Daphne, who used to work in the LA office with me has an excuse for missing these viral Dove Ads - she's in our Sydney, Australia office.
But me, who sits at his computer all day in the second largest city in America, blogging about media stuff?
Sadly, no excuse.
But! To make up for it, in case any of the rest of you are recovering Luddites, I'm including two of the films from Dove's Self-Esteem gallery. (On a side note, I've watched these a number of times and my self-esteem remains remarkably low.)
There's been a heck of a lot of controversy about these films and Dove "taking on" the beauty industry. There's even been venting at Ogilvy, who produced these film, because they also produce ads for a well-known girl's doll that is not so loved by many women.
I'm not sure what I think of the campaign as a whole, is it whitewashing or just a step in the right direction?
Either way, the visuals in these films speak for themselves. Whether that changes your decision whether or not to pop into Victoria's Secret or Abercrombie & Fitch, is up to you.
Onslaught
Evolution
Interestingly, Greenpeace posted their own YouTube response ad (below), protesting Dove's use of palm oil in their products. They claim the palm oil industry is destroying the Paradise Forests in Indonesia and that "as the biggest single buyer of palm oil in the world" they need to help stop it.
As a result, Unilever met with Greenpeace and "agreed to support the call by Greenpeace for an immediate moratorium on deforestation for palm oil plantation".
So maybe one step in the right direction, the Real Beauty Campaign, is leading to other right steps?
Flashforward2008 is rapidly approaching. Well, not exactly approaching, as it will be in to San Francisco, but you know what I mean. As ever, Aquent is sponsoring, along with Lynda.com.
During the event Lynda's company is premiering Creative Inspirations: Big Spaceship, which is their documentary series which looks "at the inner workings of one of the web's most innovative firms." True enough, they've done work for Nike Air, Adobe, HBO, and a host of others.
You can watch the first three movies gratis here on the Lynda.com site. For the rest, I believe you have to subscribe to their Online Training Library. But heck, for $25 to get inside the heads of the staff at Big Spaceship, that's a very small price to pay.
Well, if this JavaScript worked then it probably wouldn't have pegged Jenn as 50% man, 50% woman (which I saw recently at the circus) or me as 95% female 5% male (seen on my recent commute home).
Or this JavaScript is so smart that it knows something we do not.
Though I'm not really a fan of the word "geek" (wonder why that is?), especially when it's used to refer to someone who is incredibly sharp at what they do, Anne-Marie Concepcion calls herself one and we'll just have to go with that.
Anne-Marie runs DesignGeek Central,which is a great site if you're looking to get help:
As a Designer, Art Director, Creative Director, Project Manager, etc. that is.
Not to push the Eco Point so far that I create backlash make people destroy the Earth just to spite me and my treehugging compatriots, I did want to pass this site along.
Great advice like, 30. Avoid using colored paper stock, 14. Use something besides vinyl for banners, 13. Support your local paper mill, 6. Think about shipping.
Maybe I can just tell the naysayers since Aquent sponsored it, it's a marketing ploy.
The 2008 AIGA Leadership Retreat was held in my home town of Omaha, Nebraska for "three days to connect with and be inspired by other chapters across the country."
And it's odd to think of AIGA leaders from NYC, LA, and SF, going down to Johnny's for the country's finest steaks, a restaurant conveniently located right above a stockyard. (No, I am not kidding. My prom was there. A scene in "About Schmidt" was filmed there. Years ago a steer got loose while everyone was dining quietly on martinis and New York Strips.)
Regardless, the current president of AIGA LA, Michael Lejeune gives a great blow-by-blow on what he learned on the Omahablog portion of the site.
If you're interested in where AIGA is headed, including AIGA China, you should definitely take a look.
And the slides, featured last week on slideshare.net last week, have already been viewed over 8,000 times.
Which begs the question (as Matt queried), why is it "fourteen or so years into a business world increasingly dominated by the web, people are still trying to figure out how to make the web work for them?"
