GMC Terrain: Major neighbor to a Mini car

As Mardi Gras is to Lent, my football watching is to the end of the season. I've consumed football during the past few weeks like it's never coming back. Late nights, poor posture for hours on end, emotional highs and lows...these are the consequences to my over-consumption and lack of discipline. They're also the good price I've paid for New Breed material.

GMC Terrain
When you sit glued to the tube, you discover a great deal of content. Like this new GMC commercial that I watched half a dozen times before suddenly appreciating it. It's only 15 seconds long, but in the midst of so many competition-based ads (Mac vs. PC, Howie Long vs. Honda), I find it refreshing. Even neighborly.



Bullying is so 7th grade
"The same impressive highway fuel economy you get in a Mini...." That's what I love about this ad: It makes the GMC Terrain look better by complimenting another automobile. In other words, this same GM brand that employs Howie to drag Honda through the mud doesn't drag Mini through the mud. It respects it. Of course, GMC and Mini aren't right and left shoes, so the closing line about winning seems somewhat irrelevant, but perhaps this commercial offers an example that Howie and Mac and Wendy and shameless others could follow.

It's a high road. It's also a challenging road, requiring brands to know the value they bring to the marketplace, to find security in that knowledge, and to risk (gasp!) making others look good along the way. Football teams do it all the time. They study and plan in order to win, sure, but you'll never hear mature players and coaches trash opponents. Quite the opposite, in fact.

The question is, Would it work? Is a high road possible given current marketing norms? Is it economically feasible? I don't know, but I'd like to see more of this practice in the marketing field.

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Martha's Trouble and the Accord Crosstour

Julie and I first heard Martha's Trouble at a Barnes & Noble in Erie, Pennsylvania. Their music complimented our cups of cinnamon plum tea and relaxed conversation, and we wondered how they would do for a college crowd. That question got answered over the next four or five years as Rob and Jen returned many times to visit and entertain us on campus.

Besides the good music, we always marveled at their tales of crossing the U.S./Canadian border, something that too often involved emptying and re-stuffing their equipment into a small trunk in front of time-insensitive border guards. Then they'd show up in PA and we'd empty their car for the show only to re-stuff it afterward so they could move along to the next show.

Instruments
That was years ago and they're still at it. I haven't seen them in quite a while but I've been thinking about them and their trunk space lately, thanks to a clever little commercial called "Instruments" by Elastic. The first half of this TV spot for Honda's new Accord Crosstour is so visually enjoyable that I almost always forget what's being advertised in the second half. That's typically a bad thing, but I like the ad enough to pay attention. Eventually it will stick.

Would the Crosstour ease Rob and Jen's travels? Maybe not, but "Instruments" promises to make it cool trying. 

Photo credit: Car and Driver

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New Year's Resolution: Move in next door

It's Christmas Eve and I have New Year's resolutions on the mind. You might say I'm moving on too quickly, but one is feeding into the other so I feel okay multi-holidaying. Consider my little math equation:

(Christmas + Gift-giving) x (New Years + Goal-setting) x Others / Self

= A Challenging 2010 with Kick-backs from Generosity 

Typically, seven or eight out of ten New Year's Resolutions have Self on center-stage: Lose weight, pay off debts, get a better job, quit smoking.... Still, I love the energy around this motivation-driven, list-making, endeavor. The cycle of time offers a yearly reminder and opportunity to straighten out the crooked parts of life, and many of us jump at the invitation.

But what if we mixed the goal-setting of New Years with the gift-giving of Christmas? We could end up with a more generous 2010. The cost of serving others will make it challenging, of course, but long-term rewards should outweigh any short-term sacrifices. What could this mean practically?

Practically speaking
Well, in the spirit of becoming vocationally good neighbors, it means using your imagination to move in next door to a consumer. In a recent article called "Eight Inches Away", I asked:

"If you practice law and your client lives next door, does this...make you treat her case differently? If you teach high school and your worst student lives next door, does it affect your relationship? And what if you make advertisements and your neighbor buys the gadgets you promote? Do you question what you're selling and how?"

I asked these question because I've lived and worked in a duplex for the past five years. My actual neighbor isn't a client but the situation has forced me to ask the questions. Loving your neighbor as yourself resides practically and essentially at the heart of work. This New Years, I have a chance to renew that goal of giving to customers and clients as I think about living eight inches away from them.

If you're looking for an addition to your resolution list, try this one out. The kick-backs are great (and they offer a nice little something for Self, too!)   

--
Read "Eight Inches Away" at The High Calling. Note to friends: No, we haven't moved. I don't know who lives in that photo.

The High Calling is a site about work and God.

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Layer #4

I'm working on a little project that I hope to post soon. Art Direction isn't my specialty but I love to create. And because I'm focusing on vision and vocation, Advent is the perfect time to show you one of the images. It's presently called Layer #4.

Layer #4 depicts an advertising employee in relationships with her agency and with an end user. Becoming a good neighbor to the consumer next door requires attention to both of these, and as long as there is greed, laziness and self-centeredness in the world, she'll have her work cut out for her.

Most importantly, she views the end user as a recipient of her care. Then she continues by pushing and pulling her agency - including her subordinates, superiors, colleagues and clients - to do the same. The work is never done, and she knows it won't be.

