Acemetrical

Apple will have the most advanced media metrics ever devised.

2008-08-07T16:32:00.000-07:00

So I was thinking about my Iphone and I realized that soon, very soon, Apple will be able to target me with marketing at a level never realized before. Because of the Iphone, they know where I go, where I shop, what online stores I go to, when I'm awake, whos emailing me, and where I stand at a given instant. If none of this data is being mined comprehensively by Apples marketing department, I'd be shocked.

It would be the holy grail for anyone planning a camapaign. Therefore, I'm thinking that Apple marketshare will be increasing steadily over the next year or so. It has to. That or the apple peeps are going to be firing a big chunk of their marketing team as of next year....

Talula Does the Hula....

2008-07-24T07:29:00.000-07:00

This article from CNN has got to be read...

Apparently someone in New Zealand has named their daughter "Talula does the hula from Hawaii". To make it even better, her friends inexplicably know her as "K". Explain that!

I have to give credit to any parents that do things like this. It takes a lot of balls and creativity at the same time to pull that off. Pretty BA if you ask me.

I want every song to have it's own image.

2008-07-22T20:42:00.000-07:00

Though I was raised in the era of cassettes, and caught the tail end of vinyl, my interest in music really started at the dawn of the CD era. Back in the early days of CD's they came in boxes that were the same height as a record sleeve so that record owners could use the bins they had vinyl albums in...smart. What was great about these boxes was that - like vinyl - there was enough real estate for graphics to enable an album to look badass. Then, tho fill up the other empty real estate in the packaging they included copious amounts of graphics, lyric books, and photography. I can only assume landing an album graphic design gig paid an artist quite a bit. And with all of this, we ended up getting some extremely iconic art. Yes, album covers were the artistic canvases that spoke to a generation, several in fact.

So where do we stand now? We're in the process of leaving the concept of a physical album behind. Soon you will have some arbitrary graphic that's called an "album cover" for new albums. Really, it's just an icon. And if that's the case, I'd like to have a graphic - or icon - for every song.

And why on earth not? Like I pointed out earlier, albums used to have tons of graphics provided. None of that is needed anymore. Certainly not an album cover as people really aren't into albums anymore. What they are into is songs.

You want to sell more songs? Package 'em. Give them each their own icon. Let us ditch "cover flow" and embrace "song flow". And give some artists a chance at a new canvas for a new generation.

You don't know, Dick.

2008-06-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

"In two days, the price of oil rose $16," said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., at a joint hearing of two Senate panels on oil speculation Tuesday. "Did I miss something, was there some war in the Middle East?"

Um...are you serious? Yes.

Read Full Article >>

I can has download?

2008-04-11T10:28:00.001-07:00

Does anyone else wonder how many illegally downloaded songs reside on the computers of professional recording artists? My bet, probably more than reside on the computers of the grandma's the RIAA is suing.

Same with movie studios. I have the feeling that when a new release comes out and some rival studio has a board meeting to discuss it, they download it. I really can't see the whole board going on a field trip to the theater, or going through the hassle of going through channels to obtain a legal copy.

Industry people would bound to be the worst offenders as they have the most to gain.

Just a thought.

Carson Pics...

2008-04-06T14:32:00.000-07:00

New pictures of Carson at CarsonEmery.com. Oh yes...it's the swimsuit edition.

Airing Dirty Laundry

2008-03-31T12:53:00.001-07:00

Consolidating Blogs - Orginally posted: 8/15/07

As a marketing guy, I know that the best time to spin your bad news is when other people are spinning theirs - and especially when theirs is worse.

I have the feeling that what we're seeing in the markets right now is a result of companies coming clean on a bunch of dirt that they've been hiding in the books for a while now. However, now these companies have an excuse - the market - for which to blame. The result of course is that projections which had been falsely rosey a week ago, will now come tumbling down.

