencies of their day--so I figured he could teach me a lot if I shut up and listened.

Anyway, we were embroiled in the throes of a major pitch and like so many things that people consider major there was chaos swirling around the agency, along with politics, jockeying for position and galloping egoism.

So one day as we were nearing our presentation, my partner pushed back his chair and told me a story. This was unusual because it was personal and about his boyhood in post-war England.

The story was about his father who owned a sporting goods store and how he would make the rope that would stitch rugby balls together. "You would take a big length of rope, then wax it. Then another and wax that. Then another and wax that. Then you would braid the lengths and burn the ends to seal the wax."

I'm listening but at the same time, I'm thinking "this is weird. We're pitching the biggest account of our lives and my partner's talking about making rope."

But when he concluded his story about rope, my partner said, "That's how you do a pitch." And I understood everything.

There is an order, an integrity, a style and a process to doing things right.

I wish more people had known my ex-partner.

Why is this the site of the Presidential debate?

This is from the website of the university at which tonight's debate is being held.

Belmont Mission Statement

Mission Statement
Belmont University is a student-centered Christian community providing an academically challenging education that empowers men and women of diverse backgrounds to engage and transform the world with disciplined intelligence, compassion, courage and faith.

Belmont's faculty, administration, and staff uphold Jesus as the Christ and as the measure for all things.

Belmont University’s Board of Trustees is unanimously committed to broadening and deepening the Christian mission of the university. The Christian character of the university will be increasingly evident in all that we do as our actions speak of our love for God. We will, in continuous thanksgiving, point to our God as the source of all that is good. Our hope is that every student will see and believe that the love of Jesus Christ compels us to lead lives of disciplined intelligence, compassion, courage, and faith.

What this is all about.

As Billy Preston (above) asked a few years ago,
Will it go round in circles
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky

What's happening in the world right now, what's been happening in Detroit for four decades, what's been happening on Madison Avenue for the past two--is all the same.

The key people in the above entities have failed to see. Failed to break what Adam Morgan calls "the dominant complacency." Have, instead, tried to "optimize" dead business models, like an alcoholic tries to get one more drop from an empty bottle.

Oh, I won't give you Marxism this morning. Nothing about rattling a stick in the swill pot of civilization, but I will tell you this. Entities rise to the point of their own collapse.

Let's talk about the advertising industry. But don't think about agency names for a second, think about Starbucks. While life is good--while the bubble is inflating--there's a Starbucks on every corner. Pop! There's goes another one. When you walk by an empty storefront in your neighborhood, you hope that something authentic opens up, god forbid, a hobby shop, a sporting goods store or a place to get a really well-made hot fudge sundae, instead, it's a Starbucks. Same with agencies. The InterOmniPubliPees have acquired and propped up agencies chain stores. And, except for a couple, they all sell an identical product and provide identical services. There's no need for all those stores. So they start selling things half-price. Then they consolidate.

Then they all collapse together.

This is what is happening in the world right now. And it's, historically, what's always happened. We go from abject gloom if not despair to recovery. Throw a pinch Kubler-Ross in about now. So from crash to gloom to glimmer to stasis to hope to optimism to success to avarice to crash and over again.

The only question is how long it will take to go from gloom to glimmer, ie from trying to resuscitate the old to trying to build something new.

5 things that are over-rated in agencies.

1. Democracy. A lot of people can weigh in but at the end of the day, one person tells everyone else what to do. If that person is consistently wrong, you get a new person.

2. Political correctness. Effective communication and political correctness most often cancel each other out. If you can't say how you feel, you can't communicate.

3. Process. Creativity is not a process. It is a series of mistakes and failures that lead to success. You can't regulate it.

4. Titles. Titles are endemic and over-inflated. The puffery we use externally in trumpeting the worth of a product have infected us internally. Use next year's Advertising Week to eliminate all titles--starting with titles that have a capital C or the word Global in them.

5. Office space. Open plans work better. For those who need quiet to think, have quiet rooms.

A good ad.

The art above was created by an artist called Laura Gilbert. Whether or not this was Ms. Gilbert's intent, I think in commenting on the waning strength of our greenback, she created a better pro-Obama ad than anything his own campaign has yet devised--probably because Obama's "messaging" has been focus-group processed until it's as flat as a plate of piss.

Gilbert will be showing her work from October 23-November 22 at the Grady Alexis Gallery, 2710 Broadway (@104th St.)

Mavericks.

If you are in advertising, it makes sense now and again, to re-read the thoughts of David Ogilvy. They are eloquent, blunt and so common-sensical that sometimes, I think people forget how profound they are.

In one Ogilvyism David said he once used the word "obsolete" in a headline "only to find out that 38% of the people had no idea what the word meant--including himself."

That made me begin wondering how many people know what maverick means? Part of me believes that boomers like myself hear Maverick and they think of Ford Motors' forerunner of the Pinto. People a few years younger think of the Tom Cruise character in the flick "Top Gun." And people today may think of Dallas' basketball team--which, I believe has changed its name to the Mavs, probably because no one knows what Mavericks are.

Sarah, Sarah, what's the frequency, Sarah?
Do you know what maverick means?
Sarah?

--
And now, a Republican re-writing of that classic Marvin Gaye soul song, "Let's Get it On."

I've been really tryin', baby
Tryin' to hold back this feelin' for so long
And if you feel like I feel, baby
Then come on, oh, come on
Whoo, let's armageddit on
Ah, babe, let's armageddit on
Let's love, baby
Let's armageddit on, sugar
Let's armageddit on.
Whoo-ooh-ooh

Something to think about while you're watching the debate tonight.

John McCain's grandfather, John Sidney McCain,
died at the age of 71.
John McCain's father, John Sidney McCain, Jr.,
died at the age of 70.
John Sidney McCain III, the presidential candidate,
is now 72.

I like this.

It's called "Fuck the rain." From a studio called art lebedev. http://www.artlebedev.com/

A clip to watch.

76 years ago, Robert Riskin, the screenwriter behind such classic American movies as "Meet John Doe," "It Happened One Night" and "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" (all directed by Frank Capra) wrote the screenplay to a nearly forgotten movie, "American Madness," a flick about the Great Depression.

Riskin and Capra were idealists. And liberals. They believed in the strength of the little guy and the corruption (in the words of Lord Acton) of absolute power.

Many cineastes regard "American Madness" as the spiritual forerunner of "It's a Wonderful Life." If you can't find it in your local video emporium, check out this clip. The first couple minutes are lousy, but the last four are wonderful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6sCsF5fBCk

Click on the picture to make it legible.

My wife, early this morning, cleaned out a cabinet she had stuffed with crap. Some of that crap were my doodles from meetings. Over the next few posts, I will reveal some of them in this space.