When I first walked into Brunet-García, I was struck by one question, “Where are the walls?” If you are not familiar with the building, BG is one long, collaborative space with desks and chairs, but only one office and a conference room. I am used to cubicles and doors; I am used to privacy. In my interview, Vanessa and Anna made it very clear that when working here, everyone knows everything about everyone.  It quickly became apparent to me that privacy was not an important aspect of BG – for good reason.

In a place where creativity, innovation and brainstorming are crucial, it is imperative to provide a space that not only enables such thinking but also enhances it. Many design firms are adopting this collaborative layout to foster such thinking. With the elimination of walls and doors, it has never been easier to communicate and collaborate with those you work with.

At Brunet-García, the account team is merely steps from the creative department, making communication easy and fluid, and enhancing workflow. I have only been here for three days, but I am already seeing the success of a collaborative space.  There is no need for everyone to meet in the conference room to discuss a project. They can simply roll their chairs down the room to give input.

The nervousness I felt three days ago has quickly gone out the window, as I recognize that walls, doors and privacy are overrated when it comes to this work. Walls block things, like communication, creativity, and in my case learning. I am excited to be able to learn as much as I can from this agency. I came here to learn about account services. Without walls, I am certain that I will learn so much more. I couldn’t avoid it if I wanted to.

Brunet-García's wonderfully designed workspace.

Over the past week, the world lost two great musicians. One of them was a legend, the other was a family friend.

Levon Helm, best known as the singer and drummer for The Band, died of throat cancer last week. His body will be bequeathed to the soil he so loved in Woodstock, New York. Helm will lie next to Rick Danko, The Band’s singer and bassist who died in 1999. If you put your ear to that spot where Helm rests, you can probably hear his music. Fitting, because Levon Helm’s music was like putting your ear to the dirt roads, the roots, the rust, the cemeteries and the rolling hills of America. He was one of the last of a dying breed of artists who filtered the pathos and tropes of our collective national conscious into something rhythmic that stirred your soul.

Levon Helm did not deal in artifice or imitation — he was the real deal. His voice wasn’t contrived to entail authenticity, nor did it pay homage to some grand tradition — Helm was the tradition. His music was a vehicle listeners could use to travel the open road of the American experience — with its drunkards, dreamers, derelicts and manifest destiny that we all still hold out hope for.

Four days after Levon Helm passed, I learned my dad’s good friend Jerry Joseph had also succumbed to cancer. You may not know Jerry’s name, but there’s a good chance you’ve heard his music. Conga Jerry, as he was known, slapped skins on albums with the Allman Brothers Band, The Marshall Tucker Band,  Sea Level, Eric Quincy Tate and others who recorded at the legendary Capricorn Studios in Macon, Georgia.

Before I knew Jerry’s music, I knew him as my mom and dad’s fun friend with the big smile. In the late 70s, my parents would drive me out to Jerry’s hilltop cabin that he shared with his girlfriend Theresa in Pine Mountain, Georgia. I was around five or six, but I have vivid memories of the cabin on the hill. It was more like a farm, with cows,  a beautiful pond and a beautiful view of pine mountain. The air was fresh, except for the occasional smell of cow dung and weed.

What I remember most are the musical jam sessions that would break out in the barn/shack that was on the property. Some of Macon, Georgia’s musical royalty would come over and jam with Jerry as families mingled, swam in the pond and picnicked. I can remember getting up close to the musicians and receiving a wry smile as they sipped their beers and played their songs. It was an experience that left an indelible impression on me and taught me everything I’d ever need to know about friends and fellowship.

I never got a chance to reconnect with Jerry. I’ll just remember him as a sweet, affable, bearded guy who was always so kind to me as a little boy. He continued to tour and record over the years, and he and my father stayed in touch. Jerry fought a tough battle with the bottle, one that he was never able to win. It certainly didn’t help with his fight against cancer.

Check out comedian Rob Delaney’s Tumblr page  for a great essay on Levon Helm and why, in this current socio-political climate, his music is more important than ever. Also check out the blog post my dad’s old friend Carlton Higgenbotham wrote about “Conga” Jerry Joseph.

I am not making the assumption that everyone my age is as awful at geography as I am. I am probably much worse than the average, but I do think that people in my generation and generations to follow are pretty clueless about the geography of the world and maybe more importantly, don’t see a problem with that.

