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The Wherewithal of Living a Legend.I own a home in the Hollywood Hills and a co-op on West 58th Street in NYC. I drive a triple black C4 Corvette classic. All paid for in cash. I made and kept millions in the dot bomb era. I'm a member of the Clio Hall of Fame for my role in the creation of one of the world's most memorable advertising campaigns. "I'm Stuck On Band-Aid Brand." |
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| I directed Karl "The Mailman" Malone in 12 commercials shot in four days for under $500k and got him for scale. And a major trucking contract. |
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Of all the other Ad trade publications, which three do you think are best? - Mackey T. Baltimore Adrants x3-HW |
| I talked the Temptations into selling KFC by telling Melvin and Otis that Col. Harlan Sanders would not let one of his restaurants bar blacks from the day they opened. I taught Sun Microsystems to forget about the wire heads in the IT department. Target the Line of Business managers.This changed the way they do business. |
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I saw your post at Poet's Corner about why you started this column and I found it and you detestable––J.Z. LA Uh-Huh. So? - HW
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I helped the City of Los Angeles stop the war between the Crips and the Bloods. In short. I am called (by people like Gerry Gramaglia, past CEO of eTrade and now a venture capitalist...)"The Legend." What makes a guy like me, a guy like me? Self enthusiasm. Perception is the new Reality. Perception, not fact. Every one of my opening statements is a fact. My chosen mode of perception has been"Stealth." So with all that background, I have saught to stay out of the foreground. That is, up until now. |
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Where You At? Every once in a while you come across a commercial that makes you do that silly little double-take thing you do and say, huh? What the fuck was that? Not very often, but sometimes. Well, the last two times it happened to me, the spots were both from the same advertiser. Boost Mobile. This past Christmas season I had a what the__ as the result of "Mack Daddy Santa," the black pimped-out Santa talking on the cell phone to his elfin 'ho who appears to be freezing her tiny buns off on the stroll while waiting for the bermuda shorts wearing Pimp Santa to come pick her short sorry ass up off the corner in his sleigh ride .I saw it two times before I came to realize that there was a little kid in the spot who was completely dumbfounded by this urban nightmare standing in his living room. Last Tuesday, my what the fuck was a Boost Mobile spot called "Anthem" which featured a slam-bam-shakey cam mis-mash of hype-hop images smash cut to a track by Kanye West, Ludacris, and The Game. At first I thought it was a little too authentic with set trippin' crip signin' and over-posturing homeboyz. But damn it was relentless and it cut through the clutter like a straight-razor through belly flesh. I took a closer look at the spot over at boostmobil.com and that's when I realized that there was some method to the madness. A studio in Compton and a studio in Chicago trading beats over the phone lines. The gangsta bling-bling was just filler for the phone swap rhythm session. All and all, pretty cool concept. Some time back, Boost Mobile Director of Marketing Mark Fewell was named BrandWeek's "Next Generation Marketer of the Year." Based upon the work I've seen from the brand ( let's not forget those shit talking grannies in their stretch SUV, ) he damn sure deserved it.
The Perception of Perception.If I get too deep here, just bounce off and come back and check this out when your brain is driving. What does that sentence tell you about me? I'm arrogant, a tad condescending, certainly in love with the sound of my own voice ( studio readers' comment on verbose screenplay description passages) and obviously, I'm out to grab your attention. Is this a compelling picture? Does it make you want to read further? Are you engaged? If you're still reading at this point the answer to all of these questions is a resounding "yes!" If you bounced off at the end of the first sentence, "way cool." I'm not writing this for you 1,208 assholes. I'm writing this for the 62 of you that are still with me. That's what Perception is all about. Making yourself ( or your product, or your service, or your screenplay) compelling to the people you want it to be compelling to. That's not everybody. You 62 readers are more interesting to me then those slackers that bailed on us. We have more in common then I do with those other 1,208 losers. We connect. They can step the fuck off. This column is about us. You and me, cuz. Our values. The shit we like to crack on. I'm narrowing the focus. Transitioning from broad interests to methods of common communication. Language patterns. From general to specific. So what if I lost 6 back there at "step the fuck off." I wanted the posers gone. Now it's just me and the 56 of you. This is the Dark Scientific Art of Persuasion by Perception Management. Now you should know, that I can do exactly what I just did with you, with 233 other Perceptor Profiles. Walk their walk, talk their talk, dance their dance. And once we meet on the plane of Mutual Value Perception, I can take them anywhere my Client wishes them to be taken and their peers along with them. And I can take their money every step of the way. As long as each of those expenditures lies within the enviroment of their specific Value Perception Matrix. But I like you guys. I'll let you keep your ducats. For now. Subtle shifts and changes in language, imagery, cultural icons, reference points, are at play in the Perceptual Landscape. That is because Perception Is Reality to today's information drenched consumer. They emerse themselves in product information before committing to purchase. To become a successful consideration on the consumers "Journey to Judgment," you need to be on the train with the consumer, not on the platform with his purchase considerations. Product perception determines product positioning in the consumer's Perpetual Landscape. Are you a cold call, or do you have the customer's ear? The objective of Value Perception Management is to migrate the product from the platform to a spot in his or her mind as a benchmark product, by any means possible. Value Perception Management is platform agnostic. It's not about the media buy. It's about the music you buy. Persuasion in stealth mode. This is the game we play up in here, cuz. If you wit it. Bring it. The Greatest Commercial of All Time. If I had a dollar for every time that somebody said to me, "You work on Madison Avenue. In your opinion, what is the Greatest Commercial of All Time? I could take at least three of my 56 Readers to lunch at Bossa Nova. The Greatest Commercial of All Time. Don't you love the sound of it? Important. Heroic. "Did you happen to catch The Greatest Commercial of All Time on Joe Schmo last night? "Aww geeee. Is that what came on when I was taking a dump during the third spot pod?" Of course the subject begs the question, "Exactly what do you think was the Greatest Commercial of All Time?" To wit, I believe the answer from most Americans would be, "Who gives a shit?" But we're not concerned with the thoughts of Most Americans, unless we got something to sell 'em. You 53 Readers. That's who we care about, sport. And we know you are just dying to know, just what is the Greatest Commercial of All Time? So here it is. On July 1, 1941, commercial broadcasting was finally authorized by the FCC. NBC begin broadcasting with a 10 second Bulova Watch commercial. This first commercial, which simply showed the face of a Bulova watch, gave the network a profit of $7.00 and was unquestionably The Greatest Commercial of All Time. Now act like you know. Stay Tuned. |
MARKETERS
FROM OGILVY
& MATHER ADRANTS BANK
OF AMERICA DELTA
AIR LINES And
You. |
