Have you noticed how fast opening credits are for television shows these days?

Modern Family, 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation

Compare that to their 80s and 90s sitcom brethren — Cheers, Family Ties and Friends

On average, some of today’s most popular sitcoms cut to the chase in 15 seconds or less, with no words and clever mnemonics that get our attention so that we come running to the sofa from wherever we are, even if we’ve recorded the program on our DVRs.

And while we fast forward through the commercials, we actually look forward to and hum along with the opening credits of our favorite shows every single week.  How come ads have something called ‘wear out’ but opening credits don’t? What are the secrets of opening credits that keep us coming back for more? What’s your favorite opening theme and why?

Because it’s past lunchtime and I’m starving, I’ll just have to subside on a few of these tasty hip hop tracks that drop some sustenance.  I’ve got your appetizers, beverages, main course, and desserts included.  Bon appetit.

Asparagus, ham, eggs, and all manner of foods:

• A Tribe Called Quest – Ham ‘n’ Eggs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-_PHQ8sSvA

Chicken wings:

• Outkast – Ain’t no thang: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bsg-q0JdgWU in chorus

 Swiss Miss:

• Jurassic 5 – Improvise: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vhrs1XxPlw&feature=fvst at 0:35

 Manwich sloppy joes:

• Pharcyde – Otha Fish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJunijzmjks&ob=av2e at 2:00

(more…)

I was lucky enough to have had the opportunity to review student work at the AIGA Student Portfolio review a few weeks ago. Here was some advice I had for students…

1) THINK BIG IDEAS.
… What’s the bigger picture in all of your assignments? Think of the core purpose of the product/client you’re working on. A ‘purpose’ is not what a company sells, but it’s what it stands for.

2) COME UP WITH NEW IDEAS WORTH DESIGNING BEFORE YOU ACTUALLY DESIGN.
See above. Come up with new media ideas, programs, product designs, events, pr ideas, anything that pays off a company’s purpose. Once you have some great ideas, then start designing. This kind of thinking tells me how you view the world and how deep you can think about your client’s business.
It doesn’t really matter if your ideas will work or not from a practical/budget standpoint. You’ll have plenty of naysayers to tell you they won’t when you get a job. I just wanna see how you want to make the world a little bit of a better place.

3) THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT. AND IT SUCKS.
Don’t be a slave to technology. If you’re gonna have an app idea in your book, ask yourself, “Would I really download this thing myself and use it to help count the number of eggs in my fridge, so I can then exchange egg recipes from someone in Tulsa?”

4) DON’T SWEAT ABOUT HOW THE OUTSIDE OF YOUR PORTFOLIO LOOKS.
Remember when John Travolta opened up that briefcase in Pulp Fiction and he pretty much saw God in it? Yeah, I don’t think Travolta remembered what the outside of the case looked like either. Same goes for your site. Keep it simple and easy to navigate. Save your thinking and energy for where it matters most: your work.

5) KNOW WHO YOU ARE. STICK TO IT.
You will get a thousand opinions for every hundred people you show your work to. At the end of the day, it’s your work. Listen to your heart and go with your gut reaction. You know the kind of work you like to do. Don’t change your type just because an instructor likes Gotham over Din. PMS 146 over 194. It’s your stuff. Same goes for changing the work in your book to match the style of the place where you’re interviewing. You can’t be anybody but yourself. And the more you are yourself, the more different you’ll be from anybody else.

Working on your portfolio? Check out The Austin Creative Department.

As the NBA lockout lingers on, I want to bring up something that has been on my mind for years now that is almost as important as all the financial issues that are keeping teams from taking the court at the moment. I would like to propose a three-way trade between the New Orleans Hornets, the Utah Jazz and the Charlotte Bobcats.

Now, if you’re a big NBA fan, you might think that I’ve conjured up a blockbuster deal that would send Chris Paul back to Charlotte to play in his home state – you’d be wrong.

While I think Chris Paul to Charlotte would be an awesome move, I’m talking about a three-way name trade. That’s right – a name trade.

