HustleKnockin'

Gil Scott Heron: Message To The Messengers...

Maybe I'm old. Eff it—I am old... But maybe I'm getting older than I think.

I listened to some Jeezy the other day, and it actually bothered me. Just bothered me. I didn't know what to do or what to say beyond just turning it off and hitting delete.

I think that's where I'm at these days.

This could be the beginnings of one of those really eloquent entries opining on the state or youth, culture and all manner of well-worn ramblings. But instead, let's try this: Torch 'em Gill!

Once again that was Gil Scott Heron - Message to the Messengers Enjoy your day.

Advertising Age likes Guru, but not gurus, too.

Sorta. Actually Adage.com picked up my Guru piece. And with some quick editing, courtesy of Ken Wheaton, here it is:

Gurus Should Spend Less Time Talking, More Time Listening

Passing of Gang Starr Iconoclast Brings Supposed Experts of Marketing Matters Into Sharp Relief

It's been a little over two weeks since Keith Elam, one of the most accomplished artists of my generation, passed away.

As one-half of Gang Starr, Elam was truly a gifted emcee who pioneered an ill poetic street corner philosopher's eloquence not yet heard prior. Between his Gang Starr catalog and his groundbreaking Jazzmatazz work, he proved a source of seemingly unlimited rhymes. And his willingness to discuss everything from the writing process to manhood to parenthood to politics to crime made his lyrics truly universal.

April 19, 2010, saw the passing of perhaps the only non-east Indian who could rightfully call himself a guru with a straight face. Elam's death also got me thinking about all the other so-called gurus out here.

A while back I met a guy who'd penned the definitive book on Twitter. I know it was the definitive book on Twitter because he said so. And so had his publisher. The guy admitted to never having worked for Twitter. He hadn't even been using Twitter very long himself. But no matter. He had a book, a title, and full schedule of speaking gigs and media appearances to validate his gurudom.

Now, the easiest thing would be to insult folks like this. That'd be the one-off sure-shot that would garner plenty of RTs, comments, and e-daps. But instead, I want to try something different, beginning with a question:

What if all the gurus, particularly those of us in marketing, PR and social media, just said: "I don't know" -- out loud?

What if all the so-called trendspotting gurus stopped for a second and said, "Mr. & Mrs. Talk Show Host, to be perfectly honest, I just wrote this book to get a few speaking gigs and make some quick cash. But to answer your original question, 'I'm really not sure.'"?

What if we all told our clients we're not experts and added, "At this stage of the game, no one is an expert. The space is too new and too fluid. We're all students learning as we go. And fact is, what worked last year, or even last week, might not work tomorrow."

What would happen to all us gurus then? Would our billings get cut? Would we lose followers? Would we get less sex?

Seriously, what would honestly happen if we all took, say, six months, or 60 days, or even six days and just shut up -- and listened?

And by "listen" I mean, no more white-paper decks. No more self-aggrandizing tweets and blog postings. No more "Ain't I a genius?" podcasts. No more keynotes or panels.

In fact, no more anything that doesn't begin and end with listening.

Listening to people who are actually doing the things so many of us claim to have mastered. Listening to how regular people are actually living and moving and working and playing. Listening to people who spend way more time offline than on. Listening to people who buy more than they try to sell.

I once stayed in a house full of nuns in the middle of the West Side of Chicago. About twice a year, they'd take vows of silence while living in the middle of one of the loudest neighborhoods in one of the loudest cities in America; and all they did was listen. They still did their jobs -- taught classes, shopped, all that. But they didn't talk. They just listened. If they had something to say, they wrote it down.

I'm gonna try it myself and see how far I get. Something tells me there's a whole other world out there once I stop pretending I know everything.

Meanwhile, I encourage you to check out Guru's Gang Starr and Jazzmatazz catalog. It's good listening.

R.I.P., Mr. Elam.

And to all the other gurus out there: Shhhhh. Two ears, one mouth -- move accordingly.

Tyler Perry has another hit. Again. (Keep hatin.)

So... I checked the Box Office receipts and Tyler Perry's much-maligned Why Did I Get Married, Too? has quietly topped the $60 Million mark. Doesn't sound like much, but you gotta keep a few things in mind:


1) Why Did I Get Married Too has only been out 5 Weeks.

You ask any studio exec if they'll take a $60 mill gross for 5 weeks of play for a non-summer blockbuster flick with no big-name A-list talent and they'll let you defile them on YouTube.

2) Why Did I Get Married Too only cost $20 million to make.

Let's see... 20 mill to gross 60 mill? Them's 3 to 1 returns, folk... Now obviously there's all manner of P&Ls to reconcile, but it's safe to say that TP Studios will live to film another day. (Insert gag reflex here.)

3) It was on a third less screens than Miley Cyrus' flick.

Why Did I Get Married Too, like most of Perry's flicks and most black flicks, have never had the industry standard 3000 screen release. (Will get back to this in a few.)

4) Black films ain't gettin made.

Other than Perry, the ocassional Spike joint when's the last time you saw black movie? And by Black, I mean, a story line rooted in black life or relevant to black audiences?

Denzel does pretty mainstream, crossover fare. Same with Will... Nothing wrong with that, either. You tell the stories you wanna tell, and the stories that sell and hope the twain meet.

But, there's still this sense that if it's a story rooted in black life that doesn't have some crime or music or cartoonishly stereotypical component to the flick, that it won't be profitable and ergo not worthy of a decent budget or marketing push.

Admittedly, I wasn't a big fan of "Why... Too" but alas, Tyler Perry is catering to an audience that continues to remain woefully ignored by Hollywood and TV land. If Blacks with no interest in depressing inner city blues tales and half-baked urban street fare wanna take in a movie, they've gotta wait for Denzel or Spike to drop something. Otherwise it's Morgan Freeman doing another of his patented "asexualized, non-threatening old black man in mainstream flick" role or Sam Jack yelling his eye-sockets out between shootouts with smartass white folk flicks.

That leaves a mountain range of untapped stories to be told that aren't biopics or sanitized historical pieces or cool white person saves the downtrodden black folk fare.

