It's funny how the fundamentals escape us every now and then.

I teach advertising at St. Louis University and have the advantage of scrolling back through those fundamentals of marketing and advertising twice a year – refreshing myself on not only those basics that keep us all employed, but remembering why I love this job to begin with. The best part is, I get to interact with the fresh and uber-wired new way of thinking that my 20-something students enjoy as just “everyday life,” and guide them on the basics of advertising and how it fits into the overall marketing schema. A total blast.

But to say what everyone is saying and even jump on the back of what we are talking about at Rodgers Townsend during our recent round tables over lunch – the fundamentals are being reexamined. The world is different, information is omnipresent, and the web has fundamentally changed human behavior, not to mention consumer expectations.

So what does this mean for our beloved basics? Our SWOT analyses and 4 Ps? The folks here are weeding through it all, but the conclusions have generally been the same: The fundamentals do still apply and are entirely relevant. Combining old with new is where the magic happens.

Here are just a few cool conversations that bring back the basics – but chat about them in a new way.

·         Forrester has outlined the new 4 Ps: Permission, Proximity, Perception and Participation.http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,55526,00.html

http://adage.com/cmostrategy/article?article_id=139789

·         But technology isn’t what creates competitive advantages. Seth Godin supports the idea that succeeding isn’t in the technology, but the application of it – the basics!  http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/10/creating-sustainable-competitive-advantage.html. 

·         What’s the new “3-time frequency?” http://holykaw.alltop.com/the-art-of-the-repeat-tweet

·         Has “word-of-mouth” now become “how does this share?” http://www.chrisbrogan.com/how-does-this-share/  (I would even ask Chris Brogan to discuss the topic of “is it worth sharing?”)

·         Before, one-to-one marketers were worried about multiple EM addresses, now it’s social identities. Imagine that database!  Check out the next wave of “social”: http://www.briansolis.com/2009/10/the-future-of-the-social-web/

Understanding and getting back to the fundamentals is where it’s at, thinking about applying them in new ways is where it’s going.

And if anyone would like to come and speak to a bunch of eager minds, I’m booking for Spring 2010!

About a year ago, I was listening to a major wildlife photographer who was talking about the most fundamental advantage he has over amateur photographers. What he said struck me as having a perfect parallel to what we do as creative professionals every day. Or, at least what we are supposed to be doing – capturing the creative stimuli that swirl around us at all times, so we can apply it to other stimuli we encounter, ultimately making something fresh and unexpected based on human behavior, for our clients and ourselves.

Here is what he said:

“When I am on these photography safaris in other parts of the world, invariably someone sees a shot I took and remarks, ‘Wow... were you on the same trip I was on?’ Or, ‘I could’ve had that shot. I wonder where I was when that happened?’ ”

He went on to say that the response he feels like giving is, “No, you would never have gotten that shot. Because your camera is always in your purse or pocket, and it’s never turned on. By the time you pull it out and start it up, the moment is gone.”

Having his camera in his hands, turned on and firing at one thing or another every few minutes, puts him in a position to receive from the world around him input that others don’t get. He and the amateurs can walk through the same space at the same time, and while, with his camera, he is exchanging with stimuli all around him, the others are expecting something to happen before they even turn their cameras on. (Can’t waste that battery!)

Yet something is already happening, and they are blind to it.

Sometimes people say of creative genius, “These people are truly inspired. They live on a plane we normal people don’t.” Not always. 

Sometimes it’s the very same plane. They just have their cameras out and on.

Is yours? So you can see what others don’t? Overhear more than what is being said?

And capture more inspiration than the amateurs do?

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t think we could learn a whole lot about how to improve advertising from people who make mattresses, given that we try to keep people from falling asleep.

But then, I came across an article in USATODAY on Monday about how Sealy has used Lean Manufacturing to turn around their business model, and it hit me like a pillow. There were some inescapable similarities to the challenges we face, and some real nuggets to be mined if we just kept an open mind.

