Shoot The Focus Groups? Not This Time.

It took more than a half-century for focus groups to die. From their invention in the 1940’s via noted sociologist Robert K. Merton through their glory days in the 80’s and 90’s, last century’s leading qualitative methodology had a great run. It wasn’t until 2005 or so, when then Yahoo CMO Cammie Dunaway plotted to ‘kill’ all the focus groups and author Douglas Rushkoff dubbed them ‘useless’ that the death knell officially sounded. Yes, there was a sputtering revival or two. (Online focus groups) But CNN finally nailed them completely with this year’s Election Coverage of perpetually undecided voters, ‘moderator’ Soledad O’Brien, and the ratings-friendly perceptual analyzer dials decorating the screen in happy primary colors.

Which is why (as a veteran Focus Group moderator and advocate) I was so surprised and gratified to read the latest news on last weekend’s wildfire VOM (Voice of Moms) aka Motrin Gate. Ad Age details the frenzied timeline plus the general take-away, including this paragraph:

Ultimately, Ms. Presnal (key Mommy blogger) said she sympathizes with J&J’s plight after having received at least two e-mails from (VP) Ms. Widmer last week. Reading from one, she noted that J&J had worked with focus groups of moms in developing the campaign.

“We listened extensively to moms, the insights about their lives, and how their pain impacts them,” Ms. Presnal said, reading from Ms. Widmer’s e-mail. She continued from the e-mail: “I think where this went wrong was the creative expression we used. … The tone was intended to be real and lighthearted, but it came off as irreverent. … We did conduct focus groups with moms. But truthfully they probably weren’t extensive enough to uncover this.”

Mon dieu! Amazingly, the ‘creative’ is getting blamed here. No quotes about how ‘useless’ or ‘dishonest’ the Focus Groups were. The only perceived glitch in the groups is that J&J believes they didn’t do enough of them.

With hundreds of Focus Groups under my moderator’s black belt, I certainly understand both the limitations of the tried-and-true and the temptation to switch to the newer, sexier Social Media Research methodologies.  I am deep into shiny new things myself: Twitter Product Parties, Hybrid Chats, Buzz Audits and Crowdsourcing Polls.  In fact, more than half of my research requests in the past 6 months have come from clients itching to jump on the intriguing Social Media Research bandwagon.  There’s good news from key social networking fronts: both Facebook and Linkedin have big plans to help researchers get uber-targeted, fresher data.

Still, I have to defend the original concept of Focus Groups, which I firmly believe is still viable — when effectively designed and conducted.

Guru’s Note:  Stay tuned for Part 2: Five tips to bring your (traditional, that is, f2f) Focus Groups into the 21st Century.

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Dentyne’s Anti-Facebook “Make Face Time” Campaign Encourages Us To Get Real.

So I was deep into editing Trend 6: The Return of Real & The Urgency of Touch for my upcoming book when I discovered this refreshing (pun intended) new campaign from gum-giant Dentyne and ad agency, McCann. The creative suggests we log off occasionally to go out and “make face time” with a friend.

“We’ve got nothing against the internet, but when people are surfing the web, they’re missing the best part of life — being together.”

It’s a compelling concept, one that reminds me a little of the YouTube phenom Free Hugs, now a user-generated-content classic with 33,644,908 views. The idea is made all the more engaging by the Make Face Time website that automatically shuts down after 3 minutes. The site also features a ‘Smiley Chamber of Doom’ intended to smash to smithereens those icons of fakery.

I’ve been kvetching lately about the importance of being a real friend during these recessionary times rather than just a Friended Friend. Then Jason Anello, Yahoo Buzz’s Ideologist, gave a great talk at the WOMMA Summit last week on the importance of connecting the online and offline worlds –and mentioned the increasing value of touch. Another project reminded me that massage therapy has been in explosive growth mode, jumping to $11 billion a year industry.

Then there was this weekend’s MotrinGate, in which Moms railed against the baby-wearing, baby-bonding experience being labeled ‘a fashion accessory.’ Mombotv.com has a nice post on this age-old practice, especially the way health workers in many developing countries promote skin to skin contact between mother and newborn.  Didn’t we all write termpapers in college citing the wire-mother-monkeys?