I'm personally of the belief that Marketers are always looking at ROI, whether it's for Direct Mail or HTML e-mails. But then again, that may not answer the question why so many people registered.
Regardless, if you're interested in listening to the recorded call, you can still hear Lance Loveday, founder, CEO of Closed Loop Marketing and Sandra Niehaus, VP user experience, creative director of Closed Loop Marketing present the entire Webcast by clicking here and registering.
As always, free.
(Regarding the picture, "Roi" means "King" in French.)
If you're looking for up-to-the minute stuff like: "Spotted at SOFA opening: Niels Diffrient, Helena Hernmarck, Jack Lenor Larsen"and"Going to SOFA? Don't miss Shin Sang Ho's stunning "Fired Painting" (2006) at Loveed Fine Arts. Glazed ceramic never looked so good."
Then this is for you.
Hey, the UnBeige staff admit to not being fans of Facebook.
Well, guess they've never visited my page.
Maybe they're mad I didn't invite them into "my network".
The rumors of October's Adobe CS4 release apparently have been greatly exaggerated.
Photoshop Senior Product Manager, John Nack is saying the information of the release date, passed around by Gizmodo and TG Daily, is bogus.
"I didn't say anything about schedule...Someone pulled a date apparently out of thin air, and now everyone who can copy & paste is dutifully repeating it."
"The fish story grows with the telling, too. In addition to repeating the date, Electronista is inventing new details (e.g. 'CS3 has already had limited support for graphics processing units (GPUs) for certain filters'; sorry, no; 'An upcoming wave of video cards with special physics processing will also help, Adobe explains'; nope, didn't say that; and more). Where do people get this stuff?"
Electronista and Gizmodo both now have updates with Jack's info, though Gizmodo says to "take it for what you will."
(Either Gizmodo knows more than Adobe does, or....?) >Regardless, Beta versions of Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Soundbooth are all at the AdobeLabs site.
If you have a CS3 license you can download and use these, otherwise, if you're just browsing, you can run the apps for In the meantime, Gizmodo will be predicting the Obama vs. Clinton outcome.
Stay tuned.
(A Lego depiction of what it’s like to be bloggin’ in a coal mine.)
I don't know about the rest of you, but the first thing I try to do when looking up an old college buddy or lost childhood friend is "google" them.
This is something I do before I even attempt to search through the myriad of social networking sites where I am a virtual card carrying member (MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Meetup.com - you name it).
It seems as though Google has caught onto its popular use as a virtual friend finder with its very own social networking tool called "Friend Connect" which basically can make any mom and pop blog its very own Facebook.
I like how Google is capitalizing on the desire of winning the Internet popularity contest for the public at large.
But - wait a minute, last I checked, weren't they a search engine or something?
That is, until I found the final piece of my daughter's pink MALM 3-drawer chest I was assembling was nicked. And I rang customer service to find out how they wanted to go about replacing the piece. And I rang. And rang. I rang for 10 minutes. And no one answered. I rang for two days. And still...
Nor did anyone answer at the HQ IKEA number (they redirected me, after much pushing of buttons, back to my local store where it rang some more.)
There's a lot to like about IKEA, but what's not to love is their customer service. (Please see Danielle Crittenden's blog "Why I Hate IKEA" at the The Huffington Post.)
Maybe one of the execs from the Scandinavian giant will take a moment to attend the latest AMA/Aquent Webcast:
Optimizing the Profitable Link Between Employees and Customer Loyalty Behavior
Michael Lowenstein, Vice President and Senior Consultant at Harris Interactive, points out that research indicates "at least 70% of your customers’ behavior is driven by their interactions with your employees."
Which would explain why there's no rush for me to hustle on back to that big blue and yellow store to get more furniture.
But enough about my allen-wrench assembly skills, here's the delio on the Webcast.


