Vocational Surfing: Will Someone Puhleeze Ride that Wave?

by Sam Van Eman

Transcript for this recording:

Hey, it's Friday and you're either glad the work week is over or you're bummed it's coming to an end. My friend and stump-preaching vocation specialist, Byron Borger, refuses to eat at TGI Friday’s for theological reasons. Work was given to us before the fall of humankind, not after. So for that reason, despite the callouses, work is a good thing. And, honestly, because it has service and cultivation at its roots, work brings goodness into the mess that surrounds us. Byron may be onto something.

This morning I came across a surfing video. It's amazing. I've surfed only once but even my three-foot waves made me appreciate water's power and the need I would have for excellence to both understand and work within the ways of that power. In the video scenes where you look into the empty curl, you'll wonder if a surfer will emerge. In the scenes where you watch the surfer under a closing wave, you'll wonder if he will make it.

I didn’t intend to share this in order to create a point, but I couldn't help thinking about the surfing montage and work. TGIF (not the restaurant) is the relief statement of someone who can't seem to emerge. They either lack the vision, or the know-how, or the willingness to ride out what seems like pending doom. And sometimes it is pending doom. Plenty of jobs will eventually reach right over our heads and take us under. But every time?

I would like to see more of us ride this thing beyond Friday.

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Enjoy the video below. If you don’t think about work while you watch it, that’s okay. The wave is still amazing.

 

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Super Bowl Commercials and My Spiritual Tipping Point

by Sam Van Eman

Transcript of this recording:

It's early January and the perennial conversation about the Super Bowl game versus Super Bowl commercials has reached the living room already. Last night, after an overtime loss took the Steelers out of the running, a friend surrendered: "Well, there will always be the commercials." Even my seven-year old reminded me this week why she likes watching football: "I love the commercials, Daddy."

Of course, behind-the-scenes talk began months ago. This year's 30-second spot line-up was sold out before Thanksgiving. At a record-high $3.5 million a piece (about $117,000 per second), NBC is more than happy to host both the game and the high-fare entertainment.

Seth Winter, senior vice president of sales and marketing at NBC’s sports group, said, “We have shattered any recent revenue stories in regards to the Super Bowl."

Super Bowl commercials aren't predictably Jack's beanstalk for companies who commission them, but companies certainly hope their millions will become that. At the very least, with Ash Wednesday only weeks behind America's favorite game, it's as if they hope this will be the Mardi Gras of consumption until Black Friday resurrects their sales again.

My Mardi Gras

The Super Bowl is also my Mardi Gras; a last hurrah of pleasure and shiny lights before the darkness sets in; a cultural feast followed by a religious fast. I give up television each year for Lent because I watch too much tube leading up the Super Bowl. Charlie Brown specials, mid-winter sit-com reruns, play-off games, more play-off games. By the time I wake up the morning after the big event, I can't watch another minute of anything.

(Well...except for Netflix.)

The cycle does my body good. Unplugged, I'm invited to have expectations beyond wanting to see which Doritos' submission got chosen out of the more than 6000 entries for its 30 seconds of fame. Unplugged, I'm invited to wait for provision - the Easter kind no ad or product can produce.

For now - and since my team is officially out - we'll be talking about the commercials around here. I'll call my kids into the room when age-appropriate gems air, I'll talk with peers about their favorites, I'll reflect on the influence of advertising on our 21st-century hearts and minds. I'll also hope for more neighbor-sensitive commercials, pray for those creative types behind the scenes who have more power than they realize, and reflect on my own role in the machine that is consumerism.

And then, on February 6th, a day after partying with food and friends, I'll come home from work and find something else to do besides watch TV.

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Nissan Leaf, Polar Bears, Pittsburgh Steelers...hugs all around!

Nissan Leaf

I don't know who pitches for the Dodgers or leads the points race at any given Indianapolis 500, but I do watch football. I've been a Steeler fan since the mid-70s, when we played flipsies at Chad's house with now legendary playing cards of folks like Terry Bradshaw and Franco Harris, and when we stopped every police officer in town to ask for special edition trading cards.

