Advertising Week 2009

This week is Advertising Week; if anyone had any sense, they'd rebrand it Marketing Week. But advertising is more glamorous so we'll let it own the week (just as it's hijacked brand ;-)).

Tuesday, I'm on an OMMA panel at the Marriott Marquis called "Best 2009 Creative Campaigns in Social Media" if you're attending. Come and cheer or jeer. Probably will mention Skittles.com, as most would expect.

3 Years: Remembering mach

of course we remember.

the wisdom. the laughter. the warmth. the trouble-making.

it's absolutely crucial we do.

for ourselves, for those we'll teach and guide.

the impression he made in so many of us was deep and indelible. (even if it was in lowercase ;-0

mach, we miss you.

<from his school. from his company.>

Minding the Snore in the NY Press

Last year's sleep test experience just got published in The New York Press's 8 Million Stories column, "Minding the Snore."

Please go read, rate and comment it.

Email Jacking Lessons from Mom

My mother taught me how to "email jack" — using a form letter created by an organization one does not agree with and changing the pre-purposed content to something more amenable to your views and then sending it on. This one was a form letter from an AFA Action Alert to complain to the AAA that they had recognized gay couples as, get this, real married couples in their coverage. I simply edited the pre-filled in text to thank the AAA for recognizing gay couples as real married couples in their coverage.

Now I'm on the listserv for AFA Action Alerts which are amusing and creepy. The next one I saw was anti-health care.

Digital pays Direct back

New piece just published in AdAge's CMO Strategy column, "How Digital Marketing Can Help Reinvent Direct Marketing." It talks about digital as good apprentice who has grown up, while direct is a bit stuck in one-to-one of a perfected past. Provides some lessons which we're going to apply at OgilvyOne to direct marketing and unstuck it for the modern era.

I had submitted it with a more provocative title from Bryan: Digital has learned so much from direct. It's time to pay it back.

Instant Gratification Was Fast Enough

I just finished my five-week writing class, "Instant Gratification Isn't Fast Enough."

Let by Susan Shapiro, it was a terrific hands-on, uber-practical, no-nonsense dive into the world of creating and selling your work to publications. She does a great job of demystifying publishing and also fostering a workshop-like environment and giving tough critique to work we bring in based on her curriculum. Excited, too, to have so quickly built up a bit of a better nonfiction portfolio and know better how to creatework that sells and even have started to send out some of the essays, op-eds, and service pieces.

Sue Shapiro, a journalism professor at The New School and NYU, also has a new book Speed Shrinking coming out August 4. Pre-order it here. Sure to be hilarious.

Where is my bus?

I was so excited to see how Chicago bus systems let you track your bus from your phone, so you know how long you have to wait for the next bus. Especially helpful if you're in the cold or in a rush and debating between bus, walking or cab. Apparently, Portland and a few other cities are also already doing smart stuff like this.

New York's MTA was planning on rolling out something like it and started with a test starting in 2006, but in February, the MTA pulled the plug on the pilot for GPS for NYC Buses. So disappointed about this, especially now that I'm commuting mostly by bus to work on 11th Avenue.

New York should be on the forefront of innovation. Will research the excuses.