"Edgy" update

Funny, AdRants didn't say "edgy" either. But maybe they didn't have to.
Check out that tasty review.

"I didn't know you guys did edgy."

When a long time client sees some of your latest work for another client and says that, you can't feel a bit--what's the word I'm looking for?--oh, right: mortified.

For lots of reasons. And we shan't(!) go into all of them here.

But I bring it up because this happened a few weeks ago, and it hasn't left me since. The work is for ICS, an Oregon company producing concrete cutting chain saws; super-niche products in a uber-narrow category aimed at general contractors. Not your mass market stuff.

Love the campaign, but hadn't thought of it as particularly edgy though, until I heard it mentioned that way. Smart, attention-getting (in a category utterly devoid of anything provocative), relevant, unusual, memorable, intriguing--all designed to pay off ultimately as EFFECTIVE--and maybe way down on the list of descriptors, maybe edgy.

But edgy was his word. His first word. Is that a good thing?

Edgy. Well. Hmmm. DISCUSS.



Click on thru to the companion sitelet, mmm-bacon.

Don't get me started. Aaaaand... too late.

Earlier this summer, we were baffled by these boards:
Baffled has morphed into a strange sense of wanting to nail someone to the wall for this. Who--where--okays this? I cannot let this one die. Thankfully a few others can't either. A recent submission punched up the headline so it makes more sense:
And now all is right in the world.

Can PowerPoint not suck?

This is maybe the best way to think about the work world's most annoying necessary evil app ever.

You can use fewer words, better pictures, tweak the transitions all you want, but until you think of it differently from the start... you might just have a less bad PowerPoint screen. Use it fundamentally in a different way, and keep the focus on your overall presentation and YOUR thoughts. You know, where it should be anyway?


Check out the article and the author's demonstration of the technique. Mighty compelling way to set up a room.

Softball. "SOFTBALL"???

This is pretty much how Grady Britton rocks the softball.

See previous post if there's any doubt.

So you want to get in to advertising.

We use words for a living here. And for this, there are none.

Softball. First game of the season. 3rd inning. Line drive to the gap between first and second...stopped by Becca G.

*GRIFFIN DOWN!*

Someone should start a blog with the season's softball injuries (like, say, this one). But swollen knees and pulled hammies won't get nearly the traffic this pic does. Say it with me: V*I*P!

Come here often?

Found our mission statement hanging on a wall in Newport, OR after our last meeting there for the city's tourism account. Okay, it is our mission statement, but we didn't technically write this one. No worries. Love to the Rogue Ale House and the open table under this sign. (Truly "A Sign.")

Can we get this on a t-shirt?

A little help here?

Can someone please splain this one? Seen in Portland, in Oregon, in America, on a major city street. What are we not getting? Or is this what they were going for? "YES! Let the people decipher our ads online! BRILLIANT!" Maybe this headline kills in Finland or something.

"I have a fresh cracked egg." Really? That's it? If we play it backwards does it say something else? Come on.

26.2 months later...

Oy. Feels like forever since we last posted.

And yes, among many other things, a whole season of remarkably unremarkable advertising league softball has passed us by; though we did actually issue a press release about it (let's try to dredge that one up, shall we?)-- and sorry, but not a single picture to prove it. Probably just as well; let's just say our skills lie elsewhere.

On a pretty major league other note however, Mike P's been diligently abstaining from happy hours and training for the Portland Marathon all this time (that would be 26.2 miles...get it?) And on October 1, 2006 he turned a 4:09 for his first marathon!

Cheeseburgers and beer, meet Mike. Mike, cheeseburgers and beer.

From our family to yours

Happy Holidays from your smily happy Grady Brittons.

Extra extracurricular activities

Cyclocross. Ever heard of it? It's hard and leaves marks and you sweat and get filthy so maybe it's not a sport, you know, like baseball or curling is a sport, but it's insanely fun and something some of us do on rainy Sunday mornings in the Fall. Mike Proctor and Andy Askren doing what they do (second- or third- or fourth-) best. You don't have to wear a dress but sometimes you just want to feel pretty when you're working hard. It's all good.

And we're off

Always liked this idea; just needed a little shove... So there we go.