The End of The Innocence...........

Please let this be the end of all those expected end of the year Top Ten lists of "best", "worse", "new", "different", etc. etc. etc. You won't find one here.

Why does December 31st always bring out lists upon lists of mundane occurences and random brain droppings from an overly stuffed file cabinet or in box? Why? Because it's both easy and expected, and appeals to the lowest common denominator of reader/viewer/subscriber. And it give sthe talking heads something to talk about during a slow news week.

It's a conversation starter, sure. So are sports scores and celebrity meltdowns ----- doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. Too often, "Journalists" just choose to take the easy way out and throw together lists and rankings and predictions for the sake of cheap and easy reads. It's so predicatble, and so wrong. Let's just do away with it all. Now. Before the end of the year.

And why we're at it, can we do away withe New Year's Resolutions?

Ramblings from a week of travel.

Whatever line you get in will slow down almost immediately.

TSA Agents at airports are sometimes a little too serious about their roles and responsibilities. That 85 year old gentleman does not need to be shaken down as if he's headed off to Alcatraz and that 6 year old girl has nothing of interest in her Dora the Explorer backpack.

You seldom see a motorcycle parked outside of a psychiatrist's office.

How often do you think they clean the carpets at airport gates?

The avearge pencil is 7 inches long, but the eraser is only half an inch.

"The price of light is less than the cost of darkness" - Arthur C. Neilsen

Out..................All The Way Out!

San Paulo, Brazil is a city of over 11 million people. It is a beautiful place. It is experiencing dramatic growth throughout the region. The people who run San Paulo have become fed up with the thousands of outdoor billboards that are popping up all over the scenic city. They have taken steps to ban any and all outdoor billboards from this day on. In overly commercial USA -- San Francisco, Austin and other cities are watching closely and considering outdoor advertising bans as well. There are currently four USA states that have some sort of outdoor advertising ban ---- they are Alaska, Hawaii, Maine and Vermont.

Magazines are not Dead

I get over 30 magazines a month. Is that excessive? On every flight I take, I have 10-15 magazines to read through. I typically knock out each magazine I get within 2-3 days of it being in my mailbox. I rip pages out, send copies to friends and business associates and make notes in the margins. I make my magazines work.

People will always be loyal to their favorite magazines and will always find time to read them -- usually at their leisure and most often at home. And magazine readers are affluent, influential and involved. That can't be a bad thing.

Here are a few of my favorite magazines:

New York
New Yorker
Los Angeles
Portfolio
Atlantic
Architectural Digest
Esquire
Rolling Stone
Blender
Spin
Paste
Men's Health
Outdoors
The Week
WIRED
Fast Company
Time
Newsweek
U S News
Forbes
Fortune
Money
Travel & Leisure
Sports Illustrated
ESPN
AdWeek
BrandWeek
Advertisng Age
Campaign
Shoot

Why Are There So Many Bad Ads Out There?

You'd think that the folks who have to approve (and pay for) all these local TV commercials, would take a vested interest in how their ads come across. Here are some of the "Dont''s" I just can't tolerate in low budget, local TV commercials......

Don't Yell At Me
Don't Have Your Spokesperson Read a Script
Don't Splash The Screen With Super Bright Colors
Don't Repeat Your Phone # More Than Twice
Don't Put In A Kid, Just Because..........
Don't Put In A Puppy, Just Because...........
Don't Use The Local Weather Guy / Girl

Why Don't People Read More ?????????????

Does anybody read anymore? Seems like everyone used to have a book or two in the cue and were always finishing a good book (or two). Thet were quick to offer a recommendation, happy to suggest a new title, would love to talk you through their latest find. But now, no one talks about books, or new writers or reading in general.

When did we all stop reading? And when you stop to consider that there's actually more digital content (including e-bookshttp://www.ebooks.com/).

Does anyone have the new Sony Reader?http://products.sel.sony.com/pa/prs/index.html

Pictures I Like.............

Pictures with no people (or animals) in them. (See examples above and beside). Technically, I should have said photographs. Photos without people demand your attention, maybe more so than photos with people. They allow you to put yourself there. There in the place. Right there. They also force you to focus on a time and place without critically scrutinizing the people, what they look like, what they are wearing, why their face is all scrunched up yadda yadda yadda.
People. Places. Things.

Give Credit Where Credit Is Due.......

Singers / Songwriters who do NOT get enough credit............

Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy
Shawn Colvin - A Few Small Repairs
Brandi Carlisle - The Story
Roseanne Cash - Black Cadillac
David Wilcox - East Asheville Hardware

I Have Been To The Future............

It is intense. It is more than you thought it would be. It is spectacular. It is almost ready.
You really should go.


(It's in California).

A Great Idea......

.....does not care who had it.

It can come from anywhere, anybody, anytime. No one has an exclusive on good ideas. Some of the best come from some of the most unlikley people and places.

Creative Directors should come up with ideas, copywriters and art directors should too. But what about the lowliest AE, the haggard producer, the road weary sales guy, the receptionist

Stop. Look. Listen. Ideate.

"Quotes"

"The way to be a bore is to say everything"
-Voltaire

"No one ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American people."
- H. L. Mencken

“The difference between the forgettable and the enduring is artistry”
– Bill Bernbach

"Advertising is the greatest art form of the twentieth century."
–Marshall McLuhan (1976),
Canadian social scientist (quoted in Robert Andrews, The Routledge Dictionary of Quotations 1987, p. 5, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul).

"Since Life is Short and the World is Wide, the sooner you start exploring it the better"
- Simon Raven

Where do bad ideas go to die?

Ever stop to consider just exactly where all those really bad ad ideas go to die? (Besides airing within late night syndicated reruns of your Mom's favorite TV shows?). There must be boatloads laying around somewhere. Look under your bed, in your closets, dump out those file cabinets, unload the trash can.


Maybe, just maybe, there should be a Bad Old Ad Idea Factory. They could take all those lame ideas, dust them off, put on a fresh coat of paint, maybe spiff em up with a few adjectives and adverbs, add a new and improved burst and "refurbish" them so that they can be good, like new ad ideas once again.


After all, everything good has already been thought of. Right?