Dude probably knows very little about ROI...

Here's a story to make you doubt your own future/the choices you've made/whether creativity needs a teacher. An 18-year-old Mac devotee/college student in England created his own amateur ad for the iPhone after being inspired by a song lyric. Ever clever, TBWA (Apple's agency) saw an opportunity for free thinking and free publicity, and has contacted the kid about turning his video into a real commercial. Like, the kind that people get paid hundos to make. While the video's cool, and represents an nice piece of cultural thinking in its lyric connection, the real genius here is TBWA's willingness to embrace the phenomenon of user-created commercials. What better way to push Apple's brand position as enablers of creativity than to trumpet work made by one of their advocates?

A quick review: a guy who loves the Apple brand used his Apple to make an ad about an Apple product, for no other reason than because he loved it so much and was feeling creative. And now that story is being reported on by a.) real newspapers and b.) guys like me. For free.

Levels, man. Levels.

They Never Make Out

Bare witness to the future of eCommerce and marketing over at www.honeyshed.com. Honeyshed is a collaboration between Droga5 and some Publicis money, and it's essentially an internet-only QVC for the 16-2? market. I think my initial description of it as "The Hills meets QVC meets MadTV meets YouTube meets American Apparel" is pretty accurate, but I urge you to check it, if not for the innovation then for the gams. A better summary is waiting for you over at Creativity.

Easy Money

Some things just eat trendy and shit coolness, and it's with confidence that I say that the French turntablism group Birdy Nam Nam is one of those things. If I was a real creative working at a real agency for a real salary, I would put these guys in the next TV spot I was remotely associated with. Any product. Paper towels, antifreeze, birth control, whatever. Easy money.

Less Fucking In This One Than Most...

Per the recommendation of a professor, I've been reading LOVE IS A DOG FROM HELL, a collection of poems written by Charles Bukowski. What follows is the poem I've liked the most so far.

quiet clean girls in gingham dresses...

all I've ever known are whores, ex-prostitutes,
madwomen. I see men with quiet,
gentle women- I see them in the supermarkets,
I see them walking down the streets together,
I see them in their apartments: people at
peace, living together. I know that their
peace is only partial, but there is
peace, often hours and days of peace.

all I've ever known are pill freaks, alcoholics,
whores, ex-prostitutes, madwomen.

when one leaves
another arrives
worse than her predecessor.

I see so many men with quiet clean girls in
gingham dresses
girls with faces that are not wolverine or
predatory.

"don't ever bring a whore around," I tell my
few friends, "I'll fall in love with her."

"you couldn't stand a good woman, Bukowski."

I need a good woman. I need a good woman
more than I need this typewriter, more than
I need my automobile, more than I need
Mozart; I need a good woman so badly that I
can taste her in the air, I can feel her
at my fingertips, I can see sidewalks built
for her feet to walk upon.
I can see pillows for her head,
I can feel my waiting laughter,
I can see her petting a cat,
I can see her sleeping,
I can see her slippers on the floor.

I know that she exists
but where is she upon this earth
as the whores keep finding me?

This Is Not a Normal Industry

Really interesting article in the New York Observer about the rise and fall of the big personalities in advertising. It serves to remind me that the industry I want to join is different than most.... I absolutely encourage everyone to read this.