She knows she can't cure us all of consumerism. She also knows her agency won't avoid every compromise of integrity. But she believes her work matters and that if she submits to a grander perspective, she'll find strength to keep at it.

On this note, I'll leave you with the oft-quoted, mis-attributed and wonderful poem, A Future Not Our Own:

It helps now and then to step back and take a long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of
saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession
brings perfection, no pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives include everything.

This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one
day will grow. We water the seeds already planted
knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects
far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of
liberation in realizing this.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning,
a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's
grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the
difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not
messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.

- Attributed to Archbishop Oscar Romero, but composed by Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw

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"Is my map in the way?"

"No, no. You're good."

Besides the point being clearly and humorously made in this recent VZW commercial, the objectification* of signal reception is ingenious.
 
I had a second thought after seeing this TV spot. An often subtle difference exists between commercials that exaggerate consumers' sense of need and those - such as this one - that rightly highlight it. Of course, if AT&T provides adequate service in my area, I don't need a game-blocking coverage map. (Why would I need coverage for Alabama if I don't ever go there?) However, it isn't a stretch to consider that frequent travelers may very well need Verizon's offer (for the coverage, at least).



*While the VZW map image is clever (and their service memorable), I liked AT&T's use of objectification in Rollover Minutes better.

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Two houses or one?

Update: Thanks for helping me choose the new header image! The two-house image won among commenters and e-mailers alike.

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Toyota's Better Together: How can I get some of those?

I work alone, so guess who covers the phoning, filing, folding and food-getting? All me.

Normally I don't mind, but this guy made me wonder how much I could get done with four hands instead of two. Then my wondering turned to jealousy as I remembered that I lack the mental capacity to work so fast.

And then I remembered that two-handed people made this brilliant commercial. So in the spirit of gratitude for what I've got, and creativity that inspires average guys like me to keep at it, Happy Thanksgiving!

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Gap Holiday Cheer - Happy Whateveryouwannakah!

I have a favorite shirt. It isn't wrinkle-free and yet it doesn't wrinkle. It's seven years old and shows neither wear nor the age of its style. It falls well on me (that's the Spanish translation of "to fit") and works whether tucked or hanging out; with jeans or khakis. It's perfect.

And it's from Gap.

I'm a cheapskate, but my wife has pushed me for years to spend more and buy Gap. After all, it is - in their terms - "the company behind some of the most recognized and respected brands in the apparel industry." I know why it's respected: Anything she's talked me into owning from this company has outlasted similar items from competitors.

But what am I supposed to do with a commercial like this?



Here are my two chief complaints:

1. If this is merely a controversy-pushing, promotional stunt to garner earned media (free public attention)- then it's monkey-trick advertising which I can't respect. Any copy-writer can predict a pot-stirring message, but manipulation of an audience for disingenuous reasons fails in the end.

You make quality clothing, Gap. You've been around since 1969. Show us your wisdom, not childish antics.

2. If this is not a stunt, but rather a corporate statement of belief, then like the teenager who pleases everyone to avoid rejection from anyone, this commercial reveals a cowardly, insecure response to human diversity. We don't have to agree with our neighbors' religious views, but pulling out a generic diversity eraser leads to a cheapened version of reality and a sense of being lost.

Furthermore, a statement of belief like this - in its clumsy pc execution - actually dismantles community. The song lyric, "Do what just feels right" selfishly contradicts the pluralism and diversity Gap is promoting. We can't be selfish and pluralistic simultaneously.

To Gap; to agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky; to Michael Gracey, the spot's director who is Catholic and seemingly a nice guy; and to musician, Pharrell Williams, whose lyrics - according to Anthony Henriques of PopMatters - "are typically inconsequential in a 'saying sh*t just to sound cool' sort of way," and who helped write the Holiday Cheer lyrics:

You can do more respectable work than this. You wish me a "Happy Whateveryouwannakah." Well, I wannabuy your clothes, but I'll refrain until you take a higher road.

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Edward Lear's Complete Book of Adsence

Okay, so the following link isn't an entire rewrite of Lear's Complete Book of Nonsense, but it's a start, and a fun one at that. Adfolks, you'll have to check out Graphic Designer, Douglas Bonneville's fine list of limericks.

Here's a teaser:

There once was a graphic designer
Who could not draw a straight liner
Fresh out of school
She thought she was cool
And soon was a cook in a diner!

See some of Doug's more serious portfolio at the Behance Network, or more of Edward Lear's limericks at Aaron Belz' site.

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Catholic Charities dinner plate in the mail!

Several years ago, I sponsored a marathon runner through the Catholic Charities Foundation. Ever since then, I've received their mailings. I could have been more earth-minded and asked to be removed from the list, but it's generally creative stuff so I didn't.

Here's the most recent piece, shown in three parts. The first is the #10 envelope-sized item that came in the mail. (Click to enlarge.)












The second is what you see once you release the sticker tabs and unfold the "envelope." It reads, "For a local homeless family, this could be today's only meal."






















The third is the flip-side, which says, "You can't have a home cooked meal if you don't have a home."






















I know I said I've enjoyed CCF's mailings in the past, but, honestly, it didn't matter who sent this to me - there is no way I could keep myself from opening an intriguing piece like this.

I imagine quite a few readers withdrew the donation envelope and filled it out.

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