Monday, February 26, 2007

Cell phones on a date

I was in Starbucks yesterday doing some work, and I noticed a man and a woman, both in their 30's, at a table near me that were obviously on a date. They didn't know each other very well because they were asking very basic questions like, "So what do you do for a living?", so this was definitely a first date. Everything seemed to be going very well, because they were both laughing and smiling, and they were enjoying each others' company.

Then the woman's cell phone rang.

She said, "Excuse me," and picked up her phone. The call was from a friend, most likely another woman from the nature of her tone of voice. She stayed on the phone for at least 5 or 6 full minutes. The man just sat there staring out the window, obviously uncomfortable with just sitting there waiting in silence during her phone call. When she finished her call, she apologized, and they started back up their conversation, which continued to be pleasant.

Ten years ago, this situation was barely even possible. Five years ago, this would have been considered rude to pick up your phone on a date. For many people in older generations, it is still considered rude, but younger people don't find it as rude. Young people, especially my generation and younger college and high school kids, have grown accustomed to the awkwardness of waiting for someone to get off a cell phone so that they can pick up their conversation. We are not only accustomed to it, but we accept it.

Still, there are certain people in our lives that we wouldn't interrupt a conversation with to answer a cell phone call. I see a direct correlation between the level of importance a person holds in our lives and the likeliness we will interrupt them to answer a phone call.

Clearly I am just speculating. I have no idea what was in the minds of this couple Sunday night at Starbucks. But if I had to guess it, they aren't meant for each other. If they were meant for each other, when either of their cell phones rang, they would immediately put them on silent and let the calls go to voicemail. The most memorable conversations deserve this.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

"More to life"

In a VCU short film I saw yesterday, a guy is annoyed by a friend because she "meets a new guy every week" and she always comes over to "blabber on about nothing important." He goes to reflect and camp out in the woods, while she comes to his house for comfort because she was pushed by her latest date to have sex. He comes home in the morning to find her sleeping on his porch, waiting for him. The film ends with the two hugging, and the title card comes up, which says "More to Life."

It was a great reflection on the power of friendship, and how much we need someone in our life that we can come to. Even though little things annoy us about the people we love, we always come back to each other for comfort during hard times, no matter what.

classic rock?

Recently, I was on the main campus of VCU in the library doing some work, when I overheard some very young looking undergrads (probably freshmen) having a conversation. One guy was going into great detail about the greatness of Pink Floyd with both the Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall. He also was recommending and knew a great deal about the Dark Side of Oz phenomenon that says that the Dark Side of the Moon album syncs up perfectly with the Wizard of Oz movie.

This got me thinking. It is now 2007, and 18 year old kids are still listening to Pink Floyd and watching the Dark Side of Oz. Not only is this a testament to how great a band Pink Floyd was, but it is also an interesting look into the impact of "classic rock" on young culture. I personally listen to many different kinds of music, but most of my favorite bands wrote their hit songs when I was a very young child, or in some cases not even born yet. And I'm not alone. There are millions of people out there in my generation that listen to bands from the 60s and 70s.

So what is going to happen in 15 or 20 years? What will be considered "classic rock" then? I'm sure that some of the timeless bands like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, and Led Zeppelin will still be getting a lot of airtime, but when my kids are listening to classic rock stations, who from our generation will they be listening to? Are there bands great enough out there right now to stand the test of time? Will my kids be saying in conversation, "You know, Beck was one of the most innovative classic rock musicians ever"? Will Green Day and The White Stripes be mentioned in the same sentence as AC/DC and Guns N' Roses? Will the Stone Temple Pilots and Rage Against the Machine be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Will I hear Nirvana when I turn on an "oldies" station?

Who has successfully made enough of a mark on our culture so that they will be considered the "timeless" bands from our generation? I guess only time will tell, but I find it very interesting to speculate.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Great use of YouTube

I saw this today for the first time, and I can't get enough. This is a smart, honest, universally relateable way of using YouTube that only a few brands out there know how to do.

Blendtec doesn't have money to spend on TV, print, or other traditional media. So they decided to entertain us online.

There are many episodes, and I suggest watching them all. Simply hysterical.

Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=will+it+blend

http://www.willitblend.com/

The mandatory Super Bowl commentary

So everybody that has anything to do with advertising has put in their two cents on the commercials on this year's Super Bowl. Because of this, I feel that I need to put something out there. But I don't want to talk about any specific ad or discuss which brand did the best and worst. I want to talk about a couple things that I've noticed about the Super Bowl, its commercials, and the hype surrounding it.