Author Desmond Morris says, “Something special happens when two people touch each other physically, whether it be a handshake, a pat on the back, or a slap on the face.”

Obviously I am a huge advocate of the life-changing, life-building, boundary shattering Internet. But I am also a huge advocate of getting the hell offline and LOL-ing the real way.

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Superhero Yourself? Kodak Launches A New Viral Marketing Promotion: “Make Me Super”.

I’m an old softie when it comes to Kodak, as some of my favorite people in the world live in Rochester, New York, home of the company’s longtime corporate headquarters. Many of these favorites at one time actually worked at Kodak — until the one-time photo pioneer missed the turn-off to the digital age. Since the inception of the Hail Mary turnaround strategy in 2004, the world’s biggest film manufacturer has slashed some 27,000 jobs and cut major product lines in an aggressive attempt to play catch up. One of these attempts is last week’s launch of an online marketing promotion. Kodak is jumping on the viral bandwagon most recently driven by smash viral success, Office Max’s Elf Yourself.

OfficeMax let people turn themselves into elves. But online photo service, the 70-million member strong Kodak Gallery, thinks people might prefer superheroes to elves. The end result is “Make Me Super,” at Makemesuper.com. Consumers are invited to upload their own pictures to a video showing them wearing superhero Spandex and capes, ostensibly transforming themselves into superheroes and Kodak into a massively viral winner. (See the Guru above as a Farrah-hair’d SuperGirl)

Wisely, Kodak enlisted EVB, the San Francisco based wizco behind a growing list of marketing hits like Office Max, Levi’s ‘Unbutton Your Beasts’ and Intuit’s JingleMaker.

Smartly targeting its user base of fervent gift-purchasing females, Kodak created a strong retail component, allowing the Superhero photos to be added to mousepads, shirts, mugs and other personalized giftware.

Kodak is also pursuing their consumer audience in an unusual-for-Kodak way: instead of the traditional media plan, the company is turning to the Blog-Hive of buzzy influential bloggers, along with viral video focused sites and even online superhero hangouts. The marketing team is hoping this strategy will attract a younger and more digitally savvy consumer.

Guru’s Take: By now readers of this blog know I am something of a curmudgeon. I criticized another recent viral marketing promotion ‘Yearbook Yourself’ for oddly not explaining the link between playing with its groovy make-over technology and being forced to register at an online shopping center. I criticized a Seventh Generation ‘Virtual Tree Maker’ for skipping the opportunity to make its viralizer more substantive. Now I am putting on my Critic’s hat for Kodak and wondering about such basics as why I can’t name myself . . . I am forced to be either Super Girl/Boy/Cat/Dog/Momma/Grandmother etc. I wanted to be Super Guru! Why can’t I choose their Super Girl video but add my own name? Personalization is paramount. In truth, I am rather underwhelmed by Make Me Super. I honestly wish it had grabbed me by the cape and convinced me to send my spandex self off to my network of link-loving pals.

I also wish Kodak/EVB had created cross-promotions with the places target women 25-44 frequently visit: Facebook, Ning, etsy, MySpace and all those gazillions of Mom blogs. Why not make a deal with BlogHer?  With the DVD release of uber-superhero Iron Man, which pretty much coincides with the Superhero release.   Maybe all these efforts are still to come?

In fact, I wonder about Kodak Gallery, which is already skewing older, now that so many of the popular sites are either social networking sites or have social networking features — the stickiest of which are the hugely trafficked photo-sharing areas.

And while I know it’s not really fair to compare viral veteran Elf Yourself to the newbie Superhero, here’s how the Elf did last year:

The Elfin’ Impact from 11/20/07 to 1/2/08 :- Over 193 million site visits
- Over 123 million elves were created
- 60 elves were created per second
- Users spent a combined average of 2,600 years on the site
- Ranked #51 most visited website on the web (HitWise Intelligence)
- Ranked #1 on “Movers & Shakers” (Alexa Rankings)
- Ranked as top 1,000 website in 50 countries (Alexa Rankings)

Source: Elf Yourself 2007 “>Metrics Marketing blog.

