Obama.com

The celebration from this weeks election results are still reverberating throughout the city (I live in NYC) and cities all over the world. People are suddenly alive with chatter, intelligent, emotional, and critical chatter about the new President elect Barack Obama.

Obama means so many different things to so many different people.

Obama is a candidate that truly embodies the nation he is serving. Just look around at the faces, listen to people speak, gauge the atmosphere around yourself and you will see why Obama was the obvious choice for President.

We live in very uncertain times and in many ways Obama is a very uncertain choice for President.

A black man is now President of a very young nation that very early on in its history was a bastion of slavery and racial intolerance, that sometimes still lingers in many parts of the country.

As a nation we elected a man who has little high office experience, often preaches over inflated promises and is a mixture of races that leaves him sitting just outside both black and white lines. A man who is full of potential and who instills the desire in a nation that wants to help him realize that potential.

As a nation we have decided to break loose the grips of conventional wisdom and let a man who is more about the future than a patriot of the past. A man who is looking forward, not back, to an America that realizes its true place amongst nations.

His campaign has cured this nation of its apathy and has re-injected a new interest in how we are perceived amongst other nations. The reality of his very being is proof enough that we are a nation in transition.

Obama is a man who represents the hope in all of us.

He is the culmination of everything we want from a nation that promised us all a dream.

Obama is no super hero. He is all of us, his mixture goes beyond race, his honesty and courage is rooted in the desire for those very attributes in all of us. His determination and his rise to success from the very depths of community service is what draws us to him so closely.

We have become an empty nation and an empty people.

Our spending habits, pop culture and banking and education systems have all deteriorated due to neglect and over consumption. We are losing our houses, our jobs and our security into old age.

The nations to the east and to the south are like hungry wolves waiting for the right moment for us to weaken from the fat that we consume on a daily basis. We are fat from every aspect of our lives. Fat from gas, from money, from food and from consumption.

The past eight years have been spent dealing with the realization that we have lost our luster. Our respect and our prominence has worn off and we are now tangled in a ball of critical issues facing our country. We were left licking our wounds and trying to figure out how to clean messes rather than how to prosper.

Obama may not be the cure but he is a remedy that will lead us to a cure.

His desire for truth and for facing the issues head on through constant communication and embracing the nation wholly.

This is not a political article, and what I am about to write is not entirely political in nature.

What amazed me the most about this campaign was Obama's ability to recognize, understand and embrace the web as a tool for communication. He not only validated the publics desire for change but he also validated the power of the Internet as a means to help bring about that change.

Obama understood the the Internet was his bull horn, it amplified his voice, his persona and his soul to the furthest reaches of the planet.

From Facebook to YouTube from Google to Yahoo, CNN and ESPN. News clips, SNL and MySpace. Widgets, RSS feeds, banners and blogs.

The digital frontier was Obama's campaign trail conquered!

We no longer recognize those purple mountains majesty and from sea to shining sea is a vague term to the youth of today

Emails, websites, Sarah Silverman viral video-sites, iPhone apps and digital downloads.

Obama knew that he would be heard the loudest through the Internet and through technology that is embraced by all.

3 minutes before Obama emerged to give his historic acceptance speech in Chicago, every one of his supporters got a personal email thanking them for everything they have done to support his landslide win.

From the very beginning of this campaign there was a very futuristic feel to how Obama was speaking to the public. It was llike nothing else we have ever witnessed.

The Internet has changed the way we do lots of things in our lives and now it has changed the way elections are won. It is the new stage for politics and the most powerful communication tool known to mankind.

What impressed me was Obama's familiarity for the medium. His campaign trusted and executed flawlessly on every technology, trend, application and information platform. From design to function and beyond.

You think your popular because you have 998 friends on Facebook?

Well Obama has 2,712,479 and counting.

Names and faces of real people, real supporters, real users who feel a connection closer than any connection to any other past President. These are people who can speak up and feel that they are being heard, people with hopes and dreams and a people who wants to know that those hopes are not going unnoticed.

Democrat is now a brand.

I am a Mac = Democrat

I am a PC = Republican

Its amazing how the threads of pop culture and society mimic one another so subtly yet so obviously when put side by side.

We are obviously a nation divided by a checkered past and an unknown future.

What was is now and what is now is almost gone.

The speed of communication has accelerated us as a planet and is now forcing us to go beyond and transcend, to evolve.

Obama is the face of that evolution.

He is global, he is both sides of the coin.

His lack of experience is a strength because there is less for him to undo and more for him to grow into.

His leadership will succeed based on how committed he is to keep that light burning so that we as a people can navigate through these dark times.

His tenacity is what we will need to push through these next eight years. Hopefully he surrounds himself with the right people so he can focus on keeping that smile burning across his face. That smile that smiles for all of us.

His race, his facade, is simply that of a people who have always struggled for progress. His face is the color of adversity and overcoming it.

We all now struggle for progress, we all need redemption from our mistakes and now we all move forward together as one nation to climb out of this hole we have found ourselves buried in.

Obama is the first President in the new age.

The continents of the Earth have gathered as one Pangea once again, as it had started millions of years ago. The Internet has bridged the great oceans and has created dialog, both good and bad amongst the people of the world.

Obama is the first President of the first generation of an evolution.

The Internet Age.

As the community who designs and develops for this great voice to be projected to the entire planet, we should all be proud that the medium we love is what made a difference in the world.

UPDATE:

Today, November 17th, President-elect Obama will record the weekly Democratic address not just on radio but also on video -- a first. The address, typically four minutes long, will be turned into a YouTube video and posted on Obama's transition site, Change.gov, once the radio address is made public on Saturday morning.

The address will be taped at the transition office in Chicago today.

"This is just one of many ways that he will communicate directly with the American people and make the White House and the political process more transparent," spokeswoman Jen Psaki told us last night.

In addition to regularly videotaping the radio address, officials at the transition office say the Obama White House will also conduct online Q&As and video interviews. The goal, officials say, is to put a face on government. In the following weeks, for example, senior members of the transition team, various policy experts and choices for the Cabinet, among others, will record videos for Change.gov.

Sudden Impact

The web offers the ad industry tons of potential in terms of options to market a brand online.

So much so that it can get confusing or even impossible to nail down which methods will work for which brand.

Brands require experts who monitor those trends on the internet and who understand what is working at any given time in specific areas of the web. Trends change daily based on new technologies and more interactive ways to tell a story.

The experts are the ones creating the new technologies and innovations on the web as a means to stay competitive.

They are the digital agencies.

As ad agencies get more proficient at identifying and in some ways codifying these various techniques we are starting to see more and more interesting websites being launched. But those sites are not necessarily successful.

It is often the case where ideas and the technologies don't play nicely together.

Today these new techniques come and go almost daily and the rule book changes with every new site launched. This is confusing to agencies and by the time they think they get it, they don't.