In this free and informative Aquent/AMA webcast, Michael Lowenstein, Vice President and Senior Consultant at Harris Interactive, will present critical insights about the relationship among profitability, employee behavior, and customer loyalty, which will prove that true customer commitment is attainable only when the entire organization understands and performs its roles in providing superior customer experiences.
You will learn how to:
Effectively measure and understand customers’ perceptions
Pinpoint which employee attitudes and actions affect customer behavior
Leverage employee positivism and customer focus
Identify and eliminate employee sabotage
Develop a customer-centric culture
The AMA recommends attendees of this Webcast should include Senior Executives and Managers of:
His recent post, Why bother having a resume? started a bit of discussion around the blogosphere, but the bare facts are, yes, you still need a resume.
Seth's point is that if you "you're remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn't have a resume at all."
Riiiight.
I like Heather Hamilton's point, "Donald Trump doesn't need a resume, Seth Godin doesn't need a resume. You? You need a resume."
Make that "You, me, and Heather Hamilton." (No, Susie, I'm not currently looking for work.)
Seth Godin's job is to shake things up, to be, in his own self-description, an "agent of change" (for some reason I'm thinking about the time Lenny Kravitz declared his album was better than Sgt. Pepper, then later admitted he just said it to hype sales). But really, there's little information in this post for 99.999% of folks looking for work.
Not only should you have a resume, you should pay very close attention to the information you put on it.
Most importantly, have a Grammar Police friend proofread it. (True, I heard tell of a Recruiter who'd toss any resume who misspelled QuarkXPress.)
And when you change it, have them proof it again.
Make it as cool or as daring as you want, just as long as you have a resume.
We're still big on these tidbits for style:
Keep to 1-2 full pages and use letter size paper
Use bullet points, bold type, etc.
Use past tense without subject (eg. created, worked developed, implemented) except with current position
Market your skills and experience relevant to the position you are looking for
Analyze ads and job descriptions to identify keywords
Use power/action words to get attention
Prioritize the content of your resume (most important=first)
Tweak and target each of your resume(s) and cover letter(s)
Keep your resume updated!
State URL of profile or portfolio site
I've got a PDF we produced a few years ago with Dos & Don'ts if your interested.
You know there's a lot to be said for friendly competition, which is why I'm going to let you know why our resident Minister of Enlightenment and HQ Blogger, Mr. Matt Grant, has a blog well worth visiting.
For one, he gets access to incredibly interesting people in both the Marketing and Creative fields.
Two, he podcasts a lot, so you can listen on the way home or in the comfort of your own Elliptical Machine.
Three, he's incredibly smart and insightful.
Yes, it sounds as if I might marry him.
Not to worry, he's taken.
And is really, really not my type.
Really.
To prove my point this week Matt has a two-part conversation with James Intriligator, a man who received his doctorate in psychology from Harvard and now has a post in the Center for Neuroscience and Consumer Psychology at the University of Wales, Bangor.
James is currently doing quite a bit of work on how the brain perceives brands and how brands build up in brains over time.
Though it's no man rapping about sectional furniture, it's pretty compelling stuff.
No, I don't know Bama. And this is the second time I've told the folks at Yaari I don't have an interest in getting messages from their members.
Though I think there's some pretty tight controls on social networking from legitimate companies, I wonder how many of these young upstarts will start barraging us with messages from "friends"?
Since messages from Yaari come from Gmail and not the company itself, these may be harder to control than, say, messages from Friendster.
On a personal note, I think the whole social networking scene has reached a critical mass for "protected categories" folk like myself (read: old). Suddenly, all my college friends are hitting me with LinkedIn requests. And the parents at my kids' school are contacting me through Friendster.
If I felt inundated with my To Do list at work, now I've got 26 Action Items on LinkedIn.
------------------------------------
Post Script: One of my college friends called me to the floor on this post. For good reason. I was joking about my "lazy college friends who've gone on to lead semi-productive lives" hoping that you and they would understand I consider myself among them. Which, in retrospect, was not so funny.
