For the Reading Averse

It’s been a blog-less week thus far do to a shortened work week, followed by an off-site staff meeting, all while trying to finish up one of favorite projects ever as well as all the design work for June. I don’t have time to get into why I’m doing all my June work in a 3 day work week, but I will later. How’s that for blog bait?

At any rate, since I haven’t had time to write much, I figured I’d give you something to watch to hold you over until the weekend. Unless you live in the woods or you’ve been in Panama on vacation, you’ve probably seen the new Apple/Coldplay commercial… which has quickly risen in the ranks to one of my all-time favorite commercials, if for nothing else that it being pure eye-candy. Plus, it features the song I talked about here - a deadly one/two punch. Watch in now… then wipe the drool off your shirt.

And after seeing that, it made me think of 2 other commercials I’ve seen recently that have cemented my faith in the beauty of creativity and execution, both in very different ways.

Honda filmed this commercial with no computer animation. It took them over 600 attempts over several weeks. Physics has never looked so good.

and in a follow-up to my favorite commercial of all-time (this actually may be a spin-off… I’m a little unsure of the terminology here…) Sony delivers another surreal ad for Japanese electronics that makes me want to simultaneously love life and buy a camera.

Obama-rama and the Cobra Nation

I haven’t made my decision yet for who I’m going to vote for come November, but I do know one thing - if Barack Obama doesn’t win the presidency, he should go into marketing. As someone who went to school for it, I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on good marketing and creative strategies - and as I’ve said before, if you can’t sell yourself, you shouldn’t sell anything. And never before have I seen a candidate on any level market themselves so elegantly, thoroughly and cohesively, operating almost like a high-end consumer brand. Even his logo blazes new trails in campaign design - his ‘O’ logo is the Nike Swoosh of American politics.

And whether or not Obama himself is actually coming up with his own marketing tactics, he also is at the top of his class with guerrilla campaign advertising. Now I’m not talking about “reaching out to the kids” by making an appearance on the Daily Show or bantering with David Letterman or showing up on SNL for some self-inflicted humor. These are all great, but they are all first person. The real strength of this new marketing comes not from you directly, but from those who support you. And its working for Obama primarily for this reason: he’s been able to get people with voices in the creative community to not only rally around him, but use their talents to further his cause. And no, I’m not talking about Obama Girl.

Case in point - Designer Shepherd Fairey of OBEY/Giant fame recently designed a limited edition poster for Obama, that sold so well that it’s currently out of stock in the Obama online store and is selling on e-bay for rockstar prices.

Fairey is leading the way for a whole design community, bent on creating new and compelling Obama imagery ranging from posters to t-shirts to buttons…



Major League Baseball even had to get involved by shutting down a designer who was selling Obama t-shirts designed after baseball team logos.

Follow all of that with a music video based solely on an Obama speech, and crammed with celebrities ranging from Scarlett Johansson to Herbie Hancock to Kareem Adbul-Jabbar, helmed by artist will.i.am, and the case can be made that Obama has become a larger-than-life figure and leader for young Americans who turn to MTV more than CNN.

And for the icing on the cake, how do you know when you’ve made it? When someone takes the time to craft a well orchestrated spoof of said well-known music video (caution sharp blog subject turn ahead…)

I present to you Cobra Nation.

That’s right folks - GI Joe is back. And better than ever. And they’re harnessing all the new media outlets. You can even follow Cobra Commander and General Hawk on Twitter. And their new rise will culminate in 2009 with the release of their new, live action movie. Let’s hope it’s more like this, and less like this.

In a related story, my boss recently captured a Cobra snake who had been taking refuge in his home. Read about it here.

Water Water Everywhere

I’ve never been accused of being overly environmental - if I ever buy a hybrid, it’ll be for the gas mileage, not the carbon footprint. However I do care about Africa, and the poverty, disease and injustice there. It’s one of the reasons I support causes like DATA, Compassion International and Save Darfur. But if you can’t give people water first, then all the other stuff sort of becomes irrelevant. Which is where my concern for Africa overlaps an environmental issue. One in five people in the world do not have safe drinking water. That’s over a billion people. That’s a lot. And many of the worlds diseases are waterborne illnesses. Diseases like typhoid, dysentery, salmonella, diphtheria, E. coli, or cholera - you know, the good stuff. But how do you fix water? It’s not like you can just put money into until it cleans itself.