Why is it that a team from New Orleans, named in 1974 for the music genre that originated there, still goes by the same name 2,000 miles away in the Rocky Mountains? The Utah Jazz? Quick: Name a jazz musician from the state of Utah. Jon Huntsman? That is incorrect.

In Charlotte, there’s a similar problem. When Charlotte was given an NBA franchise in 1988, the city voted on a team name, and chose the Hornets as a tribute to the city’s resistance to the British during the American Revolution. After the 2002 NBA season, when the Hornets were relocated to New Orleans by owner George Shinn, they too kept the same nickname. What importance does that Hornet nickname have now, when placed on a franchise playing in a city occupied by the French during the Revolutionary War?

To make matters worse in Charlotte, just two years later they were asked to adopt a different team, the Charlotte Bobcats. Now, it’s nothing against the Bobcats, but I was still a Charlotte Hornets fan by the time the Bobcats were taking to the court. At age 15, I hadn’t even grown out of some of my Hornets gear that I got when I was 12!

Teams don’t always decide to keep the same nickname when they move. Sometimes, they actually get it right. When the Cleveland Browns packed their bags and shipped out to Baltimore, they didn’t pack the name as well. Instead, they started their own brand, the Baltimore Ravens. Three years later, when Cleveland decided they still wanted to have an NFL franchise, they created a new team and reassumed their old name. The same was true when the Oilers left Houston for Tennessee.

Now, I’m not saying it’s always wrong to keep the same team name, but when there is geographic meaning to the name, I can’t find a good reason to cling tight to it.

Let’s get back to the Hornets, though. There might be some questions popping into your head right now. “Wait, Cory. What if Charlotte doesn’t want to go by the Hornets anymore?” “What if they like their new nickname?”

Don’t take it from me. Take it from a poll by The Charlotte Observer. They want their Hornets back, and I’m right there with them.

So, I propose a three-way trade:

New Orleans gives the Hornets nickname back to its rightful owner in the city of Charlotte, and in return, they get to take the Jazz nickname back from the state of Utah. As for Utah, they can take the Bobcats name if they want to, but I would suggest they come up with something original that they can own. At first thought, I say they could pay homage to the Rocky Mountains and become the Utah Peaks – then their mountain logo would make much more sense.

I think this is the best PSA against gun violence I’ve seen… well, ever. It’s poignant, it properly describes a lot of what goes on with gun violence in America, and the fact that we never really blame ourselves for our actions. Especially coming from an action movie man with both talent and a history of really violent movies. Jackson’s putting his experience with how the media portrays violence to a good use. It’s respectable, and it’s powerful. I hope something good comes of it.

Take a look:

We’ve been busy over here – growing facial hair, watching for Team Mopack members on Movember Or Just Creepy and raising money. We set up posters around the office for employees to tag themselves as Mopack supporters with a stache-of-choice. I’m currently rocking the “Pippi Longstocking.”

And Christmas came early! We got a care package full of swag from the Movember headquarters in L.A. — T-shirts, beanies, cool shades and a signed poster for the Pack.

Most importantly though, the mustaches are really starting to take shape. I was able to track down most of the fellas to capture their halfway mark.

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Mo’s-to-go: Bill, Ben and Tyler’s on the road photos.

If you’d like to donate to Team Mopack, you can donate here: http://us.movember.com/mospace/219405/

Thanks for your support!

Sketching things out sometimes is the clearest way to think. Here are some visuals about life, liberty and the pursuit of advertising.

Diabetes is like stepping into a boxing ring every day.

A doodle dedicated to Natalie and American Diabetes Month.

The holidays are just around the corner and it’s time to start figuring out who to buy presents for. But this holiday season, the gift giving game is a little different. Why? Because group gifting websites are starting to pop up all over the place!

1. Giftiki

Giftiki is perhaps the newest kid on the block, but what it lacks in experience, it makes up for with site design and its catchy and kitschy name (especially when compared to eDivvy.com). Here’s how Giftiki works. You join Giftiki through Facebook, choose a friend and post a small gift (up to $10) to their wall. Other friends (if they join Giftiki) can post their own small monetary gifts and the money just piles up. I’m not sure if there’s a maximum dollar amount, but eventually the recipient can go to Giftiki and redeem that pile of money for a wide variety of gift cards (e.g. American Express, Amazon, Macy’s, etc.)

