Terry Levine | Noggin Advertising | Copywriter | Digital + Direct Writer | Blogging | Toronto | Canada

RETURN OF THE LUCY CENSORS: (MORE THAN) 140 WORDS ON 'A SEPARATION.'

I suspect Asghar Farhadi tried to steer clear of politics when he wrote and directed A Separation, the wonderful and poignant Iranian film nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar this year, particularly after a "misunderstanding" almost got him banned from making it. But this is a film that takes place in a theocratic dictatorship so political messages might have embedded themselves in the story whether Farhadi intended them or the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance that approved its production allowed them.

Two such messages caught my attention.

The first involves a 911-type call a female caregiver makes to the regime's religious authorities, asking whether it's all right for her to clean the Alzheimer's patient she's taking care of after he pees himself. Understandably, she doesn't want to commit a sin by touching him or seeing him naked. How tragically ironic that anyone would have to ask permission to a religious authority before helping someone in distress.

The second message was less obvious. In fact, it wasn't part of the story at all. It dawned me as I watched that the female characters were all wearing scarfs in their homes, which isn't usually necessary even in Iran. Then I realized, they might have been indoors but we, the sneaky audience, were there too so on went the hijabs! It reminded me of old scenes from I Love Lucy where Lucy and Desi slept in separate beds to satisfy the prudish 1950s censors. Apparently those same censors moved to Iran when their silly work was no longer needed in America.

THE RISE OF THE NEW GROUPTHINK.

I always felt like a bit of a freak for thinking this way when I worked at big ad agencies, but I usually cringed at having to attend brainstorming sessions. I found they were usually a waste of time, that many who attended just liked to hear themselves spout off and, besides, I usually felt I was more creative coming up with ideas on my own.

It turns out I may have been right.

An op-ed in The New York Times says the new groupthink so popular in organizations today doesn't work. In fact:

"Research strongly suggests that people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption. And the most spectacularly creative people in many fields are often introverted.... They're extroverted enough to exchange and advance ideas, but see themselves as independent and individualistic. They're not joiners by nature."

This may also explain why I've felt like my career and creativity have experienced a new lease on life since I started working from home and on my own. I still team up with my business partner/art director on occasion, I still dial into conference calls when needed. But when it comes to doing the work I'm really being paid for -- making stuff sound good -- it's all about me, myself and I.

 

QUOTE OF THE DAY: WHAT THE WORLD THINKS OF REPUBLICANS

The following is from “The Week,” quoting several respected foreign newspapers on US Republican politics:
       
       
        THE GERMAN PRESS
       
The Republican presidential contest in America is a “freak show,” said Marc Pitzke in the German Der Spiegel. The candidates vie with one another to spew the most outrageous hard-right positions, denying evolution while endorsing torture and joking about electrocuting illegal immigrants. How did a major party in the world’s sole superpower become a “club of liars, debtors, betrayers, adulterers, exaggerators, hypocrites, and ignoramuses?” These know-nothings are enabled by a U.S. press that has been “neutered by the demands of political correctness” so that it can’t say what’s obvious: These people are daft! Instead, it “proclaims one clown after the next to be the new front-runner.” The current favorite, Newt Gingrich, is actually considered an intellectual merely because he can create sentences with multiple clauses. Scarcely a one has even the most basic grasp of foreign policy. One said Africa is a country, another that the Taliban rule in Libya. Collectively, “they expose a political, economic, geographic, and historical ignorance that makes George W. Bush look like a scholar.”
       
        THE FRENCH PRESS
       
That’s the scariest part, said Lorraine Millot in the Paris Liberation. The only GOP candidate who knows a thing about diplomacy, Jon Huntsman, is dead last in most polls. The others “careen to extreme positions that include starting new wars and abandoning old allies.” And that’s when they even have a position. Herman Cain, now thankfully out of the race, was the front-runner even though he couldn’t find a single coherent word to say about President Obama’s policy on Libya. He even boasted of knowing little about foreign countries. And yet it was his adultery, not his astounding ignorance that brought him down.
       