The good news is that I have the feeling that once this hidden laundry has been unearthed, we'll have a resurgence in the market. But we need all the shoes to drop before that can happen.

Bring Made in USA back...

2008-03-31T12:51:00.000-07:00

Consolidating Blogs - Orginally posted: 8/15/07

Recently, I read an article in Wired that detailed the different countries that were involved in making a single product (computer or car? I can't remember). The article showcased a nice graphic of the world with pushpins showing all of the countries that shipped different parts. The point of the article was that it takes a planet to raise a product.

Point taken. I get it. Manufacturing is cheap elsewhere. Because of the cheapness, more people get products that they want. Product designers get bigger budgets for R&D with less money being tied to the manufacturing process. Awesome. I just was able to buy an incredible LCD TV that would have cost 10 times as much was there not a world factory.

I would love to be the guy that is cool with not having the latest and greatest. The guy that buys Zenith TV's and shops at Farm and Fleet for American products. That guy isn't even in my world. He's the guy with a Buick (Yuck!) and 20 year old electronics. He probably likes Jeff Foxworthy and votes Republican.

But I am the guy that wants the latest and greatest. I am an early adopter. I convince people to buy the same crap that I do. And it's all made overseas. This is the problem.

Most importantly, how do we rebuild our manufacturing base so that America can build great products in our borders?

First step, get rid of unions.
Second step, revise patent law.
Third step, utilize cheaper marketing platforms to cut marketing costs.
Finally, do we even need all of this crap?

I'd say one thing that needs to happen fast is for import taxes to increase, and apply those dollars to SMALL business manufacturing concerns and loans for new companies.

Why small businesses? Because our top manufacturers are the ones that are outsourcing everything and already have the deeply entrenched world wide pipelines. They are never going to shift unless smaller companies - local ones - that are more agile become a threat.

A few years ago I read about a manufacturing plant in Mexico where they were making XBOX's. They could shift this plant on the fly to be reconfigured for different products. These are the sorts of plants that we need in the US. Or, we need to annex Mexico as the 51st state and get back all of the plants we built through the ever wonderful NAFTA plan. (Ross Perot, how right you were...)

Enough ranting. I'll be using this blog to detail Manufacturers that are looking to bring production back to the US, as well as to vilify companies that continue to produce over seas.

Please contribute. To get these ideas exposed to those that have a chance of doing anything we'll need to be loud. Thank you.

Is a Spell Checker another name for a Wizard?

2008-03-31T12:45:00.000-07:00

So spell checking. Can anyone tell me why this isn't done natively in the operating system as you type. Think about it. Whenever you type on your computer - the operating system - not the application - should natively spell check what you write. Why have all of this redundancy in applications that spell check within the application? My operating system should simply be checking everything as I go....

Someone tell Microsoft and Apple for me.

Ace

Writers Guild Strike = Recession.

2008-03-26T12:24:00.001-07:00

So this a bit far fetched, but then again, so is most of my thinking. However, I was thinking about the correlation between the writer's guild strike and the recent "economic slowdown". While I'm not stupid enough to think that the two are directly related, I do wonder if the strike fanned the flames a bit.

Think about it. One of the factors that contributed to recent economic events was the cutting back of spending in the retail sector. This happened to take place during and after the strike. What happened during the strike - people stopped watching tv more - they stopped seeing as many ads.

My father, an ad exec, often talks about "reach and frequency" when we talk shop. Basically, how far does an ad get, and how often do people see it. So based on declining reach and frequency during the strike, brands began to suffer. People wanted less.

Now this is a remarkable concept in one key area. It means that marketing is sophisticated enough to actually drive an economy. Until recently, marketing has always been about making people spend their money with one company over another. However, now marketing is sophisticated enough to actually drive people into debt, to purchase things they wouldn't purchase otherwise. Shocking.

So here's to the ad industry. You are some smart bastards. However, It's good to know when you're turned off and people think for themselves they make good decisions.

