CURIOSITY

the right way to open to the public

2010-01-18T12:22:00.000-08:00

had to make a little holiday visit to a ups store. I found it a bit ironic that the door opened in. In other words, I had to figure out how I might open the door and manage the packages inside. And of course, the only thing I was carrying when I left the store was a receipt, and the door opened out. Is it that hard to change a door so that it is much easier for the customer to do business?

running?

2009-06-24T19:39:00.001-07:00

a sunday morning not long ago i woke at 7:30 am to the sound of a woman wildy cheering people on. interesting i thought and then forgot about it until she started cheering again. and again. so i went outside holding a copy of coffee and took an excellent seat for watching the eugene marathon. my front door was near the 10 mile marker so i could see both the 1/2 marathon runners and the full marathon runners. and i had some friends and some acquaintances go by and wave as i stood there. and i began to wonder why. why would you do that. why would you run over 26 miles. we don't have to run to carry messages any more. running melos is long gone. there are some villages in the world that still use runners but not here. my brother used to run because is was boring and he was constantly working under pressure as a speech writer. but he didn't have to run over 26 miles to bore himself.
could be the endorphines, could be the habit, could be the challenge, could be the mental state it induces. but i am still not sure i get it so i suspect it is one of those things that you have to do to understand.

my dad

2009-04-25T13:09:00.000-07:00

my dad had been the head of a couple of large corporations. he was a smart man. and then he got altzheimers. his memory got elongated and then pretty much destroyed. i used to have him feed the horses with me until he grabbed the electric wire one day.
the last year of his life he talked a lot about horses and water with grand physical gestures included to emphasize his point.
one day he turned to me and clearly said,"none of us know what we are talking about anyway."i thanked him for that insight. and 5 minutes later he turned to me again and clearly stated, "you know, we are all happy we just don't know it".
i don't think his second comment overrode the truth of his first comment. but i do wonder sometimes if any of us really know what we are talking about. for example, there are probably people who still believe the idea of AIDA works. that we think and act so logically that we have awareness, develop interest, then desire and finally take action. more like we have desire, take action and develop a good post rationalization for our behavior. like the horses but i am not sure how much they care about the post rationalization part.

spreading communication

2009-03-01T20:43:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNPxIibhcKY
hilarious video about a drunk on a lawn mower.

This viral video sparked a conversation about how communications spreads.

The traditional conceptual model for creating any advertising or marketing communications message is the AIDA Model:

get Attention,
hold Interest,
arouse Desire,
obtain Action.

TV
Newspaper
Radio
PR
Events

Integrated Marketing Communications - trying to get some feedback.
Often there is confusion between technology and relationship.
It’s all about relationships.

The way it should be:
People talking to each other

Tipping Point:
Kinds of people according to Gladwell, who help spread things:
Salespeople – able to persuade people, constantly sell (ideas, opinions, products)
Mavens – possess knowledge, pass it on to others
Connectors – know lots of people, connect

Not so sure this is true. Check Mark Earls – Herd

Communication: Spontaneous order – most of our communication takes place through spontaneous order
Example: Hush Puppie shoes in Soho. Was there really a leader?

Convergence of media that exists
“Convergence of culture” – e.g. Matrix, Survivor – people watching those shows create blogs, “spoilers”

15-18% of Americans have blogs
25% - critics – read blogs

Collectors – RSS feeds
Joiners – Facebook
Spectators – don’t interact, just look
Inactive – don’t care

Main Project:
Make everyone else curious
Think of storyteller
20 min. (at least)
PowerPoint/Keynote OK – as long as it’s only visual
(No words, bullets, etc.)
Nextexit.com
+ a couple of pages with points that you want a take-away to be.

Brianna Pinder
Elena Golovchanskaya
notes from curiosity class

story telling

2009-02-26T16:22:00.000-08:00

We had Mark Lewis come in to the Curiosity class. He has done voice work with Disney for animated movies and you can hear him an number of times at Disneyland in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. He has also done a lot of other voice work and told stories for pay and for fun in many places around the world.
We wanted him to help students with the ability to present and tell a story.
Some of his points were;

It is important to understand that the story takes place BETWEEN the storyteller and the audience. It “happens in the now.”

What the teller says is heard by all but each individual is going to produce a different image within his/her own mind. This is the beauty of storytelling; it affects us all as a group and as single individuals at the same time.

Mark Lewis’s Tips for performing/presenting
1. BE afraid. Let the fear be a part of you and push you onto the stage instead of fighting it.
2. Once on the stage, ground yourself and BREATHE.
3. Look for the “angel” in the audience, that one person that is landing on your every word. This will capture the attention of others and lead them back to you.
4. Don’t worry about the person giving you the “hairy eye-ball.” You will probably never please them and lose the rest of the audience in the process of trying.
5. Know who the client is and DO NOT focus on them. Engaging everyone else will speak more about you than zoning in on one or a few people.
6. Remember: practice makes PERMANENT. If you practice it wrong, you will perform it wrong. Make sure to rehearse carefully, thoroughly, and correctly.

nyc

2009-02-06T08:55:00.001-08:00

been quite cold here in nyc this week. but going to warm up.
every agency person we talked to said it's about digital. not just digital the internet but digital as it impacts the society. not just invading and annoying but adding fun to the environment. like changing colors on a building in tokyo for sony or an audience in a movie theater raising their hands and test driving a mini.
we all probably know these things but the thinking needs to be more expansive so we think in terms of that effect, not just what we know.

myth

2009-01-13T11:14:00.000-08:00

Notes for Prof. Koranda’s Curiosity Class
A.Mawell

Essential to the subject of curiosity is learning about different ways we come to know or understand things. (In the subject area of Philosophy, epistemology is the study of the ways we go about knowing things and the ways we validate what we know.)

