Saying goodbye to Susan.

My wife and I attended a mass and Celebration of Life yesterday for the late wife of our friend and creative cohort Don Adamec. Admittedly, we never got to know Susan Adamec very well, but Don is one of my favorite people and we've been doing great work together, off and on, for many years.

I won't go into detail about yesterday, but one thing stands out. Anyone who knew Susan, or knows Don, also knows that light in their eyes. The light isn't caused by poor lighting or whatever they had for lunch. The light is their beautiful daughter, Ashleigh Brooke Adamec. On Saturday, we finally got a chance to see her dance, in a tribute to her mom, and it was very moving. I know Susan is very proud. And as Ashleigh continues to study dance, currently at Sante Fe College and soon at Florida State, I know that light will go on shining.

AAF-Suncoast to present 50th Anniversary ADDY Awards.

It's hard to believe 50 years have gone by since the advertising professionals of the American Advertising Federation's Fourth District created the ADDYs. While ADDY may be eligible for AARP membership, he's certainly not over the hill.

Our local Ad Fed, now called AAF-Suncoast, will present the ADDYs at the Asolo Rep Theater on Monday, February 21. The call-for-entries, now closed, was brisk. A full house is anticipated, with a gallery showing of the entries, cocktails and live awards presentation. As a past-president, board member and ADDY entrant, I recommend attending, and also urge marketing professionals - whether creative-types or not - to join the Ad Fed. Tickets to the ADDY Gala are $50 each. Contact the AAF Suncoast for info. I hope to see you there.

Breathing new life into custom publishing for healthcare.

Stephen A. Smith & Associates announces the launch of Consonant Custom Media (CCM), LLC. The firm will focus exclusively on the development of custom content for healthcare and medical research institutions.

Responding to the demand for high-quality, strategic direct marketing that is “consonant” or in harmony with a health concern’s brand positioning, CCM mobilizes a highly experienced, award-winning creative team and a stable of medical and scientific writers to develop and distribute highly customized content across print, Web, video and mobile platforms for each client.

John Wark, an award-winning journalist, media strategist and Pulitzer Prize finalist, has joined CCM as consulting partner, and will assist in business development and editorial supervision. Mr. Wark is the founder of Florida Media Strategies, a successful strategic communications and public relations firm.

The enterprise met with early success in 2010 under the "SAS" banner, securing contracts with two major Tampa Bay healthcare institutions – the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute and Florida Hospital Zephyrhills. The magazine we developed for Florida Hospital Zephyrhills, called Better!, recently won two awards – for design and strategic marketing communications – from the International Association of Business Communicators.

Recent studies confirm that organizations are shifting dollars away from traditional advertising to new forms such as custom publishing or custom content that are more measurable and sustainable, and the forecast is for continued growth of custom content. Based on that, and our early success, we’ve decided to make this a stand-alone enterprise and put our strongest resources behind it.

Brooke Shields helps La-Z-Boy "Relax" its Image

Have you seen the new spots for La-Z-Boy with Brooke Shields?

This is one of those times when my reaction is mixed. Sure, I understand the strategy – get a classy, female celebrity spokesperson to counteract the “lazy man’s recliner” image of this well-known American brand (I can’t help thinking about Martin Crane’s duct tape-clad lounger on TV’s Frasier) and bring anti-recliner furniture shoppers into the galleries.

As Stuart Elliott points out in his NY Times piece about the campaign, La-Z-Boy and Santa Monica-based agency RPA (the brand’s agency since 2007) are trying to tell furniture shoppers that La-Z-Boy is not just for recliners anymore. Kind of like how Florida’s citrus growers famously told fans of orange juice that “it’s not just for breakfast anymore.”

The fact that La-Z-Boy is synonymous with “recliner” is a happy problem for a brand to have, I suppose, but the challenge here is to remind consumers that they make plenty of furniture that does not recline.

Now here’s the potential downside. Ms Shields has been so overexposed commercially – appearing in ads for Colgate toothpaste, Volkswagen and what seems like a hundred others, I’m wondering how effective this campaign will be.

Coping with Christmas Creep

Time once again for that annual plague upon American society known as “Christmas Creep.” No, I’m not talking about your creepy Uncle Walter; it’s those crazy retailers again.

