I just returned from an overnight trip and was reminded how awesome in-flight literature is. Without SkyMall, we likely wouldn't have Doggie Thundershirts or Branded Steaks. And without airline magazine ads, we likely wouldn't know that freakishly ripped old man, or how to negotiate anything with anyone. I love reading these ads.  They give me a glimpse of what print advertising was like in its earliest days, when you took every square inch to load as much detail about how your product truly could deliver features and benefits no other product could. And what better time to engross someone in hormone optimization or dental surgery than when they're trapped in a cramped seat on an airplane?

I'm particularly fascinated by ads for professional matchmakers - no, not for my own personal use (I adore my wife of 9+ years). I have to acknowledge that what we (agencies) do is not that different from what they do. It's Just Lunch and Valenti international are my two favorites. Their goal is simply to put the right two people together and bring out the best that each has to offer the other, so they have the best chance of developing a long-term relationship (whatever they determine that might be). These matchmakers apply their expertise in understanding what people value, love, want and need from another person. They advise them on how to accentuate their attractiveness while still being themselves. And they coordinate a first date at the right place and time and situation where the two can really get to know each other and decide how much they want out of the relationship.  

Isn't that our job too? To help clients understand how to be the best version of themselves to attract long-term relationships with the right people (customers), and enable them to interact in interesting and meaningful ways?

I'd love to see how these matchmaking companies really go about this, and what agencies could learn from their approach. I just have to convince my wife I'm doing it for 'research purposes.'

It's not one of our 5 Words. And though it's a close cousin to one of them - Listen - it has a different effect on you.  At least it did to me today - twice.

I stayed home this morning with our sick 2-yr-old daughter (Ruby) while my wife (Katy), 9 months pregnant, went to a doctor's appointment. It's not that I never spend time alone with our daughter.  It's just that I rarely am trying to console her with Elmo and Pedialyte and Saltines...while participating in a client conference call...while trying to help two workers get situated so they can do some bathroom repairs. At one point I was asking a question on the call while changing Ruby's diaper. Another time I was holding Ruby while disassembling and moving a Pac-n-Play upstairs so she could sleep undisturbed by the workers. 

And I thought that emailing during a meeting counted as "multitasking."

Honestly.  How does a stay-at-home parent do it?  Better yet, how does a single working parent do it?  Fortunately for me, I only had to play one for one morning.

Because of this, I unfortunately missed an agency-wide meeting about a new program McKinney has done with the Urban Ministries of Durham - to raise awareness of the plight of the jobless and homeless.  So I went to playspent.org to see what everyone was talking about.

I played for a good while - even longer than the 8-min avg. time spent on the site. I chose to pocket a dropped $10 instead of giving it back to its rightful owner. I chose not to talk to the union organizers for fear of losing my job.  I didn't put in a few bucks for the office lottery.  I chose not to get health insurance.  I bought ramen noodles instead of chicken.  

And I thought my life was challenging.

Honestly. How do people do it?  How does one find a job, in this economy, with little to no $ in the bank and a family to support? Fortunately for me, I could quit the game when the decisions became too tough.

In my brief stints "playing" these two roles, I was forced to experience something slightly different than if I'd only listened to what they're going through.  For a fleeting moment, I actually felt what they feel everyday. And now that I'm back in my accustomed role, I have utmost respect for them.

No, not the late baseball great. The other one.  The more popular one. This one:

Enough has been said about the lessons he teaches all people: never give up, use your talents, blah blah.

I want to thank him for what he's taught advertisers and marketers: that quickly acting on a strong gut instinct far outweighs not doing anything at all.

I first saw the now-famous clip on YouTube on Tuesday of this week.  It had roughly 500K hits, if I remember correctly.  Before that video got into the millions, some smart people (mainly with the Cleveland Cavs, CP+B and Kraft) acted quickly. They saw an opportunity to help him and themselves. They didn't overanalyze it.  They didn't put it through weeks of qual and quant testing. They just, well, did it. I bet a lot of the confidence to pull the trigger came from knowing exactly who they are and what their brand stands for.