It got me thinking about our process for developing (not manufacturing) creative solutions for our clients, and how inefficient that can sometimes be. Being in a creative business, we rightfully want to allow for that less-than-linear magic to happen, but just maybe there are ways to make the process more efficient and fulfilling than just giving creative people a creative brief and then trying to stay out of their way.

Judging ourselves against a Lean Manufacturing mantra of “continuous improvement,” I’m not so sure we’re any better at the creative development process than we were 10 years ago. Or even 25 years ago. Oh, we use technology better, and our agency has been truly integrated across disciplines for many years, but I don’t know that we’ve improved the creative development process itself at all in that time.

Now, those mattress makers have me dreaming of an agency where 33% more of our time is spent truly addressing client opportunities. Where no one in the organization spends any time waiting around for another department to pass along the “work in process.” Where we break down assignments into tasks that can be attacked by teams, at the same time leaning, no pun intended, on their special talents only when necessary, and availing ourselves of our greater talents when not.

There are all kinds of ways that this continuous improvement model can take shape: from how we analyze an assignment; to a better analysis of what each client expects; to better matching the assignment to the particular skills of a particular team; to the closer monitoring of where we are at every stage of the development cycle.

The goal isn’t less magic; it’s more. For the less time we spend on meetings and activities that don’t improve the final product, the more times we’ll develop truly remarkable ideas.

And the better we’ll sleep at night.

In social media, the new “it” topic, advertisers are following the buzz and the growth curves of certain platforms or properties. But in planning, analytics and media, we know that users vary just like viewers/readers/listeners vary in good old mass media. We cuss and discuss this stuff over good coffee and crumpets all the time, and I recently ran across a few interesting tidbits I want to share with y’all. It’s a good reminder that audience insights matter and making assumptions can hurt effectiveness.

Betcha didn’t know that…

• G-Mail users have much higher credit scores than Yahoo! Users. http://mashable.com/2009/10/18/credit-scores-email/ 
• Digg! skews male, LinkedIn and YouTube are gender balanced, and the following sites skew female: Twitter, Facebook, Bebo, Classmates. http://ow.ly/sD5Z
• Working moms are mobile power users http://mashable.com/2009/09/27/working-moms-mobile/
• Social media reflects society with class divisions and self-segregation. Wealthy people are more likely to be on Facebook than MySpace. 38% of LinkedIn users make over $100K a year. Twitter is more egalitarian. http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/10/13/social.networking.class/
• Mobile web usage is growing fastest among African-Americans and Latinos. Only 28% of Whites have ever used the mobile web compared to nearly half of African-Americans and Latinos. African-Americans are the most active users of the mobile web, closing the so-called Digital Divide; there’s a broadband divide, but not a digital divide. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?art_aid=110314&fa=Articles.showArticle

My point is that what was true before social media is still true now – audience insights matter. Your social strategy should reflect the audience you’re trying to reach.

It’s amazing what you learn when you are given the rare opportunity to take a step back from the day-to-day tasks of your job and apply what you do on a much larger level.

While most have studied and marveled at Obama’s ability to intersect government, marketing, and social technologies, I truly didn’t appreciate that perfect storm until recently. I grew up learning the inner workings of City Government from my dad, who has been a City Manager for over 30 years. Now my world and his are colliding like never before, thanks to two seminars on social media in government that I recently had the opportunity to conduct.

About 10 different St. Louis County municipalities representing city government, elected officials, parks and recreation, zoning and planning and public safety were all in attendance at different points in time.  And yes, at one seminar there was a table of policemen with guns – made for a great presentation.

While my perspective on the social space has been focused on brand management and target audience dialogue, thinking about social with respect to local government and even looking at government as a brand unto itself (thank you, President Obama) has been an enlightening experience.  One of my co-presenters at one event, George Liyeos, City Manager of Rock Hill, said, “local government is the testing ground of democracy.” 

I’ve compiled a short list of examples worth thinking about to help us all evaluate this test.  Put on your marketing hat and consider the following:

P.S. – Dad’s on Facebook; now we just need to get him tweeting. 

This is big news. For me at least.

I finally have some kind of explanation for why I can’t even run a simple errand without getting caught up in some kind of encounter, exchange, or unplanned adventure that results in a story. It’s not my fault. It’s in the wiring:

Psychologists from the University of Toronto and Harvard University have identified one of the biological bases of creativity. The study in the September issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology says the brains of creative people appear to be more open to incoming stimuli from the surrounding environment. Other people's brains might shut out this same information through a process called "latent inhibition" - defined as an animal's unconscious capacity to ignore stimuli that experience has shown are irrelevant to its needs. Through psychological testing, the researchers showed that creative individuals are much more likely to have low levels of latent inhibition.

"This means that creative individuals remain in contact with the extra information constantly streaming in from the environment," says co-author and U of T psychology professor Jordan Peterson. "The normal person classifies an object, and then forgets about it, even though that object is much more complex and interesting than he or she thinks. The creative person, by contrast, is always open to new possibilities."

Revealingly enough, the inability to properly "filter" incoming or internal stimuli and information sources has been linked to psychosis. It may be that when linked to a reasonably stable personality, high intelligence and a flexible approach to problem solving, the same processes that lead to madness in some, may result in extraordinary creativity and inventiveness in others.

We’ve all heard that the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” So you’d think the opposite extreme would represent true sanity, as sane as sanity can get. In other words, to experience something once and assume the experience will always be the same. So, bypassing the same opportunity again.

Isn’t that crazier?

There is no demographic that has not had their expectations of content shaped by gaming to some degree. We ignore it at our peril if we make television, video, mobile or digital content. And we do make that stuff at Rodgers Townsend.

I realized years ago that every few years I need to reset my skill set or risk obsolescence. My first boss couldn't type; she didn't need to. Times change. The past year has been digital bootcamp down in the strategy lair. We've been blowing our minds with all things digital all year. We're getting our heads around how to develop insights and briefs for non-linear, dynamic creative. How do we exceed the expectations of an increasingly sophisticated audience out there influenced by gameplay? Um, it's difficult, FYI. The first step is to jump into the pool. So we blog. We tweet. We read stuff. And now, folks, we're getting our game on. You can't call yourself an ad person these days without a working knowledge of dominant games and platforms. It's like watching television and surfing the Internet.

Not convinced? Here are just a few interesting facts from Iconoculture to chew on:

• Online gaming continues to be one of the top gaining categories in the past year, growing at 10 times the rate of the total U.S. Internet population and reaching nearly one out of every two Internet users. (Edward Hunter, director of gaming solutions, comScore | 7.10.09)
• Five different games on Facebook each recorded more than 10 million users in June 2009. (NYTimes.com | 7.10.09)
• During the April - June 2009 quarter, the Wii Fit sold 3.6 million units globally, bringing lifetime sales for the game to 21.82 million copies compared to 3.42 million copies at the same period last year. (Kotaku.com | 7.31.09)
• Guitar Hero has delivered 40 million music downloads and has grown to a $2 billion franchise. (Gamasutra.com | 5.7.09)
• The videogame industry, which has been affected by the economic downturn less than most industries, remained relatively stable in spite of the large consumer spending decline. (Statement from Nintendo upon release of its annual financials, AP | 5.8.09)
• The average player of World of Warcraft invests about 23 hours per week playing the game. (BusinessWeek.com | 1.14.09)

So if you see planners huddled with creatives playing Call of Duty or NHL 10 or Beatles Rock Band or Wii Tennis down on four, we assure you, we're working hard. I'm in a remedial PS3 controller class right now, struggling to understand the manipulation of two joysticks. After I figure that out and how not to blow myself up with my own grenade, I plan to open an IT ticket to network the games so we can learn about the social media implications of networked content and massive multi-player swarms. Game on.

I’m finishing off the party planning for my daughter’s first birthday extravaganza (T-minus 5 days) and it’s going to be quite the event, with all of the family, friends, and funny decorations that are completely ridiculous for a 1-year-old. And yes, 75 invitations have made their way out my door.

Recently, while talking about the stresses of pulling this off, my husband – in the true stereotypical male fashion – said, “don’t worry about it, there’s not that much to do.” To which of course I said something I can’t write here. I’m a planner at heart, one who lays out all the details of any project or event, one who gathers all the information and then determines the best way to execute – every decoration, every task that can be completed each day leading up to the event, every activity, item of food, and drink we intend to deliver, and where everything (and everyone) will go in my tiny South City home. Neurotic, maybe, but I have my reasons.    

This party planning neurosis has obviously contributed well to my work in digital marketing as an online media planner, then strategist/analytics person, and now producer. Digital work takes planning. And while most tend to focus on the end result of the way the site looks and functions, often folks don’t worry too much about the content until way late in the game, saying “it will all work out.” Then mountains of documents or hours of video come across their desks with the expectation that content brilliance will emerge.   

The integration of words, videos, pictures and applications into the overall design and function of the site are generally the reason why the user is there in the first place. Content aggregation, editing, shaping, messaging, positioning and flow all require time – and sorry – budget and resource allocation.  Whether it be primary research with our target audience to determine content positioning and flow, or multiple iterations of information architecture and copy decks, we all have to work to get it right. And sometimes that means having your agency create the content from scratch – more time, budget, and resources. 

Recently I had a start-up with a new client who really got the importance of content – no “don’t worry about it, there’s not that much to do” or “let’s see how it will look.” They want user insights, usability, content outlines, architecture, wireframes, multimedia content recommendations, rough copy decks, and even a few content concepts long before they see a site concept or talk too much about function.  Wow.  

So, for the next 5 days, instead of worrying about the content of this new client’s site, I’ll be worrying about the content of my 1-year-old’s soirée and know that my planning will result in a great party. Anybody know where I can rent a pony?  Lord, I should’ve started this 3 months ago.

It seems that often as we travel for business, we get caught up in the last-minute scurrying and worrying and grumble our way through the airport — with heads down, faces locked in a frown, focused on our smartphones. And while this is understandable, with air travel being a bit of a hassle (and with last-minute decisions and improvements to work projects often requiring attention, literally until take-off), if we get a chance to look up and around, we may learn valuable lessons about advertising opportunities and consumer behavior — and perhaps get creatively inspired.

A bevy of OOH formats in the airport terminal and plane itself now go beyond the typical backlit display. For example, while we all know that airline food has taken a dive on the quality scale (if any is served at all) most travelers still put their tray table down so they can work. Sponsorship of/advertising on the tray table—now there’s an idea. Or signage wrapping the “power-up” terminal kiosks might be an option. Even car cards on airport rail systems or luggage cart signage may provide communication opportunities we have never really considered for our clients.    

We may notice the type of mobile device the person sitting next to us owns (and if we’re talented and spy-like, what apps they are using) before the “Turn off your electronic devices” order is sweetly voiced. Does that person seem content with the experience? We can watch the flustered mom trying to contain and control her child. What products is she using to help her reach this oft-unattainable goal? We may even be pulled into a conversation with the person in the seat next to us that could offer us insight, spark a creative idea or inspire a character in an ad campaign (or much more, if the person is outrageous enough).

So as I scramble through airports, squinting at that 2 x 2 ½” smartphone screen, I’m going to try to remember to look up once in a while—there might be a communication idea waiting to be discovered.

Ad Age recently reported that Brown Forman’s Southern Comfort brand plans to pour their entire media budget into digital (pun intended). Savings from this shift to digital media only will fund an increased presence in bars and clubs.

