My 10 Favorite Christmas Moments in Film & TV

Some say Christmas has become too commercial (well, Charlie Brown has been saying that since 1965). The Thanksgiving turkey is barely out the oven before we're bombarded with Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales and radio stations convert to 24-hour holiday music marathons. But that's ok by me -- even if we do get sidetracked from the true meaning of the season, whatever your belief, it's a time that hopefully we find ourselves coming together with friends and family. And for the movie and TV buff among us, we can check out those holiday moments from the big and small screen that strike a chord with us. With a happy 50th anniversary nod to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which airs tonight on CBS, my 10 favorite moments...

1. Ralphie Meets Santa

 

There are so many funny memorable moments in the beloved A Christmas Story: the tongue on the icy pole, the leg lamp. But this scene reminded me of my mother taking me to Manhattan's Macys and Gimbels to check out the department store Santas when I was kid (they just weren't quite as scary).


2. The Miser Brothers - They're Too Much!

 

From the Rankin-Bass catalog of stop animation, The Year Without A Santa Claus ages best, in no small part to the Heat Miser / Cold Miser brothers and their catchy song (which even was featured in the Batman and Robin film).

 

 

3. Peanuts Dance Party

 

 

Yes, the Charlie Brown Christmas features the heartfelt "meaning of Christmas" speech by Linus but do you anticipate any scene more than the Peanuts gang dancing to Schroeder's jazzy tune?

 

 

 

4. You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch

 

 

How bad is the Grinch? His "theme" song tells it all, from Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas (fun fact: it was sung by Thurl Ravenscroft who also voiced Kellogg's Tony the Tiger).

 

 

5. Bedford Falls Helps Out George Bailey

 

 

For the record, I'm impatient. So I get annoyed by how long it takes George Bailey to realize he is not dreaming or getting pranked by Clarence the angel-in-training in It's A Wonderful Life. Still, when the townsfolk come together and donate their hard-earned money to save George's bank, well, that IS the meaning of Christmas. 

 

 

6. End Scene - Bad Santa & The Stuffed Elephant

 

 

Bad Santa is not for kids or even some adults. It is one raunchy, envelope-pushing black comedy. And just when you think the title character, played by Billy Bob Thornton, has no redeeming qualities, he surprises you in the final scene of the film.

 

 

7. Santa! I Know Him!

 

 

It's a scene from Elf that lasts but a few seconds, but when Will Ferrell expresses extreme jubilation once the department store announces Santa's arrival, it still works as the catalyst to one of the film's funniest moments.

 

 

8. Soldiers vs. Bogeymen

 

 

 

It may not officially be a holiday film, but the Laurel and Hardy Babes in Toyland-based March of the Wooden Soldiers features a climatic battle between the life-size soldiers and the evil bogeymen.

 

 

9. The Island of Misfit Toys

 

 

The classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is filled with many memorable moments and characters, including these playful oddities which eventually find their way inside Santa's sack of toys. Hey, what was wrong with the doll, by the way?

 

 

10. Tonto, Frankenstein and Tarzan

 

 

 

This 30-second Saturday Night Live skit featured Tonto, Tarzan and Frankenstein singing a barely recognizable Away In A Manger. This spot-on parody captured the holiday greetings from staff that played on our local station WPIX New York as well as many other local stations across the country.

 

 

Honorable Mention: The Yule Log

 

 

Speaking of WPIX in New York City, the channel's annual tradition, that began in the 1960s, was to broadcast this burning log against the soundtrack of popular holiday music. Like Grandma's fruitcake, it wasn't really the Christmas season without it (fun fact: it was originally filmed in Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the New York City mayor).

 

 

I'm sure there are others I would have liked to add (sorry, Frosty), but there you go. What's your favorite?

 

 

 

 

© 2014. Tom Quash

 

 

 

 

8 Questions for Chris Cathcart - The Spirit of Giving Back

The Spirit of Giving Back

8 Questions for Chris Cathcart
Activist, Communicator, Author

Christopher Cathcart is a published author; public relations, marketing and brand development expert; and a noted social entrepreneur. In 1995, Cathcart founded OneDiaspora Group, a Los Angeles and Washington, DC-based communications consulting firm whose clients have included Jaguar Cars, Hidden Beach Recordings, UniWorld Group, Inc., Heart & Soul magazine, among others. His first book, The Lost Art of Giving Back, a how-to guide to volunteerism, was published in 2007. Before starting OneDiaspora Group, he was an executive at some of the world’s leading entertainment and media companies, including CNN, Motown Records, and Warner Bros. Television. Beyond the world of communications, Cathcart is also highly respected in the advocacy and service communities. He works tirelessly in promoting HIV/AIDS awareness and education, as well as mentorships for at-risk youth. He is the co-editor of the new book, HBCU Experience - The Book: A Collection of Essays Celebrating the Black College Experience.

