Yaffe Tidbits

What Inspires You? TEDxDetroit 2011 Had It

Inspiration. That's the word I hear most when people are asked how a TEDx event is different from other events and conferences. The people you meet and the ideas they share are inspiring. They touch you on a deeper emotional level. They represent the great things that humanity can do, whether it's in technology or the arts, whether it's a spark of inspiration or just pure human perseverance. And yesterday's TEDxDetroit delivered all that in spades.

So, what inspires you?

Overcoming Great Odds To Do Great Things.We heard some truly amazing stories of people who beat the odds or overcame some of life's big roadblocks. Bobby Smith told us how he grew up in the poorest areas of Jamaica and how he came to own America's largest fencing training company, En Garde, right here in Detroit - a business that is teaching area kids a lot more than the sport of fencing. We heard Tara Michener's story about how she overcame getting beat up and bullied to run a business that helps today's kids deal with those very same issues. We even heard how successful Detroit entrepreneur, Josh Linkner, was told that his ideas were terrible and wouldn't amount to anything... by his father. But perhaps the biggest beating the odds tale came from Baby Einstein creator, Julie Aigner-Clark.

Julie was a mom who just refused to listen to the inane sounds of a big purple singing dinosaur when her child was born. So, she made her own videos of things that her baby seemed to like watching and played classical music as the background. What started as something she did in her basement with hand puppets, hard work and a little luck, turned into a huge multi-million dollar company that got bought out by Disney. But, she wasn't through - Julie also beat the odds by beating cancer - not once, but twice. The second time it was stage 4.

Young People Achieving Incredible Success.If you are inspired by hearing how today's youth is creating their own successful businesses with hard work and innovation, TEDxDetroit had you covered. Look no further than 22-year-old design student, Veronika Scott. She had a class assignment to design something to fit a need. So, she spent time in a homeless shelter talking to the folks, sometimes 3 times a week, to develop something that would fit their needs. What she came up with is a coat that converts into a sleeping bag. The class ended, but she hadn't perfected the product yet and she didn't want to let the people she'd been working with down. Eventually, she employed a couple homeless women to do the sewing. By the time the Red Cross asked when she would be able to produce 20,000 for disaster relief, she know it was no longer a class project. It was a calling. It was a business she was meant to run. Now she has her own building in Detroit where she runs her own business.

And if 22 isn't young enough for you, there was also 9-year-old Sebastian from Muskegeon who created a lemonade business he runs at the local flea market. It has become a booming success and he gives a portion of his profits to local charity. Seems like a fine, upstanding and inspiring young man.

Old People Making a Comeback.So, what about people on the other side of their lifespan? They hae inspiring stories too. Randel Chalton, Director of Tech Town Detroit shared how, after early business success, he faced a downturn where he had failures. He said he'd lost confidence in himself and his ability to do great things. But, he learned from his failures. When he had a new idea, but not a lot of money, he looked for the lowest cost place in America to start a business. That led him to, you guessed it, Detroit. Randel says Detroit gave him confidence and he sees Detroit's confidence is coming back too. He said we're going to rebuild Detroit, one job, one company at a time. Now, his Tech Town Detroit is made up of 255 businesses and touches 3000 lives.

Detroit & Michigan On The Rise. Perhaps it's stories of the area or region rising like a phoenix out of the ashes of the economic downturn that brings you inspiration. There were plenty of those stories, too. Besides the ones we already mentioned, we heard Matt Dibble talk about how Detroit's small pond is about to become a big sea. Mark Salamango from Robot Town Detroit told us how our technical advancement and automotive know how is putting us at the forefront to build the robot master race... I mean, lead the world in robotics. 

We also heard about on one guy with a wacky dream to do fun stuff with a few friends and a city that was willing to work with him turned Grand Rapids dying town image into one of fun and innovation. Rob Bliss did it with fun projects like the world's largest pillow fight, creating the YouTube sensation lip dub movie and having 30,000 people show up downtown to participate in the throwing of 100,000 paper airplanes. We later heard from even further north as Bob Southerland of Cherry Republic told how they took the biggest cherry producing region in the country and kept if viable by creating a whole new range of cherry products when cherry consumption began to wane.

Changing The World. If none of that is what inspires you, we heard some truly changing the world type stories. The most powerful was probably the talk delivered from En Garde's Bobby Smith. He didn't just talk about training kids to enjoy fencing as a sport. He talked about how he uses that to gain their attention and then teaches them skills they'll need to advance in this world. He teaches them things like financial literacy, empathy, alternate fitness, health and nutrition. "Fill up a kid's backpack with hope or the drug dealers will fill it up with blocks," said Smith. He also said, "I look at kids, not as bottles to be filled up, but as candles to be lit." Meaning, don't just pour knowledge into them, but inspire them to shine brightly.

Music That Fires The Imagination & Lifts The Soul. If arts and music is what inspires you, there was plenty of that at TEDxDetroit. All of it amazing. We had the innovative rapping of Detroit CYDI (Can You Dig It) who invited the audience to tweet them one word. Then as the twitter stream went across they screen they made up rap lyrics on the spot using the words people tweeted. And they did it well!

 

But, for me, the most inspiring musical moment was the last one. The children's choir from the Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences came out and performed an amazing rendition of Detroit State of Mind - a rewrite of the hit New York State of Mind. Those kids gave me chills and they brought the house down with the loudest, longest standing ovation of the day.

There were plenty of other inspiring moments, talks and people at this year's TEDxDetroit, but this blog has gone on long enough. Thanks to Charlie Wollborg, Terry Bean and their outstanding crew - it was truly an inspiring day.

So, what inspires you?

Mike McClure, still glowing in the Detroit state of mind.

8 Things I Learned At Brand Camp 2010

Brand Camp 2010 was last Friday. It had a different vibe than last year's event, but still was a day full of great speakers giving great presentations. Some were informational, some were inspirational, all were interesting. There were a few themes that seemed to be repeated often, too. Here's a few nuggets I gleaned.

1. Make Sure Your Brand is Portable. Hajj Flemings, who kicked off the day, talked about the need to be able to take your personal brand with you when you leave a place where you are using your brand for the company. If you're tweeting under the company name, make sure you have your own account too. Several people besides Hajj sited Frank who used to tweet as @ComcastCares and had over 60,000 followers. He left Comcast a few months ago, but Comcast got to keep all the followers and Frank had to start over again. Olivier Blanchard, in his talk, said the answer is to prepare for it ahead of time and share. You need to extract your lists and set up a database that both you and the company can share. That way if something happens, both can access the list.

2. Your Personal and Your Professional Brand Are The Same Thing. Peter Shankman talked about this. Your brand is everything you do every day, publicly or privately. Your brand is your brand, there is no distinction between what you do online in a personal or professional setting, it's all you. Be aware of that. Cd Lang talked about how many people send their LinkedIn profile instead of a resume. But recruiters research beyond that. If you are one person on LinkedIn, but totally something different on your Facebook and Twitter stream, they will look at your LinkedIn profile as being inauthentic. You need to be transparent, but not so much as you damage your own brand's DNA. Don't be all buttoned up on one channel and putting posts and pics about how smashed you got in another channel. Chris Barger, GM's social media guy, said once you sign on with a brand, you always represent the brand - even when you're not talking about that brand.

  3. Vision and Mission Are Not Interchangeable. Ari Weinzweig of Zingerman's Deli talked about how an inpiring, strategically sound vision leads to greatness. But don't confuse vision and mission. Your mission is your North Star. It's fixed and is always there. It guides you to where you want to be. Your vision is what your envision something will look like when you get there, sometime in the future. Your vision is where you're going and your strategic plan is how you get there.