Most often what you know and what I know is based upon:
• Your own nature (your predisposition to specific preferences for gathering information—E.g., some of us prefer to survey a situation and understand what is going on through our intuition; others prefer to survey the same situation and learn what is happening through keen observation. These are the two extreme examples…they’re others in the middle.)

The relevant question today is: in what ways is myth a way of knowing?

Anthropologists, sociologists, scientists, psychologists, social scientists, mythologists, English professors each have different ways of defining and thus questioning myth. Some of the positions taken by this variety of interested scholars are:
• It is a story.
• It is a way that primitive people made sense of their worlds.
• It is a legend of something that happened and has been elevated to the status of myth (elevation to divine status is an apotheosis). This movement from “real event to myth or legend” is called Euhemeristic, after the Greek, Euhemerist, who believed that the stories told in ancient myths had actually happened centuries before.
• Myth is an example of primordial thinking. (Primordial meaning before logic, when thinking was mythological)
• Myth is in opposition to science. Myth is unscientific.
• Myth is akin to creationism.
• Myth is supported by science. (E.g. geologic evidence of a worldwide flood during the time of Noah of Biblical fame.)
• Mythology is dead in Western civilization. It is only connected to dead religions.

Selected (by me) writers on the function of myth:
J.G. Frazer (Golden Bough), classicist, anthropologist: myth is part of primitive religion and primitive religion is part of philosophy; primitive religion is the counterpart to science, opposite science (logical conclusion, once science rules, myth will vanish)

Lucien Levy-Bruhl, French philosopher, anthropologist, and creator of the phrase, “participation mystic”: “primitive thinking is “pre-logical”; he believes that,
“ . . . All phenomena [humans, human artifacts, creatures, the natural world] is part of the impersonal sacred ‘mystic’ realm that pervades the natural realm . . .”; “Participation in this mystic reality enables phenomena to affect one another magically and to become one another—yet retain their own characteristics . . .”;
L.-Bruhl writes that this is pre-logical because it defies the law of non-contradiction—in that something can be both itself and another; participation mystic is pre-logical, not scientific, and not philosophical (not logical)

Discussion point: Shamanism (Mircea Eliade is an excellent resource if you have interest in this topic. Carlos Castanada’s book, The Teaching of Don Juan, a Yaquii Way of Knowledge is also an excellent resource.)

Bronislaw Malinowski, anthropologist: argues that primitive peoples sought to control nature with ritual when their knowledge of science ran out; they have a basic understanding of science through their intense and discerning investigation of their habitat as hunters and gatherers; myth for Malinowski is about origins of place

Discussion point: Three categories of mythologies: cosmogonic (creation of the cosmos); cosmological (creation of the culture including place, institutions, etc); and theogonic (how deities came into being or awareness). Malinowski and Mircea Eliade both focused on cosmogonic myths.

Claude Levi-Strauss, French structural anthropologist: myth may be primitive but it is also intellectual; to understand the world around them, primitive peoples proceeded with observation, developed sophisticated knowledge, refined that knowledge through trial and error; L.-Strauss considered primitive thinking “concrete” versus modern “abstract thinking”; myth is no less scientific than science; it is part of the concrete, it is the part that is available to perception and imagination; L.-Strauss suggested naming the tribal peoples he was studying “people without writing” rather than call them primitives.

Karl Popper, born in Vienna, lived in the U.K., philosopher of science: scientific theories remain myth-like for they can never be proven.

Depth Psychological Perspective:

Def. of Myth: Myths never were but always are.

Erich Neumann, Israeli psychiatrist, philosopher: an “archetype is a mythological motif”; it is the eternally present content of the collective unconscious; as such this mythic motif can appear anywhere at any time [Greece, Egypt, Tibet, North America]
• An archetype is a dynamic directing force that influences the human psyche (unconscious)
• True object of inquiry is the symbolic self-representation of the archetype that has passed through the medium of man (Great Mother, p. 13)
• Archetypes of the collective unconscious are mythological motifs and appear among all people in an identical or analogous manner and can arise spontaneously without conscious knowledge.

C.G. Jung, Swiss psychiatrist, student and colleague of Freud: “Myth is the primordial language natural to these psychic processes, and no intellectual formulation comes anywhere near the richness and expressiveness of mythical imagery. Such processes deal with primordial images and these are best and most succinctly reproduced by figurative speech.” (metaphor, imagination)
(Source: C.G. Jung, Collected Works 12, p. 25.)

Note: primordial—pre-logical; mythic symbols contain both conscious and unconscious elements (E.g., consider the “O” logo for Oregon); mythic symbols unify opposites (E.g., the symbol of the Earth, also called Gaia, contains all life-giving capacity with no moral judgment regarding predators and prey)

Discussion point: Children go through stages like early humans; perceive the world mythologically; everything animate and inanimate has “life”;

“Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.” (Ontogeny, the development of the individual organism, mirrors phylogeny, the history of the development of the species.)

