Saving Your Business is Worth $20

Julie's phone went haywire last month. After visiting a local Verizon kiosk, a young employee diagnosed the issue and promised a new purple replacement within one week.

Four weeks later, the package finally arrived.

In this cavern:

And in gray.

Since the original battery, which was purple, needed to be transferred to the new phone, she decided to make a second trip to Verizon. You know what? That same employee offered to mail the cavern on his own and at his expense, ordered the purple replacement to be Fed-Ex'd by today (It arrived this morning, less than 24 hours later), and, to top it off, gave her twenty bucks.

I should clarify: Julie didn't cause a scene or enter the store with mascara-lined cheeks. This kid just recognized a customer in need of frustration diffusion. (Or else he was flirting, in which case I'm sending Julie to Customer Service from now on.)

The amount of money seemed arbitrary to me, but that's what left the biggest impression on her. Sometimes saving your business is worth $20.

Related Verizon posts:
Verizon and World Vision: Marketing Partners
"Is My Map in the Way?"

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March of the Pilgrims

Our move a few weeks back makes 18 for me. Eighteen moves, and they don't include college room changes. I'd like to believe I'm done with this nomadic life, but who knows? I could have an address or two (or three) to go. I hope not.

As the culture editor at The High Calling Blogs, I had the privilege of hosting four writers for a late summer series on pilgrimage. We finished the series last week, though none of us is actually done moving, of course. It's in our dreams to stop, but it's human to move.

Cumberland Island, GA. Photo by Jeff Houser.

We're homebodies, all of us, especially (if not ironically) the wanderers and idolaters and dreamers. I might even throw creatives and entrepreneurs in that mix. Home is magnetic to us and we can't seem to find enough of it to satisfy. The craving to roam, to chase, signifies a deep, deep longing for what isn't in this moment. We have faith, yet it's so hard to wait.

I appreciated the series because the writers drew from personal experience to demonstrate the myriad ways - both good and bad - that we search for home.

Bob Gorinski addressed our infatuation with physical fitness and the perfect body:

"I play bio-mechanical detective, attempting to solve problems in the function of muscle, nerve, and bone. Most of my clients are on a serious journey toward change in their physical form and function....

[But t]he truth is that whole people are far beyond PTs, nutritionists, doctors, and the guy in the Facebook ad selling Acai Berry." (Read more...)

Claire Burge captured our use of pictures as tools that give memories a place in history:

"I live in Ireland and [my mother] lives in South Africa. I want to remember her when longing comes knocking on my door later this year; when her laughter no longer rings in my passageway....

Life is a pilgrimage with sacred value and photography helps us to freeze frame the significant landmarks along the way." (Read more...)   

Kami Rice moved us beyond the loneliness of pilgrimage and into a shared experience:

"I’m not sure I’ll put myself through Eat, Pray, Love again by queuing up for the Julia Roberts’ helmed movie version. Though Gilbert’s story has been offered out to an audience, I still don’t really sense that it includes an invitation to enter into the story....

Pilgrimage, for all its solitary-traveler glory, must hold [a]community element." (Read more...) 

And Margie Haack welcomed us into her living room for tea and a place to say that wandering is hard:

"When I finally began admitting that journeys back home didn’t reveal it as a place where both parents welcomed me – a place to stand soul-naked yet loved – I was nearly wrecked by the revelation....

Some of this is another story, but the gift (I use the word purposely) of this life experience was the desire to make our own home a resting place and solace for people passing through – rather like the inn by the way that gave Christian, John Bunyan’s famous pilgrim, enough hope and rest to continue his journey toward the Celestial City." (Read more...)

We could have continued this series for months. In fact, if I had an article for every idol we chase and every aspect of home that beckons, it might become my full-time job. However, this was a good start.

Enjoy meeting these folks if you haven't already. And keep walking. And keep resting.

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Rad! And other responses to chaos reduction and self-promotion

My online life is splintered. The debris isn't as widespread as it is for many, but I sense the chaos factor increasing with each new application, community membership and task. Do you know the feeling? It's like having too many kids and always wondering if you left one of them at church.

