Posterousfolio: a website solution for finding solutions

via ettechnologiesinc.com

I wrote the content for this website, including the concept for the little flash animation intro.
Was an interesting exercise to find a solution for a solution-finder...

Art Direction: David Yu
Flash Development: Cody Nicol

posterousfolio: reading in case you're bored at the bar Pt 1

BRtent_trad.pdf Download this file

Client allowed us to do fun things with beer (there are actually a lot of aspects of beer advertising where this is not the case, somewhat surprisingly). Finally got a chance to poke some fun at Legal Disclaimers here. Overall, as fun as working with a beer client should be!

Agency: Phoenix Advertising Group
Art Director: Gillian Meyer
Creative Director: David Bellerive

late TV commentary: love, trust and #TheBachelor w Ben Flajnik

via people.com

Besides the lateness of this post (lateness is this site's modus operandi; it's my story & I'm sticking to it), the other standoutish thing about this from people that know me is that I totally don't seem like the type who'd be into something like The Bachelor. Those people are mostly right. I found myself surprised that I was as into this show's drama as I was. This seemed a unique season of the Bachelor, though...

Quick synopsis: It's a reality show called The Bachelor so you can likely guess what the deal is (as I'm essentially doing now): Bachelorettes are contestants to win the hand of the Bachelor. One or more Bachelorettes are kicked off each episode. The last episode, ideally, is the Bachelor proposing to one of the two remaining bachelorettes, that bachelorette saying Yes, and everyone living happily ever after.

I only tuned into The Bachelor at the very end of this season, starting with the penultimate episode, Women Tell All, where just about ALL the women (so my wife tells me) wanted Bachelor Ben Flajnik to pick Lindzi Cox (blonde, bubbly, rode in on a horse on their first meeting) and NOT Courtney Robertson (brunette, not as bubbly, came across as very calculated).

Shocker 1: Ben picked Courtney (she said Yes).

Shocker 2: At the After The Final Rose, months after the proposal, they hadn't been living together and she was not wearing the ring.

I'm bulleting my thoughts out based on a 3-2-1 analysis (tweaked from Dr. Paul Spate after attending his 1day workshop).

Three (3) Thoughts I Thought

1. The Bachelorettes spoke with a voice that seemed to ring true and is indeed resonating with a large part of the TV viewership: Courtney comes across as manipulative and two-faced. Rumour has it she broke a few of The Bachelor rules to get her way, including one or two around physical contact with Ben in the early weeks. Yet Ben chose her, listening to a voice very independent of this American consensus. I'm not sure who's voice it is, but it called to me a big question of how we know what's true. Granted, what the viewership sees is what is chosen through the editing process which is one carefully-selected hour a week. Still, I'd think Ben would have heard this Bachelorette consensus, one that didn't really have anything to gain by promoting Lindzi over Courtney or vice versa, would be heard with at least some ring of truth. The concept calls to mind a book I'm in the middle of, that On Truth book by Harry G Frankfurt (I know, it sounds made-up, doesn't it?...) where Frankfurt defends the importance of truth. In it, there's a neat section on Truth and Troth, an old term from which we get betrothal, in short, a couple "pledging their troth" "means that each promises to be true to the other" (p 68). So what's lingered with me, and with a lot of the audience, is that Un-true love, love with a lot of strings attached, ulterior motives and was a kind of win-at-all-costs love, won out over a love that was considerably less so.
2. Going on the record with a controversial thought: my mind went to the possibility that the conclusion was a contrivance by the show's executive powers-that-be. It's feasible, to me, that given the circumstances, Ben was told to propose to Courtney. This, after all, would be the most controversial and, therefore in the eyes of some, would make the best TV. This also provides opportunity for Lindzi to be The Bachelorette in a future incarnation of the show, one of the rumours floating around. I'm not saying this is what happened. But I'm saying it could have.
3. There was a time, probably not even not that long ago, where my wish would have been that this relationship not work out. My hope now, very likely shaped by being married with a baby now, is the complete opposite: messy and weird as the situation is, I do wish for this relationship to work. I'm not totally sure why, I just do.
   

Two (2) Questions I Still Have

1. To take this on a personal level, what can we learn from seeing a really weird example of trust on TV, and how can we use this as a basis to see how true our relationships, both lovers/family/friends and professionally, really are? The episode really evoked that all-round sense of trust and how we get it, keep it, nurture it and prevent its loss. And trust is making the rounds as an important leadership and business principle (unless I've missed the boat on that one... as a guy who set up a website based on The Late News, that is very entirely possible).
2. Does Josh Groban know his long-lost twin was The Bachelor?

One (1) TakeAway / Response / Conclusion
Bringing this one home in a weird way is to affirm the trueness of my relationships: with my wife, my baby, the rest of my family, and good friends: to stay true in word and deed, beyond just as duty to loving truth and being true in action and heart to my word(s). Seeing un-trueness and its fruit can drive us in this direction. I hope.