Plateaus

Been off doing a little homework, battling digital technology, mowing the lawn, and taking some notes on some great stories I'll share when they reach their denouements. But in the meantime you may wonder about the portrait with the glasses down on the bridge of my nose?

Those of you my age, give or take a half a decade, live in a similar world. We wear glasses, and to make sure we can read what ever comes our way? We've got glasses all over the place....prescription glasses ( bi-focals, progressive lenses), reading glasses, sunglasses, magnifying glasses. I can occasionally get confused and grab the wrong pair for the purpose. But, fully alert, a quick switch can save the day. But today?

I woke up from a blissful nap remembering a promise to myself.

"Today I'm going to go hose down and sweep the front porch before some visitor gets caught and devoured in the giant spider web I've been ignoring."

So I grab some glasses off a bookcase by the front door, drowsily pop them on, and head out. What I grabbed was a pair of bi-focals forgetting how to use them. From the very minute I stepped over the threshold, those bi-focals turned the entire front yard into a series of small plateaus that would disappear the minute I stepped down on them.

In about five minutes I woke up from the nightmare, found the right pair of lenses, and got on with the job.

That's my odd allegorical approach to setting the stage for a series of postings on coping with a distorted economy. How can we keep our feet on the plateau. These will not be learned treatises with quotes from Adam Smith, etal. Instead let us gather for a few snippets of strange to fully bizarre adaptations to the fix we're all in.

Do you know what "co-ops" are? If you live in a world of agriculture you'll have one answer. If you live in the broadcasting or publishing world? A co-op is a way for media to keep their advertising clients still contributing to the economy. So it goes like this. A sixty second, commercial (half page three color ad) costs "blah, blah." In a tight economy, an ad exec. may say to a struggling client :


"You can't stop advertising! That would be un-American. THINK CO-OP. Why don't you just get somebody to share a sixty second spot with you. And then you'll just pay "blah,"and the other guy will pay the other "blah."


Well, let me tell you, that can lead to some strange "bedfellows."

I was reminded of this practice, and the attached pitfalls, doing some coaching and voice over work for a TV spot. I was doing it for a breakfast restaurant Peggy and I haunt. I knew the owner was doing it on a shoe string, but had no idea how short that string had become.

After I'd given a few tips to the creative team from the restaurant, it was decided I should read the tag to the commercial. To my surprise? I read a few words about the restaurant, and to fill the gap in the 30 second commercial I found myself talking about a simulated sky diving operation. These guys aren't just sharing sixty seconds with their "blah" and "blah"! They are splittin' 30 secs.

And what do they have in common? Let's see...the guy who owns the sky diving operation occasionally eats at the restaurant.?

And the guy who owns the restaurant? Well he offers discount coupons for the sky diving at the cash register?

But, hey, they do need to advertise, and they are certainly not the strangest of bedfellows you'll run into.

I'm in my car, thinking about co-ops a few days ago, and on comes a spot about Harley Davidson Motorcycles....it's hard to believe Harley won't survive this recession...but here they are in a CO-OP commercial with.....? Go ahead a take a few guesses.

A very large private law firm, which, if we believe the commercial copy, goes out of its way to protect the interests of Harley riders. Now you know who to call, eh?

When we're all in pain, somebody needs to look for the irony and humor that comes with that pain. And without your permission I'm volunteering to take on that responsibility.