 

Your passion for giving back is woven throughout all that you do, and have done, through your adult life. What drives you?

I’ve always been committed to dedicating my time and resources and talents to improving the environment I’m in – my community, the nation, the world – however you want to define it. I just think we have a responsibility to make sure we leave this place a little better than we got it. And this goes back to my Howard University days; working with student groups in an effort to try and improve whatever conditions we found ourselves in and in trying to enlighten people so that they felt some responsibility to do the same. No matter what I did professionally or what I do professionally, it’s always been geared toward some form of service and giving back.

 

How can we make an impact?

There’s so much need out there that it’s easy to identify things that can use your input or support. The trick is, as individuals, finding the things that we might be passionate about and feeling compelled enough to go beyond our comfort zone and actually get involved. There is no debate about whether you should do something. The debate is really what you do. And that is an individual decision. I tell people all the time, you don’t have to do what I do. But you have to find some way that you can make a difference. Because we are all beneficiaries of the people who came before us; those who experienced some level of sacrifice so that we’re able to do the things that we’re able to do today. This journey is not over; we’re just at this precise point of it, so it is still our responsibility to ensure that those that come after us have an easier way to go. They’ll still have their challenges but hopefully they will overcome some hurdles so that they can go on and fight new battles.

 

From your perspective, have we made progress and where can we continue to improve?

I do believe we have made progress, but there’s a lot more work to be done. I think one of the major hurdles we have to overcome now—and this is my personal belief—is that we live in a very selfish time where it’s very easy to be self-centered about how you approach life. I think that while the advent of social networking and new media in one sense has brought many more people together than could’ve been brought together otherwise, it also allows you to focus very heavily on yourself and your own self-interests. And so we have to overcome the tendency with using all of this new technology to indulge our own individual ideas and wants and needs as opposed to using the ability to connect with so many people as a way to uplift and educate and inspire large numbers of people. We have the tools to be much more effective with doing good and reaching out. If you look at Facebook and Twitter, a lot of these posts are extremely self-serving. And we all have a desire to feel important and stand out, but as Dr. King said, everybody can be great because everyone can serve. So we have to fight that urge to overindulge and try to use some of our energy and skill and passion to try and inspire others.

 
Tell me about your new book, HBCU Experience - The Book.

My partner in this project, Dr. Tia Tyree, [co-editor] and myself both believed that HBCUs [historically black colleges and universities] are still vital. They still have a very important role in our education system and need to be protected and exalted and we need to remind folks of these things. There are already many vehicles out there to discuss black colleges – websites, movies, TV shows. But we thought one of the things that is often lost in the discussion is the actual experience and the experiences of the graduates themselves. And not just the famous people who have attended. The reality is, for the most part, they weren’t famous when they were there. There were certain things perhaps that happened within the context of their time at the HCBU that helped propelled them to the things that they ultimately did.

So what we wanted to do is collect a series of stories from various HBCU graduates from various eras and have them discuss an incident or an experience while they were at school that helped fundamentally shaped who they are today. With these stories, we could share them with other HBCU grads and people who went to predominantly white institutions so that they could get a glimpse of what those who have attended an HBCU have experienced. These can also be shared with high school students who may be entertaining which school to go to and what type of school to apply to, giving them just another piece of information to consider as they make that decision. And most importantly, this effort is to really help underscore that our HBCUs and black colleges are still relevant and play a tremendous role and will continue to play one in educating our people.

 

Does this relevance become more challenging to communicate as some communities become more diverse?

