Resetting the Clock on Analog TV

I reset the countdown timer on the end of analog TV. Obama hasn't signed the bill which just cleared Congress. But since he asked for it in the first place, I'm considering it a done deal. If I'm wrong, I'll change it back.

Calling Foul on Pepsi for Their "Forever Young" Super Bowl Ad

In the early 80's, when Steve Jobs recuited Pepsi marketer and president, John Sculley to run Apple, he famously challenged him with this question: "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?"

Pepsi's new marketers have built up immunity to such a challenge with a new ad theme, "Every generation refreshes the world." For today's Pepsi, there's no difference at all between selling sugared water and changing the world. (It's moot point, actually, because Steve Jobs has built up an even stronger immunity to any impulse he might have to hire another Pepsi marketer.)

The ad was exceptionally well crafted and executed, clever in its strategy, superficially enjoyable—but horrible nonetheless.

Here are my top four emotional reasons for wanting to run from the room screaming when this ad comes on. (I don't actually do that, I just press "skip" on my TiVo remote.):

• I resent advertisers playing the cheap trick of licensing clips and tunes that trigger treasured emotional memories in the hopes of attaching them to their brand. (I have the last laugh here, because it's my resentment that accrues to their brand.)
• I resent advertisers who entice Bob Dylan to sell his image, likeness, and music just to sell sugared water and thereby sully the glorious memory of his previous sellout to Victoria's Secret.
• I resent advertisers who entice will.i.am to sell his image, likeness, and performance to enhance sugared water with the emotional resonance of the "Yes We Can" video he did for Obama's campaign.
• I resent advertisers asking us to take solemnly the notion that we are what we drink. (At least when Heinkeken asked us to wrap ourselves in the mantle of their brand, they had the good humor to hire John Turturro to ham it up and play the post-modern irony gambit.)
  

In the classic cola wars going back to the sixties Pepsi has consistently tried to peel younger drinkers away from Coke with a series of youth-oriented campaigns—Pepsi Generation, Choice of a New Generation, For Those who Think Young. Someone must have noticed that members of the original Pepsi Generation are now sixty-somethings. Rather than throw the geezers overboard, they tried to embrace us by offering a split-screen duet of two young generations. From that perspective, the choice of Dylan and his song, "Forever Young," were brilliant.

It was an attempt to map Obama's post-partisan meme onto a post-generational landscape. In Pepsi's world, we now have two young generations, one of which just happens to be collecting Social Security.

Mickeleh's Take: Look closely at the matched images that Pepsi used in the spot. They're all perfectly equivalent except for the styling. The despairing message: nothing has really changed from then to now. It's all the same. It's merely refreshed. Just like the Pepsi logo and packaging. Refresh the logo, refresh the world. Forever young.

The Flavor Packet Song

This is completely crazy and is mainly a testament to how deranged the world has become. I have (for the day, anyway) a top-rated music video on YouTube. 

It's an original song by me (vocal, ukulele, MIDI drums and piano). As of now it's the #27 highest-rated music video on YouTube. (That ranking will, no doubt, start moving south as newer and better videos appear.)

BREAKING: Now it's #18!

The response has been incredible, despite the fact that I struggle to sing on pitch, can barely play, and I'm just stumbling around in the dark on GarageBand, Motion, and the ukulele.

It was done as a guest appearance on a channel called VlogRamen. They call their guest vloggers "Flavor Packets of the Week." Which is why the song is called "The Flavor Packet Song.")

In the UK, it's called "The Flavour Packet Song."

Me and the Gas and the Music

iPod on shuffle, my eclectic music collection, and a hefty, happy dose of nitrous oxide, while two women whom I don't know all that well used sharp and spinning instruments in my mouth combined to give me a surreal and delightful two-hour cruise. Unlike Gilligan's crew, I have returned. I share with you the playlist. I assume you won't get the same effect I did, but it's the best I can offer without a license to practice dentistry.

Jimi Hendricks Experience: Voodoo Chile
Louis Prima: Angelina-Zooma Zooma
Louis Armstrong: Body and Soul
Carmen Miranda: Mama Eu Quero
Doc Watson: June Apple
Bob Dylan and The Band: It Ain't Me Babe (from Before the Flood)
Carmen Miranda: Weekend in Havana
Count Basie: Miss Thing
Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra: (Keep Your) Sunny Side Up
Bob Dylan and The Band: Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)
London Sinfonietta: Lullaby of Broadway (this 15-minute modern stereo performance transcribed from the soundtrack of Busby Berkeley's 42nd Street was the most surreal, thrilling, and endless passage).
The Beatles: Your Mother Should Know (the loopy version from Anthology)
David Holmes: Let's Get Killed
Red Nichols and His Five Pennies: Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula
Isley Brothers: Twist and Shout
Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers: Blue Blood Blues

At which point I was filled. Really filled.

YouTube Needs Widescreen. But Not All The Time

In the same way as it has become a real time warning signal for such natural disruptions as wildfires, earthquakes, it was Twitter that first brought me news that YouTube was switching its native player to widescreen.

The first alarm came in all caps.

"WTF WIDESCREEN SERIOUSLY WHAT OMG"

WTF, indeed. YouTube going wide sounds like a good thing. Everything's going wide, even the humble Flip video camera. It's not so much that they did it, it's how they went about it: abruptly, disruptively, and discourteously.

Overnight, YouTube's entire legacy of standard format (4:3) videos were needlessly bracketed with black pillars. Was it really necessary to throw everything into the same 16:9 player? It's software dammit, not that physical collection of toxic metals, glass, and plastic that passes for a TV in my living room.

While many cheered, others were upset. Here's YouTube contributor, Nerimon, railing against this and other YouTube changes.

Side notes on Nerimon's rant: If you're just a casual viewer, many of these issues will seem obscure. But most builders and users of software will recognize the pattern. Unnecessary, unwanted futzing with "ain't brokes," while annoying rough edges remain unsanded and unbuffed. Nerimon is smart, funny, engaged, and a passionate, successful creator of content. He's a great example of the kind of customer who can help guide a development team away from the rocks and toward greater product excellence. If you make any kind of software you should take an earful of Nerimon. Think of him as a younger, funnier Dave Winer. Like Dave, all he asks is that developers listen to and respect their users.

Why frame everything at 16:9? Surely YouTube can detect aspect ratios and put up a player with the right aspect ratio. I did it. And I'm just a marketing dink.

Behold: The same clip, but this time Nerimon rails against pillars that aren't even there.

Is that so hard, YouTube?

It's easy to see why YouTube has to accommodate widescreen. Rival Hulu.com is rapidly growing the internet audience for widescreen, even HD movies and TV. If there are big, Google-worthy bucks to be had in online video, that's where they lie. YouTube has already cut deals with MGM, CBS, and Fremantle Media (those wonderful folks who bring you Idol, Got Talent, Let's Make a Deal).

But much of the active community of vloggers works with 4:3 webcams. Their content is usually a single talking head. Does it serve them well to go wide? Remember what Fritz Lang said when confronted with Cinemascope. It's a great format if you're shooting snakes and coffins.

Community-generated content on YouTube now finds itself competing with corporate media, not only for audience, but for some courtesy from the mothership.

Mickeleh's Take: YouTube big-footed the change without offering a warning to their creative community or providing guidance on how to prepare uploads for widescreen. That was just rude.

This is the Change We Need: Toughest Obama Commercial Yet.

Mickeleh's Take: I thought the last two were on the right track. This one pulls into the station and unloads a can of whup ass. McCain earned this one. As for the rest of us: let's get out there and canvass. Do you know how your neighbors are voting?

Keeping My Old iPhone (for now)

iPhone 2.0 software delivers 80% or more of the value of the new iPhone HW. I know uber geeks will need the HW upgrade too. They can’t take the embarassment of being seen with an iPhone with a metal back. (Hint: put it in a case. Nobody will know.)

The new HW offers some peachy improvements: faster network, more accurate location finding, improved sound (kind of important in a phone). There's a rude awakening though, folks are discovering that running all those new radios will give you shorter battery life than the first gen iPhone.

The truly revolutionary advances are available through a software upgrade: App store… push notifications… MS Exchange integration… Enterprise IT support… push synchronization with PC’s and Macs… and above all an SDK and developer program. (memo to self: come back and translate this paragraph to human readable language.)

As someone in Redmond said quite famously: “developers! developers! developers!

Mickeleh's Take: If you don’t have iPhone yet, the new total value proposition should give you plenty of reasons to consider.

If you have a first gen… you really don’t NEED the upgrade except to meet irrational urges. (But if it weren’t for irrational urges, life would be pretty dull.)

Ethan Kaplan, Master of Irony

Dave Winer posts that too many blogs are chasing each other's tails with meta-commentary about meta-commentary and gossip about gossipers. He says, "the end is near" and there's a drought of original thinking. "Most people wouldn't recognize an original thought if it bit them in the ass," he says.

Then, Ethan Kaplan chimes in with: "Wow, I agree with Dave Winer completely on this." Was that an original thought? Or a meta-comment? Or just delicious irony? I vote irony.

Mickeleh's Take: I agree with both of them (and everyone else making this point). But there's nothing new or original in noticing it:

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes, 1:10).

On the other hand, it is not true that Ecclesiastes said, "Of the making of many blogs there is no end." That was Sifry.

What I Learned Last Week

Here are some of the things I learned last week.

• The Aurora Bridge in Seattle (over the Ship Canal on Highway 99) is the second most popular suicide bridge in the U.S. (behind San Francisco's Golden Gate).
• Some of the jumpers don't wait till they get to the middle of the span where they would fall into the water, but jump from a point that's still over land so they fall into local parking lots, traumatizing the workers.
  
• I'm a very bad prognosticator. I predicted that last week would be a "fine, fun week for Obama fans."
• Three big shot tech executives (or ex execs) have signed on with McCain to bring us a third Bush term and a 100 years in Iraq. (Carly Fiorina, ex CEO of HP; Meg Whitman, outgoing CEO of eBay, and John Chambers (CEO of Cisco).
  
• Steve Gillmor—whom I've only known as the wise and far-seeing tech oracle, impresario of NewsGang (a fine compendium of what's new, important, helpful, and interesting) and the NewsGang Live podcast— has also had a long association with members of the Firesign Theatre--and served as a producer on some of their projects (evidenced by the appearance of George Tirebiter on a recent NewsGang Live).
• Dr. Bronners Magic Soaps include olive oil that combines the product of a grove owned by a Palestinian with that of a grove owned by an Israeli. (Yes... the hemp oil is still an ingredient; so is the peppermint.
• The Prophet Jeremiah had an even harsher message and rougher reception than the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
  

Mickeleh's Take: Given my record, maybe I should predict a rough week for Obama fans.

New on the Soapbox: Ferraro's Game of Market Segmentation

I keep two blogs, one mainly about marketing, the other about politics. But the two practices share a lot of commonality. What is a political campaign but an effort to market a candidate?

Over on the Soapbox, I offer Mickeleh's Take on what Former Congressional Rep. Geraldine Ferraro is up to. It's a nasty, cynical game. It's a game I know well because I play it professionally. She's not a racist. She's a marketer.

The Lord of the Ring: The Resignation of the Gov.

When did the terminology change from "call-girl service" to "prostitution ring"?

Mickeleh's Take: What's next: "fee-based social media platform"?

(Tag:Spitzer)

The Deaf Dissing the Blind and Other Super Bowl Ad Follies

Super Bowl XLII was one of the rare contests where the game was better than the ads. Uplifting arc: triumph of the underdog. Suspenseful plot: the outcome in doubt until the final seconds. Karmic Justice: comeuppance to a team that may have been unfairly aided by videos with such disruptive potential that the NFL felt compelled to borrow from the CIA playbook and destroy them. Great Play: From the opening, near ten-minute drive putting the Giants on the scoreboard first, to Manning's improbable escape from a near-sack to deliver a 32-yard pass to the vicinity of David Tyree who defied physics to snare it and hold it pinned to his helmet, and the even more improbable ability of the Giants defense to neutralize Brady's brilliance.

But I'm not here to talk about the game.


Coke had one of the best of the heart-warmers, featuring Macy's Parade beloved character balloons breaking their tethers to pursue a Coke balloon. (Spoiler alert: It might have been on-brand for Coke, but isn't it off-brand for Charlie Brown to actually win?) If only Coke had stopped there. Instead they shoveled a few more millions over to Rupert and followed up with one of the worst ads for the game, featuring two of the most unloved, repellant characters in politics (Carville and Frist) in a cliche-filled romp through Washington D.C. "Have a Coke and a retch." You gotta know when to get off the stage.

A couple of sponsors tried to buy our love by doing good. Badly.

Pepsi did a spot to honor the deaf. It was broadcast in silence, rendering it totally inaccessible to the blind. High-consciousness by a pandering soft drink company.

Dell tried to buy cool by supporting (though not mentioning) the elimination of AIDS in Africa. A guy walks through town getting butt-slapped, oggled, tousled, touched, mobbed, cheered and kissed because he carries a Dell notebook branded with (PRODUCT) RED. This is some high-minded town. In my town, I'll bet most people have no idea that (PRODUCT) RED is Bono's co-branding foundation for raising money to fight AIDS in Africa. And they certainly didn't learn that from this spot. All the spot offers up is a mysterious: "Buy Dell, Join (RED). Save Lives." (If you visit Dell's website—or if you saw the announcement at Davos—you'll know that this (RED) series is actually co-branded by Dell and Microsoft Vista. Microsoft, apparently, didn't chip in for the spot. Saving their pennies to buy Yahoo!?)

Anheiser Bush, as usual, dominated the ad buys with strong spots. But this year, all but one were sadistic Bud Light laff riots. The remaining one was the obligatory heart-warming Clydesdale branding spot for Budweiser.

Too many spots, however, were brand forgettable. There were cute dancing lizards promoting something or other. A talking baby bought stocks on a computer from some web site or other. Charles Barkley was obnoxious on behalf of some telephone company that offered a cheap way to let up to five people bother you incessantly at no extra cost. Fox is happy to take your money, folks.

Mickeleh's Take: The best spot of the weekend wasn't on the Super Bowl. It was on YouTube. "Yes, We Can." by Will.i.am, setting riffs from Obama's South Carolina victory speech to music.

(Tags:Super Bowl Ads, XXXXX, Super Bowl, Advertising)

New on the Soapbox: What Hillary and Barack Said about John's Departure

I have a new post up on the Soapbox comparing the statements that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have issued following the news that John Edwards is dropping out of the race for the Democratic nomination.

Naturally, both of them are intent on scooping up as many Edwards supporters as possible. Both have issued gracious statements saluting John and Elizabeth. But Obama's statement is masterful in its ability to both echo and embrace John's language, his passion, and his cause.

Mickeleh's Take: Dave Winer has latched onto a comparison that Chris Matthews used last week on MSNBC: Clinton is Salieri—a workmanlike technician; Obama is Mozart—an inspired master. Comparing what Clinton and Obama have to say about Edwards is yet another example of how apt the comparison is.

(Tags:Edwards, John_Edwards, Barack, Obama, Barack Obama, Hillary, Hillary Clinto, HRC, Campaign, Democratic, Primary)

MacBook Air: John Mayer Nails the Positioning

Just before he stopped blogging and deleted his archives, John Mayer posted a one line review of MacBook Air which nails the product's positioning:

"Macbook Air... Yes, it really is as cool as it looks. Lean, mean lifestyle workstation..."

(As of this writing, there's a clone of Mayer's site still available on honeyee.com)

When I lived in L.A. I was shocked that for somepeople "working on my tan" is considered a career. But that career is just a by-water of the larger industry, "working on my lifestyle."

By calling it a lifestyle workstation, Mayer captures the essence of MacBook Air. It's executive bling. It's what every consultant would like to whip out at a client meeting, what every status junkie would like to brandish at a conference or executive airport lounge. So what, if features and functionality are compromised to squeeze it into a lust object? "You can't be too rich or too thin." (Google tells me that might have been said by the Duchess of Windsor, but it isn't sure.) Now that there are millions and millions of iPhones out there, you need something to turn heads.

Mickeleh's Take: I bought a New Beetle the first week they went on sale in 1998. It was fun to take a hot and rare product out in public. I'm still driving it and somehow it's not drawing quite the same crowds. But I have my memories. Do I really have to purchase another dose of coolness? I'm cool enough. I'd have thought Mayer was too. Maybe that MacBook post triggered a shock of sanity and he got out of the blogging business and back to work.

(Tags:MacBook Air, John Mayer, New Beetle)

Such A Review! Newsweek's Steven Levy Starts with a Mohel Metaphor

Three of the four popular press computer mavens have just published their reviews of Apple's MacBook Air. Surprisingly, they say more or less the same things that the bloggers said right after the keynote based on the specs. Go figure.

I'm sure that Ed Baig (USA Today) and Walt Mossberg (WSJ) have valid points of view on Apple's oh so thin sub-notebook. But only Steven Levy (Newsweek) is worth reading. Because only Steven starts his review with a mohel metaphor (Mohel is Hebrew term for ritual circumciser). I believe this is unprecedented in tech reviews.

Mazel Tov, Steven. I'm kvelling here. I want to give your cheek such a pinch.

Update, Turns out the fourth pezzonovate reviewer was actually first; David Pogue, devoted a piece of his Macworld Keynote roundup to MacBook Air last week. See comments.)

Mickeleh's Take: I know this is a just a short post. But if you rub a little...

(Tags:MacBook Air, Apple, Steven Levy, Circumcision)