Parkour

SAMPARKOUR from Wiland Pinsdorf on Vimeo.

When I was in kindergarten, I used to launch myself off the top of jungle gyms because I desperately wanted a broken leg (crutches looked fun...& I was a freak-child.). I always ended up running back to class depressed that I wasn't being whisked away in an ambulance, sirens blazing en route to the promised land of bright pink casts and toy crutches (admit it - crutches are the most coveted toy for children b/c you can't buy them at grocery stores & they're reserved only for the physically harmed, which was a very small - and in my mind - lucky minority.)

Anyway, I really should have picked up "parkour", a monkeyish sport my childhood would've loved, but sadly missed out on. Here is Wiland Pinsdorf's 'Samparkour', beautifully shot in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Celebrity Marketing: Michael Jackson x Pepsi

1983-1984: as part of the Jackson family x PepsiCo x BBDO (ad agency)$5million partnership, the "New Generation" campaign targeted the youth-consumer, giving PepsiCo a definite boost in their soda-war vs. Coca-Cola.

Sure, seeing Beyonce in a Pepsi ad, or Miley Cyrus on a cereal box isn't anything special -- my generation has been jaded by the "hype" of celebrity marketing. But back when we didn't have internet, and when the ad/mktg & music worlds weren't so fragmented, the Jackson x PesiCo collaboration was HUGE. Today, the significance of celebrity marketing gets easily lost -- it's largely uninteresting, overdone, and often irrelevant. However, in 1984, this ad was so fresh & so iconic that it still totally rocks!

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Heads Will Roll"

YEAH YEAH YEAHS - Heads Will Roll from Framestore design on Vimeo.

"Heads Will Roll" -- love it. Actually, the whole album ('It's Blitz') is pretty rockin'. Then I saw the video, and now I can't stop watching it. The MJ-moves, the werewolf, the Hedi Sliman-ish attire, the bloody sparkly confetti: rahrah I dig!

Somebody I used to know

Social Advertising/Marketing -- "Polar Bears"

Beautiful online spot. Back in September, 2008, The Environmental Defense Fund, Ogilvy New York, & The Ad Council launched this online viral PSA as part of a campaign urging people to use public transportation and combat global warming. For creative work, Ogilvy approached well-known street artist Joshua Allen Harris to construct the polar bears featured in the video.

Ogilvy New York's Jon Wagner (Senior Copy Writer) & Dustin Duke (Senior Art Director) on Harris: “We found this artist and asked him to adapt his work to feature a polar bear and her cub, the icons for global warming. The idea was to create something that would stop people in their tracks and to encourage them to think about the little things they can do every day to help save the planet.”

As I'm job-hunting, I keep trying to think of products that I respect or genuinely believe in. There aren't many. But there are countless causes I'd love to work for. Socially progressive mktg/comm/advertising sounds like a pretty rad career path. Especially if the message looks like this.