Infographics: Seniors and Facebook

This week's infographic is also on seniors and Facebook (similar to our March 13 post), provided by AllAssistedLivingHomes.com. Amongst the interesting facts are the different ways senior's use Facebook, the length of time they're logged on, and the amount of interest seniors have to Facebook – enough to fill hundreds of 80 people training classes.

The Definitive Mad Men Blog

Mad Men returned last night – and what a great episode it was! This is going to be a great season! With that in mind, here's a link to the definitive Mad Men blog by Nelle Engoron at Salon.
http://www.salon.com/writer/nelle_engoron/

Nelle will be writing amusing and insightful running commentaries for each new episode. You can view her previous Mad Men episode summaries here:
http://open.salon.com/blog/silkstone

Missing Mad Men

They were a long time away. And now they're back. But they still seem to be some distance from the place where the real-life madness was happening just across town. The contrast might have looked something like this:

The scene opens with Roger Sterling walking into the lobby at 20 West 43rd Street. He’s on his way to join a golfing buddy–an Account Management Supervisor with Doyle Dane Bernbach–at his office. They’re going out for drinks. Roger steps onto the elevator and after a moment he’s joined by a Jewish Copywriter and an African-American Art Director. He knows the Jew is a Copywriter from the way he’s talking about writing the end of a TV commercial. He knows he’s a Jew from the yarmulke on his head (holy days are on). From the conversation and industry jargon he guesses the black guy is an Art Director. The ethnicity he doesn’t have to guess.

The Art Director, a big guy, wearing a dashiki and standing a head taller than Roger, nods to him, bobbing head accentuated by a huge Afro:

“Hey, man. Howyadoin’?”

This does not put Roger at ease. His rides up with these two, but since he’s a bit flustered he gets off one stop too soon, steps out of the elevator and into the Creative Department. He heads for the Receptionist (also black) and into the path of an Asian Art Director, identifiable as an Art Director by the way she’s talking to the Copywriter with her.

But it’s the Copywriter that really rattles Roger.

The guy’s head is shaved (except for a scalp lock at the back), he has a large white mark in the middle of his forehead. He’s wearing full-length saffron robes. He is barefoot. Hari Krishna!! AMC does not permit profanity, but we all know that Roger is a profane man. “WTF!??!!!” Roger says, now leaning against the wall and clutching at his chest. Another copywriter (shoulder-length hair, torn jeans and sneakers) comes out of his office and asks Roger if he’s OK. Offers him a joint.

Cut to Roger in the ICU at Bellevue. He has tubes coming and going. Fade out.

This scene – the fictional world of Sterling Cooper meets the real world of Doyle Dane Bernbach – will never happen. But the clash of cultures is true-to-life. The 60s world of Doyle Dane was incomprehensible to the Roger Sterlings of the time, and largely unreachable by his agency’s creative people. We wonder if the series’ creator is aware of this.

Matthew Weiner is brilliant and obviously obsessed with his amazing creation and the story it pulled us into. But along with kudos come abuses. Creative people of his caliber are always being “interpreted.” Often by people who don’t know what they’re talking about. But an environment so realistically fashioned in such minute detail invites – demands – observations from the real world in which it's set by the people who do know what they’re talking about. If the haircuts and the lamps and the ladies underwear and the behaviors are so true-to-life, then true life as it was then will step in to observe the fantasy.

Mr. Weiner was on CBS This Morning recently. He was asked if the 60s were “The Golden Age of Advertising”. His response was: “According to them it was.” Interesting. “Them” who? His advisors, we assume, since Matthew wasn’t there himself. And who are his advisors? Obviously the people who in broad strokes shaped the world of Sterling Cooper, a place that (to this point in the story) has had no part in – or concept of – the “creative revolution”, a place of “rigid rules” that bore no resemblance to the Doyle Dane of that or any other day.

In fact it was Doyle Dane Bernbach that started the “creative revolution”, turning the advertising business and a part of our society on its ear. Doyle Dane called a client’s car “ugly” (it was). Also “defective”. The Volkswagen ad “Lemon” highlighted the defect and turned it into a perfect reason to buy a VW. The agency demeaned another client’s service as lesser than its competitor: “Avis. We’re only number two”. They were.

Business boomed.

In 1964 the team of Sid Myers and Stan Lee created “Daisy Girl”, the TV spot that changed political advertising forever. And Doyle Dane people created positive political ads for other candidates that continued to win campaigns and make news. All of this came from a place far more freewheeling and wilder than “Sterling Cooper”. No rules. Everybody welcome – if you had the talent to do Doyle Dane-caliber work.

So, is it possible that Mr. Weiner is unaware of all of this, his eyes locked on a “rigid rules” workplace where Doyle Dane work isn’t possible? Or even conceivable? Or maybe he’s just being coy. He’s skilled at that too.

All of these scenarios may be advanced in the new season. Peggy Olsen is a Copywriter on the move. My guess is that sometime during the coming weeks she will be asking herself if she has the talent to work at Doyle Dane Bernbach. She will put her book together and come knocking on our door. Don Draper? The powerful presence and good looks wouldn’t get him in the door and he’s smart enough to know it. So he rolls on at Sterling Cooper, a Creative Director perhaps with a creeping suspicion he isn’t all that creative.

In an earlier episode Don didn't understand "Lemon". In fact, he "hated" the ad. In the first episode of this new season he covets the American Airlines account. Back in that day when rumors were flying that the airline was looking for another agency, Doyle Dane created this ad (full-page, New York Times) for its client, American. Compare it with Don's lame "Equal Opportunity" gag. It comes from a far distant planet and totally different level of the craft. 

