Worth Noting Pages 11-15

·         Quote from Coco Chanel:

            Look for the woman in the dress.  If there is no woman, there is no dress.

·         On the power of GOSSIP from Trying To Save Piggy Sneed by John Irving; Gail Godwin’s defense from the “unwanted attentions of a lecherous fellow student”

“Please leave me alone, or I shall be forced to wound you with a weapon you can ill afford to be wounded by in a town this small.”  -- “And what might that weapon be little lady?”, the lout  asked. “Gossip” Gail Godwin replied.

·         On Perseverance and Discipline from Piggy Sneed.  John Irving says that in both wrestling and writing he sees self as 7/8 discipline and 1/8 talent; however, as his former wrestling coach Ted Seabrooke would tell him:

            That you’re not very talented needn’t be the end of it.

·         Promotional Teaser Campaign for the 1932 movie release of The Hunchback Of Notre Dame:

 Print ad had pen & ink outline of Laughton’s face with features blank.  Campaign asked readers to guess and “draw in” the face of the Hunchback as publicity for Laughton’s spectacular face makeup.

·         Quote on Advertising from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in  Ad Age ; late ‘96/early ‘97 issue:

“If I were starting life all over again, I am inclined to think that I would go into the advertising business in preference to almost any other.  This is because advertising has come to cover the whole range of human needs and also because it combines real imagination with a deep study of human psychology.  Because it brings to the greatest number of people actual knowledge concerning useful things, it is essentially a form of education ... It has risen with ever-growing rapidity to the dignity of an art.  It is constantly paving new paths ... The general raising of the standards of modern civilization among all groups of people during the past half-century would have been impossible without the spreading of the knowledge of higher standards by means of advertising.”

                                                                                   

·         On History from Mark Twain:

 History doesn’t repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes.

·         On Art from Edward Burke:

 Art is man’s nature.

·         Selected readings on English Grammar & Usage:

·         Modern English Usage, Fowler

·         The Language Instinct, Stephen Pinker

·         The Reader Over Your Shoulder, Robert Graves & Alan Hodge 1943 MacMillan edition

·         On Painting:

            At its best, it captures the soul of both subject and painter -- immortalizing both.

·         Campaign Idea - Cold Remedy TV Spot:

·         Reality-based, everyday soap opera style

·         Ailing spouses and other target adults seen in true colors -- i.e., surly, short-tempered, lazy, detached and downright nasty to each other

·         These are the real symptoms and effects of cold & flu suffering

·         Tag might be something along the lines of: “Kill the Beast”

·         Sayings and Quotes from USN 1/9/95 John Leo “An aphorism a day...”

·         “You can’t become a fat man on one big meal” -- President of China; on economic “aid”

·         “When they’re after your butt, answer the phone”

·         Two of President Clinton’s ten rules of politics:

·                     “Don’t drink in public, you might act like yourself”

·                     “Never tell anyone to go to hell unless you can make them go”

·         “Never stop being nervous”

·         “You can’t get ahead while you’re getting even”, Representative Dick Armey

·         “Grievances are like flowers.  If you water them, they will grow.”

·         “When a person with money meets a person with experience, the person with experience winds up with the money and the person with money winds up with the experience.”     Harvey Mackay, businessman and columnist

·         “Mind like parachute: only function when open.” -- Charlie Chan

·         “If you treat everyone special ... no one is truly special.” -- Mayor Guiliani aide

·         “If you’re not part of the stream roller, you’re part of the road.”

·         “All hate is local.” -- Stefan Kantor, author

·         Agency Name & Concept:  Home Team Marketing

·         Positive associations: 1) home team almost always wins 2) home team advantage 3) home team is community-centric, locally active

·         must be located in hometown market/area -- with mostly local talent -- with connections to, and knowledge of, local life

·         idea fits trends toward home business, aging/more settled adult pop, community support

·         No. 1 New Media Hurdle:  Only Fools Rush In

  

·         Idea for recycling & solid waste disposal:

·         develop specialized incinerator technology

·         recycled materials used to manufacture super-strong balloons to contain/transport hazardous waste, gaseous pollutants and incinerator output

·         balloons fitted to special incinerator stacks

·         after balloon inflates, it’s released to rise into upper atmosphere, above ozone layer, where it is destroyed naturally or with assistance (e.g., self-destruct mechanism, satellite laser system)

·         Rock/Dance Club Idea:  Backbeat

·         Walls and floor of club transmit/transform rhythm of crowd into music -- i.e., the beat

·         Beat is mixed with music track that’s playing

·         Hence the name, “Backbeat”

·         Darien Old Timers Fund-Raiser Ideas:

Idea #1

·         Publicize a specific fund-raising goal for annual dinner in local papers, posters etc.

