The "Make it Happen" Challenge.

Time for another "Make it Happen", the crowd-sourcing challenge to see if my big ideas can come to fruition thanks to the rich community of creatives, writers, artists, designers, inventors, scientists, architects, pharmacologists, techies, provocateurs, ethicists, military contractors, etc.

MIH Brief 007

OBJECTIVE:

Create a mobile phone application to deal with unfriendly Aliens.

Check this out for more background, but to surmise, renowned scientist Stephen Hawking thinks we should avoid Aliens at all cost. And he's not endorsing the immigration bill that just passed in Arizona.

Rather he is talking about Aliens from another galaxy and according to Hawking if/when they do come to earth they won't come in peace. He likens them to Christopher Columbus landing on these shores, only humans are the Native Americans. And as Hawking notes, it didn't turn out too well for them.

A well-designed mobile application that can help you successfully interact with Aliens, should they visit anytime soon, would be a "must have" addition to any survival kit. Who knows when and where you'll encounter one. It might just save your life or the lives of your loved ones.

THOUGHT STARTERS:

  -  In John Carpenter's movie, "They Live", a special brand of sunglasses could reveal the alien invaders amongst us. Could the mobile application have a similar function? An alien detector that separates friend from foe.

  -  In the TV miniseries "V", one of our (humans) major weakness was our inability to see the Alien invaders as they really were, i.e. nasty reptiles. How can we develop an early warning system, if you will, that unmasks their true nature.
  -  Could the mobile application set off certain sounds that only aliens could hear? These sounds would scare them off, giving you precious time to escape.
  -  In "War of the Worlds", the Aliens are eventually undone by bacterias and chemicals found in the Earth's atmosphere. Could the app have a function to identify the unusual biological make-up of Aliens? Knowing what makes them vulnerable could prove to a great weapon of attack.
  -  Sad, but true, some humans will "collaborate" with the Aliens to save their own skin. Can the app be used to ferret out these traitors?
  -  If all the Aliens look the same, it may be hard to distinguish the leaders amongst them. Can the app have some sophisticated screening device to identify the Alien elites.
  -  At some point before you take off on a plane you are asked to shut off your cell phone because apparently it may interfere with the aircraft's communication and navigation systems. Something to do with the energy the phone emits. Now granted we don't know what type of aeronautical systems the Aliens will use, but is there any kind of sophisticated jamming devices can we employ to "fuck with" Alien spacecraft.

MANDATORIES:

  -  The app must have a built-in self-destruct mechanism designed to cause massive damage. If you get abducted, take out as many of the basterds as you can.
  -  The app must able to let an Alien phone home just in case they are friendly after all. The last thing we want is to set off a diplomatic incident of galactic proportions.

Good luck and make it happen, people!

Damn kids. Part Three.

Who wouldn't want a daughter like her. Kudos to Young Director Award. No credits for director though, which is a little ironic. The Google isn't being helpful on this one.


(Sharing credit to Adfreak)

Topical musing of the now.

The British election is becoming more American by the day. First there's the leadership debates. And now Britain have their own Joe the plumber. Only meet Gillian the gran. Expect her to hog the media over the next few days at the expense of Gordon Brown.

Civilizing the subway.

I have to confess, I'm not totally sure what to make of this guerilla campaign by artist Jay Shells. I mean I really appreciate his idea of trying to bring civility to the New York Subway. Riding the trains can certainly test your faith in your fellow man. And no doubt Letitia Baldrige would approve.

And yet despite Jay's subtle use of wit I find it a little too heavy-handed for my sensibilities, like you're being reprimanded by an employer for not washing your hands after using the bathroom. Or being scolded by a zoo attendant for feeding an animal. And by the way asshole attendant it was only a piece of beef jerky and the walrus seemed to really enjoy it.

Personally I go by cab. Even if the occasional cab driver picks his nose.


(Sharing credit to brainpickings)

"Up There".

If you live in New York or Los Angeles you're probably familiar with the hand-painted billboard. Part art, part selling stuff it hangs above the urban landscape as a sweet reminder to a bygone era while still try to sell stuff.