The fictional world of Sterling Cooper vs. the real world of Doyle Dane Bernbach.

Infographics: Demographics of Social Media

This week's infographic is from Advertising Age, showing a breakdown of social media user profiles according to age, gender, and location. Interesting takeaways? Millennials are by far the top consumers of social media – that's nothing new, but did you now the second largest country of Facebook users is Indonesia?

Donny D. and the Boomer "Bubble"

This segment on the Today Show managed to be both right on -- and far off the mark.

On the plus side we saw that M.A.C. Cosmetics, a forward-thinker in the beauty industry, is recognizing the fact that may older women are attractive and want to stay that way without the kind of radical, extreme and unsubtle surgeries that make them look like one of the “Real Housewives” -- who aren’t "real" by any definition. 

Kudos to Today.

Cut to Donny Deutsch. Now, I have enjoyed Donny, especially when he was in damage control mode on his show trying to counter Coulter Madness, which, unlike the annual NCAA basketball lunacy, tends to run on a 12-month cycle. But Donny got a few major things wrong here. He characterized the Boomer Generation with a weird and wildly inaccurate analogy: as a “bubble” passing through a “python”.  A  “bubble” bursts and disappears -- or following Donny's analogy -- is processed into Python shit. 

He's wrong. 

The Boomers are going to have an impact on generations to come. Donny's “follow the money” thesis is going to generate a host of new strategies for making the lives of older people everywhere much, much better. Also off the mark was his “we’re the most selfish generation” comment, probably because he was born in ‘57 and was talking about his generation (or himself?). My generation came of age in the 60s, a time when a lot of us became aware of the wider world and took to the streets to march for civil rights and against an ill-conceived war gone desperately wrong. Since many of us were too white to suffer discrimination and too old to be drafted it sure-as-Hell wasn't selfishness that drove us.

Donny said a lot of important, supportive things about respect for age, the natural beauty of older women and against the obsession our society has with everything "young". But if NBC is putting him out there for his expertise, they need to look at this segment for his lack of it.

Darkness on the Funny Side

I just heard that a friend has been ill. She's now getting better, so this one's for her. Personally, I like to get stuff like this when I'm feeling lousy. Well, maybe not in the ICU. Laughing the tubes out kills the joke.

Infographics: Seniors and Social Media

Here is a fascinating infographic from social media consultancy, Flowtown, about the use of social media by seniors. Who knew that seniors represent the largest growth amongst Internet users?

My Experience as a Senior Creative People Mentee

During the fall semester of 2011, I had the pleasure to work with Chuck Schroeder and Don Blauweiss of Senior Creative People. My work was part of a course at the Alberta College of Art + Design whereby 4^th year Visual Communications Design students are matched with real clients. With my strong interest and background in web design, and their need for a web presence for their newly formed creative consultancy, this was a perfect fit. But what also came out of the working relationship was the catalyst for the Senior Creative People mentorship program.

Throughout the project, I learned a lot about the process of developing a consultancy from the ground up, and the development of their brand in the process. I learned about their approach to work, especially collaborations with outside contractors and other vendors, and their experience working in an office-less environment and in different time zones.

And although my career goals are not perfectly inline with their areas of expertise – my career goal is to work as a designer in a digital agency, whereas their experience is within traditional advertising – a lot of their experience is still transferable to what I need to know. Content is king, not just in advertising, but also within any area of design. Their focus on the idea and concept was seen and apparent in the process of working with them. I also learned a lot about their time working at Doyle Dane Bernbach, the originators of the creative revolution in advertising.

I had an excellent experience and gleaned invaluable insights into the world of advertising and working as creative individuals.

Infographics: Redefining The Over 50s

Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing some infographics from across the Web that illustrate -- among other things -- the role of seniors in society.

Our first graphic is from Visual Evolution, a design studio in London, England. Enjoy!

Life Begins at 50? Testimony From People Who Oughta Know.

"Life begins at 50". One of the folks on CBS This Morning delivered the Good News to anyone who wasn't already up to speed, and then reassured the "junior" anchor that 50 -- and her Better Life -- is on the way.

Ms. King and Mr. Rose have survived the Big Five-0 and, like a lot of faces you see on CBS, still play at the top of their game and prove the high level of their worth on a daily basis. CBS (you may recall) was once mocked by rivals as "The Geezer Network." So now that the Boomers have made 65 the new 50 -- or 40 -- logic says CBS is better equipped to carry on a conversation with us than their rivals, right? 

The ratings say CBS is doing just fine with both senior and junior viewers. And, arguably, they're always respected their elders. The other networks are watching their viewers skew older every year. So, how are they going to stay relevant? 

Maybe by keeping an eye on CBS.

The Book About the Ad That Changed American Politics

Daisy Petals and Mushroom Clouds

LBJ, Barry Goldwater and the Ad That Changed American Politics

By Professor Robert Mann 

While he was an Art Director at Doyle Dane Bernbach in 1964, our partner Sid Myers teamed with Copywriter Stan Lee to create : “Daisy Girl”-- the most talked about commercial in the history of political advertising. Professor Robert Mann at LSU turned the talk into a book and the book -- in turn -- has generated a lot of talk. It’s been highly praised:

"Disguised as a slender monograph, 'Daisy Petals and Mushroom Clouds' is actually a political thriller."

        --Wall Street Journal

Professor Mann holds the Manship Chair at the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University and is director of the school’s Reilly Center for Media and

Public Affairs. He is the author of critically acclaimed histories of the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and American wartime dissent. His essays and reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Politco.com, and the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Evolution: young bucks to old goats ;))