James Hillman, contemporary psychologist, philosopher: moves psychology out of the consulting room into the culture. Bases his theory, archetypal psychology, on C.G.Jung’s ideas, but claims that naming something archetypal allows one to use one’s imagination to explore in what ways that object/phenomena satisfies the experience of the archetype. Any image can be archetypal, when you reflect upon the phenomenon using your imagination to understand what makes the phenomenon archetypal. For Hillman, the archetypal image is the center. The image is all-important. (This does not mean a literal image; it can mean an idea that has not constellated into concrete examples. Or it can be an image, but if it is concrete, the task is to look beyond the concrete boundaries using your imagination. Once the image is concrete, it becomes static, and loses capacity to generate more knowledge/understanding.

Discussion point: The unconscious is as present as the conscious (all of the time). Unconscious material is revealed through myths; imaginative endeavors—art, music/lyrics, stories, other cultural means.

• In Western civilization, as consciousness increased and mythological thinking decreased we adopted: linearity and a historical perspective; nature as the subject of science; and our deities (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) moved to the sky.

Joseph Campbell, comparative mythologist: scholarship includes extensive exploration of world mythologies. See video of Campbell; discuss the Hero’s Journey.

Notes for Prof. Koranda’s Curiosity Class
A.Mawell

Essential to the subject of curiosity is learning about different ways we come to know or understand things. (In the subject area of Philosophy, epistemology is the study of the ways we go about knowing things and the ways we validate what we know.)

Most often what you know and what I know is based upon:
• Your own nature (your predisposition to specific preferences for gathering information—E.g., some of us prefer to survey a situation and understand what is going on through our intuition; others prefer to survey the same situation and learn what is happening through keen observation. These are the two extreme examples…they’re others in the middle.)

The relevant question today is: in what ways is myth a way of knowing?

Anthropologists, sociologists, scientists, psychologists, social scientists, mythologists, English professors each have different ways of defining and thus questioning myth. Some of the positions taken by this variety of interested scholars are:
• It is a story.
• It is a way that primitive people made sense of their worlds.
• It is a legend of something that happened and has been elevated to the status of myth (elevation to divine status is an apotheosis). This movement from “real event to myth or legend” is called Euhemeristic, after the Greek, Euhemerist, who believed that the stories told in ancient myths had actually happened centuries before.
• Myth is an example of primordial thinking. (Primordial meaning before logic, when thinking was mythological)
• Myth is in opposition to science. Myth is unscientific.
• Myth is akin to creationism.
• Myth is supported by science. (E.g. geologic evidence of a worldwide flood during the time of Noah of Biblical fame.)
• Mythology is dead in Western civilization. It is only connected to dead religions.

Selected (by me) writers on the function of myth:
J.G. Frazer (Golden Bough), classicist, anthropologist: myth is part of primitive religion and primitive religion is part of philosophy; primitive religion is the counterpart to science, opposite science (logical conclusion, once science rules, myth will vanish)

Lucien Levy-Bruhl, French philosopher, anthropologist, and creator of the phrase, “participation mystic”: “primitive thinking is “pre-logical”; he believes that,
“ . . . All phenomena [humans, human artifacts, creatures, the natural world] is part of the impersonal sacred ‘mystic’ realm that pervades the natural realm . . .”; “Participation in this mystic reality enables phenomena to affect one another magically and to become one another—yet retain their own characteristics . . .”;
L.-Bruhl writes that this is pre-logical because it defies the law of non-contradiction—in that something can be both itself and another; participation mystic is pre-logical, not scientific, and not philosophical (not logical)

Discussion point: Shamanism (Mircea Eliade is an excellent resource if you have interest in this topic. Carlos Castanada’s book, The Teaching of Don Juan, a Yaquii Way of Knowledge is also an excellent resource.)

Bronislaw Malinowski, anthropologist: argues that primitive peoples sought to control nature with ritual when their knowledge of science ran out; they have a basic understanding of science through their intense and discerning investigation of their habitat as hunters and gatherers; myth for Malinowski is about origins of place

Discussion point: Three categories of mythologies: cosmogonic (creation of the cosmos); cosmological (creation of the culture including place, institutions, etc); and theogonic (how deities came into being or awareness). Malinowski and Mircea Eliade both focused on cosmogonic myths.

Claude Levi-Strauss, French structural anthropologist: myth may be primitive but it is also intellectual; to understand the world around them, primitive peoples proceeded with observation, developed sophisticated knowledge, refined that knowledge through trial and error; L.-Strauss considered primitive thinking “concrete” versus modern “abstract thinking”; myth is no less scientific than science; it is part of the concrete, it is the part that is available to perception and imagination; L.-Strauss suggested naming the tribal peoples he was studying “people without writing” rather than call them primitives.

Karl Popper, born in Vienna, lived in the U.K., philosopher of science: scientific theories remain myth-like for they can never be proven.

Depth Psychological Perspective:

Def. of Myth: Myths never were but always are.

Erich Neumann, Israeli psychiatrist, philosopher: an “archetype is a mythological motif”; it is the eternally present content of the collective unconscious; as such this mythic motif can appear anywhere at any time [Greece, Egypt, Tibet, North America]
• An archetype is a dynamic directing force that influences the human psyche (unconscious)
• True object of inquiry is the symbolic self-representation of the archetype that has passed through the medium of man (Great Mother, p. 13)
• Archetypes of the collective unconscious are mythological motifs and appear among all people in an identical or analogous manner and can arise spontaneously without conscious knowledge.

C.G. Jung, Swiss psychiatrist, student and colleague of Freud: “Myth is the primordial language natural to these psychic processes, and no intellectual formulation comes anywhere near the richness and expressiveness of mythical imagery. Such processes deal with primordial images and these are best and most succinctly reproduced by figurative speech.” (metaphor, imagination)
(Source: C.G. Jung, Collected Works 12, p. 25.)

Note: primordial—pre-logical; mythic symbols contain both conscious and unconscious elements (E.g., consider the “O” logo for Oregon); mythic symbols unify opposites (E.g., the symbol of the Earth, also called Gaia, contains all life-giving capacity with no moral judgment regarding predators and prey)

Discussion point: Children go through stages like early humans; perceive the world mythologically; everything animate and inanimate has “life”;

“Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.” (Ontogeny, the development of the individual organism, mirrors phylogeny, the history of the development of the species.)

James Hillman, contemporary psychologist, philosopher: moves psychology out of the consulting room into the culture. Bases his theory, archetypal psychology, on C.G.Jung’s ideas, but claims that naming something archetypal allows one to use one’s imagination to explore in what ways that object/phenomena satisfies the experience of the archetype. Any image can be archetypal, when you reflect upon the phenomenon using your imagination to understand what makes the phenomenon archetypal. For Hillman, the archetypal image is the center. The image is all-important. (This does not mean a literal image; it can mean an idea that has not constellated into concrete examples. Or it can be an image, but if it is concrete, the task is to look beyond the concrete boundaries using your imagination. Once the image is concrete, it becomes static, and loses capacity to generate more knowledge/understanding.

Discussion point: The unconscious is as present as the conscious (all of the time). Unconscious material is revealed through myths; imaginative endeavors—art, music/lyrics, stories, other cultural means.

• In Western civilization, as consciousness increased and mythological thinking decreased we adopted: linearity and a historical perspective; nature as the subject of science; and our deities (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) moved to the sky.

Joseph Campbell, comparative mythologist: scholarship includes extensive exploration of world mythologies. See video of Campbell; discuss the Hero’s Journey.

Gods
Hermes – the great communicator, but also mischievous.
Athena – strategist and god of knowledge, born out of the head of Zues. Is also considered the god of the Hero's Journey.

Hero's Journey ala Luke Stywalker
Everyone is the hero of their own journey.
The development of the fetus can be considered a hero's journey. They evolve in the whom and struggle through the birth canal, then are born.

“We think he brain is in control; however it is the secondary organ.”

Some ideabooking ideas:
Dedicate a page to a Greek God.
Take a movie or story and point out its Hero's Journey (departure, initiation, and return)

archetypes

2009-01-09T14:18:00.000-08:00

Myths are like a cultural map
we can start understanding society through repetition of myths
(i.e. Jolly Green Giant is linked to a fertility God)
These archetypes are not used to manipulate
the brand still has to deliver and truly be represented by the
archetype you are using.

Some examples:
1. Innocent: Sense of wonder (like a little kid), ideas of paradise, ads for vacation destinations, museum of Television and Radio (LA and NYC), Chicken Soup for the Soul books, Whole Foods, “Teach the World to Sing” Coca Cola ad, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle, Forest Gump, Ikea, Baskin Robins, Ronald McDonald.

2. Explorer: Trying to find a better world, desires to travel somewhere or be on the move, usually a solitary activity. Ford Explorer, Jeep, Huck Finn, Homer’s Odyssey, freelancers, stumble upon, channel surfing. (Side note: Starbucks is named after a character in Moby Dick – it is an explorer brand).

3. Sage: Someone that transmits knowledge. It can be anyone throughout history, or it can be someone current. Oprah (and her book club); Persephone (and her understanding of the underworld and the connection of ordinary life and death). Also there are sage organizations such as universities.

4. Hero: Singular journey triumphing over evil. Usually someone that sees things different or thinks differently. Oedipus, Hamlet, King Lear. A long time ago the post man was a hero. Now FedEx is a hero brand as are the Armed Forces, Green marketing and Nike (Nike and Apple are used too much as an example).

5. Outlaw: Romantic figures in literature such as Robin Hood and Lex Luther. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid, Bonnie and Clyde, the Godfather, Darth Vadar, Altamont (following the innocence of Woodstock). They have a positive and negative side. They are usually angry and victimize people. AKA Shadow Characters (Carl Jung’s term). Brands include Harley Davidson and Captain Morgan.

