That’s what Rafael Nadal did last night, climbing up into the stands to hug his friends and family. He then walked across the top of the scoreboard at Centre Court to speak to the Spanish Crown Prince.

It was only after he had finished his personal celebrations that Nadal returned to the Court - where the tournament organizers in blue jackets grabbed him to make sure he returned to the age-old script for awarding the trophy - and maximizing television time for sponsors and Wimbledon club officeholders.

The second that blazer-toting apparatchik grabbed Nadal, I recognized that the Spaniard’s impulsive decision to head into the stands had exploited the transition between sport and business on Centre Court.

The convention is that the winner stands at Centre Court, turns to each side of the stands and does the aw-schucks do-see-do, then returns to his courtside chair to be led through the rest of the agenda.

Nadal did not pause to consider his dual obligations to sport and business - his epic match was a landmark in modern tennis, and he let his emotions shine brightly through.

Technorati Tags: joy, Wimbledon, Nadal, Federer, celebration, life goal

“David St. Hubbins … I must admit I’ve never heard anybody with that name.
It’s an unusual name, well, he was an unusual saint, he’s not a very well known saint.
What was he the saint of?
He was the patron saint of quality footwear.”

• Never Explain Why Your Staff Are Leaving - the only value your agency will bring to the table is in the assumed experience of your team. If they’re jumping ship, think up a better excuse or the business will crash.

“You know, several, you know, dozens of people spontaneously combust each year. It’s just not really widely reported.”

• Suck Every Ounce of Credibility From Each One Of Your Engagements - it’s not really a secret, but social media gigs are not the largest piece of the pie. Each and every one of your projects must be coloured, magnified, even exaggerated to imply that your agency continues to grow - in revenues, in influence and in market share.

“I’ve told them a hundred times: put ‘Spinal Tap’ first and ‘Puppet Show’ last.”

• Exaggerate The Impact Of Your Tools - social media is the solution to all of the marketing world’s problems, will being communities together and will wash the stink of countless poor business decisions from your client.

“Why don’t you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?

[pause] These go to eleven.”

• Attack Your Detractors - inevitably, you will be criticized for your work, for parroting the propaganda of other social media acolytes or for being the groomsman on the social media bandwagon. Stay firm in your convictions, and your knowledge that you have a three year lease on the office.

“This tasteless cover is a good indication of the lack of musical invention within. The musical growth of this band cannot even be charted. They are treading water in a sea of retarded sexuality and bad poetry.”

That’s just nitpicking, isn’t it?”

• Don’t Let History, Experience Or The Blunt Force Of Reality Dampen Your Spirits - there are naysayers out there. Even three years into what we continue to argue is a fundamental shift in the economic and social fabric of at least 5% of the world’s economy, we are continually asked to justify the social media spend. Just push through and keep selling the story.

“In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, an ancient race of people… the Druids. No one knows who they were or what they were doing… “

• Learn to Work A Room - Like A Bus Station Hooker - as a small agency in a world dominated by multi-nationals, look for every opportunity to differentiate yourself and promote your skills. Jump at every chance to “promote your brand” and sell your particular brand of social media expertise. Work the conference circuit so aggressively it seems like you’ve forgotten where you actually call home.

“HELLO CLEVELAND!”

Technorati Tags: social media agency, business development, Spinal Tap, conference, speaker, Nigel Tufnel

Secondly, Kevin Costner’s election movie looks like a feelgood heart charmer. Here”s hoping it has no harpoons, bison or golf.

As a third and final point, Eddie Murphy should just stop.

Please.

No matter HOW WELL the international rights pay off.

My Chinese takeout restaurant has switched to a smaller clamshell for its “two items with noodles” special. And dropped one of the two types of hot sauce.

That there’s a price increase, folks.

I can feel it in my gut.

“I was knee deep in the puppet game before there was a Web 1.0, bitches, this Feldman fool got nothin on me.

Word to your mother.

By Mister Rogers on Jun 30, 2008 “

Technorati Tags: 1938media, Shel Israel, Loren Feldman, sock puppets

After all, who’s going to miss a potential swarming death?

” … [RCMP Sargeant Dan] Strong said there were no serious injuries although a reporter trying to get a clip of the bees buzzing, suffered 15 stings.

“It’s all about the clip,” he laughed. (Canwest News)

For amusing footage of reporters waving their hands in the air, check out this .mov clip from the CBC.

“… 8. God is a white lie perpetuated through the ages to keep people distracted from the fact that life is long, cruel, and holds no meaning. Also, Mitchum deodorant contains actual chunks of Robert Mitchum.”

I think I saw 500 of them while I was waiting for my movie to start this afternoon.

I remember being impressed by the six or seven previews … but I can’t remember the title of any of those upcoming movies.

Of the thousands of marketing messages shoved at me over the past three or four movies, I can honestly say that the only ad I remember was the long form Coco-Cola piece - the one eveyone remembers.

If you can spin through your feed reader inside of 30 minutes, how little time are you leaving for thoughts to sit, fester and grow?

What about variety? Are the details of your work consuming 480 minutes of the day, and your the reverb from your online echo chamber consuming the rest?

Where’s the inspiration coming from? How are ideas breaking through the noise to challenge your routine behaviour and instinctive judgement?

Are you learning new strokes and exploring new beaches, or are you simply treading water in the same stagnant pool?

Susan S. Szenasy, the editor of Metropolis, spoke to the need for intellectual curiosity while delivering a commencement address this spring:

“… As artists and communication designers you can choose to be the outriders of society. Like the scouts in the old western films, you can be in the position of surveying the horizon and alerting the rest of us to the dangers and surprises ahead. But I worry about you. I worry that while you have evolved the use of your thumbs to work at phenomenal speeds, you are not as interested in developing the habits you need to accumulate knowledge, knowledge that can inform your vision as artists. I mean knowledge of the world—science, literature, and history—knowledge of the great contributions others are making or have made to our rich understanding of humanity and the earth which gives us life.

It is not enough to find information instantly and use it opportunistically to support your argument. To be able to analyze and synthesize you need to delve deeply into a subject, build up your understanding incrementally, and own that knowledge. Own it, so you can call it up when you need it, without turning to your PDA, and use your amazing brain-power to interpret what you know when critical analysis is needed. What I’m asking of you is what I have always asked of myself: To be endlessly curious about everything, to search for facts when you need them, but more importantly, to search for ideas and meaning. Read a book, look at a building or a landscape, drink it all in—make it your own …” (Metropolis Magazine)

Seriously. For a period in the mid-Sixties, George Carlin disguised his growing irritation with mainstream culture with highly effective satire. Social commentary that was still palatable to the folks who tuned into Johnny Carson or Ed Sullivan.

This was before he grew a beard, started swearing during his act and began getting kicked out of his Vegas shows.

Instead, Carlin cut right into contemporary attitudes towards sensitive topics like the war in Vietnam, increasing recreational drug use, and the Cold War - with a hilarious fake radio newscasts.

“Now I imagine that some of you were surprised by the weather over the weekend … especially if you watched my show Friday night, man ….”

And that was how I learned to question the authenticity of news reports, evaluate their underlying assumptions, and infer their greater impact on society.

Thanks, George!

Technorati Tags: George Carlin, media analysis, Al Sleet