2007-10-29T19:14:00.000-07:00

Carson, in his eighth week, has become both fat and happy. We're not sure if they're connected.

More pics at http://www.CarsonEmery.com.

2007-10-03T10:26:00.000-07:00

Carson has slid into week 5 with no problems. Finally found a lighting angle that keeps him from squinting, too. Which is nice.

Thank you note I sent out for our baby monitor.

2007-08-14T13:06:00.000-07:00

Thank you for our last dinner with friends.
Our last meal out before our single life ends.
You guys did a great job with this planned out soirée.
The invites were classic, we loved the brûlée.

And thanks for a gift that that's an amazing device.
One that'll wake us and shake us like two loaded dice.
Before we registered, we did lots of research.
Below are list of some of its features:

No interference!
Maximum clearance!
Technologies taken from conspiracy theorists!

We guess these are things that new parents want,
but one feature was lacking we assume they forgot.
Either a snooze or a mute, something easy to hit,
or something to quiet an untimely fit.

Regardless we love it. And thanks for the night!
And we have one more thanks to set everything right.
Thank you from Carson to his new Uncles and Aunts...

...Lets see how you like him when he shits in his pants.

TSA guidelines for "monkey helpers"

2007-01-09T20:27:00.000-08:00

Here are some TSA airport screening guidlines for disabled people with 'Monkey Helpers'

Since monkeys may likely draw attention, the handler will be escorted to the physical inspection area where a table is available for the monkey to sit on. Only the handler will touch or interact with the monkey.
TSOs have been trained to not touch the monkey during the screening process.
TSOs will conduct a visual inspection on the monkey and will coach the handler on how to hold the monkey during the visual inspection.
The inspection process may require that the handler take off the monkey’s diaper as part of the visual inspection.

Official TSA Site Here.

The Need For Visible Justice

2006-09-21T17:22:00.001-07:00

You gotta hand it to the Iraqi insurgency. They're willing to die for a cause that they believe in. In America people actually have to hide from the fact that we do believe in causes. Believe in a cause and you'll offend someone. But why in hell does it matter if we offend someone?

Oh yeah. They sue you.

Therefore, we will never have an insurgency or even moderate political activism simply because we're all afraid of each other. So forget unity. Forget racial or religious equality. Lets have realistic goals....How can we stop being afraid of each other?

Frankly, we have to do something about laws. I've talked about it before, but there simply has to be a return to less restriction. Not to be Orwellian here, but come on already. I've beaten this horse to death.

But this brings us to all justice and how displaying punishment is more successful than hising it away...This is a great little article:

Medieval Justice Not So Medieval
By Heather Whipps
Special to LiveScience
posted: 03 August 2006
07:51 am ET

Labeling idleness a crime may have been a bit strict, but the justice system in medieval England should never be considered backwards.
Punishments for offenses in those days were perhaps even more sensible and humane than they are now, say some historians. [Medieval Torture's 10 Biggest Myths]
"The common view of the medieval justice system as cruel and based around torture and execution is often unfair and inaccurate," said University of Cambridge historian Helen Mary Carrel. Most criminals received gentle sentences merely meant to shame them, Carrel said, with the punishments often carried out in the open so townspeople could bring them charity.
Carrel presented her views recently during the International Medieval Congress, hosted by the University of Leeds.
Open-door policy
The notion that our system is better because law and order happens behind closed doors especially needs to be challenged, Carrel said.
"There is a real downside to keeping those who are punished out of the public eye—we often have no idea how they are being treated," Carrel told LiveScience.
With most medieval communities lacking any proper policing, crime prevention was trusted in the hands of the village common-folk. There was no reason—or means—for punishment to be any different, say experts.
"Punishments therefore had to be simple and generally seen to be fair," according to the online exhibitions of the United Kingdom's National Archives. "Fierce, physical mutilation (cutting off part of the offender's body), common in earlier periods, was now rarely used."
Though murderers were often executed, the majority of lesser medieval offenses were punished by shaming the criminal publicly, according to Carrel. Fastening the offender into stocks wasn't considered barbaric, she said, and was seen as a much better alternative to spending the time in jail.
"Medieval town inhabitants would probably have a much clearer idea of how criminals were treated—and may well have had much more contact with the incarcerated—than most people do today," Carrel said.
Criminal charity
Even medieval jail wasn't a closed-off affair. Prisoners were often let out to beg and could make money behind bars as long as they shared their take with the jailers.
"Charity towards criminals was much more acceptable and much more common in the Middle Ages," Carrel said. "Many people left bequests to help prisoners in their wills, for example." Town officials looking for good press would also leave baskets of food or ale for the jailed, Carrel said.
Medieval authorities were lacking the funds to construct and upkeep jail systems as we know them today. In special cases when long-term incarceration was required, or to hold a prisoner awaiting trial, castle dungeons would have been used, according to the National Archives.
Twelve shillings for a maid
But cash payment was sufficient enough punishment for minor crimes—today's misdemeanors—and was mostly intended to keep everyone involved happy and out of trouble, say historians.
"The Anglo-Saxon system of criminal justice was mainly concerned to prevent feuds provoked by violent or serious crime," according to medieval historians Andrew Barrett and Christopher Harrison. "The system was designed to force the victim or, if he was dead or incapacitated, his family to accept compensation rather than turn to violence."
The common toll for sleeping with a nobleman's serving maid in early medieval times was twelve shillings, Barrett and Harrison give as an example in their book "Crime and Punishment in England" (Routledge, 2001).
The lack of police patrols and maximum-security penitentiaries didn't translate into a lawless society, however. Murder rates per capita in 14th-century England were a fifth that of Washington D.C. in the 1990s, according to estimates by the British government.

Get your Hand in Handouts.

2006-09-12T13:44:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, after excitingly bringing up to a number of doctors that I might have Asperger's I got laughed out of the room. I guess I'm just so obnoxious that I've honed it into an art that can only be classified as a disorder, but actually is not one.

So that's a bummer. Here I thought I would be basking in "govment" disability handouts so I could get to get enough dough to buy the obligatory new sneakers and a plasma.

Speaking of which! If you saw the HBO special on Katrina (four hours long?!!!) there are couple of points that are worth mentioning.

1) They showed a woman who had her house destroyed by the Hurricane. Habitat for Humanity had built her a new house. When she was giving the tour of the new house and being interviewed for the piece she was standing in front of a 50" HD projection tv. Ummm......WTF? Did it come from Electronics for Humanity?

2) When they were showing all of the pictures of the Hurricane from 1911 or whatever, all the photos were pictures of people rebuilding homes - days after the disaster. Granted, shack like structures, but the people were active. From Katrina, they showed everyone sitting on porches, drinking beer, wandering around aimlessly, ONE YEAR after the disaster. The only activity these people had shared was collectively petitioning for trailers. Now granted, building codes have gotten tighter since then, but I think the REAL issue is what is considered a home.

NOW - not to get into my McMansion rant, but what is wrong with the log cabin? What is wrong with shanty towns?

My belief is that every generation of beareaucrats is forced to make new regulations. In 100 years how many regulations is that?! My father believes that for every law passed one should be removed. This is wise. Consider our country is a camel....Which is the law that will break the camel's back?

So given that shanty towns and log cabins are unsafe - which, well, they are. We are forced to deal with the fact that all of these people that are standing around drinking beer have basically been forced to do that by law by simply removing the ability for these people to help themselves.

So FEMA, USA, Any modern government....If you are listening. The FIRST THING YOU NEED TO DO IN ANY DISASTER IS ENABLE THE STRONG AND WILLING! The will set an example for the rest of the beer swillers and gawkers, and push them to get something done. Stop regulating int these situations, and actually remove some regulations. Don't remove our rights though - oh wait, those are mostly gone now anyway. Regardless, please - in an emergency situation identify leadership and let them get to work. It's one of the few things that builds countries. Reward these people. Give them land or something. It used to work for kings. We should give it a shot.