6. Magician: They can transmit knowledge, but they are different from the sage because they can transform something ordinary into something extraordinary. Harry Potter and Yoda, Hotels (Travelodge), Cruise lines (Carnival), Mastercard’s “Priceless” commercials, energizer bunny, ponsie scheme.
Spontaneous order: antithesis of chaos; people not crashing into each other on ice
rinks or during rush hour. Jung’s term: synchronisity

7. Every person/Regular person: We identify with and feel like we belong. Democracy, Seinfeld, The Dove Real Beauty Campaign. Basically brands that make friends with people, initial launch of Saturn, we all secretly want to belong and be accepted

8. Lover: Romance, intimacy, deep friendship (much deeper level of intimacy than every person), belonging. Cupid, Venus, Hallmark, Victoria Secret, Burger King

9. Jester: Trickster used to lighten things up. Shakespeare used these characters a lot. Advertising is a jesters’ career. Lots of jester stuff is male oriented (Budlight etc)

10. Caregiver: Selflessness and protection, moats, fences, police, Mother Theresa, Demeter (goddess of harvest), Florence Nightingale.

11. Creator: Artist or innovator, painter, chef, crayola crayons, legos, cooking shows, Sherwin WIliams Paint

12. Ruler: Leadership role, has control. Google and Microsoft.

Assignment Number 2: for Monday:
- find 5 off-brands (not Nike, Apple) fit into the categories on the handout which lists different archetypes. Write a few sentences supporting your category choice for each.

holiday travel

2009-01-03T21:13:00.001-08:00

as we all know, there's nothing like holiday travel in america. as i sat waiting in an airport on the initial snowy leg of my journey, i watched person after person walk by dragging bags on wheels for hours. and none of the women looked like the covers and the pictures in the majority of the magazines they were buying. no surprise there. but in retrospect, it's interesting that dove got so much attention for their campaign on natural beauty. rather, that kind of campaign might be the norm rather than the exception.
and ya gotta love the large door mat size red carpet by the gates. the red carpet line opens briefly for first class and premier, and then closes to the rest of the passengers who walk in next to the red carpet on the regular carpet. if the economy gets any worse, will it be embarrassing to take the 1 1/2 steps on the red carpet? it probably should be, if it isn't already embarrassing for the airlines.

why?

2008-12-13T13:47:00.001-08:00

admittedly, it's been too long since i visited here. learned that if you spend time on facebook everyday, something else goes. but i digress. i wondered why, like any planner should. and i wondered why no coffee shops have a recycling bin for the cups. and i was reminded immediately that they have wax and can not be recycled. but i had to ask again why. and it has to do with cost. and why? why couldn't someone use a cup that is a little more expensive and recycle it and be the first one to do so?
would they be rewarded for the effort? in some markets. and it depends on the cost of the coffee. but worth a thought.

reunions

2008-10-16T15:58:00.001-07:00

a couple of months ago i went to my high school reunion. the picture kind of sums it up. what is it that leads us to these events? a morbid curiosity or simply curiosity?
i must admit it was a great deal of fun. the first one i attended. much of the life dancing and pretense was gone. we had been through enough that the values had changed. and we learned that everyone, pretty much, was having a hard time when we were in high school. we just weren't close enough to deal with each other on that level.
perhaps something to remember when we are trying to talk to people who are of high school age. different priorities. seems obvious, but most parents in retrospect can realize it is hard to deal with teens with a state of mind that is in any way similar to theirs.
youth isn't wasted on the young; old age is wasted on those who can't remain youthful.
on to more reunions and more laughter.

olyimpians

2008-08-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

why do people who normally would not spend much time watching gymnastics or swimming or volley ball or bad mitten or water polo or ping pong on tv spend hours watching during the olympics? a small number of people watch when track and field events are broadcast but the ratings grow exponentially when it is on during the olympics.
i found myself fascinated by 'phelpsian' feats as well as diving. even watched some of the field hockey as well as soccer and rowing and tennis.
i am just curious why so many are drawn to the games when they normally would not be drawn to watch these events at another time. is it the 'herd effect'?

change and re change

2008-04-21T16:40:00.000-07:00

Possibility--In certain times with certain light, what we see changes us.

HOW DOES CHANGE HAPPEN?…
During the 60's
∑ SOCIAL INNOVATION
o Individuals change (people evolve over time, individuals over age, stages of life)
o Organizations/institutions evolve + embrace ritual
∑ Could be university, classes, religion, professional groups, etc
o Leaders grow from the masses
o Products emerge: ideas+things
∑ Both IP and actual things
o Change happens
∑ INFLUENCES
o Cultural
o Societal: gov, education, opportunities/push back
o Economic: it's coming with the coming recession
o Political: what happens with political ideals get traction, change in leadership
∑ WHAT ARE THE CULTURAL POINTS OF INTEREST IN THE LAST DECADE
o 9/11
o Ipod
o Internet
o What is a family…nontraditional
o Health issues: obesity, exercise
o Social responsibility
o Boomer generation getting older and taking care of parents and kids
o Talking, thinking globally
o Environment--hybrid cars, recycling, sustainability
o Student shootings
∑ SOMETHING PROFOUND HAPPENED IN THE 60's
o Shifting paradigms-affected young people most dramatically
o Protests against segregation
o Cesar Chavez
o "Feminine Mystique" is published
o Aug '63-Martin Luther King
o '63-Kennedey assassinated
o Civil Rights Act
o '68 MLK assassinated
o Berlin wall goes up
o Peace Corp founded
o Cuban missile crisis
o Bible in public schools unconstitutional
o Surgeon general's report on smoking
o 64-Gulf of Tonkin--beginning of Vietnam (now a lie)
o Wilderness Act
o Medicare bill
o Miranda rights
o 1st birth control pill
o 1st copier
o 60-1st televised presidential campaign
o 62-1st color television
o 1st James Bond movie
o 1st topless bar
o 1st heart transplant
o Marilyn Monroe dies
o 63-Where the wild things are…children's literature changed
o 64-Beatles land in NYC
o 64-Sydney Portier wins oscar
o Catholic church changes from Latin to English
o Consumer activism born: Ralph Nadar-unsafe at any speed
o 69-Woodstock
o War Protests: why--draft and media coverage of war, mostly transparent coverage
∑ POSSIBILITY
o Meeting with Russians
o Foray into space
o 1st PHd in Computer science
∑ NATIONAL TRADGEDY
o Vietnam 64-75: 58,202 killed, 61% 21 or younger
o Civil rights violence
o JFK, MLK, RFK
∑ WHAT FASCILITATES CHANGE?
o Language- discussion
o Role Models-politicians, musicians, orators (story tellers)
o Networks-knowledge possibility
∑ GRAY'S EPICYCLICAL THEOTY OF CHANGE (1958)
o Anthropologist
o Political, Social and Economic cycles within eras