And finally, Elizabeth McDowell, Publicist for EVB San Francisco, the co-creator of “Elf Yourself,” says “The success is in part due to three fundamental characteristics 1) Keep it Simple 2) Make it Personal and 3) Give People a Reason to Pass it on.”

Go check out Make Me Super and tell me if Kodak followed those three characteristics.

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The New York Times Calls the New Microsoft ‘I’m a PC’ TV Commercials Risky — Guru Calls Them Right On.

Last Thursday Microsoft switched to the next phase of its $300 million television campaign. Thank God.

I can’t imagine why the New York Times considers it both ambitious and risky. Risky is being so bland, BS-sy and boring that your chief rival Apple is allowed to brand-nap your product and millions of users.

While some found the quixotic commercials featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld in search of real people worth a watercooler chat, many (including moi) found them baffling. But after the many years I spent working on Microsoft projects, I have a pretty good grasp of why the company felt it needed to take a gigantic leap away from advertising as usual.

Happily, ad agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky could tap into local talent. In recent years, Bill has decidedly morphed away from being the Evil Dictator of the Evil Empire to becoming a kind of folksy spokes-geek. He always played that role in the playful company videos that typically first aired during his Comdex or CES keynotes. It suits him.

The new campaign, which carries the theme “Windows. Life without walls,” still features Bill, this time in a cameo role, with the humble-pie email address: bill@windows.com.  In the new spots, he is surrounded by everyone from celebrities like Deepak Chopra and Eva Longoria to everyday PC users, from scientists and fashion designers to shark hunters and teachers, showing off their individualism.  And their pride in using their PCs.

 But what it really does well is what everyone says Obama should do — hit hard at the competition.

The new “I’m a PC” spots are so right on, even for this proud owner of a glossy green Mac Book, that all I can say is ‘It’s about time.’

PS: The new ‘I’m a PC’ group on Facebook already has 527 members.

Update: Straight from Appleinsider’s Irony Files comes this tidbit — the ‘I’m A PC’ commercials were actually made on Macs. A Flickr user named LuisDS made the discovery. AppleInsider says he found traces of Apple’s Mac OS X operating system and Adobe’s Creative Suite 3 in the metadata files of the video.

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Marketers To Ad Agencies: “You Still Don’t Get it.”

I’m an ad agency veteran. My fellow Mad Men fanatics call me Peggy. Once upon a time, Madison Avenue was the place to be; the pulse of all possibility.

Then came the digital age. Luckily, I discovered the ‘Internets’ early on. I made a speedy exit from advertising, where the Petes and the Ducks were asking their ‘girls’ to print out their emails and insisting that Mrs. P&G  could never figure out AOL.  As my Supra modem squawked,  my world was instantly slashed into the ones that ‘get it’ and the ones that don’t.

Ad agencies still don’t get it.

Sapient recently sponsored a national online survey to gain insights into what marketers want from their advertising and marketing agencies in the next 12 months. The survey polled a pivotal group –more than 200 chief marketing officers (CMOs) and senior marketing professionals.

Sapient has put the key takeways from the survey into a Top 10 Wish List for Agencies of the Future.

It’s all about technology, baby.

Virtually every item on the Top 10 Wish List centered on the digital space, from Web 2.0 and social media savvy to interactive advertising to virtual communities to even the availability of a Chief Digital Officer.

The List of Digital Shame:

More than a third of marketers surveyed say they’re not confident in their current agency’s grasp of online digital marketing and interactive advertising. 

• 79% of respondents rated “interactive/digital” functions as ‘important/very important.
• 45% of the respondents have switched agencies (or plan to switch in the next 12 months) for one with greater digital knowledge or have hired an additional digital specialist to handle their interactive campaigns.
• 90% of respondents agree that it is becoming increasingly important that their agency uses ‘pull interactions’ such as social media and online communities rather than traditional ‘push’ campaigns.
• 94% of respondents expressed interest in leveraging virtual communities (public and private) to understand more about their target audience.
• 92% of respondents said it was ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ important that agency employees use the (social media) technologies that they are recommending.
• 49% of marketers surveyed said that agencies with chief digital officers are more appealing than those without.
• 63% of marketers surveyed said that an agency’s Web 2.0 and social media capabilities are ‘important/very important’ when it comes to agency selection.
• 79% of respondents rated “interactive/digital” functions as ‘important/very important.