Maybe this is the reason the main plot line of AMC’s Hell on Wheels (if any of you actually tried watching the show) seemed pretty uninteresting. A bunch of people fighting over maps? I mean, it makes sense, but maybe we are too far removed from this to actually understand or be interested in this kind of plot line (where are the zombies!?).

It is really hard to imagine a time without iPhones and GPS, even though it was not that long ago. When I was four years old, my mother drove me into NYC for my great uncle’s 90th birthday. We got lost (thanks to my dad’s directions, I’m sure), and after hours of driving around the city, asking police and calling the restaurant from phone booths, we had to give up and drive back upstate. This would never happen today.

Although it makes me appreciate technology, I think it is stunting our society. People take these tools for granted, which means they don’t think they need to learn where England is on a map, or arrive anywhere on time because they can just call at the last minute and reschedule. (Now that the TPC allows phones, we can finally get completely out of the Stone Age!)

Now that it is apparent that I know the map of Westeros (Game of Thrones) better than the map of the world we live in, I have decided I will make a solid commitment to learning geography. I’ll check back in after I can draw a map correctly…

Jonathan Cude, Partner, Chief Creative Officer, McKinney

As most of us in advertising know, the new business pitch is the way agencies win most of their business and grow. The end prize for the winning agency is to add a new client to its roster and get paid for the work done on spec, since very few clients compensate agencies for work done during the pitch. Agencies incur significant expenses pitching for new business. The losers have to eat the expense.

The worst thing about pitching is that agencies give away for free their highest valued product – their strategic thinking. In order to make up for the financial gamble that participating in a pitch entails, agencies try to make a profit by producing the work. The problem is that production is often a commodity. It reduces the client/agency relationship from a partnership to a more transactional level of buyer and vendor.

In the past, an agency could spread its investment on a pitch over a 10-year, 20-year or even longer client/agency relationship. But today, relationships are shorter (the average CMO tenure is under 2 years, and when a new CMO comes in you often have a change of agencies), and two or three years of working with a client after winning a pitch are often not enough for an agency to recoup its pitch investment.

Agencies historically made the bulk of their money by placing media for their clients, and collecting a commission – usually 15%. Getting paid for strategic thinking didn’t matter as much when it came to agency compensation, it was just “thrown in.” All that mattered was the media buy. That changed in the 1990s when media departments were spun out of the creative agencies. Today, creative agencies are compensated on the basis of billable hours. Implementation has become the norm for how agencies get paid.

Convincing agencies to insist on payment for strategic thinking and not doing “creative on spec” is easier said than done. After all, new business pitches can be the path for agency growth, and principles alone don’t pay the bills. Yet, while getting paid for most pitches is not likely to happen, agencies should become more aware that the current practice of pitching accounts is not always in their self-interest.

The solution is for agencies to become a lot more selective as to which pitches to pursue. Good agencies minimize the risk and the financial burden of pitching by saying “no” more often than they say “yes” when invited to pitch.

By the way, McKinney won the pitch.

Katy Perry’s live version of the song starts with an admission from Perry that things are about to get “embarrassing,” and indeed they do. From her tilted blue Yankees cap, to her vocal edits (ni**as becomes ninjas, motherf***ers becomes mofos), Perry creates a modern day equivalent to Pat Boone’s cover of “Tutti Frutti,” a song completely stripped of its meaning and  swag.

So, about two hours after watching that video, when I heard about what happened to Trayvon Martin, I thought about Perry rapping  “if you escaped what I escaped, you’d be in Paris getting f***ed up, too.” While Perry didn’t have to “escape” anything to get where she is, all the money, education and proper upbringing in the world can’t help black teenagers like Martin escape perception.

I will not rehash all the details of the case but here are the basics: Trayvon Martin, 17-years old, was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida on February 26th. Trayvon had been on his way back to a family friend’s gated-community home after purchasing Skittles and iced tea from a nearby convenience store. A  911 tape indicates that the admitted shooter, 28-year-old neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman, pursued the teen in his car because he deemed him “real suspicious.” At some point Zimmerman left his vehicle and a confrontation occurred. Here is a link to an article that gives a much more detailed account of what happened before and after the shooting.