∑ Whatever era that culturally, socially and economically hits high notes, you could plot out places
∑ When all engines are working together in all drivers---it creates change
∑ Looks at era that follows--given all that possibility, what did we do with it?

notes from deb morrison presentation

image vs innovation

2008-04-19T17:34:00.000-07:00

New Ways of Thinking

The media's role in this: different kinds of media force change in the marketplace. People are more aware of different media being fed to them these days.

The Difference between Brand Innovation and Brand Image:
Brand Image is oldschool. It follows this old formula:
Product Benefit X Distinct Indentity X Added Values = Strong Brand.
Examples: McDonalds followed this formula, using features such as fast, convenient coupled with family values, and the added value of work with the Ronald McDonald House to create a strong brand. This method worked for a time.

-Problems with this way of creating a Brand Image, is it shortchanges authenticity. A set script or formula is less sincere, and easily imitated. Examples of this are how Burger King copied McDonalds, or the Pepsi & Coke.

-There is often confusion between top of mind awareness and largest share of voice, and brand loyalty. Having a strong brand through the Brand Image formula doesn't ensure product loyalty.

Brand Innovation is a more interactive and dynamic way of handling a brand. It creates change in the way people do things, the image of the brand becomes what they do, their actions. (Example: Google. Has no advertising, but is known for what they do)

But first, what is a brand? A personality, a lifestyle. Who you are, what you want to be seen as. It is embedded in cultural ideals. (Examples: Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfigure, the Kennedy's. Each have represented a lifestyle to emulate, or to aspire to. All were, at least to begin with, innovators.)

In looking at the connection between brand and culture, with the old formula of brand image, consistency had been key. But why would a brand want to be consistent? Authenticity often means changing with the culture, as culture is fluent and interactions with brands are as well. Only liars are reliably consistent. (Examples of changing brands: Geico)

What is the role of advertising?
Is it to build culture, or to highlight it? Should it be the ads or the products that shape the brand? (example: Apple products are changing the way people interact and live, but the ads are showing us this lifestyle and the image of who you can be if you use the product.)

One thing seems to stand out: People are irrational. An example of this is the OJ Simpson trial for murder. He drives away from the police, and 66% of Americans say he's guilty. After a year of intense media coverage, and evidence built up against him, 67% believed he was guilty. Only 1% of people changed their minds, after having nearly indisputable evidence. Decision-making is not formulaic, and often not rational.

Looking at STEP for today's cultural climate (john grant):
S (societal): people are working longer hours, commuting further. As a result, they have less family time.
T (technological): iphone and clones can be used during the commute.
E (economic): gas prices rising, the threat of the recession.
P (political): Excitement over Bush leaving office, a more liberal agenda in the future.

Looking at these categories, does a brand fit into them? Consider that people decide on things irrationally (why else would people buy pet rocks?)

mythology

2008-04-09T14:48:00.000-07:00

i wanted to start with a broad social construct when looking at how people communicate with each other. where do the stories come from that we tend to repeat and what stories have meaning. so i invited a friend to come in and talk to us about mythology.

The following are Peter's notes from Ann Maxwell’s presentation

How do we know things?
-Experience
-Education
-Institutions
-Family
-Church
-Science
-Things that have been tested and results measured
-Measurable facts

Phenomenology: Anything imagined as real can be accepted to be as real as proven things.

Mythology: How the world was created and how are you supposed to be in the world.
Not morals, but open-ended stories.

Joseph Campbell: A Hero with a Thousand Faces
-Why so many hero stories?
-That’s what worth writing about
-Someone who achieved something improbable
-Someone who has given their life to something larger than themselves

Physical Hero vs. Spiritual Hero:
-What type of difficulty did you overcome?

Initiation ritual:
-A child must ‘die’ to come back as an adult
-Going from psychological dependency to independence requires a ‘death’ and
reincarnation

Transformations:
-Finding your career
-Drafted into war

Commonly seen stories:
-“Fire theft” relay race:
-Brought fire to civilization, different birds carried the torch, got burned , and
turned different colors
-“Monster Slayer”
-“Temptations”
-Three temptations of Christ
-Economic
-Political
-Spiritual
-Three temptations of Buddha
-Fear
-Lust
-Social Duty
Both return from their journeys and choose disciples.