I'm still a fan thirty-some years later. Their winning record and exemplary team management over the decades has certainly helped. And they're fun to watch, though if you saw yesterday's stressful game against the Jets, you'll know that I mean drop-tower fun more than Chuck E. Cheese's fun.

But this post isn't about the Steelers. Supposedly, an ad for the Nissan Leaf aired in the NFL season opener back in September, 2010. I missed that game, and, therefore, the ad. Yet with all the commercial repetition and subsequent hours of Sunday afternoon football I have caught since then, I somehow missed this much-discussed ad until yesterday afternoon.

Yes, it's manipulative. No, it doesn't mean Nissan is exempt from leaving an environmental footprint. But I like it. It surprised me in a good way, especially after assuming it was all cgi.

If you don't remember seeing a recent commercial with a polar bear in it, I suggest you start this video at 02:28. Then go back to the beginning to learn how they created it.


Nissan Leaf

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Going Pro

I have a love/hate relationship with the NCAA's Public Service Announcements on Going Pro. Here's a recent one called "Beyond the Boundaries":



See? Nowhere to land. On the one hand, it captivates my attention, makes good use of visual effects and sounds inspirational as the voice-over proclaims, "There are over 400,000 NCAA student athletes, and just about all of us will be going pro in something other than sports."

That's the one hand. On the other, I have no idea why they made this commercial.

I asked a friend and college coach to explain Why to me. He sounded articulate and I think I even nodded my head in genuine agreement a few times. When I walked away, I realized I was back where I started: still confusedly impressed.

Next I looked online for Why and found, among very little else, the making of last year's PSA, "Shoe." Pam Thomas, director of the spot, said, "I love that...when he's revealing wing-tips you understand that this is a student athlete who's gonna go beyond athleticism and use his education in other ways. That's sort of what these NCAA spots are all about."



Pam's comment basically said what the PSA said, and that's when I realized I wasn't going to "get" this announcement. I'm simply not in its audience. While most commercials talk to the general consumer and PSAs advocate commonly valued values, "Shoe" and "Beyond the Boundaries" and others like them have someone else in mind.

But Who? Eighteen-to-fifty-year-old men who watch college Bowl games and forget that Florida State is an educational institution? Concerned parents of student athletes? Disillusioned scholarship hopefuls? Post-college job recruiters? TV viewers like me who appreciate creative ads?

That last guess aside, I honestly have no idea. So I have to appreciate it for what it is and be okay with assuming that since it's a PSA, the NCAA must have recognized the need to share an important message; possibly even to care for a neighbor.

Feel free to enlighten me. Or, just enjoy the announcements and remain confusedly impressed.

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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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Reebok: Your Move...or not

Who can keep up with the "pop" in popular culture? I can't. Instead, I stash away items of interest in both electronic and paper files until a rainy day.

Today's selection is a Reebok commercial I saw back in June during the Stanley Cup Finals between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings.



The ad was part of Reebok's "Your Move" campaign, and it caught my attention for two reasons:

1. You have to pay attention to follow what's happening. I like that.

2. "But where you end up...is entirely up to you." I don't like that.

Sports commercials often play this Just Do It card, and while it might pump the adrenaline a bit and offer some inspiration, it only speaks to a few folks in the world. Mario Lemiuex and Sidney Crosby are two of the best hockey players in history. The second little boy on the carpet can dream all day, but chances are he'll never get any closer to NHL ice than a seat behind the glass.

I hate to cast a cloud, but people really can't do whatever they want. We can't reach all of our dreams. We can't win every battle or overcome every obstacle. And that's fine. We are, in one way or another, wholly dependent creatures.

I don't suppose it's wrong to broadcast a wide message of inspiration like this - it's bound to hit someone. (And the opposite message would be a disaster: "Don't even go there, kid. You'll be lucky if you make the JV team. Your Move. Reebok.") But is there a better alternative?

Further questions to consider: Does a commercial like this lead to disillusionment? Is it honest? Where does submission regarding the direction of our lives come in to play? 

Related post: Going Pro

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