whizdumb

Thick pen for a clear mind

Little trick:  Use a thicker pen when writing.  You'll have less room for word length and word count.  It will force you to be brief and cut out words. 

Wait, let me try that again.

Little trick:  Thicker pen.  Less room for words long and plenty.  Forces brevity.

Ah, there we go.

Drifting Dove

Like nearly everyone else, I loved the Dove Evolution spot for its strategic bravado and clever execution.  Now Dove has an anti-aging product called pro-age.  They're even showing focus group clips of the polarizing reaction consumers had to the spot, and they've titled the segment "The Debate Begins".  Most planners will agree that the best creative has a polarizing reaction.  To be neither loved nor hated by anyone is an express train to Blandville.  But I'm not sure many planners have recommended showing the actual consumer clips on the brand's website.  But in this case it actually works.  Dove continues to break new ground. 

Which is exactly why I was so disappointed by Dove's attempt to ride the consumer generated content wave with this dozer.  What went wrong?  All the consumer creativity Dove could source resulted in a spot that takes their campaign progress back to the CPG dark ages.  And the production looks like an in-house videomatic a creative intern shot on a Wednesday night.  Yuk.  It makes the so-so $12 consumer created Doritos Super Bowl ad look like a Clio contender.

Small light in a dark place

I haven't posted in a while because I lost someone close to me and it has seemed trivial to write posts about advertising, marketing and other ultimately meaningless things.

What happened is that my wife's sister passed away unexpectedly at 27 years old. I'm not interested in going on about this loss but I thought I would share one small thing. One night as I was awake, late, I was wondeirng what to say to provide the best support for my wife. Searching for some words to give her a tiny bit of solace in her grief.

I remembered that my friend Erin shared with me the site justcurio.us, a place to answer and ask questions anonymously. I created a question and within a handful of minutes the responses came in. Heartfelt, helpful responses from around the globe. No screen names, no email addresses, no ties. Just a few common words of wisdom from far flung strangers. It helped me and it helped her. So thanks.

Contain yourself

When I saw this it really resonated. It's not just that it's a clever way of talking about sustainability, it's that it kind of demonstrates how the dialogue in Europe is so far ahead of what it is here.

In the US we're just starting to inch toward a consensus that yes, climate change is human caused. So much delay in fact, that we are possibly heading for a tipping point of the worst kind. The UN's report talks about it in uncharacteristically alarmist terms.

Anyway, my point is not to depress you but rather to say 'yes' to work like this that seeks to entertain rather than simply shock - or better still, to do both.

Thanks to Craig for forwarding.

Cuppa joe?

Russell started it with Coffee Mornings. Then came likemind. Paul and I have been waffling around on the idea for awhile and we just agreed it's time to get going.

So, in keeping the caffienated spirit alive, it's high time for the like minded in the Denver area to have our own coffee morning. This inaugural cuppa joe will happen Thursday, Feb. 8 from 7:00am-8:30am at Mojo which is at 650 S. Wadsworth, just south of Belmar, a couple doors down from Blockbuster.

There is no agenda whatsoever.

Bring yourself. Bring a likemind. See you there!

Guerilla scare

The folks over at Adult Swim promoted their show by pasting a bunch of these LED-lit versions of the character Err around Boston and nine other cities (the show's website describes Err as one who "may come across as angry and rebellious to some.  But everything he says and does is right.")

A couple artists got arrested for installing them.  They said they worked for the NY based guerilla agency Interference. I found this interview with Sam Ewen, Interference CEO, from 2001.  He talks about other stunts that have gone wrong.

There's a YouTube video of the installation.

And apparently Duracell batteries truly are Trusted Everywhere.

I can only hope that one day a piece of marketing that I've worked on ends up being labeled as a 'suspicious device' and gets blown up by a bomb squad.