2. Let’s Gift It

Let’s Gift It has been around since 2010, and while it seems to offer the same basic idea as other group gifting websites, its landing page (from a design standpoint) isn’t as alluring as Giftiki. That said, Let’s Gift It provides a little more structure on the front end and a big “Surprise!” element on the back end, which may be more appealing to certain people. Here’s how it works. You start by choosing the occasion and the gift delivery date. Then you select the gift. And finally, you pitch in your own contribution and invite your friends. So while Giftiki comes across as an open-source, everyone-can-see-the-process, money-pooling platform, Let’s Gift It offers more control to the person who chooses the occasion and the gift in the first place.

3. The Gifts Project

What makes this group gifting website so interesting is not just the fact that it got acquired by ebay, but because it’s more focused on building group gifting plugins for businesses. As you can see in the video below, the social plugin they’ve developed is a much more advanced version of the Facebook “like” button, allowing people who are browsing an e-commerce site to immediately invite their friends to split the cost of that item as a gift for someone else. It’s very clever and could lead to all sorts of retail sales. But how long will it take before Facebook creates a group gifting plugin of their own?

Group gifting is still in its infancy, and on the surface, all these sites seem promising. By allowing people to more easily pool their money together, these businesses are clearly fulfilling an unmet need. However, if group gifting becomes the norm in the next couple years, I wonder if we’ll start to get annoyed by our friends’ good intentions. After all, if one or two of my friends asks me to chip in $5 or $10 for a gift for someone, I’m game. But if you have 300 or more Facebook friends and 10% of them ask you to chip in around Christmas time for a variety of gifts for other people (who may be further removed in your friend network), that could start to get a little annoying.

What’s most interesting about these sites is how they alter the social dynamic of gift giving. With traditional gift giving, you don’t normally talk about the cost of the gift. Talking about price is taboo. It’s the thought or intention behind the gift that counts. With group gifting however, the monetary contributions become transparent, and the price of the gift comes into the foreground, revealing how much we’re willing to spend on our “friends”, which could end up disrupting the carefully calibrated social harmony of gift giving in general.

What do you think? Is group gifting a good thing or a bad thing? Will you try group gifting this holiday season?

Activity log of last week’s King Pong ATX tournament from Top Spun’s Bryan Au-Young.

4 P.M. Top Spun is currently masquerading in their “day jobs”. Quietly making creative stuff or fixing stuff or selling stuff when in reality, they know that their real job will begin in several hours. Chris Kocek stares longingly out the window in a conference room—envisioning the time when he will be unshackled from his back-to-back-to-back meetings to unfurl his ping pong fury to the rest of the world (or Austin Ad agencies at least).

5 P.M. Top Spun team members begin sneaking in YouTube video clips from Forest Gump for inspiration when nobody is watching. Joel Parr practices his angry face in front of the computer.

5:30 P.M. 1 ½ hr dynamic stretching session begins for Top Spun. Team members have carefully crafted their individual routines over the course of weeks to set their bodies up to peak right at 7 P.M. on Thursday night. Matt Kuhles runs up and down the stairs by the media pit with a blank sheet of paper. Some people think that he is in a hurry to get something somewhere. Top Spun knows that he’s just doing calisthenics.

6:30 P.M. The masses are gathering at GSD&M. Top Spun gathers in a conference room to talk strategy. Who was in charge of fronting the payment to Tonya Harding? It was probably Paul. He forgot. All he cares about is that damn Movember mustache. More stretching and hydrating.

6:45 P.M. GSD&M emerges from the Bonnie Hunter through a mass of fog, strobe lights and the Top Gun Anthem. Spectators think to themselves “wow, what a bunch of show-off—wait, is that a dinosaur tail?”. Team Top Spun has a dinosaur tail that shocks and awes the crowd.

Bryan sported the dinosaur tail while Matt flew through the air during doubles semi-finals.

7:30 P.M. First round starts. It is announced that Brittany Hammer will be matched up against the 2010 King Pong Champion. Top Spun gives Brittany continuous encouragement with questions peppered in every now and then along the lines of “if you don’t make it out of this, can I have your iPod?” Brittany takes 2010 Champion to an epic 3^rd game where she defeats him in the most stoic and introverted fashion you could imagine.