And sure, Tyler Perry keeps mining the same 2 inches of top soil, but at least he's got a shovel and at least he's digging. What's everyone else's excuse. It ain't like he's out there on some HNIC trip.

And again, I think Perry's real genius isn't his filmmaking, but his marketing. Dude was recording his theater plays before anyone on Broadway even thought about doing that. And again his unapologetic want to target 35-plus Black folks and faith-based urban communities... laugh all you want, but every black person don't wanna see hood tales, whether they lived it or not.

But what really cements it for me is TP's simplistic, straight-to-it emails ... they just get you every time. People spend thousands on sites and every new digital trend under the sun, yet Tyler perry takes the "Dear Y'all" approach and wins.

Here's the last one I got:

Sorry it’s taken me a day or so to collect myself but I was out of the country. Friday, after my last promotion for the movie, I flew over to my little piece of heaven. I spent all of Resurrection weekend in prayer and meditation, talking to God, my Mother, and myself. On Monday, I dialed into the States to see how the movie did. I was blown away and so grateful to you! YOU HAVE NO IDEA! THANK YOU, do you hear?! I cannot begin to tell you how much I appreciate you for going to see WHY DID I GET MARRIED TOO. Believe it or not, after opening 9 movies in 5 years, it still never gets old. I am so thankful that you are on my side. God bless you for that. Wasn’t it incredible?! What about Janet’s performance? She blew me away. If you haven’t seen it, this is a good time to see it. It was sold out practically everywhere opening weekend.

I want you know that there is a reason for that…being sold out is a good thing, don’t get me wrong, but from the first movie to this one I have been fighting for more screens. For some reason, I have never been able to get my movies to play in more than 2,150 theaters. I have fought until I’m blue in the face and nobody can give me a clear cut answer. To put this in perspective, when most movies open, take for instance CLASH OF THE TITANS, it was on 3,800 screens, or the Miley Cyrus movie, which was on 3,100. Most movies open on between 3,000 to 5,000 screens.

 Anyway, if I keep fighting, maybe one day I’ll get enough screens so that you won’t have to be packed on top of each other, as well as be turned away time and time again after driving all the way to the theater. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, I just want there to be adequate seating for the demand. That’s all I’m saying. Trust me, I still know that this is a blessing.

So, sorry for the inconvenience, but thank you for sticking with it, and me. Hollywood was blown away by this opening weekend and I was too! Thank you again!

    Can we shift gears for a second? I want to talk about Haiti.

Every day for weeks, the news media sensationalized Haiti. Now you don’t hear a thing about it. I knew that would happen. It was the same with New Orleans after Katrina, and what I learned in that time is to wait until it’s old news and then you will really begin to see the true needs of people. A few weeks ago it was so chaotic you couldn’t understand what was going on but now it’s beginning to become clear so, with that, I think that right now is the time for me to get involved.

I have identified 4 charities that I will be working with and giving them each $250,000.00. The first one will be Yele Haiti, Wyclef Jean’s Organization. After having a long conversation with him, I am truly assured that not only will my monies get to the people at the heart of Haiti, but also the monies that you have given will get there as well. In total about $130,000.00 was raised here online. I will divide that four ways so that it will be added to each of my donations. I will be giving you progress reports and updating you as time goes on. I will also announce the next charity as soon as I understand what their strategy will be in Haiti.

Be Blessed,

Talk soon and God bless.

===========

Dumb simple, ain't it?

Doesn't matter if anything in that email is true or accurate, really. But from all the research I've done, the disparity of theaters, budgets and schedules afforded black filmmakers is 100% fact. The game's still fixed. Such is life.

That aside, TP's bluntness and honesty in his emails keep people coming. These emails circulate 50-100 times per person. And you know this is going out to 250K folks, at least. They go everywhere and back. By the time a movie opens, every black person you know has read this thing and at least heard about what he's up to and you're ready to go.

Be clear. Tyler Perry's website is awful. It's totally underfunded and just... eh, #icant. But so what. He's got a URL that is basically a digital billboard with a comments section. And that's about he needs really, because this email thing he's on? It's 100.

Anyway, I'm out. Talk soon. Duty calls again.

Deep in the Valley....

You know I took a sec to sort thru some stuff I shot in '09 (cleaning out the harddrive and what not). All I can say is: There's some strange folks out here.

Laugh all you want, I did. But i stopped soon as I realized that this guy is not only naturally cooler than 3/4ths of the guys with major label deals, but he's probably happier about what he does than you are about what you do.

Despite $320 Billion Bailout Citibank Screws Customers with 30% APR!

Despite $320 Billion Bailout Citibank Screws
Loyal Customers with 30% APR!

So I crack open my mail the other week to find a notice from Citibank.  And wait—before we go any further, I've come to the conclusion that Citibank isn't a real bank. They've bastardized the word "bank"—no one's money is safe with these people as they nickel-and-dime folks, left right and sideways. I don't know anyone's that's actually saved money in a Citibank. Or even made money with a Citibank for that matter.

We need a new name for them. How about "Citibank Robbers?" Their logo could look like this:

>>>Tada!!!!

There...

Nah, I dunno. On second thought, "CitibankRobbers" sounds cute, but I don't think Citi's actually stolen money from any banks.

Now, they've ripped off customers, taxpayers and even the government. They're good at that. But robbing banks? That'd be a step down for these Citiguys.

Hmmmm.....

I know! Got it. How about:

Citigank. Yeah, much better. [FYI: “Gank” is Chicago slang for to steal, rob or indiscriminately take.]

Anyway, Citigank sends me a letter the other day and the letter goes like this:

“We are making changes to your account terms… To continue to provide our customers with access to credit, we have had to adjust out pricing. The terms of your account will be changing. These changes include an increase in the variable APR for purchases to 29.99% and will take effect November 30, 2009.”

30 percent… That's right, these Citigank summabishes are raising my APR interest rate to 30%. Lemme repeat that:

Citigank is raising my APR 30%. Thirty percent… that’s my reward for being a loyal customer who always pays his bills on time. Thirty percent interest.

