Except for this ONE time. Okay…I’m 40 now and I have a 6 year old son (Jacob Tyler). Anyway…I am constantly astounded by my sons inability to not be occupied by some form of electronic game (portable or other). Okay… so I get this email and I realize how true it is and I decide to share it with my friends and clients on my blog. Mistake? Maybe. But it’s so true and frankly I could probably add some notes that make it even funnier. For example… when they mention car seats… I remember I used to love how my dad would drive because it was a great game for me. I would FLY from one side of the back seat to the other when he made a fast turn. I could go on…but this new politically correct and safe world sometimes makes me laugh. One day I will make my son read this and understand how different he had it than me. See the email I was sent below:

if you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning…. Uphill… Barefoot… BOTH ways… yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they’ve got it!

But now that I’m over the ripe old age of thirty, I can’t help but look around and notice the youth of today. You’ve got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!
And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don’t know how good you’ve got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn’t have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter – with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn’t care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3’s or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We’d play our favorite tape and “eject” it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that’s how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

We didn’t have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that’s it!

There weren’t any freakin’ cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn’t make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your “friends”. OH MY GOD !!! Think of the horror… not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there’s TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

And we didn’t have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent… you just didn’t know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn’t have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like ‘Space Invaders’ and ‘Asteroids’. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen… Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what’s the world coming to?!?!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I’m saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!

And we didn’t have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

And our parents told us to stay outside and play… all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside… you were doing chores!

And car seats – oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were luckily, you got the “safety arm” across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling “shot gun” in the first place!

See! That’s exactly what I’m talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You’re spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn’t have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!

by Jonathan Marshall

A determined man sets up an elaborate ruse in a bar to get a woman that he would not normally be able to get if it weren’t for this unforeseen, end-of-the-world circumstance they conveniently find themselves in.

French Advertising and Web Design Agency CLM BBDO Paris recently created this spot for Pepsi. I guess this guy took it literally when girls turned him down in the past by saying, “maybe if you were the last man on earth…”

by Jonathan Marshall

The fragrance of hops and the lightness of froth, for the first time in a gloss. On Valentine’s Day – the gift for her that makes you happy too.

Advertising Agency JWT nailed this concept – “Shining lips, golden highlights and an irresistible taste. For a long-lasting effect- repeat application.

“In this advertising campaign, JWT uses the simple yet comical differences between men and women as the foundation concept for Heineken’s creative advertising. Another good example of this would be their “Walk-in Fridge” spot they made about a year ago, also included below.

Bottomline – according to Heineken, men and women have completely different priorities, and at their most basic of levels, they want different things – a walk-in fridge of Heineken instead of a walk-in closet, and a lip gloss (for their gf) that tastes like Heineken instead of a lip gloss like Pink Whisper or Midnight Mocha Boom…

by Jonathan Marshall

Headline:“Any drink worth making is worth making sure…”

Tagline: “Say Seagram’s and be SURE…”

Advertising

Creative advertising linking Seagram’s brands with the evolving consumer culture made an enormous contribution to Seagram’s success. Advertising campaigns associated Seagram products with modernity, upward mobility, and the good life. Advertisements and packaging promoted Seagram as a symbol of craftsmanship, tradition, prestige, and luxury. The emphasis on responsible drinking and an upscale life style has remained an important theme of company advertisements for many years. Beginning in the 1960s, many of the advertisements reflect attention to segmented markets.

Market Research

After the Second World War, Seagram began commissioning market research studies in order to strengthen its understanding of consumer preferences. This effort expanded after 1950 as the company realized that attitudes about consumption and life style influence brand choices.

Thousands of market surveys in the Seagram collection contain information on consumer attitudes towards beverage alcohol, food, and other consumer products. They also assess brand preferences and the impact of company advertising among different demographic and regional populations. These studies began in the 1950s and are strongest from the 1960s through the 1980s.

For more about the Seagram company, a background on their advertising agency, and information about Seagram similar to what I referenced above, please visit Seagrams-Credit.