Take Two Asperger and Call Me in the Morning...

2006-08-30T23:18:00.000-07:00

So apparently I have Asperger Syndrome. Now, no professional has actually diagnosed me with this, but utilizing just a bit of hypocondria and a dash of psychosomatic reasoning - I think it's a safe bet that I have this thing.

What's beautiful about Asperger Syndrome is that if I don't actually have it, it still explains all the wierd things I did as a kid (and in many cases still do). Therefore, by simply saying I have it, I justify all of my symptoms, and possibly end up having a cool little rationale for myself to boot.

The question here - existential though it may be - is that let's say I don't have this thing. Meaning that I could be submitted to a battery of tests, have doctors peer at me, and have nurses force me to pee in a cup, and poof - a diagnosis of "Negative". So according to a group of people - official people - I don't have this thing. But I know that what I've read defines me in an eerily accurate way. Does that mean they're right, or I'm right? When it comes to psychology, defining one group of wierdos with a fancy name really doesn't do anyone any good, unless you factor in "awareness".....

ooooo.....awareness....*shiver*

I hate the term, "awareness". In each generation there are groups of wierdos. The next generation is responsible for coming up with fancy names for the previous generation's group of wierdos. Once the group is named, AWARENESS comes into play, and everyone else has to tiptoe around the newly named group for fear of offending them. This of course ostracizes and enhances the wierdness of that group even more.

Back in the old days, wierdos were killed, died on their own, shunned, or made into village idiots. More recently they were simply shunned. Now they're worshipped, given fancy names, and put on pedestals.

Individuals that are NORMAL, that buy homogenized clothing, that lead purposeful contented little lives, are truly lost. They belong to the most boring of groups - the "Average Man". Until earlier this evening, I was an "Average Man". Now, I get to belong to my own little niche pride group that's attempting to get minority status. We have an official organization, "Aspies for Freedom", and even a Pride Day!

Watch out world, the Aspies are united, and with our preternatural obsessive compulsiveness, know that we're not going to lose our focus (whatever it may be)!

Cent-sationalism!!!

2006-04-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

Oh, the news...

So Dateline has an expose! on right now about bagged lettuce. They are discussing how 2 people have contracted E.Coli from bags of lettuce. This is out of 6 million, folks. So how is this being set up for the viewing public...

You pan into a field of lettuce. The camera zooms in on the tattered clothes of the migrant workers, all of whom are hiding their faces for some reason (read INS). The camera pans over the field and onto a truck laden with port-a-potties. The female "journalist" is saying to some foreman "So I see you have port-a-potties". He replies, terrified of the repurcusions, "Of course". A bird flies low over the field, and a female voiceover begins menacingly, "But, of course, birds are nesting and leaving droppings in the field..."

Yes, we get it. There will be poop on our food. Some people, maybe as many as 3 or 4 people will contract E. Coli! Eh-Gads!

But what is really being said here. And more importantly, what is being taken away. Poor dirty people are handling our food. Birds and insects are seasoning our salads with germs. Blah Blah, death! despair!

This is so sad, not because Dateline is doing it, but because of the vast ocean of housewives who are, as I write this, scratching "Bag of Lettuce" off their shopping lists. Diane Sawyer, and the gaggle of proto-news whores are shilling this sensationalism for absolutely no reason other than to fill air-time. This "episode" of soap opera journalism could equally be about the "dangers of blogging!", or the "terrors of paper towels!" or "sex in our colleges!". Wait, they already did those.

So what is this all about? Perhaps the money? Yes and No.

Money fuels the need for viewers. Your ad space is only worth the number of eye-balls that you own during a block of air-time. Therefore, more eye-balls, more money. Simple.

