The only comfort in grey is imagined.

Grey is a state of mind — a nebulous mass of indecisiveness. Grey is a maybe. Grey is nothing but an excuse. Grey says it’s okay to straddle the fence, delay the decision, and avoid a position. Grey keeps you average and impedes greatness.

Yes, grey exists, and it’s good to be able to perceive and understand it, but living grey is a whole other matter.

Be black. Be white. Be whatever color you want to be. But make it solid. And f* grey.

How are you doing these days? Hopefully well, but likely not. I don’t have to tell you what’s happening out there. You know the dirty details. You’re surrounded by them.

As the bad news begins to rise a little higher than you’re used to, think about this: leaving the agency setting and moving in-house.

(Wait wait! Before you click off. Hear me out. I’ll be brief, because I understand your attention span, like mine, is in a state of perpetual truncation.)

1. Why work with some clients you like and some you don’t? Why not work at one company you love?

2. Creativity can happen in so many places these days, with so many intricacies and layers, your options are limited only by your creativity.

3. To think that one copywriter and one art director can successfully handle more than one client’s branding needs throughout a myriad channels is simply foolish.

4. To think that one copywriter and one art director can successfully explore the myriad tools available to reach multiple audiences is, again, foolish.

5. (See reason #1) Why work with some clients you like and some you don’t? Why not work at one company you love?

Sure, a lot of the companies we creative people would deem “worthy of working at (or for)” don’t have an in-house creative department. So what? Build it yourself. You’ve spent your career selling smart campaigns to some of the biggest and baddest companies in the world. Selling a mid-size company with a portfolio full of promise on a way to save money and create better more insightful work should be a no-brainer for you.

So, should you take on the assignment, here’s a rough strategy statement:

Convince any one company I truly love and believe in that I can create more effective and insightful work than their advertising agency of record because I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and gosh darnit, who’s got the money to keep paying for a big damn agency these days?

Thoughts? Ideas? I know you have ‘em. Leave ‘em here.

Have a good one.

Photo Credit Jim Frazier

Just about every time I mention twitter to a friend or client, they respond with a cockeyed look and pursed lips — like I’ve just squeezed grapefruit pulp into both their eyes.

It reminds me of the early years when I evangelized True Men Don’t Kill Coyotes off Red Hot Chili Peppers’ first album (check out that cheesy-awesome video below). Then making friends listen to Yertle the Turtle off Freaky Styley. Digging into Anthrax and deconstructing Efilnikcufecin.

All these shiny new tools and how we continue using and exploring them are a lot like the underground music that defined some of us way back when. Our love for the unique made us a little different, socially questionable.

Today, however, that is our advantage. We are connecting dots. We are painting pictures. We are doing remarkable things with very few resources — just like innovators have always done. With every tweet, blog, video, and podcast, we are essentially pushing deeper into the communications underground. The cool thing is there’s a lot more air and light down there than there is up here.

Thoughts? Comments? Love to hear ‘em. Let’s keep pushing.

When the icons start shaking and you’re having a bourbon with your father-in-law, sometimes you get a little silly.

Case in point, Scrapple — a delicious melding of “Scrabble” and “Apps” that will have you saying, “Dude, this is totally and utterly ridiculous!”

What words can you spell with your apps? Got ideas for rules? A point system? Log in when you’re drinking something harder than O’Doule’s and comment away.

Thanks for stopping in. Hope all’s well.

The further we tread through the warm 2.0 bouillabaisse, the more I consider our current modus operandi and human physicality to be incapable of accommodating the increasing demands of a new world order. If we are to survive, certain things will almost inevitably happen:

1. Time: The 24-hour clock will become a 28- or 30-hour clock. 24 hours is an already-insufficient amount of time to get everything done, and get sufficient rest to recharge.
2. Business: Hours spent physically at work will be reduced by half, smarter companies will reduce that time by more, allowing personal time and work time to coexist and make satisfied, productive employees.
3. Data: Server storage systems will come standard with every new home. Most likely, they’ll be buried in the yard to keep them from being eyesores.
4. Brain: The cerebral cortex will grow more dense to accommodate the increasing need for information storage and recall.
5. Fingers: Both the thumb and pinky finger will grow more muscularly complex to facilitate 2-finger typing on mobile device.
6. Eyes: will move independently of each other so that we can tweet and drive safely.
7. The End: Custom tombstones will be ready in 24-48 hours after tweeting your own epitaph. Some will be very very funny.