Stella Artois has created this truly wonderful branded piece (12 minutes, every moment worth it, like the beer actually) that celebrates this dying art. We are introduced to some of the painters, part dare-devils, part artists who share with us their experiences over the years and their passion for this wall painting tradition.

And it documents, here's the branded part, just how painstaking this process is as artists create fifty-foot ads for Stella. It took them three weeks to paint the ads. It's quite a contrast to the heady world most of us live in, where things usually get accomplished at the speed of a click. Sometimes amazing things come to those who take their time. Oh wait I'm mixing my beer messages.

Here's a quick taste.



Lots of kudos to go around. Stella Artois, Mother, Mekanism, director Malcolm Murry and The Album Leaf for creating the perfect soundtrack. "Into the Blue Again" is unquestionably one of my favorite albums of all time.

And of course special kudos to the painters themselves. For more of their work over the years, check this out.


(Sharing credit to psfk)

I just slapped David Cameron 85 times.

In case some of you are unaware there's a major election going on across the pond. And I'm not talking about the final voting stages of "Strictly Dancing". The British Election is in its last two weeks. It could go down as one of, if not the most exciting ever. Hey you there, stop yawning.

Part of the reason for all the excitement is the rapid emergence of an "underdog" third party non-millionaire candidate. His sudden rise brings to mind Robert Redford's character in "The Candidate". Could Nick Clegg really end up having the "now what" moment?

The other reason is the introduction of American style debates, which funnily enough may have led to the emergence of said candidate. Two debates have passed already with much media fanfare and involvement. The live debate and post-debate analysis has led to a cottage industry of graphics and measuring tools.

Without doubt "The Slapometer" blows them all away. It's an ingenious interactive site that gauges user reaction to what the politicians are saying during the debates.

When you disagree with or take strong exception to what a candidate has just said, you can slap him. And let's be honest who doesn't want to slap a politician around once in a while. Okay all the time.

Now, the slap has been around for a while. God knows I've slapped my fair share of characters on banners for car insurance, but this might be the first time where it actually provides some real value. Mind you one wonders if this would have been produced if a female candidate had been in the race. Probably.

Much kudos to Albion, London, the agency that created it.


(Sharing credit to Adfreak)

Brain-teaser Monday.

Earlier this month, AT&T unveiled a new brand campaign with a spanking new tagline, "Rethink Possible." It's not the first time, clearly, that they have rethought their tagline. But since they were formed back in 1885, just how many taglines have AT&T been connected to?

• 3
• 5
• 6
• 8
• 10
• 13
• 22

Answer to last week's brain-teaser: 2. The latest high tech razor

"Dead Ideaville"

You may have missed this one in the obituary column. It's for Cash4Gold, the glorified pawn-brokers with the catchy name. Cash4Gold was looking for a follow-up Superbowl spot to their immensely successful Ed McMahon and MC Hammer duet in 2009.

As you can see I took a very different approach sans celebrities. The result, instant rejection. To be honest I don't think the creative director (shall remain nameless) really understood the idea or even what a mockumentary was. Or maybe he just hated farm animals.

Cash4Gold - "Rehabilitation” 

Cash4Gold is the number one place for sending your unwanted gold for cash. Satisfaction guaranteed. But, ever wonder what happens to those who try to send fake gold to Cash4Gold. Well, wonder no more.

In this mock documentary, we learn what happens to the .01% of people who send fake gold to Cash4Gold. We meet the Cash4Gold "Director of Rehabilitation”, who explains to us how this tiny minority are "shown the error of their ways” by working on the Cash4Gold Rehabilitation Farm. 

We will be introduced to a few of these offenders as they carry out their chores on the farm, i.e. feeding chickens, cleaning pigpens and milking cows. And, this is the fun part, we'll witness the “yucky” consequences that befall them. 

No doubt they won’t be repeating the offense any time soon.

A bow of the head, please.

Leaking privacy.

I'm not sure if the creators of this campaign were fully aware of what they were playing with, but I think they've brilliantly stepped into the privacy debate for their own gain.

Bear with me. We're living in a heady time when loads of our personal data like financial and medical information are being collected, stored, shared and used by third party entities.

As a result more of our privacy is open to being compromised, especially online. Recently Google came under criticism for privacy flaws in one of its new social products called Buzz.

