Slow Your Roll

People are entirely too busy these days. And I'm not just saying this because I'm waiting to hear back from people about a lot of different things that are important to me. It's the truth. It has been for a while. I'm even starting to partake in the all-too-busyness that has taken over our society. I'm working 36 hours this week at my part-time job AND freelancing (more on that in another post). This means that I won't be sleeping as much, I won't be seeing my family, friends or girlfriend and I'll have little free time. For those that know me, being this busy is a rarity as I usually do my best to make sure I have copious amounts of free time. But for some, this is the norm. And that's bad.

I'm not complaining about being employed. What I'm saying is that we stretch ourselves too thin. And it ends up being the important things that suffer. Friendships. Relationships. Health. Coolness. Sexiness. Sanity. Sense of humor. Availability for beers. All of the things that make people fun to be around. We get so wrapped up in things we have to do we don't have time for things we want to do. Like hanging out with friends and family, sex, exercise, increasing coolness, staying sane, keeping a sense of humor, drinking beer. All of the things fun people do.

Maybe I'll make a campaign out of this and put it in my book. The National Association of Free-Timers is what I won't call it, because that name sucks. Maybe I won't have a company. I'll just make ads telling people to make more free time and stop doing stuff they don't want to. Not that ads actually convince people to do anything. Oops. I've said too much.

The Wonderful World of Research

Working as I have as an intern, occasionally I catch interesting (boring) research projects where I get to gather all sorts of reference material and information and hand it off to someone else who is too busy to do it themselves. It can be a bit tedious sometimes, but it's intern work and I am an intern. Sometimes, I do get sent on somewhat of an odd mission. Here's a brief list of the things I've had to do in the past all for the sake of advertising:

Pretend I was getting married and looking for a resort/hotel/banquet-y type place to have my ceremony/reception.

Pretend I was looking for a job and call up various staffing agencies to ask about recruitment information/rates and other various tidbits of info.

Pretend I was a media buyer and call up various media outlets to get rate cards and media kits.

Find out what a pendant light actually is.

Research ways to spruce up the homestead without breaking the bank.

Today, I am tasked with finding how-to info on updating your backyard deck (because if it's a deck in the front yard, it's called a porch) and building an outdoor shower. Not the worst stuff ever. Most of the reference material has been easy to find. Which is why I have time to write this post. Which really won't set the world on fire.

I have determined though, that once I own a home, I want an outdoor shower, for the following reason:

Sex

Convenience

Sex

To feel fancy and sophisticated

To wash off in after coming home from the beach/working on the yard/playing some kind of sporting event

Conversation piece

Sex

I feel as though an outdoor shower, while not essential to my happiness, could potentially play a significant part once I become older and more vain. Also, I figure I'll look like this guy if I have one. That's how it works, right?

Here's What I Have to Say For This, About That.

Chrysler Correction.

Chrysler isn't handing over all its work to an Italian ad agency, just the retooling of a spot that ran for a car in Europe that they want to Americanize. Not as big of a slap in the face, but still one nonetheless. Bad PR for Chrysler at a bad time. Sometimes I wish I could get a billion dollar loan from the government.

Enjoy Kiddos.

Me doing funny things in front of others.

This is AWESOME!

Video.

Chrysler Shoots Itself in Foot. People get fired.

Saw this article on Adage.com about how Chrysler, after taking bailout money from the US, is hiring an Italian ad agency to handle its work. Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal. Accounts move around all the time in advertising. The problem here is that because of the account move, I'd say at least 100 people, probably more, will be laid off of Chrysler's previous agency, BBDO. Not exactly the best publicity for a company trying to clean up its tarnished image after accepting bailout money. That whole giving-away-American-job-to-a-foreign-country-during-the-worst-recession-since-the-Great-Depression thing tends to not blow over well. Especially when you're already indebted to the government for billions. Not a move I would've made. But I'm just a lowly intern.

Would those people at BBDO get laid off if Chrysler moved the account from one American company to another? Probably. But the new American agency that picked up the account would all of a sudden be hiring. And while no "new" jobs would technically be created, there would be new opportunities for people who didn't have them before. And in a shitty economy where no one is hiring, that's a hell of a lot better than seeing the jobs getting shipped to Italy.

Now, I'm no fan of protectionism. Globalization is a-happenin' and there's nothing that is going to stop it. If another country can do what we do better, for less money, it's on us to compete to win back the industry. Thing about the ad biz, is that regardless of what fantastic work the foreign agency pitched, there's an American counterpart that could do the same thing. Maybe even better. There really is no need to outsource the work to another country. Boo on you Chrysler. Boo.