The Today show featured some marketing envorinmentalism – one school’s great results of holding a ”catalog cancelling challenge“. You can join the clutter-free ranks at catalogchoice.org.
While catalogs take a long time to decompose yet are only “good” for a limited time, it appears that viral video can live forever. Just for fun, I started searching for some of the videos that Cole & Weber United produced for me in 2005 and they are still out there. You can still enjoy Mitch Ferrence’s dance lessons, air guitar instruction, and Mark’s ditties - my favorites are “Thanks in Advance” and “Bracketman: A March Tragedy”.
We now interrupt the corporate brand discussion to cover a more appropriate MLK day topic, leadership.
I currently live in South Carolina, which means that for the past 2 weeks, I have had the strange experience of being bombarded by presidential ads that are NOT meant for me. When I lived in Austin, I could count on one hand the number of people I knew who were natives – almost everyone had relocated from another part of the state, country or world because of the remarkable lifestyle and employment opportunities there. On the flip side, I know very few people who are transplants to South Carolina and the candidates tailored messages accordingly.
As far as I can tell, all of the candidates made South Carolina-specific broadcast pieces and ran them until I curled up in a ball and cried uncle (1 week to go for the Dems). Republican ads hit the following messages in a big, repetitive way – I’m a Christian, I’m pro-life, I will protect the country. The manner in which they covered those points seemed almost condescending to me but I shrugged it off as “I’m not the target, they’re probably good ads”. In thinking that, I am as guilty as the candidates for underestimating my neighbors. NBC filmed a great interview Saturday night with a Christian study group in Columbia, South Carolina whose members said they were offended by the way the candidates were trying to use religion to gloss over their plans to deal with the very real & complex issues facing the nation. They didn’t understand how being photographed with a big cross in the background should supersede the need for them to understand candidate positions on long term plans for Iraq, the economy and illegal immigration. Sharing a common gender, race, college, sports team, or even religion is no guarantee that common values about the future of the country are shared.
I am no political pundit, but I think there is an opportunity for the candidate who wants to put a little faith in the intelligence of the American voter – even those in the “backward” southern states. Great leaders don’t rise to positions of power by insinuating that their followers are of lesser intellect.
The WGA strike has had an impact that goes beyond late night hosts growing beards and folks like me considering spending their hard earned free time watching American Gladiators. While it may be a mild annoyance for me, the WGA/AMPTP standoff is starting to have ripple effects on a number of other online and offline endeavors.
For example, the lack of the Golden Globes ceremony last night eliminated the platform for fashion designers to break into the public psyche. More importantly, what will the fashion pundits have to talk about? This dooms us to another week of Spears sisters news coverage instead of Best & Worst red carpet wrap-ups we so rightly deserve. Social media queens/fashion snarks “The Fug Girls” did a great job capturing this over in their NYMagazine column.
Once I started thinking about the strike, I began to wonder how Hey!Nielsen, a social networking site where users share opinions about TV shows with the company who provides feedback to the networks, would deal with the lack of new content. Steve Ciabatonni at the Hey!Nielsen blog shared some of their plans with me:
We are working on a few ideas to keep the interest high and we are hoping to spark more conversations around Video Games (our newest category which is drawing some activity), movies, and bands.
Leading up to the Super Bowl (the most watched show on the planet traditionally), we’re enlisting some key Hey! Nielsen members to rate the ads live on super sunday — I think we’ll have a lot of fun with that. Most people like the ads more than they like the game, so… I’m eager to chat with those folks during the game.
How true it is. While original content will start drying up, ad copywriters are most definitely not on strike and will keep the fodder for armchair critics coming. If nothing else, this is a creative distraction from the strike. Like so many of you out there, I am crossing my fingers and toes for a speedy resolution.
How is it that I can order custom imprinted Fruit Roll Ups, but I can’t get a pound of pink only Starbursts? I can get any color of M&M (same parent company) separated out and their colors don’t even taste different!
Mars, if you are out there, please hear my plea and end the forced variety of lemon, cherry and orange Startbursts with your pristine strawberry concoction. I suppose you are trying to encourage me to be friends with people who can tolerate these other flavors so we can split a pack, but that’s an awful lot to ask for a candy fix. I am ready to customize you and order you in bulk if only you’ll provide and outlet.
If there was a single venue that offered Dunkin Donuts’ delicious coffee and Krispy Kreme’s delectable doughnuts, I would weigh 300 lbs and be wired all the time.
This seems like a seamless integration of strengths and something that would make me a lot happier than XM+Sirius.
