The Bottom Rung

On the first day of my first internship, I sat down with the CEO for a quick orientation. During that short chart, he instilled in me the belief that the simplest idea always wins and that the journey to that insight is never an easy one. From that moment on, I was sold. For some it’s the fast paced environment that gets them or maybe it’s the excitement of seeing your work on the TV. For me, advertising forces me to challenge convention and apply my skill set to an ever evolving set of problems.

And yet, I find myself questioning it’s relevance.

Sure, for commodities like Coke/Pepsi, Nike/Adidas and Shell/Esso it’s a necessity as they live and die by market share. However in most cases, I find myself wondering why companies don’t take their millions and reinvest in their products.

For most corporations, they use advertising/PR to fill in the gaps in their product and make it look sexy. Much like the sexy looking but actually shitty Shaun White Snowboarding.

What if a company like Microsoft took their $300,000,000 ad budget and put that into R&D on Vista; like Apple suggested. Would it have received a better response? What would happen if telecoms reinvested in their networks or provided high speed internet to rural areas instead of creating the Alltel guy? What if GM had put it’s ad budget into the Volt program instead of marketing the Malibu? Or if Canadian politicians had donated their campaign funding to charity (since the election clearly meant nothing).

The bottom line is that advertising has been downgraded to a bandaid solution; one which takes the focus away from the actual problems. Advertising is meant to be a bridge to connect with consumers, not a blindfold to keep them in the dark.

Source: CollegeHumor

In search of a truly valid taste test, the King took their burgers around the globe looking for people who have not been subjected to American culture.

Once again, Crispin proves that commercials without scripts are especially evocative. No director or writer could conceive the types of reactions these people give to the Whopper. The simple fact that they didn’t know how to hold it left me in awe.

Source: Whopper Virgins

Great article on 12 laws to live your life by from Tom Hoobyar.

If you have time to read it, do so (about 10 minutes tops). Here is just a section of the first law.

1. SELF-MANAGEMENT AND PEOPLE SKILLS ARE THE KEYS TO YOUR SUCCESS AND HAPPINESS.
This is a MAJOR fact of life. And it took me a long time to get this. If you want to be smarter than me you’ll give this first principle serious consideration. Your skill level in these two areas will determine the quality of your whole life. Every champion and high achiever knows this. These simple skills are the clear difference between winners in life, and losers.

If you learn to manage yourself you can accomplish anything you can dream up. You can deal with negative experiences wisely and you can add skills as you need them. You can become unstoppable. Self management puts you on the launching pad to all the success you desire.

Most people limit themselves by their unwillingness to consider personal change. They won’t learn new things and they won’t change their behaviors even when they discover they’ve been wrong.

Source: Tom Hoobyar