Finally…

Steve Jobs revealed the iPad (it’s still happening as I write this), the world’s worst-kept secret.

I’m watching live picts and comments via Endgadget.

Bottom line: it is waaaaayyyy cool.

Sinks or swims right out of the gate

I grabbed that mixed metaphor from a page on a blog about becoming an effective copywriter.

Great. We’re doomed.

The post’s title is (I’m paraphrasing here) An Introduction to Copywriting. Here are the first two sentences of the first paragraph below the header, Writing Headlines: The Most Important Copywriting Skill –
“Most writing designed to persuade sinks or swims right out of the gate. Whether the title of an article or the headline of a sales page, readers make snap decisions based on a quick scan of the top of the page…”

Who knew that a reader could be a title or a headline. I guess you really can learn something every day… or unlearn something…

I’ll go on record right here as stating that, yes, in the earliest phases of my career (when I was writing headlines on cave walls), I had a few goofs, but I wasn’t using my goofs as examples of how to write great copy.

The site’s design is nicely done; the content, not so much. I stumbled across it as I was looking around some agency sites. I was stumbling, reeling from what I’d read in one of the PDFs on the site of a long-standing, successful firm with highly recognizable clients. It was helpful, all right, but probably not in the way they conceived it.

I do have a habit of not adhering to the rules of sentence punctuation in my personal emails. I don’t upper case anything in my personal email correspondence, but that’s not a trait I would include in anything of a formal nature or in anything related to work. Because of this, I was willing to accept that someone else might find the all lower case use worthy of a ‘style’. What stunned me though, what smacked me around, was the goofy use of sentence fragments, known to many of us as “market speak”. Here’s a sampling from this well-established, we-do-it-all agency, lifted without any alteration from the file:

“consider content. not a very sexy or glamorous word. but in many ways, content is the never-ending mandate of marketing these days. advertising content. business content. user-generated content. rich content.

SEO, SEM, blogs, podcasts, online campaigns, video, social networking, emails and more. You name it, we’re doing it. Both the strategic and creative plan for it and the technology that will enable it.”

It’s the kind of thing that makes me wonder why I even bother to stay in this business. This was the most abrasive use of market speak I’d read since last year’s Microsoft two-page advertisement in many major newspapers. I don’t know exactly when market speak gained wide acceptance, but my personal belief is that it was born of the bullet points on a slide family.

I know that I can’t stop the continuing use of market speak, and I’m bummed that people of otherwise great intelligence either don’t think it’s a big deal or, worse, don’t know how silly it sounds. (What, you don’t think it sounds silly? Try reading it out loud, and no fair substituting a comma pause instead of a period stop.)

I guess the most I can ask, as a personal favor to me, is that you stop the market speak creep in your own communications and presentations.

Please. So important. Livelihoods at stake. Really.

News about friends

Got word from a professional friend about his work being aired on PBS tonight.

Jim Iacona is one of the best shooters (video and film) in the Bay Area. Recently, he allowed me to post a great first person piece he wrote on spending time with guitar legend Les Paul. Tonight, PBS airs a documentary about Sam Cooke, and Jim’s work is all over it. Here’s the descrip, via Jim:

Soul, joy, tragedy

“Monday night (January 11th) PBS will air a show on its American Masters Series that is near and dear to me. Sam Cooke: Crossing Over was directed by my friend John Antonelli; I shot all but one of the interviews. The show is about the life of the amazingly talented singer/songwriter Sam Cooke and his musical transition from Gospel to Pop. Cooke was a powerhouse in the music industry in the late 1950’s and the early 1960’s. He wrote and sang many, many popular music songs including: You Send Me, Wonderful World, Another Saturday Night, Chain Gang, Twisting The Night Away, Only Sixteen, Cupid, and A Change Is Gonna Come. Cooke’s story is compelling and it is beautifully told by John and Editor Eli Olson through historical footage, Danny Glover’s narration and interviews with James Brown, Billy Preston, Smokey Robinson, Lou Rawls, Herb Alpert and others.

The show took over ten years to complete. The production went on so long I can see the evolution of my career through the lighting styles for the interviews. I know how hard it is to complete a film, and Sam Cooke: Crossing Over is a great triumph for John.

Please sit down Monday night and watch the show on PBS or Tivo it for later. The broadcast times will vary depending upon your market. I’m sure you will enjoy seeing the well told story of a true American music legend.”
Sam Cooke was an embodiment of talent and soul, and his influence on singers continues. This should be a great show.”

And, about another friend:

Saturday I dropped by the Charles M. Schulz museum in Santa Rosa, where friend and professional colleague Brian Fies spent several hours as the museum’s Cartoonist in Residence. Brian is an award winning graphic novelist. His first book, Mom’s Cancer, about his family’s experiences coping with his mother’s illness, won several awards and has touched people’s lives around the world.

His recent book, Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow, is a multi-decade story about a father and son’s relationship, and our technologically evolving world. The book has received great reviews. Personally, I am awed by Brian’s mastery and integration of illustration, story, and technology, and envious of the support he received from his publisher, which is clearly evident by the unique physical structure of the book itself — from the die cut jacket cover to the integration of old-school comic book paper within the book’s pages.

Great story and great ideas. If you haven’t picked up a copy, do it; it’s a great package.

And, the dude spent quality time with Jeannie Schulz. Doesn’t get much cooler than that.