Of course, we’ve based our whole business on Burnt Sienna.

Ok, so yesterday gave me two perfectly wonderful examples of Opposite Ends of The Spectrum when it comes to understanding what a brand is.

One one end, there was a great article in the New York Times Magazine.

It seems that “dead” brands like Brim coffee, Nuprin ibuprofen, and White Cloud bathroom tissue are being re-introduced on the strength of their brand equity alone. In some cases, it’s not even really the same product. (Brim, for example, was originally strictly decaf. Not so with the new one.)

In fact, there is a company called River West that does only that. As the story says, the brand is the only thing River West is interested in acquiring. Nothing else. Says founder Paul Earle: “There’s no retail presence, no product, no distribution, no trucks, no plants. Nothing. All that exists is memory. We’re taking consumers’ memories and starting entire businesses.” On the value of the brand and nothing else.

And on the other end (what made yesterday funny for me) was this:

Karen and I were having dinner out, and at the next table were two women. One was obviously giving the other career advice. My ears perked up when I heard her mention “advertising” as an option (along with public relations and, I suppose, barrel racing). With only a bit of eavesdropping I heard her explain very patiently and authoritatively to her companion that the marketing department at a company managed the brand. “The colors,” she said.

The colors.

Karen was ever so proud of me for not injecting myself into the conversation, rolling my eyes or doing one of those spray things that they do on TV when they somebody takes a big drink of something and then hears something funny or shocking and they spray it all over everybody. (Very Jerry Lewis, you know. In any case, I didn’t do it.)

I saw a great quote recently from the VP of Corporate Communications at Coca-Cola. “If Coca-Cola’s assets were destroyed overnight, whoever owned the Coca-Cola name could walk into a bank the next morning and get a loan to rebuild everything.”

I doubt they’d be able to do the same with a Pantone 185 chip.

Some days it seems like all the cool stuff is in Asia

Like this for HP in Malaysia. They printed these big standing things on HP paper that looked like it was a tear in the real scene. Thus demonstrating the printing quality.

Brilliant.

From Adrants.

Seen on the street

Ernie Schenck doesn't update his blog very often, but when he does, it's a doozy.

Check this out. Click the "Muto Wall Painted Animation" cassette tape on the home page, turn on the volume and enjoy.

This is so cool I'm going to go home and set myself on fire.

That's right. Screw it.

I love Harley Davidson. And not just because most owners seem to be middle-aged, grey-haired, bearded guys like me.

No. It's because of this ad. (Click the ad to enlarge it and make it easier to read.)

"So screw it, let's ride." What a perfectly wonderful way to look at whatever you want to call these times we're in. Here at N+H central, we happen to believe that tough economic times are an opportunity. (See previous post here.) But not if you bury your head in the sand and wait for things to turn around all by their own self.

And it gets better. The call to action ("Agree? Then visit . . ." ) drives you to a dedicated Harley page that lets you make your own statement and tells them exactly who responded to the ad. Smart people.

I found the ad in this week's Ad Age in an article about how some advertisers are "hammering away too much on the negatives in their marketing these days". Harley has a different take on it. They believe that their customers are "a little rebellious and resilient when they're told things aren't good" says their chief marketing officer.

It's a good article.

But it's a great ad.

We're within two points! Don't tell!

‘Splain something to me.

What’s with the “best kept secret”? Why is that a good thing? I see and hear that now and again, usually in an ad for some local business. Like it’s a positive thing.

Maybe I’m just a dope, but it doesn’t seem to me that claiming to be the “best kept secret in town” means anything except that, well, you’re good at keeping yourself a secret. Which is an odd way to distinguish yourself. It always sounds to me like “Nobody knows we exist! "

I also don’t understand why play-by-play guys at ball games refer to one team as being “within” x-number of points. If the score is 82-80, the announcer will almost always say the team with 80 points has to “pulled within two points”. Within two points of what? Being one point down?

Or maybe it's within two points of being the best kept secret in town.

This was very cool

Jerry Hofstetter, a "Swiss lighting artist" bathed the Washington National Cathedral in lights for three nights running last Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We went by about 11 on the last night.

Sorry for the iffy quality of the pictures, but I was balancing the camera on a steel fence to allow for the 1.5-second exposure while some dopey kid jumped on and off the fence repeatedly.

Anyway, it was great to see. Read more about it here. Better pictures there too. They did it in celebration of the Cathedral's centennial.

And no, this doesn't have much to do with advertising. But it has everything to do with a) something I liked and 2) the need to get a blog post up soon.

Bidness trip

I make it a point not to be offended when people ask us how we managed to get a client in Key West. I'd like to think it's a combination of talent, good work, quick wit, a firm handshake and a charming personality.

And that's just Karen.

In any case, we'll be with our client all next week, so the blog is going to have to wait. I'm sure you'll all muddle through somehow.