Guru’s Take:  Ad and marketing agencies have got to quit insisting that being digital is about age. Yes, the whippersnappers have grown up with it.  My daughter has been online since she was 2, clutching blankie as she easily navigated ancient Macs and PCs. (Cross-platform since Pull-Ups, that’s my girl!)  But that doesn’t mean abdicating social media marketing, new technology or anything interactive to the kiddies.  When the first dotcom era bubbled up, those of us who could no longer squeeze into our high school cheerleader uniforms surfed our way through gallons of Visine and even more Starbucks to stay relevant. And guess what — we are.  We bring solid marketing skills, new product expertise, and consumer-centric insight to a digital world that sorely needs these capabilities.  I’d stack up my digital chops next to a Zuckerberg any day.  Even a divine digital diva like this one.

I suspect that some of this digital malaise on the part of agencies is senior management that ::::sigh :::: still doesn’t get it.  Maybe they’re still waiting to land the Pan Am account.

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Purple Reigns at Yahoo While Over At Microsoft, Bill & Jerry Yada Yada Over Nothing.

Given the sobering news being served up today by Wall Street, maybe we need our major corporations, those that are solvent anyway, to kick up their heels and act a little goofy.

Yahoo’s Yodel Anecdotal claims the new Start Wearing Purple campaign is all about celebrating what’s intrinsically Yahoo — innovation, spirit, quirkiness, ingenuity, daring and connectedness. After all the Purple People have been through in the past year — Steve Ballmer, Carl Icahn, shareholder lawsuits, the mass exodus of key execs, you can’t blame them for trying to drum up a bit of purple power via customized purple bikes, trains, sprinklers and signs.

Microsoft’s Bill & Jerry Show is all about sparking a conversation. The second commercial in the series is called New Family, and features Seinfeld and Gates trying to ‘get to know real people’ by moving in with a real family. Bizarrity ensues. The new spot has already racked up one million + page views and 1764 text comments on just one youtube post:

Random viewer 1  — hahaha wtf bill gates. wtf
Random viewer 2  —HAHA that was funny, eithier u get it or dont get it type of commercial.
Random viewer 3  —This is really off the charts. These ads stay in your mind.
Random Viewer 4 (screenname ‘consultant’ something, which makes any comment suspect) —I absolutely love these new videos. It’s all about individuality, the power of choice versus forced perception.
Random viewer 5 —I don’t really understand these commercials, and no one I know can explain it to me. Can someone please explain it to me?

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Skip Ratazzi’s. Here Are Four Virtual Madison Avenues To Whet Your Creativity.

With Mad Men stirring up everything from fashion to the Emmys, it’s time to take a look at the boomlet in virtual Madison Avenues. Once upon a time, wannabee creatives had no choice but to pack their portfolios and head toward Madison Avenue in hopes of finding a sympathetic Creative Director who might pony up a spot in the bullpen or junior copywriter cubbyhole.

Today, with User Generated Content moving beyond phenomenon into mainstream, there are more opportunities than ever to play Don Draper or Peggy Olson from your Mac Mini in Rhinelander, Wisconsin or while parked at an Internet cafe in Corfu. A growing number of sites offer everything from advertising and branding contests to online brainstorming, talent markets, and virtual name/idea generation. Many offer a place to post your profile and portfolio. Others have social networking features and encourage community building. Some promise compensation while others are designed for self-expression, the sheer love of creativity, and sometimes, simply coming to the rescue of your right-brain-blocked fellow artistes.

These newer ones differ markedly from sites like elance.com, which focus largely on skills and services rather than pursuit of the elusive Muse. Elance is about functionality and commodity — finding the best you can for the buck from whatever country– while with Bootb, for example, being global is not in the least about outsourcing.