I think that diversity is a challenge but it is a challenge that we should welcome. Black colleges, HBCUs, have to evolve too. The doors should be open, and they are, to people of all backgrounds. There are some people who frown upon those black colleges that are trying to get more non-black students involved. I don’t really feel that way. I just think this offers another opportunity for those who may not want to go to some of the schools they may consider as frontline. It’s important that all young people—particularly people of color, African Americans—at least include HBCUs as they go about the application process for schools. Diversity does make it a little more challenging than, say 40 years ago, when the odds were that you were going to go to a black college if you came from a certain part of the country. That’s not the case anymore. But that diversity shouldn’t be something that takes away from the draw of our black colleges. I never promote just going to black colleges for the sake of going. It still has to do for you what you want it to do. Don’t let the fact that it is a smaller school, maybe not as well funded as some larger institutions, not as diverse as you were lead to believe schools should be, deter you from applying. Because they can fill gaps that maybe some of the other schools and education opportunities don’t.

Howard University, Washington DC

 

Any HBCU experience that stands out for you?

I have a very unique college experience because I came to school on an athletic scholarship. So I played two years as a football player, kept getting hurt, got active on campus and that led to getting involved in student leadership which eventually led to becoming president of student government. Probably the year I spent as president of the student government had a profound impact on me because that was really the first time in my life, from the leadership standpoint, that I was able to really serve. I enjoyed the opportunity to first, serve in that capacity, and secondly, to help raise issues like ending apartheid and getting black studies made mandatory on Howard’s campus, to the point where other people thought they were important as well. And I was able to take the lessons I learned from the many mistakes that I made during that time and apply them when I left school.

 

What’s the one thing most people may not know about you?

People may not know how earnestly I tie up the sense of service and giving as part of my defining character; how hard I am on myself relative to feeling I’m not doing enough. It’s not something I discuss outwardly but I always feel that I should be doing more. I live almost in fear—this may be a bad word—almost in fear that once my time passes on earth I have not done the things I was supposed to do. That may be me pursuing an ever-moving target but I think about that. When all my time is done, I want folks to be able to say, ‘he really tried his best’ and I often fear that I fall short of that.

 

If you could break bread with anyone, living or dead, who might that be?

I’ve often thought about this. Malcolm X. I can tie directly to studying Malcolm in my Afro-American studies class, freshman year at Howard. I did a paper on him: The Evolution of a Black Leader. I got an A- on it but the research for that paper really opened my eyes up and altered my thinking. I attribute a lot of the growth that I had after that to that door being swung all the way open through my reading of his speeches and some of the writings about him and I can draw a line from that experience to a lot of the things I did not only at Howard but afterward.

I think that there are so many people that have such strong feelings about Malcolm X that it clouds the reality of who he was and his journey—personal development, spiritual, political, educational and otherwise. And I would just love to sit down and talk to him and hear from him—the evolution he went through; the arch, where he went from Detroit Red to that unfortunate day in February of ’65 when his life was taken. How was he able to have the courage to make those type of changes when so many of us in life are very reluctant to make any kind of serious changes in our lives. And he did it against tremendous odds. I would just like to know what his journey was like, from him.

 

 

 

 

 

 © 2014. Tom Quash

 

 

8 Questions for Sheri Singer: Mavericks of MarComm Series

The Mavericks of MarComm

A Quashspeak Series

8 Questions for

Sheri Singer

President and CEO, Singer Communications

Sheri Singer has more than 25 years of award-winning public relations, marketing and communications experience. Before starting her firm, Sheri was a vice president for top 10 public relations agencies (Ketchum PR) managing accounts for worldwide clients and bringing them strategic communications, public affairs, branding, materials development, social marketing, marketing communications, media relations, research, and special events expertise. She is the author of numerous articles and has served as editor of more than 10 publications. She has been honored with PR Week’s most successful corporate public relations campaign, an ASAE Gold Circle Award and an Art Directors Guild Award.

WHAT DROVE YOU TO THIS INDUSTRY?

I first started in broadcast journalism as an on-air producer in Baltimore and with WFMD in Frederick, Maryland. One day I found myself covering the crowning of the Maryland Dairy Queen and sticking a mic in the face of a 16-year-old and I realized I’m not doing this anymore. A friend of mine connected me to ASAE and I ended up with my first association job, as the assistant editor for three newsletters and our 72-page color magazine. One day, I suggested we might want to do some public relations around our annual meeting and I was told to pursue it. It turned out that I was able to get the press—including CNN and the Atlanta Constitution—to come to our event.

WHAT EXCITES YOU ABOUT MARKETING / COMMUNICATIONS [MARCOMM] TODAY?

No two days are alike. You have to juggle many balls and you remain busy all day. I am very passionate about what I do and the best client is not one that tells you what to do and where to go, but one that is eager and ready to take that journey with you.

WHAT TRENDS DO YOU SEE?

I see two parallel tracks – the “old” and the “new” kind of interaction. The “old” is a return to the basics. We’re tweeting now, but what are we really saying? It all goes back to writing, messaging and building your brand. Briefly, we had forgotten that, but ironically we’re now remembering to turn back to these basics. Today, we are also becoming more visual. With video and infographics, for example, a picture is worth a thousand words.

WHAT BRANDS ARE DOING IT RIGHT?

In the association community, I’d say ALS, with the Ice Bucket Challenge. I wish I would’ve thought of that. Though they didn’t really start it, through a series of events, they became the beneficiary of the campaign. On the corporate side, I like Amazon and Google. They do some things right and others are complete misses. That’s what makes great companies – you own and learn from your mistakes. You’re not fully living if you don’t take risks.


ONE THING THAT PEOPLE DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU?

I’ve been in about 50 plays. I’m trained as an actress and as a singer and I use those skills when I present.

WHAT ELECTRONIC DEVICES DO YOU PREFER?

I like my iPhone, my computer and my Kindle, but I love Google Search. I look up everything that I don’t know with hope that one day I will know everything. I’m still a work in progress.

WHAT MIGHT BE THE PR STORY OF THE YEAR?

It’s a toss up. The mid-term elections shockingly captured the mood of the country. I think there are two messages here. One, is the ‘we’re not going to take it anymore’ thought. [The governor's race in Maryland] so significantly shows how the country feels about Obama and race in general. The issue in Ferguson is unbelievably sad. It demonstrates how far we only think we’ve become when we look at race in this country. But from my own perspective, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is the PR story of the year. It showed how people leveraged social media in a tremendous way, with huge impact, unlike anything we had really seen before.

YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY, TO DATE, IN 140 CHARACTERS OR LESS:

Leader, entrepreneur, creative, deep thinker, dynamic, engaging, fun, beach lover, Pilates enthusiast, good friend, giver, compassionate.

 

© 2014. Tom Quash
 

 

8 Questions for ASAE's Robb Lee: Mavericks of MarComm Series

The Mavericks of MarComm

A Quashspeak Series

 8 Questions for

Robb Lee

Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, ASAE

As the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for ASAE, Robb’s responsibilities include management of marketing, branding, Web site, public relations, social media and Associations Now, ASAE’s flagship publication. He has more than 20 years of experience managing national and international multi-media branding, advertising and public relations campaigns for products represented by organizations such as Mitsubishi, GEICO, Post Cereals, Kraft/General Foods Coffees and government clients such as The EPA.  He has worked at several top 10 advertising and public relations agencies.

WHAT DROVE YOU TO THIS INDUSTRY?

The creativity. While I was in journalism school at the University of Kansas, this created a good pipeline to Madison Avenue. I discovered an attraction to the business of advertising because of the creativity. Though I didn’t want to do sales, I loved the idea of sales.

WHAT EXCITES YOU ABOUT MARKETING / COMMUNICATIONS [MARCOMM] TODAY?

The opportunity to be wrong about something which means there’s a better opportunity to be right. There is always the element of risk, which eliminates boredom and I don’t want to be bored.

WHAT TRENDS DO YOU SEE?

I can name a bunch of trends, but what I see is that distraction breeds mediocrity. Our industry seems compelled to ask ‘what’s the next thing we should try and include to achieve results?’ But we need to remember outcome-based decision making. If we get too caught up in trends, we will get distracted from the outcomes we need to achieve.

WHAT BRANDS ARE DOING IT RIGHT?

IBM. GE. Both have held on to their legacies by remaking themselves through content marketing to different generations and on to different issues, that have proven useful for their brands to advance.

WHAT MISTAKES DO YOU STILL SEE?

Not taking ownership and responsibility for the business results. In order for marketing and communications professionals to contribute to sustainability, we need to focus on business results. We need to remind ourselves that great creative will back up the data you have.  Using strategic sound judgment – that doesn’t go away.

ONE THING THAT PEOPLE DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU?

I have a calm demeanor but I’m very unsettled and can be impatient, but I don’t show that often.

WHAT APP DO YOU RECOMMEND?

Zite. It’s a great aggregator of content.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR APPROACH TO MARCOMM?

