What a great and hearfelt idea this is.

I am not terminally ill but have either lost someone to cancer, have friends or family that are battling it, or know someone affected by it by their own loved ones. With much  understandable focus on the physical side of cancer, one thing that people don’t talk about much publicly or that tends to get overshadowed is the looming mental weight that you carry around. Before you are diagnosed life is normal and free. After the fact that you are in a constant state of fear or worry, challenged to be vigilant emotionally about your own mortality and how fragile it is around the clock, 24/7.

The Mimi Foundation has a fantastic idea here, creating an environment that fostered (and immortalized) a carefree moment for a bunch of terminally ill folks.

This was done by Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York fame. His photos blew him up because they are all real life stories about every day people. Here’s one of the videos he has put out about a 100 year old woman talking about her life and her late husband.

This whole video is in Japanese but no matter. That won’t stop it from yanking a couple tears out of your face. The story told here is a fantastic way to attach the important role music plays within the family dynamic. In this particular video it demonstrates how deeply woven one song can be into a small family, and how it is associated with bonding, loss, grief and healing all in the same ad. Very well done.

LINK: Tosando Music School

Few videos make me tear up. Ok that’s a lie. I’m a pretty heartfelt dude. Honestly though this video ad is one of my favorite examples of a heavy yet inspirational story. The beauty of this one is that the part of it that tugs on your heart the most is the part of the story that is implied…and that’s the piece that gets you every time. In a story, if you allow the unexplained to have some space, textured with the right music, you give the audience a chance to complete that space with their own imagination. By default we always fill in blanks with extreme case scenarios so that our emotions are validated, but for marketing purposes and effectiveness, this makes it personal for everyone.

This is a great example of a how a company that produces something that is somewhat of a commodity technology (hard drives) made a decent attempt at humanizing their brand/products. I think this video, while obvious that they took cues from some of Apple’s iPad commercials, did a good job at balancing product/brand relevance with lifting up the consumer and their lives. This is definitely a step in the right direction for such an old tech brand.

Promo for a quirky web series I’m working on with Flying Furioso Productions.

First full episode is scheduled to come out spring 2014.

My son Liam wanted to make a sandwich so we took it a step further.