Rule breaker.

One of my more endearing qualities is that I am, above all things, a follower of rules.

To be clear, I am not a blind follower of every rule. Hitler, for example, came up with a bunch of rules that I don't think would have sat well with me, had I lived in Nazi Germany in the '20s. The rules I'm referring to are more along the lines of your modern-American traffic laws. This is not to say that I can't think for myself, just that I'm a rebel only when a very good cause is present.

But yes - I love rules. I don't just follow them, I love to follow them. I love to enforce them, bringing unnecessary tension to seemingly fun things like board games. I like to write them in my notebooks at work in neat handwriting, underlining the important parts. Sometimes highlighter, too. I love to tell people what rules they are currently violating.

"Actually, you can't create an authorization without all the buy details."
"'Scuse me! You can't ride your bike on the sidewalk!"
"Um, there's no smoking in here!"
"You need to turn your phone off, they've closed the cabin door!"
"This is the quiet car!"

And so on.

I think my love of rules stems directly from my love of being correct, being a model citizen, getting extra credit, avoiding trouble at all costs. In order to win, one must know that which will cause him to lose. I don't know if it was my conservative midwestern upbringing or my all-Catholic gene pool that brought me to this place, but rule-abiding, as a descriptor, clings to my white blood cells right alongside perfectionist and self-deprecator. It's exhausting and tedious, being in charge of the rules. But it's who I am.

Sir was raised in a more liberal setting, and as such has always regarded the rules as more of suggested guidelines, intended to be tested and scrutinized. And BROKEN, heaven forbid. We've had several discussions on the topic, almost all of them going something like this:

He: "Did you hear about so-and-so? Can you believe the reaction of the police?"
Me: "Well... that was brutal, yes, but... but... they were instigating it, they were breaking the LAW..."
He: "It's a dumb law."
Me, sputtering: "But it's the LAW!"

I'm sure he finds all of my neuroses adorable, although obnoxious might be a better word.

So anyway, I have these lace-up boots. I've owned them for more than a year now. They're probably one of my favorite pairs of shoes; they're cute, comfy and the wedge heel makes them pretty good for walking all over the place. But they have one glaring design flaw, a grain of sand that's been rubbing around in my oyster shell, irritating me to no end for the past 12 months: the tongue is totally out of control.

Do you know what I'm talking about? There's no loop on the tongue for you to lace through and stabilize the thing, and you end up with the entire tongue stuffed all the way to the left or right every time you walk more than 5 paces. It's incredibly annoying.

It was, however, this very situation that eventually incited me to become that which I simultaneously despise and secretly admire: a RULE BREAKER.

Despite the fact that every fiber of my being was telling me that we don't deface our own property (or anyone else's, for that matter), I thought very quietly to myself: what if I altered the tongue to create a stabilizing lace-loop? I could cut slits in the existing tongue, or affix some sort of material to the tongue to create the loop. Option A was probably better, since I didn't have the proper tools for stitching through leather and they weren't really high enough quality to start getting a cobbler involved. After months of contemplating this every time I wore those boots, I finally asked Sir if he thought it would be okay to cut my boots.

He looked at me blankly.

I mean, I guess why not? They're MY boots. Was some combination of Steve Madden and my mother going to come at me with a lecture about taking care of my things? Unlikely. Also, it was poor workmanship on Steve's part. He would WANT me to do this thing for him. For me, even.

So I grabbed one of Sir's utility knives and a cutting board and I cut slits in the tongue of my shoes. It took less than two minutes to implement from start to finish. And then I laced them up, slipping the laces under the loops, and put them on my feet, better than they were before. And in that moment, I became the master of my own destiny.

Also, it worked. Really well. I've been prancing around in my boots, tongue firmly in place and proud as can be, for roughly a week or two now. I should write ol' Steve a letter, to school him in this brilliance. You know, because he should alter his design to accommodate how the foot moves and really, it's the only correct way to make a boot.

I'm making a note of it.

Late Night Conversatin'

A few excerpts from 12:43 am. It's funny to me to see how my mind was in two totally different places at the same time. Thanks, ichat, for writing it down for me.