If you take a look at a cross section of the more successful or popular sites that have been launched recently you will notice that most of them lack one important component, and a trend that is becoming more and more popular today, that is critical for a successful online campaign.

I will get to what that is later in this post.

Imagine you come up with an idea, and you sell it through to your client but in the back of your mind there is nothing that says that the idea will surely work. Its a gamble, like anything in life, you just have no real facts to say that something will be a hit.

You familiarize yourself will all the latest trends and work with the best digital agencies out there to make sure your site will be prefect for launch.

The copy is airtight, assets are beautifully created and the site is the definition of digital harmony.

The ad buys are in place, banners are everywhere, even a TV spot driving traffic to the site.

Your psyched, your client is psyched, everyone involved is feeling great and you've already drafted your awards acceptance speech.

The day has come, the site goes live.

Then...

...nothing.

What I am getting at here is that culturally traditional ad agencies are just simply out of sync with what the public wants, expects and needs from the web.

The web insists that those who are creating media for it stay much more abreast to what its capabilities are and unlike the past new technologies are adopted much quicker on the web than the more static traditional platforms ever had available to them.

Over the last ten years consumers have been re-trained to think faster, react immediately and receive their reward instantly.

Apple's iTunes is a great example of that. Who would have thought that Apple would emerge as the top seller of entertainment media like music and movies and now mobile applications.

We are the instant gratification generation.

We click we get.

So the question that weighs heavily on my mind is, why would an ad agency that specializes in traditional marketing endeavor to strategize a web campaign for their clients when their staff is not geared for this kind of work and why would brands pay them millions to do work they are not specialized to do?

One of this year's biggest stories was the outburst by Big Spaceship owner Michael Lebowitz. He spoke up regarding his shops credit snub at Cannes.

The issue was credit, and the topic was definitely newsworthy, but what also happened was that it helped usher in the emergence of the digital agency.

It was a new voice speaking up and saying HEY WE EXIST!

Brands typically rely on their AOR to strategize a marketing campaign that they expect to be evenly distributed across various media platforms based on where they will get the best consumer response.

Now that the web has become one of the, if not the, most popular places to advertise we are seeing ad agencies starting to struggle with how they are executing more traditional ideas on the web.

There is no doubt that traditional ad agencies are tremendously talented at coming up with stories to tell based on brands and that ideas are in no shortage but taking those ideas and translating them online poses a new challenge to them.

I do not believe that the agencies were able to foresee the speed at which the industry would shift, the veracious impact with which digital would gain prominence as well as the rate of expansion of the web.

Agencies were simply to big and unable to see how quickly the web would become mainstreamed and how the new media marketplace would be completely redefined.

Most of the larger traditional agencies have not adjusted to the shift.

Only a few agencies have changed culturally. The agencies that have sprouted up during the dot com years were lucky enough to have built digital capabilities into their core services. Older agencies are now trying to simply acquire it.

Brands expect their agency to be able to execute across all media and inherently understand the nature of that media and how to integrate with it.

Smaller digital agencies had already bought into the new culture in the mid 90s, they have been doing this for over ten years now and over those ten years have accepted their roles as second fiddle to the larger agencies but at the same time waiting patiently, and learning from the mistakes that agencies made, for their time to come.

Digital agencies live and breathe and experiment with new media and digital storytelling in ways that traditional ad agencies cant. Digital agencies are naturally more curious about the medium because they created that medium and are always trying to improve it.

Digital shops have been learning from the mistakes made at larger agencies, smaller digital shops have identified that in order to grab the reigns they must know how to own and then integrate online media across a larger media marketplace and are doing so quite nicely.

As brands now shift their dollars towards the web the looming question is who should be getting the big bucks?

Digital shops have been doing work with agencies for some time now and like any close relationship each of the participants have rubbed off on one another.

Digital shops had to learn how to communicate with agencies by adopting a lot of the traditional processes that agencies have had in place for a 100 some odd years now and large agencies have had to step up their techno-jargon in order to jive with the hip smaller digital shops.

The result is that digital SHOPS have now become digital AGENCIES.

Growth is critical in any industry and evolution is unavoidable.

Now that media technologists and ad folks have intermingled and digital shops have realized that they too can come up with creative and innovative ways to market a brand, especially online, there seems to be an inherent shift in where brands need to be turning to drive their next campaign.

Any smart brand manager should realize that going directly to a digital agency will not only help save them money, because digital agencies tend to be much smaller and more nimble, but that they will be putting their money behind the people who are not only following the trends but actually creating those trends.

With limited budgets digital agencies can only go so far.

Digital projects suffer because the pie is being eaten by way too many people. By the time the people who are actually doing the project get the brief most of the dollars have been eaten up by the layers of bureaucracy at the AOR.

But if the budgets for digital campaigns were to be put directly in the hands of the digital agencies it would help to create not only more innovative executions but also help to finance the emergence of new technologies on the web and more exciting stories being told.

I mentioned earlier in this post that there is a missing component that traditional ad agencies lack.

That component is real time media tracking that is both accurate in terms of understanding audiences and identifying what user behavior patterns are successful and acting quickly on those findings.

Digital shops not only understand the inner workings of new media, they created this media, and intuitively understand what ideas will work online and which ones will fail.

Imagine a small digital shop who has been working every major traditional agency for ten years, learning from every project. Learning how each one of them communicates, comes up with ideas and tackles problems. Then they go ahead and apply that to their vast digital knowledge and then wrap that up with killer creative. The perfect model for the new agency trained by the old guard.

The digital shops were and continue to witness and learn from every success and mistake made by a cross section of large agencies.

Its like spending ten years in grad school being taught by the best professors.

Now that our country is facing financial introspection and money needs to be spent wisely, brands should reconsider where they distribute their ad dollars.

Digital shops are now more than capable of quarterbacking a campaign.

Ideas born from within the digital culture will have a better chance of surviving the fast pace of the web and in turn will give brands more bang for their buck. They will offer brands solutions that will enable the campaign to shift based on what users want and expect at various points of the campaign life.

One such execution, in my opinion, was launched this year for NBC Universal by digital shop Freedom + Partners. It is a very unique website created for the show The Starter Wife.

The site can be seen here: http://www.tswlife.com

What set this site apart from other sites I have seen this year is that it is loaded with potential for what the new face of the web will look like once more digital shops starting leading campaigns online.

With time and budget limitations, Freedom + Partners was able to execute a site that was a true convergence of media platforms. From book to mini series to weekly episodes to website every part of this property lives on a separate and appropriate media platform making it a truly diverse brand that speaks to a multitude of audiences.

NBC Universal was brave enough to take a chance on a digital agency who understood how to get immediate feedback from its audience. In partnering with Freedom + Partners, NBC Universal saw the potential for giving users new content immediately following an episode of the show and using that information to provide them with a better overall brand experience every time they came back to the site.