Folks, I’m from Chicago. And I know for a fact that the Chicago mafia doesn’t charge 30% for street loans. Seriously, they don’t. Leave it to an effin' "bank" to think a 30% APR is not only normal, but moral.

I swear, if could hit 30% I’d playing for the LA Dodgers… the Padres, at least. But nope... these guys hit me with 30.

And you know what bothers me more than the 30% rate hike itself? That Citigank raised the rates based on my outstanding balance. Not from anything going forward but beginning 11/30/09, I’ll be on the hook at 30% for whatever my balance is at that point. In other words,  pay my balance off now, or pay it off at 30% in a few weeks.

This is like a restaurant raising the price of your meal on you while you're eating it.

 
And if that’s not enough, Citigank is just 12 months removed from a $320 Billion bailout in Nov. 2008. (Remember that? Click here to refresh your memory.)

Taxpayers—against our collective will (thank you, congress)—bailed out Citigank to the tune of $320 Billion. But instead of using the money for loans and credit for customers what did Citigank do? Dole out a whole gang of executive bonuses.

Meanwhile customers like me and hundreds of thousands of others are watching our interest rates go through the roof. And the government does nothing to stop these greedy amoral crooks. It did nothing under Reagan. Nothing under Bush 41, nothing under Clinton or Bush 43 and is doing even less under Obama.

Citigank... these leeches… Nah, scratch that. I’ve seen leeches OD on the blood they suck till they get fat and die. Credit card companies like Citigank? They live forever.

Death, taxes and debt—the only 3 guarantees in life, these days. Might as well profit off of 'em, right?

The road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but greed is the roadmap.

Once I pay this card off, I’m canceling everything Citibank-related. And I mean everything. I’m cutting these bastards out of my life permanently. They can choke on their money and rot.

Citibank, you can kiss my big, black, APR.

Rack Up Debit Card Debt w/ the RushCard!

Gimme a sec, I'll get some of the BLOGWORLD goodies up this week. mean time, I've been meaning to ask you guys about pre-paid debit cards, specifically why the hell would anyone who's not an illegal alien, an ex-con with no funds or someone with totally jacked up credit would ever want to use one.

Now prepaid Debit Cards as I've seen more and more in my old neighborhood work like this: Say you've got some money—maybe $200, but no bank account. You don't wanna keep the cash in your pocket or at the crib, but you wanna access it. Well you load up one of these prepaid debit cards then use it as you see fit.

Now here's the rub:

• There's usually an activation fee—upwards of $20 in many cases.
• There's a fee for ATM use. Can vary from $1 to $2 depending on the card...
• There's a "maintenance fee" so if you're one of those folks that doesn't use your card for months at a time, you could have $.50-$1 assessed for inactivity.
• There are processing fees for using the card to pay bills

In other words, Prepaid Debit Cards can be the Gift Card That Keeps On Taking, as I say.

Needless to say, these cards prey largely on the poor, economically disenfranchised—African Americans, inner-city types, etc. Which is why this latest Russell Simmons' venture bothers me so much:

Now according to a recent NYT article:

Mr. [Russell] Simmons, for example, has batted down repeated criticism that his [RUSHCARD] card saps money from low-income users. His Pay-as-You-Go card has come under scrutiny for charging a $19.99 activation fee deducted from the cash first loaded onto the card; a $1 convenience fee for the first 10 purchases every month; and a fee of $1 for every bill paid with the card.

I dunno... when it comes to empowerment for economically depressed communities and marginalized folks, I'd much rather see industry reform, community outreach and some damn lawsuits and jail-time for corrupt companies that take advantage of folk like this. Far as I'm concerned, these cards are a straight-up scam. But I could be wrong.

Your thoughts?

Obama won the Nobel Prize and still loses…

He wins what's arguably the most prestigious prize in the world, yet... smh.

Now this isn’t an actual vlog, but it should be. Here’s MSNBC's Rachel Maddow going in on the Obama haters…


All I can add to this is that we’re dealing with a group of people who will never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever respect or tolerate a single constructive thing Obama does. How much hate do you have to have for someone when they accomplish something that actually benefits you—albeit in an esoteric sort of way? I guess the idea of having a sitting American president win a Nobel prize is devalued somehow because the prez is Obama?

That would explain all the birthers, townhallers and other assorted loons who question everything about Obama and everyone connected to him. Lest we forget these Obama haters are the same people who think he's a socialist Kenyan. (Kenya is an insult, you know. So's being a socialist.)

Debates are one thing; but trying to reason with these people is not unlike trying to reason with a terrorist organization. And we know how frequently that works. Speaking of which, you did hear what Rush Limbaugh said, didn’t you? “We agree with the Taliban that Obama didn’t deserve the award…”

Gotta love it.

I bought Citibank stock and got screwed....

I swear, hustlers forever stay gettin' over. Angles are just opps to slide out on for these people...

So here's the thing: Since the beginning of the year, I've been acquiring as much Citibank stock as I can. Wait. "Acquire" is what rich people use. When you're broke, looking for a leg up like me, you're buying. So, as I was saying...

Since  January I've been buying as much Citibank stock as I can afford. It was a couple bucks a share when I first got in and it's been up and down ever since. But whatever--such is life in this market, right?

Well i just got a notice that reminds me that there's not enough Wall Streeters in prison yet and way too many lazy politicians roaming free, too boot.

"Citi"—as they proudly go by now (it's amazing what a $50 billion bailout package can buy)—sent me a notice informing me that the following decisions have been made regarding mine and other common shareholders' stock. (Oh, you're gonna love this):

•increased the number of authorized shares of common stock from 15 billion to 60 billion.

• eliminated the voting rights of common stock on any amendment(s) to the restated certificate that relates solely to the terms of any series of preferred  stock so long as such series of preferred stock is entitled to vote on the amendment(s); and

•auhtorized (but do not require) the Board of Directors to effect a reverse split, at any time prior to 2010, at one of seven reverse split ratios as determined by the Board of Directors.

Now here's what all that means and why anybody who owns stock should be livid:

•increased the number of authorized shares of common stock from 15 billion to 60 billion.

These greedy bastards have just diluted their common stock by a 4 to 1 ratio. they're going for volume here. This move ultimately dilutes the value of the common shareholders.

• eliminated the voting rights of common stock on any amendment(s) to the restated certificate that relates solely to the terms of any series of preferred  stock so long as such series of preferred stock is entitled to vote on the amendment(s); and"

This move basically means that as a common shareholder, I have no say in issues that give added power to preferred shareholders (aka "the big boys"—employees, firms buying stock in huge quantities, etc.) Now do i need power over those folks? no, but now they have way more power over my stock and i don't even have a voice. It's called "common" for a reason.

•auhtorized (but do not require) the Board of Directors to effect a rever split, at any time prior to 2010, at one of seven reverse split ratios as determined by the Board of Directors.

So this one basically means that common shareholders are screwed out of reverse splits. Meaning while the Board and the fat cat insiders that own all the preferred stock can do a reverse split and potentially double or triple their money by voting to remerge all these extra watered-down shares they put out into the market then bought up for nickles on the dollar, the common share owners like me that paid full price can't benefit.

Best part is the letter/notice is signed by the CEO of Citi himself, a Mr. Vikram S. Pandit. I've never met this guy but I don't like him already.

And in this letter that common shareholders voted for these measures. Yeah, because I wanna give away my voting rights in a company that I'm a shareholder to so the folks with the most can split up the cheap stock I just bought, block me from benefiting on reverse splits, etc....

Sure, I'd vote for that.

Obama, just like Bush, like Clinton, like Bush before him and Reagan before all them all the way on back is letting these Wall Street cats pull crap that they don't even pull in Vegas.  (How much was Citi's bailout package again?) I tell you, the mafia's got nothing on Wall Street but guns. And the pen is mightier than the sword.

Corrupt, amoral SOBs.

What they're doing isn't illegal and probably doesn't violate any FTC or SEC regs. but it just stink rotten.

Maybe I'll keep my couple bucks in Citi. Clearly these bums are up to something and they're expecting the stock to move up sooner than later and they're positioning themselves for a big bounce. Maybe the common stock will get a boos,t too.

I hope.

Stay tuned...

ABC's Modern Family isn't very Modern at all.

My girl subscribes to Latina mag among others. Yeah some of us still read actual printed magazines.

Anyway, there was an ad on the back cover (an expensive media buy) for ABC's Modern Family, a new show.Now the show's been getting a lot of push as you can see from trailers like this one:

Modern Family is being hailed by ABC as a "multicultural" show and a funny look at culturally diverse families in the modern era. Yet I've got a question for ABC:

How can you be "culturally diverse" with a 90% white cast?

I mean, c'mon. Two gay white men... A pale-skinned Latina (woah!) married to a white guy... Another all white family working on their 2nd marriages respectively—I guess that's "mixed". The show looks about as "modern" as 1970s suburbia.

Comedy's comedy, I guess; and personally, the bigger problem with Modern Family is that most of the jokes seem to fall sorta flat. Who calls gay men "creampuffs" really? Besides setting up for a  really heavy-handed joke here, I've never heard "creampuff" as a slur. Then there But False advertising is a the bigger issue here. And ABC's Modern Family looks about as diverse as well...

um... er,...

right...

Taye Diggs and the occasional Grey's Anatomy aside, is ABC just not interested in folks of color? Doesn't seem to be interested enuff in them to make them a regular part of the ABC lineup.

Come to think of it, it's not just ABC; but NBC and CBS and most channels in general, the vague umbrella of "diversity" is making the TV landscape more homogenized, not less. Save for Tyler Perry's shows (gag-reflex here), What few actors of color on TV these days are playing roles that are nearly-indistinguishable from whites in terms of substance. And while that's good, this dynamic creates a false pretense that culture and ethnicity is little more than a box of Crayons—all about color and no depth; and thereby interchangeable or ignorable at will.

It says something that the most distinguishable black characters on TV are black men in drag and prosthetics. Or cartoons. Or one-off sidekicks.

But such is life. Or life on TV at least.

TOO SOON! 9/11 as a metaphor for other tragedies...

Is it "too soon" to Compare 9/11 to other Tragedies?

By: B. Canseco

I don't write much about advertising anymore beyond KNOCK THE HUSTLE 2—yeah, yeah, I know... zzzzz, right? Well anyway, it'll be worth it when it drops. If for no other reason, you won't have to hear me say the words "coming soon" and "knock the hustle" in the same sentence ever again. Anyway...

Every once in a while, something happens in the biz that gets my attention. This comes courtesy of DDB Brazil's 9/11 ad for conservation. Now here's the ad, courtesy of World Wildlife Fund:

If you can't tell, it's a pic of about 20 planes about to crash into every major building in NYC—a clear nod to the 2 planes that hit the towers on 9/11. The copy reads: "The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it."

I like this ad. It's not my favorite ad of the year, but it's memorable. I like the message, I like the art direction. But I'm in the minority, once again.

Every ad critic and every New Yorker and everyone else whose seen this ad hates it and finds it over the top offensive. Even the client WWF has issued a statement condemning the ad. So has DDB Brazil.

I think everyone's wrong on this one, tho.

For starters the "tsunami" referenced by the ad was the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed over 220,000 people. By contrast the terrorist acts of 9/11 killed 3,000 people.

Two hundred and twenty thousand vs. three thousand. Assuming that no one human life is more precious than any other, this ad is pretty accurate. And therein lies the rub.

Look, 9/11 was horrible—especially if you were related to/friends with, or in anyway directly connected to any of the 3,000 who died or the hundreds of others who were injured that day. No one's denying that (terrorist sympathizers, aside.) But at some point, even the most sane amongst us started to fetishize 9/11 to the point that if you mentioned it as anything other than "the greatest human tragedy ever," you were automatically deemed unpatriotic, a bad American, or at least a heartless a--hole.

You can't even talk about 9/11 without putting on this precious pedestal and using it to degrade every other human tragedy. "Yeah, but it was no 9/11..." I remember watching a trailer in a theater in 2007 that had a scene referencing 9/11 andthe whole crowd began yelling "too soon" at the screen. "Too soon." For a trailer of a movie. 6 years later.

Enough already.

I'm sorry, but enough.