        THE ENGLISH PRESS
       
There’s a simple explanation for this bizarre phenomenon, said Max Hastings in the London Daily Mail. In the “lunatic, gun-toting badlands of America’s Hicks-ville, Tea Party country,” it’s considered suspiciously elitist to show any interest in modern science or the world beyond America’s borders. “Say what you like about British politics, no MP of any party would dare to offer themselves as town dog-catcher while knowing as little about the world as the Republican presidential candidates.” We take public service seriously. Yet we in Britain, and everyone in the rest of the world, will suffer if “one of the lunatics” vying for the nomination makes it to the White House. “The American political system has seldom, if ever, looked so inadequate.”
       
Don’t worry, said Matthew Norman in the London Independent. The fact that Gingrich is the latest threat to Mitt Romney’s inevitability just “confirms how inevitable” Romney’s nomination is. The thrice-married, ethically challenged Gingrich is unlikable in the extreme. Which means the nominee will be Romney, “the slimiest, phoniest opportunist to run for president since...well, ever.” So sit back and enjoy this circus passing for a presidential election. It can’t possibly end in a GOP victory. Can it?

 

QUOTE OF THE DAY: ON CREATIVITY AND UNDERSTANDING CONSUMERS.

"We have clients come to us and say 'here's our average customer.' For instance: female, 34 years old, with 2.3 kids. And we listen politely and say 'well, that's great but we don't care about that person. What we really need to do in design is look at the extremes -- the weakest person or person with arthritis, or the athlete or strongest or fastest person.' Because if we understand what the extremes are the middle will take care of itself."

-- Dan Formosa, Smart Design, from the documentary Objectifed

4 TIPS ON DEALING WITH FLAKEY CLIENTS.

I've been fortunate, since starting my business two years ago, to have dealt with pretty standup clients. Most are completely professional, respectful, clear about what they're looking for, equally clear when they need changes and prompt with payment.

That said, I have run into some doozies -- clients who charge exorbitantly for their services but somehow expect you to work for child labor rates, others who make you wait five or six months for payment to go through "accounting," clients who change their minds every other day about what they want, and those who expect you to read their minds.

There are no easy answers on how to deal with flakey clients, but here are a few suggestions:

Be flexible but firm on your rate: That may sound like a contradition, but here's what I mean. When times are tough, you may feel you need to take whatever comes along -- and you might be right -- but try your best to hold firm on your hourly rate, or at least an acceptable range. I recently dealt with a prospective client that asked if I would lower my rate by 40% because they had found another writer to do the work at that reduced rate. Based on the amount of time to do the project, they were looking at saving about $1,000 -- this from an organization that charges 6- and 7-figure project rates for their own services. If a prospective client is already nickle and diming you at the outset, it's not a good sign. If a prospect asks you to lower your rate by 5 to 15%, that's fair. If they think they can get you for half off, tell them to go to Walmart.

Ask for a deposit: The overwhelming majority of clients are upstanding and fair, which sometimes lets down your guard for the dishonest ones. Don't be embarrassed to ask for some percentage of your project rate to get started (1/3 to 50% is fair). If the client gets offended or starts making excuses, take it as a sign.

Insist on a brief: This might be the most important bit of advice to preserve your sanity. Flakey clients (and even some non-flakey ones) too often take their eye off the ball and the campaign to sell A to X eventually morphs into one to sell A, B and C to X, Y and Z. Get the project's background, communication objectives, target audience, key messages and mandatories on paper -- or at least an email. It doesn't have to be formal but if a client isn't willing to spend an hour thinking about these pieces of the puzzle up front, they're not serious and not someone you want to work with.

Be patient: No project runs smoothly from start to finish. Show flexiblity and be respectful. But if a client demonstrates he's not willing to play by the rules with you and you've reached your limit, don't be afraid to put a stake in the ground. Your self-respect is worth more than a paycheck.

Got anymore tips or horror stories? I'd love to hear about them.