The site is now an evolving media platform that will give NBC the ability to see what their audiences want and how they react to what they are already giving them.

There is no exact science for success on the web, however putting your projects in the hands of those who are most intimate with it is one step towards success.

Go Digital!

Moral Decline

Perhaps my brain is interpreting things based on the fact that tonight is the night of Yom Kippur (Jewish holiday of introspection and repentance) and I am feeling morally accountable for the work I do or what I read in Ad Age this morning is really, really scary.

Nat Ives at Ad Age wrote an article about Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt and his comments about the the internet becoming a “cesspool for false information.”

Schmidt’s solution to the problem was the following:

"Brands are the solution, not the problem," Mr. Schmidt said. "Brands are how you sort out the cesspool."

We all know that Google’s agenda is to sell more ads, but to go as far as saying that the entire web should be a giant virtual Times Square, filled with brand controlled content is a bit disturbing.

Brands control network television, since the early days it was the brands who sponsored the shows that dictated content based on how they wanted it to align itself and its products with its consumers. We all know how wonderful an example television is on our society, its like one long commercial.

But the web?

Our sweet autonomous web, the space we all go to for choices, for voices and for original thought.

Imagine the web controlled by the major brands, that is scary!

Schmidt went on to say that the future of quality editorial is, moreover, hardly certain. "It's a huge question in the world," Mr. Schmidt said, "particularly in the United States."

The CEO of one of the most or actually, the absolute most influential and powerful media companies in the world suggests that quality editorial is “a huge question” and “uncertain” while brands are thriving and alive is a really sad outlook if you ask me.

As we stand on the brink of a collapsing economy, we should be embracing real substantial thought and culture and not brands.

During a time of instability, its the editorial that should be thriving. Ideas, comments, theories and thoughts should be growing in the fertile soil of uncertainty helping to deliver us from the mess we put ourselves into. Over consumption and unrealistic economic outlook. We should not be feeding the addiction but treating it. An even balance of truth and honesty.

Creativity and original thought thirsts for inspiration. It yearns to be nurtured until it is distilled down to it's most simplest form. It's of the few forms of expression that is loudest and most powerful when expressed in it's most basic and uncensored way. It spans the masses and speaks volumes. The web gives us this freedom and by handing it over to brands because Google wants things more relevant is creative suicide.

Schmidt went on to say that branding, on the other hand, may be an essential element that helps people navigate the world, he said. "Brand affinity is clearly hard wired," he said. "It is so fundamental to human existence that it's not going away. It must have a genetic component."

If we follow Schmidt’s direction on how to navigate the world based on brand affinity, we are all doomed for destruction and the complete failure of mankind will be upon us.

Google just got scarier.

Oldy But Goody

A very wise man named Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (also known by the acronym RAMCHAL) who lived between the years of 1707-1746, penned a book called The Path of the Just. In that book he wrote an elaborate introduction that started off with a very wise piece of advice, he wrote:

"I have written this work not to teach men what they do not know, but to remind them of what they already know and is very evident to them, for you will find in most of my words only things which most people know, and concerning which they entertain no doubts.

But to the extent that they are well known and their truths revealed to all, so is forgetfulness in relation to them extremely prevalent.

It follows, then, that the benefit to be obtained from this work is not derived from a single reading; for it is possible that the reader will find that he has learned little after having read it that he did not know before.

Its benefit is to be derived, rather, through review and persistent study, by which one is reminded of those things which, by nature, he is prone to forget and through which he is caused to take to heart the duty that he tends to overlook."

I had written a blog post last year that I feel is very relevant to post again but introduced with these very wise words from the Ramchal.



A very honest and very smart person asked for some help with cohesiveness of the production team at a pretty big studio.

I was really pleased to see that someone cared enough to seek outside help in making the team better, this person really cares!

Hats off to you buddy!

You know who you are!

Below is my response...

I'm sorry to hear that the team is having cohesiveness issues, that is really a major work flow problem.

I faced this issue at some studios that I had worked in and was able to help solve some of the issues by restructuring and better defining roles and responsibilities that both empowered people and made them very accountable for their specific roles.

Team members need to clearly understand boundaries and where hand off points are and when to come in (many times without being asked) and help out.

There needs to be chemistry amongst the team that is based on trust, ultimate trust is what will allow people to go into a project with the best attitude and wanting to give it their all.

Apathy is our cancer and when you have members of the team who have their minds on other things or simply don't care enough to perform on the highest level then you will see that the quality of the work suffers and that every project becomes a nightmare.

That is one reason why I am so against a revolving door policy where designers and developers come and go, a team needs time to grow.

Members need to know the others through and through, its not all business, its a creative field that requires everyone knowing what is in the head of the other.

Producers need to gauge every team member and then deal with them accordingly, sometimes talk out of both sides of their mouths in order to please everyone and get everyone to perform at their very best. No different than a sporting team.

1. How is your current creative team structured (ECD, CD, Senior AD, etc)?

The Creative Director sets the overall tone of the project's design phase he or she makes sure everything is tight and on brand and can be executed from a technological standpoint> The Art Director dictates the specifics and execution> The Developer works with AD on motion and look and feel> The Producer has final say as to what client will see.

The Producer IS the client and should understand how to look at the project through the eyes of the client and help anticipate any issues that may arise.

I hate sounding biased but the producer has to be able to explain to the creative director what the client expects and the CD has to fit that into the overall vision of what is being produced.

I have produced what would have been award winning sites that have never seen the light of day simply because what was delivered was not what the client wanted and the CD or AD didn't want to budge...

You learn your lessons...

Ultimately the client is in charge and the team needs to understand that. The team is somewhat sheltered from the client so they need to trust that the producer is making decisions based on the best interest of the relationship and that everything pushed back on will benefit the relationship and ultimately lead to more business and at the same time not sacrificing the quality of the work produced.

2. Are your teams assigned to a particular account / client or do they
work on pretty much everything?

Teams are assigned based on availability and yes pretty much work on everything, only places like RGA and AKQA have the ability to have special teams for special projects.

Smaller shops MUST cultivate their talent and must evenly distribute the work. I knew one producer who would only give the best projects to who he liked working with the best, that is not going to benefit the studio, everyone should have a chance to raise their abilities and grow as a professional.

Again it is all about trust. I have always been pleasantly surprised at how amazing a young art director or junior developer will come through it you give them the chance.

3. How do you guys handle work flow, meaning once a big project gets in the pipeline, how does it start and finish? Is it talked about amongst the
group or just given to a random designer / AD?

The project is ideally give to those best suited in terms of skills and expierience, however smaller shops must rely on available resources and don't have the ability to shuffle things around mid project.

Typically 2-3 design directions are submitted, the client chooses, winner stays on as Art Director - it is given to the available resources.