I understand as well as the next guy that retailers are anticipating – or should I say praying for – a better year this year, but does Christmas have to come before Halloween? According to a recent AdAge.com story, the bulk of major retailers are still kicking off holiday campaigns nearly two months before Christmas. Best Buy began its holiday effort on Nov. 1, 10 days earlier than last year.

The following day, Kohl's debuted its first holiday radio spots and will promote Christmas-themed sales throughout November. Macy's holiday campaign kicked off on Nov. 7 with an animated TV spot. JCPenney began running a holiday ad promoting its relationship with the Salvation Army's Angel Giving Tree on Nov. 1.

Kudos to Target. Once again they take the high road by not playing this game. Their main holiday campaign won't launch until the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Chris Morran, senior editor at Consumerist.com, says, "There are those that find it truly offensive and gaudy and unnecessary. And there are those that don't care at all and those that actually like it. ... People are, sadly, getting used to it."

I can’t imagine the parents of young children getting used to this – having to juggle Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping all at once. No wonder they're all beginning to have that "reindeer in the headlights" look. Glad my offspring are grown.

Now help me figure this out – is Black Friday the Friday before Halloween, or the one before Labor Day?

The Tea party Brand: Reality TV or Twilight Zone?

I read Michael Joseph Gross’ Vanity Fair feature about Sarah Palin the other day. What it reveals about Palin can be applied to the Tea Party candidates in general.

In an era when 24/7 cable news and social media give political candidates nowhere to hide, you would think America would relegate the tea party nut-jobs to the back of the bus. But somehow they have found a way to “go Palin.”

Mr. Gross describes how the Palin brand is defined by, and dependent on, Sarah Palin “injecting herself into the news on a strictly one-way basis” primarily using social media, and the press plays along. Information flows only one way – hers. We saw how badly it went for Palin when interviewed by real journalists expecting real answers to real, unfiltered questions. That two-way thing just didn’t work for her, so she created her own reality.

But keep in mind, she’s not held accountable for her shrill pronouncements because she’s not running for anything, nor is she still Alaska’s governor. She quit to pursue the big bucks – speaking fees, a new reality TV show, the book, the whole shebang.

The story shines an extremely unflattering light on an angry, vengeful Palin, about whom the town folk in Wasilla seem to be afraid to say anything for fear of reprisals. The whole thing is so weird, Gross describes Palin’s hometown of Wasilla “like a place in The Twilight Zone – a town populated entirely by abuse survivors.”

The amazing thing is how the Tea Party candidates who actually are running for office – Angle, O’Donnell and Miller most notably among them – are able to use the same sort of tactics and still be taken seriously by the electorate. Remember when people running for office actually had to “relate” to the media? How they would undergo something called “media training” to avoid looking stupid, instead of literally running away from the media?

The Tea Party brand. They should have called it "Chock Full 'o Nuts."

Only 14 years in the making - MSNBC Defines itself with a great new tag.

Along with MSNBC’s launch of its new branding campaign, Sharon Otterman, the chief marketing officer for MSNBC, said something that should carved into some branding monument somewhere. She said “When you’re clear about who you are, you actually make money.” That, in a nutshell, is the very definition of branding.

The cable news channel unveiled its new tagline today - “Lean Forward.”

As reported yesterday in the NY Times, this is the first time MSNBC, now the No. 2 cable news channel, has made an earnest attempt to define who they are. Jeez, nice to finally meetchya, MSNBC.

I like this new tagline because it makes a very smart statement. It suggests a smart, contemporary, forward-thinking news organization. And that’s my personal impression when I watch their programming. I think what MSBC is saying is “it’s not about who leans left, or who leans right. Leave that to the other guys. We want to be known for going forward.” And of course, it implies that their primary competition, the conservative and so-called “Fair and Balanced” Fox News Channel, is leaning backward.

About that Fox News tag, you tell me – what kind of legitimate news organization would feel the need to tell you they are “fair and balanced?” Only one, I suppose, that is anything but. But that’s another post.

“The Place for Politics” catchphrase will be used alongside “Lean Forward.” Can’t wait to see more of their campaign.