The
Battle For Coca-Cola
Rages
On.
Ain't
Nothing Like
The Real Thing, Maybe.
I
Don't Mean To Say
I Told You So, But...
Are
Consumers Smarter
Then We Are?.
The
Four Great Myths
Of Global Branding.
Mr
Bevis Butts Heads
At Mitsubishi
The
Best Laid Plans
Of Mice And Men.
Dare
to Be Great:
The Mad Genius of "The Matrix"
Mitsubishi's
New Marketing Boss
Out
Of The Frying Pan.
Concept Is Stronger Than Fact.
Value
Perception In A World
Gone Mad With "Cool"
The
Future of Advertising
The
Brand
The
Future of Advertising
The
Targets
The
Future of Advertising
The
Grid
The
Future of Advertising
The
Swarm
Technology
Making
The Message Meaningful
The Only Business That Matters Is The One You're In.
THEFUTURE OF
THE
SECRET
TO OUR SUCCESS.
The
truth is MadisonAveNew.com
has been picking up readers like a house on fire. We actually owe it
to a suite of six web marketing tools.
If you would like to know
more, give them a click. Yeah, we get a kick if you buy them.
Here they are:
|
Fight Club. The Final Round. The old saying, "Those who can't do, teach," obviously never had to stand in front of a bunch of hungry minds week, after week, after week. To say that teaching a class entitled "the Big Idea, How To Get It. How To Protect It. How To Sell It," was an ordeal on par with negotiating the truce between the Crips and the Bloods for the L.A. City Attorney's Office, is an understatement. Gang bangers generally don't shoot you in the back. |
|
|
|
My primary interest in teaching at the college level was to learn more about the radical change in values and attitudes that separate Boomers from GensY and X and Gens Y and X from each other. In that respect the past 16 weeks have been a resounding success. What has been disquieting is what I have learned. |
|
I heard you had a crush on a girl in your class.-anon, Camerillo, CA I'm married and you're an idiot.-HW |
|
Here is what I've learned from the 32 people I've had to amuse for my four month "sentence" at Cal State. First and foremost, no matter what you might say or believe to the contrary, if you stand up in front of a classroom, you are a teacher. And all the baggage that comes with that position walks in the door with you as far as the students are concerned. No matter how you try to create "real world" work situations. Or business-oriented judgement criteria, you are still no more than a teacher and you will never be regarded as a boss. Bosses are to be feared and respected. Teachers are to be challenged and ridiculed. That's just a fact of life on today's college campuses. So your first hurtle to over come is sheer apathy, masquerading as cool angst. I set out to get their attention right off the bat. First day of class, I waited outside the class until I was sure it was full. I stroll in just like I was any other student. Nobody notices me until I pick up a marker and scrawl across the white board "I don't give a fuck" You could hear a pin drop. Next to that charming phrase I wrote the word "Perception." Slight titters from the Peanut Gallery, but more or less, rapt attention. Then I finished the sentence. "I don't give a fuck about anybody else but you." Next to the addition I scrawled, "Reality" Everybody burst into laughter and the class started heading rapidly south from that point on. One of the things I had going for me was that three professors at Cal State had decided to audit the class. One from the B-School, One from social sciences and One from the School of Fine Arts. It was like teaching with training wheels. It also gave me a way to break up the class into three groups with a professor in each. Since I had no way of knowing anything about the students, I asked them to tear out a sheet of notebook paper, put their name on it, and write down the one thing they were the most passionate about. Upon reading their responses I knew I was in trouble. "My husband." "Sleep." "Food." "God." At that point I realized that I could not count on these folks to have one original thought between them. Of course, over time they would prove me wrong over and over again. But on the first night of class, I was looking at bupkis. So, if having to come up with a big idea was way beyond the scope of this particular group of individuals, I would have to pull something else out of the hat. And so I did, by offering them three of my own projects to work on. First, I asked which of them had an interest in the past, Not so surprisingly, the Boomers in the class all raised their hands. To that group I assigned the restaging of my animated on-line murder mystery ( http://TheBroadwayLtd.com ) which recreates the methodical killing spree of a former Gestapo Agent sent to America right before the end of the war with instructions to bring down our largest corporation, the once-mighty Pennsylvania Railroad. Next, I inquired as to those who had an interest in the future, Immediately, every GenY hand in the class shot up. To them I assigned my on-line Sci-fi epoch "2084" ( http://2084.tv/future/index.html ) which was created as a receiving station for digital voicemail from a span of time in the future that ranged across the next 80 years. What a team they turned out to be. From pure genius to self-professed laziest girl on Earth. But the work this team produced was absolutely amazing. It's still a work in progress and even though the team has gone on to graduate, many of the members wish to continue working on the project to see it through to fruition. But even what is there now, defies the imagination, as you wander through an abandoned factory that has become a repository of voices of those not yet born.
Finally, I asked who was interested in the opportunities of right here and right now. Yep. It was GenX time to step up. To them, I gave Fantazzzmia, a children's book set in the land where dreams come from. From day one until they launched their website full of typos, this group was a walking disaster. But even though this group spent more time grumbling about my teaching methods and lack of appreciation for them "doing my work." There were still some bright and shining stars. The two ladies who took it upon themselves to set up tables and sell books at two school events. One of them even went to a local preschool and relentlessly hounded them into selling the book as a fund raiser for the school. She also took it upon herself to produce and record a mini musical version of the story as an on-line promo. All and all this is what I learned at school. First and foremost, this country is fucked if our future depends on GenY. I found most of them dumb as dirt and full of attitude and entitlement. And the ones who were marginally gifted were so consumed by their own egos so as to be insufferable. The biggest surprise for me were the brilliant ones. Quiet, unassuming, just trying to make it through under the radar of their contemporaries, whose disdain for being excellent at anything has lead to their universal battlecry "Whatev." GenX on the other hand is starting to feel the pinch. Boomers are standing on their toes, so there is only so far they can move up the food chain. This has turned them utterly ruthless towards each other and the emerging Gen Ys. Many have become nomadic, moving from city to city foraging for work. The ones in my class were there for one thing. What can this guy give me that I can use to kill my competition. Of course the few Boomers in the class were just as scared of their viability in the future as I am. Experience means nothing. Keep up or die. Remind me never to do this again.
Stay
tuned.
|
 |
|
MARKETERS
FROM OGILVY
& MATHER ADRANTS BANK
OF AMERICA DELTA
AIR LINES WELCOME INDYMAC
BANCORP
And You. *All
IP addresses confirmed by Urchin WebStats |
|
