Perhaps this is a taste of what the establishment Republicans can now expect from the Tea Party.
It's election eve so it only makes sense to get political with today's brain-teaser. Here are three politically tinged questions to ponder.
It's baaaack. "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.
Whack. Zapp. Pow. I can hear Meg Whitman squealing from here. Which reminds me I must watch "Deliverance" again.
I imagine one of the first things they teach in political campaigning school is to make sure your candidate doesn't suffer any self-inflicted wounds. Major kudos then to the Brown team for turning Whitman's words against her and creating, maybe, the cleverest, most devastating ad of the political season.
And boo to the Whitman team for being so strategically blind. One hundred and forty million dollars certainly buys you a lot. It seems political savvy ain't one of them.
No I don't believe Barack Obama is a foreign born moslem nazi socialist marxist terrorist sympathizing son of a luo tribesman. But I do share Rush's antipathy towards this Nissan Leaf ad that has most of the ad community melting faster than an Icelandic glacier.
Mind you my reasons for despising this commercial are entirely different from Blimpbaugh's. Whereas he predictably finds this to be typical propaganda for the environmental movement, I find it unnecessarily self-serving and disingenuous.
How else do you describe an ad in which a dying species finds the love and time to hug a car owner for being environmentally empathetic. Please, enough with the "environment loves the car" bullshit. It wasn't that convincing the first time.
And how about someone follow this up with a public service spot where a rape victim tracks down, confronts and hugs her attacker following his castration. Didn't think so.
The polar bear, ladies and gentlemen, is going to die out. At some point in the near future they will exist in archived documentaries and no where else. And not a billion Nissan Leafs are going to reverse that. But gee thanks for being egomaniacal enough to think you can.
And the heartbreaking irony, of course, is that cars have no doubt played their part in its demise. If I was the creative director at TBWA/Chait Day I would have fired the creatives who came up with this on the grounds that they have no humanity.
Either that or made them change the ending. To something more palatable like the Polar Bear eats the driver. Yes, that would work. And a line that says something like, "Justifiably not every one is impressed."
Minus kudos to Tuberculosis Wankers/Chiat Day.
The Delaware Senate race between Democrat Chris Coons and Republican Christine O Donnell promises to be a real treat.
In the blue corner we have a man who wrote a paper in college in which he referred to himself as a "bearded marxist".
In the red corner we have a woman who has admitted on network television to dabbling in witchcraft in her early years. Apparently she was even in a coven.
If history is the guide then Coons should win. For while the American public haven't exactly warmed up to communists over the years they haven't burned them, unlike witches. That said, having grown up in England when a certain Margaret Thatcher swept to power, my money's on the witch.
But I do look forward to the advertising. And if I was advising Coons I would blast the airwaves on October 31st with special Halloween ads.
When I started the "Make it Happen" Challenge all those weeks ago, I always suspected it might spawn its share of imitators. But with general enthusiasm I warmly greeted "The Impossible Brief", a crowd-sourcing initiative from BBR Saatchi & Saatchi Tel Aviv which asks the crowd to help solve the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
Talk about Chutzpa. Even I haven't dared to venture this big. I mean there's satire and there's absurdity. But on closer reading and having failed to see the satire, humor or irony in their brief, I've come to the frightening realization that they are actually being serious. Are you fucking bleeping kidding me. I mean where does one begin with the thought starters, never mind the mandatories.
Only advertising people. Who else would have the self-centered gall to assume they can crack what the brightest minds have failed to do for thousands of years. It makes sense of course. I mean if you can solve the problem of selling an anti-hemorrhoid cream to a squeamish public why can't you solve the problems of the Arabs and Jews. My money's on a mobile idea.
Oh yes and then there's the prize. Apparently bringing peace and hope to peoples who for too long have been mired in despair and distrust isn't incentive enough. It needs a free trip to the Cannes Advertising Festival. See that's what the Nobel prize committee never understood. Who wants a one-million dollar peace prize when you can hob nob with the advinistas in the South of France.
Mind you if someone does come up with the solution, it does beg the question, where the fuck have you been all these years. Were you ever going to share? Or were you just waiting for that free trip to Cannes.
Has anyone else noticed that John McCain is campaigning in Arizona without his two amigos (poor choice of word considering its Arizona) Lyndsey Graham and Joe Liberman? These two guys saw more of McCain during the presidential campaign than Cindy, but have been completely absent during his current bruising senate campaign.
It couldn't possibly have anything to do with the fact that Graham is probably not right wing enough for Arizona republicans and Liberman is well, not from the right religion.
Perhaps it's because Arizonians have issues with men who have a girl's first name and people who sound like Droopy. Yes that must be it.
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.
This from Huffington Post.
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.
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)
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.
On his show last night Keith Olbermann read a wonderful short piece by James Thurber called, "The Peacelike Mongoose." The context behind Keith's reading, which I won't get into, made it all the more powerful, but the words themselves sans any context are worth going over again and again. Beautiful story. Perfectly written. And one of the great lines ever!
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