After losing her job at the The Pittsburgh Press, a staffer for Tipper Gore invited Callie Shell to photograph (unpaid) the last days of the Clinton/Gore campaign.  That translated into being Vice President Gore’s White House Photographer for eight years.

Now a Time Magazine photographer, Callie has spent two and a half years covering Obama.  She met Obama when covering John Kerry’s Presidential bid. When asked why she sent more pictures of Obama than of Kerry back to the editors, she responded that she had a feeling about him and that “he would be important down the road.”

I loved the photographs and the story.  Check it out at The Digital Journalist.

How would you like to have 20,000 fans screaming your product’s name multiple times, supported by your name plastered all over the stadium and on the players shirts and on the T-Shirts handed out at the game, and having your name on every media channel reporting on the game?  Sounds like a sponsor’s dream opportunity.

That is exactly what happened on Saturday night at the NY RedBulls soccer game at Giants Stadium as the one side of the Stadium screamed out:  RED…. and the other side of the stadium responded …BULLS!.

Red….. Bulls   Red…… Bulls   Red…….. Bulls and on and on it went.

“This is fun Dad” said my 7 year old between screams of  “BULLS!”.  “I think we are shouting louder than the other side.  Red…. BULLS!  Red… BULLS!”

Me: (After the umpteenth BULLS! in my ear): “I get it - you don’t have to shout.”

A second approach supported by billboards, involves wrapping the turnstiles completely or Ads on the turnstiles like this Ad for the NavyforMoms.com:

While I have seen a few comments about enough messages being out there and that the commute is one with enough “noise”, I for one do not have a problem receiving or choosing to ignore one way advertising that keeps the price of commuting down.  Additionally, it actually changes the experience a bit as you are stepping into a message that wraps you entirely especially when the doors close - and it is somewhat unusual for now.   Similar programs are being tried in other cities.

So says Warren Buffett who, according to CNBC, has for almost six years been close to 100% out of equities (except for his Berkshire Hathaway investments.   In his Op Ed piece in the NY Times today, which is a must read, Buffett says:

Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. And most certainly, fear is now widespread, gripping even seasoned investors.

He goes on to say that bad news is a good thing for an investor as it provides opportunities to buy into the future at marked-down prices.  And that taps into the long term where things will be positive. In a succinctly put lessson on long-term investing, he says that people who are in cash are actually holding a depreciating asset as inflation will increase.  While he acknowledges that he does not know what the equity markets will do in the short term, in triue long term investor mode he says:

No, that is not spy speak or code to my sleepers!  Mark and Sara Schiller who run Electric Artists the strategic branding and marketing shop in NY, have opened a cool new meeting place in NY called “Meet At The Apartment”.

With workplaces becoming more casual and in some cases disappearing in favor of remote home and virtual options, Conference rooms are at a premium.  Enter Meet At the Apartment.

Hat tip to MediaBistro’s Agency Spy.

MarketingProfs Get to the Point: Invest 60 seconds in your SMALL BUSINESS newsletter refers to Seth Godin’s post “Breakage” to discuss “The Price-Hike Gamble”. The post discusses the how small successive increases lead to a breaking point at which you the customer bolts. As Seth points out:

My car insurance bill has been steadily rising, year after year, despite the fact that I have a clean record. The logic, I’m sure, was, “well, let’s raise it a little and see who quits…”

If revenue increases enough to make up for the few who quit, you come out ahead. So, quarter after quarter, year after year, repeat the same process. Raise it a little, check to see if revenue rises in aggregate, and repeat.

I understand how some of those caught up in the implosion must feel having been through the meltdown of Bankers Trust.  I remember how hard it was because the bank was such a big part of my life and I internalized it as my “business”, yet the decisions that led us to implode were made in a far off area of the bank unbeknownst to so many of us.  Overnight I became the “number” I always was in someone else’s soap opera.  We take it personally and for us it is personal.  For many it is just business.  

With all the turmoil in the financial markets and the talking heads discussing the causes, implications and responsible parties for the financial meltdown in the US financial sector, I have been thinking about the impact on the US Super Power status. 

Part of the reason why the rest of the world looks to the US is because its financial strength enables the US to have the freedom to do what it wants, likes and feels it should do pretty much where and when it likes and how it likes.  And the rest of the world knows that the US has the financial power to engage in humanitarian, military, financial or a host of other ways if it so chooses.  The question at hand is how the implosion will affect the willingness, appetite and ability to act in this traditional way now that finance and politics at home are in flux and not on the footing to support the role at the same level.  And abroad, is the sentiment “how the mighty have fallen?” or one that says that pain is relative and the US is suffering like the rest of us in a different way and $700 billion while an unfathomable amount is relative to the US economy and a bump that the US can navigate? 

I like movies.  I like golf.  I like entertainment.  And I like the marketing.  What with the Ryder Cup and a bunch of shows starting up, the TV has been on in our house a lot more in recent days.  And as I watched the new shows and the inevitable “commercial breaks” came by, I noticed I did not disengage as quickly when a movie trailer was shown as I did when an ad was aired.  Hmmm??

As movies are an interest of mine, I understood my waiting to see what was coming.  As I started to think about it, I was a little stunned.  I knew it was a trailer because it was screened in wide screen - with the black space at the top and bottom of the screen.  So as a person who likes movies, I was primed and I took the bait. Well the trailer ended and you know what? The very next ad was shown in wide screen as well and and I stayed engaged until I realised it was not a movie trailer and it was definitely not a product I had the remotest interest in.

Mitch Joel writes an interesting post Does A Social Media Vigilante Mean Equal Customer Service Justice For All? where he talks about social media vigilantes who name names in trying to build their own brand and obtain some form of resolution, retribution and/or compensation for poor service.

Mitch takes a different path and chooses to use his base to educate through highlighting issues, not companies and the fact patterns, responses and implications of the responses as opportunities for learning. By not creating sensationalist headlines that leverage brand names, Mitch highlights issues which becomes a positive force for change in an engaged way. Screaming at companies “Hey look at me and my crowd” while demanding things is not an easy way to win friends and influence results at a company. Most companies see the result as setting a precedent for others to follow and feel they are “damned if they do and damned if they don’t.”