I don’t want to get into how Florida’s questionable ‘Stand Your Ground’ gun law may have contributed to this tragedy, or how the immediate investigation into the shooting raises troubling questions about the Sanford Police Department; nor do I care to discuss the outrage this case has created. What concerns me the most about the death of Trayvon Martin is why George Zimmerman thought that Martin was somehow a threatening presence in his neighborhood.

It makes me sick to think that no matter what level of financial or social status they obtain, black families must teach their children to live by a special set of rules; rules that govern what they can wear, how quickly they can move, and where they can go. On the blog “Black and Married with Kids,” Michelle Johnson lists what she calls “the rules” she plans to pass down to her 6-year-old daughter. Among them:

1. Don’t touch anything when you go into stores.

2. Always ask for a bag for the items you purchased. … My mom didn’t want anyone thinking that we walked out of the store without paying for our merchandise.

3. Know who you are. You can’t do everything they do. In other words, just because your white friend does something that doesn’t mean you can do the same. Whether it’s hanging at the mall or going to a house party, police, teachers, and other authorities treat white children differently than black children.

4. Go where you say you are going and come straight home. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time can lead to being falsely accused of crimes.

Assuming that at some point Zimmerman is arrested, a jury may be asked to decide whether his sense of feeling threatened by Trayvon Martin was somehow reasonable. Would a reasonable person have the same response in the same situation? Ask yourself this tough question: have you ever felt your heartbeat quicken when a group of black teenagers passes you on the street? If you have, then intellectually honesty demands you consider Zimmerman’s sense of insecurity reasonable; intellectual honesty demands that we admit to ourselves that we are not always seeing black people even when we are looking directly at them. In a brilliant column, the Miami Herald’s Leonard Pitts Jr. evokes Ralph Ellison’s novel “Invisible Man” when talking about the Martin case:

“They do not see you.

For every African American, it comes as surely as hard times, setback and tears, that moment when you realize somebody is looking right at you and yet not seeing you — as if you had become cellophane, as if you had become air, as if somehow, some way, you were right there and at the same time not.

Ralph Ellison described that phenomenon in a milestone novel that begins as follows: “I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe. Nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids — and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.”

The creation of a post-racial America requires more than just a vote for a black President, and it requires much more than a Katy Perry cover of “Ni**as in Paris.” It requires ditching the creeping, existential, unfounded  paranoia that frames our thoughts about politics, popular culture and black teenagers walking through gated communities.

Former Head of School Dale Ragen

Episcopal High School of Jacksonville is unarguably a special place. Tucked away between the river and Atlantic Boulevard, the campus boasts beautiful oak trees, brick buildings, bridge views, pristine courtyards and plazas, and, most importantly, a strong community. I never felt so connected as I did when I was attending middle school and high school there. I strongly believe this is in big part thanks to Dale Regan.

When I was a junior, Dale replaced Charlie Zimmer as “head of school,” but Dale was at the forefront of Episcopal’s every move long before that. She served as an English teacher and administrator as well, starting her Episcopal career in 1978, 11 years before I was even born.

Dale’s presence radiated throughout the campus. A visionary with a love for education and making a difference, she was a head of school who truly transformed everything she touched. The one thing I remember most about Dale is that she was present. You always saw her, whether it was walking through the halls, offering a funny comment or a hug, or playing games with the students in the courtyard. She wasn’t a figure head; she really shaped and was part of the Episcopal community.

Yesterday our community really rallied together after the news broke. Social media channels were flooded with supportive and thoughtful messages. This really showed what a strong, tight-knit community Episcopal is.

Swarms of Episcopal grads changed their profile pictures on facebook

Twitter was flooded with comments and prayers

What happened yesterday was without a doubt a tragedy, but I know the strong Episcopal community will pull together and remember Dale forever. I know I will. Dale shaped Episcopal, and Episcopal shaped the person I am today. I will never forget my positive memories from my high school, and the impact one woman had on that. Thank you for everything, Dale, we miss you.