I always want to ask the question, ‘why are we doing something?’ rather than ‘how?’ I’d like to focus on  what are we trying to achieve, not what path we’d take to get there.

 

 

 

© 2014. Tom Quash

The Mavericks of MarComm

A Quashspeak Series

 

8 Questions for
Adele Gambardella-Cehrs
President and Founder, Epic PR Group

 

As President of Epic, Adele oversees the development of numerous award-winning local and national PR campaigns. Epic’s clients include Fortune 500 companies, regional businesses, non-profits, associations and high-profile individuals. She is the author of the upcoming book SPIKE Your Brand ROI: How To Maximize Reputation and Get Results (Wiley).

WHAT DROVE YOU TO THIS BUSINESS?

I started as a journalist working at George magazine and Gannett. I was interviewing a person over the phone and they happened to be in public relations, an industry I knew little about. But they said that they were impressed with my interviewing skills. It was a Madison Avenue-based firm and soon after, they then recruited me, with an offer that was triple my current salary. Now, this was during the time of the dot-com boom. My first project involved landing the 1.800.Flowers account.

WHAT EXCITES YOU ABOUT THE P.R. BUSINESS?

I like the messaging. I like being involved in helping to shape the way someone talks about their organization. I also like dealing with crisis communication. The world is rapidly changing and it’s exciting to develop communications that reflect that.

WHAT TRENDS DO YOU SEE?

Real-time response in marketing and public relations. Organizations will have to be more nimble as predictive scanning becomes the norm. There is now a resurgence of learning how to understand when your brand is most relevant.

WHO’S DOING IT RIGHT?

It changes. It’s interesting that one day, Apple, for example, is this creative, innovative player and the next day their phones are bending and their reaction to this causes their brand to take a hit. I was struck by the reaction of the National Nurses United to the recent Ebola crisis. They jumped right in at the core of the issue – offered conference calls for nurses and resources on their website. More organizations need to be focused and optimistic. During the Ray Rice scandal, one of the pizza chains capitalized on this, using the hashtag #whyIstayed. They were opportunistic and this makes the whole profession look bad.

WHAT P.R. MISTAKES DO YOU STILL SEE?

We are talking, yelling entirely too much. The CEO may have what he or she believes is a hunch that he or she believes is a great idea. But communications professionals need to push back more. We need to change the culture of the people who are in charge of communications. We need to treat the CMO like the CFO. Money, like attention, is a finite resource and we have bad ways of measuring ROI. Rather than assuring that we did these one thousand things, let’s do 4-6 key things that we can do more effectively and then demonstrate the ROI, such as increased attendance at an event, so that we achieve better spikes in attention.

WHO DO YOU ADMIRE?

Women who have launched their own businesses and became game changers in their industry, such as Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, and Kat Cole, the CEO of Cinnabon. I motivate myself. I am constantly striving. I want to be the best author – I admire someone like David Meerman Scott who wrote Real Time Marketing & PR.

FAVORITE GADGET, WEBSITE OR APP?

I love my iPhone and the Harvard Business Review is my go-to site and app, for staying ahead of trends. The Flipboard app gives me a whole week’s worth of news in an accessible format, but I have ink in my blood, I guess, and still love to read the paper edition of the New York Times every day.

YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY, IN 140 CHARACTERS OR LESS

Mother, business owner and author continues to seek success and knowledge.

 

 

© 2014. Tom Quash

 

 

Five Celebrities in Need of a Re-Brand

[Quashspeak returns November 2014]

Like it or not, we have a fixation with the famous, in our society. It may have always been true, but in today's world, our infatuation with celebrities is further fueled by the growing number of 24/7 platforms dedicated to the escapades of public figures. We gawk at and critique the celebrities, some of which go through life with one mishap after another. And while we applaud their success; their failures are better meals for our obsession and we just can't get enough.

Some A-listers seem to skate through the playground of celebrity, unscathed. But for every publicly-praised George Clooney or Robert Griffin III, we've watched the spiraling downfalls of Lindsay Lohan and Lance Armstrong. For this edition, we'll forgo the bad behaviors of the Justin Biebers and Chris Browns, for now, and focus on the celebs who are 30 and over.

