Facebook Connect expands the Interactive Experience

In the last few days, I've noticed an emerging trend in promotional websites - the use of Facebook Connect to expand the user experience. This is part of the emerging trend of Social Context which involves more contextual content, media and ads based off social profiles. Here are some impressive examples I have seen in the last week or so:

The Flash Forward Experience allows viewers to become a part of Mosaic (the fictional site from the TV show in which people can connect about what they saw during the "blackout"). Using information from your profile, your location, your friends, etc. the site creates your vision during the "blackout." Viewers also have the option to become members of the Facebook fan page. Overall, the site seems like a great way to actively involve its audience in the TV show.

The Prototype Experience uses Facebook Connect for the new blockbuster game by Activision: Prototype. One aspect that makes this site more interesting than the Flash Forward site is that one does not have to log into Facebook Connect in order to interact with it. Viewers have the ability to read the story, view artwork, watch non-targeted trailers and pre-order the game independently from Facebook Connect. Facebook Connect is used primarily for the "Prototype Experience" - a short teaser trailer which uses your own social information in Facebook from your profile picture, your profile information, and photos from your friends. It's definitely worth trying it out for yourself. Here's an interesting post on the development of the site.

Welcome to Fight Club pulls your info from Facebook and turns you into a different person (in other words, you get to see yourself living the movie - pretty awesome idea). As a fan of the original movie, this site automatically appealed to me. I like the idea of being directly involved in the movie. Welcome to Fight Club was created to advertise the 11/17/09 release of 10th Anniversary Edition of Fight Club on Blu-ray disc.

I want to be part of Teamgeist

It's already fairly apparent from earlier posts that I love soccer. I also openly admit I love almost all of Adidas' soccer campaigns. So, it is not exactly a shock that I instantly fell in love with the latest advergame for Adidas.

The game which also serves as a graphic novel is called: Teamgeist. (Teamgeist is the name given the ball used at the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany.) Teamgeist invites players to partake in the story of German football team Die Manschafft's jersey. In the intro to the game, Die Manshafft is stripped of its identity. From that point forward, it is the player's goal to help the team recapture its three World Cup stars, thereby reclaiming Die Manshafft's identity. Here's the intro in German (you can watch it in English here):


In general, I'm not a huge gamer (sure, I liked the Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, but I never really moved past that) so I wasn't sure if I would find Teamgeist engaging or easy to navigate. It manages to be both without being so simple that someone who is a gamer would become easily bored. The graphics and videos are stunning and the story is compelling.

The site also features an interactive graphic novel with an augmented reality component. In addition, the campaign includes a blog with all the making of the videos as well as a twitter account.

This new Adidas campaign was created by North Kingdom and is in partnership with the German Football Federation.

Social Media and Human Rights

Here's the presentation I gave at the Unsummit in Minneapolis this October. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Social Media and Human Rights

View more documents from judyabel.

And here's the video from the presentation in case you are interested in learning more about the New Tactics in Human Rights program.

Remembering 9/11/01 from eight years out

As I was driving into work today, I saw some people holding a sign, "Remember 9/11." While the thought is never far from the surface on September 11, I started to think about where I was and what the day had meant.

Looking back at the last eight years, I find it amazing how much the events on September 11, 2001 changed my life in fundamental ways. At the time, I had virtually no interest or knowledge about international relations. Even though I was living in Boston at the time, I barely knew New York. I had never been to Washington, DC. I didn't directly know anyone who worked in the World Trade Center or in the Pentagon.

When the first plane hit the World Trade Center, I was in an art history class learning about the Taliban (at the time I thought they just sounded like a bunch of sexist creeps - Okay, I got that one right, but didn't know the history behind them) blowing up the Colossal Buddhas of Bamyan. Walking back to my apartment from class, I had no idea that something horrific was happening. Around 9:30 that morning I checked my email. My inbox had a ton of forwards about planes and the World Trade Center. Since chain letters were popular at the time, I thought it was a sick joke or a virus and deleted all of them. Then I got the same email from my mother (she never really forwards anything so I realized at this point I should probably read it). I was floored. My first thought (and one to this day that still embarrasses me) was that the planes taking off from Logan airport hit the World Trade Center in Boston. It is right by the airport so maybe the plane (at this point there was only one) had a mechanical problem and hit the building. I had no idea.

As the day continued, everything became clear. As everyone is now aware, two planes hit the World Trade Center in Manhattan. It collapsed. There is tons of horrific footage of people running away in terror. A third plane crashed into the Pentagon - something was still evident that years later when I lived three blocks from the Pentagon in Pentagon City. A fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania, after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, DC.

No one I personally knew died in September 11. However, it had a profound impact on my life. I started to see cultural misunderstandings and prejudices that I had not previously seen. Muslim students, including my best friend, were harassed on campus. One student even had his room broken into and his wall spray painted with anti-Muslim graffiti. This became an emerging trend throughout America and the western world.

I started to see a shift in my career possibilities and interests. Before September 11, I was planning to move to New York and work in the advertising field. With the fall out of 9/11, those opportunities evaporated. My future became uncertain. We went to war with Afghanistan because the Taliban had sheltered Osama bin Laden and allowed al-Qaeda training camps in their country (we still conveniently ignore these camps in Pakistan since they are a U.S. ally). I realized I needed to have a better understanding of international relations. I felt that since I was having a hard time with the direction the United States was moving it was important to expand my knowledge base and perhaps, even contribute to changing this course. This lead to my decision to move to Washington, DC in 2003 and attend American University's School of International Service. I got a master's degree in International Peace and Conflict Resolution with a mixed focus of human rights and intercultural communications.

Ironically, my master's degree led me back into the communications field. I love international relations and human rights work, but I feel that the work and messages are often lost. I feel that the working as a communications professional I can help reshape perspectives and shift paradigms in a positive way that allows these messages to be heard.

So, September 11, while a horrific day, changed my path and opened my mind to new possibilities and world views.

Homesick for DC

Lately, I've been feeling a little homesick for DC. I think a good part of that is coming from my friends (thanks, Jon!) sending me awesome videos like this one:



I still love Arlington!

Remy (the songwriter/rapper) has some other cool songs. He's awesome!

Even though I don't really have the time to write anything today, I wanted to share this new song/video by EELS. I absolutely love it. It was directed by Jesse Dylan, Bob Dylan's son. Anyway, I've been listening to it over and over again for hours and figured others might enjoy it as well. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Doug finds a new home

Courtesy of some of my other coworkers, my friend and cube mate, Doug Hamlin, now has a new home away from home. Welcome to the Doug Shack!

"Don't waste a good crisis."

Last night I attended the final Conversations about the Future of Advertising (#CATFOA) event for 2009. I was excited to go to this particular event because the founder and CEO of Big Spaceship, Michael Leibowitz, was speaking.

Michael's presentation focused on evolving from the mindset of creating "ads that people will love" to one of creating a value exchange between brands and their audiences. I agree that marketing is value exchange. It is not about capturing attention but about earning attention through respect.

He also discussed the major infrastructure issues facing advertisers and agencies. These challenges encourage opportunistic thinking: "Never waste a good crisis." In other words, NOW is the time to try something new and different. Take some chances. Push your boundaries.

Probably the most interesting aspect of the presentation was his views on work-place culture. Culture is key to creating great work. People need to feel comfortable expressing their opinions and appreciated for the work they are doing. To quote Michael indirectly, he wants his employees to feel like they work in the best place on earth. By creating an atmosphere of collaboration in which all employees are considered "creatives," they are able to create internal and external projects that push boundaries. Also, another great piece of insight: "Don't hire assholes no matter how talented. They will kill your culture."

I've been a fan of Big Spaceship's work for years. So, getting the opportunity to hear about their work, their culture and their founder's views on advertising/interactive marketing was great! I'm impressed with almost all the pieces of work I've seen.

Just to give you an idea of some of their work, here's a few internal pieces they produced:




And here is a motion demo of one of their best-known and award-winning pieces, HBO Voyeur:


A full recap video of Michael's presentation can be found here. I'd love to know what others think of his insights!

Dancing with furbies

Because summer is almost here and this commercial made me laugh outloud multiple times, I wanted to share it.



This is the latest Coca-Cola Summer ad playing in Europe - filmed in New Zealand - featuring music by Calvin Harris. The ad was created by Mother, London and produced by Blink. I really want one of the Gremlin-like characters as a pet. I can't stop dancing to the song!

Who are your career "heroes?"

Last night, I attended an event for the Minneapolis chapter of the Interpublic Group's Women's Leadership Network. A panel of three senior-level women, Nancy Knutson, senior marketing communications manager at Jack Link's, Maureen Bausch, executive vice president for Mall of America and Sona Mehring, founder and executive director of CaringBridge, shared the story of their career trajectory and advice for others wishing to benefit from their expertise. It was moderated by KMSP anchor Robyne Robinson.

In addition to getting multiple packets of Jack Link's beef jerky (a definite plus!), the event got me thinking about my career role models and mentors. One consistent theme among all four women was the role that mentors and their professional heroes played in helping them realize their goals. So, naturally, I started thinking about who my "heroes" are.

The list I came up with surprised me a little. One of them was an obvious choice as a leader in the advertising industry, but the other three were people I know personally who have inspired me - definitely not a conclusion I expected. The list below is in no particular order.

1) David Droga (the obvious choice): David Droga, the founder of Droga5, runs an advertising agency that consistently comes up with some of the most fun and engaging work in the industry. He's smart, creative and uses his influence for positive change (not something that is common in advertising). I love his work for the Tap Project.

Also, love the awesome viral stunt, "bike hero."
Plus, we can't forget the latest Puma website, which I just ran into today - Puma Lift. It's brilliantly fun.

2) Nick O'Neill, creator of AllFacebook.com and the Social Times: I met my friend, Nick, when we both worked at Fleishman Hillard Digital in Washington, DC. At the time, Nick was always talking about how he was starting his own company - not something you usually hear from someone in their mid-twenties with no expendable income. Nick went out, found funders and did it. Two years later, he's a successful entrepreneur.

To directly quote his profile on Facebook, "being highly active in the web and entrepreneurial communities, locally and nationally, Nick helped to bring the first Tech Cocktail to Washington, D.C. With the opening of the Facebook platform, Nick saw a huge opportunity and has become fully dedicated to covering the social networking phenomenon and developing creative applications for clients looking to gain exposure. Since the launch of the platform Nick has been featured on NPR, Fast Company, Practical Ecommerce, The New York Times and multiple other national publications." Nick sets goals and finds ways to accomplish what often doesn't seem possible.

3) Mark Clark, Deputy Program Manager at SAIC: Hands down, Mark is the best boss I've ever had. I worked with him originally at the Fund for Peace. There, Mark developed the Conflict Assessment System Tool (CAST), a computer-based model to assess vulnerable, failing and failed countries. Even though, I was only an intern, Mark included me in the work, which ended up providing the background for my Master's thesis. When Mark moved on to his next job at SAIC, he brought me with him as a short-term contractor.

Mark is one of the most intelligent people I've worked with and inspires intellectual curiosity in his coworkers. In addition, Mark has been consistently supportive throughout my professional growth. He is a friend as well as a mentor.

4) Grant Eull, Senior Interactive Art Director at Colle+McVoy: Grant's passion for all things interactive is amazing. It inspires me and excites my passion for the digital field.

Grant was one of the best teachers I had in my time at Brainco. He brings excitement both about the field and his students' work to each class. He is an instructor who truly cares about his students. And, he's a creative who truly loves the interactive field.

I'd love to hear who other people's career "heroes" are. Who are the people that inspire you?

Social media for social change

Yesterday, it was announced that Hugh Jackman is pledging $100,000 to charity based off of Twitter appeals. This seems to be part of an emerging trend of using social media to impact positive social change.

Throughout my life, I've been involved in numerous charitable organizations. I currently volunteer at three - The Center for Victims of Torture (CVT), Street Soccer USA and Global Youth Partnership for Africa. The emergence of social media has opened the door for organizations such as these to communicate with much wider audiences and connect more easily with interested parties on a global scale.

One program that has excelled digitally is the Tap Project, a UNICEF project run by the New York-based office of Droga5. The campaign is based on the following premise:

Every day, 4,200 children die of water-related diseases and nearly 900 million people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water.

Solution: Restaurants would ask their patrons to donate $1 or more for the tap water they usually enjoy for free, and all funds raised would support UNICEF’s efforts to bring clean and accessible water to millions of children around the world.

For this year's World Water Day (March 22) and World Water week, they created Tap Project Radio, an internet radio station to benefit the Tap Project for UNICEF. The project was a week-long collaboration between DJs, musicians, celebrities and advertising icons to raise awareness for the issue. DJs included OK GO, Rilo Kiley, Duran Duran as well as celebrity DJ’s like Elijah Wood and Rosanne Arquette. The goal was to raise $10,000 to give 10,000 kids clean drinking water for 40 days. In addition, they created a Facebook fan page and Twitter feed for the radio station.

There is also a Twitter account for the organization in general. And, they are currently running a video submission contest for "What Water Means to Me" to be featured on their YouTube channel. If you are interested in submitting, you can email your entry to tapproject@unicefusa.org.

More information on the thought process behind the Tap Project can be found here.

Social marketing as an integrated process

Frequently, when people talk about social marketing, the discussion centers on online interactions - facebook, twitter, all the usual suspects. While each of these are great mediums for connection and conversation about brands, these strategies rarely employ successful offline components and virtually never consider starting a social media/marketing campaign in an offline environment.

The Tate Tracks project by Fallon London for the Tate Modern does exactly that. The Tate Modern wanted to engage overlooked audiences in modern art. One main group was teens and young adults. "The Tate's in Southwark, which is a very poor borough, with a lot of disengaged 16-24-year-olds who were not using the facility," said Alex Sullivan, a partner at Fallon London. "So we knew from the off that we had to do something more than the weekend attractions the Tate had previously done. It was more to do with the Tate's main DNA, rather than something here this weekend and gone the next."

Fallon London came up with a great idea. They invited famous musicians to come to the Tate Modern, stroll around the gallery and find a piece of art work that inspired an original song. Rather than allowing the music to be available online, each track was only available in the museum, next to the piece of art that inspired it. To hear the music, teens had to physically come into the Tate Modern and walk through the galleries to find the pieces of art.



The music from Tate Tracks was placed online after the initial success of the offline campaign, giving people around the world access to the tracks and the artwork that inspired each of them.

While bringing musicians in to compose songs based off of art work is not a new idea, the implementation of the project was. Fallon/London won "Best of Show" honors at the 2007 One Show for the Tate Tracks project.

Fallon's Skimmer - Cool app to keep up with your social networks

Today, Fallon launched Skimmer, an Adobe AIR application "designed to streamline, beautify, and enhance the experience of participating in your most frequently used social networking activities." Skimmer streams Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, and Blogger onto one desktop dashboard. This feed content can be filtered by service, by group, or by keyword. In addition, you have the ability upload pictures and videos to Flickr and Youtube.



I immediately downloaded it to see what I thought. I have to say it did make things a lot easier. I could easily follow what was going on with all my friends on Facebook and Twitter, as well as any blog updates. For me, the only downside was that it got a bit overwhelming since I hadn't grouped my friends yet.

Apparently, (via Creativity Online) the app has launched in conjunction with Fallon's new corporate Web site — employees’ social media activity will be published via Skimmer within Fallon.com. In some ways, I see this as the next step in the evolution of agency sites from the traditional to a site like Modernista's where a floating menu bar that superimposes its logo and a small clickable menu over the top of whatever referring page you clicked from to Fallon's where all employees' social media activity is openly published on the site. While I think this is an interesting idea, I wonder how much monitoring it will take as employees come and go and if it will force employees to be much more private since their whole lives are now fully connected to their employer.

I still don't get Australian Football

I don't understand Australian football. I've watched on TV a few times and found it fascinating. It's a blend of rugby, soccer, and American football, but even after several hours I had no idea what in the world was going on. This ad by George Patterson Y&R, Melbourne, is a lot like that. The ad is for the Australian Football League and does a great job of juxtaposing Australian football against just about any other major sport. So, while I have no real idea what the rules of the game are (yes, I have read the Wikipedia entry on it), the ad is fun and makes me want to watch the sport or even, play it.



Probably the added bonus for me is the use of the Dropkick Murphy's song, Shipping Up to Boston. I love that song. Either way, this ad definitely gets me to agree that the AFL is truly in a league of its own.

Here's a list of the credits:
Client: AFL
Agency: George Patterson Y&R, Melbourne
Executive Creative Director: Ben Coulson
Copywriter: Katie Britton
Art Director: Frank Muller
Agency Producer: Romanca Jasinski,
Mandy Celms
Production Company: Revolver
Director: Steve Rogers
Executive Producer: Michael Ritchie
Producer: Georgina Wilson
Director of Photography: Greig Fraser
Editor: Alexandre De Franceschi
Editorial Company: Guillotine
Post-production: Fin Design & Effects
Flame Artist: Justin Bromley
CG Supervisor: Stuart White
Executive Post Producer: Emma Daines
Post Producer: Billy Becket
Sound Design: Nylon Studios
Sound Designer: Simon Lister
Composer: Cornel Wilczek
Music Company: Level Two

My team won an award!

Last night, my design team won an award from the annual AIGA Minnesota Design show for a piece I conceptualized, the Weber Shandwick Calendar (also known as the Weber Shandwick Minneapolis 2008 Holiday Card). The winners from the juried show were considered some of the “most exceptional creative in the upper Midwest.” I feel very excited that a concept I came up with won an award as well as thrilled that the amazing design work of my team was recognized. The team includes Teri Firkins (our design director), Angie Koehn, Rachael Lybeck, Gerardo Obieta and Leslie Sorum. I feel this was a great showcase of all of their talents. I'm very proud of this piece. The piece will be on display at the Weisman Art Museum through this Sunday, March 22.

Here are the designs for those of you not in Minneapolis.

I've always loved a good competition

I've always loved a good competition. So, it's not surprising that the new Nike ad for Nike Plus strongly appeals to me. The commercial is part of the Men vs. Women virtual running campaign. The race, which started March 13 and ends on April 20, will add up all the kilometers run by men and women across the globe to see who’s the winner, men or women. You can join the virtual running race at www.nikeplus.com, something I'm strongly considering. The ad features Eva Longoria, her husband, NBA player Tony Parker, tennis ace Rodger Federer, Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, long distance runner Paula Radcliffe, hip hop dancer Sofia Boutella and Liverpool striker Fernando Torres (a favorite of mine).



What's interesting is the each celebrity's own point of view on the Men vs. Women rivalry. "Women are generally better organized and more consistent," said marathon world record holder, Paula Radcliffe. "You might see the guys start off a bit faster and probably running at a quicker pace, but they're fair weather runners. If the rain or snow comes in, the guys are going to bottle out!"

Inter Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic countered with, "Men are better competitors. We're more powerful and, mentally, we're tougher ..."

The champion will be determined by winning two of the three categories: total kilometers, average kilometers per runner and the most kilometers run by an individual in a 24-hour period. Throughout the competition, participants will be encouraged to create individual consequences and rewards against their friends and partners, based on the overall gender winner.

The Men vs. Women campaign was created by 72andSunny. The TV ad was directed by Tim Godsall and the music track is Gnarls Barkley's "Run (I am a Natural Disaster)." 72andSunny is also responsible for other creative elements such as print, out-of-home, online films and retail. AKQA created the digital aspects of the campaign.

Baseball Cards You Can Really Play With

My friend, Gerardo Obieta, pointed out this really cool video. Topps Baseball Cards used 3D animation to create baseball cards you can play with. This is another great way 3D animation and augmented reality is used to enhance a product. Any baseball card where the player can actually play his position is much cooler than the traditional card. I can't wait to see what other uses of augmented reality appear in the next few years.

GE's Smart Grid Shows Grow Interactive's Innovation

GE's Smart Grid microsite is innovative and inspiring. The purpose of the site is to illustrate how GE is transforming the aging grid infrastructure into an efficient, high-performance, energy-saving asset. Not an easy message to get across. But, I think GE does a good job of coming across as cutting edge. The forward thinking website clearly illustrates GE's forward thinking approach to energy. Using flash animation, voiceovers and 3-D renderings as well as interactive gadgets for the user to "make the power grid more efficient," the site makes the information about what a smart grid is and what it does easily digestible.

Probably my favorite part of the entire site is the Smart Grid Augmented Reality. The Smart Grid Augmented Reality makes great use of FLARToolKit and PV3D to create a digital hologram of Smart Grid technology in your hands.

Basically, you print out the Augmented Reality digital hologram, hold it up to your web cam and you have a 3-D universe. Below is a video by OgilvyPR illustrating how the hologram works. It's pretty incredible.



GE's site was designed by Grow Interactive, an award-winning design studio from Norfolk, Virginia. Looking through the company's website, I'm amazed by much of their work. It is exciting and innovative and definitely a great place to get interactive inspiration.

The Arts - Food for Thought

I ran into these PSAs a few days ago for Americans for the Arts. Personally, I think they are brilliant. The PSAs are entertaining and engaging. Each ad resembles a typical food commercial but helps make famous artists into household names. Below are the "Raisin Brahm" and "Van go-gurt" ads. Every time I watch them, I laugh out loud! Sure, they are blatantly mocking Raisin Bran and most yogurt commercials. But, that's what makes them amazing. The PSAs are directed by Marcus McCollum and filmed by Crossroads Films.