There have been cases where certain people MUST be added to the mix, at that point special decisions must be made. But again, try to trust and get people to expand themselves as professionals.

4. How do you guys share ideas amongst the team as far as where you want
to go or do as a group / company?

Drinking beers, having lunch, talking openly and always listening attentively and allowing everyone to have an equally loud voice.

There needs to be a collective consciousness developed, no one will ever always agree however people may give in at certain times knowing that it is the best solution for that particular direction.

The group must have equal say, if there is someone who is part of the group that time and time again is shunned or one person who dictates all then that person doesn't belong.

Leaders should be established and I do believe that they naturally rise to the top.

Follow those who are passionate, those who really believe.

The company must represent the common collective, not some facade, it will show through eventually.

5. How do you guys share what your working on? Do you have a weeekly /
monthly type meeting to discuss what everyone is involved in?

You must encourage people to get up and walk around, to ask "hey, whatcha working on?"

To involve people in various capacities and to force people to talk about what they are up to and if any issues have arisen and how did they solve it.

People need to speak up, think out loud and present ideas and issues to the group. Its a matter of getting others involved.

I would sometimes bring people over and say, "hey, what do you think of this, i know your not on this project but i need an outside opinion?" just keep the gates open be a catalyst for chatter, IM links and progress it only takes a second.

6. How do your communicate as a group as far as creative ideas / workflow
is concerned?

Assemble the team to talk about upcoming possible projects, look over RFPs, specs, ideas, as a group bring paper, pencils, and blocks and toys to the table, let people think out loud write everything down.

Pose imaginary problems and let the group solve them. If we were to get such and such project, how would we attack it?

Ask questions that get people to think. Groups become very stale if they dont engage in strategic thinking.

If there is a project that is particularly impressive done by another company, get together and ask how WE would have done it. This will not only provide ammunition for the next pitch but also grow the team as a single thinking unit.

7. What do you do for fun as a group?

Do lots of drugs! ... just kidding, DO NOT DO DRUGS!.... same as everyone else, Beers, BBQs, dinner... go to a museum, take cameras and snaps pictures, talk about what you would do with these assets, how you would animate them, design with them, go out and get inspired together.

Movies, shows, etc... try to always get the group to think at the same time, train them and you will see that when the time comes the ideas will flow like one single river.

8. Do you guys meet every week to discuss whats going on in the industry?

Unfortunately no one does this, I try to do this but people tend to not care or be too busy.

I would shoot everyone links all day long LOOK AT THIS LOOK AT THAT!

I was annoying but it works, this is a MUST, there has to be some small sense of competition as well as what others are doing.

It should inspire a person to see what someone else in his field is producing. I will typically send out 25-30 links a day for people to look at, i will force them to comment just so that I know they saw it and "got it".

I think its important to keep the rear view mirror focused all the time or you will get lost. The industry is the body and we are just one organ. Be aware of the body and the role you play.

A company should know who they are.

9. Do you meet weekly for creative / status meetings?

We used to and found it was not productive... as long at it is productive then yes every Monday pep talk, or Thursday night beer and review.

It should be something that is done all week in smaller chunks and then one quick review where everyone is more or less already familiar with what they are looking at.

Many times we would do this and people were like "WOW I didnt even know we were working on that!" and once we even won an award and someone said to me "Wow we did that!" so there should be a general awareness of what is going on at all times.

10. How is it handled when an artist / team does an AMAZING job on a
project and the client LOVES it, do you get a bonus, a day off, etc?

UHHH NO! thats your job!

Bonuses should be for production over a year.

Why should someone be rewarded for something that is expected of them.

I would say bonuses should go to those people who went above and beyond the call of duty as well as those who have performed on a consistently high level all year.

Beside the obligatory Christmas bonus I think that extras are a good way to motivate people but not for every little thing. If a team is in sync then maybe send them all out for beers on the shop or sushi make the reward a team thing as well.

11. If there is anything else you guys think could possibly inspire us a
bit, or perhaps put us in the right direction, please write down.

Love what you do and realize that as a team your creating things together.

Like parents you are partners in creation.

Dont fight the differences, embrace them, love what the person brings to the team and forget the petty bullshit.

Realize that anything less will only hold the project back and the end results will be less than expected.

Want to win together, individual accolades are lonely and somewhat hurtful, a team is a team, no one person is greater than the whole team.

Give everyone, even interns an equal voice, hear it out, if it sucks then thank them and keep moving, if its great make sure you tell them that.

Go into projects excited, producers should build a sense of positive excitement and not anticipate the worst. Many people produce from fear and expect something to go wrong at any minute, those people are the worst leaders, be mindful but be positive, if something does come up it is not the end of the world, try to be flexible and make the adjustment where needed and move on, don't let it break up the team with accusations and finger pointing.

If someone falls then everyone should help them up.

Jealousy is cancer.

Disrespect is a disease.

Not everything will be a GET THE GLASS but the effort put into it should always shine through.

Even bad designs can be redeemed with effort and passion.

The client sees all of this.

Even over the phone the client listens to the tones, to the words used.

When the client feels safe then the shop gets more work, when the clients feel that the team is on the same page and all the gears are moving at the same time then even if the project fails the client knows that every effort was made to make it a success.

Care about shit, just care, give it more than a second or two in thought, really be honest with yourself and others and make sure that you never ever compromise your standards, your ethics and your beliefs.

Oh have TONS OF FUN!! really! not foosball table fun, i mean really have fun! Love what you do and do it hard!

Parish is On The Money!

Nick Parish's latest article entitled "The Price is Right (Isn't It?)" in this months Creativity is so right on the money.

(excuse the pun)

It never fails.

At the onset of every project that a large agency outsources to a smaller digital agency like ours there is this afterthought called a budget.

We are all well aware of the media buy, the TV spot and print budgets.

When the agency partner tells us that we have exactly 4 weeks to come up with the most amazing kick ass website that fully integrates every aspect of the campaign, and oh by the way, we usually are not brought in from the onset to make sure that there is a bridge between the offline and online creative, and its a budget that is a minuscule fraction of what it is worth in terms of its importance to both the campaign and the work provided.

This always ends up being a sore point in the relationship.

When a relationship is entered into on an unfair foundation it is bound for a rocky road ahead and this is what typically happens 90% of the time when larger ad agencies work with smaller digital shops.

I have heard so many complaints from ad agencies towards digital shops regarding a disconnect between communication, creative suffering, deadlines not met, expectations not delivered and so on.

If the digital agencies were compensated fairly so many of these issues would be solved. We work through the most adverse conditions because our direct line of communication is blurred by the lack of transparency with the source.

The relationships in general would be healthier if there would be more partnerships in the entire creative, the website and the online video production would benefit immensely.

