Brand Noise

Don't let Detroit be erased. Tell its stories.

On Tuesday, a film about the Milton Hershey School was screened at Tribeca Cinema. The director Cynthia Wade and the producing agency ArnoldNYC walked a fine line with their closed wall client to come up with a documentary that would be both compelling and serve the clients' needs. Together, they solved a big problem. They stretched a thin budget, recast client suggestions, and took cameras outside the school walls. Trust and vision let the film meet its mark. 

In Detroit, an even bigger problem needs to be solved: “America’s most struggling city needs to attract business and talent.” To help, Time Inc. invited agencies with Detroit offices to develop campaigns to encourage young and creative people to consider Detroit as a place to live and work. The result? Pretty conventional. Yet, no barriers were placed on the agencies. With skies wide open, why hold back? Has the nature of advertising in general become to create: oatmeal?

Think about it. The problem with Detroit is an American problem, not a regional one. We've been quick to let our cities sink into the sea once they're tarnished. What makes cities work is intensity. To revive their spirit means to conjure up that intensity. 

In Detroit, you have a city that once sold its soul to the auto companies. It couldn't hold onto many of its own. Consider Detroit's Class of 1984. scenarioDNA's own Tim Stock (a University of Detroit high school grad), Majesty Crush's Odell Nails (now a lawyer and with Mahogany in NYC), Philly artist Michael Frechette, NY film maker John Walter who cut his teeth in Detroit on Evil Dead II with Sam Raimi's Renaissance Pictures and Mark Crilley creator of Akiko who went around the world before choosing to settle in an outlying Michigan city, not Detroit. Has anyone ever thought to ask them why they left and how to strengthen bonds to bring them (or those like them) back?

Powerful stories exist within the city, as well as among all the ex-pat Detroiters, who never dress the city down while the rest of us sweep where we come from under the rug. Now that's compelling. There is a dialog to leverage from those ex-pats to those living and breathing within the city limits.

Detroit is a narrative that extends beyond the city and its suburbs. It lives in New York. It lives in Arizona. It lives in LA. It lives in Philly.

Sadly, unimaginative thinking among those charged with pushing the message of Detroit will further erase the troubled city from the states if we don't all pull together. To bring the city back to its glory, all the narrative threads need to be identified, organized and brought together. We can't get bogged down by politeness and mired in consensus. Don't erase Detroit. Tweet your Detroit stories with the hashtag #erasedetroit. (Photo: Abandoned house by smooveb)

Context of Costume is Evolving

Lest we forget that lines of sight vary from person to person, consider two perspectives on this year's Sarah Palin Halloween costume. The context for costume is evolving as room is made for simultaneous reverence and satire.

1. “I want to go as Palin because she is an enigma to me,” said a 26-year-old New Jersey lawyer. “She’s random, she's ballsy, and she has the most outrageously close-minded politics I’ve ever come across.” The registered Democrat’s costume consists of a red power suit, American flag pin and an ostentatious fur stole.
2. A 50-year-old from Boerne, Texas, a largely Republican community, will be wearing rimless glasses in honor of the politician. “I think Sarah Palin was the smartest thing the Republican Party has done in years,” wrote Kim, whose friends find the costume to be a classy, powerful statement. “[And] my boyfriend thinks she’s hot.”

Read more.

(Photo: Rubies Costume Company has sold more than 15,000 units of its latex Sarah Palin mask since start of production in late September, and it can barely keep up with requests. In past years, election-related masks were a good indicator of who was slated to win the presidency, but this year it’s “confusing”: Obama is outselling McCain, but the Palin mask is clearly blowing them both out of the water.)

We Need a Little White Space

Considering the cacophony of late from recession to politics to terror, much like any brand we all need a little white space to gain perspective. A certain barometer of the times, NYC's Village Halloween Parade couldn't have a better-timed theme: Ghost. How's that for back to basics?

"A white cotton sheet with two holes for eyes floats before you. It is the first and the simplest of masks. The sheet defines an absence, or rather an invisible presence, made perceptible only by its earthly veil.

"Beneath the veil lies the sum of our hopes, fears, and memories..."

Read more.

Social Credibility Among Artists for Obama

From now until Election Day, an artist in Brooklyn is calling on peers to simply circle round public objects (manhole covers, storm drains, pipe caps, etc.) making them into large Os, and then chalking the letters 'bama' to the immediate right of the object in the street or sidewalk, so that it looks like [ROUND OBJECT]bama. The point? Get people to think "OBAMA!" whenever they see an O-shaped object in public.