Soccer as Inspiration

Today I got an email from a friend of a friend in Washington, DC. He's working for Street Soccer USA. Street Soccer USA (SSUSA) creates grassroots soccer programs around the US to help the homeless and impoverished realize their dreams and goals. They have teams in numerous US cities, including Minneapolis. The program is an offshoot of HELP USA, a national not-for-profit organization with a mission to empower the homeless and others in need to become and remain self-reliant.

In addition, SSUSA is the official US partner of the Homeless World Cup. And, it looks like I will be going to DC for the Homeless USA Cup:
"As the official US partner of the Homeless World Cup, each year SSUSA host the Homeless USA Cup, where inner city street soccer teams and social service agencies compete for the US Cup. In addition the homeless have the opportunity to be selected to represent the US National Team that represents the US at the Homeless World Cup tournament."

They have a blog with news from each team and their preparation for the Homeless USA Cup.

As a soccer fan and a person interested in human rights, this program sounds really cool! I'm looking forward to becoming involved in the organization.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the role of the communications professional

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the role of the communications professional. Obviously, the main purpose of a communicator is to communicate — about products, clients, whatever we are selling at that point. While we are capable of "selling" whatever product or message we are asked to by our clients or companies, should we? Or, should we really try to only "sell" those ideas, products, etc. that we truly believe in?

I have worked many areas of the communications field for the last eight years and the one thing that has remained consistent is my need to feel a sense of purpose in whatever my client or company is promoting. In some cases, it has been easy to find. For example, any of my work that addresses complex global issues, especially human rights, resonates with me on a very deep level. Of course, that makes a lot of sense since I chose to get a Master's degree in International Relations with a human rights focus.

On the other hand, I definitely have had clients where I didn't connect to their message or product. In some cases, I didn't even agree with what they were doing on an ethical level. In those situations, it has not been easy to find the purpose in the work. However, I have been lucky because it was the great teams, both on the client side and within my company, that turned the situation from a negative into something that was more positive. Sure, I didn't like the basic message, the product or the policies of the client, but I believed in the team members and wanted them to succeed. I wonder how I would have handled it had that not been the case.

Melanie Winn

This past December one of my closest friends, Melanie Winn, passed away unexpectedly. Melanie was someone I always looked up to as an amazing friend, an incredible mother to her son, Tyler, and a devoted wife to her husband, Jeremy. Her loss has been very hard.

In addition to all of that, Melanie was a constant support as I attempted to go through portfolio school. She was encouraging and supportive of my abilities even when I was doubting myself completely.

Melanie worked at Partners+Simons, an advertising agency out of Boston. Today I got a message on Facebook about a meaningful initiative they are doing for her 1-year old son, Tyler. I feel very lucky to have known Melanie and will definitely be participating.

"Melanie Winn, a 10-year P+s'er passed away December 11th. Those of us who have had the pleasure to know Melanie will always remember her for her strength, spirit and kindness.

We have two wonderful initiatives for Tyler Winn, Melanie's 14 month old son.

The Tyler Win Education Fund
We have opened 529 Plan for Tyler. Partners+ simons has kicked off the fund with an initial deposit of $10,000.
Deposits can be made payable to: Tyler Winn Education Fund
Send to: Sovereign Bank, 2 South Station Concourse, Boston, MA 02210, Attention: Tyler Winn Education Fund

Melanie Memories Book
We are creating a book of memories of Melanie for Tyler. Keeping Mel's spirit in our hearts and sharing our memories of her with her son. Share your memories of Mel: the wonderful memories, the sincere memories, and especially the silly memories. Crystal remembers how Mel made her use Purell before letting her hold Tyler. I remember Mel sharing her coveted tiara with Shinlei the day Shinlei became a US Citizen.
Please send your stories and photos to jamie@partnersandsimons.com by 1/16/09.

Please pass this on to anyone who may want to participate."

Oldie but Goody

I may hate or strongly dislike Comcast for a number of reasons (the basic one being they are evil), but I love this commercial:



It was directed by Jim Hosking at Biscuit Filmworks. Jim has also directed the Slim Jim wedding commercial, the Miller Lite chant commercial, and the Emerald Nuts druid commercial. He's clearly the director you want for fun, offbeat campaigns.