Samuel Ekstrom - National Scout Reserve Scholarship Award Winner

I'm proud of Samuel for earning the 2017 Scouts - Summit Bechtel Reserve Scholarship in honor of Dan McCarthy. The Summit Bechtel Reserve (SBR) Staff Association awarded $2,000 to the 2017 recipients. Samuel served as the Aquatics Director at the waterfront for camp and used the scholarship to help pay for his last year at Central Michigan University.

Samuel Ekstrom was the Lead Professional Lifeguard and Lead Instructor for all Aquatics related programs at Summit Bechtel Reserve - James C. Justice Summer Camp.

Sam was responsible for developing an advancement program, training/supervising staff and overall responsibility for the well-being of all participants taking part in any aquatics activity including Paddleboarding, kayaking, swimming, water reality and fishing. 

 The waterfront at the James C. Justice National Scout Camp at SBR is the busiest in the nation. His responsibilities including overseeing all aquatics activities for the Senior Scout Camp, Appalachian Adventure programs on Goodrich Lake. 

The waterfront had as many as 800 scouts in attendance at any one time, with professional staff and volunteer staff under Samuel's leadership and supervision. 

Samuel attended the BSA National Camping School and received his Aquatics Director certification in order to take on this significant aquatics and management position.

This year he worked as a Manager at the waterfront and completed his Marketing/Advertising internship at SBR by working as a Media Content Creator. Samuel shot photos and video at SBR to help promote the program on all media and social channels.  

Sam shot photos and video for Facebook, Instagram and more for the 2018 year for Summit Bechtel. 

Prior to working as the Aquatics Director, Sam worked at the Shooting Sports Academy as an NRA certified Rifle and Shotgun instructor. Sam helped scouts and visiting guests to camp experience and develop their rifle, shotgun, muzzle loader, pistol and archery skills. 

Jeep Brand & Juventus Partner Together

Part of the Jeep brand's marketing campaign includes a strong international push including a Eur35 million buy in sponsorship of the Italian Juventus Club. It's a three year deal, showing the long term commitment the brand has in the market. Juventus claims more than 295 million followers around the world. Another American automaker, Chevrolet had signed on to sponsor Manchester United, a popular English team. Of particular note, the Agnelli family, which has a controlling stake in Fiat-Chrysler, also runs the Italian Juventus Club. Part of the sponsorship includes a prominent Jeep logo on all jerseys of players and referees. The Jeep brand will also become the official vehicle supplier for Juventus.

An amazing display of football skills can be found in this promotional video tying Juventus and Jeep brand together. Gunther Celi, the reigning Italian champion of freestyle football and his team mate Andrea Free7 show some amazing skills in this YouTube video. Looking forward to increased sales, both domestically and internationally. Enjoy.

Gang Sign in WWII Philco Brag Ad

Gang Sign in WWII Philco Brag Ad, a photo by lee.ekstrom on Flickr.

Advertising during World War II could often be very strong. Ad agencies had to tread a thin line between promoting patriotism and the war effort and bald-faced braggadioco look-what-we-did promotion.

This boastful in-your-face brag ad was produced by J. Walter Thompson for the Philco Corporation. W.H. Crawford, the illustrator, used a reverse V sign as a severe insult to the enemy.

According to - the gesture was one step away from flipping the bird. The European community was familiar with the sign as it meant, "F#@? You", or "Up Yours."

According to historian Juliet Barker in her Book, Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle That Made England (2006), King Henry V included references to the french cutting off longbowman's fingers. The two-fingered salute, or "longbowman salute" was a jab at the French to show the English were still going strong.

I especially like Philco's pledge to soldiers of industry in the second paragraph, "More-Better-Sooner." Nice slogan.

Today the symbol is used my many on the web as a friendly or nice gang sign. For those who want to be cool, but not want to flash the wrong sign.

For more on the V sign and it's many meanings - visit Wiki.

Image approved for research purposes only. Part of the Duke Library Digital Collection - J. Walter Thompson Advertising Collection.

CLEVER LAND ROVER PASSPORT AD

Advertising Agency: RKCR/Y&R, UK
Executive Creative Director: Mark Roalfe
Typographers: Lee Aldridge, SiD
Copywriter: Phil Forster
Art Director: Tim Brookes
Photographer: Carl Warner
Production: Ali Power
Account Director: Glynn Euston

Coca Cola Friendship Machine - 2 for 1

Love the idea behind this Coca-Cola marketing. Check it out at YouTube. The Coca Cola Friendship machine case helped Ogilvy Argentina win Argentina Direct Agency of the Year for 2011. The idea: What if you can climb up a huge Coke machine and get 2 coke bottles for the price of one?

