features a Leslie-Caron-esque gamine of a dreamer getting downright surreal at General Motors' Motorama and Frigidaire's "Kitchen of the Future." Download or streaming video. The dance sequences alone are worth the click through.
Via BoingBoing,
Friday, June 03, 2005
Populuxe advertising at its zenith: 1956
This incredible nine-minute short film
features a Leslie-Caron-esque gamine of a dreamer getting downright surreal at General Motors' Motorama and Frigidaire's "Kitchen of the Future." Download or streaming video. The dance sequences alone are worth the click through.
Via BoingBoing,
features a Leslie-Caron-esque gamine of a dreamer getting downright surreal at General Motors' Motorama and Frigidaire's "Kitchen of the Future." Download or streaming video. The dance sequences alone are worth the click through.
Via BoingBoing,
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Don't trust? Take a whiff of this.
From today's Washington Post. Also reported on NPR.
Hormone Spray Is Found To Bolster Trust in Others
Scientists have found the chemical equivalent of the perfect sales pitch: a hormone that makes us more trusting than we normally are.
Volunteers in a study were told they were participating in a decision-making experiment. Those who inhaled the hormone, which occurs naturally in the brain, were more likely to entrust others with large sums of money than were volunteers who inhaled no hormone.
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Philosophy
We are pregnant with website and due any day now. It will have a "Philosophy" section as follows:
At Cambium Creative, we're committed to being committed. We’re not interested in getting by or making do, but in working with passion. Working with passion is more than self-satisfaction, because passion inevitably shows in the quality of the work.
Integrity is non-negotiable in matters large and small.
We are committed to creating a culture that nurtures growth of all kinds in a climate of mutual respect and tolerance. While money can be made without compassion and humor, a good life cannot. Our goal is to make Cambium Creative a joyful enterprise for everyone connected to it.
When we accept a client, we are being entrusted with nurturing someone else’s dream. This is no small matter. Unless their challenges become our own, and their success every bit as important as our own, we will have failed. As humans, we will have failures, but on this point, we will consistently excel.
And finally, may we always remember that bottom lines are not numbers, but people.
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Chief Among Them
Today's New York Times (registration required) has an article about the latest fashion in job titles. Falling out of favor is that old chestnut, vice president. It's no longer happening to be a partner. Director? That's so first quarter. To really display alpha dog status, one must now be chief.
When we started Cambium Creative, Jon and I decided to be partners first, art director and writer, second. How pedestrian of us. We should have been chiefs. In fact, it's not too late. In lieu of giving ourselves raises, we could just give ourselves multiple chiefdoms.
I think we're missing the boat, however, if we don't get a bit colorful with it. Shouldn't we give a nod to the tribal origins of the title? As long as we're inflating, let's go Fredericks-of-Hollywood inflated.
I could be Chief Runs-With-Pencils and Chief Blog-A-Lot. Jonathan could be Chief Paints-With-Running-Nose-Whiskers and Chief Web-He-Weaves.
What about Chief Run-Amok? We could run out of room on the business card.
When we started Cambium Creative, Jon and I decided to be partners first, art director and writer, second. How pedestrian of us. We should have been chiefs. In fact, it's not too late. In lieu of giving ourselves raises, we could just give ourselves multiple chiefdoms.
I think we're missing the boat, however, if we don't get a bit colorful with it. Shouldn't we give a nod to the tribal origins of the title? As long as we're inflating, let's go Fredericks-of-Hollywood inflated.
I could be Chief Runs-With-Pencils and Chief Blog-A-Lot. Jonathan could be Chief Paints-With-Running-Nose-Whiskers and Chief Web-He-Weaves.
What about Chief Run-Amok? We could run out of room on the business card.
Here's what vice-presidents look like when they don't get made chief-anything. It's enough to break your heart.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Slick as snot marketing got you down? Clear the air with Charisma!
I just discovered Michael D. Pollock's smallbusinessbranding.com.
Targeted at what he calls the "solopreneur," it's a wonderful collection of thoughts and insights celebrating the oh- boy-howdiness of a well-conceived tiny business.
Our world views would play nicely together during circle time. The link above travels to a well-researched riff deconstructing the vagaries of charm and charisma along with some pointers on cultivating your particular own brand of it.
One of life's little thrills is happening upon a like mind. Michael's article about charisma echoed a refrain or two from my one of my recent diatribes, "I am not, nor will I ever be, Rumplestiltskin."
In short, it's a call to drop the business guise in favor of the truth. The authentic self is inherently more attractive, rewarding, and just plain useful, than even your most brilliantly conceived made-for-tv-movie of you. Yes. Even in business that concerns important people in positions of authority. Even then. Maybe even especially then.
Since I've been writing this blog, I've spent a lot of time with other people's bloggy thoughts. And I gotta tell you, the emerging picture is pleasingly refreshing. Cutthroat, big-agency, killer-instinct creative-types have stopped their slouch toward Bethlehem, performed a bit of personal feng shui, and gotten down to the bones of what matters. The cynicism that for so long masqueraded as weary wisdom has been rejected. It's no longer cool to be cool in the cold old way.
Every tectonic upheaval has to begin somewhere. Just like a few of these well-spoken visionaries hunkered over keyboards, dressed for success in varying stages of dishevelment, tapping out the manifestos of a revolution where no guns are fired, but heads will roll because, as karma reminds us, what goes around, comes around.
