My Dad: Marketing Trendsetter Well Before Drew Brees

Although the new Vicks VapoRub ad featuring New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees launched back on November 1, the media relations effort seemed to have hit its mark this past week given the blog posts and news articles I came across in my feeds.

I hadn’t seen the ad before reading about them, but the coverage itself did make me pause.

For starters, I’ve had a chest cold for nearly two weeks and the menthol in the cough drops just doesn’t seem to cut it anymore. Just from the standpoint of product benefits, a VapoRub does seem to be something that might help me sleep.

Also, the coverage I saw–including this article in the New York Times–built a story out of the celebrity aspect of the ad.

More specifically, the story revolved around how this Procter & Gamble brand was evolving to feature the man’s role in taking care of the sick child’s needs–a major change for a brand that, since it began advertising, had focused on the woman’s role instead.

That made me pause not because of my current cold, but rather the ones I remember having as a child. Why? Because my experience with Vicks VapoRub was, more often than not, connected to my dad gooping me up with the salve, instead of my mom.

That and a strong smell that invariably cleared out my nostrils and made it easier for me to breathe. Messy, but effective.

A winning combination even though my dad is not a star quarterback like Drew Brees. Just a celebrity within our family!

Celebrating Death With And Without Technology

It is unconscionable to celebrate someone’s death. One can, in some cases, perhaps share a sense of relief. But celebrations are just wrong.

My kids are still young enough that they perhaps have not picked up on the impact our War on Terror has on some individuals, specifically those who might find themselves targeted on account of their own targeting.

But I’m not convinced they aren’t absorbing the news as it happens. Children’s minds have an amazing knack for learning. As an example, here’s a TEDTalk on the matter, courtesy of Alison Gopnik.

This season’s pursuit of Muammar Gaddafi was only the latest chapter I’m filing away in my own memory about stories of the Mad Dog of the Middle East.

The gruesome videos and stills of Gaddafi’s final moments will rest right alongside what I recall of all sorts of misdoings he helped spark, from Lockerbie to Rome. Because in the early-to-mid-1980s I absorbed some things which maybe I shouldn’t have for someone at my age: news of the day.

Here’s the thing: I don’t think the media coverage from Libya last month was out of the ordinary. By showcasing the death of a man–however wrong the man may have been in life, and however wrong his assassins may have been in ending it–the news outlets and citizen journalists online only followed a pattern of macabre coverage established long ago.

Witness: This painting of Robespierre’s beheading during the French Revolution.

But if the coverage itself was not unique, today’s technology made it spread across the globe in real-time. Whereas the virility of news of Robespierre losing his life was hindered by the speed of horses’ hooves and ships’ sails, Gaddafi’s demise was known instantly. Even if the specific details weren’t.

And the ubiquity of news outlets and channels we are able to tap makes it harder for us as people just to simply keep up and, as parents, to appropriately filter and protect.

Old Car, New Label: Design, Mobile, EPA and the DOT

What with the two kids, the dog and all the stuff–theirs and ours–that typically accompanies us when we head out on the road, our 2005 Toyota Matrix sure has shrunk quite a bit since we bought it as “the biggest family car we could ever possibly want/need.”

So at times Catherine and I have played the “What’s our next family car?” game. Honda Element? Toyota CRV? Flat out, bona-fide minivan? See the trend? My erstwhile dreams about that Vespa or a sprightly little Mini Cooper are simply out of the question.

We’re not actually looking for a new car. But if we were, the new fuel economy labels the US Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency launched this summer are supposed to have made our purchasing decisions more informed.

Gone are the mpg-only labels. Now from the car lot we’ll also be able to look at pollutant output and better gauge fuel savings. Most intriguing, as described further in this article from USA Today, is a QR Code.

The code in the sample above takes you to the mobile site where the US government provides detailed information about fuel economy. Specifically, it links over to a detailed summary of the new car fuel economy labels and what the different sections mean. But were we to have scanned the code from the car lot, off of an actual car, we would have been taken to a calculator that would have let us calculate exact mileage costs for the specific car model in question based on personalized commute information we would have been able to input with our phones.

Nice use of design to update the labels. Nice use of QR codes that actually offer a functional benefit.

Nice way to get me dreaming again about that Element. Or maybe a Nissan Cube?

Wet Feet, Hot Beaches In Minneapolis

Ever since Catherine headed back to school, we’ve had to cut back on a few of those things the two of us used to enjoy. This summer, though, the biggest cutback has been time spent together. With kids by day and two full classes by night, it doesn’t leave us as much time to get out and explore our state like we had grown accustomed to doing.

This weekend it’s time to study up for finals week. As Catherine hunkers down with the books, the kids and I are trying to stay busy. Today, for the second week in a row, we worked on rediscovering one of my old haunts: Lake Harriet.

A lake where I used to ice skate, train for a marathon and a tri, and listen to gigs at the Bandshell. A lake that, in the eight years since moving eastward and southward–out of Uptown–I really hadn’t spent much time enjoying since.

Look how clean that water is. In a city lake, to still see your feet even as you get deeper and deeper, is unfathomable. Fresh, cold and clean water. Soft sand beaches. Gentle breeze.

Happy summer!

(Catherine: Looking forward to having you join us when your summer starts after this week!)

Robots Do Not Smile

Two days of high temps and humidity, and some of us are already longing for the season just passed. I’m not going that far yet, but it’ll be too bad if spring forsakes us in favor of an early summer.

Either way, the seasonal change made me want to dust off my old Colle+McVoy ¡Futurismos! team soccer jersey for work today.

It’s the first time Amelia had ever seen it–or the first time she remembered it anyway. She LOVES stickers so the team insignia patch drew automatic interest.

Through the eyes of my daughter I learned something about robots. Or myself.

D: “Amelia, who is that on my shirt?”
A: “You, Daddy!”
D: “Why do you think that’s me?”
A: “Because it isn’t smiling.”

Point taken: There will be much smiling on my face this afternoon. Half-day at the office this morning = time with the kids this afternoon.