Jeep Wrangler Call of Duty: MW3 Edition

Recently wrote copy for the new 2012 Jeep Wrangler Call of Duty: MW3 Edition on jeep.com (note: "toughest vehicle in the world" headline was supplied). Keeping with the Call of Duty game-theme, I incorporated over 20 achievement/trophy phrases into the headlines and body copy. This helped raise key word and search awareness as well as give an authentic tone to this hard-core special edition Wrangler.

Jeep Brand History iPad App

The Jeep brand just launched a new free iPad app on iTunes. This app was an extension of the Jeep Touch Screen Display that our SapientNitro team put together to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Jeep brand.

I had to shorten some of the copy to fit, but it's almost the same copy throughout. Great execution with nice touches by Art Director Extraordinaire, David Fasullo.

The app lets consumers explore photos and copy of
Jeep vehicles from the past seven decades, including the Willys MB - the original 4x4 freedom machine.

You can download the app at the iTunes store. If you like what you see, give a good rating and leave a nice comment at the iTunes store.

Jeep Wagoneer Stars in Utah Ad Campaign

Properly secure all cargo.
Originally uploaded by lee.ekstrom

Jeep SJ featured in a Utah Advertisement. This ad was created by art director Brandon Knowlden for the state of Utah.

The "Life Elevated" campaign was to highlight the four-seasons of adventure Utah had to offer. The 1979 Jeep Wagoneer was bought on Craigslist.com and was the centerpiece of the $3.2 million advertising campaign.

Reminds me a lot of the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited overloaded backpacker theme we did a while back at BBDO-Detroit.

Another similar VW ad cleverly used a competitors vehicle loaded down to show the possible benefits of their voluminous, box-shaped VW Station Wagon.

Love the line, "So every time they make a conventional station wagon, they also make a swell little ad for the Volkswagen Station Wagon.

Utah Road Trip YouTube Video by utahtourism.

Article about the campaign by automotivetraveler.com.

Brandon Knowlden Blog.

GEM Green Police Superbowl Ad

Anyone notice Chrysler's GEM (Global Electric Motorcars) Superbowl commercial last night?

Audi of America's "Green Car" commercial produced by Venables Bell & Partners in San Francisco was trying to highlight the Audi A3 TDI Clean Diesel. But you would hardly know it by screen time. The GEM "Green Police" vehicle was the star with 11 seconds of video time - the Audi TDI only 8 seconds.

Considering a 30-second Superbowl spot cost about $3 million - that's about $1 million of no-charge advertising. Not a bad showing for Chrysler's unsung neighborhood electric vehicle. Thanks Audi!

Dieselicious!

I'd love to power up one of these in the backwoods near our home with biodiesel from the grease vat behind Qdoba. These bikes can crawl up just about anything without leaving much of a trace. Lots of torque, less noise, fuel efficiency and true two-wheel drive put this high on the wish-I-had-it-but-can't-afford-it list.

The early "Trail-Breaker" off-trail bikes had a catchy "Goes Anywhere" motto and "go everywhere ... do everything" catch phrase. (Side Note: Great motto - I worked on helping the Jeep® brand trademark the "Go Anywhere, Do Anything™" slogan a few years back while working at BBDO-Detroit. This is the bike for everyone but Superman - the MK3 brochure proudly stated, "Ride one and believe. The only thing it doesn't do is fly."

Turns out Rokon has been building diesel-powered 2WD bikes since 1999 when they produced 20 for special duty in Mexican mines. It was either a Lister or Petter engine. Another Scotish company is producing a diesel bike called the Ecorider.

The bodacious brute above was shown off at the Electric Vehicle Council of Ottowa in 2008.

The Ultimate Job?

A friend of mine forwarded this to me at work. Shredded Wheats needs a new Product Development Manager - a clever way to share the essentials of the brand - check it out at thepalaceoflight.com.

Social Sacrifice

It's fun to see how many friends you can hook up with on Facebook. That could include friends, former friends, schoolmates, acquaintances, recruiters ... you get the idea. A friend of mine sent me this message last month saying she was whittling down her network on Facebook. What's the optimal number friends? Too many and you look insecure. Not enough and you look like your anti-social, unconnected or just to busy to care.

According to one site there is a 5,000 maximum friend allotment. I took a quick survey and didn't find any of my friends in that mega-friend category.

What is the happy medium? According to researcher Robin Dunbar it's 100 to 150. That's the general size of group where everyone knows everyone else. Studies of military units, city dwellers and churches suggests a similar finding of 100 to 150 for the natural group size where direct relationships remain strong.