Well, when it comes to news, how do you get more eye-balls? It used to be blood and guts - if it bleeds, it leads. That's true to a point. But now, the genius producers have realized a truth straight out of 50's marketing. Tabloid journalism appeals to women more than men. Dateline probably has 65-70% female viewers 28 and up. So advertisers selling products aimed at that demographic buy slots. To keep thise advertisers happy, and keep the same viewers, what does Dateline show - things women in that group will watch. What are these things? Tom Cruise interviews, and terror stories about the products in the grocery store.

So back to lettuce, and the rest of this nonsense.

The problem with all of this is that it is actually seen as news. The Dateline brand, honed with some credibilty years ago, is pushed on unsuspecting people as news, and they respond to what is said as gospel.

So you see the discrepency here. Dateline must fill airtime to please advertisers. Dateline chooses sensational exposes to appeal to their advertiser's key demographics. Millions of people think these painterly exposes are actually important and modify their behavior in response. And this happens 50 nights a year. 50 bullshit scares a year to sell advertising.

So what's the morale? If you sell a decent product aimed at women over the age of 28. Beware. Some Sunday night, Dateline will target it and hurt your business tremendously. Oh, and if you work for a company that sells the above product. Beware. It's quite possible you will lose your job.

Thanks Dateline, our founding fathers would be proud of your stance on freedom of the press.

Absence...

2006-03-21T06:28:00.000-08:00

I apologize world, for not having the time to post recently. Been busy merging my company with another.

I do have a number of new rants ready at a moments notice, but won't be able to pick back up on the writing until next week.

Oh No! There goes Mexico...

2006-01-26T11:36:00.000-08:00

I just read an article at CNN about a 1,200 yard concrete tunnel burrowing into the US from Mexico. Inside they found a pump, lighting, ventilation, the works. This was no Great Escape tunnel here. This was a highway.

Alright, so there's lots of drugs and even more people coming into the US from Mexico. If one wanted to think a certain way, one could say that we have been in a ground war with Mexico for 50 years. They've been pumping personnel and chemical weapons over the border, etc...

So what if we invaded them? I'm not endorsing this, or anti-Mexico or anything, this is purely hypothetical. Seriously, what would the repurcussions be? We can make the argument of the previous paragraph, we can say that X amount of Mexicans are coming here to experience our Government anyway, and we're just saving them the trip...

But looking at World politics, what would happen? Sanctions? A war? A coalition against us? I really wonder...We have NAFTA already, so our economics are interlinked. We have a tremendous number of illegal immigrants from Mexico here already, and Spanish is a second language...

Really...Any thoughts? Is this all Hitlery? Would this be a good thing? A bad thing? An immoral/amoral thing? I don't know. Fill me in.

G.I. Jones....

2006-01-26T07:27:00.000-08:00

We can’t decide what’s more absurd: that a celebrity could possibly expect any privacy at Sundance, or that a magazine would pay for a photo of Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake completely disguised in ski clothes. (And does anyone else think they look like Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow hitting the slopes?)

-Defamer

Oh yes, Defamer....They do. Credit goes to SnapShot and ShutterBug, the Cobra paparazzi, for grabbing the pic.

This image is located at, and presumably owned by, People magazine.

Tax Allocation...

2006-01-24T08:56:00.000-08:00

Just finished rounding up all the receipts from 2005. Working on all that fun tax stuff. It occured to me while doing this how to improve our governmental involvement. I'm sure many others have thought of the same thing, however I think this really should happen:

When you submit your taxes, you should be able to divide up 25% of total tax bill into programs that you support. 10% Medicare, 6% Military, 50% Education, 12% National Security, etc. Granted, it would be a bizarre country that could allocate the whole 100%, however 25% seems reasonable. This would ultimately be a way of taking a stand once someone with diametrical views takes the White House. I've written my Congressman twice, once I got a signed picture back, once I got invited to a fundraiser. Both times I wrote long letters about what was wrong with something or other. So the whole letter writing doesn't work.