In a related note, I've been having a weird, deja-vu-ish feeling lately. It's been pleasant in a quiet way, reminding me of the smell of sugar cookies from my granny's kitchen. I've had the hardest time nailing it down.
But I've finally figured it out. It's hope. Now, that's a revolution in the making.
Targeted at what he calls the "solopreneur," it's a wonderful collection of thoughts and insights celebrating the oh- boy-howdiness of a well-conceived tiny business.
Our world views would play nicely together during circle time. The link above travels to a well-researched riff deconstructing the vagaries of charm and charisma along with some pointers on cultivating your particular own brand of it.
One of life's little thrills is happening upon a like mind. Michael's article about charisma echoed a refrain or two from my one of my recent diatribes, "I am not, nor will I ever be, Rumplestiltskin."
In short, it's a call to drop the business guise in favor of the truth. The authentic self is inherently more attractive, rewarding, and just plain useful, than even your most brilliantly conceived made-for-tv-movie of you. Yes. Even in business that concerns important people in positions of authority. Even then. Maybe even especially then.
Since I've been writing this blog, I've spent a lot of time with other people's bloggy thoughts. And I gotta tell you, the emerging picture is pleasingly refreshing. Cutthroat, big-agency, killer-instinct creative-types have stopped their slouch toward Bethlehem, performed a bit of personal feng shui, and gotten down to the bones of what matters. The cynicism that for so long masqueraded as weary wisdom has been rejected. It's no longer cool to be cool in the cold old way.
Every tectonic upheaval has to begin somewhere. Just like a few of these well-spoken visionaries hunkered over keyboards, dressed for success in varying stages of dishevelment, tapping out the manifestos of a revolution where no guns are fired, but heads will roll because, as karma reminds us, what goes around, comes around.
In a related note, I've been having a weird, deja-vu-ish feeling lately. It's been pleasant in a quiet way, reminding me of the smell of sugar cookies from my granny's kitchen. I've had the hardest time nailing it down.
But I've finally figured it out. It's hope. Now, that's a revolution in the making.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
After much gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair
A few days ago, I posted a diatribe on writing the proper business bio. It's a subject about which I have strong opinions, well-justified by fact, reason, taste and refined sensibilities. That set me up for a difficult conundrum, however, because my very next task was to write my own bio for our forthcoming website. Any criticism is genuinely welcomed.
Jill is creative because, well, frankly, she has no choice in the matter. She would starve in a world where linear thinking and quantifying standard deviations were the coin of the realm. Luckily, the world needs creative thinkers, because like we said, the girl would go hungry.
Following an early and abiding love, Jill earned a degree in horticulture. She followed an equally abiding love with a degree in Literature and Language. Together, they prepared her to use her way with words for the advancement of a free and enlightened society. If you hear of anything, let her know.
In the meantime, Jill cut her teeth at Brighton Agency, applying her botanical background to promote the wholesale slaughter of roaches, mole crickets, fire ants, white flies and other maladies. Agricultural accounts followed, mixed with work for Saint Louis Art Fair, KWMU Radio, Sofa & Chair Company and others. After a sojourn of dedicated agricultural work at Osborn & Barr, Jill learned the weirdly effective science of direct marketing at Dimac, working on accounts like NationsBank and American Family Insurance. She later became creative director at a small, now-defunct agency, twofortysevendirect, specializing in letter packages selling auto insurance and home equity loans.
Prior to forming Cambium Creative with Jonathan Lehmann, Jill headed up Words That Work. In addition to performing some pyrotechnic copywriting in which no one was harmed, Jill followed her passion by helping develop a series of community outreach programs with Deb Shurn at Marketing Works that culminated in the passage of a measure that created the first-ever dedicated children’s services fund for the City of St. Louis.
Her client roster at Words That Work included her old friends at Monsanto, St. Louis Mental Health Board of Trustees, New Mississippi River Bridge Project and United States Centers for Disease Control (via Marketing Works, Inc.), Mallinckrodt Medical and Star Manufacturing with Stobie Group, among others.
An accomplished strategic thinker, Jill is comfortable with words in whatever form they take. Her expertise runs the gamut from print, web and broadcast advertising, strategic market planning, branding, public relations, and everything in between.
She has won many awards (or, as this week's bfd insists, the companies for whom she worked have won many awards for work she performed when in their employ), but not for her best work. If you ever want to hear a passionate little diatribe, just say "Account Executive Portfolio" in her presence. She's like Pavlov's copywriter.
Call Jill today at 314.983.0048 or 314.732.5715. or e-mail draperj@cambiumcreative.com.
Smoke signals, morse code and communications via avian couriers will be answered within the fortnight.
On Naked Cows, French Kissing, Passion and the Suchness of Nurturance, Excitement & Experience
The picture above is aprapos of nothing. In our business, it's called borrowed interest. We're hoping our readers see the big breasted cow and stay long enough to read this stuff. It's not a great technique, but it has its place.
Jonathan came over tonight and we were talking about what we want to say on our website about our philosophy. Following is a somewhat disjointed, stream-of-consciousness account of our discussion.
Do good work. Have happy clients.
Well, yeah. What else?
What about the passion we bring to it? The others will politely peck you, we will look into your lipid pools and kiss deeeeply, with Parisian passionnnnnnnn, oo oo la la.