If you had over 800 friends in 2007 you were considered a social whale. The new egregious aggregate for 2009 has bumped up some - to 1000 friends. Greg Atwan, co-author of "The Facebook Book," about Facebook etiquette, considers having more than 1,000 friends "a pretty obvious cry of social insecurity" and said that having too many friends "dilutes the meaning of friendship for the rest of us more modest Facebook users." So what is modest? According to Facebook the average member has 120 friends.
Burger King (led by Crispin Porter + Bogusky) must have figured out the trend to drop friends from Facebook. Earlier this year they started a Whopper Sacrifice promotion to give a free Whopper if you "gave up" 10 of your friends. Each deleted friend ends up netting about 37 cents towards the $3.69 sandwich. According to a NYTimes article, "The application sends a note to each of the banished friends, bluntly alerting them that they were abandoned for a free hamburger."

I expect the Facebook Fatique factor to be in the press on a more regular basis as the social milieu encroaches more and more into peoples everyday lives.

Gang Signs in Advertising

Where do you draw the line with gang signs and advertising? You can find some kind of symbol in almost any advertising using a hand. Take the successful Jeep Patriot campaign - a woman playfully pinches a wolf and drops it into her friends canoe. One could say that the pinch sign (see # 8 below) is used by some obscure gang somewhere that doesn't really matter. Should that gang sign limit creativity and stifle the Jeep campaign with its pinch the wolf theme? Of course not.

Sign of the times.

You’ve got to love Plaxo – they reminded me that a friend was getting older. Plaxo is hooked up with ecards – I linked out to see what I could send for free. One of the first free cards was of a hand sign. Innocuous enough, but it looked vaguely familiar. Then I remembered a training packet my wife brought home while teaching alternative education students some years ago.

The police had a training course put together with Michigan State University on gang symbols, colors and graffiti. Ever since then I’ve been wary of any talent using hand signs in our Jeep® advertising. When working at BBDO-Detroit I recommended steering away from a questionable hand gesture that was proposed for a print campaign. My feeling was it was better to be safe than sorry.

This ecards is the sign language symbol for love - it’s also used as a gang sign by the Almighty Latin King Nation – now known as “Latin Kings” or “Latin Kingz.” It’s been said that the Latin Kings have over 5,000 hand gestures in their “handabulary” (my own term). Who could have anticipated that obscure gang signs would have the far-reaching capacity to shut down expensive advertising campaigns?

The Virginia Department of Tourism ended up pulling a $400,000 “Live Passionately” campaign because of a seemingly innocuous image of a woman making a heart symbol with her hands. It turns out the sign is used by members of the Chicago-based Gangster Disciples gang. They were known for selling crack-cocaine and were featured in a book called “Freakonomics” – where a sociology grad student tagged along to learn the gang’s structure and business operations.

Is it time that corporate legal representation has to be familiar with gang signs to ensure that a campaign does not go awry? Let's hope reason will win out.

TH!NK.NO

First off - I need to say I love the company name. TH¡NK "City" electric cars may be coming stateside - that is if they can get a piece of the $25 billion the Department of Energy has allocated to automotive retooling and advanced technology programs. The Norwegian automaker is hoping business is better in the U.S. than in Norway. This past December, TH¡NK went into Norway's version of chapter 11 bankruptcy. This was only after two months of production.

The City is a little bigger than the diminutive Smart fourtwo electric vehicle. The trunk is miniscule. The four passenger seating is welcome, but a 62 mph top speed and 112 mile range may not be enough for many folks. Also of concern is the cost - $20,000 with a $90 monthly lease plan for batteries. How this new vehicle with no track history is going to compete with the all-new Honda Insight Hybrid that's starting under $20,000 is beyond me. Right thinking, wrong timing, and wrong URL - www.think.no

Shell's lab is better kept top secret

If anyone has money to put together a slick Web site – it’s the oil companies. Revenues are down, but not enough to stop advertising. Shell has an educational Web site designed by J. Walter Thompson (Houston), to support their passionate experts campaign. The site features an interactive lab where you can learn more about Shell's “Passionate Experts,” including some Little Known Facts in the Shell Scientists profiles. Some of the choice nuggets: “I used to be a very good windsurfer.” And “I used to play the drums many years ago.” Who cares what you used to do?!

The actor in the lab coat kept asking “(bug sigh) so … formulas, chemistry … just waiting for you,” even though I was engaged in their lab. Very annoying.

It took a while to finally find out what was different about V-Power besides lab coats telling me it gets rid of gunk.

This site is too busy, lacks focus and has some very annoying audio bugs. Speaking about bugs, why not recruit the Mucinex guys, or Digger the Dermatophyte to clean up engines on the weekends for JWT.