Kissin My Love

I love this band…

If this doesn’t put you in a mood…then you’re not breathing.

Bill Withers – guitar, vocals * Benorce Blackmon – guitar * Melvin Dunlap – bass * James Gadson – drums * Raymond Jackson – piano

It’s Halftime In America – Chyrsler Super Bowl Commercial Part 2

Chrysler hits another one out of the park with a continuation from last years ‘Imported in Detroit’. Chrysler strikes again with excellence and this year they add the grit and Americana of Clint Eastwood.

Thank you Chrysler for a smart, timely and passionate spot which pays attention to America as we know it.

BTW nice job by your marketing team and ad agency for immediately posting the spot online as soon as it appeared live. Dare I say spot on…

Love the script and nice ending…our second half is about to begin.

Nice comeback Chrysler.

If you’d like to see last years “Imported from Detroit” starring Eminem you can read my blog from yesterday….slante’

http://www.youtube.com/Chrysler

Matthew…Matthew…Anyone?

Bueller…Bueller…Get’s another day off

Nice work Honda…this may end up being one of the most talked about Super Bowl commercials this year. 2012 Honda CR-V takes you back to Matthew Broderick as the beloved Ferris Bueller spins his undoubtably best day off back to our 16:9 screens.

Budweiser 4 – VW 0 – Great Times are Waiting

Budweiser may take the prize when they lend a hand to a couple of Buds who just happen to being playing a routine hockey game. Routine….hmmm…how about the BIG GAME…it’s time for these boys to feel like a big leaguer. Nice spot….odd that it’s a hockey game…but hey…it works. Definitely worth a viewing.

As for the new VW commercial with an overweight dog getting in shape to chase a new VW…well let’s just say this one is a dog…especially when it transitions into a Star Wars bar scene…quite lame. It’s like watching the movie ‘Stripes’…you literally feel like you’re watching two separate films…same deal with the new VW spot. A shame really…since the car looks sweet.

Ad Man – Culture is what it’s all about

As an ad man and marketing guy (ok fine…once an ad man always an ad man) I’ve seen a lot of commercials that I just assume I’d been better off reading a chapter of Emerson vs. wasting my time gazing upon this digital society with a lack of definition.

As we approach the Super Bowl millions of viewers get excited about the big game…. but thousands of marketing, advertising, brand and designers gear up for the spaces between the lines…the commercials.

We’ve all had our share of memorable commercials that leave lasting impressions years beyond there original debut. Such was 1984 from Apple, the horse drawn sled trotting thru a hallmark setting in the Miller Brewing Company Holiday Greeting spot or the Lilly pad Budweiser frogs croaking there antics into our living rooms. You could add many others to this list of spots that have us talking about them in the office the next day.

Developing Your Super Commercial

As a man who has had the pleasure of developing concepts, producing, directing, and editing for the medium of TV, I have my thoughts about how to reach ones heart and soul…or at least create those memories that last. For me effective marketing and advertising can be attributed to many a factor…the script…the visual style and art direction told magnificently by the DP. Of course there’s the acting…the drama…the music score…the pure emotion it drives in our hearts or the humor that lives on for all of us. But if I were to examine one thing…one thing that typically plants that long-term impression in our hearts and minds…I’d have to say it is culture.

Perhaps since I’ve been in the business for nearly thirty years I can usually pick the top two or three that will stand the test of time. With that said to this day I am still blown away by a commercial that aired last year, which I feel, had it all.

The script was honest…real…and related to the emotions of an economy and an America that needed to hear it. It took an unlikely juxtaposition of character and blended so much truth that even to this day if I’m in another room and I hear the score from this commercial I can immediately visualize nearly every cut and image of the spot. It speaks to the soul and culture of an America that is yearning for what it can be…what it has been and quite frankly what it still is.

Like EMINEM or not (and I happen to like him for his raw urban poetry) its honest and kicks you in the behind. It wakes you up and forces you to pay attention to what is occurring right now in our own backyard. It reams with the emotional culture that has engulfed this country…from hard times and unemployment…to hard work and an attempt to rise up beyond the spoils of today’s set backs.

Let The Truth Be Told

Just read the script and watch two minutes of commercial brilliance…and you can’t refuse its truth.

I’ve got a question for you. What does this city know about luxury?

What does a town who had been to hell in back know about been to hell and back know about the finer things in life? Well I’ll tell you…more then most.

You see…it’s the hottest fires that make the hardest steel. Add hard work and conviction…and the know how that runs generations deep in every last one of us.

That’s who we are.

That’s our story.

Now it’s probably not the one you’ve been reading in the papers. The one that’s being written by folks who have never even been here…and don’t know what we’re capable of. Because when it comes to luxury…it’s as much about where it’s from as it is…as who it’s for.

Now where from America. But this isn’t New York City or the Windy City…or Sin City and we’re certainly no ones Emerald City

This is the Motor City…and this is what we do.

Imported from Detroit

Now It’s Your Turn

So you want to make a commercial that exemplifies your brand…that speaks directly the soul of your audience and relates to the environment around them.

Consider community. Consider Culture. Allow this to soak into your mindset. Get into the real world…into our world. Give them truth. Exemplify the true brand promise you work so hard to share.

Then and only then will you have a commercial of value that matches the product or service you or your client has labored to share and produce.

Once you get inside our heart, mind and spirit you create that memorable experience you’ve set your career on.

UD 87 – Xavier 72

For a guy who grew up watching this guy stop slap shots (Gilles Meloche of the Cleveland Barons), falling in love with watching the NCAA Men’s Basketball team – Dayton Flyers in the Atlantic 10 is about as far away as one might get.

I have to tell you it’s been a riot…especially putting on the big hurt to Xavier this weekend. UD is on their way to an unexpected opportunity to sneak into the big show.

UD Arena...a sea of RED!

Ah.....to be a student again...would ROCK

Go to love it...Chief Wahoo was even in attendance!

Flyers putting on the big hurt!

Might be the coolest shirt I've seen in a while

SHAME ON WIKIPEDIA AND WORDPRESS – End Piracy, Not Liberty Stance – To Each Their Own

“Vote NO on PIPA and SOPA before it is too late”

So my blog is subject to this messaging and temporary blackout because WordPress and companies like Wikipedia and others feel that they have the right to silence the internet for a cause they believe in. I have no problem with these organizations doing this for themselves…but don’t assume everyone takes this stand. Don’t assume that I or the thousands and millions of others you represent and offer an open platform to speak out share your position. My position is mine…I may or may not support theirs…that’s not the point. WordPress has made a space available for all of us to share our messaging and content…but have they really? No. They have proven that when they believe in something all of us will be silenced for their position and assume we are comfortable to follow.  So you black out and censor freshly pressed? Shame on you. So who is censoring who?

Seriously. Your politics, religion and beliefs aren’t mine and don’t have to be. So by opening a wordpress page censoring all of our sites is just as bad as the act you protest against. Google made a statement but did not chose to censor information…at least they protested with the opportunity to continue there open service.

“Vote NO on PIPA and SOPA before it is too late” might be your point of view…but don’t make it mine to the point you change ones behavior for that period of time.

So WordPress…Wiki and others…seriously what were you thinking? Thanks for censoring the very people you were fighting for…fire your creative and marketing advisor on this one. You blew it. You fell victim to the exact position you were fighting against.

Infographics I Like