I've since amended the post.
My point was not railing against anyone using LinkedIn, Friendster, or the like, but rather finding out people that I never, ever expected to see on social networking sites were using them to reach out to me. Which is a phenomenon I still don't quite understand.
But which really didn't need to be the point of a post.
My apologies go out to all those who thought I wanted to LinkOut, hope you'll accept them.
Okay, maybe not the appropriate posting title for a Marketing Webcast, but I was trying to make it sound exciting.
By referencing a 20-year old work of music.
Regardless, Aquent and AMA National are sponsoring another of our wildly successful Webcasts: 7 Steps to a Stellar Online Reputation, hosted by Andy Beal, author of the award-winning Marketing Pilgrim blog.
(See, you knew the reference would come around, didn't you?)
Here's the lowdown:
Companies spend millions of dollars building and promoting their brands online by creating engaging multimedia content, building and maintaining a blog, and improving rankings in search engines. Yet despite these best efforts, it is possible for a single negative review – on a social networking site, a blog, or YouTube – to destroy a company’s reputation.
Reputation management requires new skills in a world where the power to control a brand is shifting away from traditional media and corporate monologues on Web sites. Marketers must now build strategies for managing, monitoring, and maintaining their online reputations.
(This Webcast) will outline a seven-step action plan that will give attendees the tools they need to maintain a stellar online reputation by:
devising online media strategies and objectives that engage customers,
developing a monitoring system will work best for their company, and
implementing a crisis management plan when the company’s reputation faces attack.
Andy's worked with Motorola, GlaxoSmithKline, SAS, Lowes, Quicken Loans, and NBC and has been published in BusinessWeek, Search Engine Guide, and WebProNews.
They quote Mark Constantine, the brand's chief executive, commenting on the recent sale of Burt's Bees to Clorox: "You couldn't have a more dramatic difference in image from a chemical bleach company and a natural cosmetics company based on honey and bees."
They also point out other "natural" brands who have sold out in recent years, among them, Bare Escentuals and UK's Body Shop (to L'Oreal).
Of course, I'm just hitting the tip of the iceberg here, but I think that's the point: Now that you know Clorox owns Burt's Bees, will it affect whether you buy the product or not?
There are, I'm sure, myriad reasons that sale happened (outlined in the NY Times article), but does that change your perception when you actually choose which brand to buy? What if Clorox told you they'd stick by the original mission of the Burt's Bees company? (Their site states: "It's a great opportunity to help us better deliver against our mission of making truly natural personal products available to everyone, everywhere.")
Yes, it takes a lots and lots of money to expand a brand globally, but I'm not sure consumers who consider themselves "ethical" buyers really care how big their shampoo company gets.
But, then again, does a company like Estee Lauder really need them when they can turn a brand like Aveda into a global powerhouse?
Not normally into the blogging about celebrities mode, but those of you who don't live in Los Angeles may not be aware of the kind of stuff that goes on all too often here.
This email from our own Charlotte was too funny not to pass along (with her blessing):
Some of you may appreciate this and others may not but I HAVE to share...
So on my way home I stopped by the local Ralph's. Just as I am about to leave I hear screams of the paparazzi and see tons of flashes going off. Of course I have to go back in. Lo and behold, there's Britney with her new beau, mohawk and all. The grocery store folks chased the paparazzi out (and blocked the doors with shopping carts) and I did my best to follow her.. incognito!
Do you blame me..??
I found her in the candy aisle as she grabbed a candy bar and started eating it. (FYI.. she is so not fat... not in the "real world" anyway.) She had on huge glasses and checked out buying cigs...
The whole time the paparazzi were plastered to the window screaming profanities at her and trying to get her picture. The crazy part, when she gets to the the checkout counter, there she is on the cover of all the magazines with headlines like, "Britney's mental illness." Wonder what the heck that feels like..???
