Looking Inside: Never thought I’d say (write) this. But I have recently become ambivalent about 9/11 tribute programming. If I were an advertiser, I would have prepared something special for
that day, and even the days before and after. I would have prepared something special because I think emotional connection is what separates a great brand from a product that enjoys capital success.
But I’m not sure I have the heart for watching programming for my own personal consumption. Two things have turned it for me, and I’m interested to hear how other media people feel about this. The
first was an e-mail from my fiction writing professor (yeah, ha ha, I know, I write fiction in this space all the time). Last fall my fiction workshop centered around the personal observations of the
group as we took in the intimate tragedies the day spawned. I started to revisit that experience, and I realized that I want to see what the memories of this event are like without media input. It was
the defining event for modern media. But I want that part to be over. The second thing that pushed it for me was a close relative telling me she had been to a christening last weekend for a fireman’s
widow’s baby, which was born in March. New life. I feel like 9/11/02 is a new start. Kind of like New Year’s Day. I never watch TV on New Year’s Day.
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Big Oil: Shell Oil just announced a
$20 million-plus campaign, part of which I saw on Monday Night Football. Believe me, I hope Shell and its competitors become the hottest category in the business. But I have a question for those who
think pharmaceutical companies shouldn’t advertise because their prices are too high. Couldn’t you make the same argument about big oil? We should tell big oil companies they should keep their ad
budgets and apply them to the price of gasoline. That makes as much sense to me as restricting drug ads in the hopes that those expenditures will go to the bottom line.
Free Martha: The
rallying cry of the year. Cracks me up. Somebody send me a T-shirt, please.