But the breach isn't just happening online. Many concerns have been raised regarding the once impregnable "secrecy'" policies of foreign banks.

Then there's the ongoing debate about the validity of wire-tapping by government agencies. Just how much legal cover should the government expect when monitoring individuals or organizations it has suspicions about.

Even the census is seen by some, and I'm talking about you Michele Bachmann, as a government tactic to extract too much information about you.... and then you end up in an internment camp. Okay, I don't really get that one, either.

Paranoia is heavy in the air, maybe not as thick as the ash currently spewing out of an Icelandic volcano, but still as pervasive and potentially as debilitating. How much do we really want the outside world to know about us? Not much I would suppose.

At least the fear of having one's incontinence exposed can be laid to rest.

Headline of the now.

This from Huffington Post.

"Geico Fires D.C. Douglas: Voice Actor Dropped After Insulting FreedomWorks, Tea Partiers."

According to the story, D.C. Douglas, the voice announcer on Geico's 2007-2008 celebrity ad campaign, has been fired by the insurance company after leaving a voicemail for FreedomWorks that questioned their mental capacity.

Apparently Geico had to let him go after complaints by FreedomWorks, but wonders if the real offense was that Douglas didn't end his message with the usual, "Geico, fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance."

Damn Kids. Part Two.

It occurs to me I should have disclosed that, despite my protestations, I too have employed kids in commercials. Alas none of us in this business are immune. In my defense I've never played the cute, cuddly card. Here's my favorite. Kudos to director Steven Orrit for turning up the darkness.

Happy "Weed Day".

May all your tokes comes true. And here's a fascinating read about how this day came about.

Damn kids.

Is it just me or is there a noticeable plethora of advertising lately that either employs kids or the idea of being a kid. It could very well be my lack of "empathy" for children that makes me extra sensitive to such developments, but I think I'm onto something.

And I'm not talking about advertising for brands where you would expect to see kids like cereal or jello or Lipitor. Okay, maybe not Lipitor, just checking to see if you are still with me.

Rather I'm referring to complex, grown-up brands in high-tech communications, financial services and the energy industry.

This all dawned on me while watching the anthem spot for a new AT&T brand campaign, which tries to equate the magical possibilities of today's wireless age with the wonder of being a five year old kid again.

Before long I was thinking about those "abused kids" in the Ally Bank commercials, E-Trade's "talking babies" and Exxon Mobile's "young tinkerer's" campaign which promotes the problem solvers of tomorrow. I could go on.

Conventional wisdom could explain it this way. The demographic for most of these brands are people with relatively young families. So kids would be the obvious way to pull them in. This is the group, after all, who congest Facebook with pictures of their kids or their relative's kids so why not rope them in emotionally with a juvenile pitch.

Then there's the need to inject simplicity and clarity into an increasingly less easy to understand world. Politicians do this all the time. They constantly try to reduce complex issues to simplistic soundbites. Just the other day Sarah Palin explained away international relations as fighting in a school-yard. See, bringing it back to kids.

And advertisers love to dumb down too. There's nothing child's play about communications technology, financial services or energy. And yet by employing kids the message can be broken down to one of absolute simplicity. If babies get investing on E-Trade then what's your problem.

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Repackage of the now.

I for one think simplicity can be over-rated when it comes to advertising. This is especially true for print advertising. Case in point this new campaign for FedEx.

At first glance, what an eye-catchingly simple way to express global reach. The ad blogs certainly dig. The creatives are booking their flights to Cannes as we speak.

But on second thought this campaign should merit an "and?". For unless you've been living in a cave or Sarah Palin's brain you should know by now that FedEx does global. Has been for all these years. So how exactly does this idea advance the FedEx story?

Clearly to the people behind it, including FedEx it's not so much a case of saying something new, but rather saying the same thing in a new way. Which can only mean one thing. FedEx has nothing new to say. A bit like an aging sports star who pathetically clings on to his one claim to glory from yesteryear.

That said, it is charmingly simple. So half a kudos to DDB, Brazil. And here's the full campaign.

Brain-teaser Monday.

What is this print ad selling?

1. The top party colleges in America.
2. The latest high-tech razor.
3. Insurance for college students.

Answer to last week's brain-teaser: The History Channel

The "Make it Happen" Challenge.