The trials of the hero journey are essential
-Serendipitous adventure
-Hero is given not only a physical instrument, but also a psychological commitment

Commonly seen metaphors:
-Belly of the whale
-Going in and coming out again
-A willingness to cross the threshold
-Water
-Water is unconscious

We all operate in our society relative to a system
-Will the system eat you up?
-Will you harness the system to succeed?

Memorable quotes (from star wars/ the hero's journey):
-“I love you”-Princess Leah
-“I know”-Han Solo

parkinson's law

2008-03-23T14:45:00.000-07:00

we are all familiar with parkinson's law even if we don't know it as that. "the work expands to meet the time alloted" he hypothesized. and we almost invariably do that. i suspect that is why there is a long line at the post office the night that taxes are due by midnight. i suspect students let the work expand until something is due the next day. but why? if we could actually make the time alloted be something easier, less stressful but maybe it is easier to let it slide until we can't let it slide, even if whatever we have to accomplish gnaws at us until we finally get it done because we have to get it done. and then we adopt the phrase that larry the cable guy has made famous "get er done".
so if parkinson is right and it is a law that the work expands to meet the time alloted, are all people in advertising and are all students and are all people in industries and business' with deadlines doomed to let the work expand to meet the time alloted? and if that is true, is this a factor that should be taken into consideration when developing a strategic or communication plan?

animal curious

2008-02-20T16:55:00.001-08:00

thinking back over the tv spots in the superbowl, most of the ones rated high by usa today had animals in them. what's that about? is it the time and we are looking for something softer? harder to like the spots that just had people in them?
the other day i was passing a huge house that was on fire as part of a training exercise for firefighters. people pulled off the freeway to stop and look and take pictures. flames at least 30 feet above the roof of the old 2 story house. and i wondered what that was about, fascination with a fire like that.
so writing animals into spots, pretty simple tho many of the spots in the superbowl were well written and thoughtful like the bud horse training ala rocky to be able to pull the wagon. and some just funny like the life water lizards dancing together. in most cases they hit an emotional note with people. and the fire was just plain fascination. so how do we combine those elements or understand what it is that strikes a cord with people and send messages that are fascinating and entertaining and thus reward people rather than interrupt and annyoy?

digital

2008-01-08T17:44:00.000-08:00

i went bowling for the 4th time in my life. i was impressed with the digital read outs above the lane that told me i rolled the ball 16.2 miles per hour. the read out kept me appraised of my horrible score and i could interact by changing names and some other data. a long way from trying to figure out how to score on a huge piece of paper. but it was still bowling just in the digital age. so how many more uses are there for digital technology combined with old games and pastimes?
but the shoes haven't changed much.

fencing

2007-12-18T16:04:00.001-08:00

i was working on repairing and replacing and adding fencing on my farm. the repairing began after a storm and when i inspected i realized how many areas of the fence over 25 acres were compromised. and as i was fixing things i thought about the importance of checking and repairing fencing on a regular basis; especially since a steer and a pony got out. to paraphrase frost, good fences make for good neighbors. but beyond that i thought of the old timers on farms around me. when the weather is bad; "too rough to work out side right now, good time to sharpen the saws." good idea to keep sharpening the saws and check the fence rather than scrambling to repair things that could have been prevented. much easier and more satisfying in the long run. and doesn't that pertain to work and relationships?
and as the thought, as simple and obvious as it is, crossed my mind, i looked up and saw the rainbow. no kidding. not a movie set. too corny even for most tv.

next book

2007-12-12T16:52:00.001-08:00

looks like ian might be the only one still playing along but this is the next book on the list. great idea of moving from everyone thinking outside the box when the real difficulty is thinking inside the box/ like houdini had to do. more later.

brand gap(s)

2007-11-16T17:32:00.000-08:00

for those of you who want to read the next book in our quasi club and have been patient with me (ian, kelsey, heather); i suggested the brand gap. simple but some really good ideas. i particularly like his 3 questions, "who are you, what do you do and why does it matter?"
also some good ideas on naming.
and i await your responses on other things or concepts that might be of use to you in this book.

what's bad for you?

2007-10-24T11:51:00.002-07:00

we started a book club of sorts. picking a book and then discussing it here through comments and posts. this is the first one; "everything bad is good for you" by steven johnson. basically, he makes the point that pop culture is not dumbing us down, in some ways it is making people smarter. i found it ironic that johnson quotes a 2004 study from the national endowment for the arts; "...reading for pleasure had declined steadily among all major american demographic groups. the writer andrew solomon analyzed the consequences of this shift: 'people who read for pleasure are many times more likely than those who don't to visit museums and attend musical performances, almost three times as likely to perform volunteer and charity work and almost twice as likely to attend sporting events. readers, in other words are active while non readers- more than half the population- have settled into apathy." might be true but reminds me of the warnings and fears about magazines displacing and destroying newspaper and radio displacing magazines and books and television sounding the death knell of radio and the internet hastening the demise of all other media. it looks more like time spent with the internet and games etc changes things but ends nothing. still only so much time in a day; either fit more in or let something go. seems to be mostly fit more in. thus the multitasking.
but there is some reason why people often say the book was better than the movie. because they helped co author the book. hard to co author a movie when someone tells you what the character looks and sounds like. but maybe there is an element of co authoring games or is it all about the reward system of getting to the next level and sending dopamine through the circuitry of the brain? and are we co authoring at all when we get into games and have to figure out how it works as we go?