I need to do some gathering. Case in point: I've had an off-the-beaten-path and very under-promoted promotional website for the past few years. It doesn't help that I never really liked the design, but it's still mine and I can't leave it behind.

Thanks to new tools here at Blogger, I'm finally doing something about it.

Irresistible self-promotion
This week I added two new pages to New Breed of Advertisers. They say more about what I do and how I might help you do what you do. You'll find the tabs at the top of the page. Pass them along to a professor, student, chaplain, copywriter.... Those are all folks I work with.

In case you're hesitating on whether or not to click on Talk and Write, I'll tempt you with this:

 See what I mean? Irresistible. That's me in the hat, chillin'.

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Beer, Intihuatana and Frustrations

"The Intihuatana stone was damaged in September 2000 when a 450 kg (1,000-pound) crane fell onto it, breaking off a piece of stone the size of a ballpoint pen. The crane was being used by a crew hired by J. Walter Thompson advertising agency to film an advertisement for a beer brand."

- Wikipedia

Here I was reading about this most iconic Incan symbol, the ruins of Machu Picchu, one of the new seven wonders of the world, and I learn that commercialism broke it. Just one more reason to believe that advertising and alcohol are a bad combination.

That’s only partly tongue and cheek. Admonished by childhood memories of alcoholism and Jean Kilbourne’s treatise on the dangers of beer in advertising, I do think they are a bad combination. I’m also a fan of old things. If you’re going to break something old, at least have a worthwhile story behind it. Co-opting the historic site to move refreshments off the shelf is not one of them. This goes in the same consternating category as, “Why did you let your two-year-old play with my bone china teacups?!”

If you were paying attention to goings on in the advertising world ten years ago, you would remember this beer/crane/Intihuatana story. I missed it. But I discovered it today because I may be heading to Peru next spring. After pages of drool-inducing photos and captivating stories, and a two-hour meeting with CCO wilderness colleagues about piloting this new adventure, I was sadly reminded of our quest to exploit the pristine.

Even as a Leave No Trace card-holder, I don’t stick to a no-touch policy. Give me a chance and I’ll clamber all over those ancient walls (carefully). But I won’t cheapen them. It’s an interesting human predicament: the most sacred and marvelous and amazing sights we treat like Monopoly properties. Buy ‘em up and profit. Like Niagara Falls, which is now Mall of America with an attractive water feature in the center.

I’d better stop. Without TV for most of this summer due to our move, I’m a bit more sensitized to media misbehavior. I appreciate many aspects of advertising and haven’t been frustrated with it in a while, but today set me back.

Photo taken from a travel site.

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EcoMarketing Subway-style

After a month and a half of long days and as many short nights, we finally finished the heavy work at our new place and moved in. The girls are happy for more floor space and we're excited to have something with fewer cracks in the walls. All of this prep, of course, meant physical labor, which meant - as I learned at a recent doctor's visit - that I lost five pounds.

That's not as much as Jared Fogle lost from eating Subway sandwiches, but then, I'm not trying to shed a 62-inch pair of pants either.

I came across a creatively written article this morning about the green movement based on Jared's marketing success for Subway. Jeff Dubin is the "founder of Green Meridian, a marketing research firm dedicated to helping marketers of green products succeed with both core green and mainstream consumers." In Paging Jared Fogle, he asks:

"I know Subway still keeps you busy traveling 200 days a year but if you have some spare time, it would be great if you could help the environment, too.

Why you? 'I'm the obesity guy, not the green guy,' you might protest. No, Jared you're Every Guy. We relate to you. If you committed to a green lifestyle, think of the possibilities. Maybe we'd get off our fossil fuel-burning butts like when you made us put down our boxes of Krispy Kremes and get out of our Barcaloungers a decade ago."