Confucius say, "Unless you try you cannot succeed." Okay I just totally made that up, but it does lead nicely to "Make it Happen", the crowd-sourcing challenge to see if my big ideas can come to fruition thanks to the rich community of creatives, writers, artists, designers, inventors, scientists, architects, pharmacologists, techies, provocateurs, ethicists, military contractors, etc.

MIH Brief 006

OBJECTIVE:

Create a campaign to persuade porn star Stormy Daniels to reconsider her decision not to run against David Vitter, the lecherous, hypocritical douche bag sans shame incumbent senator, in the Republican primary in Louisiana.

Check this out for more background, but to surmise, Stormy, after briefly being thrust into the process, has pulled out saying, "I am not running for the US Senate because I am an adult entertainment star. I am not running for the US Senate for the same reason that so many dedicated patriots do not run--I can't afford it".

The original "Draft Stormy" movement proved quite effective in not only convincing her to seriously consider running, but also in persuading the media to actually take her seriously. How can we re-ignite this movement to once again tempt Stormy to go all the way.

THOUGHT STARTERS:

  -  Is there an opportunity to start up a Facebook group much like the effort to get Betty White to host Saturday Night Live. But of course instead of an old woman and a comedy show we're talking hot porn star and congress (okay comedy show).

  -  Stormy is a very attractive, "outsider" candidate with a simple platform that calls for the abolition of the IRS. If the Tea Party loves Sarah Palin, they should have a giant hard-on for Stormy. How can we whip them into a frenzy over the campaign.
  -  Could we enlist the help of chief number cruncher and polling guru Nate Silver to persuade her than she can win. What are the numbers telling us, other than the fact that most men lie about how much porn they watch.
  -  Stormy said that she couldn't afford to run. Is there a way to raise a lot of money for her so she may change her mind. A bake sale is probably not going to cut it. Recruiting old, horny millionaires to fund her on the other hand may work.

MANDATORIES:

  -  David Vitter must always be referred to as the "lecherous, hypocritical douche bag sans shame incumbent senator."
  -  Any advertising effort promoting Stormy must include the positioning line, "Taxation is just a dirty word for 'getting fucked in the ass'."

  -  All photo ops with Stormy must focus on her breasts.

Good luck and make it happen, people!

The trouble with marketing.

Here's a doozy. According to findings in a recent study in the Journal of Marketing Communications men with beards are deemed more credible than those who are clean-shaven when it comes to endorsing products like cell phones and toothpaste. Probably not shavers though. Or is there not a contradiction in having a man with a beard sell a product that promises to eliminate said beard? But I digress.

According to the researchers these implications could extend beyond advertising and into the realm politics. Say the researchers, "the presence of a beard on the face of candidates could boost their charisma, reliability, and above all their expertise as perceived by voters, with positive effects on voting intention."

Okay. I've got three words for the researchers. Osama. Bin. Laden.


(Sharing credit to psfk)

Spot of the now.

I haven't had a Cadbury's chocolate bar in ages. Might have to do something about that. In the meantime, kudos to Fallon/London and director Henrik Hallgren.


(Sharing credit to Adfreak)

The new puppet masters.

Do you know what behavioral placement is? Well the Wall Street Journal does. Basically, it's a purer form of product placement, except instead of embedding brands into programming and broadcasts, the idea is to push a type of behavior that you want viewers to adopt.

According to the WSJ, the folks at NBC Universal have been engaged in this practice since 2007 when they have been subtly promoting eco-friendly messaging into the story lines of their daytime and prime time shows.

For instance, Dwight Schrute became a cape-wearing superhero obsessed with recycling in “The Office”and Al Gore made a guest appearance on “30 Rock”. And let's be honest he wasn't there for his good looks and humor.

This kind of placement won't just be for the environment. In June this year, NBC Universal plans a week in which programming will emphasize healthy eating and exercise. Presumably this means there will be no donuts or hot dogs on any "Law and Order" episodes. The prime-time comedies will have to feature situations built around cardiovascular exercises. And the public service announcement, "The more you know" will become "The less you eat, fatso" for the week. Stay tuned.

Quite frankly there's nothing wrong with this. I mean if viewers are influenced in a positive way by watching their favorite characters perform well-meaning, socially enhancing actions then good for NBC.