at any rate, is there a mass culture or a herd culture or both? does it make any difference when you are trying to develop and media neutral plan and strategy?
more to come(?)

education

2007-10-19T10:53:00.000-07:00

i was looking through seth godin's book "small is the new big" and i was struck by the post on 'cogs'. he states, "the end result is that it's essentially impossible to become successful or well-off doing a job that is described and measured by someone else...the only way our country (or your country depending on where you live), your economy, and most of all your family has to get ahead is this: make up new rules".
"People who make up new rules continue to be in very short supply".

seems formal education tends to work in a linear fashion and aids a linear thought process. those most rewarded in life often think in a lateral fashion, making unusual combinations and connections. as more people become formally educated, are education and creativity headed on a collision course?

2007-10-16T14:05:00.000-07:00

as many have mentioned, it seems an inordinate amount of time (and money) is being spent on the upcoming presidential election. i think this is especially lengthy considering whoever is elected will be in office for 4 or at the best (?) 8 years. so it could be a quarter of the time or more will have been spent on getting to the office. and then it's over because it is a set time limit.
and my thought was, what if marriage worked this way. you spend a year or 2 in courtship. and then marriage lasts for a limited time. perhaps longer than the presidency; maybe 12 years. then you can mutually decide to re-elect each other but at the end of 2 terms you have to either run for another office or choose not to run for anything again. maybe write a book or just read books.
just a thought. blasphemous i suppose.

the inevitable but not to be morose

2007-10-05T12:41:00.000-07:00

we can cheat taxes or at least some people can but we can't cheat death. we can add a little to life perhaps by attitude, diet and exercise and of course not forgetting to drink plenty of water. but if we know it is coming why are we so surprised when it happens. my younger brother died in august. he was ill so we knew it was coming. and now he has a chance to get another body and try again according to some philosophy's and religions. and according to others, he is simply in a better place. i think he has a chance at a better body and i will see him again some time. but in either case, i find it curious that it is so hard for us to value the moment and i find it curious that it is so hard for most people to live as if this is the last moment of your life in a positive way and not a negative and hedonistic way. and perhaps most curious is how people can live as if the extinction of life will not come.
in the mean time, think i will do my best to enjoy life.

what's it mean?

2007-07-24T15:54:00.000-07:00

we were stuck in one of many traffic jams on our way out of accra and i was struck by the simplicity of the statement on the back of this bus. and of course wondering what it might mean to the driver.

ghana

2007-07-23T21:25:00.000-07:00

just returned from trip to ghana. interviewed people in ad agencies in accra as i was curious about how they develop strategies for the accounts they work on. some large agencies have opened offices there. basically the system for developing strategy is the same as u.s. and europe but the outcome/ the creative product is very different. nothing works with out remembering the indigenous culture.
saw many different signs as the commerce is set up in many small individualized stores (?). only one mall in the capital accra. as second, larger one is being built. most of the signs were not created by ad agencies but either by the people who own the shop or sign painters working at the behest of the shop owners.
definitely the feeling of a developing country.
may the people there remain open and friendly.

you're welcome

2007-05-17T21:31:00.000-07:00

noticed that people rearely say 'you're welcome' anymore when someone says thankyou.
instead, it's more often 'no problem' or 'you bet' or 'sure. what's that about?

what's wrong with being curious?

2007-04-12T20:08:00.000-07:00

It appears that the phrase ‘curiosity killed the cat was first penned by Samuel Johnson in 1598 in his play “A man and his humor” A year later, William Shakespeare used a similar sentence in the play “Much Ado About Nothing”. This idea has been in our collective consciousness for some time.
So what is it that scares people about being curious and why would anyone want to stifle it?

rekindle your curiosity

2007-04-05T14:04:00.000-07:00

"I am much more curious than I was 20 years ago, when I was mostly operating under the pressure of trying to look like I knew what I was doing. I know I probably should know by now, that it would be more impressive, that my books would be more definitive, my conference speeches would feel more actionable. But since I actually spend most of my time working on problems and ideas, curiousity is my best friend and the idea of being an “expert” in advance of properly doing that work is just a recipe for disaster (or a job with “executive head of” in the title!)”.
John Grant, The Brand Innovation Manifesto

intro

2007-04-02T15:18:00.000-07:00

“Creative thinking begins with great questions, not answers. Great creative thinkers stay with the question instead of rushing to find an immediate solution. They ask more questions than the average person and are comfortable in the often uncomfortable situation of not immediately having the answer”, (Elaine Duton, The Seeds of Innovation: Cultivating the Synergy That Fosters New Ideas).

“Curiosity we are told, killed the cat. Of course, what nobody ever told us is that curiosity did no such thing. If anything killed the cat, it was not curiosity it was not being curious enough. How do you create something without asking questions? What if we did this? What if we tried that? And yet year after year, we get the creative daylights beaten out of us until one day we actually come to believe we don’t have a creative bone in our body. We have a creative bone alright. We have a lot of creative bones. Most of us just don’t know it.” (Ernie Schenck, The Houdini Solution).