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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Lesson: Sometimes in life you’ve got to mix things up. And why you’re at it…throw in a little blues…better then that…a lot of blues.

Time to put on a little James Cotton, Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson, John Lee Hooker and Elmore James.

Are you kidding me…they don’t make music like this anymore. Where are the Sonny Boy’s in this digital world? If you want more search for Nine Below Zero…or run out an buy his LP.

Throw in a little Muddy Waters…

A little…ok a lot of Mr. Willie Dixon on bass…yeah baby! You freakin kidding me…this guy is out of this world!

Now tell me…pick 6 has its bene’s

One thing you can say about writing down words and thoughts for the world to see is it affects or helps others or yourself. When I write…I write to express my thoughts and emotions without the goal of knowing if others read or understand what I present. It is as much for me as it is for those who choose to see into a little of my mind and spirit.

So with that said…if this post feels like a hodge-podge of words and random thoughts…well so be it…because they are mine, which I’m willing to share. They are not intended to make sense rather they are intended for me to release. So take them or leave them…they simple just are. Are mine to give. So I don’t promise any of this will make sense. It just is.

If you must know I’ve held many of these thoughts and hesitated putting them public for years. Timing is a choice for each of us.

I rarely get personal on this blog. I mean really…really personal when it comes to certain subjects such as relationships, family, death or even religion. I feel that is for each of us to share as we deem it or need it. And of course we have employers who may or may not understand the words we write. So we must consider the boundaries and responsibilities that influence more then ourselves.

As a creative, I’ve always been overwhelmed and impressed with the courage and freedom others can openly share with the world — envious of many — applauding many.

Men don’t keep diaries…at least this man does not. And if we do we call it a journal. Or we wrap our thoughts and dreams in art, photography, design or maybe hidden between the lines of a blog post. Often I’d love to be able to truly openly express my world to others in these forms…and maybe I’m the only one holding myself back from those expressions…once again my choice.

Now don’t get me wrong…sometimes I do share these feelings but usually within the family of those in a tight circle of trust that I feel I can confide and will never do harm to others or myself.

Which brings me to today, to opening a small window into my thoughts on true loss.

Loss. It is exactly that…something we cannot replace. But oddly we never really lose all of Loss. In some way it still remains within each of us but hides its identity in love, pain, void, memory or tears. Whether it is loss within our own spirit or the loss of someone we love. Loss is in my opinion the single most devastating event or moment in each of our lives.

I believe that each life is a part of another capable of instilling love, pain, dreams, horror, harmony and torture. Such is peace. Such is war. Such is strength. Such is strife. Such is our universe. Our energy. Our being.

Most of the words I share with you today were written when I carried a heavy spirit. I wrote these thoughts the day and weeks that followed the lost of my father. They just spewed out of me with no rhyme or intent other then to perhaps greave or simply state. I haven’t had the where with all to share them.

Hundreds upon hundreds of moons have passed since that Loss and I’m still numb from it. Not so much in pain…but simply numb from void that it created in my world. I dare not try to be poetic or trifle with these emotions that exists inside of me. It simply is as it is.

I’ve seen courageous, passionate, loving people in this world…and have gathered strength from many of you. I’ve also see the worst of humanity. Within these defined moments five  in particular take me to the point in which I have experience true Loss. Five moments that have stopped my universe to a grinding halt. They are so personal that I still find it difficult to truly express…especially publicly.

All of these times involved those I loved. They sucked dry my very spirit and soul with little to no ability to retain that Loss other than fading memories and dried up tears.

The death of my father is one of these moments.

Since that day I’ve had many a thought and dream about my father…some good…some not so good…but they have allowed me to regain some parts of my Loss.

Death for me is as confusing as life. I argue that none of us really understand much of either. Although many of us would like to think we do. Our at least love to preach it to others.

When my father was in the hospital…here are some of the waterfall of emotions and feelings I stumbled through.

We all gather standing around him

Some were drowning him with tears and some with prayers

 Some tears in which some of us had never shed before

Brothers and sisters…and mother expressing words and memories to comfort the moment

I wanted to cry I wanted to pray. I did neither well.

Which in its own right is odd to some as it was for me at the time. A non-sequential numbness or experience of loss as it was happening. A room full of family holding each other yet the feeling at times felt so lonely. 

Yet I cannot cry. Truly cry. Why is that?

 I feel the need to but can’t create the tears. As he lies there all I can think is that he is angered with all of us that we all see him this way. I look around and see everyone’s heads down clinching in the moment.

I look at my father in a sobering glance. Is this it? Life? You work your arse off for 79 years and one day you wake up only to die? I guess.

 Ridiculous…is that it?   

Perhaps my idea of God has changed so much that I equate God or the energy of a supreme being to the universe vs. a being that man has created. So prayer also was void for me. I tried but it just fell short for me that moment. Does that make me an agnostic? Who knows…who really gives a #$%&.

I cried in my own way. I cried with silent tears.

I looked around the room…everyone holding each other…all with swollen eyes and pain…heads down crying.  I was looking at everyone and the shell of my father in front of me. I was just there seeing it…experiencing it as though it was an out of body experience. Little feeling…but numbness. It was what it was. 

Since I never feared death maybe that was the reason for my state of mind. Maybe shock. Maybe doubt. Maybe disbelief. I had experienced death many times before and some of those moments I spoke of as Loss fall into my defined moments. I just felt this was a Loss far beyond my understanding. Loss again…rearing it’s ugly head. Whether that returns Loss returns to life or my life…I have no clue. And I doubt any of us do.

One moment…none particular you find some of that Loss and you remember the texture of your father’s hand as he shakes yours or the smell of the oils on his forehead when you kiss him goodbye.  Over time you start to question. Time gets in the way and you feel as if it was merely a compilation of memories which get harder and harder to connect…sometimes to a point where you wonder if they are imagination or ever really occurred.

Maybe things are simple. Simpler then we can imagine. So simple we can’t begin to see them for what they really are. Or maybe they are ridiculously complex. So complex we can’t even began to connect the dots of reasoning.

When someone we love dies a part of us goes with him or her. The same applies for a loss love or a loss animal that have become so much of our life.

In our heart, mind and dreams a part of them often returns to us. These parts become one with our recollections and past experiences and we become one again. At least for that moment our loss is again a part of us.

When the world that we knew becomes a memory we struggle with finding the pieces and yearn for fulfilling our Loss. When someone or something we love dies a part of us goes as well — death precludes life and life precludes death. One moment it is with us…one moment it is gone.  As the hours, days, weeks and years go by you start to question if it as may have really ever existed.

I don’t have the answers. Perhaps I never will. Perhaps none of us ever will. I don’t have the gift of completely ever being content in loss. It just is as it is. Loss – My Loss.