So Long, and Thanks for All the Retweets

Photo by Bill HornsteinOn Monday, May 11, 2009, the statement "I've yet to hire a writer who uses ellipses in an ad" echoed out across the Twitterverse and into the feeds of 15 followers*. And so began the long, steady, often donut-powered accumulation of once-a-day crumbs of (alleged) ad wisdom that is @leeclowsbeard.

And today it ends. Kind of.

A few moments ago, I tweeted Crumb O' (Again, Alleged) Wisdom No. 1,000. That seems as good a milestone as any to give it a rest before I grow even more repetitive. Maybe for a few weeks or months. Maybe forever. Who knows. But unless a hue and cry rises from the Beardist Collective (or an outpouring of PayPal donations to jfox-at-jasonfox.net), I need a break. But, I suspect as long as I'm in this business I'll have something to say about it. Just not every day. Spewing is easy. Spewing with purpose and meaning, less so.

If you've followed LCB for a while, you know what strange trip it has been. You can read much about that journey here, but to summarize: LCB started in May 2009 while I was freelancing. Three months later, I took a job back at an agency that had laid me off nearly three years prior. LCB gained followers, including then CCO of the Los Angeles TBWA/Chiat/Day office, Rob Schwartz. Eventually, I asked Rob if Lee knew what I was up to. "Yes! Who are you? Let's have lunch," replied Rob. So, in July 2010 I flew to L.A. for lunch with Lee and Rob, and the idea for the book was spawned. More tweeting, more followers, more value ensued. The day I signed the book production agreement with Chiat, I got fired. A year passed. The book, beautifully designed by Bill Hornstein, was released in June 2012. I became the ECD at a design firm (don't forget, I'm a writer) in Omaha. The one in Nebraska. Strange indeed.

The @leeclowsbeard book is still available in hardcover, iBook and Kindle versions, along with the free iOS app. I do not know how many hardcover copies remain. Also, as an aside, the book was never intended to be a moneymaker. Although if you buy through these links, I may get to take my wife out to dinner again.

As of this writing, LCB has just over 34,100 followers. I thank you all, even the bots I didn't manage to weed out. I hope that, more often that not, what I said helped get you through another day in adland. Or at least provided ammo for an overlong meeting. Yes, I know the "overlong" was unnecessary. 

And so, until time and brainpower permit a return to my hirsute ways, I bid you all adieu.

Grow long and prosper, 

Fox

Lee Clow Unravels the Mystery of @leeclowsbeard

Just in case you missed it, I’m the “dude from Texas.”

Later,

Fox

The 788 E-Z Steps to Growing Your Twitter Following in 3 Short Years

For just over three years, I have been the mostly anonymous writer behind the @leeclowsbeard Twitter feed – an anonymity I was finally able to lift a few days ago with the official launch of the leeclowsbeard book and app being produced by TBWA\Chiat\Day’s new content creation arm, Let There Be Dragons. While many things about this journey have been surreal, especially of late, one thing that has stood out to me is how the success of @leeclowsbeard has flown in the face of accepted social media practices. What is my secret, you ask? Let me lay down that knowledge in the form of numbered steps since such lists are de rigueur for blogs these days. 

1. Revel in a lack of content – One tweet a day. No links. No Instagrams. No retweets. No extra anything. Just a few-score characters about the wonderful world of, in my case, advertising. How tedious. How so devoid of Klout-boosting potential.

2. Eschew engagement – Social media is the Land of Enchanted Engagement where brands hold hands with consumers and everyone sings “Michael Row the Boat Ashore” around a blazing iPad screen. When @leeclowsbeard started, I did indeed engage with my nascent audience. A retweet here and reply there. But, frankly, it made the Beard feel too casual and familiar. So, fairly early on, I stopped engaging. Few seemed to mind.

3. Integrate nothing – Twitter wasn’t just a medium for @leeclowsbeard, it was the only medium. No Facebook cross-pollination. No YouTube channel. Not even a microsite directing people back to the Twitter profile. Sure, now there’s a book and an app acting as de facto brand extensions, but that integration came years later.

4. Be interesting – While this step should go without saying, people in advertising tend to forget it more often than they neglect to pop a Tic Tac before a client meeting. (Especially in the social media world where too many practitioners consider fan-gated coupons to be interesting. They aren't.) As the great Howard Gossage once opined, “People read what interests them, and sometimes it's an ad.” Which is, if you’re honest, exactly what your tweets are.

5. - 788. Repeat Step 4. – With new thoughts, mind you. Not just retweets of whatever your twoted yesterday. Warning: Actual effort will be involved.