Take at look at these four virtual Mad Avenues.

Here’s how Bootb describes itself: (Count how many times and ways it uses the word ‘planet’)

BootB is the Pitching Engine that brings Brand Builders and Creative Brains together. All around the Planet!

What is the usual way for Brands to quest for Creativity? If they have the opportunity to choose, they start a pitch and select the best proposal from a limited number of participants. BootB is designed as an online alternative to that process that has no offline limitations.

BootB platform is built to run Pitches. You can start your own Pitch and get Solutions from an unlimited number of Creators from anywhere on the entire planet. In this case we will call you a Brand Builder. Or you can participate in any Pitch you like and publish your Solutions that will be received directly by a Brand. Then we will call you a Creator.

As a result - instant access to Unlimited Creativity for everyone on the planet!

Guru’s Take on Bootb. $$$  This site is dead serious about this planet stuff, offering content in 12 languages and even making up their own special jargon-rich Bootb lingo. The look is hackneyed black and white with neon colors used for that handwritten, I-am-too-hip for Helvetica ambiance. The projects do indeed appear to be international, with a shopping center in Russia, an Italian magazine being marketed in China, UNICEF and big brands like Clearasil and Lego. Compensation ranges from $800 on upwards to around $12,600, with a (seemingly introductory) Bootb prize of $100,000.    I wish I could get past Bootb’s annoying attempts to be coolier-than-thou because I do appreciate the global opportunities. But the silliness of ‘becoming a Citzen of the Bootb Re-publi-ca” and other time-wasters ruin what could be a genuinely cool place.

BrainReactions is an online brainstorming site, with several levels of access, ranging from Free to Ultimate at $199 a month. Here’s what they say about themselves:

Do you need fresh, actionable, innovative ideas?

BrainReactions exists to serve organizations that need to look both inside and outside themselves for ideas for new products, programs and promotion. No organization has a monopoly on thinkers or thought. Often, it is an idea from someone from outside the corporate environment, who has no particular interest in or knowledge about the organization who can provoke a turn to a new, winning way.

In addition to customizing, teaching, and facilitating “idea generation for innovation” sessions within organizations, BrainReactions provides “Outside Insight” for our clients, perspective that is intentionally external to an organization and its culture. BrainReactions brainstorms generate a huge number of ideas in a short period of time to stimulate an organization’s innovation process. The sheer volume of ideas produced in our work invariably gives rise to a number of good, actionable ideas for our clients.

Guru’s Take on BrainReactions. I really wanted to like BrainReactions, especially as it was founded by Cheeseheads at my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Plus I have rich, robust experience as an Ideator, Trained Brain, Generator, Idea Bunny, whatever label you’d care to use. So over the past couple of months, I spent a good deal of time on the site, contributing ideas to a wide variety of posted open brainstorms. It can be fun and kind of addictive. The problem is the lack of incentive — and I don’t just mean money. Day after day I posted gems and never got even the slightest ‘thank you’, response to my posts or even an update on progress. I tried opening a room or two for my projects and got largely drek. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t appreciate the creative stimuli, which I agree, can come from anywhere or even from the drek-iest idea. Interestingly, the Monjee contest, promising a grand prize of $150, generated the most for the site: 826 ideas.

It is entirely possible that BrainReactions consulting services, which seem to be extensive, are as fresh, actionable and innovative as they say. But their online brainstorming site, which while functional, simple and a no-brainer to use, doesn’t have what it takes to make it a truly useful business creativity tool.

CrowdSpring is based in another one of my favorite former hometowns, Chicago. CrowdSpring calls itself a Marketplace for Creative Services. Buyers can post a project, asking for a new logo, website, marketing materials or custom illustration, and indicate how much they’re willing to pay. Creatives then view the information and decide whether they’d like to participate. CrowdSpring says:

Watch the world participate
Once posted, Creatives from all around the world will work on your project and you’ll begin to receive actual work - not proposals or bids - to review.
Choose the one you like
As the entries come in, you’ll be able to review, sort, rate, give feedback and collaborate with Creatives until you find ‘the one”.
1. Create your profile
We built a little section of the site just for you where you can tell the world about your skills and upload your portfolio for all to see.
2. Participate to projects
With new projects posted every day, you can reach customers all over the world and build your business. And, since it’s a truly level playing field, you won’t be judged by how fancy your offices are - it’s all about your work.
3. Earn money
We manage the entire billing and payment process for you and there’s never a cost - you keep 100% of the money you earn.