4. Business Skills: You Need to Write Betterer. One thing we heard over and over again is that, in this new online environment, so much of our business dealings will be written word that writing skills are now of paramount importance. The panel spoke about how so much communication is in written form (blogs, tweets, updates, posts, etc) that writing skills are a key business skill. Hajj Flemings talked about how nobody is as interested in your life story as you are. You need to share compelling info in a short blast that explains what you have to say whether you're there to explain it or not.  Peter Shankman said, "social media is brevity. Brevity is knowing how to write."

5. Over 25% of the Human Genes are the Same as a Banana. Get Over Yourself! This was a quote from one of Chris Barger's slides, but it was another one of those themes we heard over and over (the get over yourself part, not the banana part). Shankman said you can provide information can just talk to yourself. You don't have the right to have followers, you have the right to post valuable information that's relevant to your audience and gain a following. Barger talked about how it's not just the social media professionals who need to "get over yourself," but the brands do to, because it's about people, not brands. Accept that your people will emerge and that they are assets to your business. Educate and train them. And have a succession plan.

6. Your Company Needs a Social Media Plan. Another thing that became clear in talk after talk. Social media is here to stay. Not only that, it's becoming an integral part of both professional and personal life. So, it's time that companies give serious consideration to creating a social media policy. As Olivier Blanchard pointed out, if you don't have one, HR people and bosses will have to make something up on the spot when a problem arises. And they may not be the best people to create one. If your company has one, employees will know what they can and can't do, and when there is an issue, company officials will know what it is they can and should do about it. I've heard from a number of experts on the subject that IBM has one of the best social media policies. It's something they build over time, with people contributing to it over the years on a corporate SM wiki.

7. Build Your Network Before You Need It. Sarah Evans told a story about how she was woke up in the middle of the night by an earthquake in Chicago. Not sure what had happened, she got up and tweeted about it. Got some responses and started investigating. Then she pulled together her information and posted it on iCNN. Later the story was picked up by the New York Times. Both the Times and iCNN called her and got stories on the quake. Evans made sure to mention her business during the interviews. When the stories ran, they mentioned her and her PR business. Because the people who were already in her network, including the iCNN reporter, she got info and got it out. The end result? She got five new and viable new business leads directly from that story.

8. Your Hashtags Say a Lot About You. Cd Lang ended her talk spelling out what some of the hashtags she sees really mean If you don't know, a hashtag is a word or phrase without spaces on twitter with a # in front of it so you can find what other people are saying about a subject. Sometimes they're also used for editorial comment. Lang gave these definitions of what some editorial hashtags actually mean:#justsaying - means you really don't want to listen to another opinion. #tellitlikeitis - really means you're saying you are a leading authority. #donttakeitsoperaonally - it was meant to be personal. #justmyopinion - another "expert" who doesn't want to listen to your opinion. In other words, some hashtags say "I'm kind of a douchbag."

Well, those are some of the things that jumped out at me from this year's Brand Camp. There are other things that might make for good blog posts down the line. And I haven't even touched on the amazing things I heard and learned the week before at TedX Detroit!

Mike McClure - Yaffe Social Media Guy - overflowing with good stuff recently input into my brian.

The Entrepreneurs Will Save Us All

Been thinking a lot about entrepreneurs and startup businesses. Much of the talk in the Michigan area is about how it's not going to be the rebirth of the big corporations that ultimately pull us out of our economic downturn, but the rise of hundreds of smaller entrepreneurs with great new ideas. Our area is flush with them. All the brain power and entrepreneurial spirit that has fueled this area and the country is still there. But, now people are taking things into their own hands and taking their own great ideas to create something big in their own corner of the world. And with the Internet allowing anyone to go global, the timing is right.

Startups are everywhere. As a marketing and research firm, we're talking to more startups and entrepreneurs than ever before. There's some truly great ideas being developed right in our area - on a global scale. Some we'll partner with and some we won't, depending on how we feel their ideas mesh with ours. As noted in an earlier post, I attended Startup Weekend Detroit last month and there are a few startup companies that are still going strong that were developed there. Even at our monthly Social Media Club Detroit meeting this week, the guest speaker was a startup called MyNewMarketplace.com who unveiled their new company to us as their initial beta site went live. Many of the friends I've met in the last few years are starting up their own companies, even hosting a "solopreneurs" party and tweetup recently.

I found this great video on how you, as an entrepreneur, can change the world. Check it out

Video: Entrepreneurs Can Change The World

So, what do you think? Have you been seeing more and more entrepreneurs and startups lately? Do you think they're the key to turning our economy around? I'd like to know if you're seeing what I am.

Mike McClure, Yaffe Partner & Entrepreneur

Detroit is rising. Are you up for it?

We really have to think hard about looking at the glass half full to restore the energy this city embodies.

So much is happening to give this city a new lease on life. The auto industry as a whole has been through the wrenching change that was needed for us to compete, and we have product to be proud of. Detroit cultivates cutting edge technology with our wealth of engineers who can focus on developing the world’s energy resources of the future.

We are flush with the latest communication technology fed by the needs and advertising dollars of the auto industry. And best of all is our still vibrant musical heritage that is recognized worldwide.

We have Robert Bob making a difference in our school system to give us real hope about the ability to rebuild our cities‘ communities. And we have one of the most philanthropic communities in the nation.

We need to focus on our resources; a city rich with creativity and culture should be communicating a different vibe to the world than what we have. The economy is beginning to feel a rebound that will have a dynamic impact on our city because we are poised to grow through newly developed and transformed systems.

Now we have to give our future positive vibes, belief and remember the "cool" of Motown as who we are and always will be.

Guest blog by Joanie Abraham, President of Stylebranding Inc

What Do You Need To Know About Social Media Law?

Social media has become the norm, both on an individual basis and as a marketing/PR/HR/customer service tool for companies. And with that, a lot of legal issues have popped up that companies are still having trouble dealing with.
This blog was originally written in 2010, but social media is still a fairly new field for a lot of companies and they don't have a lot of precedence to go on, even today. Many of the issues from the original post are still relevent today:

Should employers monitor and regulate employee use of social media? Do they even have the right to? Last year ESPN told their on-air employees they could only tweet about ESPN related materials on their personal twitter accounts. What about copyright infringement? It seems to run rampant in social media - so is a Napster-like crackdown coming? And what about privacy issues? Google's new social network, Buzz (and now it's gone, replaced with Google+), got hit with a lawsuit from G-mail account holders upset that the new network broadcast personal information without their consent. And these are just a few of the issues.

While many of the legal questions don't have definitive answers yet, I did get some answers at a Social Media Club Detroit meeting. Karen Evans, an attorney who also is a professor and program director at Lawrence Technological University, gave a presentation called "Law and the Social Web." While she did say that actual answers would vary depending on specific cases, she gave great general info on what you can and can't do on the social web.

As far as regulating employees, Evans says companies should let their employees talk, but they should monitor what's being said. For instance say there's a twitter conversation between an employee and her friend (or another employee) that reveals that someone in the company made a remark that could be construed as sexual harassment. Even if it's in jest, the company should look into it, so they can't be accused of ignoring a possible infraction. And even worse, if you say you're monitoring your employees and you actually aren't - a situation like this could come back to bite you.

Another problem for employers? If employees inadvertently relay trade secrets over social networks. This gets tricky for the company, because once trade secrets are out there, they're really hard to get back. And you could lose them. For instance, if your process of doing something is what sets you apart, once it's out on the social web, other companies can see it and start doing the same processes. You can't really stop them and your advantage is lost.

Evans told a story about using a company's name that's not your own in social media. She told of one person who took the twitter handle HJ_Heinz, mostly as an experiment to see what happened. He wrote tweets about ketchup and ketchup recipes and the like - nothing derogatory towards the Heinz company. This went on for awhile until one day he came in and found his twitter handle had been changed to NOTHJ_Heinz. Think this is a violation of his free speech rights? No, say Evans, only the government can violate your free speech rights. Corporations aren't held to that same standard. Plus, perhaps you were violating their trademarked name.

