The Annals of Advertising

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So Long (a timely repost)

To paraphrase and misappropriate the words of Simon and Garfunkel…

Architects may come and Architects may go… So Long. So Long

Separated at Birth by Julie and Justin. (who deserve a hearty congrats on baby boy Miles!)

Delay

I arrived at the San Francisco airport to find a 2 ½ hour delay waiting for me because the aeroplane was broken. Awesome. I’m was at SFO on my way home from Reno, where I attended the Public Radio development conference. This is a meeting of the people responsible all those wonderful pledge drives you enjoy so much. (One swift surgical strike could have taken out the whole lot!) It was a good conference none the less, and here’s why: To use a peculiar analogy…. development folks can be thought of as the pornographers of public radio. Just as Larry Flynt and his ilk were pioneers for online business models, ecommerce, and multimedia content, those responsible for pubradio fundraising were internet leaders in our industry. They saw the potential in a new way to interact, develop relationships and make electronic transactions with the listeners. The first steps that many public radio stations took on the web were directly tied to raising cash. So these folks always keep a close eye on emerging technologies in order to squeeze more water from the stone encourage more listeners to become members. I’m going to hold off on telling you the tricks they have up their sleeves for the coming year (wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise), but that itch in the back of your neck may be our new microchip membercard implant.

On less formal conference news, craps remains my casino go-to game.

You had me at “…from the Beach Boys to Michel Foucault”

To all the young journalists out there – if you want to grab a reader to your Op-Ed column, take a lesson from Mark Lewis of the Oceana Herald-Journal. Check out this opening paragraph…

One of my latest obsessions — from the Beach Boys to Michel Foucault, there always seems to be one or two knocking around my mind at any given time — is a strong interest in Michigan’s biggest city, Detroit.

No matter where this goes, or what the final point of the column is…. I am so fascinated/horrified by this jumble of ideas that I am guaranteed to read the whole thing. It’s similar to how I feel about a Michael Bay movie.

Happy Fourth

As I was driving through northern Indiana on the 4th of July, all the signs for high octane fireworks reminded me of this Simpson’s episode.

Happy Fourth!

Aloha Tuesday

Dear New York Times Ethicist,

We’re in a bit of a pickle here at work. You see, tomorrow is the 4th of July and we will have the day off (Yay Hooray!). There’s a little tradition at our workplace where the day before a holiday or long weekend, our boss will let the staff leave early – around noon or 1 pm. Here’s the dilemma: our boss not in the office today and thus is not here to call the jailbreak. Should the staff A) Stage a dramatic walkout at an agreed upon time, Norma Rae style. B) Talk an intern into pretending to be the boss and paging the staff telling them they our free to go. C) Bribe an IT guy into sending an all-staff email from the boss’s account letting everyone know they are free to go. D) Coordinate a mass flushing of the toilets in the hopes it will back up the plumbing, giving us just cause to leave. E) Plan to give a tour of the station to a large group of tourists, wherein the staff can meld into the crowd as they come through and exit the premises with the tour (Jason Bourne style). Let me know what you think…. and please try to get back to us in the next 3 to 4 hours as this is a time sensitive matter. Thanks for your help!

No Passport Required

Despite the hassle that air travel has become, I still love airports. I instantly get caught up in the energy of movement and the limitless possibilities behind every gate – be it the exotic or the mundane. And when it comes to airports, nothing compares to the international terminal. The coming and goings that have become so routine remain so very, very meaningful for each individual with an itinerary and a ticket. My sister lives abroad (you know her as the American Sector’s Berlin Correspondent – soon to be the American Sector’s Hudiksvall correspondent!) and every time she traveled to the states, a few of us would wait in the international terminal at O’Hare. While waiting for passengers to come through customs, you witness countless joyful family reunions and fill in the back-story for each one (my mother would tear up at every one she saw).

International terminals are transnational places – a space that lives outside the rules and customs of it’s host culture. It is both disorientating to most everyone going through, yet there is a democracy – we are all out of place. They are the trade stations of the modern day. Meeting places where you encounter and interact with the other, the foreigner, and the stranger.

It’s been a few years since I last traveled internationally, but today I was reminded of that same airport feeling. This happened, of all places, at Ikea. Ikea, I have decided, has joined airports as a transnational space. The last two Sundays, I have spent an insufferable amount of time at Ikea (ugh… don’t get me started) – but while I was there, I have been immersed in the global culture. Sure, it’s Swedish…. and the meatballs are delicious – but every immigrant community in Chicago was shopping there alongside me. The Poles, the Ukrainians, the Indians, the Mexicans, the Japanese, the Koreans, and at least one confirmed Lithuanian. You hear more languages in an hour than you do flipping through local cable access. And, as opposed to airports, there is a permanence to the Ikea globalism because these people are shopping, presumably, for their homes. They are here – living, working, shopping, and reshaping the American dream as we know it.

Headline of the Day

Damn you, content management system! This headline appears on the Tribune’s website as of 8:30 am today. Let’s see how long that lasts.

Beachcombing

- Richard Rorty remembered by physicists, lawyers, and a long lost radio show.

- Jeff Jarvis seems to really really really like Facebook. Here, here, and here.

- Sure, you can have your Boing Boing and your EFF. If you really want to understand the copyright wars, check out this – a great series of posts by Randy Picker at the U of C law school blog. (which, after a slow start, has turned into one of my favorite blogs)

- In Second Life, they’re wearing speedos at a ratio of 3 to 1!

- And although I hate the game…I gotta love the player: Congrats to our daughter on bringing home straight A’s. Much pizza, gelatto and soda was consumed. Onward and upward to summer!

Talent Quest Finalists

Admittedly late to this news, but the Public Radio Talent Quest has announced its 10 finalists. Over 1400 entries and 15,000 user votes later, one thing is clear: Chicago is in the house! 3 of the 10 finalists are from our fair city – congrats to Chicagoans Anne Glickman, Chuck Mertz, and Carrie Kaufman. As happy as this makes me, I must admit a profound sadness and sense of injustice regarding the absence of one contestant among the finalists – a certain Brendan Newman. He stole my heart with a little song he wrote for his entry, entitled Garrison Keillor is Going to Die. As many of you know, Garrison and I have had our differences over his non-radio pursuits – so I heartily enjoyed the subject matter of Mr. Newman’s song. That, and it’s also perhaps the greatest song ever written.