These are our dollars people, and we're letting a group of corrupt greedy bastards handle them. Look at that ridiculous bridge in Alaska! $100m or something to build a bridge for 100 people. They can do that with the 75%, but I think if we take away the 25% they might be a bit more discerning.

Can you imagine if your bank handled your money as flippantly as our government does? That's right. You'd be broke. Even worse, the execs that made the decisions regarding your dough, would be having wild parties and buying yachts. Wait, that was the Eighties....Regardless, it didn't work out well when it happened.

Point is, we should have an ongoing say about our government, not this wait and see thing that we have once an administration gets in office. That was fine in the 1700's but we're a bit more complex as a nation now.

I also like the fact that, A) Having this "vote" be a part of your tax dollars assures that you are actually an American citizen, so the identity and "illegal" issues are resolved, and B) It might force deadbeat taxpayers or voters to be a bit more involved.

So here's my plea to Congress right now, give us the opportunity to allocate our 25%. Give us back our government, and please, keep your signed pictures and fundraiser invitations. If you want me to give you funds, make it worth my while and I may just allocate you some....

Quote of the Day...

2006-01-23T09:36:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the tweak-happy geniuses at Apple, the Quicktime player is currently about as stable as Pat Robertson in a Jewish dildo factory.

-Screenhead.com

Am-Munich-tion...

2006-01-21T10:58:00.000-08:00

So we saw Munich last night. It was a powerful film to say the least, but more importantly, it resonates well in light of Osama's recent audio tape transcript.

For those that have not seen the film (you should) the plot revolves around a Mossad (Israeli CIA) agent asked to go rogue by his agency for the purpose of taking revenge upon the perpetrators of the Munich Olympic Hostage crisis of 1972. The moral of the movie is that when you deal in either terrorism or the alternate, governmentally sanctioned assasination, you are really not accomplishing anything as "6 more will pop up in the place of the person assasinated". This is explored from both sides in the film and the futility of it all becomes the final statement of the film.

Having read the transcript of Osama's recent broadcast, it seems that he may have seen the movie, or at least maintains much of Spielberg's philosophy.

Aside: As a marketing/branding guy, I wonder what would have happened had Osama mentioned the movie, Munich, in his broadcast. Note to endorsement agents; have you ever considered this sort of tactic? If not, how long until you do? In the world of graffiti campaigns and spam e-mail, is this far begind: Unabomber messages sponsored by Mead paper, BTK Killer rope sponsored by REI, Laci Peterson's death boat curtesy of Johnson...I strongly hope that in the search for advertising space, depraved individuals seeking notoreity never become acceptable marketing opportunities.

Back to the discussion...There is a quote in Osama's transcript that is particularily in tune with the message of the film regarding the death of one person results in an increase in the number of enemies you face:

The mujahideen, thank God, are increasing in number and strength - so much so that reports point to the ultimate failure and defeat of the unlucky quartet of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz...The reality shows that the war against America and its allies has not been limited to Iraq as he (Bush) claims. Iraq has become a point of attraction and restorer of (our) energies.

Without getting into the larger discussion of patriotism, or left/right/wrong, one simply needs to look at history (Osama even asks us to at one point) to get a more thorough perspective on the current events we face now. The events that take place in the movie Munich, though they are only 30 years old, are representative of thousands of years of assasination and guerrila warfare tactics. Ultimately, the result of these tactics is always the same, you kill someone, someone else appears to fill the void.

Therefore at some point it becomes important to take a look at this while planning a military action against idealists.

Ayn Rand once points out through her character, Ellsworth Touhy that there is weapon far more powerful than a tank, and that is a germ. While a tank can push through a house, a germ can sneak through the cracks and infect everyone inside. Where a tank will run out of gas, the germ never will.