If the digital teams were not thrown the scraps of the larger campaign we may be a bit more enthusiastic about the whole process.

It seems like no one wants to admit that the website is now the anchor of the campaign.

The website serves as the heart and soul of the "new age" of advertising, the television spots and print ads are simply driving traffic to the websites and the spots have budgets that are in the millions and the website, that has its own custom video produced by the smaller shops, is a mere 100k.

How does this seem fair?

The scales are way too unbalanced.

Ad agencies will get millions from a client to do a site that they will pay a small digital agency MAYBE a few hundred thousand for.

Digital agencies have limited resources, time, budgets and accessibility to the client directly all come through day in and day out, by the skin of their teeth, every time producing the great work we see online every day by constantly jumping through hoops and having to swim through way too many layers than necessary.

Oh and by the way did I mention that we have to also educate our agency partners through the entire project so they can sound like they know what they are talking about to their clients.

I have gotten so many emails saying, “can you help me explain this better?” or “Our client wants to know about hosting, is that something we need for this site?” or a week before launch I get “is this site in Flash or HTML, our client wants to know.”

Anyone at a digital shop will recognize these question and know exactly what I am saying.

Us digital shops actually like working with the big agencies and are totally open to working together and collaborating, however once the client gets wind of all the drama involved, and the price being paid, and how much better the work would be if those layers were removed and we were compensated properly, they will simply start coming directly to us digital agencies for service just like they would any other specialty agency.

The larger ad agencies don't have the dedicated expertise or the specialized teams in house to properly execute or even explain the nature of this highly technical and creative work, this is why 85% of it is outsourced to smaller digital shops.

In my experience, every time the client came directly to us the work was infinitely better, the budgets were better and the relationship was amazing!

Its been 10 years now and I think its time that the digital agencies start getting paid fairly!

Nick Parish’s article in this months Creativity is a wonderful voice for the cause and will hopefully open a lot of eyes to the unfairness that has a strangle hold on the relationship between the traditional and the digital agency.

As our economy continues to struggle and budgets are tightened I think we will see a huge shift of dollars to the internet because you simply get more bang for your buck on the web.

The ad agencies will no longer get the type of quality work they want to deliver to their clients if those budgets continue to insult.

Time and money are the only two barriers between decent work and great work. With the right amount of time and the right budget almost anything can be achieved online and in the most exciting and dynamic ways.

Everyone will look like rock stars!

I think that the digital agencies have been hazed enough and it is time to pay us fairly for what we have worked hard for. We are officially "Mad Men" now too.

If traditional agencies want to continue the relationships with the digital shops, they need to create more of a transparency within the entire campaign and allow digital teams to get in from the onset and help budget the time and those dollars correctly.

It will be only a matter of time until someone really smart at a big brand realizes they can go directly to the digital shop and will start the trend towards contacting smaller digital agencies directly and taking the entire bulk of the digital budget out of the hands of the ad agencies who are handling the offline portion of the campaign and putting that money into the hands of the people who are actually doing the work.

Brands... We have good accountants too!

It is advantageous for both the traditional and the digital to work together NOW to find a fair ground so that digital production is paid for fairly and that better work, more creative design and better deadlines can be established.

Right now the marriage is suffering and traditional and digital will want a divorce pretty soon. Divorce is not fun and everyone loses.

All Shook Up

Interactive development has been steadily evolving since the day the web allowed the public to post their own websites.

People have been intuitively finding new ways to make things happen, shake, blink, move, react, click, rollover and so on.

There are people like Carlos Ulloa, Mathieu Badimon, Andy Zuoko, Tim Knip, John Grden and many others who are doing great work and continue to develop amazing new ways to manipulate animation and add new dimensions to the online world.

However I feel that one area that seems to continue to lag behind is interactive design. Where are the designers who are innovating interactive design?

I keep seeing the same executions flashed up, placed into grids, thrown onto a lit surface, papervisioned and tweened.

There is no real experimentation with how we communicate visually to the public.

Just because you throw a circle in the z axis doesn't change the fact that its still a circle. We need new ways to communicate online. Websites today embody too much influence from print and frankly its a waste of technology to make something so flat simply move around.

Navigations have been explored in a bunch of inventive ways but in the end clients will always go back to the traditional navigational schema because of the fear of their audiences not being able to find something.

In the early days of Flash when people like Vas Sloutchevsky and Yugo were experimenting with design that fully utilized the show/hide, physical and dynamic, motion driven and curious nature of what Flash truly offered us as an animation platform.

Just go take a look at the early portfolio of the first 5 years of Firstborn where there are many executions that Vas Sloutchevsky had taken corporate designs that were outside of the normal flat executions he never designed out of fear of not communicating properly.

Clients trusted him then and they still do now.

He makes sense of his work and thinks out every single detail.

Vas is now doing that again on some new very exciting projects coming out here very soon at Freedom + Partners.

Its exciting to be producing projects that are truly interactive in both their design and their development.

Not just an interactive Colorform board.

Yugo is also one of these rare talents who truly understands this method of design. He constantly produces work that is fully born from the interactive womb.

Flashing up flat jpgs or turning them into 3D is just not exciting anymore.

Similar to the way Apple designs products that are wildly addictive to not just technophiles but the general public, we need to design in a similar fashion for websites that move, inform, entertain and communicate to a wider audience.

It is our job to make our audiences and the web more sophisticated.

Being handed comps by a client and making them move, in my opinion doesn't constitute good work, at this point anyone can accomplish this.

I have worked at shops where we were overloaded with amazing flash developers who were wasting their time and prime years coming up with algorithms and flashing up lame designs and flat creative, that once animated, was really not that much more impressive than it was when it sat in its original flat Photoshop layers.

Some sites are exact rip-offs of others!

Tim Nolan pointed out to me yesterday that this site named Quarantine is an exact rip off of the Big Spaceship HBO Voyeur site they did for BBDO.

He also pointed out a site that was so original and so inventive in its nature where the content and site were perfect compliments to one another. It was for the new Wii game Wario.

See it here.

We need to back track a bit and return to the philosophy of designing interfaces that are designed specifically for the web.

We need to think of exacting and smart solutions that work and not to just "make it move."

People aren't fooled anymore, you cant fake it these days. The web is scrutinized to the umpteenth degree, your not going to get away with letting people think that they are customizing something and then show them a result that is canned or "fake".

The web is now fully enveloped into our culture, our kids are already sophisticated users.

My 9 year old daughter can point out very subtle, but to her, obvious flaws on most websites. Its intuitive, the way our generation looked for "fakes" in movies, people now see in the web.

Retrofitting designs and campaigns has become tiresome and frankly its a cop out.

Lines that move, squiggle, dance in the shapes of animals and squirm when you touch them are just lame gimmicks.

The web expects more from us.

Lets not litter it with sites that have no real substance or foundation.