Anna Jaffee
Class of ‘07

There are a few sustainable and local-friendly events happening in Jacksonville this weekend. The Riverside Arts Markets opens for their 4th year on Saturday, and here at BG, we will be participating in a tree-planting event with our re:solve grant recipients in Boone Park. This buzz word, “sustainability” never seems to be too far from my mind. Sometimes upon hearing an absolutely terrifying population estimation for the future, I can’t help but think we must be trying to shift from global commerce to local commerce… right? In my eyes, sustainability practices are the future because there is just no other option. And this means organizations must control their environmental footprint in order to thrive in the future.

Perhaps the biggest factor of a sustainable planet is food. If we can change our food consumption practices, it would change our energy consumption. And there’s no better change agent than business and industry. When local businesses collaborate together, it can change the complexities and inefficiencies of the supply chain to strengthen a community.

The global food trade has never made much sense to me. We buy food from all over the world, in turn having to invent long-term preservation techniques that only degrade the quality when we have an abundance of good food produced in our very region. With an energy crisis looming, it makes logical and logistical sense to convert to a more locally based food trade.

A common fear of those who delight in foreign fare is that local and seasonal consumption is boring or monotonous. In fact, it can be quite the opposite experience. Eating locally allows you to enjoy the prime of seasonal tastes.  It also adds a whole new outlet for gratitude, an escape of sorts from our fast-paced lives. Eating seasonally makes us slow down to celebrate the simple yet beautiful seasons. Therefore, becoming more aware of our connection with nature and our community. Nature produces food for what our bodies need at that specific point in the year. Winter produces rich foods like lentils and olives, whereas summer produces light and refreshing foods like lettuces and nectarines. Eating in this way, food is always fresh, local and picked at the peak of ripeness, not stored for a long time, and generally just tastes better.

In a time where we’re always looking for ways to strengthen our local economy, why not explore an option that could have a direct positive impact three times a day, while building a sense of community and connection? Take the plunge and join a community grow-op like Urban Organics or go to a farmers market on the weekends to stock up on fresh produce and organic treats.

At your next meal, ask yourself some questions about the food you’re consuming. Do you know where the food came from? What the actual ingredients are? The conditions or type of farm the meat was raised in? Think about the global impact you can truly make by seemingly small decisions. Changing the world is hard to do, but you have to start somewhere. When you become more aware of your food, you become more aware of your community and the connections and people in it – the awareness will only grow from there. The bottom line is, you don’t have to eat locally because its the “right thing to do,” eat locally because it just feels right.

Left to Right: Jimmy Smith, Kheri Holland Tillman, Keith Cartwright

It’s hardly a secret that the advertising world in the U.S. doesn’t come close to being representative of the population to which it is tasked with marketing. It’s also a fact that the racial makeup of most general-market agencies hasn’t changed much since the 1970s.

To mark Black History Month, Advertising Age decided that it would simply talk to some African-Americans prominent in the industry about getting into the business, industry role models, market segmentation and diversity in adland.

These are some of their answers:

Ad Age: How/why did you get into the business?
Jimmy Smith, chairman-CEO-CCO, Amusement Park Entertainment: I said it before and I’ll say it again: “Bewitched!” Darrin Stephens and his wife, Samantha, introduced me to the ad game. If it weren’t for Endora, Darrin would’ve been living the life! And Larry Tate taught me to beware of account people. (Just kidding!)

Ad Age: Any advertising or marketing role models?
Keith Cartwright, creative chairman of soon-to-be-named agency: Well, aside from Alma and Arthur Cartwright, I’d have to say Dan [Wieden]. You cannot look at that company, over the past 30 years, on so many levels, and not admire what they’ve created. Now, Dan’s not black. Although he told me once he wanted to be.

Ad Age: What are your thoughts on marketing segmentation?
Kheri Holland Tillman, VP-trade marketing and sales strategy, Heineken USA: [It's] necessary, but it’s not as simple as segmentation by African-American, Hispanic and white. It needs to be the psychographics along with the demographics. … So you have to make sure that you’re breaking it down into more than just an ethnic group.

Ad Age: What do you think about the diversity issue in adland?
Mr. Cartwright: The conversation has changed, and people are much more aware than five years ago. That said, the numbers across-the-board are still anemic … and don’t give a fair representation of people we’re marketing to.
Mr. Smith: I’m not 100% sure, because I didn’t do a survey back in the day, but I could have sworn there were more black folks in the biz when I began my career. … If the African-American shops are smart (and they are) they’ll seize the moment, understand the opportunity, make like Don Cornelius and provide clients with the hippest trips in American advertising. Most general-market agencies can’t fake the funk, and African-American agencies should stop running away from the funk.