But I recently heard about two things currently being developed that would radically change the way the world sees its water.

The LifeStraw®

A personal water filter that lasts for a year, kills 99% of bacteria, and only costs $3 - or the amount you spent on coffee this morning. The mind-blow to this is that most of the people who could use this, can’t afford it.

The Slingshot

Dean Kamen, the guy who invented the Segway, is putting his smarts to more noble causes this days, as he develops a new water purifier (or a vapor compression distiller for people with big brains…) called the Slingshot that could purify over 1000 liters of water in a day and in turn wipe out 50% of the world’s disease. Pretty amazing stuff. Colbert interviewed him a few weeks back. Check it out here.

Neither one of these is ready for mass production, but does provide some sweet hope for the future. That’s all for the this public service announcement - we now join your regularly scheduled blogging currently in progress.

A Week For My Ladies

Beginning last Saturday, this has been a big week for two of the most important ladies in my life. First off, my hot lady graduated from Winthrop last week - welcome to the real world… they won’t know what hit them. I’m pretty stinkin’ proud of her. She worked hard and she’s gonna do great things. Plus, she can make even that graduation smock look good. Foxy and smart. Lethal.

then, yesterday my little baby sister turned 16… making me feel officially old as dirt. Newer dirt, but dirt nonetheless. And that’s right math nerds - she turned 16 on the 16th… that a freakin’ mega birthday of historic proportions. A Super Sweet Golden 16th Birthday. She’s taking off for NYC with mom, Katie and Gramma next week to go see Phantom of the Opera. I know, it sounds more like a school field trip than a vacation, but thats how she rolls. And she’s awesome. Happy 16th Birthday Clair Bear.

A Free & United Hillsong

Hillsong United, quite possibly the standard for praise & worship music, is releasing a documentary called The I Heart Revolution: We’re All In This Together. And this weekend Relevant Magazine is streaming a large chunk of it off of their website. Block off about 44 minutes between cutting the grass and that hammock nap and watch it. Quality stuff.

Meanwhile, In Florida…

First off, if you’re from Florida, don’t take this personally.  It’s not you.  It’s your state.  Moving on.

There are so many reasons I could go into about why Florida has no business being in the south - the lack of of culture, the whole hurricane thing, no real BBQ, I’m pretty sure they don’t like sweet tea and I don’t even think they fought with the confederacy. I could be wrong there, but we’ll say I’m right for now. And not to mention the fact that its basically where America goes to die.

And now this.

The North Lauderdale commissioner’s office recently passed a resolution attempting to split Florida into two states. Thats right, good old South Florida - the 51st state.

And then there’s the guy who’s inexplicably building an ark by the interstate. Seriously. I can’t make stuff like this up.

I’ll take Skynyrd and Tom Petty. You can have the rest. I’m secretly hoping the thing breaks off and drifts into the Caribbean.

Viva La Coldplay

a couple weeks ago, Coldplay made some waves by not only releasing “Violet Hill”, the first single off of their upcoming album “Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends,” but made it a free download on their website for a week. So being the cheapskate that I am, I took the bait.

“Violet Hill” marks a new darker and more experimental sound for Coldplay. The call-to-arms drums, the siren-like wails of the guitar, Chris Martin’s determined and driven vocals are all new territory for a band whose previous work had all the makings of make-outs, break-ups and coming-of-age anthems (please see: “Sparks,” “The Scientist” and “Fix You” for further explanation…). Now don’t worry, there are still some of the same Coldplay fingerprints - signature piano work, a little falsetto here and there, and the smooth-but-careful-to-not-be-too-slick production quality - but the new musical strides are pleasingly hard to miss.