Every site deserves thought, strategy, enthusiasm and dedication to its perfection in both design and development.

PC Response

Crispin has ditched their Jerry & Bill campaign to respond to Apple's MAC Vs. PC spots that have been sweeping the web, TV and print.

Who would have thought that the once mighty now feels they must respond to those they once looked down upon.

This shift is happening all over the place.

Even in our small space (interactive) the once mighty seem to be feeling the sting of the creative at heart that has been holding steadfast just waiting to emerge.

Check out the new ads from our friends over at Microsoft

Strange how confident Bill looked shaking his ass, guess the world is tired of his sorry ass.

True 3D

I highly suggest going out and finding a pair of 3D glasses.

Trust me on this one, this site is unbelievable.

Go check this out now!

These are the kinds of sites that simply impress.

This site is one of the reasons I love the web.

Just think of the possibilities!

AWESOME WORK!!

VectorVision takes vectors in Papervision to a whole new level.

We are using it at Freedom + Partners on a number of projects and it delivers!

Im Right Here

Social networking has become a phenomena that has suddenly inspired the world to go online.

Grandmothers who couldn't program their VCR 20 years ago are suddenly able to create complex profiles and communicate with friends and family.

Teens have ripped through the likes of Facebook like a veracious storm swollen up over a patch of warm water in a tight gulf just waiting to devour anything in its path.

The business world has embraced social networking as a means of making business relationships a bit more personal and to show a lighter side of who they really are.

I suddenly know that my lawyer is bummed about his deck, my client is heading towards destruction and my coworker is super duper psyched'aroony.

We all are glued to our small screens for second by second updates of the happenings that are occurring in the lives of our closest 200 friends.

Its the new reality show. The new sitcom. However you spin it, its entertainment.

Little tiny golden nuggets raining from cyberspace down on our curious little minds to help quench our curiosity for that which really isn't our business.

I do it, we all do it. Shamelessly updating everyone we care to update about the play by play as we go about our day.

Some are playful messages aimed at inspiring fiends, others are alerts for ones state of mind, some are the insecurity that lays deep within those who never reveal it, some are vicious attacks towards a competitor or enemy and some are loving reminders to friends and family that they are thinking of you.

What about social stalking?

The ability to see who your friends and their friends' friends are now friends with.

Social networks have aggregated new business, reunited friends and family and have leveled the social playing field.

I am no longer not there.

I am right here.

Goodbye Cruel World

The events that will take place in a remote area of Switzerland during the unknown hours of September 10, 2008 may forever change the world.

Similar to the early morning darkness when the incredible destructive powers of the atom were first unleashed and what had been merely theoretical became reality, today the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be switched on, accelerating sub-atomic particles to nearly the speed of light before smashing them together.

The purpose of this experiment is to re-create the very moment 13 billion years ago when scientists believe a tremendous explosion known as the "big bang" created the universe.

But what if, 13 billion years ago, there was no explosion?

What if they are wrong and the big bang was none other than the hand of God or some other mystical occurrence?

Im going to be a little nervous today, sitting in the Embody and working on our latest projects, hoping that within one fell swoop we don't all get decimated.

When those two opposing beams of protons charged with approximately 7 TeVs of energy hit, and they produce the God Particle, producing mass to vector bosons, I seriously hope everything we have worked towards as humanity isn't decimated...

OK ILL ADMIT IT, IM SCARED!!

Why is this allowed to happen?

Is there someone we can all call and say "HEY WAIT!! NO!!!!!! DONT DO IT!!"

Well world, if at some point you cease to exist today, its been great.

I guess the fact that Google's picture today isn't of the Earth exploding.

That could be seen as a positive thing right?

Google would know, wouldn't they?

Walking the Guideline

Since its inception in May 2000, The FWA has continued to exceed expectations on the Internet by generating a groundswell of excitement for the best that the interactive community has to offer, and continually bring us inspiration per diem.

Rob Ford, the patriarch of the most visited destination in the interactive community, has now compiled a book based on the success of his website.

The title of this new book is none other than “Guidelines for Online Success."

Before I even opened the book I spent a good amount of time examining the design.

Taschen has always been a champion for not just great content but also beautifully designed books for the very community that contributes to them.

“Guidelines” is no different.

From the choice of color to the tabbed chapters and the glossy finish, this book had already impressed me as a true embodiment of what it was created for; to be a showcase for the most successful websites on the Internet.

When I first heard about the book before its release, I was a bit apprehensive about how overwhelming an endeavor it might be to undertake a project of this magnitude.

How could anyone capture the best of the web when the web is constantly out doing itself on a second by second basis?

The very impetus of The FWA is to serve as a testament of the daily evolution of this creative network we all contribute to each and every day.

As I began to examine through each page and peruse the various projects and personalities that made up this festschrift, I was immediately impressed by the selection of projects that captured a slice of time that served as a period in which the industry grew leaps and bounds.

This phase will forever be defined as a foundation of the many incarnations that the web will embody tomorrow and well into the future.

The book opens with a quote from none other than Albert Schweitzer, a man who nourished hope in a mankind that was even more profoundly aware of its position in the Universe.

“Success is not the key to happiness.
Happiness is the key to success.
If you love what you are doing,
you will be successful.”

What an apropos way to start off a book about an industry where happiness is often disguised with the sweat and tears of the toil that make up the sites in this book.

An industry that is still too new to have a defined set of process and rules; its bible being written at this very moment.

This quote is directed towards an industry and a group of professionals who are also profoundly aware of its new position in the universe.

Within the second paragraph of his introduction, Rob so graciously steps aside in order to spotlight the trove of talent he has collected.

By the time the ink dried at the printer, just as many websites have been launched that make the sites in the book look ancient. But perhaps that can also serve as a tribute to the veracious appetite the web has for creativity.

Surely Rob knew as he was compiling the sites showcased that they would all quickly be replaced by newer incarnations. Personally, knowing Rob, I am positive that his intentions were indeed to try and capture a slice of time where the projects would profoundly influence the culture of the web.

"Guidelines for Online Success" opens with an eloquent greeting by none other than industry darling and CEO of Big Spaceship, Michael Lebowitz, who introduces us to interface and design.

As a producer in this industry, this chapter resonated deeply with me as a clear and concise documentation of exactly what is important when formulating a successful interface and approach to design.

The second chapter covers marketing and communications. Martin Hughes and Jordan Stone of WEFAIL knocked me off my feet with their hilarious introduction to this section.

They pulled no punches in truly telling the story of the typical project drama.

Staying true to the WEFAIL style of web development, Hughes and Stone crafted a wonderfully written introduction that embodies the collective consciousness of the industry. Using their brand of humor, they eloquently set the stage for this very important chapter.

Each section following features one heavyweight after another, outlining for us the most valuable advice in the industry; how to achieve true success.