But it has got me thinking. That's a lot of power in the hands of the head of programming at NBC Universal or any other network that engages in similar practices. I mean these guys and gals can pretty much push their own pet socially aware issues into the public's consciousness through the scripts of their top shows.

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Art alert.

I'm not a big fan of "vintage", perhaps it goes back to that unspeakably disgusting thing I found in the pocket of a vintage coat I purchased some years back. So if anyone is going to make me fall in love with vintage again they're going to have to come up with something special. Cue London-based designer Tavis Coburn.

Here is his collection of wonderful vintage-inspired posters he specially created as homage to the five movies recently nominated for best film at the British Academy for Film and Television Arts.

And one to wet your appetite. It's for "The Hurt Locker". 

(Sharing credit to Brain Pickings)

The $73,000 bar tab. (Republicans were not responsible)

It's hard to say just how effective this will be, but no question about the brilliance of the idea. Maybe one of the simplest and subtlest anti drunk-driving messages I've seen, like forever. Kudos to Ogilvy, Brazil. They don't just make great footballers and supermodels.

Brain-teaser Monday.

I've deemed today Moron Monday. In honor, I've made today's brain teaser extra, extra easy. In fact it's more of a no-brain teaser.

Which brand is behind this print ad?

• The History Channel
• Playboy Channel
• Comcast Communications
• TLC
• Sony
• Syfy

Answer to last week's brain-teaser: 1. Good Housekeeping Magazine

Bad Facebook.

There are lots of reasons to find fault with Facebook. It encourages shallowness. It breeds envy. It makes users feel unattractive. It fuels divorce. It may be responsible for a surge in rickets. It compromises the identity of spooks.

But this may be the most egregious.


(Sharing credit to Mashable)

Something rotten in the state of Tigerland.

I suppose I could have said something about Nike's latest "controversial" ad featuring Tiger Woods earlier, but I was following events in the real world, like Kyrgyzstan.

There's a been coup people and another dictator may be drawing unemployment checks pretty soon. Cheer if you like free, democratic republics. Boo if you like repressive, tin pot dictatorships.

So now that there's a lull in the action and before Russia presumably invades the central Asian republic let me share a few thoughts.

First off kudos to Nike for a buzz job well done. Judging by the reaction from the advertising industry, the mainstream media as well as the world of sports they certainly got way more bang for their buck than they could ever have planned. Yes I know, Tiger did too.

But why is everyone getting their knickers in a twist over this? Although I should point out that I did like what Barbara Lippert had to say on morning tv. Especially loved her line about Tiger being "too big to fail" as far as Nike is concerned. Apparently a few of the floozies he was poking on the side felt the same way if you believe the stories in TMZ.

Here's the thing. If this is what passes for controversy these days then what a bunch of prudish pansies we are. Now if the Vatican cut a commercial in which they defended their child-molesting priests on the grounds they never tampered with baby animals then that would be controversial. Actually Nike could probably have made the same claim about Tiger too.

And don't for one minute think that Nike didn't anticipate all those parodies out there. Here's my favorite. I bet it's how they conceived the social media portion of the campaign. Hell, they probably cut most of them. I would have.

As for the commercial itself, this is what came to mind while watching it. Tortured son hears words from his dead father. Sounds familiar right. But Hamlet it ain't. Hamlet's problem was that he was paralyzed by inertia. Tiger's problem is that he could have done with some.

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Now playing.

"Parallel Lines", the new branded-entertainment extravaganza from Phillips is now live. There are five different films to enjoy that all incorporate exactly the same dialogue.

For what it's worth my favorites are "The Gift" and "Dark Room", which may have been inspired by a scene from "Blade Runner".

Congrats...

I have to confess that I was completely oblivious to Gatorade's branded-content series called "Replay" until it just won the Grandy at the 2010 Andy Awards. Gatorade to me is the brand that lifted a brilliant piece of poetry by Muhammad Ali and turned it into a cheap catch phrase. Of all the low-down gall.

But Kudos to them and TBWA Chiat Day and Caviar Content for creating a compelling series, now in its second season on Fox Sports Net, that re-stages classic games between high school sports teams 15 years after they were played.

And for those of you who think branded-content is just an excuse to write tv shows, consider how this idea evolved. Apparently, only three in ten adults over the age of 30 exercise regularly. So the team at TBWA Chiat Day tried to find an engaging way to re-charge the lost athlete in some of them. Sounds like a concept to me!


(Sharing credit to psfk)

The Johnny Cash Project.

If you're a Johnny Cash fan or just a creative type with a little time on their hands then you should love this very cool project. It invites users to help build a music video for Cash's last ever studio recording, "Ain't no grave" (sunshine was already taken).

It's not just an exercise in crowd-sourcing of course, it's much bigger than that. It's all about celebrating the man, the myth, the legend and his music or at least his last recording. But the use of user-generated content is incorporated in a wonderfully non-intrusive and selfless way. The creators of the project quite rightly refer to it as a "communal work".

And the real beauty is that this idea could only really work for a handful of artists. The Miley Cyrus project won't be coming to a website any time soon.

Kudos to director Chris Milk, Aaron Koblin and Radical Media amongst others.

Sodomy done wrong.

This ad was recently banned in England by the Advertising Standard's Authority. As the ASA so charmingly put it, "Although the ad's image was not explicit, the 'access denied' sign across the naked woman's bottom implied anal sex."

Lost in all the brouhaha, however, is the fact that this is without question the most boring anal sex themed ad ever. I think the culpable creatives should be sent back to Sodomy Ads 101 for a refresher course.


(Sharing credit to Adfreak)

"Dead Ideaville"

It's time to lay another idea to rest. Colgate Max was looking to make a major splash with a new product, Colgate MaxWhite One. This new whitening toothpaste promised to make your teeth a shade whiter in just one week.

The target was the typical young, skeptical audience with a finely tuned "bullshit" radar. In other words trying to convince them would be a piece of cake.

Colgate - "The One-Week Effect” 

The one major insight into this target that proved very helpful was that they were "progress" oriented and so were willing to try something new if there was an apparent benefit. Couple that with the fact that they were also technology savvy and bingo we had our in. Did someone just say iphone application?

We wanted to give this target a very tangible, yet fun demonstration of just how effective Colgate MaxWhite One is. So the idea was to divert a large chunk of the advertising dollars to creating and promoting a mobile application called "The One-Week Effect".

Here's how we envisioned the app working. First the user takes a teeth baring, wide smiling picture of themselves or their friends. Then, via some amazing technology (probably invented by a nine year old in Bangalore), they would be able to see exactly what their teeth looked like a week later, i.e. a shade whiter. In effect we would create the 21st century version of the before/after demo.

To further enhance the user experience we thought the app should offer other fun "future" related features, e.g. the one-week weather forecast for your area, your horoscope reading for the week.

The "One-Week Effect" app would be available for download from the Colgate website. Print and on-line advertising would support and promote it's release.

Alas it took one week for the idea to die. And we didn't see it coming.

Drink your heart out Doritos.

Big Rock Alberta Craft Brewery have their own ad contest. It's called "The Eddies" and apparently has been going on since 1993. I don't think the person who came up with the term crowd-sourcing was even born then.

Here's a stand-out entry from this year's contest. It certainly gets my vote.



(Sharing credit to mediabistro.com)

Cool shit.

Nuit Blanche from Spy Films on Vimeo.

A mesmerizing piece of entertainment in search of a brand? Perhaps. And then again, maybe it's just fine the way it is. Kudos to director Arev Manoukian.


(Sharing credit to jawbone.tv)

Brain-teaser Monday.

What is this carefully redacted print ad for?

1. Good Housekeeping Magazine.
2. Fidelity.
3. This isn't an ad, it's my way of letting you know I recently won a million dollars.

Answer to last week's brain-teaser: b) Animal Adoption 

***The pet shelter in question is Animal Care & Control, a great place that is doing amazing work to help stray animals find new homes. Right now there are hundreds of beautiful cats and dogs and a few rabbits waiting to get adopted.

The "Make it Happen" Challenge.

John Boehner, leader of the house republicans and man with the tan, recently ranted, "Hell no you can't".

He obviously hasn't heard of "Make it Happen", the crowd-sourcing challenge to see if my big ideas can come to fruition thanks to the rich community of creatives, writers, artists, designers, inventors, scientists, architects, pharmacologists, techies, provocateurs, ethicists, military contractors, etc.

MIH Brief 005

OBJECTIVE:

Create a feature length film for cinema or TV about the recent health care reform saga.

The battle for health care reform may be over, but it's never too early to start mythologizing. A highly contentious, yet landmark policy initiative that will ultimately affect the social, economic and political fabric of America for years to come deserves to be retold like only the entertainment industry can.

There have been many successful movies made that have centered around major political events in recent years. HBO immediately comes to mind with "Recount",  their stellar recounting (couldn't resist) of the 2000 presidential election. Holly Hunter starred in "Roe Vs Wade", one of several movies made about the landmark abortion Supreme Court decision. And some time this year "The Crusaders", a major movie relating to another landmark Supreme Court case, Brown Vs Board of Education will be released.

A movie about the events of the past year would add to this rich genre.

THOUGHT STARTERS:

  -  Should this be a political thriller in the style of "All the President's Men"? After all the fight for health care had it all. Drama, intrigue and political chicanery of the most artful kind.

  -  Considering the cast of zany characters like Democratic Congressman Alan "Republicans want you to die" Grayson, Sarah Palin and her death panels and Michele "Internment Camps" Bachmann, perhaps this should be a black comedy, e.g. imagine a "bizzaro world" scene where Adolf Hitler is compared to Barack Obama.
  -  Casting will be very important. It may influence the success of the film. Who should play Obama? Will Smith is a good, if obvious choice. Maybe there is an opportunity here for some unconventional creative casting, e.g could an ourang-outang play Joe Wilson?
  - Try to find a fresh angle, e.g. what would David Lynch do?
  -  Should this movie be apolitical? Or should it come from a particular point of view, e.g. what would it look like if Sean Penn directed it. Or if Sean Hannity wrote it?
  -  Is there a role for fictional health care couple Harry and Louise, e.g. Harry is dying of AIDS and Louise is transformed from health care reform critic to activist.
  -  Jack Cassell is a urologist from Florida. He has a sign posted on his office door, "If you voted for Obama seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your health care begin right now, not in four years." Every good movie needs a bad guy. Could he be ours?
  -  Explore the idea of an interactive movie, where the user gets to chose between various scenarios. How would the movie end if the public option had been adopted? Or what if health care reform had been defeated.

MANDATORIES:

  -  Keith Olbermann must play himself.
  -  There will be no roles for Obama Girl or Jack Kevorkian.

  -  There must be a car chase scene, even if it's random.

  -  All health care insurance executives must have bushy eyebrows and thick southern accents.

Good luck and make it happen, people!

Off brief, but very good.

In the "Make it Happen" challenge from March 5th, 2010, I reached out to the crowd to create a mobile app that lets you identify and distinguish between various foreign and regional accents.

Some clever app technicians at Google, working closely with animal cognitive linguists clearly went off, off brief with this solution. But they get high marks for being very inventive and proactive.

And don't forget there's a new "Make it Happen" challenge tomorrow.

It may be April Fools, but I shit you not.

Apparently Twentieth Century Fox is planning a movie based on the E-Trade babies. And NO kudos to Grey for coming up with the ghastly campaign in the first place.

Where the hell did the Twentieth Century Fox executives dream up this idea? At the Voyeur West Hollywood. Wonder if they were on Michael Steele's tab.

Now if only someone made a movie based around Staples' annoying "Wow! That's a low price" guy I might be interested. As long he dies in the most violet and painful way, e.g he gets stapled to death. Yes that's a movie I would definitely pay to see.

Or maybe something a little smarter. How about a Wes Anderson black comedy, where Luke Wilson suffers through an existential crisis when he fails to switch every Verizon customer over to AT&T. Cameos by Bill Murray and brother Owen, of course.


 (Sharing credit to Adfreak)

It's my blog so I'll self-promote if I want to.

This is a special April Fools Day edition. Now I could have tried to create something new, but why do that when I can dust off this ancient relic.

Comedy Central wanted to have some April Fools fun with the advertising community, so we created this mock cover for Advertising Age. It became their highest selling issue ever.