Gotta have the passion. We don't want this second act to be like the first. Put out to pasture and become one of the bottom feeders? No thank you. The world is ripe for new thinking. We're ripe for it, too. Shakespeare said "Ripeness is all."
Circular thinking follows. How about a foundation of red-hot enthusiasm? A suchness of love and nurturance and excitement and experience. An experiment only we can perform? An experiment of the Jon and Jill Show--the Jew and the Gentile Making Peace in the Middle West. Sow passion. Reap [to be announced]
Blogging a brain storm. Yes it can be done.
Watch this space for further developments.
Monday, May 23, 2005
It takes someone who's driven the herd to market to know how to deliver the beef
The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Big agencies are going the way of the dinosaur and it isn't pretty. Lots of good people are out on the street with nothing more than a book and a big mortgage to keep them company.
But why are these behemoths dying so rapidly? They may well have outlived their usefulness. Part of it has to be karma coming back to bite them in the butt. Huge agecies used cutthroat HR practices that discriminated against seasoned pros in favor of $30K kids loaded with ambition and potential. Don't get me wrong, We need these kids like fresh air, but the lack of loyalty to more senior employees* is coming back like Marley's ghost. Frankly, it takes someone who's driven the herd to market to know how to deliver the beef. Experienced matters. It just does and that is fact.
The very people they "right-sized," ahem, have gone out on their own. Because it doesn't take $150 or $200 an hour if you don't have marble lobbies and Serra sculptures, clients get top-drawer creative thinking without the big agency runaround. They like it. It works for them.
Small outfits can be nimble in ways a behemoth never could. We can beat the clock and beat the competition, and tailor the message like a glove, because we know what we're about. In brain chemistry, neural pathways are developed that create a kind of shorthand that takes years to acquire. By the same token, if a project needs entirely new ground, we plumb those depths without breaking a sweat. (Okay, that's a lie. We do sweat. It's hard work to do it well..)
The term "relationship marketing" has become a tired old warhorse, bandied about cynically until it's become meaningless and hackneyed . But that's what we do. We nurture relationships between companies and users, with open dialogue, and interesting personalities at every turn.
It's the only way to do business, or life, for that matter.
*The pall of seniority can descend even in the mid-thirties, and is firmly in place after 40. At 50 and 60 and 70? I've witnessed the subtle lack of visibility that comes with age, and have seen some very intelligent people be patronized like team mascots..
But why are these behemoths dying so rapidly? They may well have outlived their usefulness. Part of it has to be karma coming back to bite them in the butt. Huge agecies used cutthroat HR practices that discriminated against seasoned pros in favor of $30K kids loaded with ambition and potential. Don't get me wrong, We need these kids like fresh air, but the lack of loyalty to more senior employees* is coming back like Marley's ghost. Frankly, it takes someone who's driven the herd to market to know how to deliver the beef. Experienced matters. It just does and that is fact.
The very people they "right-sized," ahem, have gone out on their own. Because it doesn't take $150 or $200 an hour if you don't have marble lobbies and Serra sculptures, clients get top-drawer creative thinking without the big agency runaround. They like it. It works for them.
Small outfits can be nimble in ways a behemoth never could. We can beat the clock and beat the competition, and tailor the message like a glove, because we know what we're about. In brain chemistry, neural pathways are developed that create a kind of shorthand that takes years to acquire. By the same token, if a project needs entirely new ground, we plumb those depths without breaking a sweat. (Okay, that's a lie. We do sweat. It's hard work to do it well..)
The term "relationship marketing" has become a tired old warhorse, bandied about cynically until it's become meaningless and hackneyed . But that's what we do. We nurture relationships between companies and users, with open dialogue, and interesting personalities at every turn.
It's the only way to do business, or life, for that matter.
*The pall of seniority can descend even in the mid-thirties, and is firmly in place after 40. At 50 and 60 and 70? I've witnessed the subtle lack of visibility that comes with age, and have seen some very intelligent people be patronized like team mascots..
Tone it up
The most stifling voice against creativity can be your own. How many times have you censored yourself, talked yourself out of taking a risk, gone the safe way?
P.S. Remember, every time I say you, I mean me, too, probably loudest of all.
Hugh Macleod tells a wonderful story:
This story doesn't just happen in advertising. It happens everywhere.One fine day a Creative Director kindly agreed for me to come show him my portfolio. Hooray!
So I came to his office and showed him my work. My work was bloody awful. All of it.
Imagine the worst, cheesiest "I used to wash with Sudso but now I wash with Lemon-Fresh Rinso Extreme" vapid housewife crap. Only far worse than that.
The CD was a nice guy. You could tell he didn't think much of my work, though he was far too polite to blurt it out. Finally he quietly confessed that it wasn't doing much for him.
"Well, the target market are middle class houswives," I rambled. "They're quite conservative, so I thought I'd better tone it down..."
"You can tone it down once you've gotten the job and once the client comes after your ass with a red hot poker and tells you to tone it down," he laughed. "Till then, show me the toned-up version."
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Don't Boil the Ocean, Woot for Vocabularians
I love language. I love to paint with it. Play with it. I especially like making it up as I go along. So it is with absolute delight that I give you a choice selection of new words and idioms not currently found in the dictionary, but maybe well on their way.