Regardless of whether you oppose this movement or embrace it, consume its products or advertise them, you have to admit that the creativity and success of ecomarketing has been tremendous. Dubin is being playful here, but so far, much of the movement has grown without a Jared.

Imagine what might happen with him.

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Me Monster

I love Brian Regan's description of the "Me Monster." He nails it for me. And hearing from others, he nails it for them, too.

Advertisers don't get the spotlight very often, but that just means they have to outdo the next guy's creativity, or the next agency's account productivity, or the next manager's public influence, to get their fix. We all want affirmation, but often our quest for attention turns into a trampling exercise driven by insecurities.

I write for High Calling Blogs and last week I shared a story about the Me Monster that you might find encouraging as you deal with your own Me Monster:

David has gone to the same camp for the past nine years. He worked his way up the ranks of awards and badges each summer, impressing counselors and cabin mates. He’s a genuinely good kid and was simply doing what his parents taught him. Last year he received the coveted Teepee pendant, a sure indication that as a camper he had a shot at the granddaddy of them all: the Tomahawk Award.

Only one senior is eligible and he had this final summer to do it... [Read more and watch Brian's video here.]

High Calling Blogs is part of The High Calling, a site about work, life and God.

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Clear copy. Less clear vision.

Some of you know we bought a house in May. It was a foreclosure and our particular loan process took two full months. We finally closed on July 6 and began a good bit of renovation. I took the first week and half off in order to tackle the bigger items, while friends have been in and out to help. For the past two weeks, I've sanded or cleaned or painted every night, often till midnight.

Sleeping is off. Eating is off. Blogging is way off. As tired as I am, however, I feel energized to push on toward our mid-August goal of moving in. We'll see if that can happen.

Being away from New Breed of Advertisers has had an interesting effect on me. I'm so connected to the house right now that I'm only doing what I have to at work. That isn't my normal operation. Typically, I do what I have to and also try to keep a number of items on the table that I want to do. It's the proactive, creative element of work that sustains me, but I don't have time for it in the present.

Normally, I dream of helping folks do their advertising work well. This summer you all (and other readers) are hardly on my mind. I can't help it. And even though I've watched some TV to help me unwind at night, I haven't seen much that catches my attention anyway. I'm bored by most of the ads, though I'm sure I'll mention a few sooner or later.

In the meantime, here are two bits of copy that I heard, I think, on the radio. They don't get much clearer (and cleverer) than these:

Redwing - "Find the boots that fit your feet, job and wallet." 

Trojan - "You can't wait to get it on."

If you care to, pray for me to finish this house project well, and to find clarity in my service to the advertising industry this year.

My thanks.

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The King of Madison Avenue. You know...Whats-His-Name

I love Grady Powell's opening paragraph in this week's Books and Culture review of The King of Madison Avenue. I'll hold off on giving you the subtitle for a moment to give you time to guess the king's name. (Hint: The book is about advertising.) Here are Powell's observation and a helpful question:

"[M]ost people would struggle to identify a national advertising agency, much less any of the copywriters, designers, or directors that produce our daily intake of commercials and billboards—with the possible exception of the fictional characters in Mad Men. The more advertising becomes central to our society, the more we take for granted its power to shape the way we think. Advertisers, like op-ed columnists, are trying to change your mind. Shouldn't you know who they are?"

Yes. But he's right: we don't.

I guess this isn't much different than not knowing who brings water into my home. Except for this: At least I know the water company's title and can reach a representative with a 1-800 number. Same with the men (and one woman) who pick up my trash. I don't know them, but I've seen them there in the alley and maybe even said "Thanks" a time or two when I ran out late with the recycling bin. The work these folks do has an enormous impact on my daily life. Imagine no more garbage haulers. Or no more water service.

It's different with advertising because there is no 1-800 number; no occasional vision of workers in the background, nobody to know. And yet they have and use "power to shape the way we think."

Maybe this is part of advertising's problem. If you've ever imagined being invisible, you've probably imagined a few bad things you could get away with. Even if it's just to be that invisible fly on the wall to overhear a dying-to-know conversation, invisibility is powerful and potentially dangerous.

