Just being honest but this blog sucks.

It really does. I have been lousy at keeping it updated. It desperately needs change.

So I'm officially closing down for a while to think about what I would like to blog about. I need it to be something that I think about and seek out on my own.

At this point it's between food, booze, and tennis. I'm leaning towards tennis... some element of it. If you have other thoughts, let me know... if not then I've got some thinking to do and hopefully the next time, we'll have a much better blog.

Watching TV for the ads

Reminiscint of Timex's 30 sec "live" ads from yesteryear, Wieden UK has upped the ante with its 3 minute Live ad for Honda motors. The strategy line for Honda is "Difficult is worth doing." The results were tremondous but more on that later.



The genesis of the idea came from Honda's media buying agency Starcom, which put out a pitch to 20 media companies with the idea of doing something different in line with the strapline for the car maker's latest campaign, "Difficult is worth doing".

The "Live" ad was shown on Channel 4 and receieved a lot of press coverage the next day. What's more amazing is that according to Channel 4, the ad drew an average audience of 2.2 million with viewing growing by 8%, or 168,000 people, by the conclusion of the three-minute stunt, which took up an entire ad break at around 8.10pm.

Imagine that. Advertising increases viewership.

More Coverage here.

What's new is old is news again.

This is a wonderful convergence of low and high tech.
You can now buy T-shirts from CNN featuring the headlines of mostly quirky news for $15. Besides the headlines, the t-shirt also shows you the date and time that the consumer viewed the story.

What I love is how CNN has mixed new media, technology and translated it into old-school brand evangelism. In addition, this is another great example of Mass-clusivity.

Graffiti meets Stop Motion Animation meets Tim Burton in one of the craziest but coolest things online today.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Facebook is over.

Yes I understand that is a declarative statement but I do believe we are near the end. So long fun wall, so long passive aggressive tagging.

Here's my reason for believing so.

The moment you get spam written on your wall by your friend thanks to a virus/bot, you know it's over.



The next thing you know, facebook is gonna look a whole lot like this.

Do it, don't say it.

I've been blessed to have been traveling for a while and taking pictures of myself at airports for a Facebook group I'm in - Facebookers at the Airport, any airport.

This is a recent pic I took at Washington Dulles International Airport on my way home from San Francisco.



No it wasn't really a great day to be flying. I was tired. I had a 24 hour turn-around. I wished I had give up my seat in an overbooked red-eye flight. I sat in the middle of a 5-seat row. My head-phone jack was faulty which meant watching Hairspray in silence. I was just spent getting into Washington at 6 am.

So once again, no it wasn't a great day to fly. Sorry Ted/United. It just wasn't.

While what I experienced is part and parcel of air-travel today, I can't help but wonder why Ted/United would think it was a great day to fly? Is it because they said so? Is it because they put a little sign thingy that suggested just that? Oh wait... it has to be the bright yellow that makes you feel happy... no wait, that yellow and blue is Ted's colors isn't it?

Here's what I think... how about some coffee at the airport next to that pretty sign? It costs you next to nothing and you probably dump more of it into the trash on every flight. How about a United TV channel so we get more choice beyond the CNN Airport feed. How about ... I dunno more cheap stuff to alleviate the stress of air travel that truly makes it a great day to fly...

... and which cumulatively might be cheaper than producing such a uselessly thick duty-free catalogue for even a 1 hour flight.

Humans are contradictory beings

Earlier in the summer I had the pleasure of meeting up with Gareth Kay in Boston. One of things he mentioned during our conversation that stuck with me was that "humans are contradictory beings." It brings a smile on my face whenever I think about it. Our job as planners is to constantly analyze the behaviors of human beings and to make predictions about what makes us tick... even though "humans are contradictory beings."

Today I was led to a website by a family friend. The interview with God is an interesting site whose goal is to "create beautiful, inspiring presentations that make a positive difference in the lives of millions of people around the world."

Log on to the site and view the presentation.

I have pulled the parts that really struck a nerve with me.



“What surprises you most about humankind?”

God answered...
“That they get bored with childhood,
they rush to grow up, and then
long to be children again.”

“That they lose their health to make money...
and then lose their money to restore their health.”

“That by thinking anxiously about the future,
they forget the present,
such that they live in neither
the present nor the future.”

"That they live as if they will never die,
and die as though they had never lived.”