dangerously good advice for brands.

When Charlie Lucky Luciano became head of the New York Mob he wanted to do away with all the old Mafia rituals and symbolism that had been passed down from the Old World(Sicily). He saw them as intrusions/interruptions to the business.
But, his right-hand man Myer Lansky wisely advised against this. He believed people especially young people need rituals and symbolism. Myer believed it made them feel like they were part of something;rituals bred loyalty.

job.

I was conversing with a fellow Account Planner/Strategy guy about what exactly our job was.
I came to the conclusion that ultimately people pay me to make educated guesses.
He laughed and said "yeah, that's about it."

Numbers.

Found this stat will doing some research last week,
"A record 91% say they are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States, the highest in the three decades Gallup has asked the question."

I found on odd symmetry in the fact the McCain stated he voted with Bush 90% of the the time, it was probably more like 91% of the time.

just saying.

Sliding Scale Hot Cocoa.

Within the last few weeks Starbucks has introduced their new Signature Hot Chocolates. The Venti(large for all you savages) cost about $4. I had one the other day.
Guess what it tasted like? The cocoa I would get from Starbucks two years ago.

In a round-a-bout way they are admitting for the last few years they have sold inferior hot chocolate..shame on them. I must admit about a year ago I noticed that their cocoa had gotten worse across the board. Right now you are probably wondering who the hell drinks this much cocoa and when the hell have I ever read the word cocoa some many times in my life. The answer me and never, unless your weird.

Times are tough when there is cost of entry even for decent cup of hot cocoa.

It always interest me when brand introduces new products which are essentially "improved" versions of what they have been selling for years. Its admitting, hey we have been doing a sub- par job on this for a bit so for a few bucks more we can give you better. It's a used car , snake oil salesmen tactic and if done too much will eventually lead to deteriorating consumer trust of the brand. And no I am not talking about products based on tech innovations. As far as I know there has been no major cocoa innovations within the last 12 months.

The big Idea

Workin on project for a ad place/think tank/ shop whatever you care to call it that shall remain nameless.

They want us to create a model for the discovery of a big idea....

Yeah I know sounds like the most vague, quasi intellectal ad stuff you have ever heard.
But, truth be told i like it.
I like ideas and sure as hell want to figure out how to make one's people care about.

The problem is the sharp distinction between what I think is big idea and what you think is big idea.
I dont think any of these are big ideas.
They are just old ideas with a few modification's that are allowed because of advances in technology.
If that is what constitutes a big idea, then H.g. Wells and Jules Verne were some of our biggest thinkers.