(Photo: O for Obama in NYC.)

Heart condemns McCain-Palin use of 'Barracuda'

Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart said Thursday night that Universal Music Publishing and Sony BMG have sent a cease and desist notice to the McCain-Palin campaign over their use of 'Barracuda.'

"We have asked the Republican campaign publicly not to use our music. We hope our wishes will be honored," the group said in a statement that said they "condemn" the use of the song at the Republican convention.

Read more.

The Shrinking European Family

The cover story of this week's NY Times Magazine deals with the diminishing child rate in Europe. The ripple effect on cities and global commerce is shocking. The video is from a documentary from last year titled "Where have all the babies gone?" by Journeyman Pictures.
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(excerpt) In the 1990s, European demographers began noticing a downward trend in population across the Continent and behind it a sharply falling birthrate. Non-number-crunchers largely ignored the information until a 2002 study by Italian, German and Spanish social scientists focused the data and gave policy makers across the European Union something to ponder. The figure of 2.1 is widely considered to be the “replacement rate” — the average number of births per woman that will maintain a country’s current population level. At various times in modern history — during war or famine — birthrates have fallen below the replacement rate, to “low” or “very low” levels.  read more

Network Nation

We are a bit obsessed with networks here at scenarioDNA.  Our job is to flesh them out and focus their potential for our clients. A great article in this week's NY Times Magazine by Dalton Conley of NYU's Sociology department touches on the power of networks in relation to the Democrats struggle with articulating their "New New Deal".  Dalton identifies the root of the problem as not recognizing the fundamental cultural shift.  We live in stark contrast to post-WW2. 

(excerpt) Government and big business had an understanding, famously embodied by the line, “What’s good for the country is good for General Motors, and vice versa.” Employers, in turn, agreed to pay their (male) employees a living wage and provide generous benefits.......Today, by contrast, the most common model of social organization is crosscutting social groups. Less than a quarter of families still fit the traditional nuclear model. Meanwhile, more than two-thirds of households with two or more adults have multiple breadwinners.

...perhaps we need to reimagine these nesting dolls and instead think of the social contract along the lines of a computer network or the hub-and-spoke airline network in the U.S. In such “scale free” networks, distance has been collapsed by long links that allow you to skip between any two points in a couple steps. The government’s role is less as a backup provider — in case one link of the nested chain breaks down — and more as honest broker and resource hub across groups.  Read more  [image Corbis]

In Utah: Speedos, Okay; String Bikinis, Not

A ban on bikinis at the city pool [in Kanab, Utah]  is expected to be revised, ending a short-lived prohibition on the popular two-piece pool attire, reports the Chicago Tribune. But that does not mean that lifting the G-rating is going to lead to poolside G-strings.

"My recommendation is going to be no thongs or string bikinis," said City Councilwoman Nina Laycook, who called the original dress code an oversight.

Bikinis that don't reveal too much will be allowed, as will Speedos for men when the new public pool -- known as the Cowboy Water'n Hole -- opens July 4 in the community just north of the Arizona state line.

Matching up political brands

An article in this week's Time covers the history and strategy to picking a VP.  There are lessons here for non-political brands that seek to match up effectively.

(excerpt from How to Pick a Veep)
1. Play to Your Strength: In 1992, Bill Clinton picked another Southern baby boomer with a moderate record. Picking Gore reinforced Clinton's claim to be part of a new generation of Democratic pols, liberated from the tired (and losing) politics of the past.

4. Hug Your Rival: That's what Ronald Reagan did when he picked George H.W. Bush in 1980 and how John Kerry came to choose John Edwards in 2004. Sometimes party unity simply demands it.

Retooling Virtual War to Help Heal

(from the New Yorker) Currently, the Department of Defense is testing Virtual Iraq—one of three virtual-reality programs it has funded for P.T.S.D. treatment, and the only one aimed at “ground pounders” in six locations, including the Naval Medical Center San Diego, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Washington, D.C., and Weill Cornell Medical College, in New York. According to a recent study by the RAND Corporation, nearly twenty per cent of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are suffering from P.T.S.D. or major depression. Almost half won’t seek treatment. If virtual-reality exposure therapy proves to be clinically validated—only preliminary results are available so far—it may be more than another tool in the therapists’ kit; it may encourage those in need to seek help.  Video  Read full article