These are just few of the tidbits that Evans imparted to the crowd at our SMCD meeting (which are open to anyone, if you're interested). For a full set of notes on what knowledge she imparted, click here to go to the notes page on the SMCD Facebook page. And if you're a Detroit peep, consider becoming a fan. You'll get info on other upcoming speakers - all for free!

So, what social media legal issues have you encountered so far? What did you do? What were the results?

Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director & Yaffe Social Media Guy

Phone Calls For Soldiers: a Social Media Valentine's Story

I've talked before in this space about some of the things you can do to create social media success for your company. Here's a can't fail tip: create a community around something people are passionate about. The non-profit organization JoeOnTheMove has had phenomenal success as one of Facebook's quiet giants. In just 5 months, their cause page (Free Phone Calls For Soldiers) membership has grown from around 100,000 to just shy 1.5 million.

How did they do it? JoeOnTheMove is a charity who's sole purpose is to provide free or affordable ways for soldiers deployed overseas to have a few moments on the phone with a loved one back home. There are a lot of people who have a loved one in the services and each of them has a circle of influence in social media. So, when they join, it's not hard to get friends and family to join. Most of us know somebody who has somebody deployed overseas. And even if you don't, you can relate to the true human emotion of wanting to connect to a loved one that you are separated from. Tapping into human emotions is a key to any social media success. Just read some of the stories:"I want to hear my husband’s voice. It kills me everyday not to hear my best friend's voice. To hear him laugh, to hear him upset, even just to know that he is right there listening to me is all I need some days. And there is nothing ruining a moment like not being able to call. If I could have just five minutes without worrying about a penny for every second I would cherish it." - Chris Snider

"As I fight to win the war my body is raging against cancer, my son fights in the war against terrorism and those who are against the freedoms all people deserve. We draw strength from each other, knowing that family and their love is the backbone and the core of what is important in our struggles. A terrorist is like a cancer that is trying to spread through the body of the world, and as my son fights that I want to be able to listen, share and support him in his challenging battle." - Debbie Peterson.

Right now, JoeOnTheMove is in the final stages of their Operation Valentines Connection campaign to raise $50,000 to provide free 5-minute phone cards to thousands of soldiers, so they can call their loved ones. It's a good cause and a good lesson in what makes social media work well. If you can tap into human emotions in an honest way and are truly looking to help someone out, you're way ahead in the social media world.

To donate, go to JoeOnTheMove.com or join their cause page on Facebook.

Mike McClure, ECD & Social Media Guy

Is the bad economy or big competition killing regional chains?

Another good company, Snyder’s Drug Stores, announced a couple of weeks ago that it is closing. I know because we sent out the press releases. Each press release listed my name, Michael Morin, as the contact for more information. We do crisis management for our clients, but this is one you hope you never have to do – going out of business. It resulted in a grueling couple of days on the phone with radio, TV and newspaper people throughout Minnesota, the US and Canada.

The whole ordeal was physically draining. But, it was more than that; it was sad… really sad. Snyder’s was a vital part of the neighborhoods where they had stores. Some of the calls I got asked me where the local seniors were going to turn to for their prescriptions. Another call talked about how Snyder’s had been delivering prescriptions to a paraplegic veteran. Now, what was he going to do?

In most of the areas, Walgreens bought the prescription lists and will take care of those who were loyal Snyder’s customers. In many markets, Walgreens is even taking over the existing store and will convert it. But, some neighborhoods will be without. And the big national chains won’t deliver the kind of personal service that took care of a local vet who couldn’t make it to the store. Many people won’t have the trusted pharmacist they’ve had for years. It’s a sad story that’s told over and over these days as regional chains fall by the wayside.

So, how did this happen? Was it a product of the recession that has hit small to mid-size companies especially hard this last year? Or was it part of the trend this past decade with larger competitors gobbling up the smaller chains all across the country? We’ve seen this happen to many Yaffe & Company clients the past 10 years. Michigan based Perry Drug Stores, a Yaffe client, was bought out by Rite Aid and then their local competition Arbor Drugs was bought up by CVS.