And I guarantee that more people will be interested in seeing more Kraft ads, listening to more Cavs' broadcasts (or whatever team hires him), and anything else he's involved with in the near future. 

I've been fairly ambivalent about this whole LeBron thing, save the fact that I thought his announcement this summer was an embarrassment for which he's been properly mocked. 

Obviously Clevelanders are upset, and understandably so.  Being broken up with flat-out sucks. But last night's anticlimactic Cavs-Heat game made me wonder if people are really more upset that the fairy tale is over. By which I mean the idea that anything lasts forever.

It wasn't too long ago that people stayed with the same company their entire careers, stayed married to the same person their entire adult lives, lived in the same city (sometimes the same house) their entire lives.

Now, the average tenure of a CMO is less than 3 yrs (even that is high relative to previous years), the divorce rate is about 40%, and despite the poor economy, some 30 million+ people will have moved to a new city this year.

The "happily ever after" world has been replaced by "here today, gone tomorrow." Pro sports aren't any different. Looks like there are only 12 NBA players who have played 8 or more years with the same team.  It's even more rare for a baseball player to stick with one team his entire career. Hell, Derek Jeter may not play in pinstripes next season, as weird as that sounds. (Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?)

Turns out LeBron's no better than the rest of us, as much as we want our sports heroes to be. Turns out he's just like us. He moved on. 

...then I guess it's official.

The Triangle is indeed hip.

And North Carolina is indeed a basketball mecca.

McKinney Account Planner Hank Leber shared another thought-provoking video today.  It's worth 4 min of your time (link if below doesn't work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugRZGDbPFU)

Two thoughts about this:

1) I love thinking of ideas & hunches as turtles, and not something rushed and temporary like, say, fireworks.

2) I also think the biggest challenge to Johnson's notion is ownership.  

If we think of ideas as “ours,” we treat them like possessions – and for the most part, humans don’t share our most prized possessions with others.  

If we think of ourselves as stewards of ideas, we’re not only open to collision/collaboration/connectivity, but we actually yearn to share them.  Credit becomes an afterthought - we just want to see them be born and develop in whatever beautiful ways they become. That's what we enjoy most.

The new McKinney.com provides a real-time, real-world example.  The site itself is great, but perhaps even better are the conversations it's sparking about simplicity and openness. Thanks in large part to a yearning to share ideas, both internally at McKinney and externally with the world at large.

Another in the deep well of “easier said than done” thoughts, but that's why we're in this business.

You may have played a version of this game with friends.  1) pick a person you know, or know of.  2) select which option you'd prefer to do with them. 

It's a bit crass, but it forces you to cut to the chase.

You can do the same with brands - as people (not advertising people), which ones do you hook up with, date, marry or avoid?

Some thoughts:

1) Hooking Up is an impulse action. I don't really plan for it - it just happens. I'm not thinking of consequences, or next steps. I hook up with Chick Fil-A every now and then, e.g. - it's too tempting to resist. They lure me by making it cheap and easy and tasty. It feels so good in the moment, and not always so good afterward.  But I walk away with no guilt or commitment. And rarely does hooking up lead to...

2) Dating, which requires a bit more thought and effort and substance. You want to put your best foot forward. You expect to get the other's attention and best effort too. There may not be commitment, but there is a hint and hope of things to come.  I'd say I date Munsingwear clothes and Old Spice deodorant. They remind me of my Dad when he was my age, but I'm not quite ready to...

3) Marry, which is an investment and commitment for the long-term. You're telling the world, "Don't bother - I'm taken." And you ought to be happy with that decision, because nobody's forcing you to do it. I'm happily married to Apple (won't use a PC), Coke (won't drink Pepsi), and USAA (won't switch to another financial services provider). I grew to love these brands over time.  They never act desperate for my attention or ask me for too much. They mostly talk about what matters to me. Now, if they cheat or abuse me, I'll gladly...

4) Avoid them. Sometimes this causes the most discomfort, especially if others in your company want to hook up with, date or marry this brand. We all have our own examples here.

Now, as advertising people, what are you doing with your clients' brands to encourage any of these behaviors?

The Triangle (especially Chapel Hill and Durham) have enjoyed a strong reputation for a foodie culture for some time.

Perhaps I just haven't been paying attention, but it's hard to ignore that the area is building a similar reputation for tasty brews.

We've been fans of Big Boss Brewing in Raleigh for a few years now.  McKinney creatives Brian Murray and Scott Pridgen designed a bunch of award-winning branding work for them. We'd like to think that had something to do with the brand's growth - not to mention the beer is damn good.

Fullsteam Brewery just opened a few weeks ago in downtown Durham and is quickly developing a strong word-of-mouth following.

And Triangle Brewing Company here in Durham is making news by packaging its craft brews not in bottles, but rather cans.

At the same time, some creative, ambitious souls are breathing new life into Durham's indie music scene as well. 

The Pinhook opened a couple of years ago in downtown Durham and seems to have successfully proven that downtown can support an indie music venue.

Or three.

By the end of this Fall, two other downtown music venues should be up and running as well. With the addition of the Casbah and Motorco, Bull City residents may not feel they have to trek to Chapel Hill's Cat's Cradle or Raleigh's Lincoln Theater to catch good, up-and-coming bands.

So, be ready to drink up and listen to some tunes - right here.

Yesterday I ended up having two very "Durham" experiences.  I didn't plan on either when the day started.

The first was lunch with a colleague at Tobacco Road Sports Cafe, a new bar/restaurant across the street from McKinney. It's not your typical sports bar - there are plenty of flat screen TVs showing games and SportsCenter, and there are great views looking down on the Durham Bulls Park just beyond the left field fence.  But the fare is more upscale and gourmet than cheap and greasey, and the interior design is more sleek than plastered with memorabilia. Btw, most reviews are pretty darn good. Like so many other "new" structures here (e.g. the Performing Arts Center and Nasher Museum), it's another symbol of Durham's modernity.   

Then last night, I went to see the Bulls play - not at their regular park but rather the old Durham Athletic Park, the site where so many scenes from Bull Durham were filmed.  The Bulls stopped playing there 15 years ago.  Though beautifully renovated for a variety of local baseball games, tournaments, and training purposes  it was a pretty big effort just to get the stadium prepped for this one game. Lines were long and seats were limited, but the near sellout crowd seemed to love every minute of it. 

It was a chance for many to remember what it was like going to Bulls' games as a kid.   For others, it was a chance to see a game at an iconic stadium.  For all, it was a proud moment of where our city has been and where it's going.

The big hair and glam makeup may make a comeback one day.  The guitar riffs likely have made a comeback thanks to Guitar Hero. 

But one thing even Brett Michaels and Poison won't be able to bring back is the importance of the landline, a.k.a. the home telephone. 

I was listening to the 80s channel on satellite radio this morning when I started singing along to a classic (for my generation) hit: Talk Dirty to Me.  Without thinking, I sang this line and then laughed out loud -- not b/c I was singing it to my 14-month-old daughter, but because it is utterly archaic now:

You know I call you
I call you on the telephone
I'm only hoping that you're home
So I can hear you

(cue my old man voice) - Back when I was growing up, if you wanted to talk to a girl, you had to call her house, and most likely her mom or dad would answer.  That was the first hurdle.  Then, she had to find a place in the house where everyone didn't hear your conversation (more of a challenge before cordless phones).  And then you had to contend with every other person in the house who wanted to use the phone (this was before dual lines). 

Even if you weren't "Talking Dirty," you had to overcome quite a bit just to communicate.

If this sounds downright foreign to you, here's a glimpse at what it was like: