Stupid lawyers, why must you ruin everything?

What I’m referring to is today’s discovery that the Mad Men characters that have been happily coexisting on Twitter for the past few weeks have been unceremoniously taken down as a result of a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaint on behalf of AMC Legal.

These profiles were not being maintained by AMC, but by (semi) anonymous individuals with a passion for the characters and the show.

These profiles were brilliant. They interacted with each other and the Twitterverse as a whole. And they did it in character so convincingly that many marketers I know were pretty convinced that this whole thing was being beautifully orchestrated by AMC and perhaps the writers for the show.

Maybe that’s why AMC had the profiles pulled. Perhaps the rogues behind the idea were doing too good a job of pulling it off, and AMC had a “why didn’t we think of that?” moment. However, I’m thinking that’s not the case.

It’s very obvious by this action that AMC has no clue what today’s age of conversational interactivity is all about and that whether companies like it or not — the user is control of brands now. @soseman said it best in a comment on the original blog post:

Rogues don’t do things the way YOU want them to, they do them the way THEY want to do them. But clearly someone with such a passion for any brand just wants to help.

This was a terrible move on behalf of AMC. What initially started as what many of us saw as the best use of Twitter yet for a commercial property has become a black eye on corporate America’s perception of social media and its ability to stifle conversation surrounding its brands at any cost.

// UPDATE: Here’s another excellent point of view on this issue.

You see, the minor surgery that I referred to in my last coffee post was a cardiac catheterization with the possibility of angioplasty. The reason I was even going in for this procedure is that a couple of weeks ago I was feeling abnormally short of breath whenever I would engage in any sort of physical exertion. On rare occasion, I would also feel slight tightness and pain in my chest. With my family history of heart problems, this was immediately concerning. I was referred to a cardiologist, who ran a treadmill stress test on me which came up abnormal. They wanted to do the catheter to look around a little more.

I checked in early on Thursday, and if no angioplasty was necessary, I’d have been home on Thursday night. As it stood, the procedure only took 15 minutes. They found small but complete blockages in 3 of my coronary arteries. It was their decision to send me in for triple coronary bypass surgery first thing on Friday morning… incidentally the second day of American Heart Month.

Now, for those of you keeping track, I’m 34 years old.

Triple bypass surgery is not the kind of thing that someone my age really goes through all that often. But, luckily for me, I was able to have this surgery done before I ended up having a heart attack… or worse. I’m still sitting at home recuperating. Yesterday was the first day that I really felt like spending any time getting back into the groove of normal life. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been feeling pretty great… better at this point than any average aged heart patient. Right now, I don’t feel limited by pain or weakness or any of that stuff. Really, I only have one arch enemy… the cold.

They’ve got me on beta blockers at the moment which help lower my blood pressure and my heart rate. As a side effect, I tend to be pretty susceptible to cold temperatures, and with it being only 15-19 degrees outside for the next few days, I can get pretty miserable stepping outside for only a few seconds.

My wife Robin has been instrumental and has gone far beyond the call of duty throughout this whole thing. I’m incredibly grateful to my parents who drove up from Oklahoma and my sister who flew up from Mississippi to be here while I was in the hospital. While I’ve been in the hospital and over the past few days at home, I’ve had tons of calls, letters, and visits from friends and family. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and well wishes.

I had one friend visit from Oklahoma City and we were talking about how he tries to run and keep healthy but that he has a family history of diabetes that he doesn’t keep a medical eye on. I said to him, just like I’ll say to any of you who are in similar situations… GET IT CHECKED OUT.

If you know that you have any family history of any sort of disease, whether it’s heart disease, diabetes, etc. and you haven’t taken the time and effort to take responsibility for monitoring your health, I want you to use me as an example as to why you should.

Other than the shortness of breath a couple of weeks ago, I have been in great health for as long as I can remember. My diet is not that bad in general, and even though I’m a little overweight and out of shape, I’ve been OK.

Had it not been for the shortness of breath and more importantly, my concern about my shortness of breath, I very well could have suddenly dropped dead at any point this year. That, my friends, is no exaggeration. But, since I was able to be as proactive as I could in this situation, I can now look forward to many, many years before I even think about keeling over.

Take time to take care of yourself. You hear it all the time, I know I have. But, only now do I understand how important it actually can be.

[tags]anigoplasty, bypass surgery, heart, health[/tags]

• Sprint leads the mobile music space, having launched the first over-the-air download service in the U.S. in October 2005.

• Sprint is not only a leader in music within the mobile phone business; we’re innovators in providing navigation, video, picture services and more.

• The Sprint Music Store offers tremendous value … compared to other MP3 players that don’t even have voice service and other features, and that savings allows customers to spend a little more on the convenience of over-the-air song downloads.

• The iPhone will cost customers $499 and $599, and only one model will be available. We offer 10 phones, seven of which are priced below $100.

The other bullet points I omitted altogether had to do with their music service as well. Ultimately, with all their posturing, I just don’t think that Sprint gets it. For the core iPhone customer, the iPod/music aspect of it is only a scratch on the surface. It’s all the other connectivity functions (push email, full web browsing, the rest of its tech sexiness) that are the attraction to this device. Sprint’s document only addressed that aspect in the one bullet point that I included above. If Sprint keeps on holding this viewpoint, 2007 may be a rollercoaster ride for them.

And with that, this is the last I’m going to talk about the iPhone until it becomes carrier agnostic.

//UPDATE: Apparently Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer doesn’t get it either.

//UPDATE #2: For the countless many of you Googling “when will sprint get the iphone” and landing on this page, it’s said that Apple and AT&T have a 5 year exclusive agreement with the iPhone. So, in 2012 you might be able to get probably a third-generation iPhone on the Sprint network. Hold tight.

[tags]iphone, sprint, apple[/tags]

Today I return in favor of aesthetically pleasing good design with a little bit of talk about negative/white space.

I read an article that talked about the luxurious quality of white space. To some, white space is a ridiculous waste of money and messaging space. The LogoOrange article gives a possible reason:

Clutter has come to represent working class (just as white space identifies high class). Clutter clearly identifies a market in those who are immediately suspicious of white space and have no hesitation about what it means � that this publication is not for them/not of their class. So the quality aesthetic has been hijacked by bourgeois ideology, leaving the working class only trashy and inferior symbols to identify with. White space is the key and the tool.

I think that they are right on the money regarding high/low class design and white space. However, I don’t totally agree with why they say that is. I don’t necessarily feel that it is automatically because a class of people don’t think that “something is not for them” based on the amount of clutter in a design. I feel that it’s because that is what they are used to having handed to them.

In my year-old article, I used the example of the automotive ads that I used to have a hand in producing that were, shall we say, ten pounds of crap in a five pound bag. They were successful not because of the overabundance of copy and graphics, but because of what the target was used to. They’re used to it because marketers of this type (car dealers and their ilk) see good design as a waste of money. If they’re spending money on ink, air time, or pixels, then they had better be getting maximum coverage, damn it!

Would a design with lots of white space immediately succeed with a target that is looking for a value priced (read: low class) message? Absolutely not. It’s too much of a departure from their learned visual language. But, if you introduce bits and pieces of the language of negative space into designs targeted toward value seekers, you’ll get them familiar with a language that they can now begin to interpret. Think of it sort of like Sesame Street teaching tiny bits of Spanish to its young viewers.

I’d say today’s message is to those of you who are responsible for the integrity of brands and businesses that are perceived through their advertising design to not have much integrity. Don’t be afraid of negative space. Don’t be afraid to begin teaching a new visual language to your target. It’s as easy as abierto/cerrado.

You can read my posts at any time and in any sequence… exactly when a post becomes interesting to you is not necessarily when I wrote it. It’s interesting to watch referrals and the ebb and flow of what people want to learn from what I’ve had to say over the years. It’s even more interesting to see what they wanted to learn that I didn’t write but somehow they ended up on my site anyway.

The Japanese have a philosophy about things that have transient or imperfect qualities � wabi-sabi. In wabi-sabi, the true worth and inherent beauty of something comes from knowing that it is never complete, never perfect, never permanent.

Posts on this site are small examples of wabi-sabi. Perhaps there are small spelling or grammatical errors that I did not catch. Perhaps a thought is incomplete or that the point of the post ended up going nowhere. That’s OK. Part of a post’s charm and worth is those imperfections and the possibility that comments to the posts will be able to complement those original ideas.

Never complete, never perfect, never permanent.

I also try to embrace wabi-sabi in my designs, but that’s something I have a harder time achieving. Wabi-sabi is more than just applying a weathered look to your design. It’s more on par with putting something of yourself into that design knowing that it is never finished and will not last forever.

I try too hard to make things timeless and perfect… most designers do. That’s the elusive prize we seek. But, perhaps, if we concentrate less on trying to create permanent perfection we’ll create better work that has greater impact within the short amount of time it was meant to exist.

A quick Google search yielded the link above (there’s no URL anywhere on the delivery van), and it goes on to explain how the owners established U-Gene’s because they were fed up with meager portions, low value, etc.

We get that you’re trying to appeal to the everyday nature of people by acting like you’re angry and fighting for us, but what’s with the illustration that looks like a police composite sketch? That illustration alone gives me a perception about your brand that guarantees I’ll never visit your deli.

I don’t think that it’s because I’m a designer or a marketer either. Honestly, do you think that an accountant, construction worker, cowboy, or astronaut would be more likely to grab a sandwich from a place run by someone who looks like they’d sooner shiv you in the friggin’ eye than give you a free drink refill? I highly doubt it.

Actually, it kind of looks like a pissed off Jack Kevorkian the more I look at it. Now you’re really creating a brand perception that you can build promotions on.

“FREE voluntary euthanasia with 10 sandwich purchases. Get your card punched TODAY!”

Anyway, the point is that whether you are a large or small business brand perception is crucial. Even though you think you might be clever in your marketing idea, you might want to find someone trained in helping you avoid coming off looking like a serial killer.

That’s the normal order of things. If we were constantly passionate about everything that has ever captured our imaginations and hearts, we would all be extremely intense and annoying people. You may know someone like that… I know I have.

But what about a passion that’s forced dormant because of negative experiences associated with them? How do you “get back on the horse” and renew the pursuit of your passion when this happens?

For example, I have had a passion for creating short digital films for many years. It all started as a kid playing around with the family camcorder. Somewhere in my garage I have a few dusty VHS tapes full of the likes of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Elvis Freddy”… cobbed together with the finest care by editing from one VHS recorder to another. This went on through high school. While in college I bought my own Video8 camcorder and an Iomega Buz, learned to edit in Adobe Premiere 4.2, and went from there. Such hits as Look Who’s Hawking and Sugar Frosted Crack were born.

I turned this passion into a career. I took a position at a low power UHF station in my college town and made a whopping $7,200/yr. producing and directing local TV programming. It was about the passion, not the money. Eventually it became about the money, and I took my first agency job. I was living the dream, turning my passion for filmmaking (I use that term loosely) into a career creating television commercials.

I’ve been living that dream for nearly ten years now, but I have a confession to make… I’ve lost my taste for making short digital films.

You see, I had a very negative experience at one of my past positions with a person who tainted all that I loved about working with video. He turned that joy of expression into a drudgery that turned my stomach every time I approached the task.

This angers me. The fact that I had to endure such an unpleasant and unprofessional experience while those who had the power to remedy the problem turned (and continue to turn, I’m told) a blind eye to the situation is the smallest portion of my anger. What really gets me is that a large component of my self-definition was yanked out and stomped on.

I no longer make television commercials. My decision to deviate from my overall career path has much more to do with the fact that I feel that I can apply my television knowledge to the future of interactive media than it does my negative experience, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t color that decision to a degree.

This anger tells me that my passion is still alive, which is good. I don’t want to lose that passion… as much for maintaining that part of what defines me as for the fact that I will not let that experience beat me.

But, it’s tough. Work on Tiki Bar is slow not because it’s difficult (although it is), but because it’s video and I have that mental block. I feel that desire to make a new digital short stirring but that mental block stops me from coming up with a concept. Same with the reason why I don’t think I attend meetings for the Independent Filmmakers Coalition of Kansas City. I used to be very active in that group before this experience.

What are the answers to getting over this setback? I think I’m asking you as much as I’m trying to tell you what I think. Obviously, “suck it up” is the first and foremost item. When daredevils get injured performing a stunt, they have to get right back in there and keep taking risks to ensure that they don’t lose their fearlessness. My worry is that too much time has passed and that I’ve let that fear set in. Another way is to look back on the things you’ve achieved pursuing that passion as a way of showing you that you’ve been capable of doing it, and you can surely do it again, perhaps better and stronger than before.

I’m now about one year and several hundred miles away from the cause of my loss of passion, so it’s time to get past it and move on.

It’s apparent to me that I need to get out there and make a digital short about something… ANYTHING, really. But first I need to prioritize. Tiki Bar comes first. I can tell you that it won’t be done by October 1 (big surprise) but hopefully by mid-October.

So, again I turn it over to you. How do you overcome setbacks that put out your fire for something?

First off, read this article on the Slow Leadership site entitled How To Kill Creativity. Now, it seems to me that creativity in this sense applies to business processes, money-saving initiatives, and other like things, however, this article can just as easily apply to the creativity of advertising, marketing, public relations, or other related specialties.

Big, fat paraphrased quote that was too good not to include:

“In pressure-based cultures, old ideas are continually re-hashed, new ones tested to destruction, and any spark of innovation drowned in consensus-building. An idea that can’t be grasped in under five minutes by executives so distracted they can’t recall the next meeting on today’s schedule — or what was agreed at the last — is dead meat. There’s no time to be wrong, so there’s no time to be right either. Stick to what you’ve done before and get a move on. With such penalties for trying anything new, is it any wonder everyone quickly gets the message that, whatever fine words executives use, innovation isn’t wanted or valued?”

“These organizations don’t simply shoot themselves in both feet; they use machine guns. Their attitude ensures no new ideas will survive … As a result, they must run still faster to stay in business at all; and so have even less tolerance or time for risky, creative ideas. The result is self-induced obsolescence, followed by commercial suicide.”