Each page is wonderfully strewn with powerful images of websites that have burned themselves into our minds as models of perfection, which all hold us responsible for outdoing at the onset of any new project.

The last chapter was introduced by none other than Freedom + Partners CEO and former Firstborn co-founder Mark Ferdman.

Mark ends off this book with a journey through the history of commerce from its very inception until its new cutting edge.

Just when you thought you knew it all, Lars Bastholm of AKQA then delivers an Afterword seeded with some of the most valuable advice you will find anywhere.

Lars’s ultimate conclusion is that in order to be successful online one must not only adhere to the tenets laid out by each of the super friends who contributed to this amazing book, but that one must also have a passion and be firmly integrated and active in the online community.

I want to thank Rob for this wonderful volume that will forever stand the test of time. It is a complete contradiction to the ever-changing nature of the web and in that lays its beauty and profound essence by capturing the very foundation of what makes a successful website.

I suggest you all go out NOW and buy this must have book edited by Rob Ford and Julius Wiedemann.

Get it online here.

Hate to say I told you so...

Well the first spot came out and sorry folks but the "future" paired with Jerry Seinfeld (washed up comedian) and Bill Gates (washed up monopolist) isn't "delicious" and this spot sunk within the very first sight of Jerry eating one of those nauseating mall sticks called Churros.

Did Crispin really think that inserting Bill Gates into the random musings of Jerry's world and make him one of the Seinfeld "friends" will make him more endearing and sell more software?

Bill Gates cannot be softened, the man abused his power and is now trying to cozy up to sell more broken operating systems by hanging out with Jerry?

I'm lost.

I'm sure tons of research went into this, or maybe not, but this campaign is so flawed.

Nothing can save this sinking ship, not even Jerry.

The Original Airwair with Bouncing Souls

Doc Martins are probably one of the most nostalgic brands that I personally identify with.

I was glad to see that they are undergoing a new website design.

Check it out here.

I just picked up a new pair of Vintage 1460 8 eyes, I opened the box and saw a postcard inside and it seems that DM has adopted the word "Freedm" as its new moniker.

I think we all know how I feel about Freedom.

Freedom + Partners

You can still see the old site here.

Its nice to see a brand stay true to its roots. DMs are one of the few things you can take with you through this crazy world, they are timeless.

So enjoy some FREEDM and get back into a pair of the worlds coolest shoes.

Rerun Richochet

This has been the year we have seen the big networks all swallow their prides and finally accept the web as a viable means of delivering content to its loyal viewers.

Content on demand, when we can fit it into our busy schedules and content that isn't some user generated crap.

Networks like NBC pretty much giving us whatever it is we want to watch on both its network as well as Fox via the online network called Hulu.com. Not just shows that are running now but also past shows that may have not hit the rerun circuit but that can draw advertising dollars and provide nostalgic injections of some old favorites.

Today I had noticed something really interesting, the old WB network, which in my day was simply Channel 11 and Channel 9 in NYC, which is now called CW Network which runs on two channels, I think, has resurrected its former incarnation of The WB online.

The WB began its life in 1995, broadcasting a paltry 2 hours of cheesy teen entertainment one night a week. The WB's first shows were mostly sitcoms targeted at an ethnically diverse audience. Even though four of the five shows shown in the netlet's first nine months (The Wayans Bros., The Parent 'Hood, Sister, Sister (picked up after being cancelled by ABC), and Unhappily Ever After) were renewed beyond the first year, none of them made a significant impact on anything.

The WB began programming on Sunday nights in the 1995-1996 season, but none of the new shows managed to garner much viewing interest. Still, the network continued to expand in the 1996-1997 season, adding programming on Monday nights.

That season gave the WB modest hits in the family drama 7th Heaven and comedies The Steve Harvey Show and The Jamie Foxx Show. We all know where Jaime Foxx is now.

The WB also added the Kids' WB programming blohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifck in 1995, which mixed Warner Brothers' biggest hit shows (Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs and later Batman: The Animated Series, all of which originated either on Fox Kids or in syndication) with new productions and original shows.

In 2006, CBS and Warner Bros. Entertainment announced plans to can both UPN and The WB and launch a new network, The CW in their place. Over the next nine months, it was to be seen which shows from UPN and The WB would cross over to the new CW, as well as which stations across the country would become future affiliates of the new network.

A slice of time has now been captured online. Our beloved web is now a time machine for those who want to revel in an hour of Friends and then some Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

In an unprecedented and in my opinion a genius strategic play, The WB, an entire network, has been reincarnated online.

Click here for a preview.

The web is the new wild west, a frontier, a place where media can be reinvigorated and where anyone can now start an online network of both original content as well as content that once held the hearts of millions of viewers.

It is the new Rerun Model.

Networks will be salivating over the ability to recreate a slice of time that was wildly popular.

Imagine the old NBC line up featuring the Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers, Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice coming back to life online.

The late Brandon Tartikoff would have been proud.

Now shows can be rebroadcast in a multitude of various formats. We can now enjoy the television that has shaped pop culture anytime we want. The strength this garners the web is unfathomable.

The web is now a new fertile landscape where the old is new again and where slices of time can live always.

A true monument to mankind. Buffy will never die!

Travelling Matte

I am on the set today, shooting for a new site we are working on at Freedom + Partners.
Shooting on green screen is always fun.

Sexy People

I'm not quite sure what it is about this site but its incredibly inspiring.

Perhaps the beauty of the common man or the true'ness that emanates from every picture.

You just cant capture this unless its real and that is what makes it so damn interesting.

Every picture floods my head with ideas of how to better communicate ideas in different ways, all based on the facial expressions, clothing choices, lighting, couplings and every other odd little nuance that each picture offers.

I am very addicted to and extremely inspired by the pictures on this site

Check it out here: Sexy People

Why is it...?

Has Crispin lost its mind?

Has Microsoft gone mad?

Is Jerry Seinfeld crazy?

What is going on here?

How much more desperate can Microsoft get?

What means will they employ this time to plug the gaping hole in the side of its sinking ship?

I have worked on quite a few Microsoft projects with McCann SF and TAG so I feel like I can speak on this subject.

McCann SF was one hell of an agency that really worked hard to prolong the inevitable death of Microsoft. There was nothing more McCann could have done to keep the Window from breaking, and it looks like Crispin just threw a hardball right through it.

Windows Vista is a flawed product, computer companies everywhere are moving away from windows and looking for other ways to compete with Apple.

OS X is continuing to win over new users by the day due to the virus strains called iPodinae & iPhonesvirinae that has infected the public.

Point Number 2:

Doesn't any one remember the Mac in every single episode of Seinfeld?

Watch any episode, I dare you, you will find a Mac in the corner of Jerry's apartment nearest to the window on his desk in every single episode.