Then, a few days later, they released “Viva La Vida” as a free download to those who pre-ordered the CD… or those who could upload it to YouTube and let everyone else hear it. So here it is:

This one sounds a little more like the Coldplay we’re all used to, but still progressive nonetheless (credit super-producer Brian Eno for taking their sound the next level). This one lacks the aggression of “Violet Hill” but makes up for it with string swells and big timpani drums laying the backbone for an arena-sized chorus about choirs, bells and missionaries. Epic enough. The full album comes out June 12, but overall these are great first singles and a solid new step for Apple’s dad and the boys.

EDIT: So YouTube got wind of the fact that “Viva La Vida” was being streamed from their site, and pulled them down today.  Bummer.  I guess you gotta go pre-order the CD now.

All The Small Things, Part C.

The finale.

If you’re lost, scroll down.  If you’re lazy, click here.  Then go for a jog.  You bum.

- Chick-fil-a’s Face to Face Ordering. So its no secret that I’m biased here, but the other day I was introduced to just one more reason to never want fast food from anywhere else.  When I pulled up into the drive thru line, there were several employees standing in the parking lot, with laminated menus, hand sanitizer wipes and radios.  They were greeting customers, taking orders and removing any variable of ordering frustration.  It had nothing to do with the food - which they’ve seemingly perfected - but had everything to do with the experience.  All three of these examples had to do with adding value to the customer experience, giving me a reason outside of the product or service to remember them, tell everyone else about them, and use them again. It’s given me a new perspective on living as well - what are the little things I can do outside of what I’m supposed to do, to make an impact or more importantly, give other a reason to remember who I represent.

And for putting up with this weeks different sort of blog posts, here’s a little throwback for you. You’re such a trooper.

All The Small Things, Part B.

Round 2. Go.

- Branders.com Customer Service. Not long ago, I was cruising the information super highway, looking for some pens we could engrave with a logo.  I came across Branders.com who had a redonkulous selection of not only pens, but every other thing you could think to plaster a logo on - bags, fans, baseballs, aprons, fondue sets, stud detectors, and the like.  So I figured a place with this much stuff would be very much just a one-stop-shop machine - rolling though customer orders, printing logos on anything with a distinguishable surface and shipping it out.  But less than 7 minutes after registering for an account so I could be preview my logo on items in their easy-to-use product quote section, I received a phone call from my personal rep, asking me if I had any questions, asking about why I needed what I needed to make sure that it was the best selection for me, and asking me what else she could help me with - never trying to pressure me into even ordering with them, let alone trying to get me to upgrade my product.  It left me with a great first impression and the comfort having a real person to go with a faceless, and potentially overwhelming website.  Needless to say, I order from them again yesterday - Elevation dog sweaters.  Not really.  But I could if I wanted to.

All The Small Things, Part A.

We just got done with a series at church called “Small is the New Big” about the little things in our lives that make a big impact. And its a pretty difficult idea for an ADD person like me to grasp, because my natural inclination is to see the big picture, the finished product, the forest from the trees, whatever you want to call it. I call it my excuse for never paying enough attention to the details. This is the main reason I’m a terrible cook. And a terrible splinter-taker-outer. But what champions of the “big picture” like me tend to forget is that its the details that separate the good from the great and the usual from the memorable. So I’ve been making a conscious effort to look for the little things that I see others doing, whether its people, companies, restaurants, whatever, and the bigger impression they leave. Here’s the first (in a three part series - hows that for whetting your appetite…)

- Lake Park Family Practice. I’ll start here, because this would be the one where people could have the best arugement that only small companies have time to focus on the small things. I’m not sure exactly how many patients they have here, so it may not be as small as I think. Either way, when I had my death plague sinus infection a few months back, I finally broke down and went to the doctor a block from our office. It was clean and the people were nice. Both things you hope for from a doctor’s office. And I didn’t have to wait that long - triple whammy. But it wasn’t until the next morning that I realized the real attention paid to patient care - when I received a phone call from the same doctor I had seen the day before - not even the receptionist - asking me if got my prescriptions filled and if I was feeling any better. Maybe this is common practice - I don’t go to the doctor enough to know - but it was this 1 minute phone call that sold me. Not to mention the hand written card I got from the same doctor a week or two later, thanking me for my visit. And now, even if one day our offices move - you can bet dollars to pesos that I’m going to make the hour-ish drive from Rock Hill up Lake Park to get better.