Does this sound like where you work? If so, what can you do about it? As one of the biggest beaters of the creativity/innovation drum, I have only one suggestion… fight.

As John January of American Copywriter said in one of his posts: “Create or die.” Think about that. You got into a creative career because you have an innate desire to make things clever, aesthetically pleasing, functional, or a myriad of other goals of creativity. If you are steeped in a culture of fear and mediocrity, then your inner creative soul is being smothered or crushed. Yeah, that sounds melodramatic but in its own way it’s true. And, when your creative fire is extinguished, you are no longer effective in your position and you just have to get out and manage a QuikTrip.

So… fight for creativity. Fight for innovation. These are things that make life and business great and should be injected back into thought processes before mediocrity holds sway.

Now, I’ll admit… I’m at that age cusp that I don’t quite get what the big deal about MySpace is just yet. Sure, I see the potential it may have for me. Not only have I located and linked to old friends that I’ve lost touch with (for instance, I didn’t know my old roomate Dave got engaged), but I’ve also connected in some superficial way to people who I want to eventually get some of my projects in front of. I can see how the social networking aspect of it appeals to today’s younger folk as well. I hate saying that… younger folk.

Damn, I’m old. At least in MySpace terms. Oh well, it’s all part of keeping up with the imaginary electronic world in which I make my living.

Regardless… Check my page out if you’d like and become my online friend if you want. OMG!

Incidentally, here’s an article I’m reading at the moment that I’ve enjoyed enough so far to pass on:

Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace

In the interest of open source creativity I present to you a little something simple I cooked up… SWFTrackâ�¢.

A problem that many who develop all-Flash web sites face is that of not necessarily being able to effectively track where users are going within your site. I was wanting to see where people were looking on my portfolio site while keeping the whole site in one Flash presentation, thereby keeping that stateless appearance.

I started researching ways to track clicks through Flash sites, and found that there really was not a whole lot out there in terms of solutions. So, I set out to develop one myself. The solution itself is very simple and leverages Flash and the fundamentals of AJAX.

To begin, your site must utilize frames. Set one frame row to a height of zero pixels and the other 100%. Name the zero height frame “swftrack” and the other something else. The code would look something like the code for jeremyfuksa.com:

<html>
<head>
<title>Jeremy Fuksa :: Creative Generalist :: Portfolio</title>
</head>
<frameset rows="0,*" border="0" framespacing="0" frameborder="0">
<frame xsrc="" mce_src=""   name="swftrack" scrolling="no">
<frame xsrc="main.php" mce_src="main.php"   name="main">
</frameset>
</html>

The Flash part of it is also very simple. In any button code that you have in your Flash presentation, simply add this code:

on (release) {
// whatever other button code you have written
getURL("swftrack.php?sectionClick=MySection","swftrack");
}

“So, what’s in this swftrack.php?” you ask? Well… this:

<?php
// Customize $pageTitle to read however
// you want the page title to register in your
// tracking application. (i.e. Mint)
if ($_GET[�sectionClick�] == ��) {
$pageTitle = �Portfolio :: Main�;
} else {
$pageTitle = �Portfolio :: �.$_GET[�sectionClick�];
}
?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC �-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN�
�http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd�>
<html xmlns=�http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml�>
<head>
<meta http-equiv=�Content-Type� content=�text/html;
charset=ISO-8859-1� />
<title><?php echo $pageTitle; ?></title>
</head>
<body>

</body>
</html>

Doing this gives you a dynamically titled page that gets injected into your tracking software. Here’s what it looks like in my Mint installation:

“Tiki Bar :: Characters” and “Tiki Bar :: Cast Listing” are buttons within my Flash presentation at tikibarcartoon.com that call SWFTrack. Now, instead of just getting a set amount of hits to that site, I can segment and see who is hitting what within that Flash site.

Yes, it’s simplistic, and yes, there could be better ways to do it, and that’s one of the main reasons I share this with you now. As part of the open source aspect of this, I invite you to improve upon it and share your findings with the rest of the world. Here are some features I am adding to SWFTrack 2.0:

• Ways to make swftrack.php present indexable content to search engine spiders while making direct human hits to the file redirect to the home page with the correct desired site state. Huh? Well, let’s say that if you were to click a link in Google that took you to www.jeremyfuksa.com/print, you would immediately be taken to the print section of my Flash presentation, not to the home page. If you were a search bot, you’d get a text only version of whatever was in that Flash section.
• Inventing ways to make the solution a little more elegant. But, who knows, maybe the solution’s charm and usefulness is in its simplicity and “why didn’t I think of that?” factor.

Enjoy, and please, let me know if you use or improve this solution!