Nike VP-Brand and Category Management Trevor Edwards declared that the marketer’s TV creative for June’s World Cup was “among the best we’ve ever done,” which is pretty ballsy to say from a company that has pretty much cornered the market for epic badass commercials. I’ll have to admit it’s a VERY well-done and incredibly smart commercial.

Be sure to Like the whole campaign on Facebook as well as watch the video on Youtube

The cover for female Indy Car driver Milka Dunno's new children's book.

The beautiful and intelligent Indy Car driver turned childrens book author, Milka Duno, will be signing her new book, “Go, Milka, Go!” on April 14th from 6-9PM at Libreria Martinez located in the Artists Village in Santa Ana at 216 N. Broadway.  Bring your kids, nieces, nephews, your camera, and meet Milka while supporting a pillar in the Orange County community and one of the few surviving independent book stores.  Here’s some more info on Milka.  http://bit.ly/bNv1qv

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Libreria Martinez-the bookstore that has been a long time Santa Ana, CA landmark- is owned by Rueben Martinez.  Rueben is a sought after speaker, literacy advocate, and is both a MacArthur and Chapman University Presidential Fellow, which are just two of his many awards and appointments.  Libreria Martinez has recently reopened at its new location 216 N. Broadway, Santa Ana, CA in the Artists Village.

Advent Visual Company Presentation from Jason Moore-Brown on Vimeo.

Title: “For Your Eyes Only” Presentation/Marketing Video
Description: A video created for Advent Visual to present to potential clients.
Written, Directed, and Produced by: Mobo Media
Assistant Director and Edited by: John Hilbert
Sound Engineer: Mike Jimenez
Narration by: Michael Bolen

For those of you still bound to the desks at your corporate jail cells, please study this video carefully as it may not only help you survive in that horrid environment but it may also make you laugh. While you’re chuckling at your desks, taking notes on work avoidance techniques, and rearranging your clutter to avoid “getting caught fung shui”, remember to give a silent shout out to Krystalline Armendariz, Dennis Liu, and their team for putting this vid together.

Anyway, I’m sure you’ve all heard the colloquialism “can’t see the forest for the trees.” This little quip usually refers to someone focusing on some small detail and as a result, loses site of the bigger picture. I used to be in the Army and on my first trip to Iraq, I found myself telling my Soldiers that they needed to remember that our operations were part of the bigger picture (strategic versus tactical for you military types). “Sir, why aren’t we moving on Mr. X” or why don’t we apply more pressure to this area.” It’s tough to remember that you’re part of a big machine when it seems you’re doing most of the grunt work.

Now that I’m in the creative world and far removed from the Army, the same principles and colloquialisms are still relevant. When developing a product for a client, whether it be a logo, packaging, marketing collateral, or a company polo shirt, one has to be mindful of the strategic or bigger picture. What are the mores and norms of a given industry, a client’s target market, or the region in which that TV spot will air? Don’t just think about what the client’s asked for or needs but apply those requests against a template comprised of relevant external factors (SWOT anyone?). Maybe if the artist had thought about the strategic backdrop, he* would’ve realized that his caption and the image of the chimpanzee might lead the readers to an almost unavoidable realization. Keep that in mind next time you’re working a project for a client not only to avoid a negative out come but to possibly stumble upon an extremely positive one. See the forest AND the trees.

*In the interest of time and space, I use “he” as a general term rather than try to use “he/she”, “he or she”, “him or her”, etc. I’m paraphrasing from Guy Kawasaki here but don’t look for a problem where none exists.