The VERY public wedding proposal

At the first agency I worked for in New York the head of broadcast production proposed to his wife by editing "a surprise" into a movie he rented from the local video store. (This was in the pre DVD days.) Anyhow she was excited and said yes.

Flash-forward to the Rangers game at Madison Square Garden on Valentine's Day where a fan tried the on-scoreboard wedding proposal. This one didn't go so well. Was it staged, you be the judge?

Super Bowl vs. Olympics - adwise

During and immediately after the Super Bowl everybody has an opinion about the advertising. Me too. That's the problem. It seemed like every spot I watched was created simply to ring the Ad Meter. It was as if all viewers, just because we're part of a massive audience, were deemed to be morons. Now I will not criticize another agency's work specifically, but Go Daddy is handled in-house so they're fair game. That's three years now of substantiating terrible advertising by web hits from 15 year-old boys who smell of Axe Body Spray. (Note Axe was too smart to mess with the Super Bowl as a forum.) Danica Patrick can drive at 200 mph but when she gets those Go Daddy scripts, that's when she gets nervous.

Let's "shift gears" to Google. In my opinion (IMHO I'm told to say) their spot was the bright spot when it came to the Super Bowl commercial breaks. They told a gripping story and treated me like an intelligent viewer. Thank you Google for showing up the field.

A week later my family gathered to watch the opening of the Winter Olympics. From an advertising perspective the work was all uphill in an event filled with downhills. BMW, Coke, GM and many others "Googled" us and respected our intelligence. They told human stories and didn't have to stoop to lame slapstick gags. What a refreshing contrast to the Super Bowl. Maybe the agencies and clients involved didn't try so hard to impress. Yet they made an impression on me.

Are today's children consuming a healthy, balanced "media diet"?

I was reading the paper a few weeks ago and as the father of two teenagers was blown away by the following study:
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The average young American now spends practically every waking minute -- except for the time in school -- using a smart phone, computer, television or other electronic device, according to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Those ages 8 to 18 spend more than seven and a half hours a day with such devices, compared with less than six and a half hours five years ago, when the study was last conducted. And that does not count the hour and a half that youths spend texting, or the half-hour they talk on their cellphones.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/education/20wired.html

Turn it on to turn it off

I haven't touched an iPad yet. By the time I get the chance, I hope that the product lives up to the hype. Last week I got to use a product that exceeded the hype in my estimation. I flew from Detroit to Las Vegas sporting a new pair of Bose QuietComfort 15 headphones. The minute I flicked the on switch the cabin went nearly silent. (My seatmate went silent.) And the music out of my iPod was stunning.

I first tried these headphones on a display at Best Buy. It was eerie how quiet the busy store became. Yet I was unsure how effective they'd be in-flight. After using the Bose headphones on the flight out and on the red-eye home I can say my eyes were definitely red, but my ears were golden. And the beauty of it all is that I used my frequent flyer miles to buy the headphones for frequent flying.

I always found a plane flight to be a great escape. Now I've found a way to escape the jet engine background noise and arrive fresher. (Note to Bose: if you enjoy this unsolicited review please feel free to send a pair for my wife.)

Online shopping: putting it all together in style

Judith Leiber, Stella McCartney and my daughter 14 year-old Brooke. With Polyvore all can mix & match looks on equal footing in the web's largest fashion community.

I can certainly tell you the next time we do a style board for a new campaign it won't be on a board. It will be on a Polyvore. Guess I better watch my yelling to Brooke, "hey, what are you doing on that computer!" She's collaging. And I'm applauding. Check it out ...

Polyvore - Brooke

Did Domino's Pizza Pull a New Coke?

When I let our dog out at night I can see the television at my neighbor's house. I'm not talking about the house across the street. I'm talking about the house behind the house across the street. That's some big television. Not only can I see the glow but I can frequently make out what they're watching. (And it's never anything on one of "those" channels.) What I could make out the other evening was a spot from Domino's. So on Thursday night when we did the usual "what's for dinner" go-round I suggested ordering Domino's new pizza. Understand I have been eating Domino's pizza since I first tasted it at University of Michigan tennis camp in the summer of 1980. So I've grown up on that pizza.

The newly packaged, heavily aromatic pizzas arrived and we dug in. All the research might say it's new-and-improved but I detested it. (My actual comment isn't bloggable.) To me buttery garlic bread ringing a pizza isn't pizza. It's yet another forced "hybrid" product where the original didn't need to be messed with. My wife and daughters thought the pizza was ok. Not exactly a grand endorsement. In fact they said, without my prompting, "let's not order that pizza again."

I hope Domino's wins over more new fans than they lose old ones. Otherwise I go back again to the 1980s, recalling the vaunted introduction of New Coke and ask, "when will we learn not to mess with perfection?"

Don't wait too long to re-tire

I was driving to work the other morning just after we received a few inches of fresh snow. Heading east on Long Lake Road the light at the Lahser intersection turned yellow, and, as I applied my breaks I just kept sliding down the hill. I wasn't stopping and that light was getting very orange. I skidded right into the heart of the intersection and fortunately nobody jumped the light going the other way. Nothing happened other than I was supremely wide awake and extra cautious the rest of the way in to the office.

When I last serviced my car in September my trusty mechanic showed me that I needed new tires. Why, when I always have extra, fresh running shoes on hand did I put off taking care of my tires? I'm not sure.  Maybe I was still reeling from a terrible experience at Sears Automotive three years ago. The one hour promise that turned into three hours in a dank waiting room.

This time I visited our nearby Belle Tire.  The experience was great. It couldn't have been any different from my Sears horror years ago. The manager at Belle had the exact tires I wanted in stock, got them mounted and had the wheels aligned all exactly when promised.

There used to be a rule of thumb about needing new tires around Lincoln's head on a penny, or is it Jefferson's head on a nickel, or Washington's head on a quarter? It doesn't matter now as I'm able to stop on a dime.