Remember the Iranian Earthquake of 2003? It killed 20, 000 people. If you wanna keep it domestic, Hurricane Katrina (2005) killed over 5,000 people in the gulf—and we're still counting bodies. If you wanna keep it man-made, domestic gun violence accounted for over 30,000 dead Americans in 2008. Tobacco related deaths in 2008? 150,000 people—just in the US.

I could go on, but the point is simply this: 9/11 isn't so tragic or so horrible that it cant be discussed intelligently or even used as a metaphor for context to discuss other tragedies. Are we really saying that dead New Yorkers are more tragic than the dead black children cut down by gun violence in Chicago? Are we saying that the dead 9/11 victims are more tragic than the dead who get mowed down by drunk drivers every day?

That's what it sounds like when everyone rails against this ad.

Look, this isn't some idiot calling the president "hitler" trying to conflate government  healthcare with murdering 6 million Jews or some moron calling Michael Vick a serial killer on par with Charles Manson. No, this is simply saying that tragedies no matter how horrific don't exist in a vaccum. And no country's tragedy is more mourn-worthy  than some other countries.

This is a good ad. Let it live or die in the marketplace.

This Week's Top Tweets

My T3W—Top Tweets This Week

To help further connect folks, every weekend— Sat or Sunday, I’ll be sharing my Top Tweets of the week— 140 characters hors d’oeuvres from yours truly—of funny, wisdom, observations, stupidity, anger and bemusement from my daily twitter escursions. I’ll also mix in some tweets from other folks that I follow and share cool info.

Now, I’m not trying to be a bootleg aggregator or anything, but since I tweet a lot, I’m just finding another avenue for sharing. So check in and enjoy.

@BlackCanseco They could catch Rick Pitino w/ three 12 yro ladyboys + a sack of gerbils long as he goes to the FinalFour this year.

@BlackCanseco Folks'll be like: "Yeah Pitino's a freak with them ladyboys, gerbils + ballgags, but he did get us a national title!"

@BlackCanseco Am I the only one who sees the humor in mostly white people calling an African-American president a Nazi?

@BlackCanseco  Dear White People: The Birthers + TownHallers are not a good look for y'all. Not even close.

@BlackCanseco All that's missing from the #MoreToLove show is a college campus setting, booze, and "Judd Apatow presents".

@BlackCanseco Dear Media: Recycling the same new stories for days at a time does not make you "green".

@BlackCanseco  Megan Goode is Clark Kent to @SerenaWilliams' Superman. I got no shot either way, but I'm just sayin.

@BlackCanseco Coming-To-A-T-Shirt-Near-You: "Philly fans: Hide Your Beagles, Vick's An Eagle."

@BlackCanseco  They turned NativeAmerican land into public parks. Now they takin public parks + givin 'em to private corps.

@BlackCanseco Dear SM/Twitter Gurus: The pornstars on Twitter have more followers than you, more compelling tweets and stronger brands. Take note.

@BlackCanseco The Birthers and Townhallers remind me of the resistance on "V"—only there's no lizard people. just them.

@BlackCanseco There's nothing more dangerous to this country than the millions of loud, angry willfully stupid + uninformed citizens.

Happy Anniversary, RIAA!

It's August 19—exactly 90 days to the day that the RIAA absolutely hosed a soccermom for $1.92 million for downloading 24 songs. That's $80,000 a song. More below...

"As a longtime professional songwriter, I have always objected to the practice of illegal downloading of music. I have also always, however, been sympathetic to the average music fan, who has been consistently financially abused by the greedy actions of major labels. These labels, until recently, were responsible for the distribution of the majority of recorded music, and instead of nurturing the industry and doing their best to provide the highest quality of music to the fans, they predominantly chose to ream the consumer and fill their pockets. So now we have a "judgment" in a case of illegal downloading, and it seems to me, especially in these extremely volatile economic times, that holding Ms. Thomas-Rasset accountable for the continuing daily actions of hundreds of thousands of people is, at best, misguided and at worst, farcical. Her accountability itself is not in question, but this show of force posing as judicial come-uppance is clearly abusive. Ms. Thomas-Rasset, I think you got a raw deal, and I'm ashamed to have my name associated with this issue.

—Richard Marx

Marx was one of the biggest singer-songwriters in the 1980s. He penned this letter this year to the RIAA. because Marx's song was downloaded by one Jammie Thomas-Rasset—a soccermom from Northern Minnestoa.

And leave it to the RIAA to do the right thing. And by "right thing" I mean suing Thomas-Rasset and winning  a total of $1.92 million for illegally downloading 24 songs at $80K in damages per song. (Rasset burned such 80s gems as Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me"? The Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris"? Journey's "Faithfully"? And Richard Marx's "Now and For Ever"?)

If someone were giving away free HappyMeals, McDonald's would sue the folks who ate them--they'd get the folks involved in it. If the RIAA really cared about illegal downloading, they'd go after ISP providers and Webhosting services for their negligence in facilitating these transactions.

If my friends are selling drugs in my house and i'm there, guess what I go to jai whether I'm personally moving the weight or not. Why? Negilience. Implied involvement.

You really think comanies like Sprint, AOL or AT+T or TimeWarner Cable don't know that people are using their internet services for running porn sites and sharing all kinds of music and movie files that shouldn't be shared? Of course they know. But somehow, webhosts and ISPs are exempt, but the little guy gets screwed again.

Big shouts to Richard Marx for at least saying something in a downloaders defense.

Argggg! Too Many Tweets!

So one of the things that’s kept me busy is my twitter addiction. I know “join the club” right?

 Well, I’m slowly developing a small but loyal following on twitter, where I cover everything from politics, culture and current events to tech. I try to keep my tweets fairly relevant and irreverent. Which means I’ll spare you the “I just had___” for dinner and other assorted miniscule non-issues.

Therefore I try to tweet about stuff I think people will care about and that’s important to me.  Tweeting should be visceral, “vice”-ral, and most always relevant to someone besides you.

And despite, being an author/writer, etc. I really don’t engage in much selling or promoting which is something I think people appreciate.

So drop a note, pay a visit. I’m at:

www.twitter.com/blackcanseco

See you over there!