Snyder’s Drug Stores were founded by Max Snyder in downtown Minneapolis in 1928 and grew to become a formidable player in the drugstore category with over 80 stores in the Twin Cities, plus dozens of franchise stores in many other states. A merger 8 years ago turned out to be a bad move, resulting in bankruptcy. Then, in the past five years, three big competitors (Walgreens, CVS and Target) opened 60 new pharmacies in the Twin Cities. So, the weakened Snyder’s now had to compete against the big national players who opened stores at all the best intersections.

So, if Snyder’s had been able to stay relevant, adapt and remain financially strong, would they have been able to overcome these obstacles? It’s hard to say. If they had been strong enough to weather the economic storm that was 2009, who’s to say they might not have still been bought out by one of the big players like so many regional chains before them. The end result would have been better for the Snyder’s people, but would have been the same for the neighborhoods who believed in their local drug store chain.

Small and mid-size chains are disappearing all over the place. Is it the economy, the homogenization of America, merger mania or some combination of all? I’d be interested in hearing what you think.

Michael Morin, EVP, Client Services

How Technology & New Media Helped Haiti. What It Means To Marketers

We all witnessed an interesting phenomenon last week.  The U.S. rallied it’s political strength, emotional celebrity clout and its spirit of giving to raise close to 54 million dollars for Haiti.  In one week the U.S. orchestrated this massive relief effort: raising funds, getting water, food and supplies, medical doctor expertise including surgical theaters and expediting delivery of orphaned children who were mid-process of the adoption process.  

Our participation in the Haiti disaster over the last week was truly remarkable.  The U.S. television media organized multi-channel interactive access in presenting the real time situation, the pleas for help, the organizations where money should be sent and summarized how the money would be used, in graphic detail. Through the on-going media exposure using the most heart felt, engaging reportage, a stabilizing effort of relief and medical care was brought about out of complete chaos and disaster. We were even able to witness how the aid was beginning to repair the overwhelming damage.

But it wasn't just about mass media. The organization of new media channels for reaching out to each and every U.S. household with compassion and dignity brought the disaster vividly into all of our lives in a whole new way. Social media and the Internet have personalized the involvement among all of us.  By connecting through these online channels, all of us could feel we were personally a part of the relief efforts and the aid given. Even children and young teens were establishing organized efforts for relief. 

 This event crystallized in my mind the future role of the United States in a global community. Utilizing our creativity, intellect and technological reach, as a nation we have the capacity to lift third world communities into self-managing democracies by empowering individuals with the tools for on-going sustenance. 

Whatever one has to say about the all-encompassing and imposing nature of technology and media in our lives, we clearly saw how we can use our creative assets to further the benefit of global mankind. Technology allows for distribution of wealth in the most specific one-on-one terms.The scope of audience privy to the information is so vast because of technology, the burden in no longer on a select few. 

As marketers, it is our responsibility to harness this power in the most effective ways for building brands and making a difference. Cause related marketing is such a powerful magnet with the appropriate strategic partners. It takes creativity, imagination, intelligence and humanity. It can only serve to make all of us look good and feel better - about ourselves and about the companies we do business with.

Guest blog by Joanie Abraham, Partner at Style Branding.

Is This The New Golden Age of Creativity?

Mad Men, the popular ad agency show on AMC, takes place during the golden age of advertising creativity. TV was a fairly new medium, but people had worked with it enough to start doing some pretty creative things using the new nuances of picture and sound. Ad men with names like Bernett, Ogilvy and Bernbach were changing the world. Those times are long gone, but are we entering a new area of unprecedented creativity? I think so.

This new age of creativity is set in motion by two major factors. Again, we have a new medium that has been around long enough for people to start figuring it out - the Internet. And that new medium has spawned all sorts of new channels, including online video, social media, mobile, search and much more. Now add to that an era where the customer is more in control of things than they've ever been. It's no longer good enough to shout your message to a massive crowd. You have to craft your message into something interesting or engaging or useful. That takes more creative thinking - from more departments than just the one labeled "creative."