Follow these steps robotically and without question and you, too, can achieve a Twitter following in the low five-figure range in just 34-36 months. If your objectives are dissimilar to mine and you wish to garner a larger following, you may need to tweak steps 1, 2 or 3, but definitely not 4. Unless, of course, your last name is Bieber. But, as with most things in advertising, there are no rules as to what you absolutely must do. There are simply a lot of “shoulds,” and you would be wise to explore them at least a little bit before ignoring them.

And remember: When reviewing a list of best practices, keep in mind that someone somewhere is selling them in a book. You know, like this one.

Later,

Fox

I am Lee Clow’s Beard

Yes, it’s true. After three years of ill-kept secrecy, I can reveal to a smattering of cheers, boos and mehs that I am the author of the @leeclowsbeard Twitter account. On June 12, a book of just over 300 of the nearly 800 LCB tweets goes on sale at Amazon, other online retailers, and at least one brick-and-mortar shop. The book will be joined by an iBooks version, and an accompanying iOS app featuring Lee himself is available now. A Projeqt-based chronicle can be found at leeclowsbeard.com. All the pieces were produced under the watchful gaze of folks at TBWA\Chiat\Day's new content creation offshoot, Let There Be Dragons, including chief creative mensch Rob Schwartz, designer and photographer par excellence Bill Hornstein, producer extraordinaire Jennifer Golub, PR maven/Director of Brand Communications Marianne Stefanowicz, content wrangler Senna Chen, and computer design wizard Laurel Burden, along with countless others whose names have yet to be revealed to me. And, of course, the man himself, Lee Clow. The book is published through Random House imprint powerHouse Books.

Instead of rehashing the story of how this all came to be, I’ll reprint my intro from the book along with a shot of Lee’s foreword. Cheers.

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When I first logged on to Twitter in April 2009 with the purpose of satirizing the ad industry and deflating the guru-centric world of social media, my intended nom de tweet was not @leeclowsbeard. However, circumstances and squatters’ rights soon shifted my attention to Lee – a man I had, like many in our industry, long admired, never met and knew little about. As a lack of knowledge had yet to hinder any ad man, I forged on.

After a few tentative, mostly hobo-related jokes about being an anthropomorphized beard, I realized any hopes for longevity – and followers – demanded a new tack. Zagging from the snark oozing through 99.99% of the internet, I decided to be as wise as my user name implied. Or at least fake it as well as I could. And so began the tweet-a-day offering of advertising-related crumbs I had theoretically accumulated through the years while keeping Lee’s chin warm and his soup on instant replay.

Slowly the followers came, including Rob Schwartz, Chiat’s L.A.-based Chief Creative Officer. Not wanting to open a can of cease-and-desist orders, I refrained from harassment for almost a year. When I finally inquired as to Lee’s knowledge of LCB, Rob confirmed that he was aware of my existence, and that he approved of my hijinks. Huzzah.

A couple of months later, Rob and Lee flew me out for a lunch that was, from my perspective, a very “one of these things is not like the other” moment. But both men were exceedingly gracious and moderately impressed with my growing legion of Beardists, which had cracked the 10,000 mark the day prior. Somewhere between the soup and the sushi, the idea for this book was born.

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I hope as few people as possible are disappointed to discover that some unknown Midwesterner is really the chin behind the whiskers. But in a way, that (unintended) deception is the point – to prove that smart people inhabit every corner of the advertising world. After all, not everyone gets a shot working at well-known shops for deep-pocketed clients. Some of us have to convince the elderly to pre-arrange services at discount funeral homes, as I did at my first job.

I realize LCB is akin to preaching to the choir. And that’s okay. Because while the choir may already agree with what the pastor is preaching, they need some inspiration for the daily grind, too. I hope to have provided that in some small way. At least enough to get folks through the next status meeting or conference call.

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As with any worthwhile endeavor, thanks are in order. To God for, among other more significant things, giving me this talent as recompense for my pasty afro. To my wife, Megan, for putting up with a melancholy writer-type. To my kids, Gideon, Charlotte and Simon, who give daddy a reason to face the daily slog. To my parents for never asking why they spent so much money on a business degree when a nice pen and pencil set would have sufficed. To my art director partners through the years – collaborators and co-conspirators all. To the colleagues who taught me what advertising should and should not be. To Rob Schwartz for spearheading this effort when he had 3,956 more important projects to oversee. To Bill Hornstein for his outstanding book design. To, of course, Lee Clow for loaning out his beardiness and inspiring us all in an industry where inspiration is often spoken of but rarely delivered. And finally, to every person who clicked that “follow” button and made this book possible.

May you all grow long and prosper.