I think they let her out the back as her beau got in the car and drove around to pick her up.
Meanwhile the paparazzi were sprawled out all over the parking lot parking, anywhere and everywhere, so they could make a quick escape to follow her.
What a life I tell you!
Crazier still, this footage on TMZ shows Charlotte, with her purchased groceries in hand, walking behind the "star" incognito.
It's true, even getting groceries in Los Angeles is incredibly exciting.
Nothing like shedding off those Thanksgiving carbs by indulging in a little after dinner CSS. A List Apart has this terrific post on How To Size Text in CSS.
Beats watching the relatives argue.
Well my relatives, anyway.
(By way of the wonderful Chris Glass site. Photo by z_b)
I bet you, like many people, wonder aloud while reading this blog, "Just how high and whiny is Tim Donnelly's voice?" Or, those of you more familiar with our office, "Just how fast does Susie Hall speak. And how is it she was born and raised in the South and has no trace of an accent?"
All your questions will be answered (and some you don't) courtesy of Jim Stroud.
Jim was kind enough to interview Susie and I for his Recruiters Lounge and make us sound funnier, smarter, and cooler than we are in real life. I think it might be the addition of music in the background.
If you'd like to hear more of what life is like in staffing, what it's like staffing at Aquent, or where we stash our chocolate and loose change, click below.
A strange thing happened to me on the way to the blog.
Okay, while I was blogging.
Even though, daily, I'm kvetching aloud in the car, in my house, and on the streets, I've noticed that the kvetching I do right here on the blog garnishes attention from Marketers working for the companies I'm complaining about. (Instead of staring and gawking from people walking by.)
I'm referring to experiences I've had on this very blog with Hertz, Scotts Miracle Gro, TerraCycle, and, well, VW hasn't contacted me yet... Heather Hamilton at Microsoft has had the same thing happen to her. Complaining on her popular blog about the customer service she just had for a hair dryer, she got a quick response from the company's Marketing VP who rapidly took care of the situation with a wave of his hand.
So it's interesting to me that we're sponsoring a Webcast concerning Marketers and the "social media revolution" in a couple weeks. I mean, if a Marketer reaches out to a well-traveled blog to smooth things over (after the blogger has complained about their service/product), how does that go over in the world o' social networking?
Should be an interesting listen...
Here's the dealio (from the AMA site):
Paul Gillin, will help you sort out the chaos in new media. Using concrete examples from his book, “The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media,�
Paul will offer tips on how marketers can leverage new digital channels
to create customer relationships built on trust and conversation.
Beyond the control of marketers, consumers are increasingly using
weblogs, podcasts, wikis, and other social media to discuss and
critique favorite (and not so favorite) companies and brands. Within
days, positive or negative experiences can be shared across these
communities and around the online world. While a few organizations have
mastered learning from � and at times even influencing � these
conversations, most are struggling to get started.
I wonder if Mr. Gillin will mention me by name?
The Webcast will be October 16th at 10am PST. (PDT?)
Awhile ago I blogged aboutScotts Miracle-Gro, "the world's leading lawn and garden company" suing an upstart fertilizer company, TerraCycle, who makes its product out of organic worm waste (which they refer to as "worm poop") then packages it in old soda bottles.
TerraCycle turned the suit into a marketing opportunity by launching SuedbyScotts.com which parodies the difference in the companies in a very David and
Goliath fashion.
Not to be one-upped in the world of on-line marketing opportunities, one of the PR people from Scotts just contacted me with news of a settlement between their two companies. (With Scotts coming out the winner, of course. Otherwise, why would they contact me?)
Obviously, the Scotts team had scoured blogs for stories about the suit and wanted to make sure their new message was heard loud and clear.
What interested me about this story, and still does, isn't whether or not copyright infringement exists or false claims were made, but how both sides used blogs to promote their side of the story, hoping to grow their claim to the fertilizer market share.