The Untouchables...

The Untouchables.

Four things you shouldn’t discuss at work:

Sex

How often have you made a dirty comment and thought, “I hope I don’t get sued for this.” Normally, most people are cool about sexual jokes and innuendos. But like they say, “It’s all fun ‘n’ games until somebody gets written-up or sued.”

(Quick: What’s the difference between “flirting” and “sexual harassment”? If he’s cute, it’s “flirting”; if he’s ugly it’s sexual harassment. Guess who told me that joke? My 35-year-old female boss back when I was 19. I’ve heard that joke repeatedly over the years—always from businesswomen. Go figure.)

Religion

 Someone once said, “America doesn’t believe in God; America believes in believing in God.” Want to clear a conference room real quick? Tell people you’re a born-again Christian. Every place I worked at was cool with the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, but if you so much as mentioned Christ in the office, out came the “don’t force your beliefs on me” and “too much information” comments.

Hopefully we’ll get to a point where religious differences don’t lead to war, violence, discrimination, or even discomfort. But until then…

Race

All I’ll add to this one is: no one’s as open-minded as they think they are and few are as closed-minded as we’re afraid they might be, myself included. Also, the “I’m an equal opportunity offender” qualifier qualifies nothing. Spraying to all fields doesn’t make you any less of a hitter. So if you do stupid ethnic jokes or generalizations, you’re still a bigot and you need a new excuse to hide behind. (That is, unless you co-wrote egotrip’s Big Book Of Racism.)

Politics

Rewind to February 2001, after Bush was finally selected president. One day “Andy,” walks up to us as we’re talking in the office. He looks like he just came off a bad acid trip...

“You guys know about Bridgette?”

“Bridgette” was young, white, blonde, and a flaming Republican from Dallas. She voted for Bush in 2000 (twice, I think). Her cubicle was smothered in Dubya—buttons, pennants, bumper stickers, photos… Bridgette and Andy were casually discussing the then-Florida mess and Bush’s policies. He told Bridgette that if Bush had his way the whole country would be white. Bridgette looked around to make sure no one was listening and replied, “Good! That’s fine with me!” Suddenly, he realizes that she’s confiding in him like they’re “on the same team” so to speak. After seeing that she was dead serious, Andy walks away stunned.

Now, Andy’s Cuban and Puerto Rican with fairly pale skin. His last name is blatantly ethnic. He’s bilingual but has no discernable accent and only speaks English at work. He wasn’t trying to “pass” but he did, especially with Bridgette.

When Andy told us what happened, we all promptly fell out laughing. It was classic. Bridgette was such an airhead—not because she was blonde or white or republican, but because she was just an airhead. She was good at her job, but she also professed to working because she hadn’t found a rich husband yet. She just didn’t care about much of anything or anyone outside of her little soccermom-in-training world. And depending on the topic she was so clueless it was often comical; but it seldom stopped her from weighing in.

Point is, everyone’s entitled to their views and should express them without fear. But regardless of your views, respect others’.

Less Ego-trippin’

Lemme Clear My Throat
—DJ Kool

Less Ego-trippin’

I used to hit a lot of business industry parties; some were built around industry awards, emerging trends, celebrity speakers, etc. Others were just social functions. They all had one thing in common: Big. Huge. Egos.

After a few years of conferences, parties, and industry watering holes, I just couldn’t take it anymore. It always cracked me up to see businesspeople, 99.5% of whom the average person has never heard of and couldn’t pick out of a lineup, prance around like off-brand superstars. Some strutted around like they were expecting Joan and Melissa Rivers to pop up and critique their outfits. (And it didn’t help that there was usually some trade press on hand to stroke their mini-me egos.)

We know Jack Welch, Donald Trump, Warren Buffett, etc., but the other 99.9% of these legend-in-their-own-minds really need to get over themselves. Most folks don’t understand Corporate America enough to worship those in it, especially those of us in the marketing and advertising industries. If you told the average person Donny Deutsch was a stand-up comic and Omnicom was a pharmaceutical company or that Crispin & Porter was a brokerage firm, they’d believe you. At the end of the day, we’re all just working stiffs—some of us are a little stiffer, some of us work a little harder, some make a little more money. Until you cure AIDS or catch Bin Laden show some humility. Okay?

Lose the Ho’s Uniform

I’d like to take this time to thank 85% of my female colleagues for giving me 15 years of intentionally overexposed cleavage. I’d like to thank you for the countless too-perky-for-work nipple shows courtesy of your too-sheer-for-work tops. Thanks for the endless thong-teases from your shake-whatcha-momma-gave-you slacks and jeans. Thank you attending client meetings in your stripper/“last call” skirts. And lastly, thank you for the weekly camel-toe parades, often courtesy of Casual Fridays. Thanks, ladies; thank you one and all.

Over the years I’ve heard every excuse under the sun for the crap women wear to work: “It’s my body… How I dress has nothing to do with my ability…” Yap-yap-yap. Ladies: Spit out the feminist kool-aid. If you flash your headlights hitchhikers will want a ride. Whoa, not so fast, fellas: I know you’ve been lifting all winter and you’re just dying to flex your BowFlex bodies, but save the muscle-shirts, etc. for the nightclubs. Now you don’t necessarily need a closet full of button-ups, but business is for adults—dress like one.

You may not be a ho, but you are wearing the “ho’s uniform”.
—Dave Chappelle

Hustleknockin' is down with AllTop!

That's right, we're now linked with ALLTOP, one of the leading aggregator/social site communities going! I feel so special now. If you're not familiar with ALLTOP, visit 'em at www.alltop.com for the latest and greatest in, well, everything!

(It's like when Kanye got his Roc chain in '02, only geekier.)

Seriously, AllTop is a large, yet distinguished community of new sources, experts and influencers in culture, business, news, politics, etc. If you wanna know what's breaking where and who's got the lowdown and why, you go to AllTop.

