Kittens and their inherent danger to humanity

A guy I work with has a great quote about cats: they always want a dollar. They’re always like, ‘Gimme a dollar, gimme a dollar, gimme a dollar.’ That’s all you get from cats. And do cats ever give you a dollar back? No.

Cats are the keys to the digital kingdom, too. All you have to do is film kittens doing anything, scratching a post to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, put it on youtube, and you’ll get 400,000 hits, guaranteed.

I’m working on a project right now that calls for in-banner videos. The product has nothing to do with cats. In fact, it’s antithetical to cats. But my idea was to put 17 cats inside that product, interacting with that product, maybe even licking it like they do their fur. And you know what? That ad would get eyeballs. It would get clicks. But it would have been a terrible ad. My client’s brand would be damaged. And I might very well get fired.

Proving again my friend Pat Scullin’s adage: kittens are an inherent danger to humanity.

An uncaring world and why we should care

Lately I’ve been so busy making ads for sports cars and prostate pills that I haven’t had time to keep up with the ol’ blog. And America is getting frustrated with that. Well, not really ‘America’ per se, but my one faithful reader, Patrick Scullin, creative head of the great Ames Scullin O’Haire agency in Atlanta, Georgia. (See his blog link to the right, The Lint Screen.)

Pat is so frustrated by my output lately that he suggested the next four topics I could blog on. So, the next four blog ideas come from Pat. Starting with this one:

AN UNCARING WORLD AND WHY WE SHOULD CARE.

Because advertising is perhaps the most powerful art form ever invented. Wield that power wisely.

Avatar: 3 Thumbs Up

Take one thumb away for the usual Cameron-esque clunky dialogue. Take another thumb away for the plot recycled from Pocahantas and Dances With Wolves. Take another thumb for the non-dimensional characters. You now have less than zero thumbs. Luckily, you can add a thumb for the unbelievable visuals. And another thumb for the unbelievable visuals. And another for the unbelievable visuals. And one more for 3-D used in an intelligent, nuanced way that's immersive rather than assaultive. 'Jawdropping' is a movie-review cliche, but my jaw literally dropped for much of 'Avatar'. It's a must-see.