Streaming Print on a Pickle Jar (Yes, They’re Dancing)

When I was a kid there was one Superman comic story in which Clark and Lois are at a fair of the future.  The food at the fair fulfills you just by smelling it.  (It kills you if you eat it.)  The concept was awesome.  Sniff your way to a full stomach.

The current issue of Esquire has similarly broken a barrier with a streaming video cover using “electronic ink.”  Here’s the story.  The words “The 21st Century Begins Now” flash up, one word following the other until you have the full message.  Other brands have been experimenting with similar displays.

While I find this, and the story behind it, amazing. It also makes me wince to know that in a fairly short time, going shopping is going to be a surreal experience beyond anything Dali could whip up.

Those wretched little elves will be dancing while you listen to the sounds of Rice Krispies going snap, crackle, pop.

The boisterous Tony the Tiger will be shouting “They’re Greeaat!” from his box, no doubt royally pissing off the elves.

The beautiful girl on the L’Oreal hair coloring package will wink at you seductively (or has Sara Palin destroyed the wink forever?)

A tip to Chiquita Banana: Set the Chiquita girl’s hips in motion and watch banana sales to soar.  People will make the connection.

A design waiting to come to life: A pickle wriggling to an ethnically correct tune, waving its little pickled arms and calling out, “I’m kosher!”

Viagra: The animation on your display is a no-brainer.  I figure about a three-second animation with continuous loop will imprint the brand’s unique position in a pretty permanent way.

And there will be a day when we design viewbooks with streaming type, moving students and some poor male and female smiling at the viewer and saying, actually saying, “visit our website at . . . .”

Fellow PR folks, marketers, designers and advertisers, Esquire is just the beginning.

Give me your thoughts.  What’s the wildest — or best — use you can think of electronic ink and motion-filled display boxes or cans?

Bonuses!

For folks who love the ad world, here’s an interview with legendary designer George Lois, a former designer for Esquire and his feelings about the cover.  It’s worth your time.  He covers 50 years of ad/art history and stresses being knowledgable in many fields outside art for inspiration.

While doing the research for this blog I came across the original Chiquita Banana commercial.  It’s way too good to miss.

Obama Named Ad Age Marketer of the Year

This one took me by surprise, though it shouldn’t have.  Yes, Barak Obama was voted Ad Age’s Marketer of the Year.  Before you hit the link to the article, try to guess what brands made the top five this year.

Oh, and make sure you read the comments, too.

Let me know what you think of the choices.

And finally, let me know what you think of the comment made by John Fine, marketing and media columnist for Business Week.

In the next post, I’ll share my experience with  a company whose products I love, but has no idea how to sell on the Net.

Obama, McCain, Education

I hope in the Wednesday debate  something comes up about each candidate’s stand on education.  I’m interested in more than just higher education.  I’ve been in the business  long enough to see a generation of students enter college totally unprepared.  I have high school teacher friends who say that students come up from junior high unprepared.  I have a junior high teacher friend who spends time teaching students how to use two syllable words.  These students are grade school graduates.

Colleges are continuing to be treated as the last stop.

Here’s an analogy.  A department on campus needs a publication.  We ask when they need it then we begin the planning process. How long will the final product take to be printed? How long does the designer need?  How long does the writer need?  Factor in proofing and approvals at each step.

Many times the information needed for copy comes in late.  Or it gets stalled with the person who needs to review and approve it.  Or someone isn’t happy with the design and wants revisions.

Suddenly we find ourselves behind  because of the lateness of others.  The usual client reaction?  Do whatever you need to do to make the deadline.  We need that publication.

Well, higher ed is in the same position.  Students, beginning in elementary school, are sent up through the grades unprepared and this lack of preparation grows exponentially until they hit college. And the colleges are told: Fix it. Do whatever needs to be done to prepare these students for careers and meaningful lives.

I’d like our candidates to address the overall problem of lack of preparation of students from first grade on.  I’d like them to talk about increasing support for education and finding ways to reward innovation.

I’d like to see strong leadership to help haul education into the 21st century.

I was going to include links to sites outlining each candidate’s thoughts about education but that would lead to unnecessary controversy, I’m sure.

We’re all in higher ed and can find the sites.  Just Google the candidate’s name + education as well as the candidate’s name + higher education.

Sure, we have serious economic problems right now, but in the long run, an educated citizenry is the only thing that will preserve our country’s health and vigor.

Candidates, what do you say?

TV Shows Weakness in Presidential Debate

I watched the presidential debate last night and grew frustrated as both candidates continually went over their time limits.  Tom Brokaw was frustrated, too.

But as we neared the end of the debate, I realized exceeding the time limit was not the fault of either candidate.  The problem was the time limit itself.  Granted, we need brevity but to answer your opponent in one minute is totally unrealistic.  We ask for substance in answers.  At the same time the candidate must sum it up in 60 seconds.

No way.

Solutions?

Fewer questions.

No rebuttals.

Longer debate.

Eliminate  body language, facial expression, and tone of delivery and you are left with words which are assembled to deliver a thought.  Doing that, as we saw last night, is nearly impossible.  The Web has shown us that we don’t need to be constricted by 20th century clumps of time such as 30 seconds, 60 seconds, etc.

Couldn’t answers be expanded to 2 minutes and 35 or 40 seconds, and rebuttals opened to 1 minute 45 seconds?  I’m just tossing out random examples to show that 20th century media needs to experiment and update itself to meet 21st century needs.

There must be some study that shows a minimum time to deliver a substantive thought.

We complain that TV and radio have reduced everything to sound bites and that’s what was done to the candidates.  They were not well served by the time restriction, and therefore, neither were we.