To play in this new pool and to engage on a more one-to-one manner requires creativity in all facets of your business plan. Your strategic thinkers need to be creative in their strategies. The media planning and buying needs to be creative. The thinking that goes into how your product interacts with the consumer at all touch points needs to be creative. And, of course, the messaging itself needs to be creative. 

This all requires a lot more thought than before. It's not like there weren't professionals putting a lot of thought into your brand and it's marketing before. But, branding and marketing today requires a lot more innovative thinking. It's why even a smaller firm like us is going to market differently. For instance, the firm that is our Houston office, Yaffe/Deutser, actually does very little traditional advertising and marketing. They do a lot more consulting in areas where they can help companies think differently - in research, company culture analysis, how they deal with employees and their various constituencies, brand management and a whole host of other things that weren't being done by companies like us just 6 or 7 years ago.

For a creative person like myself, it's a great time. In a previous blog post, I already talked about how now is a good time to get back into radio, if you're willing to do something creative. Now, we're looking at all kinds of new possibilities. Instead of just thinking about how the TV ad will drive sales or promote a products USP, we get to think about how to engage people. Our direct marketing division, Yaffe Direct, has found that emails with a video component increase engagement, add over a minute of time spent on our message by the consumer and lift sales by 34%. So, instead of just concentrating on a sale designed to bring in a customer this weekend, we can create more interesting and engaging web videos like this:

 

RoomPlace Cinco de Mayo Web Video

So, what do you think? Are we really entering the next golden age of creativity? And is it one that crosses over many departmental lines? Who's with me?

Mike McClure, Executive Creative Director and Social Media Guy

Using our powers of persuasion for good, not evil

Am I evil just because I'm an ad guy? I don't think so. But, much of the world does. I can't tell you how many times I've been someplace and the evils of advertising come up. I've been a youth counselor at my church and taken my youth group to a big rally where a video presentation on a giant screen talks about how advertising pressures you to be this kind of person or look like this or do that - DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THEIR EVIL MANIPULATIONS! I've been at group weight loss sessions (yes, I'm a fat ad guy) where they start talking about how evil advertising portrays the ideal body or makes us eat unhealthy food. Even some of our own (Dove's beauty campaign comes to mind) have turned on us, using advertising to decry the evils of advertising

Inevitably, when these outbursts of anti-advertising occur, the heads of those who know me swivel in my direction. I just give them a grin and move about my day. I'm sure there are evil plumbers and evil short order cooks out there too. They just don't get the publicity evil ad guys do. A few bad apples quietly spoil the bunch. A few bad apples with a camera loudly spoil an industry. Or something like that.

Truth is, most of us believe in our clients and try and put a positive spin on humanity in general. And we usually jump at the chance to use our powers of persuasion for good. It's rare that a good cause can't find some ad folks willing to promote their cause pro bono. We've done it over and over. Many of our corporate officers have been chairs of multiple charities. We've done scores of ads for charity, including this one for Forgotten Harvest.

Most recently, our Detroit office was involved in creating the theme and all the materials for the Capuchin Soup Kitchen's big annual fund raiser. SOCK (Support Our Capuchin Kitchen). The event was a big success, connecting emotionally with those in attendance and helping convince them to give a lot more than they did last year, even in this down economy in Detroit. You can read the full story here and see some samples of what we created for them.

Here's just one of the warm comments we got from SOCK committee member, Cathy Schmitt, "The Yaffe Group exceeded expectations. Never have all the parts of this event looked better. The theme was inspiring, and I felt as though the guests connected intellectually and emotionally with all of the services provided through the Capuchin Soup Kitchen. The video The Yaffe Group prepared truly captured the work of this extraordinary mission. The visible spirit of giving and receiving brought tears to my eyes."

Beats the heck outta being call an evil SOB. What have you done to use your powers for good?

Mike McClure, good guy, ad guy, ECD