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Lee's forward (I like how he calls me "kid"):

 

Lee and I at the fateful meeting in July 2010:

Thanks to everyone who contributed in any way, shape, form or size to the success of @leeclowsbeard. It's been an adventure. Hopefully, one that will continue.

Later,

Fox

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If you need a heavily Photoshopped headshot for reasons I won't dare question, you may find one here. Please list photo credit as "© 2012 Rob Johnson."

Why "1984" Will Always Be the Only "1984"

It’s been the same for almost three decades now. The Super Bowl rolls into view and the world becomes all a-twitter with talk about which television commercials will or will not ascend as the true stars of the game. The general news media always gets into the act, too, inviting folks like the lovely Sally Hogshead or that not-quite-so-lovely Donny guy to comment on which spot will wow the 14 consumers who haven’t already seen every ad on YouTube. Local stations harass local agencies for their opinions. And, more than likely, every single interview, article and blog will make some reference to the Greatest Super Bowl Spot Ever Aired in the History of What Lawyers Make Everyone Refer to as The Big Game.

That spot, of course, is “1984,” the commercial that ran one time during the 1984 Super Bowl, launched the Macintosh computer and launched the game itself as a platform for advertising spectacle. On the off chance you haven’t seen “1984” recently, here it is:



“1984” is an incredible spot, and would be even if it hadn’t run on the Super Bowl. Of course, that it only ran one time – and in its full, 60-second form – only adds to its legend. (And the fact that it’s single airing was not purposeful does nothing to detract.) But people seem to forget that what really makes “1984” such a venerated spot in the halls of ad land are the same things that could quite possibly prevent such lightning from striking twice ever again.

First though, we actually have to set aside the creative aspects. Yes, the creativity involved in producing the spot – from Lee Clow and company at Chiat\Day to director Ridley Scott to Steve Jobs himself – is astounding, but such creative mojo can be and is replicated today. Clow still runs the creative duties for Apple and Scott is continues cranking out films. Not to mention the other, numerous agencies dotting the land capable of producing such an idea. But what sets “1984” apart is a different set of circumstances from the usual great client + great agency = great spot equation.

One, the spot launched one the most game-changing consumer technology products of all time. Macintosh. Sure, for years the computer languished with a 5% (or less) share of the overall PC market. But its impact was felt by all. The mouse. Desktop publishing. The graphical user interface. Multitasking. These are just a few of the computing features that, 28 years later, we all take for granted. Even if the Mac didn’t originate them, it did combine them all into one decidedly un-PC product and popularize them enough for Microsoft to copy develop their own versions for Windows.

Two, “1984” solidified the personality for what would eventually become the most valuable brand in the world. Sure, the spot would be fondly remembered if Apple had gone on to bite the dust (as it was seemingly always on the cusp of doing in 1990s). Instead, Apple wandered through wilderness of CEO shuffles for a few years, brought back its charismatic, visionary co-founder and went on to unleash a few handy items like the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Also, the Cube. But still, Apple is now considered so cool that even the Occupy crowd gives it pass for making so much dough. Would “Think Different” have ever been thought up if Big Brother had won the day?

Three, the product had the perfect villain. At the time of the Macintosh launch, everybody used MS-DOS-powered PCs. Sure, a few folks used Apple IIs, and fewer still (guilty) used crazy things like the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. But by and large it was a PC world. If you wanted to do serious things to tackle serious problems, you put up with the seriously unfriendly user interface that was the C-prompt of DOS. It was the computer you hated to use, but assumed you hated it because it was smarter than you.

Fourth, the timing of the launch allowed for one of the best plays on a cultural touchstone in the history of marketing. In the 35 years since George Orwell’s 1984 had been published, the terms “Orwellian” and “Big Brother” had entered the lexicon as shorthand for abusive, totalitarian power. With the actual year of 1984 dawning, what better way to personify the overarching power of IBM and MS-DOS than a blatant play on Orwell? How much more powerful can product positioning be?

So, we have a Super Bowl launch of a, wait for it, paradigm-shifting product; the foundation of an eventual mega-brand; a perfect foil and the perfect timing to play off the perfect cultural touchstone. How often is that going to happen? I don’t know, but I’m guessing less than every 30 years, if ever.

We live in an increasingly fractured marketing landscape. Digital and social media have altered the way brands communicate to and with their customers. Yet every year, we all gather around the television, hoping to see magic – not on the field of play, but on the field of ideas. There have been some great moments through the years, but none approach “1984.” And I doubt one ever will.

At least not until one of my kids invents the next Macintosh. See you in 2032.

Later,

Fox

For more on the creation of Apple’s “1984” ad, watch this clip of Lee Clow discussing the spot: