I'm Matt Ingwalson. Thanks for reading my blog.

The new karshhagan.com launches

2012-01-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

I was always a little odded-out when people told me they liked the old karsh.com. It was missing most of the work we've done in the past two years. And it provided only a snapshot of the 60-something people that make our agency what it is.

On Friday we launched the new karshhagan.com. Besides a much broader array of work, it has a spiderweb navigation system that lets you browse the site by exploring our connections to campaigns, clients and each other. Check it out. Rachael has a more in-depth look at the site on the Karsh Hagan blog.

The Karsh Hagan historical reel

2011-12-21T17:53:00.000-08:00

The Holiday Bear Project for The Brown Palace

2011-12-16T15:41:00.000-08:00

What I learned this year 2011 #3: Matt Ingwalson

2011-12-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

For the three people that read my blog and not The Denver Egotist, here is "What I Learned This Year 2011 #3: Matt Ingwalson" in its entirety:

In January, I learned that energy is 99% of my job.

In February, I learned that if a business wants to be indecisive, it better also be rich.

In March, I learned that scrappy wins. That you can shoot great TV for less than you think. And that you should couple the print and video shoots if you can. Twice this year, I found my way into situations where a film director also happened to be an amazing photographer. Both times, magic occurred.

In April, I learned that 50 people can jump around hugging each other without it ever getting awkward.

In May, I learned how hard it is to add staff. You think it'd be all sunshine and flowers. But there are tons of worthy people out there. And every new employee has the potential to jack up your team's chemistry.

In June, I learned that music may be the most important element in a spot. And that failing to sell a great track can be just as devastating as failing to sell a great script.

In July, I learned to love creative testing.

In August, I learned that energy is 99% of my job. Again.

In September, I learned how to almost die on a Jeep trail. I also learned how it feels to stand at the top of a high mountain pass in the middle a big production crew on a sunrise photoshoot and suddenly be struck by a single thought. "My dad would be so proud of me right now."

In October, I learned that it is vaguely unsettling to achieve your goals. My whole professional life, I wanted to be a creative director at Karsh Hagan. And then I got that job. And I had to look in the mirror and say, "Now what?"

In November, I learned that it is almost impossible to change a preconceived notion.

In December, I learned that advertising is nothing like history. We are judged not on the results of the previous year, but on our potential for the next one. 2011 was good to Karsh Hagan. And to me. But it can and must be fucked off. It's over. What's next?

Bliss and perfection are different

2011-11-10T13:00:00.000-08:00

A month or so ago @chrisreinhard wrote something about how few songs have perfect moments in them. For some reason, the comment stuck with me, and I started making a mental list of musical moments that took my breath away.

After awhile, I began noticing that a high percentage of my list came from songs that could be loosely classified as metal. Like the gripping transition from the chanting of "Waking the Fallen" into the heavy, hooky, mute-and-release intro to "Unholy Confessions." Or the vocal explosion out of the breakdown and into the climax of "Stinkfist," a song for which there is no polite or safe Internet link.

The moments that captivated me most brought dark and seemingly irreconcilable elements together in an unexpected but somehow unavoidable moment of release.

"Release" really is the only word for it.

This construction is very like that of a horror movie, where the torturous second act exists to heighten the excitement of the third, when the victim must earn her way to redemption.

(The parallel with sex is even more obvious. I mention it only to prove that I am not willfully avoiding it.)

When you look back on the very best moments of your life, will you remember summiting a mountain after a grueling hike or deadlifting 400 after five years of training? Or will you remember something lazier: sitting in the grass on a sun-soaked summer evening? Could it be that bliss is too creeping and transitory to really captivate us, and that perfection is created by the brokenness that precedes it?

Why is it so hard to let emotion rule?

2011-10-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

The formula for great advertising is simple. Emotion = results. Every book and speaker concur. Research proves it. Any proof point or fact you include in a print ad subverts its impact, inviting a rational debate that you are almost sure to lose. So why is it so hard to do in practice?

Why everybody hates Avenged Sevenfold

2011-10-27T00:03:00.000-07:00

You walk around carrying deep and unsettling emotions that you lack the skills to articulate. When you find a band or a writer or an artist that expresses them, you feel connected to that person. They aren't just a band you listen to. They are a translator for your soul. And when that artist changes course - suddenly, radically - you feel betrayed. You didn't lose a source of entertainment. You lost your voice.

The art of the distracting introduction

2011-10-26T23:58:00.000-07:00

Whatever fame Way of the Gun has, it has because of a three-minute prelude in which an unbelievably profane Sarah Silverman provokes a fight in a parking lot. The scene has nothing to do with the rest of the movie, and even feels like it was shot by a different crew with different equipment.

Fairy tales failed our daughters

2011-09-14T11:44:00.000-07:00

[Ed. - It would take me forever to link every character and movie cited in this post. Many of them can be sourced at Wikipedia's Disney Princess entry.]

I think I understand what little girls used to dream about. Work hard, be pretty and eventually a prince will sweep you away to a vastly better world. I know this because I've watched every Disney Princess movie. Over and over and over again.

Snow White (1937), Cinderella (1950), Aurora (1959), and Ariel (1989) were all separated from their mothers and tormented by stern female authority figures. But all four remained sweet, beautiful and chaste. And all four eventually had a valiant and handsome prince carry them off without anything resembling a courtship.

But Ariel was the last of a dying breed. In 1991 Beauty and the Beast introduced us to Belle. Like her predecessors, she was sweet, beautiful and chaste. However her male counterpart was not a handsome prince, but a selfish jerk cursed to mope around his castle in the form of a furry and top-heavy beast who kidnapped Belle's father and then blackmailed her into a life of slavery. Belle's raison d'etre was not to better herself, but to find a way to fall in love with this monster and - more importantly - teach him how to love her back.

Since then, America's girls have watched Tiana follow roughly the same script, but with a frog. And they've been introduced to Jasmine and Rapunzel, both of whom are beautiful, powerful princesses who inexplicably fall for petty crooks.

Post-1991 Disney princesses are not the equals of their male counterparts. They are their superiors. They are more attractive and more aggressive. Which makes me think teen boys these days must have it awfully easy. Wear slouchy pants and smoke pot and eventually some gorgeous girl will offer you adoration, money and a blowjob.

If I'm overreacting, I blame Atlantic essayist Caitlin Flanagan. She's one of those writers who thinks stating opinions strongly turns them into facts. But her apocalyptic descriptions of modern teen sexuality worry the hell out of me:

Fellatio, which was once a part of the sexual repertoire only of experienced women, is now commonly performed by very young girls outside of romantic relationships, casually and without any expectation of reciprocation... Nowadays girls don't consider oral sex in the least exotic—nor do they even consider it to be sex. It's just "something to do."

This was not the way things were when I was in high school.

It's not female empowerment that scares me. (Although I wouldn't define casual blowjobs as empowering.) It's male apathy. With Disney as their tutor, modern girls are taught to marry their lessers and then try to brush the boys towards greatness through some combination of seduction and guilt.

There is a drastic flaw with this system. Ninety percent of the things teen boys do, they do to impress girls. If the girls no longer need impressing, teenage boys have no reason to rise above mediocre.

One of Flanagan's most powerful pieces is the unfortunately titled essay The Passion of Alec Baldwin. I may have read it more times than I've watched The Little Princess. No small feat, that.

A girl wants a story to build her life on, the original story of the great love that brought her here. She wants things a boy never will: the dried flowers from her mother’s bouquet, the glass ashtray from the honeymoon hotel, the telling (over and over again) of the way her father insisted to the charge nurse that there had to be, somewhere on that maternity ward, a private room for his wife.

Perhaps this is why the princes that fell for first-generation Disney Princesses never had a backstory. Nobody cared. Boys don't need backstories. They need swords. Meanwhile, Snow White and her friends had missing matriarchs, aging tormentors, fairy godmothers, animal friends, hobbies, lovely singing voices, cottages in the woods, and so on.

But modern fairy tales fail our children, encouraging our daughters to spend their adolescence making out with losers and our sons to spend their lives pursuing nothing much at all.

With less and less help from society, parents must be more and more vigilante. They have to tell their children that the fairy tales have got it all wrong. They must find a way to explain why casual sex is the province of adults. And they need to tell their daughters this: "Marry a prince, not a project. Marry a man who does not need saving."

Write better voiceovers

2011-08-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Videos come in all shapes and sizes. Some happen to be exactly 30 seconds long and formatted for a television screen. Occasionally these 30-second videos have voiceovers. Here are some things to keep in mind when you write them.

Write both sides of the script: TV scripts are written with visual instructions on the lefthand side of the page and the dialogue, voiceover or music direction on the right. Write that way from the start. Both sides. Simultaneously. It'll prevent you from writing your voiceover as a paragraph of body copy. And it'll get you thinking about how sight and sound can complement each other, allowing you to communicate more in less time. Screenplay format is ok, too. But it drives me crazy when I see a voiceover laid out like it's a chunk of copy.

Cast before you write: Pick a favorite actor. Someone with a distinct vocal pattern. (Morgan Freeman, Matthew McConaughey, Cameron Diaz, Edward Norton and Kris Kristofferson have all been inspirational for me. Al Pacino might be too unique.) Then write your voiceover. Let the actor's voice echo in your head as you write. This exercise will make sure your script is written to be heard instead of read. And it'll make your tone cohesive and interesting.

Transcribe other people's scripts: I was told that as a boy, David Mamet recorded his parents' dinner conversations and then transcribed them so he could see the way everyday conversation looked on a page. It's a mess. People interrupt each other, repeat themselves, and never speak in complete sentences. Try it. If you don't feel like eavesdropping on a conversation, go find your favorite spot on YouTube and transcribe it. You'll be amazed how sparse and odd it looks.

Read your voiceover out loud: Act it out. Don't just mutter it to yourself under your breath while staring at your monitor. Read it boldly. This will ensure your flow is perfect. And it will also ensure that on recording day, you have a clear idea of how the talent should read your script.

Read books: Two of the most famous spots of all time, Surfer and America, have voiceovers derived from literature. More than radio, more than copy, more than headlines or websites, a voiceover is a copywriter's chance to dream big. To write something that will make people's lives better. Go do it.

[Update: Thanks to the Egotist network, this piece has found a home in Denver, Minneapolis, Des Moines, Toledo, Detroit, Los Angeles, Alberta, San Francisco, Atlanta, and DC and Baltimore.]

Three ways to get your first creative job in advertising

2011-05-24T20:32:00.000-07:00

[Ed. - I wrote the guts of this post at the same time I was working on Our Answers to Your Job Questions with Carmel. The two posts seemed redundant, so I shelved this one. I recently discovered it sitting around and decided to publish it. Enjoy.]

"I want to get into the creative side of the advertising business, but don't have a clue what to do. Help."

I have heard some variation of this question least four dozen times. My answer has become so pat it is more like a speech. Here it is:

"The calculation is simple. Great personality plus great book equals job. But I feel your pain. You can't get a job without a book and you can't start on your book without a job. You're stuck in a chicken versus egg scenario. What are you going to do?

First, look around you. Every single designer, art director and copywriter you see has found a way to break out of the loop. So take heart. It can be done.

There are all sorts of ways to make it happen. Be lucky. Have the right parents. Be named David Droga. But in general, I've seen three successful, repeatable strategies that anyone can use. And here they are:

First, try to get a job as an account coordinator. That's not to say that being an account coordinator is any easier than being a junior creative. It's not. At all. But the financial barrier to entry is lower. Ten bucks to print resumes versus several hundred dollars to shoot spec ads, buy layout software, and assemble a book. If you can land a job on the account side, you'll be able to spend a couple years learning how to work hard, speak intelligently and sell great advertising. And you'll be in an environment where you can get ahold of briefs, printers, software and most importantly, mentorship. Work on your book at night and on weekends. After a couple years, you can have a surprise epiphany. "I want to be a creative!" And you'll have the tools and the personal network you need to make that happen.

Second, you could go to ad school. The real benefit of Creative Circus or Miami Ad School isn't only a great portfolio. It's access to a giant network of working professionals all over the world. This is a foolproof method. It is also time-consuming and expensive.

The third strategy is the cheapest and fastest, but also the most bruising. It requires you to be fearless and persistent. Take your crappy samples and show them to everyone you can. Even people who you feel might be more junior or less talented than you. Explain that you do not expect a job, just some advice. You will get lots of conflicting comments and you will hear things that hurt your feelings. Don't let it get to you. Instead, go away and work to make everything better. Try new colors, new layouts, new headlines, new media, new everything. You must demonstrate that you are taking the advice you are getting seriously. Within two months, come back to everyone (yes, everyone) and ask to show your book again. Then ask them if there is anyone else they know who would be willing to give you even more advice. Repeat this process. A lot. With each round of showings, your book should get 25% better and your circle of contacts 50% wider. Eventually, you will be in the right place at the right time."

People in advertising have almost infinite patience for passionate, hardworking, humble young creatives. But they won't waste time on anyone who comes off as lazy, helpless, or full of themselves. So work hard and don't be a jerk. That's my advice.

This band changed my life

2011-04-22T17:18:00.000-07:00

It's supposed to be The Clash, right? Fugazi? The Smiths? Or maybe Big Head Todd and the Monsters, a band that I practically followed when I was in college? It's not. The only band that changed my life was Duran Duran.

Because Duran Duran was the first band I identified with that was not introduced to me by my parents.

I was barely 10 when Wild Boys was released as a single. At the time, it didn't seem like anything seismic had occurred. I memorized the lyrics. Learned the band members' names. There may have been an air band involved.

It's only now that I realize how important those moments were.

Littler kids don't even consider the existence of a world apart from their parents. What mommy and daddy like is good, everything else is dumb. The moment children discover something on their own is the beginning of their emotional adolescence. It is the initiation of a decade-long hunt for an identity.

I am so lucky that my discovery was Duran Duran, a new wave icon with real songwriting ability that has remained relevant for three decades. The band was a gateway to New Order and Love & Rockets, which in turn led to Joy Division, Bauhaus and all sorts of wonderful hallways that today sound like The National, No Age and Broken Social Scene.

In other words, it was a good gate to open.

The other day I realized my four-year-old could sing at least some of the words of Lying From You, doubtlessly picked up while listening to music with me, her 37-year-old dad. I briefly worried over the implications of helping her hurdle Justin Bieber and dive directly into something louder. But only briefly.

[Ed. - Now that it is written, I think this post is almost a companion piece to I Still Have Heroes, which talked about my lifelong love affair with Miami Vice. Go '80s.]

Our answers to your job questions

2011-03-10T15:49:00.000-08:00

I co-wrote this article for The Denver Egotist. It includes nuggets such as:

In the longterm, is it better to work internally for a brand or work for an agency?

This depends a bit on the type of job you want. In general, agencies need flexible people, and great work for five brands shows a wider skill set than extensive work for just one.

How do I apply for a specific job when I don't know what, specifically, I want to do within an agency?

You don't. Do internships until you know. When you apply for a job, you need to believe in your heart that you want that job more than any other job in the world. (Or at least act like you do.)

Check it out.

The older you get, the fewer things you really love.

2011-03-04T23:03:00.000-08:00

Staff Sergeant William James, to his infant son: You love playing with that. You love playing with all your stuffed animals. You love your Mommy, your Daddy. You love your pajamas. You love everything, don't ya? Yea. But you know what, buddy? As you get older... some of the things you love might not seem so special anymore. Like your Jack-in-a-Box. Maybe you'll realize it's just a piece of tin and a stuffed animal. And the older you get, the fewer things you really love. And by the time you get to my age, maybe it's only one or two things. With me, I think it's one.

Screenwriters have to type all sorts of terrible things. "The zombie tears off the crying naked woman's head." That sort of awfulness. I get all that. But as a writer, I can not imagine anything quite as devastating as sitting down to write the closing monologue of The Hurt Locker. "OK, in this scene, the movie's hero will tell his infant son that he doesn't love him."

Not much leaves me speechless.

Every brief you get has three problems hidden inside it

2011-02-12T09:23:00.000-08:00

The client has a problem. He has to show results. Now. The average tenure for a CMO is 23 months. If the campaign doesn't work, your client will have hell to pay.

If you consistently fail to solve this problem, your agency will be pitched under the nearest bus. You will be let go. A few of your friends will lose their jobs.

The agency has a problem. It needs to do work that makes it famous. That gets on the blogs. That wins awards. Because great work is an agency's main tool for bringing in new projects, new clients and new talent.

If you consistently fail to solve this problem, you will be fired before you drag your whole agency into a self-defeating downward spiral of boring work that attracts timid clients.

The consumer has a problem. He's numb. He looks for inspiration, joy and meaning. And finds Charlie Sheen and Jersey Shore. He is assaulted by so many ads and logos that they've become nothing but the paper that covers the walls of his world.

If you consistently fail to solve this problem, nothing much will happen to you. You will go on winning awards and your clients will shake your hand heartily. But at the very deepest level, you'll be a failure. You were handed the chance to talk to thousands, maybe millions of people. And you passed the opportunity by. In your soul, you'll know. You're part of the problem. You're making this world worse. Not better. You're putting up wallpaper instead of kicking open windows.

Every brief you get has three problems hidden inside it. Average ads solve one. Good ads solve two. Great ads solve three.

The hardest job in advertising

2011-01-28T08:11:00.000-08:00

"The hardest job in advertising isn't creating the work. It's buying it." I think Mark Fenske said that, although I wouldn't bet my life on it. And it's true. A marketing director has hopes and dreams for a brand. It can be hard to learn to love an agency's interpretation of those dreams.

That being said, we want to thank our clients at American Crew and Pinnacol Assurance for letting us do work audacious enough to be recognized by the New Denver Ad Club at the show last night. The 50 awards the 50 biggest, brashest, most game-changing ideas to come out of the market. We came up with four of them, including the American Crew 100 Honest Answers campaign, the American Crew Hair Color campaign, the American Crew invertible stylebook, and the Pinnacol Assurance Good Makes Good campaign.

If being a marketing director is the hardest job in advertising, surely hosting an award show is close behind. We appreciate Jeff and all the volunteers for giving their time and energy to the event.

Onward,
Matt Ingwalson

[Ed. - Crossposted from Karsh Connect.]

I think I hate the Internet

2011-01-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

I hate sploggers. I have a Google news alerts on all of Karsh\Hagan's clients. And all of them, especially "American Crew," are triggered a dozen times a day by sploggers. This vomiting up of noncontent should be punishable by law.

I hate teases. People who Tweet things like, "This made my day! LINK" or "Check this out! LINK" Can't you even bother to tell me whether the link leads to a photo or song or give me some little hint?

I hate faux modesty. Status updates like, "I can't believe my blog post is getting so many great, smart comments! LINK" Give me a break. Your transparent attempt to draw traffic to your blog by feigning humility is silly. If you have a great post up, just post the title and let me decide for myself.

I hate complimenting up. I hate insulting up, too, of course. But at least the time-honored practice of drawing your betters into pissing matches requires nimbleness, persistence and balls. The newly popular method of flattering your betters so you can bask in their reflected glory really makes my skin crawl. "I can't believe I'm about to meet INSERT NAME HERE!" Or "Love your most recent post INSERT NAME HERE!" Or "In the offices of INSERT NAME HERE and so psyched to be meeting all their awesome and talented people!" Stop it, stop it, stop it. Nobody buys your lame attempt to ride someone else's coattails.

Oh my god, I think I hate the Internet. When did this happen? What the hell is going on?

Why I like Kobe better than LeBron

2011-01-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

Lebron:

For myself, 44 minutes is too much. I think Coach Spo knows that. Forty minutes for D-Wade is too much. We have to have as much energy as we can to finish games out.

Kobe:

"As far as me hitting the wall, so what if I did? I didn't, but so what if I did?"

"What does it mean if you did?"

"It means nothing."

"Because?"

"Because I'll run straight through it."

What J Blakeson owes to Eli Roth

2011-01-17T08:00:00.000-08:00

[Ed. - This short post may give away both twists and the ending of The Disappearance of Alice Creed. You've been warned.]

The Disappearance of Alice Creed is a great movie. But I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much 10 years ago.

The first 30 minutes are as hard to watch as anything you'll see in, say, Wolf Creek. But just a few years ago, I could have shrugged my way through them, confident that Alice would, in fact, escape and get to go home eventually.

Not anymore.

I'm not really a big fan of modern horror. There are too many hateful movies out there, movies that detest themselves and their audiences. But by destroying our expectation of a happy ending, Roth and his ilk have added an extra layer of suspense to every new thriller. The fact is, until Creed's credits rolled, I had no idea which of its three characters would live or die. And the ultimately satisfying and thought-provoking ending wouldn't have been a shock at all.

Literature vs. genre

2010-12-08T19:16:00.000-08:00

Recently a friend asked me to name 15 fictional characters that had influenced my life. I could only name 10 off the top of my head. In no particular order, here's what I wrote down:

"Matt Murdock, Ogami Itto, Duncan MacLeod, Philip Marlowe, Sonny Crockett, Patrick Bateman, Stephen Dedalus, Howard Roark, J. Alfred Prufrock and Hamlet."

What's interesting to me is that I listed exactly five characters from genre fiction and five from literature.

Five Ways Your Ad Agency Will Work In 2011

2010-12-02T07:45:00.000-08:00

On the morning of November 17 I got a brief that asked me to write a post titled "Five Ways Your Ad Agency Will Work In 2011" for the Karsh\Hagan blog. And that afternoon, I saw this in Fast Company:

Over the past few years, because of a combination of Internet disintermediation, recession, and corporate blindness, the [advertising] assembly line has been obliterated -- economically, organizationally, and culturally. In the ad business, the relatively good life of 2007 is as remote as the whiskey highs of 1962.

Ouch.

I wasn't surprised by Fast Company's doom and gloom. The article was just a retread of all the Big Scary Death of Advertising stories we've been reading for a few years now. But being boring doesn't make you wrong. The world of 2011 looks nothing like the one in which many of us learned our craft.

In a 2008 interview I did with Scott Goodson on FutureLab, I said the greatest challenge for the marcomm industry was this:

Defining for new clients how we will approach their business problems.

I still think that's true. But while the pitch process remains a bit of a jumble, the agency business model has changed. In 2011, your ad agency will be faster and more innovative than ever before. Here are five reasons why.

1. Collaboration: Today, culture is made with mash-ups. It's about Kid Cudi mixing Christian Bale with LCD Soundsystem. About ideas that build on each other. That's how agencies will be working in 2011. Small teams of people coming together to add fresh thinking to existing work.

2. Content: Social media is great. But brands shouldn't jump into other folks' conversations uninvited. They should start by creating content worthy of conversation. And then listen, engage and refine.
–
3. Play: Ty Montague. Kevin Roddy. Alex Bogusky. Those are three of the biggest names in advertising and in 2010 they all quit their fabulous network jobs to explore the great unknown. Experimentation, play and the freedom to fail. Those are the seeds of creativity and the path to the biggest ideas.

4. Flexibility: To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. And to an agency with a bunch of specialists with billable hours to fill, every problem looks like it requires the attention of a bunch of specialists with billable hours to fill. To combat this agencies will hire people who have flexible skill sets and similar visions.

5. Platforms: There are fun individual executions. There are powerful integrated campaigns. And then there are flexible, infinite platforms. For instance, Karsh\Hagan's 100 Honest Answers campaign for American Crew has run its course. But the Ask American Crew platform we built underneath it will always be there if they want to use it again. Your agency should be thinking about the long, long run.

If the brief I'd gotten had asked for a sixth opportunity, I would add happiness to this list, and define it as "a blissful childlike state resulting from the act of creation." Because I think ad agencies are much less tied to the 30-second spot than the media would have you believe. There is so much cool stuff yet to be made. And as long as we're making it, we'll be so, so happy. Suck on that, Fast Company.

[Ed. - This post was written by Karsh\Hagan's Matt Ingwalson and cross-posted on his blog and Karsh Connect. It's also posted on The Denver Egotist.]

Eleven covers of Two Headed Boy Part 2

2010-11-28T07:00:00.000-08:00

A tweet may not be the truth...

2010-11-22T19:39:00.000-08:00

I thought a comment I left on AdFeak merited it's own post here. AdFreak was writing about a planner who'd been fired and publicly pilloried by StrawberryFrog, in part because he posted "casual, flippant tweets" while he was on leave from the agency due to allegedly imaginary family emergencies:

While I can't comment on this situation, I can say there have been times I have consciously kept my tweets and blog posts upbeat, even though my life was anything but. Our digital selves are not necessarily accurate, blow-by-blow accounts of our days. They're more like highlights that have been edited for a diverse audience of people who may not want or need to know about the rougher patches of our lives.

Sometimes tweets are a bit like kisses. They may not be the truth, but they are what we wish were true.

Won't misery make angels?

2010-11-11T23:11:00.000-08:00

The horror movie retells the story of sin, penance and redemption. The moral is always that conventional lives are safe lives, and those who stray will be tortured until they find a way to redeem their sins.

The plot of the modern fairy tale - and specifically the Disney film The Princess and the Frog - is almost identical to that of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Wrong Turn, Hostel, and the Friday the 13th sequels. Tiana is a moral girl, working two jobs and saving her pennies so that one day she can open her own restaurant. One night, she's offered a shortcut. A frog promises her riches in exchange for a kiss. (Oh those talking frogs!) Tiana sells her virtue and is instantly given, not money, but the body of a frog. The two frogs are chased into the swamp, where they are hunted by alligators and tormented by voodoo spirits. Eventually the frogs fall for each other and discover long-term love is more important than worldly temptations. Their marriage washes away their sin. And their first kiss as man and wife is rewarded by a return to human form and the good graces of their parents and community.

Compare that to any of the movies I mentioned earlier, in which good kids' sexual desires lead them off the beaten path, where they are tormented by inbreds and slashers and must suffer until they find their way back to civilization.

These days, children gain knowledge of sex and violence before they're even out of diapers. Sin assaults them from every commercial and magazine cover. It's easy to say that is causing the redemption story to creep into tales meant for younger children.

But it's not true.

It's more accurate to say that the cycle of sin, penance and redemption is part of the human experience. It is something we live with at every age and in every circumstance. It is something we experience not just as horny teenagers but as four-year-olds pouting in timeout for eating too much candy, as celebrities making tabloid headlines for VIP room dalliances, as quarterbacks stepping onto the field after short stints in the slammer, and as middle managers working the weekend to make up for a Thursday afternoon on the golf course.

Our culture believes that suffering cleanses. Isn't that the lesson that our fictions have ground into us since birth? Is it any surprise that we blithely watch as mankind burns? That we do nothing upon hearing of starvation and genocide? That we accept poverty and war? That we brush off the serial killers and head for the sports scores? We shrug it all away. And no wonder. We've been taught that misery makes angels.

New work for Pinnacol Assurance

2010-11-04T00:08:00.000-07:00

You don't need a flashlight if you're a lighthouse

2010-11-03T22:47:00.000-07:00

Social media analysts like to buzz about how important it is to join the conversation. To search it for verbatims. To monitor and measure and react to it. All that is not unimportant. But I don't think it's the main thing, either.

Our job is not to control consumers' conversations, but to capture their imaginations. And the best way to do that isn't by spinning in the comments or linking on the forums. It is to create content worthy of being passed around.

I had a personal experience with viral content recently. On Aug. 24, 2010 I published this post named "Patton Must Have Worked in Advertising." It was subsequently picked up by The Denver Egotist. Then by The Orlando Egotist, The Des Moines Egotist, The San Francisco Egotist, The St. Louis Egotist and Design Taxi. It was named post of the month on Only Dead Fish. Quoted on waxmuseum. And linked on Twitter here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And then my eyes glazed over and I broke Google.

I'm not saying my little essay was the equal of Arcade Fire's devastating multiscreen music video. (Linked at PSFK, The Denver Egotist and Contagious Magazine. Go watch it now.) I'm just sharing it because it is a personal story. And the lesson I have learned is this. "Join the conversation if you must. Create it if you can."

Americans want bigger government, just not this one

2010-10-11T13:00:00.000-07:00

Today's USA TODAY has one of those sweeping studies that attempts to segment Americans based on their feelings about government. Some of the verbatims are so interesting. This one really nailed the zeitgeist for me:

Most Americans endorse government activism on a range of issues — not only national defense but also the environment, civil rights and consumer protection — but doubt the competence of government to deliver results effectively and efficiently.

There is no such thing as an independent voter

2010-10-01T20:00:00.000-07:00

Would everyone who considers themselves an independent please go take a look at their voter registration card? In the state of Colorado, there is no such thing as a registered independent. You can either affiliate with a party and help choose the candidates. Or you can register as "unaffiliated," which means you are happy enough with the candidates the parties offer to abstain from voting until the general election.

The media, which is driven by voting patterns, not registration data, is accidentally perpetuating the myth of the independent voter. For instance, The New York Times wrote that "Democrats, Republicans and independents each account for about one-third of registered voters in Colorado." Wrong. One third of Colorado voters have opted out of the primary process, but that doesn't make them independent. In fact, it doesn't even make them nonpartisan.

Ten seconds of Googling will tell you I'm a Democrat. But I'll take a Republican, an ACP member, a Green party voter, or practically anyone over those who abdicate their responsibility and then try to pass it off as a sign of independence.

The Walkmen Perform for La Blogotheque

2010-09-17T21:45:00.000-07:00

Via Pitchfork and my own melancholy:

To the shores of Tripoli

2010-09-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

My Aug. 24 post "Patton Must Have Worked in Advertising" was picked up by The Denver Egotist, where it sparked a good amount of conversation. From there, it went on to The Orlando Egotist, The Des Moines Egotist, The San Francisco Egotist and The St. Louis Egotist. Then it was published in Design Taxi, along with some photography from Christopher Clor.

UPDATE: I was just informed that someone named Jeff nominated "Patton Must Have Worked in Advertising" for post of the month at Only Dead Fish. If you're so inclined, please go vote for it now.

UPDATE: "Patton Must Have Worked in Advertising" wins. What do you know?

[Ed. note - Title reference, just in case.]

Sometimes the joke's on you. Sometimes you're the joke.

2010-09-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

My favorite joke is this:

One day, I'm golfing, I step up to the second tee, tee up my ball and pull out my three wood. And from somewhere down on the ground I hear a tiny voice say, "Ribbit. One iron." I look down and I see a frog looking back at me. I didn't know what to do so I said, "What?" And again, the frog said, "Ribbit. One iron." I swear, it was like I was hypnotized. I slid my three wood back into my bag, took out my one iron and swung. Bang. Knocked my ball two inches from the cup. I looked back at the frog and said, "How did you know that?" And the frog replies, "Ribbit. Magic frog." Well, I pick the frog up and carry him with me. On the next tee, he says, "Ribbit. Driver." I use my driver. Hole in one. This went on all day. I started making bets with other golfers and won every single one.

I put that frog in my bag, headed straight to the airport, and bought a ticket on the next plane to Las Vegas. I walked right into Caesar's Palace and said, "Magic Frog, what should I do?" And he said, "Ribbit. Roulette." I walked up to the nearest roulette table and again the frog spoke. "Ribbit. 22." I put it all on 22. All my golf winnings, everything in my wallet. My watch, my mortgage, everything in my savings account. All of it. Sure enough. Winner. The lights started ringing. Everyone was slapping me on my back and shaking my hand.

The pit boss came by and comped me a night in the hotel's fanciest suite. And when I got there, I took that magic frog out of my bag, set it on my bed, and said, "Magic Frog, you have made me rich and happy beyond my wildest dreams. How can I repay you?" And the frog said, "Ribbit. Kiss me." I said, "Kiss you?" And the frog said again, "Ribbit. Kiss me." Well, what could I do? I took a deep breath and leaned down and kissed the frog. Immediately there was a big poof of smoke and the frog turned into a beautiful, totally naked 16-year-old girl. And that, your honor, is how she got into my hotel room that night.

I have been telling this joke for at least 15 years. It's not that it's so, so funny. (Although if you tell it right, it always gets a laugh.) And it's not that it perfectly illustrates the elements of clear storytelling. (Although it includes three distinct acts, climax, denouement, character arcs, allusion and all the rest.)

No, the real reason I love The Story of the Magic Frog is that it relies not on a clever punchline, but on a twist that rivals anything you'd find in film or literature.

Throughout the joke, listeners assume they are just passive observers waiting for a laugh. This perception is encouraged by familiar elements like a talking frog, and reinforced by the repetition of the word, "Ribbit." But The Story of the Magic Frog doesn't work like a conventional joke at all. At the last moment, listeners find they are in fact active participants. They are a character. They are an accomplice. They are the punchline. And they have to readjust their perceptions not just of the unlikely story, but of their own complicity in it.

It makes me wonder. How many things in my own life have I gotten wrong because I've misunderstood myself?

Thoughts from the Xbox Kinect Sneak Peek in Denver

2010-08-30T07:28:00.000-07:00

When I was working on the Brasstacks project for the Kappa Alpha Order, I got the chance to sit in a focus group of teenage boys discussing morals, college and media usage. We were running low-budget, so when I say "sit in," I don't mean I was behind one-way glass. I mean Dennis and I were moderating the group.

Me: So I know you guys text each other all day at school. But when you're at home and you want to have a conversation, do you use you cell phones or your landlines?

Boys: [Stunned silence]

Me: Oh, come on. You must have conversations sometimes.

Alpha Boy: Yeah, over our video game systems.

Me: You can talk over a video game system?

Boys: You are very old, extremely feeble and hopelessly out of touch. Yes, we use our video game systems to talk to one another. Geezer.

A few days later I dragged my ancient ass into Best Buy and demanded that someone school me on how the game systems worked. After 30 minutes of trying, the salesperson gave up. I half-considered buying a system so I could play Weapons of Fate. But the last thing I need is another hobby.

Fast forward to 2010. Someone from Xbox's public relations company found my blog and decided I was one of a couple dozen people who deserved an invite to a VIP sneak preview of Kinect for Xbox 360. I agreed with him. More people play video games than watch movies. It is my job to understand people. Yes, I absolutely had to go to this party.

So I did. It was last Thursday night at Fat Tail Gallery. Xbox had six big flat screens set up, each playing a different Kinect game. I made my way around, playing each one in turn. I trained a lion cub and drove a car. I scored not one, but two soccer goals. All without a controller. Kinect uses a Minority report interface. Your body - hands, feet, legs - becomes the controller. And while I felt a bit silly, it was hard to play anything without smiling.

Here's what I think about the system.

For kids, Kinect pretty much kicks Wii's ass: Young kids have problems moving the Wii controller while manipulating its buttons. Kinect fixes that, because there is no controller. You just run around like crazy and wave your arms.

For adults, Kinect is a bit better than Wii: If you play Wii for any length of time, you'll figure out that moving your body along with the controller is just for giggles. You can sit on the couch, flick the controller back and forth, and get the same effect. But you can't cheat Kinect. You actually have to get your knees kicking and in some cases dive for the floor. I have to assume that'll make Kinect a winner over PlayStation Move, too.

For gamers, Kinect is only fun after the fourth or fifth beer: I can't imagine Call of Duty: Black Ops on the Kinect. Maybe they'll figure it out. But all the games they had set up for us Thursday were totally games for kids 'n parties, and they were all designed specifically for Kinect. On the other hand, if I was a dad planning to buy a gaming station, I may choose Xbox with the Kinect add-on instead of Playstation. Then I could justify it to my wife by saying I got it for the kids. Just sayin'.

Xbox says that Kinect is a revolution "not just for your games, but for all of your entertainment." I am not sure that the ability to scroll through films or music using hand gestures justifies that claim. But Kinect is pretty damn fun.

The awards the Academy would have given if it didn't hate genre movies

2010-08-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

Best Film: The Dark Knight. Duh. Too easy. The exclusion of Christopher Nolan's Batman sequel led the Academy to reconsider the nominating process and expand the field of Best Picture contenders from five to 10. Let's move on.

Best Screenplay: Scream. It's hard to find a great mystery. It's hard to find a great horror movie. It's hard to find a great comedy. It's hard to find a cultural critique that's self-referential without being self-indulgent. Scream is all four, and a fabulous popcorn movie with smart dialogue, engaging characters and creative plotting, too.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Fight Club the book is a mess of childish angst that reads like the fantasies of an 24-year-old eunuch. Fight Club the movie is a work of genius that describes the mind of man without being preachy or precious.

Best Actor: Christian Bale for American Psycho. I thought Patrick Bateman was an unfilmable character. Not because of his sadism, but because of his cartoonishness. Bale, in his best performance ever, brought the monster to the screen, and found a way to communicate the horror of his preening and the meaning of his butchery.

Best Actress: Naomi Watts for Mullholland Drive. Watts' twin performances are so stunning that some people miss that the jaded Diane and her idealized projection betty are played by the same actress. It's perhaps the deepest, bravest performance in the history of American film.

Best Direction and Cinematography: Miami Vice. For all the reasons I already gushed.

Patton must have worked in advertising

2010-08-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

General George S. Patton must have worked in advertising, because he said, “Good tactics can save even the worst strategy. Bad tactics will destroy even the best strategy.” And it's true. People never see your strategy. They see an ad. Or experience a website. Or hear a radio spot. And if it's clever or exciting or emotional, they'll connect with it. Maybe Patton was having lattes with Mike Lescarbeau and Luke Sullivan and overheard them say that big ideas are like nuclear bombs, in that neither has to land precisely on target to work.

Joseph Stalin must have worked in advertising, because he said, "Quantity has a quality all of its own." And it's true. If try to come up with one big idea, it'll probably take you two weeks to do it. And it'll be terrible. But if you dare yourself to have 50 ideas, they effortlessly pour from your brain onto paper and at least a couple are always, always brilliant.

Robert Kaplan must have worked in advertising, because he wrote that the battlefield is more intellectually stimulating than the Potomac, because "ideas can only be tested through application." And it's true. There are people working in the advertising industry who position themselves as "strategic thinkers" purely because they don't have any actual skills. Fuck 'em and their ability to work phrases like "30,000 foot view" into everyday conversations. Nobody lives at 30,000 feet. Spend all your time up there and the lack of oxygen will fry your brain. If an insight doesn't lead to a great execution, get a new insight.

Napoleon Bonaparte must have worked in advertising, because he said, "The most important qualification of a soldier is fortitude under fatigue and privation." And it's true. Lots of people have good ideas. Unfortunately, there are a lot of ways for those ideas to die. A great creative knows that coming up with an idea is only the first step. Then you have to sell it and watch it die and be willing to go back to the well over and over again until you find an idea that lives. And then you have to tirelessly pursue your idea through revisions and updates and productions and post-productions. Napoleon must have traded text messages with Paul Arden just after he wrote, "Energy is 99% of the job. If you haven't got it, be nice."

Or maybe none of them worked in advertising. Maybe advertising just feels a lot like war.

Why advertising will be better soon

2010-08-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

Everything in my iTunes library fits into one of three categories. Songs that seem like they were selected by an indie rock critic. (The National. The Walkmen. Cursive) Songs that prove I was raised in Reagan's America. (The Smiths. Afghan Whigs. Billy Bragg.) And auditions from various voiceover actors.

When I check into some of the libraries shared by the younger folks at Karsh\Hagan, it's a different story. A trendy pop song followed by a 90 minute trance podcast followed by a hip-hop collaboration followed by some strange other thing. Christina Aguilera segues into a worldbeat track I couldn't possibly recognize. Somehow it all fits.

I feel like this randomness, creativity and openness will lead to something wonderful. I hope I am smart enough to recognize it.

Is business a good background for a public servant?

2010-07-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

See if this sounds familiar. "We need to elect businessmen to congress because they're tough and efficient and know how to get things done on time and under budget."

It seems like every election cycle, some Ross Perot-wannabe brings up some variation of this argument. But while some businesspeople make great public servants, it is wrong to assume that a business background automatically qualifies a person for elected office.

Private businesses do not make money by producing goods and services on time and under budget. That's an ivory-tower view of business that's popular among right-wing intellectuals, but has no basis in reality.

The job of a businessman is to maximize profit. Period. And profit is the difference in total revenue and total cost. Businessmen become successful by convincing people to pay more for a good or service than it costs to produce. Efficiency and customer service are certainly tools in the businessman's toolbox, but they aren't the only ones. Businesses can use advertising to raise perceived value, they can choose to focus on under-served markets, they can trademark innovations to prevent competition, they can cut costs by laying off staff and making salaried employees work long hours, and the list sort of goes on like that for a long, long time.

On the other hand, the job of a public servant is to maximize value. They strive to ensure the greatest number of taxpayers receive the greatest amount of service for the lowest possible cost. Cutting necessary but unprofitable services, refusing to serve difficult markets, raising perceived value with branding - none of these are options for those who spend their life maximizing the value of taxpayer dollars.

There's nothing wrong with business. It's essential to the American way of life. And many businessmen, like John Hickenlooper, do become good public servants. But it's wrong to assume that people who can maximize profit are inherently suited to maximize value.

Five things I think I think about books

2010-07-02T08:24:00.000-07:00

1. Account people should carry books: Account people have a big role in strategizing, selling and even creating work. Yet agencies hire them based on their resumes. How stupid is that? If I was responsible for hiring account people - and I'm not - I would demand to see their books.

2. Copywriters need to show copy: When I graduated from the Creative Circus, my book was full of visual solutions. And creative directors asked me for examples of copy. And I thought, "Pft. Whatever. Old dude doesn't get it." Now I'm on the other side of the desk. And I have to ask to see copy. And I know the kids think I am hopelessly hopeless. But that's the way it goes. Yes, concept is king. But I don't know too many agencies in Denver who can afford to hire writers that can't write.

3. Books are really hard to put together: Not the first time I've said this. The coolest stuff out there is integrated and experiential. And it's really hard to communicate that in a fast, fun book. I have no good solution. But I share the pain.

4. Sometimes books don't tell you as much as you think they do: A friend of mine, a creative director at a well-known agency in Seattle, told me that there are two types of genius writers. The geniuses who come up with the first ad in a campaign and the geniuses who come up with the 50th. (Actually, he didn't phrase it that way. I brushed the quote up because I can't f'ing help myself.) Both skills are equally valuable. But they're different. It's hard to tell from a book who did what.

5. Books favor the occasionally great, not the consistently good: Your book may have five campaigns in it. I know people who have five A+ campaigns and pretty much everything else they've ever touched sucks. And I know people with B books, but everything they ever do is a B. Who do you hire?

[Ed. - I'm illustrating this post with a Facebook photo of me looking at portfolios at NDAC Connect. Crossposted on my blog and on Karsh Connect.]

I still have heroes: Miami Vice

2010-06-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

I got jaded early. By the time I was 10 or 11, I was bored with James Bond and enthralled by Miami Vice, a TV series that probably wasn't at all appropriate for my 11-year-old brain.

While the show is remembered for stylish pastels and trendy music, the "underlying theme of the series is the 'whack-a-mole' reality of drug cartels, as the detectives bring down one cartel there are several new ones to replace them." While I couldn't have articulated it at the time, this overwhelming hopelessness resonated with something I felt instinctually, almost genetically. Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs knew they were foot soldiers fighting meaningless skirmishes in a war that could not be won.

But they never quit.

In 2006 director Michael Mann, who had been the executive producer of the TV series, released a Miami Vice movie, creating a world in which words were weapons and weapons were tools. His heroes were men and women defined completely by their missions as they moved through threatening and vast spaces. Watching it, I felt like the walls had been knocked off the world. Only last year did I learn that Mann had purposefully created this sensation with a special camera. From the New York Times review, which named Miami Vice one of the best movies of 2006:

Partly shot using a Viper FilmStream camera, the film shows us a world that seems to stretch on forever, without the standard sense of graphical perspective. When Crockett and Tubbs stand on a Miami roof, it’s as if the world were visible in its entirety, as if all our familiar time-and-space coordinates had dropped away, because they have.

The film isn't only popular with the New York Times and me. Independent Weekly named it the best film of 2006. Rolling Stone gave it three and a half stars and wrote, "what raises this ball of fire above the herd is the haunting sense of loss and loneliness Mann brings to material that feels lived in and achingly real."

The film does less well with the general public. Rolling Stone readers gave it only two and a half stars. And while the Top Critics on Rotten Tomatoes give Miami Vice a 68%, it's community score is only 47%.

One of the movie's stars, Colin Ferrell, recently admitted that he "didn't like it so much." That's a shame. He was a great Sonny Crockett, his eyes constantly darting back and forth, his arms held away from his body as if he was trying to make himself appear bigger and more dangerous than he felt inside. He's a cobra vainly hoping that an open hood might scare off a tidal wave.

The movie also features Michael Mann's trademark attention to detail. The guns, cars and airplanes were meticulously chosen and learning about them adds insight into the characters' motivations. (Go Google "SVI Tiki" for a taste of what I am talking about.) The actors underwent extensive training for their roles. Advisors on the film even tricked Ferrell into believing he had gotten himself in the middle of an actual drug buy, just to see if he was able to keep calm. The event was captured on hidden camera and included in the DVD extras. (I wouldn't say Ferrell stayed ice cold, but he didn't break down in tears either.)

In Miami Vice and at least two other Mann films, the main characters remind each other that time is luck. Crockett and Tubbs know life is transient and perhaps futile. They are surrounded by money, women and gorgeous oceans that all might lead to the possibility of a more peaceful existence. And yet over and over they choose to turn away from the horizon and throw themselves into the fire.

I am 36. I still have heroes.

Students inspire, amaze and scare the hell out of me

2010-05-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

For more than a month, I have had Autumn Wallace's resume on my desk. She handed it to me at the NDAC's student job fair in March and I got the chance to talk with her briefly. Our conversation began like this:

Her: I want to use human-centered design to address the flaws in complex systems that have been overlooked by the modern world.

Me: Huh?

She took me through her book. It was unlike any book I've ever seen. And I've seen a kazillion. Autumn redesigned an ambulance ride from the patient's point of view. She redesigned shopping technology from a blind person's point of view. She redesigned a fruit brand from a community's point of view. By the end of our talk, two facts were blindingly obviously to me:

1. Autumn was doing what agencies in America ought to be doing. She was finding places where brands and consumers intersect and making them beautiful and efficient.

2. It would be a gamble to hire Autumn based on her book, because after looking at it I wasn't sure she was passionate about doing the tasks that junior designers are expected to do - logos, packaging, websites, and, frequently, shelf talkers and counter cards.

My usual gripe about junior designers and art directors is that their books lack ideas and inspiration. But Autumn's book had the opposite situation. (I can't bring myself to call it a problem.) It was nothing but vision. So at some point in the conversation, I said something like this:

Me: I don't want to kill the dream here. You are doing something wonderful at a high level. But at most agencies, your first assignment will probably be something like, "Design a website." If you're lucky. It might be, "Design a mirror cling." Are you sure you're ready for that, both skill-wise and emotionally?

She assured me she was raring to get going in the real world. And if I had an open job, I would like to think I'd have the courage to hire her. But I keep looking at her resume and feeling confused. And then inspired. And then sad. And then just sort of confused again.

Links, conversation and American Crew

2010-05-11T08:25:00.000-07:00

I plan to get back to my normal blogging schedule soon, which basically means extraordinarily irregular posts about Scandinavian myths, genre movies and cultural phenomena. But first I want to link to and thank all the sites that have picked up our recent campaign for American Crew Hair Recovery.

The Denver Egotist's post sparked the most conversation. David Burn at AdPulp really took the time to sort through the work and write about what he liked and what he didn't. It was awesome to see our stuff on major national sites like Creativity, Shoot and AdRants. And on May 4, our website was Communications Arts' Webpick of the Day.

UPDATE: On June 15 the site was added to the public shortlist at The FWA. And as noted by The Denver Egotist, the print campaign was in Communication Arts' Exhibit on July 6.

Two favorite AC Hair Recovery videos: Expert content edition

2010-04-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

What are the psychological effects of hair loss?

Can mercury poisoning cause hair loss?

Two favorite AC Hair Recovery videos: Female content edition

2010-04-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

Can hair loss affect confidence?

What do girls say about men with hair loss?

Two favorite AC Hair Recovery videos: Stylist content edition

2010-04-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

Does alcohol cause hair loss?

Do balding men still frequent professional salons?

Karsh\Hagan launches American Crew Trichology Hair Recovery

2010-04-26T17:44:00.000-07:00

Hairloss.americancrew.com and youtube.com/askamericancrew are up and running. Karsh\Hagan created the sites and the 103 videos on them for our client, American Crew. The videos were shot by Roshambo Films and the site was developed by The 1st Movement.

The print campaign that drives men to the site is currently running in GQ and other national magazines. And non-traditional out-of-home is under construction in New York and other big cities. In the meantime, I'm going to post six of my favorite videos. Two new ones will go up on this blog every morning. Enjoy.

Thanks for lunch, breakfast, coffee, time and just being you

2010-04-25T00:04:00.000-07:00

John, Dennis, Lauren, Tony, Sara, Jenny, Jennifer, Gregg, Mindy and Geoff.

Something I found that I wanted to share

2010-04-24T23:59:00.000-07:00

While researching "The genius of changing the question," I ran into this quote about the moral of the movie Frailty:

If there actually is a God, and he talks to you, run as fast and far as you can. You may not be able to escape, but there is nothing else to do. If God is looking down on us, the one thing we should all pray for is that he never does anything, never speaks to us, and that no one ever knows it, because he is one sick son-of-a-bitch.

Take that, Agatha Christie

2010-04-16T14:18:00.000-07:00

[Ed. - This post will totally spoil A Perfect Getaway for you. It's a fabulous flick and you should stop reading now if you haven't seen it it yet.]

Of course you'll see the second-act twist of A Perfect Getaway coming. The script tells you flat-out at least three times that it's on its way. And only one twist is really possible. Of the four potential couple-killing couples in the film, one is obviously a "red snapper," one is arrested mid-film, and one practically screams, "We're the killers! Over here! Us!" The killers therefore must be the sweet and dopey fourth couple. Duh.

Those are the rules of the murder mystery as laid out by Agatha Christie, who in her forward to Cards on the Table wrote that often finding a murderer is as simple as identifying the least likely suspect.

Except that the twist in A Perfect Getaway is actually two twists that are revealed at once. The first is that mild mannered Cliff and Cydney are the killers. Like I said, that one is a bit of a duh, and it's really a clever ending, not a proper twist.

The second and truer twist is that Cliff and Cydney aren't Cliff and Cydney at all, but a pair of meth-addicted sociopaths who have killed them and stolen their identities. This second turn of the screw is a lot more fun, because it demands you hit the rewind button. Didn't you see Cliff and Cydney in their wedding videos? (You didn't.) Didn't Cliff and Cydney share a fearful conversation in their tent? (Watch it again. Their lines still make perfect sense.) Wasn't Cliff terrified of the killers? (No, he was worried about getting caught.)

A Perfect Getaway is a funny, scary, well-crafted thriller, with terrific performances by charismatic actors, especially Timothy Olyphant, whose presence saved Scream 2, The Girl Next Door and even Go. And Cliff and Cydney are an interesting metaphor for what it's like to be a newlywed, as two different wholes suddenly find themselves merely halves of a new, bigger enterprise, and must learn to act, speak and function in new ways.

In her writing, Christie pointed out the fundamental problem with whodunits. Creating characters like these means limiting your cast, which necessarily makes it easier to solve the mystery. A Perfect Getaway accepts her challenge, asking, "The audience will figure out 'who,' so can we instead build a twist around 'why?'" The answer is hell yes.

I give up on disliking stuff out of spite

2010-04-13T08:00:00.001-07:00

I so want to hate skinny indie rockers with unkempt hair wandering around Brooklyn playing guitars with cute girl backup singers in awesome blouses following them while harmonizing in the most absent-minded way possible and avoiding any sort of eye contact with the camera. But hate is convenient and boring. Also, I'm fairly sure those are the same chords Iggy Pop uses in The Passenger, so bonus points for making something new and wonderful out of something that's been overused in movie trailers. I bought this album awhile ago and just adore it.

How I would have written Man's Last Stand

2010-04-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

My least favorite 2010 Super Bowl ad came from one of my favorite agencies for one of my favorite cars. Wieden+Kennedy's Dodge spot portrayed men as emasculated drones who need a Charger to make up for their impotence. The script, which I cut-and-pasted from Lybio, reads:

I will get up and walk the dog at 6:20AM. I will eat some fruit as part of my breakfast. I will shave, clean the sink after I shave. I will be at work at 8:00AM. I will sit through two hour meetings. I will say yes, when you want me to say yes. I will be quiet when you don’t want me to say no. I will take your call and listen to your opinion of my friends. I will listen to your friends opinions of my friends. I will be civil to your mother. I will put the seat down. I will separate the recycling. I will carry your lip-balm. I will watch your vampire tv shows, with you. I will take my socks off before getting into bed. I will put my underwear in the basket. And because I do this, I will drive the car I want to drive.

To me the whole thing sounds like it was written by a planner. "See, this is what men tell us in focus groups, so this is what we need to put in our spot. Exactly. Word for word." Others thought the spot was supposed to be funny, and I was missing a joke.

But if you're dreaming of a different life, the last thing you want is to be reminded that your current one is a big testosterone drain. Here's a script that would have resonated with me:

I walk the earth at will. When I see a city block, I build a building on it. When I see a half-block, I build a skyscaper. I've built a career. And I've built a family. I don't share my memories - you can see them reflected in my eyes. I put the ball in the end zone and the guilty in their place. I have broken my bones and watched them heal. I make unpopular choices. I do what needs to be done. I am a man. I walk the earth at will. And I drive what I want.

After loving the Charger and W+K for so long, it seems strange to have such a negative reaction to their collaboration. It's even odder to take a swing at a script myself. And it's just plain stupid to publish it. And yet, there it is.

You get the heroes you deserve

2010-03-29T15:36:00.000-07:00

When I was a boy, James Bond was a blank slate on which I could project my heroic dreams. If I wanted to imagine battling sinister baddies in foreign lands, Bond showed me how. If I wanted tips on ordering drinks, playing cards, driving cars or bedding glamorous women, Bond had my back. He could ski, rock climb, parachute, and kill with bullets or charm. He didn't have any super powers or any special strengths. He was just awesome. At everything.

For Bond, the means weren't justified by the ends. The means were the ends. The cars and the guns and the subterfuge seemed to be the point. And the conclusion of each movie never did much more than leave me hungry for the next one.

In the post-9/11 world, there's suddenly a surplus of super agents on film with the initials J.B. Just two months after Al-Qaeda's attacks on our homeland, 24 debuted on Fox. The show's hero is Jack Bauer, whose experience in the army, LAPD SWAT and the CIA prepared him to defeat all sorts of awfulness on perilously short timelines. June 14, 2002 saw the premiere of the first Jason Bourne movie, The Bourne Identity. Where Bauer has a gift for solving problems in a day, it took the amnesiac Bourne three movies to figure out his own name. Along the way he discovered he was the world's deadliest man, a government-trained black ops machine.

(I'm far from the first blogger to notice this coincidence. Most only discuss which J.B. would win a fight. A very few go further, such as Considering Bond, Bourne & Bauer.)

Bond stayed clear of any deep thoughts about, well, anything. But Bauer and Bourne are both consumed by questions about the violent tactics they employ and their relationship to the outcomes desired by shadowy bureaucrats and mysterious handlers. For Bauer the choice is clear. If the goal is the advancement or safety of the American people, any course of action is justified. In fact, the US military reportedly had to ask Fox to "tone down the torture scenes because of the impact they are having both on troops in the field and America's reputation abroad." Meanwhile, Bourne's entire fictional raison d'etre is to question the psychological toll that black ops take on the men who must carry them out. His most obvious enemies are specific actors in the American government itself, who brainwashed him at his own behest and turned him loose on a scary world.

In the words of A Few Good Men's Col. Jessup, "we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns." We know this. And we also know that beyond those walls, a different sort of men must be sent to do difficult and sometimes unimaginably painful jobs. Because these jobs are done in secret, we rarely get a clear portrait of those who do them. But they are probably nothing like James Bond, Jack Bauer, Jason Bourne, Bryan Mills, John Rambo, Ethan Hunt, Casey Ryback, Dutch Schaefer, Xander Cage and so on.

The way in which we imagine our heroes says a lot about our culture. It makes sense that after 9/11, we were no longer content to imagine them blithely racing Aston-Martins and sleeping with Pussy Galore. (Yes, that was her name.) But what does it say about us that we replaced James Bond with two super agents with similar resumes and initials but directly opposing psyches? Bauer is a man of action, morally questionable, and perfectly at home on the Fox network. He seems explicitly designed to appeal to flag-waving Republicans who believe that torture is not torture if it's conducted by an American. On the other hand, Bourne's very existence confirms liberal fears of daddy-state power brokers and military-industrial complexes. He is efficient, deadly, hampered by doubt and filled with self-loathing. He seems like he sprang directly from the paranoid imagination of an East Coast Democrat. In fact, Bourne Identity director Doug Liman and screenwriter Tony Gilroy are both Manhattan natives and, according to Huffington Post's Fundrace 2008, Barack Obama donors.

The success of the Bourne movies forced a reinvention of the Bond franchise. The 2006 prequel Casino Royale re-imagined my boyhood hero as an emotionally scarred orphan whose steely charm was a defense mechanism against the death and destruction he both prevented and caused.

It's as if on 9/11 our country began a search for meaning that almost immediately left us deeply polarized. We could no longer tolerate a blank slate upon which to project fantasies of control and cool. And so we are left with a soulless spy, a brutal warrior and an angst-ridden assassin. I guess you get the heroes you deserve.

[Ed. - For what it is worth, I am currently reading Imperial Grunts: On the Ground with the American Military, from Mongolia to the Philippines to Iraq, a book that offers a realistic portrait of the Special Forces troops that patrol the outer reaches of American interests.]

Link to March of Dimes

2010-03-23T10:04:00.000-07:00

Here is the link to MarchOfDimes.com.

Advice to Next Creatives

2010-03-18T07:50:00.000-07:00

[Ed. - I wrote this post several months ago, halfway through the first semester of Next. After I was finished with the post, I saw the brief for the third project. It specifically asked for print and poster executions, which rendered most of what I'd written irrelevant. Blog post, meet drafts file. Since we're about to begin another semester, I decided to dig up my post and publish it today. Enjoy.]

We're through two cycles of Next. I've showed up at both presentations, although both times I've been late and angry when I walked through the door. Gregg and Norm are two of Denver's best, most insightful, most ethical creative directors. And I should probably keep my mouth shut and let them do the critiquing. But, meh.

At your presentations, I've seen kazillions of good ideas. New business ideas. Marketing ideas. Technology ideas. What I haven't seen much of is good advertising.

Understand that I mean advertising in the broadest possible sense. I'm not boring enough to demand you all come to your presentations armed with print campaigns. But street teams, websites, guerrilla demonstrations, branded content, posters, short films, stickers. Anything.

As junior creatives, your first brief is unlikely to read, "Come up with some cool new technologies our client could develop." If you are lucky, it'll read, "Our client has decided to launch Initiative A. How do we publicize it to Target B?" (More likely, it'll read, "Please write a mirror cling that families with the existing brand campaign.")

Maybe you want jobs on the client side, in the marketing department. Or maybe you want to be planners. But assuming you want to be creatives, you need to anchor every campaign with at least one tangible piece of communication. Something that shows you can concept, write and design. (In addition to coming up with iPhone apps.)

For instance, Fallon London's Tate Modern work hinged on a marketing idea. But that didn't stop the agency from creating posters like the one that illustrates this post, which I hijacked from Creative Review.

To get a job, you're going to need more than ideas for new marketing initiatives. You're going to need communication skills. You're also going to need books that can ride by themselves, without explanation.

I would love to see some work that doesn't require a long commentary. And that's my unasked-for advice. Create a thing, and make that thing awesome. So awesome you can tack it to the wall. And walk away.

The genius of changing the question

2010-03-04T08:06:00.000-08:00

[Ed. - This post may contain spoilers for numerous movies, among them Identity, The Others, Usual Suspects, Lone Star, Momento, Frailty and films by M. Night Shyamalan.]

In the final act of the 2003 thriller Identity all the characters, dead and alive, are revealed to be split personalities inside the brain of a serial killer. You would've had to have been telepathic to have seen this coming and the new information forces you to radically and quickly rethink everything you have seen up to that point.

That's a twist.

I have a friend who ruined The Sixth Sense for a theater-full of people when he slapped his forehead halfway through and loudly exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, I think he's dead!"

That's a twist, too. The film led you to believe you were solving one mystery, while another, deeper one lurked right in front of you. The same could be said of The Others, Lone Star and The Village.

But I'm not sure whether it's fair to claim that Usual Suspects really has a twist. You know that the mystery is the identity of Keyser Soze. You have only yourself to blame if you didn't figure out the answer. The same is true of Psycho. The question is always the killer's identity. The fact that Albert Hitchcock threw up a few red herrings doesn't change that. Ditto films like Momento, Scream and Seven.

I probably wouldn't think about this subject at all if, years ago, I hadn't seen Frailty, which is one of those movies that, once seen, can never be unseen.

Could I have guessed that Adam and his dad would turn out to be the good guys, that the slaughtered people were actually demons, that the movie's hero would grow up to be the God's Hand serial killer, and that Adam had killed his brother and taken his name so he could lure a cold-blooded murderer out to the Rose Garden at the behest of God? I doubt it. Even if I wasn't permanently scarred by the gut-churning moment when Adam takes up his dad's work.

Humans have a prejudice for the real. Frailty uses that. You think you're watching a gritty thriller about a boy with a killer for a father, when in fact you're watching a supernatural horror movie about a man with a demon for a son. Somebody get me the remote, I need to hit the rewind button. Just as soon as I stop shaking.

What separates a clever ending from a true twist? The former surprises with the answer, while the latter, like Frailty, changes the question.

I need a word that I am not sure exists

2010-02-21T11:46:00.000-08:00

Art, action and experience inflict themselves upon you. You are moved, are amazed, are changed, are wowed. But what's the word for what you have done by purposefully seeking out situations that affect you? If, say, you fly to Guatemala to tour an ancient temple and you sit at that temple top watching the sun drop down over the rainforest, you can say you were awed by your surroundings. But there ought to be a way to state that you have actively put yourself in a situation that had the capability to awe you.

What's the word? The closest I can come is wanderlust. But that's a noun that relates closely to travel. And I want a verb that means "to deliberately seek out people, situations, actions and things that amaze and change you." What's the word? What's the word? What's the word?

The shark that bit me on the hand I put in his mouth

2010-02-06T22:11:00.000-08:00

Remember the line abut how you didn't punch that guy, you just held out your hand and he ran his face into it? Well:

The man was surfing about 150 to 300ft offshore at 7.30am on Friday when he was approached by a 5 ft blue shark. Apparently, he felt something next to his leg, thought it was seaweed and tried to brush it off… then he realised it wasn’t seaweed. He tried to punch it to get it away from where he was but as he went to punch it, his right hand went into its mouth. After a brief struggle, the shark let go...

Hearing the tiny bird sing while you're being assaulted by dozens of screeching eagles

2010-01-12T01:35:00.000-08:00

I thought this comment I put on Noah Brier's blog merited its own post here:

Over the summer, someone asked me how I can keep track of all the digital information - music, RSS feeds, Tweets, iChat, and whatever file I am working on - at once.

I said, "Take a second to think about everything you are experiencing right now. You're listening to me, about three other conversations going on around us, the air conditioning. You're seeing me, my desk, the carpet, the wall, the wall art, out the window, the trees. You're feeling the air around you, the clothes on your body, the floor beneath your feet. You're smelling the dust from the vents and the coffee in this cup. If you tried to explain all that to someone who was deaf and blind, they'd probably say the same thing. 'How my god, how do you process it all?' And the answer is, 'You just adapt. You learn how to decipher what's important and what's not and how to focus and refocus on things throughout the day.'"

I'm not normally that eloquent, so I assume I'd either thought of or heard that explanation before. But I can't remember when or where

I heard a great Buddhist story once. The student asks the master how he managed to hear a tiny bird singing softly at the window and the master replied, "The real question is, 'How is it that you did not?'"

The interesting thing is that my comment directly contradicts a post I wrote in 2007:

Some [social digital tools] have proven valuable. Others have increased my mania. But now it appears I may just be making myself stupid... Navigating the maze of strategies, media and applications can be awfully distracting. Especially to a creative mind that verges on the manic without any help from hyperlinks.

A memory from 1997, my first year in the ad business

2010-01-11T22:50:00.000-08:00

My creative director left the agency to go pick up a box of brochures from a printer. When he returned, his eyes looked even wilder than usual. I asked him if everything was OK. He said, "I got to the printer to pick our stuff up and the guy behind the counter told me that the guy who'd been working on it killed himself last night in their parking lot. And then he just looked at me and there was this awkward pause so I said, 'God, sorry to hear that. So, like, did he finish my stuff first?'"

I love Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and am less fond of pretentious indie dorks

2010-01-05T23:56:00.000-08:00

I've seen Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in concert twice. The first time, they were opening up for some space rock band. (Maybe Spiritualized? I forget.) Their performance was nearly ruined by snide remarks from the holier-than-thou music geeks standing behind me whose fragile indie cred was threatened by BRMC's lack of blue hoodies and checkered shirts.

Similarly, I hesitated before buying BMRC's live set for almost two seconds due to a scathing review in Pop Matters that called the DVD and accompanying CD "terrible."

This album’s purpose is unfathomable. It’s sloppy, but without passion. Perhaps they were going for either a sense of wild abandon or aloof detachment, but committed to neither; they end up sounding under-rehearsed and somnambulant.

It's easy to criticize. Fun, too. But a digital download of a live DVD and CD from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club for just $12? That's the bargain of the century. And the only problem with it? I can't watch it for more than five minutes before I turn it off, pick up my own guitar, and let loose.

Life as strategy vs. life as tactic

2010-01-02T10:56:00.000-08:00

In the almost unbearably intense movie Cube, a group of strangers find themselves trapped in a 14x14x14 foot room that proves to be just one cube inside a much larger one. As they proceed up and down, left and right from room to room, they discover fatal booby traps and mathematical clues that may help them find a way out.

For me, the movie is about mindset. Some of the prisoners want to stop and think about their predicament. Who would have the means to build this structure? How would it be constructed? And what purpose could running people through the cube serve? They believe that answering these meta questions will help them develop a strategy for escape.

Other prisoners believe that the cube, like all things in life, must be finite. Keep plunging in one direction and they are bound to hit the edge - and an escape hatch - eventually. Pondering bigger questions is at best a waste of time, and at worst will make you miss something that is right in front of you. Like General George S. Patton said, "Good tactics can save even the worst strategy."

I haven't seen Cube in 10 years, but I think about it all the time. Nearly every time I hit an obstacle, I remember that I can look for higher meaning or solve the puzzle in front of me. I can ask, "Why?" Or I can determine, "What and how?"

"The most effective advertisements of all are those with little or no rational content..."

2009-12-23T09:06:00.000-08:00

Wrap your head around this, via BBH Labs:

"The most effective advertisements of all are those with little or no rational content..." This is probably contentious, but it suggests that if you attempt to employ any rational messaging in brand building communication, you might well be shooting your brand in the foot..." [T]his piece of research, if we hold it to be valid and that, alongside Feldwick's paper, requires those who still hold on to things like Reasons to Believe and USPs to have a good hard think.

Faris Yakob's post pulls from a couple studies, and I only grabbed some of the most startling quotes. You should read it for yourself, because it makes sense. If you offer a rational message in an ad, you've invited a debate. And as a brand with a vested interest in the outcome of that debate, everything you say will be suspect. Why would you waste your money like that?

Furthermore, Alan Wolk writes that the "transition of the consumer decision cycle from Ad -> Purchase into Ad -> Google -> Purchase" has eliminated the need for RTBs and USPs, but increased the need for positioning and branding.

This is where advertising can make a real difference, by creating a memorable brand image. It’s going to have to be a broader swath than what we’re used to carving out: the cool one, the safe one, the fun one—but we need to take into account how little consumers care to hear from advertisers about me-too specifics and copy points they can research and learn about themselves.

Advertising isn't dying. It's getting better. You can't rely on a bulleted list of advantages to build your brand. You'll need to be funnier, cooler, smarter, more relevant and more emotional than ever before. Fewer features and benefits. More content, utility and image. It's going to be so, so fun to be a part of it.

A complete list of the 42 pages of branded content in the December 2009 issue of GQ

2009-12-20T06:21:00.000-08:00

Are they ads? Are they articles? Are they just filler in between photos of Leighton Meester? I don't know. But there sure are a lot of pages of branded content in GQ these days:

Pg. 39 - The Gentlemen's Fund, Adrian Grenier and Nautica talk about conservation and a charity named Oceana.

Pg. 73 - The Gentlemen's Fund, Ashton Kutcher and HP talk about education and Unicef.

Pgs. 81-84 - Grey Goose offers a guide to the best holiday vodka drinks.

Pgs. 93-113 - GQ and Bombay Sapphire present their search for the nation's most inspired bartender. (From Denver, someone named Anika Zappe gets a nod.)

Pgs. 117-121 - Verizon Wireless brings us The Global Gentleman Photo Contest and the Global Gentleman's tips on Paris.

Pgs. 132-133 - Heineken offers up ideas on how to "rule the revelry" this holiday season, with tips on gifts, hotspots, fashion and music. (Check out pandora.com/heineken for the brand's ultimate party playlist!)

Pgs 135-138 - Toshiba teams up with four "men of talent" to design artwork for four limited edition laptops. (Hey, it's Omar Epps!)

Pg. 139 - The Gentlemen's Fund, Mark Wahlberg and Gillette tell us about the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation.

Pgs . 143-146 - Ketel One presents The Gentleman's Guide to Holiday Entertaining. (Two words: artisan pizza.)

Pg. 147 - The Gentlemen's Fund, Josh Duhamel and Ketel One tell us about the Pat Tillman Foundation.

Pgs. 165-170 - The Gentlemen's Fund, Ashton Kutcher (again) and HP talk about a flood in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Ashton makes a mini-mag about it. On an HP.

Pgs. 189-192 - T-Mobile publishes four pages on ways a few worldly guys have personalized their cell phones.

How transparent is crystal clear?

2009-12-16T22:55:00.000-08:00

Interesting to follow the war of words between award-winning journalist Erin Rosa and Mullen's Stuart Foster and Edward Boches over the past couple days.

The story is that Mullen helped launch an online publication called The Next Great Generation, which claims to give 18 to 25 year olds a platform "to share their thoughts regarding life, work, brands, technology, environment, money, faith, sex, love."

On December 15, Rosa published an article named Beware The Next Great Generation:

Meet the “Next Great Generation Blog” a publication that wants “an opportunity for Millennial Generation writers to develop a voice and gather a following, along with a real chance for older generations to listen in,” according to an e-mail message sent from Generation blog editor Gillian Maffeo today and obtained by CampusProgress.

They fail to mention that the blog will also be a great opportunity for advertisers, too, as a little investigation shows the website is really a creation of the Boston-based Mullen public relations agency, and Maffeo is an account executive at the company.

Foster and Boches commented on the post and on Twitter, pointing out that The Next Great Generation's about page openly states that the blog was "started by Mullen’s Edward Boches" and asking Rosa for suggestions, to which Rosa replied in the comments:

It's like I rang the supper triangle for a bunch of "tech startup" advertising fanatics. I'm sorry, but I really don't have time to respond to people who can't read what I wrote or pen a coherent argument. And now, even funnier, Mullen is trying to ask for my advice via Twitter on how to improve their blog! (Actually admitting somewhere on the website that it's a product of an advertising agency to boost business would be a start….)

It's pretty hard to argue with Rosa's credentials, but is she seeing a conspiracy where none exists? Or do brands that sponsor content platforms have a responsibility to find unequivocal ways to disclose their involvement? When is clear not clear enough?

[Disclosure - Rosa and I both used to blog at SquareState and have met a few times at Drinking Liberally and other political functions.]

Agency Models, three years later

2009-12-15T06:43:00.000-08:00

A presentation on emerging agency models that I did three years ago has been favorited by folks from AKQA, BBDO and Razorfish, and continues to attract attention on Slideshare. Is it still relevant today? Or has the industry passed it by? Check it out and let me know what you think.

Welcome to my homepage. Now get going.

2009-12-14T23:05:00.000-08:00

I can't think of a single personal or brand website that I visit on a regular basis. (Maybe The New York Times.) Instead I grab feeds that interest me (Like ColoradoPols, Noah Brier, Reach for the Wall, Selectism, Pitchfork and Sometimes Daily). I integrate interesting people into my news stream (Such as Alan Wolk, Barack Obama, Andrew Hyde, Universal Sports and Redhead Writing.) I subscribe to video channels on YouTube and look through my friend's photos on Facebook.

Like Jaffe said:

Today, consumers' digital homes are their Facebook profiles, their blogs, their custom-created communities. That's where they "live" in the digital world and that's where we need to hope they invite us to come and hang out from time to time, not the other way around.

My favorite personal websites right now are single-page designs that encourage visitors to connect on social platforms. Sites that are portals into larger stories. Sites that encourage you to leave them. (Such as Adelle Charles, Bud Caddell and Zach Klein.) My home page, Ingwalson.com, works the same way.

Brands could think of their websites as hubs, with links to content, connections and on- or off-site storefronts. Help people get where they're going. And don't bog down the pace of their lives.

When you lose a child, every day is two days.

2009-12-06T21:48:00.000-08:00

When you lose a child, every day is two days. The day you have and the day you should have. You live them both at the same time. And you get old twice as fast.

Don't know what that has to do with this video, except that sometimes I wonder what Elliott Smith might be doing if he wasn't gone.

Josh McDaniels isn't nearly as offensive as CSI

2009-11-29T08:03:00.000-08:00

I watched the Denver Broncos Thanksgiving game at a family celebration with small children. And when the network failed to bleep out Coach Josh McDaniels' profanity-laden tirade, I must admit I was, um, mildly amused. Sort of stoked actually.

I learned the next day that I'd had the wrong emotion. I was supposed to be offended and even outraged. As The Denver Post's Mark Kiszla wrote here and here:

What happened next for mothers, fathers and all the kiddies watching the game as part of the holiday celebration was reality TV gone bad... So much for the myth that the NFL is wholesome family entertainment. The public appetite for pumping-up violence and the unedited noise of the game's raw emotion is insatiable.

Fortunately, the NFL Network raced to apologize for their oversight. Leaving me with just one question:

Do any of these jackasses actually have children?

Watching a football game with a small child is a nightmare, not because of the occasional f-bomb, but because of nonstop promos for graphic television shows such as CSI. I turn off all of the commercials. Always. Because during the first week of the season the game segued into a promo that showed a mutilated corpse and a terrified woman, leaving my child ashen and me scrambling for the remote control.

The networks that broadcast NFL games can send their phony, hypocritical apologies to someone who cares. If they want to make football family-friendly, they should edit or ban show promos that feature dead bodies, sobbing victims, firing guns and tortured screams. As McDaniels himself might say, do your job and quit making shit up.

What to read when you're not reading the One Show Annual

2009-11-12T12:30:00.000-08:00

Tom Morello once said that his musical inspiration was a horse. Not sure what that means. My inspiration is Wonderpets. But I digress.

Seeking influences from outside your industry is a good thing. It prevents reflexivity and tunnel vision. It's not that you shouldn't be reading The Denver Egotist and AdFreak. You should. And here are a few other publications that might influence your work in ways you can't predict:

infosthetics.com: In modern communication, Information design is as creative and important as graphic design or art direction. This blog highlights some of the coolest and most creative ways to visualize the data points that make up our world.

Various style blogs: Working on American Crew, most of us at Karsh\Hagan try to keep up with fashion. The Sartorialist, Streetpeeper, Selectism and Street Etiquette are a few blogs that have developed a following. Trendsetters reveal themselves through their clothing, and seeing their styles gives us insight on how to speak their language.

wired.com/underwire: According to Gareth, more Americans played a video game in the last six month than went to the movies. The Underwire is Wired's blog about both games and movies, plus everything else that influences geek-pop culture.

creativesocialblog.com: Increasingly, and especially in digital, the power of an idea isn't defined by how many consumers might see it, but by how many consumers pass it around, mash it up, and make it their own. Creative Social is a survey of that type of work.

wallpaper.com: Architecture one of the loudest and most lasting expressions of culture. This blog puts it in the context of design and fashion, linking humanity with the spaces we build ourselves.

[Ed. - Matt Ingwalson wrote this post for Karsh Connect and cross-posted it to his blog.

Why is Paranormal Activity rated R?

2009-10-31T08:34:00.000-07:00

[Ed. - This post has been given an R rating by the Motion Picture Association of America.]

I'm awfully fond of the film Paranormal Activity. I have a friend who asked me if it's gory. I responded, "Nope. In fact with the exception of the last minute, if I showed you every frame in random order without sound, you wouldn't even know it's a horror movie."

Later on, I thought about what I'd said. And I started to wonder why Paranormal Activity is even rated R. Compared to the big-bang scary movies of the past few years, it seems positively tame. The answer, according to the MPAA and IMDB? Language.

Fucking what?

When actors are asked to improv scenes, they tend to swear a lot. For that, Paranormal Activity received a harsher rating than PG-13 films like Disturbia, Cloverfield, Cry Wolf, Cursed and The Ring. And I'm not even going to begin to remind you in detail just how gross the PG-rated Poltergeist was.

Even more criminal, Paranormal Activity shares its rating with movies like House of 1,000 Corpses and Hostel. "Sweetie, what do you want to see tonight, Paranormal Activity or Saw VI?" "I don't know, dear. They're both rated R."

I'm not claiming that Paranormal Activity is appropriate for kids. I'm just dumbfounded by the hypocrisy of a system that would rather see people butchered than hear them swear.

Staying receptive to wow

2009-10-28T12:25:00.001-07:00

In the last few days, I have read some great articles. Some, like "The Value of Beauty" and "How Local Businesses Can Benefit from Mobile Social Networks" opened my eyes to ideas I can pursue for my clients. Some, like "The Answer Factory" and "Does the Vaccine Matter" blew me away with the audacity of their concept. (Did you know that Demand Media publishes 4,000 articles and videos online every single day? Or that the healthy-user effect accounts for 100% of the flu vaccine's alleged ability to prevent death?)

When I look at my delicious page, I notice that I bookmark in spurts. Nothing for a week or two. Then five or six things in the course of a day. I can imagine two explanations.

1. Streaks are statistically inevitable.

2. Some days, I'm more open to ideas.

Either is viable. But let's assume the second hypothesis for a moment. What could I do to make sure I remain more receptive to big ideas a higher percentage of the time? I think the answer is found in a book called The Inner Game of Tennis:

In short, "getting it together" requires slowing the mind. Quieting the mind means less thinking, calculating, judging, worrying, fearing, hoping, trying, regretting, controlling, jittering or distracting. The mind is still when it is totally here and now in perfect oneness with the action and the actor. It is the purpose of the Inner Game to to increase the frequency and duration of these moments, quieting the mind by degrees and realizing thereby a continual expansion of our capacity to learn and perform.

I've never played tennis. But reading The Inner Game of Tennis changed the way I approach sports and work. Half of the game is staying out of your own way.

[Ed. - Crossposted at Ingwalson and Karsh Connect.]

Twitter is screwing up Friendfeed

2009-10-21T00:01:00.000-07:00

On January 4, 2008 I wrote, "Serial online publishers need a great way to aggregate their content into a single news stream." Since then, real-time news streams have cropped up faster than social media gurus at a travel and tourism tradeshow. The recently sold-to-the-man Friendfeed seemed especially promising. I can't tell you how many times I've stared at my Friendfeed page and wished I used the damn thing. But I don't. Here's why.

Ninety-two percent of Friendfeed users post to Twitter way more than any other social network. (I am guessing at that number. But it's definitely really high.) Which means that when viewed in real-time, any given user's Friendfeed page looks like a duplicate of his or her Twitter page.

It's not, of course. If you sift through it there are probably blog posts and YouTube uploads and music links. They're simply lost among the tweets.

Thinking about that made me realize a way in which Twitter is different from every other social website in history. All social media is about conversation. But YouTube, blogs, Flickr, Facebook, Upcoming, Slideshare, delicious and so on all start with shared content. The content starts a conversation. The conversation creates a relationship.

Twitter starts with a conversation. Some people join Twitter, realize they're in the middle of a conversation they don't understand, and eject. That's fine. Hang with the conversation long enough and you start to get actionable intelligence.

But the conversation itself is not fit for a news stream. Because there is no news there. It's just data exchange.

So today I pulled my Twitter feed off my Friendfeed news stream. If everyone in the entire world could follow suit, I would so appreciate it.

[Ed. - Crossposted at Ingwalson and Karsh Connect.]

One of these days I am going to visit London

2009-10-20T08:19:00.000-07:00

What would The Strokes sound like with Ian Curtis behind the mic? Not as cool as you'd think. Nevermind. Editors' campaign for their new album mashes up Google Street View and music to create an amazingly engaging digital experience. Check it out.

[Ed. - h/t Contagious]

Three ways Paranormal Activity is better than that movie about those kids lost in the woods in Maryland

2009-10-13T13:05:00.000-07:00

[Ed. - This post contains spoilers for Paranormal Activity. You've been warned.]

Yes, the recently released Paranormal Activity has a lot in common with The Blair Witch Project, including a found-footage construct, improvised acting, a supernatural villain, and a unique marketing strategy. But in three crucial ways, Paranormal Activity is a far better film.

1. It's not boring: Blair Witch relied so heavily on its construct that it forgot to include any real scares. After 50 minutes of kids walking in circles in the woods, the creeping sense of impending doom was gone. Paranormal Activity, on the other hand, keeps squeezing the noose a bit tighter with every scene.

2. The end isn't a let down: One of my main gripes with Blair Witch is that its climax is even more boring than the rest of the movie. The audience deserves at least one good shot of the witch. Instead, we get someone standing in the corner and a whole lot of dirt floor. Yawn. Paranormal Activity gives us a real climax, and a brief but perfect shot of a shadowy demon made flesh and blood.

It's an example of the hardest type of horror movie to film: In "Final Destination and the importance of insight," I wrote that there are only two horror movies. The most common is called Bad Things Happen Off the Beaten Path. The second is called Sometimes Bad Things Just Happen. For all its innovation, Blair Witch is merely a re-scripting of the former. Kids stray away from society's norms and get punished for it. Paranormal Activity is a different sort of film. Like Halloween or Jaws, it gives us a metaphor for the random, meaningless, real-life evils that are suffered by innocent people in their own homes when they least expect it. This type of horror film is nearly impossible to make. But when it's done well, it always costs you a bit of your sanity.

The bottom line is, I'm never going witch-hunting in Maryland. People who do probably get what they deserve. But I am going to lock my doors, turn out my lights and climb into my bed at night. And if even this conventional, careful life can't keep me safe, what can?

Be part of the really useful crew

2009-10-03T05:53:00.000-07:00

I have created all sorts of funny and interesting stuff for the web. Some of it has been passed around a bit. And some of it has been discovered by exactly nobody, despite my sloppy but diligent efforts at ePR.

Not so long ago my aunt was complaining about Dequervain's Syndrome, which is sort of like tendinitis of the wrist. I had it a few years ago and after wearing a cast for two weeks, getting a shot, having acupuncture, and taking NSAIDs, I discovered a simple exercise that healed me in just a few days. I couldn't explain the exercise to my aunt over the phone, so I shot a video. The video was too big to email so I put it on YouTube and sent her the link.

Three months later, the thing has almost 800 views, several positive discussions and four five-star ratings.

In advertising, we often create content that is immensely strategic, wonderfully creative and flawlessly executed. But if you want to be successful on the social web, being helpful is just way more important.

[Ed. - The title of this post is borrowed from Thomas]

A quick exercise

2009-09-29T22:47:00.000-07:00

Write down the five international agencies you most want to work for. Then go to Creativity's list of the most awarded agencies of 2009. How many agencies were on both lists?

[Ed. - h/t to AdPulp.]

Selling sport: Under Armour, the Colorado Rapids, the USATT, Arena and Nike

2009-09-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

Before I was in advertising, I worked in gyms. Over the course of six years, I worked at the towel desk, at the front desk, in membership sales, and finally as a certified personal trainer. I have a special passion for athletic marketing. And a special frustration when it goes wrong.

Like Under Armor's audacious new line, "Under Armour is Football." I saw the flagship spot during a college football game, and when the game came back on, I couldn't help but notice that both the teams had Nike logos on their jerseys. Ouch.

Or the long-running Colorado Rapids tagline, "Experience The World's Game." Apparently the team hasn't noticed that Americans give absolutely zero weight to global opinion.

Or the United States Table Tennis Association's continued insistence that the best way to increase participation is to point out that table tennis is a game that anyone can play. So they put out publications featuring elderly and disabled athletes and then wonder why young, athletic men and women don't gravitate to the sport.

What do I like? A print ad for Arena swimsuits, which I first saw on the SCAQ blog and have reposted here. You want to be a monster in your next open water race? Wear an Arena suit. Simple. Insightful. Powerful. And so cool.

And at the risk of being obvious, I like Nike. From their relationship with Oregon football to the Live Strong line to Nike+, they have defined the meaning of athletics for two generations of Americans. They're a big brand that is still relevant to the cutting edge. And that's a pretty amazing thing to pull off.

Advertising is like a drug. But better because it doesn't mess up your liver.

2009-09-06T05:52:00.000-07:00

The most interesting thing I've read lately is Wired"s "Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why." In modern double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trials, Big Pharma is getting beaten by sugar pills at an increasing rate. And it's not just new drugs that can't find a way to make the cut.

Some products that have been on the market for decades, like Prozac, are faltering in more recent follow-up tests. In many cases, these are the compounds that, in the late '90s, made Big Pharma more profitable than Big Oil. But if these same drugs were vetted now, the FDA might not approve some of them. Two comprehensive analyses of antidepressant trials have uncovered a dramatic increase in placebo response since the 1980s.

What happened? Wired hypothesizes it's advertising.

Part of the answer may be found in the drug industry's own success in marketing its products. Potential trial volunteers in the US have been deluged with ads for prescription medications since 1997, when the FDA amended its policy on direct-to-consumer advertising. The secret of running an effective campaign, Saatchi & Saatchi's Jim Joseph told a trade journal last year, is associating a particular brand-name medication with other aspects of life that promote peace of mind: "Is it time with your children? Is it a good book curled up on the couch? Is it your favorite television show? Is it a little purple pill that helps you get rid of acid reflux?" By evoking such uplifting associations, researchers say, the ads set up the kind of expectations that induce a formidable placebo response.

Is this an indictment of the pharmaceutical industry or a testament to the power of the mind? Probably both. But mostly, it's a reminder that the ad game is scary powerful and not really a game at all.

If I started calling myself a message director, would that be cool or would people just roll their eyes?

2009-08-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

Copywriters got hosed in the job title department. The word doesn't indicate that we also come up with concepts, cast talent, choose music, direct voiceovers, develop content for multiple media channels, help our partners determine a visual approach, manage junior creatives, present work to our clients, and often even determine strategy.

Decades ago, some designer looked across the table and said, "I'm going to start calling myself an 'art director.'" And his copywriter should have replied, "OK. Then I'm going to start calling myself a 'message director.'" But he didn't. Whoops.

Maybe we ought to correct that mistake. More than ever, copy is the least of a copywriter's problems. Integrated storytelling, with multiple engaging and surprising doorways into a cohesive brand, is our current measure of greatness.

Yes, I still get giddy when I get a brief asking for a 30-second spot. But I get equally giddy when a client says, "We have this much money. How do we use it to maximize our brand across multiple consumer touchpoints?" A copywriter may not have the answer. But a message director certainly would.

[Ed. - This post was inspired by a discussion on the Egotist.]

An addendum to "Talking to a parent who has lost a child"

2009-08-25T23:12:00.000-07:00

I decided to share "Talking to a parent who has lost a child" because I thought it might help those who speak with grieving parents. So I Googled the phrase to see where my post turned up. It landed on the first page of results, next to a post titled, "How to talk to a parent that has lost a child." I clicked through. They say, "All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." I have found evidence that they're wrong. We share more than we think.

Top secret, last-second, surprise extension for Next announced. Gasp.

2009-08-05T13:17:00.000-07:00

Every award show in the history of advertising has extended the entry deadline at the last second. Every speaker at every ad club event goes on 15 minutes late. Ninety percent of creatives can't even make a 9 a.m. meeting on time. So you shouldn't really be surprised by the news that we've extended the entry deadline for Next: A portfolio program from the NDAC. You now have until August 10 to get your application in.

Dare

2009-08-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago, Mark Fenske did something nice for me. I'd just presented an ad to him. He looked at it for a second and then asked me if I wanted to know how to make it better. I said, "Yes." He ripped it up and threw it across the room.

Fenske could have flipped past that ad. He could've shrugged, "It's not my favorite thing in your book." Or changed the subject. "How about them Atlanta Braves?" Instead, he liberated me from my baggage and dared me to dig deeper.

There are some twenty-somethings in Denver who think their student books are swell. There are those who believe that their struggle ended the day they landed their first jobs. And there are a few who are just too lazy or self-absorbed to bother thinking about their careers after the clock strikes 4:20.

I hope they enjoy long and happy careers. I suspect they won't.

If you're in that other category - the category of people who want to create work that knocks people onto the floor through the force of sheer awesomeness - you owe it to yourself to apply for Next, a portfolio program from the New Denver Ad Club. Over the course of eight weeks, you'll get new work for your book and the chance to sit down with people like Norm Shearer, Gregg Bergan, Jonathan Schoenberg and Mike Sukle. (And if you live in Denver and don't know who those people are, your first assignment is to wake up.)

Here's what you need to apply for Next. An NDAC membership and a few samples from your current book.

Here's another thing you need. Courage. The program is only accepting eight writers and eight art directors. So you might not get in and rejection sucks. Or you might get in and sit down in front of one of the aforementioned folks and have to hear them tell you that you need to go back to the drawing board.

That's not criticism. It's an opportunity. One you shouldn't miss. You have 48 hours to get your application in.

Traditional media outlets are faster (but dumber) than bloggers

2009-07-27T22:20:00.000-07:00

A very long time ago, a certain Denver newspaper megacorp decided to launch a little thing called Politics West. The effort centered around the Gang of Four blog, wherein a bunch of professional pundits got yet another platform for their personalities. At the time I was doing a lot of political blogging. And someplace I can no longer locate, I wrote this little rant about the idiocy of the SCLM. It went something like this:

Bloggers are more passionate, more involved and more willing to engage in long conversations than journalists are. The only competitive advantages they have over us are speed and access. In what business model can you make money by ignoring your advantages and instead copying a bunch of activists who are willing to work their butts off for free? The media provide us with fast, accurate information. That's their job. Why won't they do their job?

Which is a roundabout way of linking to a post from Trendsspotting:

Cornell Researchers report that most news flowed from the traditional media to the blogs: The traditional news was found to lead blogs discussions by 2.5 hours on average.

No kidding. The media reports the news. The people converse and decipher meaning. That is the way things ought to work. I think newspapers are failing because they tried to subvert this order, asking citizen journalists to find news items for pundits to discuss.

Gareth Kay will be in Denver tomorrow and at Goodby shortly thereafter

2009-07-22T11:12:00.000-07:00

This Thursday Gareth Kay, best known as head of planning at Modernista!, comes to Denver as a featured speaker in the New Denver Ad Club's Outside Voices series. In very related news, today Gareth announced on Twitter that he is moving to San Francisco to become director of digital strategy at Goodby Silverstein.

The first spot for Next: A Portfolio Program from the New Denver Ad Club

2009-07-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

I am constantly amazed by the generosity, talent and work ethic of the people I meet

2009-07-16T23:12:00.000-07:00

The NDAC is launching a portfolio program. Next. It's targeted at young guns. Copywriters and art directors who want to improve their book and their network. Jennifer Hohn and I volunteered to brand the program. We went through concepts. Laughed a lot. Wrote some scripts. When Brian asked me if I could guarantee that I could get the stuff produced, I said yes. But I was totally lying. I mean, who was going to make our ideas come to life?

I should have had more faith.

Soon Jim Elkin of Roshambo Films was producing and directing our videos for the club's YouTube page. (The first will be posted Monday.) Radical was getting us three great actors and Idolum was donating editing time. (And incidentally, Tom also offered to help out.)

David Mejias was shooting the poster campaign, with XYZ doing the retouching and Tewell Warren printing.

Justin McCammon and Taylor Beseda got all digital on the idea, with elements like the @nextcreatives smackdowns, nextcreatives.com, and a collaboration with Burns on a soon-to-be-released Facebook app.

And Gregg Bergan, Norm Shearer, Mike Sukle and Jonathan Schoenberg offered to donate their time to mold the next generation of Denver creatives.

Every single person I just mentioned has a crazy-stressful job and a loving family and who knows what else might be going on in their lives. But every single one of them believes that Next will help the career of a young creative who is just burning to be great. Every single one of them wants to make Denver a better market. Every single one of them deserves a giant round of applause. This is a good business we're in. And it's filled with good people. Believe it.

Futuristic signs directors

2009-06-25T13:00:00.000-07:00

I'm a fan of DiG! and have been hearing great things about We Live in Public. So when Brian told me Denver's Futuristic Films had signed the films' director, Ondi Timoner, for commercial representation, I got excited. Futuristic confirmed that Timoner has been with them for about four months, and added that they'd also signed Nick Goossen and Jamin Winans. Maybe I am the last person in Denver to hear this news. But it still makes me happy. Now what can I write that I'd absolutely have to have Ondi Timoner for?

Create ads that are brave and wonderful

2009-06-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here are two print campaigns I love. Canadian Club Whiskey from Energy BBDO. And Havaianas ads like this one from AlmapBBDO. On the surface they couldn't be more different. The former campaign is insightful and cool. While the latter is all unmetered joy. But they share one important trait. Courage. I am not sure how Energy BBDO convinced Canadian Club that the key to reaching a new generation was to create an homage to an old one. And I'm not sure how AlmapBBDO sold Havaianas on the idea that cynicism and edge are inferior to happiness and beauty. But they did. Our world, and our industry, is better for it.

The Internet is creepy if you are Big Sports Celebrity. Or anyone.

2009-06-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

Six kids. Seven parents. Dora The Explorer: Live. But this isn't a story about live theater and happy times. It's a story about celebrity and the Internet.

Sitting behind me is Big Sports Celebrity with a child on his lap. But is it really him? It's been several years since Big Sports Celebrity got traded to Opposing Sports Franchise. No time to figure it out. The lights go down. Kids start yelling. Big Sports Celebrity gets forgotten.

At intermission, I use my Blackberry to look up Big Sports Celebrity on Wikipedia. It takes me less than 30 seconds to learn that he has a child. Surprisingly, the entry also includes the child's name and birthday. I tell one of the other dads and he nods. He has already done a Google image search on his iPhone to find a current photo. Yep, it's Big Sports Celebrity alright.

I've written that using a smartphone encourages you to treat information not as something you find, but as something that flows around you. I never thought twice about searching Big Sports Celebrity. But then I looked around me at all the happy kids and realized that if you're famous, the Internet does more than overshare your personal information with the world. It shares the names and ages of your children. And that's creepy.

The most ironic part? We didn't approach Big Sports Celebrity for an autograph because we wanted to respect his privacy. Sheesh.

The difficulty of building a fresh book

2009-06-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

I'm not the only one with questions about how to assemble a quick, cool hybrid digital and print book. Here's a quote from one of my friends, who asked to remain nameless, paraphrased because I didn't have a tape recorder handy:

Agencies keep claiming they want to see books with digital and integrated storytelling. But when I put that stuff in my book, they flip right past it. You shouldn't ask for it if you're not going to take the time to understand it.

ADCD presents Chase Jarvis

2009-06-11T08:18:00.000-07:00

The guy "feels like a crow on most days." And ADCD is having him speak Friday night. Too cool.

More and more conversations over pancakes or sandwiches

2009-06-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

Al, Brian, Brian, Chris, Melissa and Michelle took me up on my offer. Anyone else?

Experiences are your creative equity

2009-06-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Is creativity anything more than taking a given and matching it with something unexpected? Watch this:

It's another example of a Z that can't easily be traced back to a known A. Of thinking that inspires joy, not just because of the content, but because of its unpredictability. I love it. And I was thinking about it when I read Noah Brier's comments on some interesting findings:

"What do artists, poets, and novelists have in common?" Ramachandran asked me. "The propensity to link seemingly unrelated things."

Michael Gruen writes this:

This is also not to say humans are incapable of complex thought, quantum leaps, or extraordinary thinking - I’m only suggesting that those leaps and complexities are based on systems that we know or that we happened upon: our imaginations are limited to our experiences and the patterns we innately understand on circumstance of being human.

Which means that creativity depends - almost to the exclusion of all else - on finding a lot of cool, random, beautiful stuff to put in your brain, so that when someone hands you a problem, you have a deep well to draw from. You take their A and add a Z that no one but you could've possibly seen coming.

Week Without a Browser write-up on the Karsh blog

2009-06-04T05:31:00.000-07:00

On Karsh\Hagan Connect, I write about my week without a browser:

Blame it on the Karsh\Hagan creative brief. It continually reminds me that people today lack patience. When they want information, entertainment and products, they want them now.

In 2009, half of all new connections to the internet will come from a phone. Karsh\Hagan has launched mobile podcasting for one client. And a mobile advertising campaign for another. But to fully understand the possibilities and pitfalls of the location-based, hip-pocket media of the future, I wanted to immerse myself in it. So I deleted my browsers and pledged that for at least a week, I’d access the web entirely through my email application, RSS reader, and mobile device.

Read it all here. There are guest appearances by Kenneth Branagh and the Karsh\Hagan accounting department.

My week without a browser that became three weeks without a browser finally yields an insight

2009-06-02T21:38:00.000-07:00

My ongoing experiment finally turned up a useful observation. My goal was to use only my Blackberry, email app, and RSS reader to access online content. I assumed the experience would teach me something about mobile marketing. But while I did feel an increased a connection to brands that offered mobile sites, like Google and 9NEWS, the most interesting change was the way I managed my life. My desktop email and calendar applications became meaningless when I could manage those functions in real time from my mobile device. So by purposefully eliminating Firefox, I accidentally eliminated Entourage. I'm not sure if it's fair to extrapolate my experience to the general population, but think about this: If more people start using their mobile device as their primary means of retrieving email, email marketing that contains lots of links, offers and products will become pretty annoying. Short emails with a simple coupon for one targeted offer would be a whole lot better.

The secret to being inspired is to have pancakes. A lot.

2009-05-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

The daily news seems oppressively crappy. And my life hasn't been any better. So at least once a week, I've been eating breakfast (or the occasional lunch) with someone who gets me excited to head into the office. Here's a public thank you to people like Peter, Gregg, Geoff, Lauren, Jaxon, Steve and Greg. Not to mention a few college students who were naive enough to think I was doing them a favor when we met, when in fact they were the ones inspiring me. Thank you all. If anybody else has something awesome or interesting - and hopefully both - to say to me over eggs and coffee, write me an email.

ADCD present Adult Swim

2009-05-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

Lars Bastholm, Ogilvy's Chief Digital Creative Officer, injured his back and had to cancel his trip to Denver to speak in the New Denver Ad Club's Outside Voices series. But it's not like anyone is going to go into ad club withdrawal anytime soon. On Thursday, the ADCD will host Creative Director Jacob Escobedo and "Bump Man" Michael Cahill of Adult Swim. You can get details and tickets on Upcoming. And on Friday, the NDAC brings you Connect 2009.

Week without a browser extended due to id10t error

2009-05-09T11:51:00.000-07:00

When I decided to try to live for a week without a desktop browser, I expected a learning curve. What sites could I access with my mobile device? What blogs could I follow through my RSS reader? But I didn't anticipate the learning curve that came with the device itself. It took me a couple days to realize my secondhand Blackberry didn't come with a media card. And they don't make it easy for Mac users to update their system software. So I am extending the experience for another week. Maybe by next Friday I'll have something interesting to say about the mobile web. Or not.

Me without a browser

2009-05-03T17:25:00.000-07:00

It's too easy to say that mobile is the future of digital. It's harder to live it yourself. But immersion is the best way to learn anything. I have a hand me down Blackberry, with Twitterberry and GPS. And I'm going to use it for the next five days for everything I would usually use a browser for. Including typing this post. Web 2.0, meet what's next.

Talking to a parent who has lost a child

2009-04-23T23:16:00.000-07:00

It's a compulsion. Humans feel like they have to say something empathetic and even healing. We mean well. But what can you possibly say to a parent who has lost a child? Here are a few things I hope I never hear again.

"How are you doing?" The real answer is usually depressing, sometimes scary, and always several minutes long. It also changes by the moment. So you're forcing me to either lie to you or begin an interminable and miserable monologue. Either way, everyone is about to feel a lot worse.

Any iteration of "getting through it." "Are you getting through it?" "You'll get through it." "You and your wife will get through it together." Losing a child isn't like catching the flu. It's more like being in a horrible disfiguring car crash. You don't get through it; you learn to carry it along with you.

"I know what you're going through because I had a miscarriage." I am sure miscarriages are traumatic, tragic events. So is watching a child you have nurtured and fed and grown to love die in your arms. One experience doesn't teach you much about the other.

"I think about you constantly." Parents who have lost a child have a surplus of guilt running around in their bloodstream. We feel guilty for being unable to protect our children, for living on after they die, for forcing them through medical procedures that prolonged their suffering, and for having them in the first place. If you say something that sounds like, "You made me miserable too," you're asking for it.

"You're so strong. I can't believe how well you're holding up." There are two options here. Either the parent really is doing well, and you've made him or her feel like an amoral monster. Or the parent is working hard to hide enormous amounts of pain, and probably doesn't want a compliment on his or her acting ability.

"Your babies are with God now." At this point, the devout are either questioning God's existence or hating Him outright. And the atheists are either questioning God's nonexistence or hating the fact they'll never see their babies again. Your opinion on the afterlife is meaningless and presumptuous and sort of offensive. I don't want my babies to be with God. I want them back here with me.

"That really puts things in perspective." Volunteering at a soup kitchen puts things in perspective. Watching a child die takes the natural order of the universe, crumples it up, and spits on it.

"Let me know how I can help." A parent who has lost a child is unlikely to have the time or energy to create to-do lists for you. Much better is the person who calls and states, "I am bringing you dinner on Wednesday, so don't cook anything. If you forget, that's cool, because I'll make something freezable." The first person created a hassle. The second person solved one.

What else can you say? For me, "I'm sorry" works well. It's simple. It's sympathetic. And best of all, it's true. If you feel that's not enough, try adding extra words. Like, "I am so very sorry for your loss."

And if you can, add "I love you." Love is more important and powerful than most people suspect. It won't bring back my girls, but it makes life without them a bit less meaningless.

[Ed. - This is one of several posts about death that I've written over the past six months. Some of them, like "Life in twilight" and "Swimming with shadows," have been published here. Others will probably leak out over the next year or so. Others will probably never see the light of day. I hope someone finds something useful.]

New stuff for American Crew

2009-04-18T12:49:00.000-07:00

Karsh & Hagan's new book for American Crew, Where There's Man There's Crew, was just published. Dave was the art director. Holly, Justin and I all got writer credits. The book was shot by David Raccuglia in Los Angeles, Chicago and Denver.

The new American Crew website is just about done, too, but most of the new content and design is for-stylists-only. Karsh & Hagan and FL-2 worked together to create it.

Denver Broncos use blog to discuss Cutler trade

2009-04-02T22:23:00.000-07:00

I've expressed my admiration of the Broncos blog. And my disappointment in seeing our star quarterback demand a trade. Both those sentiments are doubly true today. Cutler was traded to the Chicago Bears. And the Broncos immediately gave their fans a open forum to vent their frustrations or express their excitement. Well done, team.