Jenny Quattlebaum

While indulging in my mid-century eye candy of Mad Men a few days ago, I realized how easy it seemed back in the Golden Age of advertising. The agencies were a fast paced frenzy of creativity, where the ones with the ideas (with assorted creative client exceptions) were actually the talented folks working at the agency. Some of the largest concerns were client fears of being too “brash” or “sexually charged” with their advertising or having the big agency superpower “standing in the hall” when you’d leave a pitch.

Now, the stimuli fly around our heads, multiplying with blinding speed. Now people, who may or may not be qualified, can make up their own niche media specialties. Popping into and out of the market, they sell their intangible wares, fabricating a company’s need for social media with no thought put towards the consequences of the unmoderated spread of company information and ideas.

Social media that is not handled with foresight and concrete objectives leads to public relations skid marks that linger indefinitely all over the internet. The value on all of these different diggs and tweets and facebook fandoms add to the beige hodgepodge of today’s branding.
Dear Client: Let’s decide if you need it first.

Internally, companies have branding hemorrhages every day, with ambitious employees wielding the blunt-object weapon of design – PowerPoint. Meanwhile, all we can do on the marketing services side is to triage these documents and make them as fool-proof as possible. It’s like crack – they’re going to get it somewhere.
Dear Client: Let us help you.  We can clean it up in a jiffy.

I occasionally do long for the days when the only people with the markers and black board had the ideas, and if the client was too conservative, the creative director could storm out of the room and kick the client out of the building. Then I gaze lovingly at my iPhone and change my mind. I’ll just think 50 years forward when the marketing professionals of the future reminisce about these early Facebook days and chuckle to themselves. I am sure they’ll be dealing with larger issues by then.

Last night, I was knitting in my my home office haven, my escape from the incessant din of the World Cup blaring in the living room. I spent a little idle time on Bravo, watching even the commercials (I don’t have a DVR in the office). And then I see a preview for “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist“.

I was thinking, “Whoo! Back in the day, I was artsy…Hmmm… Even now, I sport hair that the artsy folk might refer to as “Avant Garde”. Maybe I could score a spot on that show. I have artsy GLASSES that make me…more creative. Surely that counts for something.

Maybe I am cynical, judgmental, or just over it, but I browsed through the show photos, and some of the profiles of artists (who seem to have education worth far more than their possible career-funded vocations will ever justify) and I just started to scowl in my mind. I began to envision what today’s “Art Crowd” would look like. I pictured the folks on Beetlejuice blah-blah-blah-ing, and then my lip started to curl at the thought.

It was a nice brief idea to think I might have a shot on that show, but I may flatter myself. If it were something with a crafty-survival-DIY-Papier-mâché-hot-glue-war feel, I might be more of a power player. Until then, I am going to remain a practical capitalist who enjoys the everyday challenge of making a client’s everyday product shine like the greatest thing since sliced bread.

I don’t think that I will be too disappointed that I can’t cover an entire trade show booth with bleached beef tripe to make a statement.

I wish there was a game show where the objective was to locate assorted vector logos on the Internet. I would be a big money winner.

From a link I saw @tferris (author of the 4 Hour Work Week) post on twitter: Visualizations on the usefulness (or non-helpfulness) of assorted elixirs and supplements. I love infographics.

My favorite viking chef, Gordon Ramsay, came to to the U.S., and visited with the friendly faces in Oklahoma to go noodling.  I’ve watched this episode a couple of times.

I tried out this recipe tonight. It was zingy, but good–using tilapia was a bit of a downer because it doesn’t have the density that the catfish has, but it still had the flavor.  The trick seems to be the deglazing when you throw the splash of white wine while it’s cooking. I am going to attempt again later this week with a more substantial cut of fish.

Hi folks – I offed the old jennyquattlebaum.com.  This is a much more entertaining venue for jennyquattlebaum.com.  It puts my work out, I can change the look around without having to design the new one myself every time, and it keeps me on my toes! Hope you enjoy.