Ad Age: What are your thoughts on African-Americans and entrepreneurialism in advertising and marketing?
Mr. Cartwright: Entrepreneurialism is a way of thinking. It’s an approach to life. There’s so much going on right now in media and tech, I think it’s a great time for anyone to start a company, regardless of race.
Mr. Smith: Starting my own company was an easy decision. It had nothing to do with being black and everything to do with wanting to take brands to the moon, Mars and the stars via advertising that didn’t look or smell like advertising. I just simply wanted to make like Bill Bernbach, Georg Olden, Lee Clow, Dan Wieden, John Jay, Jo Muse and Jon Kamen and change the game. … As for other blacks starting their own businesses, I predict in seven years we won’t be having this conversation — because many brands will be out of business if we’re still having this conversation in seven years. And the CMOs of most brands are intelligent. They know what time it is. They see the handwriting on the wall. They know what color the money is. It’s black and yellow, brown AND white.

From: African-American Execs on Life in Adland — Advertising Age
 published: February 19, 2012.

One of my favorite designers, Karim Rashid, has interior design, product design and iconography down to a tee. As a leading cultural interpreter, Karim Rashid has created brilliant design, and in doing so, has simultaneously carved out an incredible brand for himself.

His color palette is one of the most vibrant constructs in the world of design, recognizable from miles away. His retail and restaurant articulation is as fresh as it is practical–it’s art that just makes sense. His pattern and lighting schemes – always appropriate.

While designing a table, his attention is no less on the wall behind the table, the pattern on the wall, the  angles of the wall as it slopes towards the bar, the iconic bar stools that compliment the walls, that lead you to the floor, and then back to the tables. Design, at work.

His design, however, is actually working overtime. While it’s manifesting itself within the constraints of materials, fabrics and paint, it’s living outside of the box as well. It’s living and breathing “KARIM”–a signature style and brand that is so crystal, it echos as poignant as any rock tune or sound track. Karim could tag anything and it would be as memorable as any 5th Ave. icon or identity. And though Eames, Stark and Gehry have cashe and reverb within the graphic design and advertising communities, Karim stands alone rivaling the very brands that those industries create and advance.

One of the things that has gotten my attention over the years, is his self-made pattern and graphics – merging graphic design, iconography and explosive shapes into a communications stream that ties him to his work, forever. That identity system is always pointing back to a style, to a perspective, to him. Design, at work again. This prolific cross-pollination of “interior style” and “graphic voice” is pure genius – and it’s intentional. Much like ancient cultures and civilizations that speak to us from the past through iconic imagery, Karim has set into motion a vocabulary that will communicate his world, what he’s about, for generations to come.

In my experience, self promotion – tied specifically to a firm’s portfolio – has always been an important part of an advertising firm’s procurement and culture. The work needs to echo back and point to a place, a team, a perspective and a process. When an agency’s work can be described in just a sentence, and carry a meeting from pure reputation alone, then the doors are open for discovery and innovation; and that’s better for clients, collaborators and the firm’s people. Now, the work is more than just the day-to-day, it’s a part of a voice, a philosophy, and yes, a brand. Potential clients look at it and say, “That’s what I need, that thinking, those people, that perspective, I need that applied to my situation.” That’s design, at work.

The first time it went up, the homepage showed a series of revolving images with the tagline “¡Mamas y Mariscos!” The poblem is that “Mamas” means “breasts” in Spanish (the perfect match to a photo of three women from the waist up). What they meant to say was “Mamás y Mariscos” (“Moms & Seafood”). Sometimes a little accent mark can make such a big difference!

In addition, the microsite was riddled with grammatical errors (open exclamation mark in “¡Bievenido!”, etc.)

As soon as the site went live, Hispanic blogs lit up! Everyone thought it was dumb that no one at the corporate level cared enough to take the time to ensure that the Latino outreach was on target. Worse yet, no one made sure that it was not offensive or made the company look foolish to those it was trying to reach. The blunder served as proof that Gorton’s doesn’t get it, and that, in the long run, it always pays to use an ad agency that does!