1. I was part of a discussion on Monday morning with my class at the Adcenter that was about the Super Bowl commercials. The thing about Adcenter kids is, we can't talk about anything except advertising, and we never say that anything is good. Everything sucks. Every single ad in the Super Bowl.

While I'm not saying that I thought the Super Bowl had a good year as far as the commercials are concerned, I don't feel as cynical as some of my classmates. The Super Bowl is the only time that the commercials are just as important (if not more important to some people) as the game. Therefore, you are going to have a better chance on Super Bowl Sunday to make a really funny ad that actually isn't strategically saying anything, but still have people remember your brand. This is because of the competitive nature of our society. We all are figuring out in our minds "which brand won the Super Bowl?" On any other night, some of the brands we saw on the Super Bowl would have been laughed at, but forgotten. But on Super Bowl Sunday, we make a mental note that the really funny commercial with the slapstick humor was Bud Light, not Miller Lite. Even if the commercial doesn't say anything at all about the brand, it worked.

So what does this all mean? It means that advertisers can be lazy on Super Bowl Sunday and just make everyone laugh. Whether they make a groundbreaking, strategically funny ad, or just throw up some hysterical, ridiculous situation that says nothing, they will end up with a positive result.

I hope that when I'm working, I don't let my agency get lazy and make an ad for the Super Bowl that doesn't say anything about my brand. But on that one day of football and commercial glory, I won't knock the advertiser who does.

2. I'll never watch the Super Bowl with advertising people. As a sports fan, and especially a football fan, I would be doing a disservice to myself to get caught up in a conversation about an ad and miss a great play. You can watch the commercials on the internet as many times as you want after the game is over.

I watched the game with non-advertising people (normal people??), and I still got caught up in an advertising conversation. So I can't imagine how much of the game I would miss if I watched with my advertising peers. If you like sports as much as I do, do yourself a favor next year and focus on the game. The ad conversation can wait.

Thursday, February 1, 2007

Laundromat soap opera fan

I was in the laundromat today, which is definitely where God would place me if I were to be cast into my own personal Hell. Somewhere in between watching my t-shirts spin round and round and nodding off, I observed an interesting meeting of two strangers who realized they had a common interest.

The 30 year old woman who was working the Thursday noon shift was engrossed in her soap opera, which I think was "All My Children." An older, possibly 45-50 year old woman was reading a book and waiting for her laundry to finish. They caught each other's eye and the younger woman (let's call her Joanne) started some small talk. "That Jeremy really makes me mad!" she says, pointing to the TV. The older woman (let's call her Angela) astonishingly says, "Yeah, I don't like Jeremy either! Are you a fan of the show?!" This ended up sparking a 15 minute conversation, where Angela asked many questions about Joanne's favorite characters and episodes, how long she had been a fan, and what she knew about the history of the show.

Throughout the conversation, a look of pride came over Angela every time she remembered the name of a character in the show from "back in the day." She explained to Joanne that most people don't remember the original family in the show from 25 years ago, which was the Steward family. "It all started with the Stewards...Johnny and Janice, and their son Jack. Jack was played by a young David Hassellhoff." (By the way, there's no way I got those names right. They are about as accurate as Joanne's and Angela's names.) Joanne spent the whole time answering Angela with "oh really," with her eyes going back and forth between Angela and the TV.

In the middle of Angela's trip down memory lane, she started to talk about a specific character that was killed off years ago. She got very frustrated with the fact that she couldn't remember the name of this character, and the conversation slowed as she sat and pondered. Angela then got up to move some clothes from the washer to the dryer, and sat down on the other end of the laundromat and started to read again. Two minutes later, she popped up, walked back over to the TV, and with a sparkle in her eye, said "It was Derek! That's the guy I couldn't remember! They killed him off. I really liked him." Joanne just said, "Oh OK, well I'm glad you remember his name." Obviously Joanne wasn't nearly as hardcore a fan as Angela. Angela went back to reading, finished up her laundry, and said goodbye to Joanne. Their half-hour relationship was over.

A couple things I noticed here:
1. When one person finds out that they have a common interest with someone, two things can happen. If the other person has the same level of interest as you, a very pleasant, exciting conversation between new friends happens. However, if the other person is far more interested in the topic than you are, you are put off by the fact that they are bragging about how much they know, and by how intense they are being. At the same time, if the other person is far less interested in the topic than you are, you are put off by the fact that they aren't as committed to the topic, and that they don't care enough to learn more.

2. One of the few moments of absolute joy that someone feels in life is when they remember an important event or person that used to be a part of their life. Our memories fail on us sometimes, and we feel incomplete and disappointed when we can't remember an old friend's name or the name of something we used to feel connected to. That moment of remembering is when we become complete again.