We are a tank fighting germs. It is a losing propostion. Even if we adapt our strategies faster, which we will never do, we will always be using a tank to fight extremeism. No bullet can penetrate it. And frankly, the swords that we used during Crusades didn't penetrate it either. You cannot fight an idealist's battle with an army from any era. Shock and Awe? Really? Are those the terms we really used? Can't you see Cornwallis saying that to the King George over tea while discussing the british invasion? "Oh yes, your Majesty, the colonists are quite shocked and awed by our brilliant red jackets. They'll give up quite readily once we invade." We won the war because for every soldier that fell to a british ball, had a brother or cousin that wanted vengence. They filled the void. Eventually, the void was filled so fast that it outstripped the ability of the British to resupply their expensive "Shock and Awesome red finery", and we won.

This is but one trite example of a tank getting destroyed by the germ-like infection that is idealism/extremism. For those that are too media saturated to hear anything from Osama's message beyond, "He has Threatened us again!", I implore you to read the transcript, then take a moment to actually reflect on our history, and if possible the history of our species, and establish your own viewpoint.

As a marketing guy, I know how much BS is out there. Perhaps this is why I love History as much as I do. There is no marketing in History. Granted, it's written by the victor, so it has a slant, but ultimately History has no master. We have fooled ourselves in every stage of History into thinking that we are right, that we are modern, that the mistakes of the past have been overcome by our great minds. History has shown that we are always wrong in this.

Munich, the film, is a palatable excursion into this discussion. Aside from being a wonderful addition to the Spielberg portfolio, it is worth seeing for the timely message it relates. However, it must be looked at with an eye to the now, as well as then, to truly understand the relevance.

The world is closing in...

2006-01-05T10:52:00.000-08:00

How bizarre. I was going over our upcoming development schedule, and I realized that 60% of our clients I've never seen face-to-face. The world is shrinking, and our perceptions of that are becoming more and more complacent. I've often thought that we would return to a cottage industry based economy that would revolve around video communication. However, during the early years of the internet that wasn't available, so we adapted by degrading our own innate need for visual relationships. This ultimately relates back to my previous post, "Networking - old school", but at a different level because Business Relationships rely more heavily on a face-to-face understanding. Whether this is a result of some primordial need to size up a rival/partner with a handshake, or establish dominance and alpha-maledom, I'm not sure. But I know that the best Business Relationships always have a physical handshake between them.

So what is the new handshake?

I can write to a client, pick and choose my words carefully, then send it off. Is the quality of that selection of words what is establishing the hierarchy in the absence of looking someone in the eye? Or has the evolution progressed even beyond that, and are we in a sort of relationship communism, where there is no longer a hierarchy at all? Perhaps the hierarchy is more basic than all of this. Perhaps it simply comes down to client/vendor. That's it. That's all. One person has the money, the other person has the service, barter and exchange.

Frankly, I don't like it.

Business is a tricky thing. Nuances, politics, finessing. While e-mail can do this, it is a poor exchange at best. It's very good at delivering information, but not terribly good at delivering passion or humor. Ultimately, without that phonecall or meeting, without the human contact, the relationship's motivation suffers.

What would Ayn Rand say?

In Ayn Rand's, "Fountainhead", (a long time favorite book) She often has the protagonist, Howard Roark, an architect, standing on cliffs with clients staring at the future site of a building. They would sit there and complain about injustice and the collapse of quality. It's all very stoic, and one pictures dramatic eyebrow furrowing. It's all very "of the time", late 30's/early 40's. To me, this is business. A meeting of minds, a push into a new era, a discussion of the future, and most importantly, the eyebrow furrowing. Remove all that, and we literally become computers ourselves. Granted, polite computers, but computers regardless, taking written instructions in the form of a business programming code then spitting digital production back at the code writer.

I hope our complacency with e-mail, with anonymous relationships, with the new business as usual, experiences a backlash. Granted, I like the convienience, but there needs to be a return to the visual.