Apocalyptic Mayans

While I'm sure the numbers aren't enormous, I am still amused by the thought that tens, or maybe even hundreds of thousands of people worldwide have stockpiled supplies in anticipation for an "end-of-the-world" scenario, as if their survival during the initial disaster part is guaranteed.

No real-world analogies or smarmy quips. The thought just made me chuckle.

Responsible Citizen

Through one of the online petition websites, I recently sent a letter to representatives in government regarding energy policy. I received the letter pasted below from Senator Kelly Ayotte, Republican from NH.

Thank you for your comments regarding our nation's environmental policy. I appreciate hearing from you.

Common sense environmental protection preserves New Hampshire's quality of life as well as the state's economic competitiveness. I am proud of my strong record of environmental protection from my time as Attorney General, and as your Senator, I will act to preserve New Hampshire's environment while strengthening our economy.

We can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make our environment cleaner without destroying America's global competitiveness. Passing a massive cap-and-trade bill that would increase taxes, raise energy costs, and redistribute wealth - all without impacting the overall level of global greenhouse gases - is the wrong approach. Worse still is the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) unprecedented decision to unilaterally impose greenhouse gas regulations under the Clean Air Act without congressional approval. Economy-wide energy regulations should not be enacted by unelected agency officials. Congress should determine our nation's environmental policy. That is why, on April 6, 2011, I supported Senate Amendment (S.A.) 183 to a small business bill that would have prohibited the EPA from implementing a national energy tax through regulations. Unfortunately, due to a required 60-vote threshold, the amendment failed by a vote of 50-50.

To be certain, our nation must reduce our dependence on fossil fuel. This is not just an economic and environmental imperative but also a national security and sovereignty concern. While we transition to renewable and alternative sources of energy, our nation must be able to use our vast natural resources that are available here at home by expanding domestic oil exploration and increasing national gas production in ways that are environmentally responsible.

We must also foster a pro-business environment to develop new, clean energy technologies and conservation initiatives that will help reduce pollution and create jobs. We should encourage the development of all renewable, clean, and sustainable energy sources, such as wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal, and biomass.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me regarding this issue. As your Senator, it is important for me to hear from you regarding the issues affecting New Hampshire and our nation. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I may be of further assistance.

I responded with the following.

Dear Senator Ayotte,

I appreciate you taking the time to respond. However, it is clear that we disagree on this issue. The fact of the matter is that the US has a depleted source of domestic oil, down to about 3% of the world's known reserves. While Middle Eastern countries boast about INCREASING reserves, their claims cannot be proven as access to these reserves is restricted, and the overall supply of fossil fuels is diminishing worldwide. To boot, any increase in drilling domestically would take at least 10-15 years to have any sort of effect on the prices of a barrel of oil. The best domestic energy policy available is a drastic shift toward renewable energy. Therefore, I support the EPAs restriction on CO2 emissions.

It is clear that the partisan political ideologies in Congress are blinding its members to the REAL changes taking place with our climate. While some of these changes can be attributed to the natural ebb and flow of our planet, it is a depressing state of affairs when the short-term interests of businesses whose long-term viability relies on the health and well-being of the earth and its inhabitants, takes precedent over the very real dangers our activities are creating. As is clearly evident by your policy decisions, and those of your cohorts, this is what is going on in Congress today.

I also find your comments regarding the redistribution of wealth in relation to emission restrictions spurious at best. If you were actually concerned about upward wealth redistribution, you would not support the extension of the Bush tax cuts. I believe you are using wealth redistribution claims as a wash to cloud the real issues at stake.

While it is imperative to maintain a pro-business mind set, it is this business-first mentality that has created the dire situations we find ourselves in, especially in regard to available resources, where we get them from, how we get them, and any security issues that stem from these circumstances. While government cannot exist without business, it is increasingly clear that business can exist without government. However, such a situation is extremely dangerous to the well-being to the citizenry. As such, governments now find themselves at the beck and call of the business world. How else could something such as Citizens United end up a reality in America? Corporations do not bleed. They are not birthed from a woman. They do not feel pain when things are going poorly; they do not rejoice when things are going well. They lack morality, and while they are run by human beings, our history as humans proves that as a cohesive unit working toward a goal, we cannot be trusted to always do what is right. However, I digress.

I do sincerely hope that you reconsider your stance on this nation's energy policy, for the sake of your career as a politician and for the sake of those you represent.

Best of luck to you.

Greg Marchilena

Proud, I am.

Advice I gave to a recent Syracuse Alum. (That's where I went to school)

You have some pretty boss work on your website. It's also easy to use. Both are very important.

One of the things that helped me was to continually work on new projects for my portfolio. Sometimes it can be frustrating. You can feel like you're putting in all this time and effort into things that aren't real just to impress people who have no idea who you are. But by doing so, you're constantly becoming better, more agile, more thoughtful, and most importantly, more mature.

Finding work in this business is not always easy. People will be able to tell if you don't have the drive or the devotion, or if you have no problem being complacent. Sometimes, it isn't always about pure skill or experience, but the hunger you have to constantly be better.

That being said, cast a wide net. Not everyone is going to understand you or your work. And that's okay. But don't set your sights on only the big shops or the little shops. Think of bad ass campaigns you like, national or local, and try to get in to those places for an interview. I applied to an agency in Colorado once based on local ads created for the craft brewer Breckenridge. I've never even been to Colorado, but those ads are amazing and I wanted to be a part of them.

I think most importantly, love your work, but also hate your work. When you go into an interview or a sit-down with someone to go over your work, you have to be proud of every single piece that's in there. Not pretend to be, but actually be. When sharing it with others, you have to be 100% confident about what you're showing. And then as soon as all of that is done and it's just you and your work, you have to almost hate it so that you won't be afraid to make it better or to take the criticisms others have into consideration. And again, always be thinking of new, bitchin' work to do. Doesn't even have to be advertising. Creative types these days love to see how you think and problem-solve outside of the world of advertising. If you have drawings, stories, poems, or a blog that you're okay with sharing, do it.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a copywriter. And as such, I apologize for the lengthy response. Hope it is helpful. Best of luck to you in NYC. Take care,

Can I Win an Election on $50,000?

Originally, I wondered whether a person could win an election to the federal government with no money; do it completely using free media, volunteers and time. The more I thought about how I'd go about that, I realized that it costs money to print posters and have an Internet connection, (although Internet is free at libraries and such, sometimes). Where did $50,000 come from? I don't know. It is a completely arbitrary number, probably too high even for most Americans to come up with. That being said, the 3/4 of a million that has become customary to win a seat in the House of Representatives, $50,000 doesn't seem like so much. So, I am now curious. Could I win an election in the next election cycle (or perhaps the one after it) on the backs of social media, some nifty volunteers and a (relatively) small chunk of change? Do I have the right ideas? Could I be the right brand of politician people in my potential constituency would want to support? I have no idea. But I think it would be a whole hell of a lot of fun to try.

I have no idea where I'll get the money or the volunteers. That being said, I am not light on opinion, hilarity and oversimplifications. In fact, I even have a couple slogans already. Although, I'm torn between which is better. Maybe I'll let you decide.

1. Candidate Greg: Always angry about something.

2. Candidate Greg: I'll start taking this seriously as soon as everyone else does.

Your thoughts?

Heroes.

I recently applied to a position in which, on the the application, it asked who my hero was, with the caveat that I was not allowed to choose a relative. Aside from being a bit of a cop-out on their part, it made me realize a few things, the major one being that I have no one person that I idolize above all others. There are many an amazing person in the history of the world who certainly deserve a great deal of admiration for the things that they have done, whether they have been retroactively made in to a villain by historical reconstruction or were always controversial, and thus never universally accepted. As such, I was left with a bit of a sticking point. In fact, of all the questions on the application, it was the one I took the longest time to answer.

(The list below is not my full list, just the ones who came to mind when I started writing this post. My full list is most likely much longer.)

Certainly I am a fan of the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. Sure, there are many things he may have done wrong. Some allege he was an adulterer. That may be true, but looking at the pros and cons of the man, I can't necessarily say that, if such a claim is true, it comes to close to tarnishing his record of positive contributions to this world.

I also admire Malcolm X, for his work, his ability to state the truth (or what he perceived to be the truth) regardless of how it made people feel, and his ability to continue to learn from those around him and ultimately change his views of the world and the people in it. Many do not know of the transformation he underwent in terms of his "militancy" in the year or two leading up to his untimely death. It is sometimes noted that as Malcolm X was softening his position, Martin Luther King, Jr. was hardening his. Given enough time, the two opposite poles of the Civil Rights Movement may have met somewhere in the middle. That would have been a force to be reckoned with.

My grandfather, a WWII veteran who was shot down over Italy, would've been another choice. The fact that he survived and was able to make it back to Allied territory via the Italian Resistance, without knowing a word of Italian, is enough of a reason to admire someone. However, he always carried about him an unflappable stoicism (for the short time that I knew him), a calm demeanor, an even keel if you will. I'm sure he had his moments of undisciplined emotion, but I never saw them. For the seven years I knew him, I knew a warm smile, cigar smoke, whiskers and a physically intimidating softy.

While we're at it, my mom. Despite not being perfect, she managed to raise (with my dad) two functional, increasingly successful, independent children with pragmatic, realistic views of the world. It was her goal to instill many values in us: respect for women; the value of intelligence; common decency; civility; pride; compassion and consideration for others; the drive to do whatever it takes to do whatever it is that makes us happy; and the knowledge that if you do what it is that makes you happy, the money will follow. I would probably be a faceless MBA grad working at a job I hate because it paid well had it not been for those lessons.

John Brown. How can I possibly put down John Brown, who was tried and executed for treasonous acts, as my hero? The fact of the matter is, we have very little in common, even outside of the fact that he's dead and I'm not. His logic for the abolition of slavery came from a deeply religious Christian context. To him, slavery was the of the utmost injustice one man could force upon another, and that the murder of slave owners, and in fact, an armed revolution in the southern part of the United States, would be justified in the eyes of God to eliminate the travesty of humans as property. I agree with him, in a sense, that one could only be a slave owner and a Christian with a serious use of cognitive dissonance or a bizarre interpretation of the Christian faith. Or, I suppose, the belief that skin color also determines the level of humanity. That being said, Brown's overarching views are not entirely without merit and it is no surprise a man so deeply committed to his beliefs in Christianity would extend that zealotry to an injustice he viewed with vehement contempt. Would I have taken up arms with him? I don't know. I'll honestly never know. But I can say that I would've at least heard him out.

I ultimately went with Malcolm X, for his ability to keep an open mind even when his convictions were so strong. I have no idea how that was received, and I don't care. I just think it is really unfair for someone to use the caveat, "No relatives." I think it should have read, "if you choose a relative, explain why you picked that person."

I suppose I'll keep that in mind when it becomes my job to hire people.

Good Read

Beer Industry Looks to Rebuild "Brand Beer'

Some quick thoughts: I find it interesting how disillusioned big-brand brewers still are about the craft beer market. Apparently, the perception that only "rich people" buy craft beer is still prevalent among the upper echelons of these companies. I may be an outlier (I don't think I am), in that I am nowhere near "rich" and am still willing to pay a premium for a quality, flavorful craft beer.

I don't know much about spirits and wine taking market share away from big beer brands, but I have been loosely following the market share that craft beer is taking from big beer brands. And it should be. Could the advertising be to blame for big brand sales declines? Perhaps. Instead, I think it's capitalism at work: People who can afford to buy beer don't want to spend it on a crappy product.

That being said, I think the author of the article also makes an interesting point in terms of blue collar workers who are not working. While they are often ignored in the advertising and messaging, they tend to be the ones drinking big-brand beer. If they're out of work with no expendable income, they're probably going to buy food instead.

Where Are My Damn Rewards Points?

Rewards points, customer appreciation programs, frequent shopper alliances, or whatever a business may call it, is something that I clamor for as both a consumer and an advertising professional. To me, there is no greater joy than being rewarded for my loyalty (and expenditures). Well, that is a complete and utter lie. There are plenty of greater joys. However, in the tiny world of my shopping habits, being rewarded with coupons, discounts and exclusive sales are the creme de la creme of motivators for me to purchase your shit.

So, when I encounter a place of business in which repeat-shopping is both frequent and extremely important, I am taken aback a bit, nay, maybe even offended, that I cannot earn something for my loyalty. Perhaps these businesses are more of the ilk that our business relationship is more like a friendship, in which I shouldn't expect to be compensated for my loyalty and patronage the same way a true friend should not expect anything in return for helping out a friend. Unfortunately, that's not how I see things. As such, I am at a loss for words why these companies do not employ some type of compensation for me spending my money on their goods. The benefits, from my standpoint, always seem to outweigh the administrative costs.

I am much more likely to shop exclusively, or almost exclusively, with a store that has a loyalty/rewards program. I am handing over to you, not only my personal data (name, address, phone number, age, sex, etc.), but also doing your market research for you. For you see, your rewards program, if sophisticated enough, will track every purchase I make and compare them with each other. You'll learn that for a savings of $0.15, I will switch brands of croutons (meaning I have low brand loyalty). I will jump brands of Organic Milk for even the slightest of reductions in price. I will buy the generic/private label brands of almost everything, except breakfast cereal. Not only can you sell my personal demographic information to the highest bidder, you can sell extremely specific information about my purchasing habits that can be aggregated into studies about my particular set of demographics. The skilled would even be able to determine other factors, like psychographics. And I am a willing participant, because I get to save those $0.15 on croutons.

With all of this in mind, for the life of me I cannot figure out why Trader Joe's and Whole Foods don't have customer loyalty programs. Perhaps people are loyal enough, the stores just don't need them.