As for where I'm at on AllTop, you can find HUSTLEKNOCKIN in the business section right here: http://business-intelligence.alltop.com

Self-sufficient, Independent, To Teach To Each…

The Player/President

I guess in a perfect world, we’d all have a steady flow of loot and a plot of land to call our own, leaving us free to focus on love, equality, and peace. But this isn’t Reality TV, so the next best thing is having independence. But the only way you can truly knock The Hustle is to not be a part of it. The first step to that is getting Christ in your life. The second step is bossing up, like Prince or Ani DiFranco and controlling your own destiny.

But I have to say this: if you go into business for yourself just to get rich or get even, then you’ve missed the point of the book and The Hustle’s already beaten you. Bossing up is about self-determination and self-reliance. It’s about freedom. Freedom, at least in a spiritual sense, has no real price tag other than the blood of Christ, and that’s already been delivered free of charge. On a more worldly level, the main reason I started ProdigalPen was so I could write what I believe without someone else hanging dollar signs and restrictions over my head. That’s freedom.

But it’s tough. When you’re working for someone else, you have that automatic safety net, that built-in infrastructure. Even if your job sucks, you know that someone will still cut you a check every two weeks. If you work hard and keep quiet, barring layoffs, you can circle the last and the 15th on your calendar and get benefits. The routine of “going to the office” each day is comforting. Giving all that up seems nuts if you think about it.

As a freelancer, a temp, or an entrepreneur, there is no buffer; there is no safety net. It’s just you and the marketplace, and the marketplace can be brutal. The marketplace doesn’t care if you’re a nice person with 3 kids to feed. All it wants to know is, “Do you have something I want to pay for?” The marketplace doesn’t care if you spent 22 hours a day developing it. It doesn’t care if you’re passionate about it; all it wants to know is “Can I afford it?” The marketplace doesn’t care if you’ve got $47,850 in student loans it just wants to know if it can use your skills. If the marketplace answers “no” to those questions then, if you’re lucky, you can move back home and flip burgers until the marketplace feels like saying “yes.”

Still, I believe if you want any real sense of freedom, you have to try to do something for yourself at least once. You don’t want to be a 50-year-old housewife wishing you had patented that little thingy you made for your kids and their friends back when they were 6. You don’t want to be 43 with an ulcer and a twice refinanced home panicking every few months over layoff rumors. You don’t want to spend year after year watching other people take risks and take control while you tell yourself, “I could’ve done that.”

Until you decide otherwise, you’ll always be at the mercy of someone else: Your boss… The bus driver with the attitude… That moron doing 85 mph while on the cellphone who may or may not see you coming… The waitress who’s about to spit in your pasta because her last customer left a 13-cent tip… The overworked doctor who may have misdiagnosed that itch in your crotch or that pain in your chest. You’ll be always at someone else’s mercy. The trick is to minimize the number of “someone elses” by taking charge yourself.

Down the road that we call “eternity”—
where knowledge is formed and you’ll learn to be
self-sufficient, independent, to teach to each…
—D-Nice

N.B.A... Negroes Being Athletic

Negroes Being Athletic

There are 2 seldom-discussed truths about the NBA: (1) Like most all major American sports, the NBA’s core audience—one who buys memorabilia, season tickets, fills skyboxes, satellite packages, etc. is 25–49 year old white males. Has been for some time. (2) The NBA has struggled to maintain its core audience ever since stars like Bird, Magic, Jordan, and Barkley retired.

Why?

When asked for specifics fans, critics, and sportswriters cite bloated salaries, egos, and rampant unprofessionalism. Many complain about the streetball and hip-hop ‘influences’. Others have come right out and called the NBA “too ghetto” and “too street.” And most importantly, their sentiments have been reflected in slumping ad revenues and TV ratings.

And like any business, the NBA owners have responded, mainly by outsourcing. Since the early 1990s, NBA teams have scoured the globe for “more fan-friendly” talent. And since 1992’s Dream Team, the NBA has marketed itself as a “universal” brand (read: more international, less “urban”). Besides creating generations of foreign talent who view the NBA as a career, foreign consumers now see the NBA as a global entertainment brand.

Today, the NBA is steadily being gentrified with foreign talent from China, Germany, Russia, Brazil, Canada, and all points in between. And while homegrowns such as LeBron, Shaq, T-Mac, and KG are stars; the NBA is hyping its foreign players like never before. Players such as Yao Ming (China), Dirk Nowitzki (Germany), Peja Stojakovich (Yugoslavia), Tony Parker (France), Steve Nash (Canada), and others are being pushed not only as superstars but also as “league ambassadors” because of their “good character.” And while the skills of the international players have mostly been undeniable, their paler skins and decidedly “non-ghetto” personalities haven’t been lost on fans or marketers.

Besides their obvious talents, the foreign import hype machine is driven in no small part by the NBA’s failure to find domestic heirs to Bird’s throne. And while Bird deservedly ranks as one of the top 3 players of all time, many insiders have admitted that a significant part of Bird’s appeal was his skin color. As a result, Bird more so than Magic Johnson was hailed as having “saved” the NBA in the 1980s (apparently from its black players).

Over the years the NBA has tried to manufacture a new Larry Legend by hyping the likes of Toni Kukoc, Christian Laettner, Sarunas Marciulionis, Vlade Divac, Danny Ferry, Keith Van Horn, Jason “White Chocolate” Williams, Wally Szczerbiak, Brent Barry, Detlef Schrempf, Tom Gugliotta, Bobby Hurley, etc. And before them, there was endless and completely unnecessary “white hype” of legitimate NBA greats such as John Stockton, Chris Mullin, Jeff Hornacek, Tom Chambers, etc.

Such is the nature of blacklash.

Still, David Stern and NBA execs consistently swear that race plays no role whatsoever in marketing or evolving Dr. Naismith’s game. Noted cultural and sports psychologist, Dr. Harry Edwards agrees (sorta): “The race thing right now is incidental to economics… The game has always changed due to market forces. They brought in the Harlem Globetrotter style of play when the game got stagnant in the ‘50s and ‘60s. They did the same thing when they emphasized Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and Michael Jordan. Their (The NBA’s) latest capitalistic ploy is globalization… the style of play has been changed to accommodate the market.” In short, only money and skills matter.