For instance, you've heard 50 is the new 40; but have you heard that good enough is the new perfect? I'd always thought good enough wasn't; but since I am perfectly copacetic with holding two conflicting thoughts at the same time, I've also thought done is better than perfect. The new perfect refers to people who write elegant computer code when plain vanilla would work just fine, but I think it has legs. Et tu?
Also heard, the MFA is the new MBA. I'm all over that one.
The geek gods are an incredibly creative bunch. Jeffrey Veen channels Susan Price with these bon mots:
And, from the linguists at Merriam-Webster comes the following:
I suppose I am an aspiring SME vocabularian who woots for new words.
For instance, you've heard 50 is the new 40; but have you heard that good enough is the new perfect? I'd always thought good enough wasn't; but since I am perfectly copacetic with holding two conflicting thoughts at the same time, I've also thought done is better than perfect. The new perfect refers to people who write elegant computer code when plain vanilla would work just fine, but I think it has legs. Et tu?
Also heard, the MFA is the new MBA. I'm all over that one.
The geek gods are an incredibly creative bunch. Jeffrey Veen channels Susan Price with these bon mots:
- Boil the Ocean (v) Trying to solve too many problems with an overambitious project, typically resulting in a complete failure.
- SME (n) Acronym for "Subject Matter Expert." Pronounced "smee".
- S2BU (n) Acronym for "Sucks To Be You." In this context, a page with an error message but with a multitude of inherent possibilities.
And, from the linguists at Merriam-Webster comes the following:
- vocabularians (n) persons who make up new words
- lasterday (n) refers to any day before today
- squinched (v) action required to fit something into a space that is slightly too small
- flusterpated (adj) a state of being flustered that's so intense, one's actions and words become bound up
- ginormous (adj): bigger than gigantic and bigger than enormous
- confuzzled (adj): confused and puzzled at the same time
- woot (interj): an exclamation of joy or excitement
- chillax (v): chill out/relax, hang with friends
- cognitive displaysia (n): the feeling you have before you even leave the house that you are going to forget something and not remember it until you're on the highway
- gription (n): the purchase gained by friction: "My car needs new tires because the old ones have lost their gription."
- phonecrastinate (v): to put off answering the phone until caller ID displays the incoming name and number.
- slickery (adj): having a surface that is wet and icy (As an aside, when my daughter was little, she did a science project to prove Pantene Pro V would make cat hair more silkery than Suave. I only mention it because I think it's etymologically related to slickery.)
- snirt (n): snow that is dirty, often seen by the side of roads and parking lots that have been plowed
I suppose I am an aspiring SME vocabularian who woots for new words.
Pithify or perish
Oh, okay. Geez. Now I get it. Facts don't matter anymore at all. It's what can be told quickly, concisely, and re-told quickly and concisely. I get e-mails from folks proudly calling themselves members of the "Reality Based Community." But they really aren't getting it, are they?
Reality has a way of being messy and murky. Not the brand mantra's Adjective-Noun-Noun. That's why facts don't matter anymore. It's because they're difficult to tell. Now, if you boil those facts down into an essence, then we're talking turkey.
Help me out here. Authenticity? Doesn't that have something to do with being real? I'm not being snide here. Really. Is public discourse just so much blah-blah-blah unless it can be summed up in a few pithy statements that can be easily remembered and retold? I think you're right.
I am ashamed for all of us.
Reality has a way of being messy and murky. Not the brand mantra's Adjective-Noun-Noun. That's why facts don't matter anymore. It's because they're difficult to tell. Now, if you boil those facts down into an essence, then we're talking turkey.
Help me out here. Authenticity? Doesn't that have something to do with being real? I'm not being snide here. Really. Is public discourse just so much blah-blah-blah unless it can be summed up in a few pithy statements that can be easily remembered and retold? I think you're right.
I am ashamed for all of us.
Going out on a limb
How often, as a creative professional, have you gone out on a limb only to have it break off?
How often, as a creative professional, have you gone out on a limb and have it not break off?
How often, as a creative professional have you gone out on a limb?
It doesn't take a genius to kill a good idea.
How often, as a creative professional, have you gone out on a limb and have it not break off?
How often, as a creative professional have you gone out on a limb?
It doesn't take a genius to kill a good idea.
Thursday, May 19, 2005
I am not, nor will I ever be, Rumplestiltskin.
Over the years, I've written a lot of bios. You know, those self-serving bits of prose outlining accomplishments, usually in connection with landing new business? In case you're not familiar with the form, they often describe a beacon of natural-born leadership just chock-a-block with core competencies that proactively shift the paradigm with standard-issue 30-hour workdays, serving 24/7 to deliver optimum benefits while maximizing productivity for the end user (whose needs are paramount, and also primary, top-of-mind and our single highest priority). Maybe this beacon plays golf, but only for business purposes. Maybe he has children, but again, only for business purposes.
Crap like that isn't worth the zeroes and ones that get thrown into the ether. Value is in direct proportion to truth. I'm always amazed at how intimidated people can be when I suggest this. "But I won't sound professional." or "People won't take me seriously."
But no matter how exalted the potential reader's position, well-chosen and authentic details beat shopworn platitudes every time. There's no reason to hide behind language. Unless, of course, you are a filthy reprobate with no moral center, then lying is probably the way to go.
For the rest of us, our Maker's authentic version beats the best bullshit money can buy. You are not, nor will you ever be, Rapunzel. That goes double for me.
So now it's my turn. We're down to the wire on our website (coming soon! www.cambiumcreative.com) and apart from our philosophy, the only thing left to write is my bio.
I will tell the truth and only the truth, so help me Gosh. But oy shiite, to put religious allusions where they should never go again, it's a trapeze act with false modesty on one side and ugly naked conceit on the other. I'd rather discuss parliamentary politics with a two-year old.
Watch this space for further developments.
Crap like that isn't worth the zeroes and ones that get thrown into the ether. Value is in direct proportion to truth. I'm always amazed at how intimidated people can be when I suggest this. "But I won't sound professional." or "People won't take me seriously."
But no matter how exalted the potential reader's position, well-chosen and authentic details beat shopworn platitudes every time. There's no reason to hide behind language. Unless, of course, you are a filthy reprobate with no moral center, then lying is probably the way to go.
For the rest of us, our Maker's authentic version beats the best bullshit money can buy. You are not, nor will you ever be, Rapunzel. That goes double for me.
So now it's my turn. We're down to the wire on our website (coming soon! www.cambiumcreative.com) and apart from our philosophy, the only thing left to write is my bio.
I will tell the truth and only the truth, so help me Gosh. But oy shiite, to put religious allusions where they should never go again, it's a trapeze act with false modesty on one side and ugly naked conceit on the other. I'd rather discuss parliamentary politics with a two-year old.
Watch this space for further developments.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
"Short Order Feng Shui"
One of my favorite professors was, and still is, a poet named David Clewell. His poetry is like a landscape reflected in a soap bubble: certainly recognizable, but skewed and unusually colorful.
"Short Order Feng Shui" is from his latest collection of poems, The Low End of Higher Things
I found a slew of other fun poems at Poetry Daily. A few favorites include: Ellen Bass' "When I Die," Carl Dennis' "Our Generation," and William Greenway's, "Canterbury Tale."
"Short Order Feng Shui" is from his latest collection of poems, The Low End of Higher Things
One more venerable tradition so thoroughly sacked
co-opted by the spirit
of a New Age that seems to mean business --
more genuine, practical wisdom reduced
to the practically ridiculous. But part of me is thinking
what could it hurt, maybe
I should widen the footpath between my piles of Who-
Killed-JFK books. Have the 1950s
Atomic Age ashtrays somehow turned into negative
clutter or do they still speak
energetically to me? Should my Pogo figurines stay put
for the rest of their days,
knee-deep in the box of Guaranteed-Authentic Roswell
Saucer Crash-Site Soil?
Do Charlie the Tuna hi-ball glasses work wtih Richard
Nixon commemorative flatware?
I found a slew of other fun poems at Poetry Daily. A few favorites include: Ellen Bass' "When I Die," Carl Dennis' "Our Generation," and William Greenway's, "Canterbury Tale."
Sunday, May 15, 2005
Friday, May 13, 2005
Ithaka by C.P. Cavafy, 1896
Ithaka
As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon — don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon — you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind —
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Parental Neglect
Will someone please give this poor child a name?
Their baby is 18 months old and they still haven't named her. They were waiting to see "if she had a personality." For the love of Pete, if you can't figure that out in 18 months, will you ever? I hate to be judgmental, but this is just wrong.
Their baby is 18 months old and they still haven't named her. They were waiting to see "if she had a personality." For the love of Pete, if you can't figure that out in 18 months, will you ever? I hate to be judgmental, but this is just wrong.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Advertising Ignorance
Lucky me. At 48, I still have a bit of time to be beloved by Madison Avenue.
The bulk of advertising is targeted to the 18-49 demographic. Conventional wisdom says after 50, people are set in their ways. They've picked their toothpaste, and by golly, nothing's going to change their minds. The flip side of that thinking is the belief that before 50, people can be converted to a particular brand for life.
The largest single demographic in the history of the world is well on its way to 50, if not there already. For boomers, cool is the watchword of a lifetime. This generation is well on its way to making old age as cool as youth was 30 years ago. How often have we heard that 50 is the new 40, or 60 is the new 50? As long as there's an appetite for cool, there's a twin appetite for new. And "new" may have little to do with brand loyalty.
Sure, youth is wasted on the young. The old rejoiner to that is that money is wasted on the old. But not anymore. Boomers consume like no other generation in history. Targeting 18-49ers and figuring you'll get the over-50 crowd, too, is short sighted.
With Gen Xers actively resisting Madison Avenue's traditional efforts along with the entire notion of brand loyalty, old school loses its wisdom.
The single largest trend in successful marketing has been targeted marketing. With so many media outlets, targeting is more viable now because there are so many more outlets. The closer the message gets to speaking to the individual, the more effective it becomes.
For more on the 18-49 phenomena, check out yesterday's L.A. Times', "Over 50 and Out of Favor.
The bulk of advertising is targeted to the 18-49 demographic. Conventional wisdom says after 50, people are set in their ways. They've picked their toothpaste, and by golly, nothing's going to change their minds. The flip side of that thinking is the belief that before 50, people can be converted to a particular brand for life.
The largest single demographic in the history of the world is well on its way to 50, if not there already. For boomers, cool is the watchword of a lifetime. This generation is well on its way to making old age as cool as youth was 30 years ago. How often have we heard that 50 is the new 40, or 60 is the new 50? As long as there's an appetite for cool, there's a twin appetite for new. And "new" may have little to do with brand loyalty.
Sure, youth is wasted on the young. The old rejoiner to that is that money is wasted on the old. But not anymore. Boomers consume like no other generation in history. Targeting 18-49ers and figuring you'll get the over-50 crowd, too, is short sighted.
With Gen Xers actively resisting Madison Avenue's traditional efforts along with the entire notion of brand loyalty, old school loses its wisdom.
The single largest trend in successful marketing has been targeted marketing. With so many media outlets, targeting is more viable now because there are so many more outlets. The closer the message gets to speaking to the individual, the more effective it becomes.
For more on the 18-49 phenomena, check out yesterday's L.A. Times', "Over 50 and Out of Favor.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
David Sedaris
I have a few favorite writers I can depend on to thoroughly entertain me. Davis Sedaris is one of them. I'm not sure if this is a memoir or a short story, but it's classic Sedaris:
My mother and I were at the dry cleaner’s, standing behind a woman we had never seen. “A nice-looking woman,” my mother would later say. “Well put together. Classy.” The woman was dressed for the season in a light cotton shift patterned with oversize daisies. Her shoes matched the petals and her purse, which was black-and-yellow striped, hung over her shoulder, buzzing the flowers like a lazy bumblebee. She handed in her claim check, accepted her garments, and then expressed gratitude for what she considered to be fast and efficient service. “You know,” she said, “people talk about Raleigh but it isn’t really true, is it?”
The Korean man nodded, the way you do when you’re a foreigner and understand that someone has finished a sentence. He wasn’t the owner, just a helper who’d stepped in from the back, and it was clear he had no idea what she was saying.
“My sister and I are visiting from out of town,” the woman said, a little louder now, and again the man nodded. “I’d love to stay awhile longer and explore, but my home, well, one of my homes is on the garden tour, so I’ve got to get back to Williamsburg.”
I was eleven years old, yet still the statement seemed strange to me. If she’d hoped to impress the Korean, the woman had obviously wasted her breath, so who was this information for?
“My home, well, one of my homes”; by the end of the day my mother and I had repeated this line no less than fifty times. The garden tour was unimportant, but the first part of her sentence brought us great pleasure. There was, as indicated by the comma, a pause between the words “home” and “well,” a brief moment in which she’d decided, Oh, why not? The following word— “one”—had blown from her mouth as if propelled by a gentle breeze, and this was the difficult part. You had to get it just right or else the sentence lost its power. Falling somewhere between a self-conscious laugh and a sigh of happy confusion, the “one” afforded her statement a double meaning. To her peers it meant, “Look at me, I catch myself coming and going!” and to the less fortunate it was a way of saying, “Don’t kid yourself, it’s a lot of work having more than one house.”
Read the rest here.
My mother and I were at the dry cleaner’s, standing behind a woman we had never seen. “A nice-looking woman,” my mother would later say. “Well put together. Classy.” The woman was dressed for the season in a light cotton shift patterned with oversize daisies. Her shoes matched the petals and her purse, which was black-and-yellow striped, hung over her shoulder, buzzing the flowers like a lazy bumblebee. She handed in her claim check, accepted her garments, and then expressed gratitude for what she considered to be fast and efficient service. “You know,” she said, “people talk about Raleigh but it isn’t really true, is it?”
The Korean man nodded, the way you do when you’re a foreigner and understand that someone has finished a sentence. He wasn’t the owner, just a helper who’d stepped in from the back, and it was clear he had no idea what she was saying.
“My sister and I are visiting from out of town,” the woman said, a little louder now, and again the man nodded. “I’d love to stay awhile longer and explore, but my home, well, one of my homes is on the garden tour, so I’ve got to get back to Williamsburg.”
I was eleven years old, yet still the statement seemed strange to me. If she’d hoped to impress the Korean, the woman had obviously wasted her breath, so who was this information for?
“My home, well, one of my homes”; by the end of the day my mother and I had repeated this line no less than fifty times. The garden tour was unimportant, but the first part of her sentence brought us great pleasure. There was, as indicated by the comma, a pause between the words “home” and “well,” a brief moment in which she’d decided, Oh, why not? The following word— “one”—had blown from her mouth as if propelled by a gentle breeze, and this was the difficult part. You had to get it just right or else the sentence lost its power. Falling somewhere between a self-conscious laugh and a sigh of happy confusion, the “one” afforded her statement a double meaning. To her peers it meant, “Look at me, I catch myself coming and going!” and to the less fortunate it was a way of saying, “Don’t kid yourself, it’s a lot of work having more than one house.”
Read the rest here.
Monday, May 09, 2005
A Humanist Code of Ethics
Humanism gets a bad rap for being a godless, atheistic and morally relative set of values that has invaded our society, especially our schools. Some People are really exercised about it. I don't understand why anyone would object to morality. Morality is good, regardless of the tradition from which it springs. I wouldn't mind living in a world where people adhered to the code of ethics outlined below.
From Ian Zatlin's bar mitzvah program via Jonathan:.
From Ian Zatlin's bar mitzvah program via Jonathan:.
A Humanist Code of Ethics
Do no harm to the earth, she is your mother.
Being is more important than having.
Never promote yourself at another's expense.
Hold life sacred; treat it with reverence.
Allow each person the dignity of his or her labor.
Open your home to the wayfarer.
Be ready to receive your deepest dreams;
Sometimes they are the speech of unblighted conscience.
Always make restitutions to the ones you have harmed.
Never think less of yourself than you are.
Never think that you are more than another.
Arthur Dobrin
Do no harm to the earth, she is your mother.
Being is more important than having.
Never promote yourself at another's expense.
Hold life sacred; treat it with reverence.
Allow each person the dignity of his or her labor.
Open your home to the wayfarer.
Be ready to receive your deepest dreams;
Sometimes they are the speech of unblighted conscience.
Always make restitutions to the ones you have harmed.
Never think less of yourself than you are.
Never think that you are more than another.
Arthur Dobrin
Thirsk Scrapbook Page
PhotoFiltre is great for reworking images, but for doing photo montages. PagePlus SE is the best I've worked with. It's easy, and best of all, it's free.
PhotoFiltre in Action
I chose my parents quite well. Not only are they great fun to be around, but they're enormously generous and adventuresome. For their 50th anniversary, they put the whole family (kids, grandkids, spouses, an uncle, a cousin) on a plane to spend two weeks in Yorkshire to celebrate.
That's how I came by a picture of Yorkminster that I deviated with the digital editing software, PhotoFiltre. While Photoshop is great, Photofiltre is free.
Saturday, May 07, 2005
Overheard in New York
From Overheard in New York:
Tween chick #1: So when we went to Canada, we had deer.
Tween chick #2: Really? Doesn't it have a special name too?
Tween chick #1: Yeah. Verizon, like the phones.
Woman: Every time I try to explain it to you, you don't understand--
Man: I'm killing your dreams?
Little girl: My birthday is next week.
Woman: Oh? What sign are you?
Little girl: I'm Italian and Jewish.
Girl #1: Sorry I'm late! Brian and I were discussing the logistics of turning my Statue of Liberty figurine into a bong.
Girl #2: It's always something with you.
Guy: So in your fantasy life you're a scholar? That's ridiculous!
Chick: I got a washing machine at home but it don't fit. I got too many clothes.
Guy: Ain't you never heard of loads?
Chick: What you mean?
Guy: Doing it once at a time.
Chick: Shoot, I be doing clothes forever if I do that shit.
Black guy on cell: Yeah, it was actually all right. We were both circumcised.
Receptionist: Do you have an appointment here?
Guy: Yes, I'm the 3:35.
Receptionist: No, you're not.
Guy: Oh yes I am.
Receptionist: This is gynecology.
Guy: Ah.
Girl #1: I have no idea what happened, but when I woke up my bed was full of clam chowder.
Girl #2: Really?
Girl #1: Really!
Tween chick #1: So when we went to Canada, we had deer.
Tween chick #2: Really? Doesn't it have a special name too?
Tween chick #1: Yeah. Verizon, like the phones.
Woman: Every time I try to explain it to you, you don't understand--
Man: I'm killing your dreams?
Little girl: My birthday is next week.
Woman: Oh? What sign are you?
Little girl: I'm Italian and Jewish.
Girl #1: Sorry I'm late! Brian and I were discussing the logistics of turning my Statue of Liberty figurine into a bong.
Girl #2: It's always something with you.
Guy: So in your fantasy life you're a scholar? That's ridiculous!
Chick: I got a washing machine at home but it don't fit. I got too many clothes.
Guy: Ain't you never heard of loads?
Chick: What you mean?
Guy: Doing it once at a time.
Chick: Shoot, I be doing clothes forever if I do that shit.
Black guy on cell: Yeah, it was actually all right. We were both circumcised.
Receptionist: Do you have an appointment here?
Guy: Yes, I'm the 3:35.
Receptionist: No, you're not.
Guy: Oh yes I am.
Receptionist: This is gynecology.
Guy: Ah.
Girl #1: I have no idea what happened, but when I woke up my bed was full of clam chowder.
Girl #2: Really?
Girl #1: Really!
A Rose by Any Other Name Would Still Be An Ad Agency
In my first post, I explained our name. In short, in botany, the cambium is the layer of cells between the bark and wood that grows. Each year's cambium cells become another ring of growth. Since our job is making things grow, it's an apt concept. But there are other reasons a botanical term is particularly appropriate for us.
Hard as it is to believe, people weren't knocking down doors to offer me writing jobs after I got my English degree. I dithered around for a while, and even became an assistant vice president for a commercial mortgage lender. The turning point came when I was asked to interview at an agency with a horticultural client. Did I mention my dusty degree in horticulture?
That was Brighton Agency, and at the time, their biggest accounts were Valent U.S.A. and later Sandoz (later bought by BASF).
Jonathan and I were a team at Osborn and Barr, working on Merck Crop Protection and Monsanto. We do know our way around a soybean brochure.
What's more, Jonathan is the original Earth Father, a naturalist by avocation and a conservationist in practice, with long-standing ties to that movement. My heart is with him, but I haven't logged the hours to earn that distinction.
Choosing Cambium Creative as our corporate moniker was a natural extension of the most general purpose of marketing, while also serving as an apt allusion to our photosynthetic backgrounds.
That said, I want to make it clear that our experience goes far beyond agriculture, but that's another discussion. Read all about it when our website, www.cambiumcreative.com, goes live in the near future.