In TerraCycle's case, it absolutely worked for me. I'd never heard of the company and, being somewhat a greenie myself, I was fascinated by their incredibly green (and socially responsible) business plan.
And in Scotts case... well, I just blogged that they won, didn't I?
I've been hearing quite a bit from my local NPR stations (KCRW mostly) about the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) bid to increase Internet radio's royalty burden, but this is the first I've seen Designers weighing in on the issue.
It's an interesting marriage since so many Creatives seem to have such diverse tastes in music. Even right here at Aquent you can hear Swedish Black Metal, Brazilian Girls, and Rufus Wainwright while walking to the kitchen.
A lot of people think if the RIAA has their way to increase royalty rates 300 to 1200 percent, you can say goodbye to some of those wonderful streams like KCRW's Music and Novaplanet.
Many Internet radio stations joined a "D-Day for Webcasters" broadcasting silence for 24 hours.
You can read more about the issue at the KCRW Website.
Maybe this is the perfect way for you to celebrate independence!
When did cleaning your house become such a high-end, eco-friendly, well-designed task?
First Method flew under the radar to rank as the 7th fastest growing private company in the US (according to Inc. Magazine) and now Twist, who is seeking to "combine design and environmental
responsibility to create functional, beautiful, and responsible
alternatives."
Hey, doesn't that sound like Method's Mission Statement?
In a product category where price point is a huge concern (housecleaning products), getting people to spend $6 on Lemon Ginger floor cleaner in quite a feat.
For you packaging fans out there, the Twist sponge package can be turned into a bird feeder. Neat, huh?
Well, according to NOTCOT, they're not quite so good on the execution. "the packaging is so thin that it’s not that sturdy, and i do wish the
design made better use of the existing creases and the diecut windows…
this bird feeder wouldn’t hold up well in a drizzle (how about some
water proofed packing?) and isn’t quite strong enough to support the
birds."
More bad news for those crows in my front yard.
Still, it's an interesting try and it does fit in well with their company image.
Instead of just trendwatching, I'm going to take this post somewhere. Here are 3 To Do's:
The Industrial Designers of America hosts An Evening with Method : Being Green and Being Profitableat Disney Hall on June 28th. Click here for more info.
Add NOTCOT to your list of must visit, inspirational design sites.
Pick up the next piece of garbage you see on the ground and toss it in the trash.
There are reasons I like to be in a room alone when I'm writing. One, the sound of the ever-ringing phone at Aquent is finally quieted. Two, I can talk to myself without anyone else in the room thinking I'm crazy. (Sharon...)
The third is the one that causes me the most irritation, I go into a room so no one can stand behind me and read while I'm doing my work. My wife did this a few nights ago while I was blogging.
I stopped.
"Whatcha doin' back there, Wend?" I asked
"Oh, just looking," Wendy told me, still standing behind me.
"Um, can you not do that? I'm trying to write. It's kind of personal."
She retorted, "Personal? This thing that you're putting up on your blog so thousands of people can see?"
"It's only personal now. Once it's up it'll be public. You can go back and read it when I'm done."
She did leave, but only after I threatened to write something about her (instead of saving it until today).
I've heard Designers say the same thing about people commenting while they're working.
"Shouldn't that image be a little more to the left?" "Does that font seem small?"
Constructive criticism is good when it's after your work is completed, when you've already signed of on a draft or version, but man is it irritating when you're in the midst of the creative process.
Honestly, people, we'll get back to the font and the comma issues before we give you the draft. If we haven't, then you can go ahead and point it out.
In the meantime, please don't irritate the heavily caffeinated creative.
Why don't you ask them if they want a cookie instead?
Legitimate Package Rip Off or Market Share Hogging?
YOU DECIDE!
A small organic plant food company, TerraCycle, is being sued by Scotts Miracle-Grow who claims the upstart's packaging too closely resembles its Miracle-Grow product line and that it is making false advertising claims.
Scotts owns roughly 59% market share, according to AdAge, and TerraCycle believes that the suit is based on their move into big name stores like Home Depot, Target, and the like, where Miracle-Grow is king.
Scotts says it's more about TerraCycle's unsubstantiated claims for "superior performance" and that TerraCycle's packaging is "confusingly similar" to Miracle-Grow's.
Did I fail to mention that TerraCycle's product is made from worm poop and distributed in recycled bottles?
Sorry.
I'd also be remiss if I didn't tell you that TerraCycle has turned the suit into a marketing opportunity. They've launched the site SuedbyScotts.com which parodies the difference in the companies in a very David and Goliath fashion. They also are careful to point out 81 different brands of lawn and garden products with yellow and green labels just like TerraCycle and Miracle-Grow.
A recent article in Ad Age titled "Marketers Need to Stand Up to Hysteria From the Outrage Nuts", makes the point that humorous ads, by their very nature, are going to upset somebody, somewhere.
The author, Jonah Bloom, points out, "There are few fact-finders anymore, and everything in the public domain
is instantly spread and dissected by a blog-buoyed media that is more
about commentary than reporting."
True enough bloggers spread the word fast, especially when they are dissatisfied, but I'm not sure if this article is pointing out the speed in which our culture reacts to advertising or that our culture has become too politically correct to deal with funny ads?
Bloom points out the classic ""You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's" campaign as a couldn't-be-run-today ad. And tells Marketers to stand their ground.
It's a tough line, trying to be funny and outrageous without offending anyone, but I don't think telling Marketers to stick to their guns, regardless of their campaign is quite the answer. Of course your clever campaign is going upset some people, you just have to figure out whether those people have a legitimate beef or not.
I mean, he's not thinking we should put Don Rickles in front of a camera and airing whatever comes out of his mouth, is he?
I've become hyper aware of the whole Second Life phenomenon, through the endless blogs, magazine articles, PR, and my friend Matt Grant's observations.
Ad agencies open virtual offices. Reuters opens a virtual bureau. Companies hold virtual interviews.
Finally someone has said something about Second Life that I was very interested in hearing.
"If you had the drive and the imagination�not to
mention the absurd amount of free time�to create a business or design a
product, why wouldn't you do it in real space? If you could find
friends and brainstorm good ideas and fuel a love affair, why wouldn't
you do it in the here and now?"
When it comes down to it, Second Life is just an excuse to have something cool to show off to your clients, friends, and peers, but it does not really count as a viable work tool. It's not a phone. It's not a spreadsheet program. It's not even a Post-It. Trying to imagine Henry Ford or even Bill Gates, doing business in Second Life is enough to send you into hysterics.
"Have you seen the new Model A? Here, let me fly around in the air a bit and show you the whole thing. I hope the fact that my avatar is a giant clam doesn't put you off..."
That's an expression we used to say a lot when I worked in TV. When we made mistakes, I mean. Because sending the wrong punchline to Dabney Coleman is a lot different than having your patient wake up speaking Farsi and walking backwards.
Of course, we didn't realize that there are actually a lot of other jobs out there where your mistakes could affect lives.
Which is exactly what our Talent Julane Marx discovered when she was working with our on-site team at Amgen.
Over on Aquent's The Talent BlogMatt Grant did and interview with Julane that's pretty insightful about career advancement, loving what you do, and being an essential part of a team instead of a prima donna.
It may be a hard road to try and convince your client to use recycled paper, minimal packaging, and soy-based inks the way Chris Hacker, former Creative Director for the ultra-eco Aveda, does (he showed us how last year at AIGA's Save the Planet lecture), but maybe the road to ecologic Web design may be far less bumpy.
A recent post on Treehugger on Black Google posits that an all black Google page would save 750 megawatt-hours a year. It seems it takes your average computer monitor 74 watts to display an all white web page, but only 59 watts to display an all black page.
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