What accountability is there in advertisers' relative anonymity?

Anonymity on the loose

Consider this: How would advertising change if every ad ended with customer service contact information? Not for the product, of course, but a number or address to reach the copywriter and art director behind the ad. Would it raise the bar? Would people actually call? Would consumers demand more honesty and better treatment? Would SimGospel advertising diminish?

As far back as 62 years ago, that consumer comment or complaint might have reached the desk of the eventual king of Madison Avenue, David Ogilvy. (Did you guess correctly?) Ogilvy was a famous copywriter who worked his way to the throne, and whether you've heard of him or not, he left behind tremendous influence on the world of advertising as we know it today.

There are good agencies out there. And there are Christian and non-Christian advertisers who exhibit the attributes of Christ in their advertising work. But Powell's observation reminds me of the importance of accountability and what good might come from having more of it.

Read Powell's review here.

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It's Jubilee Day and I have a little something for you

Today is Jubilee Day™, "the largest, longest running one-day street fair in the eastern part of the United States." For a small town like ours, 60,000 attendees is nothing to sneeze at. 

The Old Testament Jubilee Day was nothing to sneeze at either. You can read about it in Leviticus 25 and imagine what restoring justice, correcting misfortunes, liberating servants and the like would have done for small towns 3500 years ago (and what this list would do for us today). 

I'm not sure cotton candy or a puppet show will provide anything in the way of justice for me and the kids this afternoon, but I'm sure it will bring a bit of jubilation. And I thought I could bring a bit of jubilation to you, too.

On Earth as It is in Advertising?

I don't have any special prizes or kick up your heels deals, but in honor of all things Jubilee maybe I can make you a little happier and a little more aware of injustice with a book offer. In 2005, Brazos Press published On Earth as It is in Advertising? Moving from Commercial Hype to Gospel Hope. It was reprinted this spring by Wipf & Stock.

I don't talk much about On Earth for a couple of reasons: 1) Self-promotion feels salesy to me, and 2) An early negative review took wind out of my sails.

Yet it's a book about injustice that every TV-watching, magazine-reading, banner ad-viewing, mall-visiting human being encounters: Bad advertising. Because I care about work and its relationship to neighbors, and because I care about the specific work of advertising being done well and right, I consider "SimGospel" advertising to be an injustice.

Critics and Endorsers
Read the original Publishers Weekly review that dropped my sails (and sales) and then read the very different endorsements on the back cover. If you're looking for a Summer read, pick up a copy. (The reprint on the right has a different cover but the content is the same).

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Geeks, Mormons and Wireless Evangelists

I think I'm getting wireless internet. I know, it's been around, like, forever, but we haven't needed it. Let me clarify: I haven't needed it. I work from home and hog up the computer. Even when it's available, my cluttered office works against the peaceful setting Julie would appreciate. She and our kids want their own space with a used laptop she just got from an IT friend.

But I don't know much about wireless. This two-page ad I found in the magazine archives (2007?) suggests that I should be concerned. I guess I knew that already so I'll concentrate instead on the number of interesting cultural connections it makes:

1. STDs = "If you have wireless, you could be giving wireless to everyone."

2. Ribbon campaigns = "Wireless Awareness."
 
3. Mormons = "Agent Samuel J. has a serious talk with his customer about network protection and the dangers of spreading wireless all over town." (I get the danger part, but are they hinting that Mormons spread good news or bad news? Or is the news good but the spreading is bad, or is the news bad but the spreading is good? Mixed metaphors always throw me.)

4. Greasy black hair = Geek Squad Agents (Emphasis on geek.)

5. Irony related to #1 = "Go ahead. Use us."

Perhaps most interesting to me is that if you were culturally ignorant, none of these references would make sense, leaving the ad entirely void of persuasion. This is risky but it's also a reminder that consumers collaborate (regardless of willingness) with advertisers to make ads work.

Click on the images to enlarge them.

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