·         Lock in at least one big-name national athlete or local figure who could draw autograph-seekers

·         Proceeds from autograph “donation” (e.g., $10 each) goes into scholarship fund

Idea #2

·         Organize softball, golf or basketball days targeted to 30 year-olds and over

·         registration fees donated to scholarship fund

·         Running races also a possibility

·         attracts sports/civic-minded member prospects -- or at least donators who may not otherwise go to annual dinner

·         Ore-Ida Promotional TV Campaign:  Supporting Literacy

·         Begins with the idea that O-I understands how to raise families -- the challenge is to SIMPLIFY

·         Four cornerstones:

·         LOVE -- Mom lovingly prepares/serves meal

·         DISCIPLINE -- Parent firmly instructs child to eat what’s on a healthy plate

·         PLAY -- Young kids have fun at table playing with Tater ABC’s

·         EDUCATION -- Help your child learn to read early with these O-I education materials

·         (Alphabet place mats, magnetic ABC’s tray, word labels for around the house, phonics books)

           

·         Pet Care Product:  Kitty Kuffs ™ (actual designs created)

·                     Safe, humane, comfortable paw/claw restraints for bathing, grooming and pilling uncooperative cats -- i.e., cat handcuffs

·                     Branded and endorsed by veterinarians

·                     Tagline: “Humane restraints for felonious felines”

·         Agency Name & Concept:  Rising Tide Marketing

·         “A rising tide lifts all ships.”

·         Consultancy focused on keeping marketers current -- not necessarily leading-edge; rather, tapped into latest possibilities and new revenue streams

·         Trends create “rising tide” opportunities in lowest risk/highest return sectors

·         Service and counseling centers around audit, assessment, creation of marketing programs that extend from emerging trends

·         Goal is to exploit hot trends for category and brand growth

·         On the Navy Seals - Macho saying about Seals’ hubris and effectiveness in any situation:

As long as Seals have water in their canteens, they consider themselves to be in a maritime environment.

Another story about Navy bravado (originally read in The Atlantic Monthly c. 1986)

A U.S. battleship admiral encounters a Soviet sub in unfriendly waters.  As the sub approaches the cruiser too closely, the U.S. commander fires a gun blast across the Soviet’s bow.  The Soviet commander contacts the U.S. ship and urgently demands, “What are you trying to do, start a war?”  The unblinking U.S. commander quickly signals back, “If I am, you’ll be the first to know.”

·         On the impact of computer networks:

Networks take time, distance and space out of the equation.

·         On Humility  from Eastern Proverb

If you bow at all, bow low.  The respect you gain will more than compensate for any loss of face

·         On sense memory and the Strasberg/Stanislowski “method”:

·         We can’t adequately relate emotional experiences through basic recall and language

·         Sense memory, as used in method acting, calls emotions and feelings to the front by recall stimulus and reenactment           

·         On the Power of Artistry in Advertising from Bill Bernbach:

I can put down on a page a picture of a man crying, and it’s just a picture of a man crying.  Or I can put him down in such a way as to make you want to cry.  The difference is artistry -- the intangible thing that business distrusts.

·         About the system of checks & balances that regulates advertising & marketing:

Regulating agencies

·         FTC, FCC, FDA, UPS, ATF, state/local attorney general, Green River (door-to-door)

Self-regulating

·         National Advertising Division (NAD), a division of the Council of Better Business Bureau; NARB (National Advertising Review Board, second body after the NAD); Trade Associations (e.g., Toy Mfrs. Assoc.; Advertising Associations (4 A’s, American Advertising Federation -- AAF)

·         Media -- TV Networks, local stations, print publishers (e.g., Reader’s Digest accepts no cigarette ads)

Consumers

·         Activist groups (e.g., Nader’s Raiders); ACT, individuals                              

FTC Criteria for Deceptive Practices

·         What’s the net impression?

·         Are consumers acting “reasonably”?

·         Are material claims truthful?

·         On Courtesy from Kenneth Clark:

The ritual by which we avoid hurting other people’s feelings by satisfying our own egos.

·         Bill Bernbach quote on the design of company logo -- Doyle Dane Bernbach:

Nothing will come between us.  Even punctuation.

Related anecdote about a young man who cavalierly refers to the company as “Doyle” in an interview with Mr. Bernbach, who quips:

I’m glad you feel comfortable enough to call me by my first name.

• Notes from TV program about aging (ME/U ch. 26, 5 AM, 6/25/96)

·         Older people’s approach to life is typically more relaxed

·         Younger people project discontent forward, whereas elder adults have come to terms and have a high sense of well-being -- doesn’t change from younger life other than incidence of age disorders

·         May not have long range plans -- philosophy is to enjoy each day

·         They aspire to be elder role models -- don’t stop learning, but want to stay alive and keep a positive mental outlook

·         Need to separate effects of aging vs. effects of medical conditions

·         Suicide is greatest at older age bracket -- depression is the #1 cause

·         Place great importance on having a confidante

·         Older patients show stress-related symptoms like young -- depression, anxiety, anger

·         Relief is even more critical/valued because of benefits related to health maintenance -- blood pressure, antidepressant

·         Increased fitness leads to raised aspirations -- e.g., the “greying” of universities

·         A “pregnant” market exists for elder labor -- retrained and reapplied

·         There’s a continued increase in elder use of technology -- PC’s, phones, etc.