You Sleep When You Die

Is the financial system in this country in serious trouble? Without a doubt. But before we can try to fix it, we need to figure out how we got here. Banks today are all or nothing: they either lend money to everybody or they lend money to no one. Banks are screwed up because they issued mortgages to people who weren’t qualified, and they gave people credit they didn’t deserve. If everybody in this country could make his or her mortgage payments, we wouldn’t have a problem!

The ongoing situation with Tiger Woods has got me pissed as hell. Whatever happened to athletes as role models? Years ago, athletes were held to a higher standard because they were viewed as role models for children. Teams wouldn’t have put up with this kind of behavior from one of their players. These men and women are paid astronomical salaries not only because they’re great athletes but also because they have a responsibility to the community and to the world to answer to a higher authority. And they should be held accountable for that.

Companies shouldn’t dwell on the past…and neither should their ads. Instead, you should concentrate on always pushing forward, always striving to achieve bigger and better things, never being satisfied with the status quo. What good is issuing apology ads going to do, especially when most banks, insurance companies and automakers don’t feel any individual responsibility for the predicament in which the American public now finds themselves?

A recent Adweek poll revealed that the majority of people in the ad industry believe ads should focus on value during the recession.

Thanks for the revelation!!

Value has always and will always be important. But value should be a long-term brand virtue, not a short-term brand reaction.

I hear we are in the middle of a recession.

Forgive me, but I choose not to participate…And that’s the same advice I give to every one of our clients. The 80’s was a time of excess, the 90’s a time of greed, and over the past decade businesses in America have become complacent and lazy as a result. This recession is just what the “Business Doctor” ordered: A wakeup call in the form of a shot in the ass to get us thinking and moving again.