Thoughts? Predictions? Epitaphs?

Hope you’re well, and thanks for stopping in.

When was the last time you cleaned out your marketing? Gave it a good scrub? Cleaned the shelves? Looked behind the milk? Checked the expiration date on the cheese? Tossed the marinara sauce with a thin epidermis of… what is that, cotton?

If you haven’t done it in the last six months, do it now. Your brand needs you.

Grab every piece of communication you currently use and spread them out on a table or two. All of them. Business cards. Print ads. Brochures. Newsletters. Signage. Everything. And don’t forget to print out your website.

Now step back.

Is everything cohesive? Is everything written in the same tone? Does it all create the image you want to convey? Is everything up to date? What can you improve on? Most importantly, what can you obliterate from the process?

Branding starts from within.

If you can’t smell the bad cheese or see the black potato that’s somehow growing an onion, someone will — soon. And it may be someone really really important — like a current or potential customer.

What other things can businesses do to streamline their processes? Improve their image? Or just plain evolve?

Hope you’re well, and thanks for stopping in.

I was wondering which of my friends would write the first Dear John letter to facebook. Today, I wonder no more.

I received the following in a mass e-mail from an good friend. It is posted below with his permission — though I changed his name — and deleted the last line of his email for, well, content the general public needn’t be privy to.

From:     ***********
Subject:     Facebook
Date:     November 7, 2008 8:43:26 PM EST
To:     Undisclosed recipients: ;

Friends, neighbors and relatives:

I’ve found Facebook to be a strange and wonderful thing.

Strange because people I hardly remember, know or like have made contact with me through the site and asked to be my friend.

Wonderful because it’s a great way to stay in contact with people I actually consider friends.

So, I am going to disengage from Facebook as [NAME] and re-engage at a later time under a less common name (for me). Ha ha

If you see an invite from someone you’ve never heard of in the future, it might be me, so don’t ignore it.

Until then, you have my email for any miscellaneous statuses or rants.

[last part deleted for content]

So how are you feeling about facebook? Like it? Hate it? Lukewarm? Have you defriended someone? Feel free to share.

Hope you’re well, and thanks for stopping in.

We label emails as normal low, normal, and high priority. Physicians deem patients in stable or critical condition. So why can’t we have the same labels on the economy that trigger certain actions in order to protect something so elemental to us as a lifetime of savings?

We all know the STOP LOSS option triggers a share sell-off once they dip below a certain level. Considering, however, that the term “loss” has been newly defined by the current crisis, why not safeguard the common non-investor type who doesn’t stop-loss his or her investments by automatically selling a percentage of shares of stock after the economy has been deemed “in crisis?” The sell-off would then occur once said investor’s losses reach 10, 15, 25%  — or whatever the investor is comfortable with — from the point at which the economy was deemed to be “in crisis.” Make it a mandatory part of the investment agreement. The toughest part, I imagine, would be trusting the team of mathematicians who develop the equations necessary to flag the economy as “in crisis” and trigger the sell-off.

Whatever the case, what’s happening right now can never happen again. Not only has this debacle obliterated retirements, they’ve erased inheritances. Now we’ve all got to start over, so that by the time our children or grandchildren retire, things may be back to “normal” — whatever its new definition may be.

Thoughts? Opinions? Gripes? Tirades? Bring ‘em on.

Thanks for stopping in, and I hope you’re doing well.

It’s always both inspiring and humbling to see what advertising students can do before they get all jaded by clients and their lawyers.

Kudos to these students for pushing their thinking, and the teachers who guided the work. My favorite is the piece for Doritos. Creative placement is tough to do well without the work appearing forced. This piece, and a few others, take great advantage of the medium, while delivering a simple, and more importantly, singular message.

Now that I have 2 year old, I’m often relegated to “viewing buddy” status when Mickey Mouse comes on. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is big here, and she’s not afraid to yell out the magic words at random times throughout the day:

Meeska! Mooska! Mickeeeeeey Mouse!

Next time you see any of the shows, keep your eyes on Mickey’s ears. They’re drawn (or “rendered” for all you techno-sticklers) as if they’re always facing the camera. Mickey will turn his head this way and that, but the ears never move in the proper perspective with Mickey — it’s like he’s wearing a floating scalp.

It’s just an example of how far a company will go to protect their brand.

Now I guess I’ll just sit back and wait for a call from their lawyers.