However, in a 2004 ESPN interview, Larry Bird said the league needed more white superstars in order to maintain its white American fanbase. And Bird’s not the first to say this. In 2001, professor Mark Kanazawa (of Carleton College in Minnesota) and Jonas Funk, a financial analyst in San Francisco, published a study in the Journal of Economic Inquiry that examined what effect white players have on Nielsen ratings. Using a complicated formula and terms like “heteroskedasticity”—which took into account a team’s record, number of all-stars playing, whether the white players were on the court or benchwarmers—Kanazawa and Funk came to the conclusion that each white player on a team increased ratings by 0.54 of a point. That would increase the number of households watching by 3,500 to 36,200 for each white player, depending on market size.

Also consider that in 2002 the NBA switched its TV contract from NBC to Disney (ABC, ESPN, and TNT) meaning that very few regular-season or playoff games are shown on network TV. So what’s the big deal? Well, according to most entertainment industry sources minority households still have significantly less access to cable than whites.

NBA blacklash may be more about money than race but one thing’s clear: With each draft, the NBA grows more international, paler, and less black. By 1995, NBA rosters were over 82% black. By 2001, that was down to 78%. And with high schoolers flooding the draft each year, college programs are recruiting foreign players like never before, further lightening the college game and by default the pro game. As these trends continue (currently the NBA is 75% black and lightening), black NBA players (like black baseball players) will become, for lack of a better term, minorities, within the next 10–15 years. But as long as the cream flows, the NBA and others will spin it as “progress.”

But according to Dr. Edwards, progress ain’t cheap: “The NBA is a uniquely American institution, and a black institution as well. It’s the equivalent of jazz. For many years, jazz tried to get away from its roots, to bring in a larger audience. As a result, jazz is now a marginalized music form. When you change the style of music, there are consequences, so I caution the NBA to think of what style they are changing the game into.”

In the end, data can be flipped and events can be spun to reflect whatever opinion or stance folks are comfortable with, but you can’t hide the truth, especially when it’s right there in (decreasingly) black and (increasingly) white.

The NBA’s ratings and attendance are down.
The white audience doesn’t like to see a bunch of guys
with tattoos and cornrows who get in trouble all the time.
Anyone who doesn’t believe that, they’re stupid.
—Charles Barkley

 

“It’s Your World.”

“It’s Your World.”

I saw the other end of the “Uniquely Black” spectrum while working on AT&T at the same shop. For years AT&T was king but deregulation, competition, etc. caused them to fall-off a bit. Now they were just big, old and stodgy. So one of my first assignments was to convince young black consumers that AT&T’s online services, then known as “att.net,” were the perfect remedy for all their online shopping needs. Now when you’re dealing with a highly commoditized category like ISPs, you go for the intimate, emotional connection with your audience, you want to get at the heart of what drives people. That’s your best shot at setting yourself apart from the pack…

So I got inside the minds and hearts of our target consumer. What I discovered was at the time for a huge segment of black internet users, the internet’s greatest appeal as a shopping vehicle (outside of convenience and access which everyone offered) is that it offers a sense of equality. No one can discriminate against you in cyberspace because they don’t know what you look like unless you tell them. Anonymity is power for a lot of internet users, especially minorities. Now this was very different from the brick and mortar shopping experiences many minority consumers still have where they can face racial profiling, unfair pricing, inferior customer service, etc. So I developed a campaign based on empowerment and freedom—things that everyone wants, but is particularly relevant to black shoppers.

The first TV spot featured a group of young black teenagers trying to shop in an upscale store. The security guard follows them… The store workers give them second-class treatment, etc. So in a moment of inspired frustration, they decide to go home and shop online using att.net. They get the products they want, it’s safe and secure transaction that leaves them feeling empowered and they live happily ever after.
Everyone loved the spot. But it died. Why? Because while the campaign appealed to black and ethnic consumers, it made whites including the client, uncomfortable. And in the end, even when the audience is black, you have to be concerned with what white people think.

So again, to keep all of this from happening out came the “inherently Black” advertising and marketing— work that appealed to whites as much if not more so than blacks. This is why you see so many marketing schemes and entertainment properties still feature suspect imagery and themes. For all of our significant strides, Black people still have to “prove” their blackness to non-black people in order to succeed.

Our whole relationship to success has become how well we fit into a scheme
we have no control over and we have not designed.
—Elaine Brown, author/former Black Panther
on Blacks in America’s consumer culture

The Rebirth of Slick

 

The Rebirth of Slick

Remember our ‘cut’ discussion? Well, the most effective cut is “cool.” We all want it; more importantly, we want everyone else to know we have it. Business loves cool because it can be cut into anything with a price tag. Consumers love cool because it’s the ultimate form of validation and acceptance. And if they don’t have it, it gives them something to aspire to, a sense of purpose. Being cool ranks among the noblest of American pursuits.

As I’ve learned from many a business meeting, focus group, and music video: Black folks is cool. Just ask most anyone age 12 to about 35 and they’ll tell you the same. Black athletes are cool. Black entertainers are cool. Black preachers are cool. Black music is cool. Black slang is cool. Black folks is just plain ol’ cool.

 But when we say cool we don’t mean it in a timeless, James Dean/Rat Pack/cowboy sort of way. We don’t mean, “cool” in an individualistic-idealist-Jack Kerouac sort of way, either. No. We mean black people are cool as in “screw authority/scare Middle  America” cool. Cool as in “jungle fever” cool. Cool as in “societal boogie monster” cool. Cool as in “its one big costume party/amusement park” cool. Cool as in “when I get bored or outgrow this, I can trash it with no real consequences” cool...

Blackness, by mainstream America’s standards at least, has always been cool like that.

Consequently, blackness is the new cut. American business and society at large marginalizes blackness into a natural resource then mines it and commoditizes it as needed. When it suits us, business mixes it into whatever we’re selling: TV Shows. Movies. Music. Sports. Fashion. Food. Cars. Jewelry. Liquor. Sex. Pick a brand, pick a service, pick a celebrity, pick a cause, even… chances are you’ll find that at least a little flava has been mixed into it. Why? Because black is cool and cool sells, therefore black sells.

I’m so… Cool!
—The Time