TV is not dead

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOhcAe1NCAY

See above.

Where are the Grown Ups?

The title (if not the content) if this David Brooks column, multiplied by recent reckonings with my own arrested adolescent behavior got me thinking about the lack of grown up ANYTHING in our culture. Brands, branding, advertising, "experiences" included.

The Brooks column is a little twisted, relishing in Lincoln's depression/mental illness/potential denial of other true parts of his nature. But this jumped out:

"Candidates get elected by telling people what they want to hear, leading them by using the sugar of their own fantasies."

Hmmm... in other words, marketing?

From creepy media like "Moment of Truth" to man-vertising to the elevation of pro athletes as gods to the ironic t-shirt or gross-out pizza product introductions, the sophomoric, the junk or the cheap thrill often seem to win.

Are there honest conversations or higher appeals happening out there? Weight Watchers and Dove come close, but the little things left unsaid make them ultimately unsatisfying, at least to me.

Which brands, cultural movements, etc. are making adult appeals? Or is entertainment ultimately what brands must be, and may escapism reign?

With gas prices, credit problems, the weak $, the Middle East, etc., maybe we will be forced into a grown up moment. Then again, maybe it'll be a bigger boom for junk escapsim to forget some more that it's all happening.

Change

Isn't this a bit short-sighted?

Sleeping with the enemy is a better way to affect change. (insert "from within" joke here)

My boyfriend has now voted Green party AND democrat and hasn't gone by the R-word in years. And that was pre-W term 2.

Iraq - the worst branded anti-war ever

Forget the playlist, one thing I like about long drives is the random radio scan - especially on two-lanes or in the south.

Yesterday I had such an opportunity and actually listened to "Peace Train"

Which made me think, "How come there have been so few protest songs for Iraq?"
Which made me think, "How come there have been so few protests of any kind for Iraq?"

The most powerful anti-war branding msg I saw was at the end of a Flaming Lips show a couple of years ago. War Pigs, faithfullly covered with a montage of the Bush-Cheney administration and the most graphic scenes of war carnage I'd seen.
Pretty easy, since you see so few.

One thing you have to give the baby boomers, they branded their youth and their cause well.

People are more uptight now about compact fluorescents than Iraq.
I wish there was a new biz pitch to jump in on this.