Guru’s Take on CrowdSpring. $$ Here’s the glitch. If you don’t get enough participation, odds dive on finding what need. And because CrowdSpring (reluctantly) lets you off the hook if you don’t get 25 entries, what happens is that Creatives post teensy variations just to push the number up and still, it’s close but no cigar. Apparently I was the first user to ask for my money back. I have a sneaking suspicion that if I posted a project now — a couple of months deeper into their beta — I would probably get a better response. I like this site. I like its founders, who appear to be authentically good guys looking to give Creatives a hand.

Next there’s Genius Rocket: Launch Your Creativity. GeniusRocket was founded by a couple of luminaries from the online world plus political stand-out Joe Trippi. I remember Mark Walsh from back in the day when I was one of the first members of AOL’s infamous Greenhouse Incubator — he always had a knack for ‘getting’ the consumer.

Here’s what they have to say: “The team that harnessed the power of the Internet to change politics forever in presidential campaigns, as leaders of the 2004 Howard Dean campaign, has joined with Internet industry pioneers to create GeniusRocket, an online platform that links the talent of its creative community with companies to solve real world advertising and marketing challenges.” The site lists a variety of current assignments, most paying an average of $2500. Unlike Bootb, GeniusRocket (so far) appears to be American through and through.

Guru’s Takeon GeniusRocket. $$ GeniusRocket is also heavily into cute-land, with its RFB (Request for Brilliance) and a bunch of other attempts at adorable. But it also has the uber-accessible look and feel AOL was once known for plus savvy use of the basic principles of Consumer Generated Content, which quite frankly, these particular Internet pioneers helped develop. While the GeniusRocket quite clearly has not yet hit the stratosphere, it has potential.

This blog has gotten way too long. Even my eyes are tired. Stay tuned for Part 2: Getty Images, Kluster/NameThis, Veaux and more.

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Mad Men and Their Equally Mad Women

So tomorrow night, Maternal Instinct founder Kat Gordon and I are talking about “Marketing to Moms” at the annual Synergos Series sponsored by The Hayden Group in Palo Alto:

Our presentation just happens to jibe with the much-awaited opening of Season 2 of the hit AMC series “Mad Men“.  As a veteran of the ad business — albeit many moons after this TV series takes place — I am fascinated by this brilliantly detailed view of the ad agency world Kat and I were once so immersed in, and even more fascinated by the State of Women (and Moms) in 1960.   Mad Men highlights women in the workplace but also takes us home to suburbia, to the realm of the 5:31 commuter train, where Betty and her perpetually pregnant buddies blithely shun the local divorcee, reign over birthday parties, cocktails, straying hubbies and vibrating washing machines. All while balancing a Lucky Strike between their Fire and Ice’d red lips.

Nearly 50 years ago, women were sharply defined by their men, especially these Mad Men, who created the pop culture and the products that in many ways, enslaved both office wives and housewives.

Today with the sheer force of 82 million Moms (and growing, with a new boomlet showing up in census polls) plus the power and the preferences of our pocketbooks, we’ve managed to turn the ad world and everything else topsy-turvy.

In the year 2008, women are setting the trends and woe unto advertisers who don’t get The Triple AAA’s:

• Acknowledge
• Appreciate
• Authenticity

In this millennium, we’ve got spaces for moms that Betty Draper could not have imagined even after a pitcher of Daiquiris.  In London, private clubs like Maggie & Rose and Cupcake Mom, offer mothers a place to convene and relax, where they’re welcome to come and go as they please, 7 days a week.  Maggie & Rose, based in chi-chi Kensington, features play areas and offers children’s lessons in art, cooking, dance and more, as well as a weekend movie club and birthday party services. Parents are catered to with a comfortable and (importantly) quiet café (with wifi access, natch), as well as seminars and access to a a concierge-style service with well-researched info on nannies, tutors, schools, holidays, etc.