Columbus Short

The Issue: The 31-year-old actor was recently released (the euphenism for 'fired' in TV talk) from his role on ABC's Scandal. While it is true that the TV series relishes frequent watercooler OMG moments and his character was last seen facing the barrel of a gun in last month's season finale, Short's tenure could not have been helped by his recent activities, including an alleged knife-wielding threat on his wife, two public fist fights and an uneasy interview with radio host Tom Joyner, in which he called the radio host the N word.
How To Re-Brand: Considering the allegations, Short might do well to embrace some humility and acknowledge his mistakes (think Hugh Grant). His next role, hopefully a likable character audiences can cheer for, should shed light on any acting skills and put some distance between him and the recent charges. (Case study: Robert Downey, Jr.)



M. Night Shyamalan

The Issue: The 43-year-old director created a buzz with his twist-ending phenomenom The Sixth Sense, back in 1999. Not only was the thriller the second highest box office earner of the year, but it was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture and Shyamalan earned a nod for Best Director. His next few films, Unbreakable, Signs and The Village, had their own twist endings as well and M. Night became categorized as a one trick pony. So, he tried other types of films, most notably The Last Airbender and the Will Smith vehicle After Earth, both of which were panned by critics and neither beloved by moviegoers. Has he already made his best film?
How To Re-Brand: The director's name is becoming linked to big budget flops. He needs a strong screenplay and a sound cast to exercise his skills at directing and take on a character-driven story. He'll need to demonstrate what he can do without special effects or sci-fi (Case study: Steven Spielberg).


J.K. Rowling

The Issue: The rags to riches story of the 48-year-old British author who penned the Harry Potter seven-book series is legendary. Rowling is credited with almost single-handedly getting young adults (and many an adult) to read again. And while the series has been wildly successful (2007's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was the fastest selling book of all time then), the movies have been too -- the franchise has made $7.7 billion worldwide. After apparently moving on from Potter (Rowling wrote children's books and adult novels), she also cannot seem to let go of the wizard world she created. Not unlike George Lucas who had continued tinkering with Star Wars, Rowling has developed a website, at least three supplemental works to Potter, a Potter prequel and hints at another full-fledged series to take place decades before Potter.
How To Re-Brand: Staying with one story line for an entire career? Ian Fleming may be the exception to the rule, but the Potter tale has a finite ending and Rowling's forced additions could tarnish her brand and that of the series (did anyone really love those last three Star Wars films?). She will need to write a strong story that is 180 degrees from fantasy and helps to cement her position as a literary force. (Case study: John Grisham)


Tom Cruise

The Issue: Just eight years ago, Forbes named Cruise the world's most powerful celebrity. So why a re-brand? Well, what was the last Cruise film you raved about? Oblivion? Jack Reacher? Rock of Ages? No, it was likely one of the Mission Impossible films, his sinister turn opposite Jamie Foxx in Collateral or his comedic cameo in Tropic Thunder. Yes, Tom Cruise can still play cool, but his recent cinematic choices have been head scratchers and his reign at the box office continues to slip.
How To Re-Brand: Cruise does have three Oscar nominations under his belt (Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire and most recently, 2000's Magnolia), and at 51, he may not have quite that many years left in high octane-fueled action films. Cruise can do comedy and supporting roles well and may want to choose a script and director that will let him shine rather than the heavy, bleak roles of late.
(Case study: Bruce Willis)

Britney Spears

The Issue: Maybe it wasn't really about her music after all. Perhaps it was the family feuds, her brief marriage, her barefoot-in-the-public-bathroom escapades or her "bad mom" antics that enthralled us.  But today, we hear little about the impact of Britney's music or of the 32-year-old herself. The major coup of snagging Spears as a judge on the second season of X Factor landed with a thud. And her last album was the lowest selling of her career. Once the pop icon of her generation, she's been eclipsed by Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus in the "outrageous" department and overshadowed by Beyonce and Taylor Swift on the charts.
How To Re-Brand: Time will tell if her new Vegas show helps to remind audiences of her pop icon status. The danger here is that she may become predictable and then, alas, boring. She'll need to keep up with the times to remind us of anything she's done beyond yesteryear to remain relevant and fresh.
(Case study: Justin Timberlake)


We love our celebrities, but we chide them when they stray and then applaud them again when they rise up. As much as we are obsessed with celebrity, we love a good comeback story even more.

--Tom Quash

 

7 Super Bowl Commercials (2014) That Worked

Thank you for supporting the trial run. Quashspeak will return May 5.

Super Bowl Sunday: It's no longer just about the game itself. It's about the parties, the snacks, the beer, the halftime show and even the commercials. In fact, in some circles, there is more anticipation and attention give to the game-day TV ads than the football game itself. One of those circles is the advertising and marketing community. With more than 100 million U.S. viewers tuned in to the biggest sporting event of the year, it's easy to see why advertisers are spending big bucks (a 30-second TV spot can cost $4 million dollars) to bring their brand into your living room.

But is it worth it? Well, that depends on the effectiveness of the message. Super Bowl commercials that stand out amid the clever clutter and remain "buzz worthy" are justifiably worth their expense. The Return On Investment may not be realized overnight, but an ad with long-term worth of mouth could underscore and even elevate brand awareness.

Consider that the iconic Apple ad that ran during the 1984 Super Bowl (30 years ago!) to introduce the world to the Macintosh computer is still widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best, TV ads to air during the Super Bowl. Arguably, the ad itself was largely responsible for positioning Apple as a  boundary-pushing, innovative brand.

Since then, companies like Budweiser, Chrysler and Pepsi have kept their brands near the top of consumer consciousness by aligning their brands with the sporting event, to include major launches of key marketing campaigns.

And it's not just an opportunity to push soft drinks, cars and beer. That money shot from the movie Independence Day? You know, the one with the White House getting blown to bits? Yes, that 30-second spot aired during the 1996 Super Bowl to whet the appetites of moviegoers. In the years that followed, the Super Bowl would be used to showcase trailers of other upcoming blockbuster films.

So, some ads you'll remember with great fondness and others will be quickly forgotten. But a clever Super Bowl ad will make you feel something about the brand or message. After all, between the emotional rollercoaster we may go through while watching the game (such as elation, disgust, anxiety), advertisers hope to tap into that same energy and passion to gain your loyalty. Here are 7 Super Bowl ads from last night that I thought did work:

1. Radio Shack: The 80s wants its store back
Radio Shack boldly took a swipe at itself by first demonstrating what we thought of (or still think of) when we visualize the store: outdated design and inventory. Along comes a dizzying flurry of 80s era icons (wrestler Hulk Hogan, rocker Dee Snider, horror film icon "Chucky" the doll and hey, was that Mary Lou Retton?) to ransack all items from the store and presto--we see the new and current Radio Shack, with its slick design. In this spot, Radio Shack comically admitted what it has needed to overcome and showcases its new look and positioning.

2. Budweiser: Welcome home, Chuck
Here, subtly works when Budweiser takes a backseat to a small town hero's welcome given to a soldier returning home. Budweiser has a long tradition of using messaging that demonstrates its brand is woven into the fabric of America and they've done it again, using poignant imagery and the closing statement: "Every soldier deserves a hero's welcome."

3. Chrysler: We will build your car
Most of the automobile commercials were fairly well done and this one had narration from Bob Dylan, warm depictions of Americana and acknowledged that while we may like our beer brewed in Germany and our phones built in Asia, we should want our cars made in America. If you think about it, this has been the Chrysler message for at least the last 30 years. Reminding viewers of the brand in a creative new format works for me.

4. Doritos: Time machine & rodeo girl
Two new humorous and consumer-generated Doritos ads debuted during the Super Bowl, but the time machine spot was the funniest of the pair. A young boy tricks his neighbor into believing the youngster's cardboard box booth, fueled by Doritos to operate, really provides time travel. When the clueless man emerges, he believes he's traveled to the future when he comes in contact with an elderly neighbor he believes is really the boy. Over the years, Doritos ads have infused a great sense of humor to help sell their product.

5. TurboTax: Sean
What's so funny about taxes? Not much on the surface except in this ad that makes the comparison between watching the Super Bowl without your favorite team and witnessing the fictitious Sean steal the girl of your dreams right before you at your prom. The ad made the product seem less cold and mechanical than what we've seen in its other ads.

6. CarMax: Rudy
In a nod to one of the most beloved films ever, Rudy, a couple of new CarMax customers are treated to light applause as the pair drives through the streets. We even see a bear clap and look, even Sean Astin (Rudy) makes a cameo. Here, CarMax finally gets us out of the showroom and away from its process-focused ads and onto the celebratory road.

7. T-Mobile: Tim Tebow
Sometimes kitsch works and sometimes it doesn't (the Matrix homage from Kia seemed stale). In two separate spots, Tim Tebow is a stuntman, plays football on the moon and even tackles Bigfoot. Maybe a bit silly but it does supports T-Mobile's playful brand personality (as did an additional T-Mobile ad that was a series of tongue-in-cheek statements).

The ads also brought us James Franco, Don Cheadle, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bono, Stephen Colbert, David Beckham, puppies and Clydesdales, the "Doberhuahua" and so much more. What was your favorite? Chances are, it made you smile, laugh, cry, think or act. A great commercial will in some way, move you.










--Tom Quash

Get Lucky: The Re-Branding of the Grammys

2014 Album of the Year winners Daft Punk
(with Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers)

Last night, CBS aired the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. Once the ratings are in, it will be interesting to see if the renowned awards show will pull in respectable, or even record, numbers. Back in the mid 1980s, circa Thriller-Madonna-Springsteen, Grammy night was THE night for musicians and the fans. But as loyal viewers aged and younger audiences flocked to the more hip American Music Awards or MTV Video Awards, Grammy ratings slipped. In fact, the Grammys of 2007 and 2008 were among the lowest rated ever. But then two years ago, the awards show had its second highest ratings ever. So, what happened?

Well, certainly one factor that parallels the show's popularity is the music scene itself. When there is a powerhouse singer on the charts, such as a Whitney or Adele, people tune in. Lagging music sales in any year mean losing interest in the show itself. But the factor I believe is most helping ratings is what CBS bills as the Grammy Moment -- the network's clever move of putting artists together from different genres and generations to create a musical morsel one cannot see anywhere else. With the easy access to music videos and concert performances online, it is no longer such a special event to watch an artist perform a popular hit. But pitting artists together can bring magic (or sometimes, scandal, as in Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke from last summer's MTV's VMAs).



10 years ago: Prince and Beyonce
perform "Purple Rain" at 2004 Grammys
courtesy of Entertainment Weekly

Perhaps this newfound interest in unlikely duets can be traced back to Frank Sinatra's wildly popular Duets CD, released in 1993. Elton John, Ray Charles among others adopted the formula. Couple that with the rising popularity of mash-ups and CBS has re-branded and revitalized the Grammys such that the more exciting reason to tune is to ensure you are present to view that Grammy moment; that unique collaboration. In this age of social media-fueled instant gratification, CBS has marketed the program as one where something legendary is going to happen. And really, who wants to miss that.

A few comments from last night's telecast...

• So, I wrote the above before the telecast started and true to fashion CBS kicks off the show touting the Grammy Moments and highlights a few from past programs: Prince and Beyoncé, Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond, Usher and James Brown and several others.
• Is it me or do we hardly see Beyoncé and Jay-Z perform together live? The power couple open the show. Though someone is a little heavy handed on the fog machine.
• In case you want to forget "Blurred Lines," Robin Thicke just won't let you. He performs a snippet from his mega-hit backed by members of the group Chicago who I believe still sound good. It was hard to tell--Thicke sang over them as they performed their 70s era single "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?"
• Jamie Foxx is supposed to present an award but seems to first want some attention. How else to explain his rambling on about Beyonce looking hot (while the songs he is supposed to announce skip by him in the background)
• Rap and rock come together in the high-octane performance of Kendrick Lamar and Imagine Dragons--for me, the best performance of the night so far.
• Paul McCartney performs a new song while Ringo Starr takes to the drums to help out his Beatle buddy. Plus, how cool to see Yoko Ono on her feet, dancing along.
• Another standing ovation (there seemed to be a lot during the night) as Daft Punk (who would later pick up Record of the Year) perform "Get Lucky" with Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers. The Grammy Moment comes when Stevie Wonder joins along and the set features a little of Chic's "LeFreak" (Rodgers' old group) and Wonder's "Another Star."
• Phil Everly and Phil Ramone garner the most applause during the In Memoriam segment. Though I'm still trying to figure out why comedian Jonathan Winters was included here.
• And finally, Grammy did create what was arguably THE Grammy moment on the telecast. As Macklemore and Ryan Lewis performed the critically-acclaimed "Same Love," more than 30 couples, some of which were same-sex, exchanged rings as Queen Latifah presided over the "ceremony." And behind closed doors, out comes the performer who needs no introduction: Madonna, who adds a few chorus of "Open Your Heart." This, I imagine, is the water cooler segment that CBS hoped to create with the re-branded, not-your-grandfather's Grammys.

Now the Oscars? That's another story...








-- Tom Quash