8:17 P.M. All GSD&M team members have made it out of the first round successfully, except for me but that’s ok because I’m playing doubles too and I have a dinosaur tail (so I’m the real winner of the night). Top Spun’s first doubles match begins. Top Spun drops the first set. Top Spun takes the second set. In the third and deciding set, the combination of thigh-high shorts, sweatbands, and a dinosaur tail is too much for Top Spun’s opponents to bear and they crack under the pressure on match point. Matt Kuhles only barreled into the barrier 4 times during this match, but he’s ok and has a 5 hour energy nearby just in case.

8:34 P.M. Charlie McClurg matches up with some guy who looks like he is really good at ping pong. If you’ve never seen Charlie play, just imagine someone who is wearing cinderblock shoes with Inspector Gadget arms that returns everything. Charlie takes this match 2-0 (I think…).

8:35 – 9 P.M. (?) I miss everything because I’m eating pizza.

9:15 P.M.  Chris Kocek and Brittany Hammer engage in a “cannibalization match”. They are not cannibals in real life, but metaphorically, we cannibalize a member of Top Spun in this match. Chris Kocek wins a hard-fought match. We have to get the janitor come mop up all the tears that the ground is soaked with — a dehydrated Chris moves on to the singles finals.

9:22 P.M. Doubles finals begins. Matt Kuhles and Bryan Au-Young cannot solve the mystery of the opposing team’s weird serve that accelerates on the second bounce. We lose really badly, but at this point we’re just happy to be here!

9:30 P.M. Chris Kocek and the guy who has been cast in the next Wranglers ping pong commercial square off. Never a close match, Chris takes home the gold, and is now the pride and joy of the advertising ping pong community (a small, but close-knit group). Wrangler guy mumbles, “damn you Brett Favre.”

10:00 P.M. GSD&M’s Team Top Spun takes home the trophy for first place. Well actually we were already home, so we just held it up really high.

The kings of pong: Joel, Paul, Matt, Charlie, Bryan, Brittany and Chris

Also pictured spirit coaches: Adele and Lindsey

Check out the full photo album here. Shout out to the other agencies for putting up a good fight. Until next year…

Our first full day of ad:tech NYC 2011 was a great day of inspiring keynotes and informational break-out sessions.  I felt a little old-school in covering the conference…no iPad to take notes and no connectivity whatsoever to tweet key highlights along the way.  So I have my notebook of barely legible handwriting for reference.  So much for technology.

In any event, the conference highlights for me were overwhelmingly in the keynote presentations.  ad:tech rounded up a great mix of innovative players and platforms that left us all inspired and ready to infuse those ideas and learnings into our client business.

One of the many memorable keynotes was from David Fischer, VP of Advertising and Global Operations at Facebook, speaking to a packed house on Wednesday.   He reinforced the notion that social shouldn’t exist as a line-item on a flowchart or something you check off your list.  He offered some very compelling reasons why social should be a core element to every marketing campaign.  Building a brand on Facebook is not just by Connecting (“like” buttons) or Engaging (inviting consumers to participate via comments and sharing), but by creating unique and useful brand experiences to Inspire consumers to engage on a deeper, even visceral level.   For example, Huggies in Hong Kong conducted a Baby-bus campaign that invited parents to post a photo of their baby to the Huggies FB fan page.  The babies with the most comments / likes would be featured on 10 double-decker busses throughout the city.

David labeled this example “Social by Design” because it tapped into something that parents already are doing and want to do (share photos of their adorable babies!).  The socially organic campaign was so powerful, in fact, that it led to a 4.2% increase in market share for the Huggies brand in Hong Kong.   A great example of a brand turning “likes” into revenue.

David made another great point to close the keynote that really stuck with me.  He said we shouldn’t think of our social media strategy as a sub-set of a marketing strategy.  It is a “people” strategy.  It’s about HOW you want to CONNECT with people….pure and simple.

If you’d like to see the ad:tech keynotes in their entirety, please visit this link.