 Cupcake also aims to provide a grown-up but child-friendly environment but especially for pregnant women and new mothers. In addition to an organic café, Cupcake also offers personal trainers and a spa. The top floor of the club, where the spa is located, is a “baby-free zone” and features treatments tailor-made for pregnant women and new moms, from the “Cupcake in the Oven Massage” to the “Mermaid Wrap.” Cupcake also plans to install a sleep pod for much-needed powernaps, and will offer a concierge service to help busy moms complete their to-do lists.

In New York, there’s Citibabes, the club in Manhattan that offers high-quality services and activities both for children and for parents, all under one roof. The big A — acknowledgement — here is clearly stated by the founders:
We all know that having young children can do one of two things for new parents: it can make them feel isolated or it can bring them together. Our ultimate goal is to build a community for New York families that fosters a sense of identity and fellowship among its members. We also hope that families will appreciate the security and privacy of Citibabes, so that they may feel at ease while their children play freely inside the club—as if it’s a second home.

In the Mad Men era, not only would these special Mom-friendly places not exist, but the need for them would not be acknowledged, either by the Mom herself or by the business world.

Check back for more new Mom trends– and tune into Mad Men for a real education on how far we’ve come.

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The New York City Waterfalls Public Art Spectacular Opens With A Splash.

Chicago has its cows. San Francisco has its cable cars. Las Vegas has its . . . well, you know.

As of yesterday, New York has its waterfalls.

New York City Waterfalls, the ambitious new $15.5 million project presented by The Public Art Fund and Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, is splashing its way across all five boroughs, bringing new energy and (hopefully) lots of cash into the city. The man-made falls tower 90 to 120 feet high in four sites across the East River’s shores:

Beneath the Brooklyn Bridge,
Manhattan’s Pier 35
Between Brooklyn’s Piers 4 and 5
On the northern end of Governor’s Island.

The Waterfalls, which draw water from the river at 35,000 gallons per minute, run from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. every other day through Oct. 13. They will all be visible from South Street Seaport and the Staten Island ferry. Maps, podcasts and more information on viewing these new ‘natural’ wonders are available at NYCWaterfalls.org.

And never fear, Carbon Cops. They will operate on electricity run by renewable resources.

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New Site “Living Room Candidate” Presents 12 Classic Fear-Based Campaign Commercials.

Just as the 2008 Presidential Campaign kicks into full manipulative mode, New York’s Museum of the Moving Image launches a powerful new video-rich website featuring TV commercials dating back to the first campaign television spot.  Called Living Room Candidate, the site is packed with fascinating political factoids from 1952-2004 and is a powerful history lesson for any voter.

But what struck me to the core were the twelve commercials whose unmistakable mission was, quite simply, to scare the hell out of us.  Anyone who took issue with Hillary Clinton’s “3 a.m.” spot should take a look at a few of these classic chillers to experience real fear.  Click down the list starting with ‘Daisy’ (nuclear war) to ‘Bomb’ (more nuclear war, this time with vivid mushroom clouds) to ‘Bear’ (Soviets lurking in the woods) to ‘Revolving Door’ (Dukakis frees murdering rapists) to 2004’s Osama & Friends (”These people want to kill you”) and more.

The ‘Mad Man’ behind ‘Daisy’, Tony Schwartz, died last week.  Produced in collaboration with advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach, Schwartz’s minutelong spot was broadcast only once – on Sept. 7, 1964, during NBC’s “Monday Night at the Movies.” It showed a little girl in a meadow (actually a Manhattan park), innocently counting aloud as she plucks the petals from a daisy. Her voice dissolves into a man’s voice counting downward, followed by the image of an atomic blast. President Johnson: “These are the stakes. To make a world in which all of God’s children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die.”

(W. H. Auden.)

It’s a long way to November.  Prepare to have your pants scared off.

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  • As Venice Sinks, It’s Time To Surf.
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