Why ad agencies should be more like Kung Fu movies.

1. Neither one is very realistic, and full of people who act badly, but at least in Kung Fu movies the good guys win in the end.

2. People very rarely speak the same language in both situations, but at least in Kung Fu movies there are subtitles to make sense of everything.

3. Kung Fu fights look much cooler than Agency fights, and it's a lot easier to tell who won in the end.

4. In Kung Fu movies, when somebody starts saying something that sounds like crazy B.S., it always actually turns out they can deliver on it.

5. 'Dojos' or "schools" sounds way better than 'departments'


Just a thought...

I think i should get hit by cooler stuff...

So for the past 2 days, when walking to or from work, i have gotten hit by something. Yesterday i got hit with a rock that flew off of the pavement as a car drove by on the way to work, and then a bird ran into me on the way to the train. This morning something bounced off of my large, rock-hard head on the way to work and then went over the edge of the bridge and into the water that i never even identified. It's not really a fun experience, and doesn't really make for a good story, so it's really not the type of thing i need in my life. So if the gods are listening, these are things that would be more fun to get hit by:

-A purple J. Mascis Jazzmaster guitar (just not in the head, and only if i can keep it afterward).

-A large box of superballs.

-Donuts

-Setlists from bands

-Sofa pillows

-action figure parts.

-instruction manuals.

-Soft turtles


None of these things are likely, but if the gods of fate need to hit me with something, can it be something cooler like the stuff above?

The Pop Tarts guys are geniuses

I've written a bit about what is messed up with kid's advertising, but i've got to say that the Pop Tarts stuff is pretty damn cool. The fact that each spot is really just a joke based on the fact kids want to eat Pop Tarts, but the Pop Tarts haven't quite realized this yet is an awesome predator/prey take on the stereotypical "desire" type copy strategy. It's :30 all about the joke, and the joke is about a happy kid getting to eat a Pop Tart.

Awesome.

I wonder...

So i was thinking about this joke i heard the other day. It's only funny if you work in an ad agency, and even then it's only kinda funny:

How many creatives does it take to change a lightbulb?

Answer: Does it have to be a lightbulb?

If you don't work at an ad agency, you are probably now on your way to some other thing you've found on google or back to watching kittens on youtube. But if you know what that joke is saying, you are either smiling a self-conscious smile or muttering to yourself something about "damn creatives".

What struck me about this joke in particular is that i experience that same sort of questioning on a daily basis and not at work... from my son with Asperger's Syndrome.

So that makes me wonder: do creatives think more autistically than the average person?

When you think about it, you could definitely make a case for it. When they get a brief, they try to look at it with no assumptions about what it says, often dismissing any previous history to the brief as though the words on the page are in a conceptual empty universe, only to be judged and interpereted by what is on the document itself right there and then. That's pretty much how my son interperets any new situation, as though there is no parallel information that is relevant. Creating his response in the moment.

The difference of course, is he has no choice, and the typical creative does, but the behavior is strikingly similar. There are no rules until they are told to you, and additional rules and direction is a burden. Creatives are thought to be very argumentative, as are kids with A.S. Both are dealt with very carefully, tend to have very strong likes and dislikes, and are considered sorta volitile. It's a pretty good fit. It describes a creative quite well, and a kid with Asperger's to a T.

So here is the scary part... if that assumption is true, then creatives work output could probably be controlled and influenced if you just dealt with them as though they were autistic. Being direct. Engage as little discussion as possible. Keep instructions short, simple, and uncomplicated. A lot of those things frustrate my son, but when you think about it, that's also the way the clients creatives view as WORST clients treat the creative process. So, maybe they already are dealing with creatives in that way in a lot of cases. Maybe we creatives are creating our own problems.

Why does it matter? Maybe it's just i think it's good to have a little self awareness. Maybe i just think everybody should be able to my son a little better than they think they can. Mostly, i think that the next time a creative gets a considers a brief, that i hope they might consider that the line between being creative and being slightly autistic is theirs to cross at any given moment.

My question is: Why would you want to?

Thanks for dropping in to the lounge. And be careful navigating to that next page. Let me know if you need a taxi.

The Next Show

So i'm going to have my art up at a hip-hop show on the 11th of January. I'll have i think around 11 pieces up, and should be a good time. Here is the poster i did for it.

New Rock Posters

Welcome back to the lounge! Here are a couple new gig posters i did for a band that plays the Chicagoland area that has a couple of my friends in it. The reindeer one goes a bit far, but i couldn't resist getting into the holiday season metal music style. I think these are posters number 5 and 6 in the series now of toy penguins experiencing fits of destructive rage.

On another note, it looks like i might be doing a slightly larger show of my train of thought drawings January 11th. I'll put up a more specific posting when i get some more details and the whole thing gets set in stone.

Icon #3: Cap'n Crunch

Cap'n Crunch is a truly great pop culture icon who gets overlooked a lot because they don't advertise him enough, so it's sometimes hard to remember the stuff that originally made him so cool to kids. There are two very simple reasons why he works:

1. He is kid sized, so he can hang with the kids. Jean LeFoot. The Soggies. All taller than a kid, but not the Cap'n. When used right, he comes off as one of the gang. When used wrong, he comes off as a friendly elderly neighbor.

2. This is the key driver to what makes the Cap'n appealing, and it unfortuneately is SO simple that most marketers probably see it as boring or retro. The reality is, it is a completely timeless, completely kid-centric thing. The Cap'n is an adventurer. In his early days he was always out searching for the great treasure, i mean, breakfast (why do you think the cereal used to be in that chest on the box. It takes advantage of the fact it's bright yellow color looks like "gold treasure for breakfast") He found Cap'n Crunch cereal, Crunchberries (where Smedley hung out), and what could be cooler to a kid but venturing out and searching for treasure or just out and out exploring. He was the Indiana Jones of the cereal set, 20 years ahead of his time, cruising the world for his treasure cereal. He doesn't stand for crunchiness,
he stands for having breakfast be a little imaginative adventure at the beginning of the day.

And while this may seem like an outdated theme, if you actually think about the nature of kids, they are still always out exploring. Until they get to the 11-12 range, they are still of the mindset that something fantastic could still happen anywhere, anytime, so EVERYDAY is potentially an adventure.

The catch to this is, the Cap'n is only as cool as his adventures. If he interacts in an everyday situation, then he in turn becomes everyday. Its a trend in kids advertising that is steering in the wrong way to really pique the kids interest and imagination. Kids don't want to see a reflection of their life, they're already living it. They want to see something fanatastic that changes the actual possiblity of what could be true and what can actually happen.

Now, if you ask a 12 year old about that they'll tell you a different story. But they'll also deny that they still have their action figures & toys, and that they still watch cartoons, but that is a topic for a different time.

For now, I'd be happy to see the Cap'n set sail again.