On the value of basic media principles:

he: when you write a brief, don't think about messaging
think about activity
think about excitement
when you think about a web experience, don't think flashy and perfect
think big. or think little. think about commitments instead of campaigns.

me: i think you will get in trouble with media folks for this
but i agree with you

he: i would love nothing more than to get in trouble, just to see what that would be like

me: i meant like, a lot of campaigns have an awareness objective
so awareness is linked to messaging - aware of what?
but, i mean, you're right
who really wants awareness

he: brands do

me: right. i mean obviously there is equity in awareness
but no one signs their bankruptcy papers saying, "but at least they were aware"

he: i suppose.


...and simultaneously, to my best pal, currently residing in Oz:

me: there is a kangaroo on jimmy kimmel right now
is that you?

she: yes.
surprise!

me: i thought so.


Fin.

Putting the "media" in social media.

As an up-and-coming media professional, and, admittedly, a sometimes flighty little person, I like to take a step back from time to time and have a think about the career path I’m currently skipping down. Especially when someone says something that gives me a jolt in regards to what it is I value about the profession. The kind of stuff that makes me go for a three-mile jaunt on the treadmill to clear my head and ask myself if I am out of my mind. What is it that I am doing with my time and brainpower? And why?

The topic in question is social media. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, linkedin, Flickr, Vimeo, what-have-you, the communication lifelines of the young and interactive. And lately, not even the young - just the interactive. The innovators, the influencers, the opinion leaders, along with pretty much anyone who has a computer and an internet connection – people are talking to people on the internet. Interaction via internet – and to think, it has only been 38 years since we walked on the moon (okay, I stole that, but it's funny). And, I find it quite surprising, or, ridiculous is another word, to hear media folks disregard the social media world as dumb, stalkeresque, time-consuming, childish, etcetera. Seriously?

What is media, really? Media, as a discipline, is many different things, but to me, it all boils down to creating a logical avenue for message delivery based on the psychology of an audience – it’s the precise artistry of lending credibility to the message per the target. Media is research, reporting, flighting, balance, budgeting and negotiation – and the sweat put into fine-tuning these items is for the purpose of perfecting our client’s channel of communication, and the communication itself, while we’re at it. We pour over syndicated research, we create storyfinders and build daypart analyses, we comb through SQAD and focus group findings in an effort to unravel the audience, to see how they think and breathe and go about their day – to determine how our otherwise insignificant message can reach them based on their raison d’être. We strive to show our audience that our message is credible and worthwhile to their lives because we understand them. Really, media, as with any other aspect of advertising, is people talking to people. And it is beyond confusing to me that people who like research, and want to understand people and how they dole out and accept communication, could disregard something as simple and useful as social media.

There are certainly less than desirable activities that take place surrounding social media. But at the core of the idea is a hothouse of basic media principles. Social media takes an abstract and slippery-to-track concept like communication and makes it tangible, measurable, and historical. It literally provides a concrete framework on how people communicate. It’s tracked and recorded in the catacombs of the interwebs. And, it’s free, simple, and brilliantly easy to study – just go play in it, to quote a friend. Sign up for accounts, find your friends and family, and start talking. Meet new people based on industry and interest groups. Download widgets and gadgets to change the way you use the applications, based on how you best communicate. Check out the other ways of looking at it, to see how others are communicating. Build feeds to keep everything in line and see what you want to see of what others are posting. Really, it’s an incredible wealth of information and insight, and it’s easy and fun. How better to understand how people communicate than by taking part?

And the value as media vehicle - people have historically devalued blogs, social apps, things of this nature in media planning. Clients want to stay far away from social media, because it is unpredictable. But people are unpredictable - communication reflecting life, go figure. These avenues are where people are seeking out credible messages, because this is where they are talking. Obviously it will not necessarily make sense to use social media in a plan, but to not even consider it when determining media strategy is to overlook an incredibly potent vehicle of human communication.

As media buffs, we are in the business of talking to people. How can we talk to people if we are writing off the ways that people are talking to people? I am not trying to say that social media should be a replacement for planning tools. All I am saying is that this movement is relevant to us as media planners. We say we want to know how people receive messages, but we are ignoring the fantastic insight that social media provides. It doesn’t make sense. I asked this question of one of my favorite social media junkies, and his response – I couldn’t have said it better myself.

“People are talking to each other online. It's measurable, and you can find the right people easier than you ever could before. If you want to ignore that, feel free. I, on the other hand, will not be ignoring the fastest-growing, most networked channel of communication we have ever experienced.”

Amen. I’m-a gonna go tweet about it.