For the most part, this move makes sense to me – given the advertising constraints placed on the spirits category, it will allow them carte blanche access to all of the programs they weren’t allowed to advertise in on TV. Their target is “New Legal Drinkers,” and we all know that younger audiences spend more time online and are generally a more elusive target than more age-endowed folk.  (NOTE: The Southern Comfort marketing team doesn’t really refer to their target in this manner. Their marketing director calls them “the youngest legal-drinking-age consumers”; I just tend to be more direct.)

Campaign elements range from the “traditional” Facebook fan page to more imaginative items, like their original production of the series “Southern Comfort House Rules!” that will air on Break.com. The program will showcase how their cast prepares, hosts and entertains during various themed parties.

I’m having a hard time determining if this media budget shift was the right move for Southern Comfort. I’m leaning towards “yes” based on the reasons that I’ve noted above, but here are a few reaons why perhaps the answer is “Maybe not.” Of course, only time will tell. 

1.      There are approximately 37MM Adults 21-29; 69% of them, or 25.5MM, report having consumed at least one alcoholic beverage in the last six months. That’s a lot of potential new drinkers to attempt to reach via fairly niche media channels.

2.      TV advertising opportunities are restricted and therefore limited, but does it make sense to abandon the medium? While it may be considered a dying breed, like it or not, it still gives you the biggest bang for your buck in terms of audience reach. 

3.      Several of SoCo’s competitors advertise on cable TV.

I’d love to hear your thoughts – was this the right move for the brand?

There was nobody else like him.

He was one of the original Mad Men, whose international career in advertising occurred during the industry’s heyday, who came home to work in St. Louis during its own advertising heyday dominated by Wells Rich Greene and D'Arcy, McManus and Masius.

Somehow he saw something in me when I had nothing to show anyone. Visiting my girlfriend here in St. Louis, I was taking the city bus, with a page torn from the Yellow Pages in my hand, the page with a listing that read something like “Advertising, Agents and Other.” Among my stops was an agency in Clayton. The receptionist was a fetching 19-year-old Terri French. And the creative director was the original Mad Man himself, John Harrington Smith.

He moved me to St. Louis for my “passion,” he told me. It couldn’t have been for my portfolio. And working with him over the following years I got an education through stories and commentary that were not just amusing, but instructive and insightful. Instructive: the shoot in Germany for a P&G laundry soap called Ariel, where to demonstrate its effectiveness, they shot a dinner in a fancy restaurant and served the food directly on the white linen tablecloth instead of on plates. But viewers didn’t notice because since they expected to see plates there, they just assumed there were plates there. Insightful: He said, “a client can ask a creative person to make a change to the work that the creative person detests, and he or she will hate it and fight it, understandably, the rest of the day. But that night, he’ll start finding a way to solve the problem in a way he can live with himself. Because creative people are problem solvers at heart, and can't stop themselves from solving whatever problem they’re presented with.”

He’s the one who told me, “after you write your copy, eliminate the first paragraph. Copywriters always have this need to clear their throat before they say it. They start writing with the second paragraph.”

Time passed, and three agencies later, after we’d been out of touch for several years, I decided I needed to find him and go to lunch. I reconnected through Lynn Rathbone, whom I found online. And we met at what I knew to be a favorite spot of his, where we’d both met many times before – Pat’s on Oakland. He called it McDermott’s. We always went for the giant shrimp. As usual, I heard great stories about advertising in New York in the ’50s and ’60s at DDB, Grey, Compton and McCann. He said, “we should do this more often.”

So we met again a few weeks later, this time at O’Connell’s. Then I emailed a third time, and he responded, “I should be dead.” He’d had emergency surgery, was at home, and would tell me the whole story next time we met.

That meeting will never happen. I and some others received an email two days ago from his son. He passed away Tuesday.

I was so lucky to have met him, and especially proud to have known him.

Watching the All-Star game a month or so ago, I heard a brief interview with Derek Jeter from the day before. When asked about facing up-and-coming phenom pitcher Tim Lincecum, he admitted to knowing nothing about the guy—jokingly saying maybe he'd play Lincecum's video game for some tips.

Pretty funny world we live in. To think you can gain some insight on the real world by momentarily plugging in to the virtual world. Truth is, he probably could glean something from the pitcher’s pixeled persona, as realistic as video games have become, but it made me think about what we do as advertisers. More specifically, what we don’t do.

How can we really know something well enough if we haven’t experienced it firsthand?

We need to hold it. Eat it. Drink it. Wear it. Drive it. We need to push its buttons. Play with its zippers. Pluck its strings. We need to see how it’s made. Understand how it’s sold. Meet the ones who purchase it.

Relating all this to my own experience, I worked on Porsche in a former life, but I never drove one. I read everything I could about them. I looked at pictures of them. I imagined what it might be like. Basically, I did what all creative people do. I relied on my creativity.

But there is no substitute for the real thing.

Because when you’re digging deep, trying to make whatever you’re communicating resonate with the reader or viewer on the other side of the media buy, it matters. That little nuance that gives you credibility. A truth that separates just telling them something from actually making them feel something.

And when you’re in a pinch, the great thing is, our halls are filled with a pretty diverse group. People who have all sorts of interests, habits and lifestyles. Class presidents, star athletes and celebrity stalkers. Carrot crunchers, tree huggers and Bible thumpers. Let’s face it, on the surface agencies are full of well-educated, interesting people. But peel back a few layers and they’re cornucopias of eccentricity. Explorers, experiencers and havens for the eternally curious.

We should lean on that when we have to. And conversely, we should all be able to admit what we know nothing about, thus, have no business working on. For example, if Kimberly Clark calls, I’m not your guy.

By the way, Jeter got on base when Lincecum plunked him in the 1st inning. Not sure what to make of that, but I thought you should know.

There are so many channels a consumer can use to find your Web site, and browsing a site with a mobile device is a trend that’s growing rapidly. Is your site working hard enough for the on-the-go consumer? If you are developing a mobile version of your Web site, here are a few things to consider.

First, do it. Be prepared for this new way of digesting content online. Make sure your brand is visible in the right way. Searching through your current site might be cumbersome on a mobile device, so be sure to take time to explore how your site loads and behaves, and how usable it is.

Then consider the following:

Don’t regurgitate your Web site content for mobile browsing. Take a new creative approach. A good tactic is to create a detect to make sure a user is on a mobile device. Once detected, you can steer them to a mobile version of your site. What’s the difference? New screen sizes, fewer plug-ins, and a shorter attention span (among other things). Not long ago, we were creating text-only versions of sites for users with slower connections and clunky processors – a quick-load site with simple navigation and a few blocks of copy. They were easy to navigate, but made for an awkward brand experience, and didn’t engage users.

This leads to the next point: Design a mobile site that feels like the brand, but accommodates the small window in which it’s seen. Decide how far you want to take it. Compromising creative for technology doesn’t always make sense, depending on the brand. Create a site for a set of mobile devices, like touchscreens with real browsers (iPhone + Safari). Maybe you should forego designing for older BB devices that only display text.

Thirdly, distill the information for consumers on the go. Let the mobile lifestyle help dictate the information and how it’s presented. Most Web sites have a wealth of information – more than any one user really needs. When considering mobile browsing from the user’s perspective, think about what’s important to them. Will they want to read your mission statement, or will they be looking for your address and contact information? Think about the consumer, not just the technology, then start making decisions about what they need and want to access. This will help set up the hierarchy of information for your mobile site.

Lastly, let the technology enable the creative experience. Make that experience relative to the brand and the consumer. Think about the mobile user as an on-the-go lifestyle, not a marketing statistic.

I was in a meeting the other day discussing client reaction to some work we had presented the day before. It was a creative concept we felt very strongly about, but the client just wasn’t biting, that day at least.

That led someone to ask me an interesting follow-up question: how many times did I think you could go back to a client with the same idea if they didn’t buy it the first time?

I doubt whether there’s an exact science, but I do think there’s a sport that has it exactly right.

I’ve never been a great volleyball player, for reasons that are obvious to anyone who knows me, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t learn something from it.

As everybody knows, the rules of volleyball stipulate that you have to return your opponents’ volley back into their court without hitting the ball more than three times on your side of the net.

I think that’s a pretty good rule of thumb for how long you should keep trying to keep a creative idea alive, too. If you can’t get it over the net in three tries, you’re just not going to score. I would bet that same rule would apply to anyone and anything else in your life as well.

And like anything else in life and business you have to correctly read the situation, and your opponent. You should attempt to keep a great creative idea alive by any natural or unnatural means possible, and revising not just the content but the context in which it’s presented might give you that extra shot. You also need to be able to tell when it is simply not the right idea for that particular client at that particular time. It happens.  

Which means we’d all better keep practicing our sets, digs and kills.

It’s a shame.

But often, the advice we might get when we first start our careers – from bosses, experienced contacts, even parents, and other authority figures –we don’t put into action. Either they come off as platitudes, or they seem so obvious, we nod and then dismiss them.

Sometimes we think we’re practicing something just because we agree with it. Who would not accept that being eager and energetic is a good thing when you’re starting out? But who really considers how to translate that to one’s own personality? Agreeing with the words, and finding a way to act on them in our daily work, are very different things. The former is easy. The latter isn’t.

Sometimes you see that difference years later. When you realize that someone else who is pretty accomplished, who you had just thought of as some zealous overachiever, was just acting on the obvious stuff you’ve always heard. They just took it literally.

There’s a story about Lisa Kudrow who, taking classes with the small improv company called The Groundlings in LA, couldn’t bring herself to really take part in certain exercises without feeling embarrassed, because they seemed so silly. By comparison, she noticed another kid who was all over it, working very hard at it, no ego at all. It was Conan O’Brien. Of course she didn’t think of herself as having an attitude issue at the time, but saw from him what being serious about comedy was all about.

But I digress.

Below I’ve paraphrased some personal favorite words of wisdom that come from Fortune Magazine’s “The Best Advice I Ever Got.” I chose two or three that you can actually put into practice before dinner tonight. These aren’t from advertising people, but as you’ll see, the application to this business is pretty obvious.

Michael Bloomberg (Gazillionaire)

“First, always ask for the order, and second, when the customer says yes, stop talking. I have watched more people make great presentations and never get to the point of what they're trying to get out of it. And too many times when the customer says yes, the person who got that answer just doesn't stop talking.” (Think: client presentations.)

Indra Nooyi (CEO, PepsiCo)

“Whatever anybody says, assume positive intent. When you assume negative intent, you're angry. If you take away that anger and assume positive intent, you don't get defensive. You don't scream. You are trying to understand and listen because at your basic core you are saying, ‘Maybe they are saying something to me that I'm not hearing.’” (Think: Hear what your client is saying, not just the way they’re saying it.)

Jim Rogers (Commodities Guru)

“If you get interested in a company and you read the annual report, you will have done more than 98% of the people on Wall Street. And if you read the footnotes in the annual report you will have done more than 100% of the people on Wall Street.” (Think: Most people shoot for a C+. Even if you shoot for B’s, you’re ahead of the game.)

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Accel Partners)

“In the first three to four months that you're in a job, you can create positive or negative momentum. It's key to starting any new job because you have a few months to make a first impression, and a finite window of time to create professional momentum and start building a brand for yourself.” (Think: Don’t wait one minute to create your reputation. Or it’ll be made for you.)

Lauren Zalaznik (A President at NBC Universal)

“Throughout your career, you're going to hear lots of feedback from peers and employees and bosses. If you hear a certain piece of feedback consistently and you don't agree with it, it doesn't matter what you think. Truth is, you're being perceived that way.” (Think: Find out what your professional reputation is, and fix it.)

Of course, your first reaction might be, “Yep. Makes sense. That’s how I work, too.” But then look at your behavior. Do you agree with it, or do you actually practice it?

Some of you may remember the Honeycomb Cereal commercial where the theme song promised that its crunchy contents were “big, big, big. It’s not small. No, no, no.” Along with these tantalizing words, the kids in the commercial held the cereal up to a ruler, somewhere around the two-inch mark, to prove its enormity. Of course, looking at it now I can see that it was a completely inaccurate measurement, but as a kid, I totally bought it. Wow, a cereal that’s “big, big, big!” Where do I sign up? There was even a super-cool clubhouse in the commercial that I desperately wanted to be a part of.

However, when I got the cereal for the first time and ripped it open, I found that Honeycomb cereal was not big. No, no, no. And that would be the first of many times that I would be let down by the claims of advertising to my age group.

What’s funny is that I’ve asked around a little and just about everyone has a story like this. I’ve heard grown men speak wistfully of how they thought their Tonka trucks would really be able to fly over swamps, or how disappointed they were to find out that their new sneakers would not make them jump six feet in the air. Is this a rite of passage that we all must experience? Do advertisers targeting children take too many liberties with their trusting audience? At what age do we stop falling for it?

I’m interested in your thoughts, and would also like to hear your most memorable advertising letdown from childhood. Post a comment if you have one to share.

By the way, here's one of the many Honeycomb clubhouse commercials. I don’t quite remember the robot, but hey, it was the 80s.

If I could just wake up from a sound sleep and shower about 20 times a day, I would be a lot more productive. And prolific.

Of course, my hair would fall out from all that shampooing, but that would be a relatively small price to pay.

The simple fact is, I think best early in the morning. It’s my most creative time. It pains me to say that, having begun my working life as a musician and eating at Denny’s at 3:00 AM every night (the only thing then open), but my body clock has definitely been turned topsy-turvy.

Just this weekend I was working on a critical assignment and getting nowhere. This morning, I wake up and get in the shower, and the ideas come gushing out. No pun intended. Almost had to bring my Blackberry in with me, but I thought that might negate the warranty.

The reason I bring this up is that we all have to find the time that works best for us, and then guard that time jealously to keep would-be distractions out, and the opportunity for creative breakthroughs in.

It’s another reason why we believe traditional brainstorming is such a terrible way to try and uncover something truly remarkable. We all think better at different times and under different conditions.

Find the time, and place, that works for you and set your alarms accordingly. We’re all different. We shouldn’t be surprised we all think differently.

You may be surprised to come across a blog entry from an ice machine. I fully understand. I assure you I wouldn’t be doing this if it weren’t absolutely necessary. But I feel I must use this public forum to defend myself against the disparaging remarks of a certain Chief Executive Officer who likes to hold agency meetings in the kitchen area. Let’s get a few things straight off the bat.

First of all, I’m loud. I make ice. Making ice is not a quiet undertaking. It involves freezing water into hard cubes and then dropping them onto other hard cubes. Most people already know this. For instance, look around in the Washington University Law Library or one of the courtrooms in the federal building next door and you will not find an ice maker. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Secondly, I am just doing my job. I can’t help it if you hold a meeting while I’m working. Would you like me to not do my job? I think you people and your giant plastic cups would have a meltdown. And yes, I get the double meaning there, it was intended. My cousin who works at a sub shop slowed down one day and found himself out on the curb. I don’t want to be out on the curb. It’s tough out there these days. Try getting a gig in this economy. Ice machines are among the first to go, right after the plants. Everybody knows that.

In conclusion, I want you to know that I will continue to drop ice during agency meetings, until a specified time frame is outlined in my job description. If you continue to roll your eyes at me, you may find that the sounds will come in the form of editorial comments, or with the intention of making people laugh when you are trying to be serious. This is not a threat, it’s just something to think about.

I look forward to your rebuttal.