What's a concept?

On September 3, I left this comment on The Denver Egotist about the definition of the word "concept."

I think the problem is the floating definition of the word "concept." In ad school, they teach you one definition, which revolves around the idea that the consumer must bring a bit of himself to the work in order to understand it. But I've heard people use the word concept as a synonym for "theme." And as a synonym for "cool to look at..." [T]he word concept is like the word edgy - so overused it borders on meaningless.

I can't remember who first explained the word concept to me. It was probably one of my teachers at The Creative Circus. But I've always found the following explanation interesting.

Consider the three arcs to the right. In each, the "A" represents the product and the "B" represents the ad.

In the top arc, the product and the ad are right up next to each other. There's no room for the consumer to have fun with the ad, to feel a connection to it. The headline is probably something like, "Today, you can buy this chair for $99." And the visual is probably a chair. This is not a concept.

In the middle arc, the product and the ad are nowhere near each other. Nobody could make sense of this ad. The headline probably says, "Attila the Hun loves you." And the visual is probably a boat, upon which sits a hippo. This is not a concept.

But the final arc is. The product and the ad aren't smothering each other, but they're close enough to make the consumer feel the shock of recognition and a bond with the brand that transcends any short-term product offering.

Of course even that labored and lengthy definition can't possibly explain something as good as this:

TT&D launches parkcitymountain.com

Just noticed Thomas Taber & Drazen has the new parkcitymountain.com online. The coolest functionality is the vacation planner, which makes planning your trip drag-and-drop easy. I worked on this account when I was at TT&D, and it's nice to see the site up.

Agency segmentation: A slideshow

A couple of years ago, I realized my favorite agencies don't market themselves as brand agencies or online agencies or promotional agencies. BBH, Anomaly, Strawberryfrog and others are just out there doing, you know, stuff.

But I'd never advise a client to position itself as an all-purpose stuff doer. So I started mulling over new ways to position agencies. And an online discussion primarily driven by Adam Crowe, Zeus Jones and AgencySpy resonated with me.

As a way of sharing the discussion with coworkers, I created this PowerPoint presentation. (I know, I know. Scary stuff, writers messing with presentation software. It's literally my first time using PowerPoint.)

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NDAC creative pod meets Tues., Oct. 23

The creative pod of the New Denver Ad Club meets tomorrow evening after work at Thought Equity.

Am me getting myself dumber now?

I consider it part of my job to stay on top of the ways in which people communicate. Blogging, microblogging, social networks. Updating my Twitter page via my cell while overseeing a spot edit and rewriting the script on the fly.

Some of these tools have proven valuable. Others have increased my mania. But now it appears I may just be making myself stupid. From The Atlantic Monthly:

Neuroscience is confirming what we all suspect: Multitasking is dumbing us down and driving us crazy.

The rest of the article is protected behind a password. But here's an excerpt from the magazine:

At the most basic level, the the mental balancing acts that [multitasking] requires - the constant switching and pivoting - energize regions of the brain that specialize in visual processing and physical coordination and simultaneously appear to shortchange some of the higher areas related to memory and learning.

In other words, you can do a lot of stuff, but after you finish, you can't really tell anyone what you did.

It may be true, because while I was typing the excerpt from The Atlantic, I must have forgotten my place at least a dozen times. This from a guy who can recite the alphabet backwards and perform chunks of Shakespeare from memory.

I think maybe this is why many in the ad world - like Sally Hogshead - are worried that new media will hurt our ability to concept. Navigating the maze of strategies, media and applications can be awfully distracting. Especially to a creative mind that verges on the manic without any help from hyperlinks.

It's easy to say,"Unplug, grab a Sharpie and go concept in a coffeeshop." But what happens when your creative director asks you if you've seen the latest viral video and you haven't because you've been off, you know, working?

And now, in an act of WTF blogging, I'm ending this post. Because I've checked my email and my RSS feeds at least a dozen times in the last 20 minutes and I've forgotten what my point was. If indeed I had one.

TD50 tickets are on sale as of right now

The Denver 50 show will be on December 6 at Exdo. Tickets are just $35 for NDAC members and $50 for everyone else. Get yours at regonline.com/denver50.

This print ad was created for the New Denver Ad Club by Dave Schneider and me, both of Karsh\Hagan.

Goodson on ideas in advertising

StrawberryFrog's Scott Goodson in mediabistro:

Pure ideas are where the industry is going to have to go. If the execution side of the business is a commodity and people are being squeezed for money, the only way that value can be created in this business and attract the type of quality thinkers that it needs is to come up with great ideas.

Throw out the silos, bring on the ideas.

ADCD Student Show on Oct. 19

From an ADCD press release:

[The Annual ADCD Student Show] is your chance to see all the exciting new thinking that Colorado's hip, young, highly-caffeinated creative community is producing. The whole event takes place on Friday, October 19 at the very cool studio of Brian Mark Photography, 1550 South Acoma St. in Denver. Admission is free, so even a starving junior art director who spends the day laying out FSIs can attend. More information can be surfed at www.adcd.com, where you can even RSVP for the event.

Michael Bay to "remake" Friday the 13th

I have a thing for movies where ax swinging maniacs work out their aggressions. I like them as cultural myth. And as entertainment. So I was excited to read in Underwire that they're remaking the original Friday the 13th:

In the original Friday the 13th, the serial killer made only a brief appearance in the final frames and never killed anyone. Jason didn't even don the famous mask until the third movie. The remake, however, will focus on Jason - who will wear the mask and kill - and keep the famous setting of Crystal Lake.

WTF? The fact that Jason was not the killer in Friday the 13th is a cultural touchstone. Ghostface killed Casey for not knowing it. It's almost as important as Michael's missing motivation in the original Halloween.

The new film's IMDB page lists it as an "untitled Friday the 13th project." Which is good. Because if Jason's the killer, it's not a remake. It's a sequel.

UPDATE: Someday five years from now, someone will point out that Ghostface killed Casey's boyfriend because she didn't correctly identify the killer in Friday the 13th. He killed her because, well, that's what the bad guys in horror movies do. Sigh, I need to proofread more carefully.