The Fortune Cookie Game

Remember sitting around the table at a Chinese restaurant and the fortune cookies are served? Someone invariably reads their fortune and adds, with a giggle, the words "in bed" to the printed fortune. (Example: Tomorrow will be a great day in bed.)

Imagine accenture's surprise when this ad appeared in Forbes Magazine earlier in the week. (Maybe it was in "Fortune" too?) Play the fortune cookie game and the Tiger Woods double entendre takes on multiple meanings. I am NOT jumping on sensationalist tabloid speculation around a private issue. Rather, as an ad guy, I'm simply recognizing that celebrity spokespeople are fraught with danger regardless of how squeaky clean they might appear. The spokesperson can represent something one day and something entirely different the next. So be careful who you allow your brand to get "in bed" with. You might just end up OB (that's out-of-bounds to the non-golfer).

Breaking The Cycle

My friend Mike Fezzey, president and general manager of WJR Radio in Detroit tells a story.

I have a new neighbor. He just moved here from Chicago and he's excited about the move. So my neighbor goes to the dry cleaner and tells the woman at the counter that he just moved here. "Why would you do that?" she says. He goes to the supermarket and the same thing happens.

Here's a guy who relocated his business and employees to Michigan to take advantage of our skilled workforce, low cost-of-living, quality healthcare system and world-class educational institutions. And the very citizens of his new community are asking him why he came here. So Mike got fed up. And rightly so. That's why he's using his radio station to launch a bold initiative called Breaking the Cycle.

Breaking the Cycle will recognize Detroiters who are doing something to break the chain of negatives about Detroit. These are individuals who otherwise wouldn't be recognized for their efforts. I'm behind this initiative 100%. If we don't have internal champions for the Detroit Metro area, how can we expect anyone to be an external champion.

Whenever the chain comes off my bike I think that fixing the cycle is hard. What's really hard is breaking the cycle of negativism that surrounds Detroit. But I have my helmet on and am along for the uphill ride.

Going to Blog School

Last weekend my daughter passed her driving test. In a month she will be a licensed driver. For the last few months I've been an unlicensed blogger. Cutting people off, flipping the finger, texting while blogging, eating and drinking, listening to music ... You get it, I'm a distracted, untrained blogger. That's why I'm going to blog school on November 10th. Put on by GasPedal (hence the driving link) I will get practical, how-to advice on creating content, educating folks at my agency, keeping the lawyers happy, and engaging fans. Maybe you can join me. If not, be careful out on those Michigan roads.

100 Best Global Brands

Every year I study with interest Business Week's 100 Best Global Brands issue. Coca-Cola, IBM, Google, Toyota, Disney, Intel, etc. They all vie for the top slots. Deservedly so. But last weekend I was in Providence, RI with my wife and daughters. We were visiting family at RISD and took the prospective student tour at Brown. While doing the obligatory visit to the Brown bookstore (Brown logoed everything was for sale!) I realized there are some global brands conspicuously absent from the list.

I would argue that Harvard deserves consideration on Business Week's list. As the oldest university in the nation it's certainly "Built to Last." Put the Harvard name on anything and there's instant credibility. In fact many of our top U.S. colleges and universities have brand values greater than Prada or from the title of this blog, say Nescafe.

Dogging it at Work

Visitors to our agency know Webster. They seek out Webster. They guard their food from Webster. Who's Webster? Some hot-shot new creative talent? No, he's my father's dog who comes to our offices every day. A sometimes too-smart-for-his-own-good Labradoodle. Why is there so much fascination about the symbiotic relationship between ad people and dogs at work?

It's a given that advertising is a stress-filled profession and it’s well known that reducing stress is a key to a healthy life. So why dogs? Well, for every complex stress in life, it helps to balance it with a simple pleasure. Pets in the workplace reduce stress among owners who worry about home-alone dogs, they are a calming presence, and they often provide a welcome distraction. So come visit us at SMZ. I won't be offended if you're really most interested in Webster.

Believe in Michigan

Anyone running a business today in Michigan had better be a cheerleader for the state. (I know I try!) Minus the pom-poms, one of the finest arguments I've heard for the future of Michigan was put forth by Bobby Taubman, Chairman, President and CEO of Taubman Centers in his second quarter earnings conference call.

Michigan is now in its sixth year of negative GDP growth, as it has been working through a long and difficult restructuring of the auto industry. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics at the end of June, employment in automotive vehicle and parts manufacturing is now down to only 2.4% of nonfarm jobs in Michigan, a remarkable change from about 7% in 2000.

With the ripple effect commonly associated with the loss of manufacturing jobs, it’s not surprising our state recently reported 15% unemployment. That’s the highest in the nation and unfortunately, we believe that it will get worse before it gets better. Nonetheless, we are encouraged that a protracted bankruptcy of GM and Chrysler has been avoided. The companies are now able to stabilize and position themselves to begin growing again once the national economy improves.

Our state, the eighth most populous state, has about 10 million people. It has great resources and significantly more diversity in employment than is recognized. The R&D and high-tech sectors that were originally built around the automotive industry are morphing into countless other industries. Today’s southeastern Michigan has over 8,000 tech establishments and there are more engineers per capita than any other state in the U.S.

This leads to the second highest overall R&D expenditures of any state. With this growing knowledge base in place and favorable cost of living, the state has become a hub for advanced technologies. Numerous entities from battery research to clean technologies to defense research are already located here. Others have announced investments to take advantage of the available talent pool.

In June, General Electric announced it will be opening its Advanced Manufacturing Technology and Software Center in southeast Michigan in late 2009. They will be investing $100 million in a former Visteon automotive parts plant and eventually will employ 1,100 people. Announcing the facility, chief executive Jeff Immelt told reporters, “we can be low cost and still access a great work force in Michigan.”

We're proud to serve as one of Taubman Centers' advertising agencies. We're also proud to share a strong positive outlook on Michigan. Now, off to the mall ...

Oops, I did it the first time

She generally rates in the top ten most searched list. It's Britney Spears and I attended her sold-out concert last week with my wife and daughters at The Palace of Auburn Hills. I'm clearly not the target, but I was there and entitled to an opinion. This was one of the most un-fun nights of my life. Before the concert they ran commercials for Britney's "Circus Fantasy" fragrance. I've been to the Ringling Brothers circus. It smelled bad. Real bad. Who wants to smell like the circus? (Or "toxic" for that matter?)

I was appalled at how the 14 year olds going on 25 were dressed. Or not dressed. Sure it's slickly staged yet I was shocked how accepting the audience was of lip-synced singing. What happened to a live concert being live? As my wife said, "where's the band??" To cap off a "perfect" night the girl in the row behind me spilled her beer all over me. Just my luck to be seated in front of one of the ten girls of legal drinking age at the show. Baby I really wanted to "hit her one more time," but I controlled myself. And in front of me Britney got to change into dry clothes every ten seconds. Where's the justice?

This blog is a semi-regular, semi-humorous attempt to comment on consumer escapes. A great live concert can be the ultimate escape. Britney Spears' concert just made me want to get out. So I did. In Britney-speak I turned to my daughter and said, "I'm not a slave 2 this." So I escaped to our car and listened to the baseball game. All-in-all I'm "stronger" for the experience.