Hard as it is to believe, people weren't knocking down doors to offer me writing jobs after I got my English degree. I dithered around for a while, and even became an assistant vice president for a commercial mortgage lender. The turning point came when I was asked to interview at an agency with a horticultural client. Did I mention my dusty degree in horticulture?
That was Brighton Agency, and at the time, their biggest accounts were Valent U.S.A. and later Sandoz (later bought by BASF).
Jonathan and I were a team at Osborn and Barr, working on Merck Crop Protection and Monsanto. We do know our way around a soybean brochure.
What's more, Jonathan is the original Earth Father, a naturalist by avocation and a conservationist in practice, with long-standing ties to that movement. My heart is with him, but I haven't logged the hours to earn that distinction.
Choosing Cambium Creative as our corporate moniker was a natural extension of the most general purpose of marketing, while also serving as an apt allusion to our photosynthetic backgrounds.
That said, I want to make it clear that our experience goes far beyond agriculture, but that's another discussion. Read all about it when our website, www.cambiumcreative.com, goes live in the near future.
Friday, May 06, 2005
Cambium Creative Stationery & Business Cards
Jonathan is the art guy and I'm the writer, but I had started fooling around with PhotoFiltre, a free photoshop-like digital editing software and came up with the tree round showing the rings (remember, it's the cambium that creates those growth rings) and added a halo of branching limbs.
The circle within a square is a nice design element, but it's also a mandala, a symbol found in religious artwork in virtually every tradition. Jung says it's one of those symbols that resonates in the collective unconscious. In Hindu and Buddhist meditation, it's a "sacred circle" used to raise consciousness that represents the merging of male and female forces. Mandalas are found all over Europe in rose windows, labyrinths and mosaics. Can't hurt, now can it.
So while I designed the logo, Jonathan cleaned it all up and made it into what you see here. A lot of art directors would feel territorial, but Jonathan was as gracious and encouraging as he could be.
The back of the business cards read:
cam'-bi-um, n.
in botany, the layer
of tissue between
the bark and wood
in higher plant life
that is the source
of new growth.
cam'-bi-um cre-a'-tive, n.
in marketing, award-
winning strategic
thinking and creative
implementation with
a proven track record
of creating growth.
We like it, but what do you think? Any comments or suggestions are welcome.
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Passion Mind Map
Along with a gazillion other people, I've been reading The Purpose Driven. I couldn't finish it for personal reasons. But his premise is that without a well-defined purpose, life is meaningless and needlessly difficult. He urges his readers to discover their passion and develop a community to help feed keep passion alive.
Warren's book is too Christian for this Unitarian, but I could appreciate it's initial thesis, that passion demands spirit, and spirit feeds passion.
Our tagline at Cambium Creative is "Spirit. Imagination. Growth." We could just as well have separated the words with arrows instead of periods, because that's the process. One of the best things about having your own company is the ability to create a culture that celebrates passion, creativity and integrity.
A couple of days ago, I wrote about mind mapping as a freeform tool that gets your thinking out of your head and onto paper. Since I've been reading so much about passion, I mapped out my thinking as posted below.
Warren's book is too Christian for this Unitarian, but I could appreciate it's initial thesis, that passion demands spirit, and spirit feeds passion.
Our tagline at Cambium Creative is "Spirit. Imagination. Growth." We could just as well have separated the words with arrows instead of periods, because that's the process. One of the best things about having your own company is the ability to create a culture that celebrates passion, creativity and integrity.
A couple of days ago, I wrote about mind mapping as a freeform tool that gets your thinking out of your head and onto paper. Since I've been reading so much about passion, I mapped out my thinking as posted below.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Tuesday Feels Like Monday
I'm having a Monday kind of Tuesday, but I've promised myself to be faithful about posting, and this early into it is no time to give myself a break. So, I'm taking Anne Lamott's writing advice and writing a shitty first draft. Of course, she follows that advice with edit, edit, edit.
That's good advice. The hardest thing about being creative for a living is the terror of continually facing down the blank page. No one knows where creativity comes from, or how to dependably access it. Thankfully, over the years I've developed a library of tricks, tools and mind games to help me past that initial abyss. For instance:
That's good advice. The hardest thing about being creative for a living is the terror of continually facing down the blank page. No one knows where creativity comes from, or how to dependably access it. Thankfully, over the years I've developed a library of tricks, tools and mind games to help me past that initial abyss. For instance:
- Start the software. That sounds really elementary, but waiting for Word to boot up can waylay one who is not hot on the trail of a good story to begin with.
- Just write and see what happens. I eventually figure out what I'm writing about, and may actually have something worth salvaging.
- Mind map. There are fancy software programs to do this, but I like a big blank sketch pad and colored markers. I write my central theme in the center, and brainstorm outward from the center. A trick to engage the right side of the brain is to doodle and use color. In the end, I wind up with a rather random outline. Thoughts get organized, and more often than not, I'm ready to write.
- Take a walk.
- Scrub the tub, empty the dishwasher, pick things up--anything to get moving for a short period of time. The key is to make it something that doesn't take long, but gets me in a constructive mind set.
- Read Bartlett's.
- Set the timer for ten minutes and surf the web for inspiration. I especially like to look at really great photo sites like Clandestina, Caedes and Daily Dose of Imagery, to name just a few. It's like taking a virtual vacation, and I can return to work feeling refreshed.
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