Jerry was not only a Mac owner but Jerry was an early adopter, he always had the absolutely newest model including the 25th anniversary issue.

How the heck is Crispin going to spin this one?

This was the year we see Gates retiring, its no wonder, the man is not an idiot, with the world clamoring over their precious iPods and iPhones it was no surprise that we have now entered into the "Switch Age" where the once mighty Windows once ruled is now a depleted creatively challenged office thirsty for some sweet titanium casing and that playful dock at the bottom of the screen. No more anti virus software and less crashing.

Apple's market capitalization is at nearly $162 billion. This means Apple is surpassing Intel, valued at $155 billion and IBM at $157 billion. Thus, Apple is rapidly closing in on Google ($200 billion), perhaps Jerry will be the one to help Apple get closer to the "mighty" Microsoft, valued at $290 billion.

I say let Jerry end his career as the hypocrite he will look like while peddling the flawed Windows Vista.

I nominate Larry David as the lovable idiot who should go head to head with Jerry and endorse the Mac. After all its his success that has carried on while Jerry rots in Vegas.


Why do they call it a "building"? It looks like they're finished. Why isn't it a "built"?

Maybe Jerry should use that routine in his new Vista commercials.

One Two Punch!

The ad business is full of duos, teams of creative assassins who together come up with the one two punch that cannot be matched by any ad hoc group or single individual. A duo can tag in and out and can take on any challenge each drawing strength from one another.

During our days at Firstborn we both looked for and found such people and we killed em one by one.

None of these phonies...

Mario and Luigi
Han Solo and Luke Skywalker
Bert and Ernie
Batman and Robin
Jay and Silent Bob
Pinky and The Brain
Ren and Stimpy
Cheech and Chong
Frodo & Sam
Beavis and Butthead
Jules and Vincent
Wayne and Garth
The Lone Ranger and Tonto
Simon and Garfunkel
Wiley E. Coyote and Road Runner
Mac and Cheese
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak
Green Hornet and Kato
Shaggy and Scooby
Bill & Ted
Napoleon dynamite and pedro
John Masterson & Steven Sundheim
Knight Rider (KITT & Michael)
Starsky and Hutch
Andy and Barney
Thelma and Louise
Calvin and Hobbes
Chris Farley & David Spade

...have anything on Craig Elimeliah & Tim Nolan

Back for more!

Watch out!

I want to welcome and old friend and a true partner Tim Nolan to the Freedom + Partners team. He has come on as Executive Content Director and is going to tear shit up!

Good to have you back!

A Barbarous Truth

Rick Webb over at The Barbarian Group is one of my favorite industry personalities. On the heels of the Michael Lebowitz comments that were circulating around the industry regarding his Cannes experience and the lack of credit for the HBO Voyeur project.

Rick's comments are here.

Rick chimed in and added his 2 cents to the story and I had this to say about his response...

"This is one of the best responses that I have read from a legitimate source and someone who I would actually consider a real voice on this subject. You hit every point spot on and drove home the real issues that are at hand. As digital partners we are only a single entity in a much bigger picture. We are obviously biased towards our discipline and I am sure the media buyers would chime in a say "well no one would be at your damn site if we didnt throw out 2 million banners to drive traffic so we should get the credit" and so on...

I believe that as an industry that is going through the growing pains of a new medium and as the new kids on the block we need to become a more cohesive group of creative professionals. An idea is never the child of one single person, its an entity that is comprised of the pasts and presents of a collective of creative individuals who have all breathed some life into the idea. We cant single out any one contributor as the only creator unless it was a one man show that made it all happen.

It really boils down to a very fundamental rule we all learned in pre-school. Playing nicely and sharing. Egos are rampant in this business and those who can set aside their egos for the betterment of the idea are the real winners here. No slab of metal fashioned into a lion is worth the strife that our industry has be thrown into, the unity has been compromised and we have been set back because of some petty ego stroking.

Credit is always a nice thing to get, but at the end of the day the check you get is really the only credit any one company can give another, being paid fairly is above all the farthest anyone needs to go. Once we all get past this and start refocusing on the big picture then maybe we will all make it a point to be more sensitive to our respective roles and spread the love a bit more.

This is not a new subject and has been infecting the creative process since the dawn of time. Who did this? Who discovered that? Did the captain of Columbus's ships throw a shit fit when the King and Queen noted Columbus as the founder of the new world? Probably.

I think we all need to take a good hard look at ourselves and keep in mind that we are at a critical stage in the convergence of a new medium with age old traditional advertising and that right now there is no time to bicker over small issues when much larger ones prevail."

Earnstwhile

In 1991 one of my heroes came up with this idea to gather together the best musicians of the ALT rock scene and have this great big ol' outdoor concert. At the time us wee kids only heard of concerts like this from our baby boomer parents who hazily passed down stories and sometimes pictures from the historic Woodstock.

We were the perfect market to start this up again, the seed was planted and we all would readily make the same trek as our parents did to some outdoor alternative rock mecca to pray for three days on drugs and rock and roll.

Jane's Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Ice-T/Body Count, Living Colour, Butthole Surfers and The Rollins Band.

Back then that line up would have brought peace to the middle east.

Its pretty early on a Sunday morning, I am as always awake with ideas swirling, I'm online making my rounds, round, rounding the corners of the globe and I come across a banner ad for what I thought had ended in 1998.

Lalapalooza is back except this banner ad wasn't to come make some trip to some field to tune out for a few days... rather it was telling me that they didn't actually expect me to make it and that I should be tuning in ONLINE!!!

Do I feel old? NOOOOOOO.

Ok yes.

The web page I ended up on said this...

"Tune-In To Lollapalooza Live On the Web
Can’t make the trip to Chicago for Lollapalooza August 1st-3rd? Never fear, blue room is here. Experience Lollapalooza LIVE via webcast just by turning on your computer. Mark your calendars now! Tune in to watch Wilco, The Raconteurs, Love and Rockets, Bloc Party, G Love and Special Sauce, Flogging Molly, and many, many more!"

Like most smart businessmen in this capitalistically ravenous country, Farrell sold the Lollapalooza brand to Capital Sports & Entertainment. The concert was revived to become a two-day fest only to remain in one location, Chicago's Grant Park. The concert actually relies on the web to stream it to the world.

THE WEB!

Ok maybe I have geeked out completely but this is a profound cultural swing. The web is now a venue for concerts, not just any concerts but big ones, those summer ones that change your life, the ones that evolved from Woodstock to free us of our addiction to pop music and usually ended up with an addiction to something totally new, and bound us together in the darkness and angst of Alternative melodies as we were soon thrust out unto the world to start our lives.

I'm in my very early 30s and I am ranting like a geezer here.

The web has accelerated time. We have built a time machine except it progresses culture, information, music, arts, education and if you don't keep up, your gonna be left behind.