Wired to Help

Marketing has started to realize that making a positive difference in the world is actually good for business.

From Pepsi's Refresh Everything to Target's Community Giving or Patagonia commitment with the environment, some of the very same organizations that contributed to the huge mess we are in have decided to proactively improve the world.

Here's Jeremy Rifkin's take on Humanity's drive towards empathy:

Why Believe

In a recent study, 81% of the class of '09 interviewed by NY Magazine declared themselves optimistic.

"Looking on the bright side has become all but mandatory in our culture" says Barbara Ehrenreich, and everyone from Kennedy to Obama have reminded us of its importance in the American Dream.

But Optimism does have its foes:

If you spent anytime in Europe you probably heard people describing America's optimism as "childish" (in 1947, Simone de Beauvoir wrote: I'm irritated by those imperious invitations to 'take life easy', repeated in words and images throughout the day. On advertisements ...the smile seems like lockjaw. The constipated girl smiles a loving smile at the lemon juice that relieves her intestines. In the subway, in the streets, on magazine pages, these smiles pursue me like obsessions).

Older people's sarcastic declarations of "admiration for your youthful optimism" have plagued teenage dreams the world over and now even Ehrenreich argues that "promotion of positive thinking has undermined America".

Now look at your work place: your professional self, your colleagues, your clients, your bosses. How many of you truly believe that anything is possible to the point of actually doing what it takes. To challenge the nay-sayers and pursue that dream until that crazy project actually gets done, until your agency does redefine the landscape, until your brand does shape popular culture and until you look back and tell yourself you love what you do. Everyday.

I am going to shut up now, give you a second to think about it.

Now enjoy this beautiful 1972 talk by Viktor Frankl:

BP's spill, day 86

As the general outrage grows around this crisis, it is good to reflect on its causes, get informed and if you are so inclined, take action.

- To find out more about how to volunteer click here or here.

- If instead you'd like to donate, click here for advise on how to donate wisely, and here to help the affected birds specifically.

To those campaigning for "smaller government" the following chart may provide some food for thought:

From Balls to Eyeballs: how rich nations are losing more than games in this World Cup

One of the wonders of the FIFA World Cup must be that it puts all nations on an equal footing, regardless of their wealth. Since 1930, this gave poorer countries a fair and unique shot at publicly humiliating the established Rulers of the World.

But this year something new is happening: poor nations are gaining ground, beyond the scoreboard. The US, Japan, France, Italy and England lost more than early games.

If you've watched some footie these days you may have noticed ads on the side of the pitch for brands you never heard of before: once the exclusive province of American, European and Japanese brands, pitch-side advertising is also witnessing the rise of Emerging Nations.

Out of 14 official FIFA partners and World Cup sponsors, almost half are from nations that only 20 years ago were considered poor like India, China, Brazil or the UAE. Yingli, Satyam, MTN, Seara and Emirates now compete head-to-head for global media exposure with the once unchallenged Big Boys of the rich world.

Even Budweiser, sponsor the event since 1986 and now partly Brazilian-owned is ceding pitch-side exposure during some games to its InBev sister brands like Quilmes, Brahma and Harbin.

Emerging Markets brands, until recently unheard of in the world of global sponsorships are here, and here to stay. For anyone working on global brands today, brace yourself. This shift represents greater challenges and opportunities than you may think.

(here is the list of official FIFA sponsors since 1986)

World Cup: Ad Age's top 5

Very proud to see that last week AdAge listed Puma's work among the top 5 World Cup spots, based on total number of online hits.

This testimony of a solid strategic foundation coupled with a brilliantly conceived and executed campaign is particularly touching given Puma's relatively modest spend:

- Nike came out 1st on this list at a cost of a multi-millionaire execution and media buy.

- Adidas, the official sponsor of the event, didn't even make the cut in spite of counting on stars like Messi (the world's best player) and Zidane.

Enjoy,

Ar-gen-tina!

The 2010 World Cup is almost here, and we've all read plenty about the beautiful, the world's game. Although there is no discussion of where our allegiances lie, we are sometimes confronted with difficult questions:

- Because one nation is supposedly the football arch-enemy of yours, should you join your compatriots in wishing its defeat, even when you love everything about that country?

- When you suspect football is being used as a populist tool of cleptocracy, numbing the masses and accelerating of your country's decline, do you still want it to succeed?

Of course you do, even if it makes no sense at all.

Even if it contradicts everything you believe in.

Powerful stuff indeed.

2010 Brazilian beer commercial

2010 Argie commercial

GuerrillArt Gallery

One key thing to get done before the World Cup was holding The Corners Project show. So we joined forces with Carlo's The Street is in the House and from the 14th to the 28th opened our own GuerrillArt Gallery in the Lower East Side.

Click here more on this project

why we help?

If there is one positive note coming out of the tragic events in Haiti earlier this week, it must the solidarity that the rest of the world immediately demonstrated.

Just a few hours after the initial reports of devastation, images of Port-au-Prince-bound firemen and rescue teams in Charles de Gaulle, Schipol, Ezeiza and other airports around the world appeared on our TVs. Even China, a country with no diplomatic ties to the impoverished Caribbean nation, sent help.

Our portraits in social sites were changed to Haitian flags and our Facebook status were replaced by tips on how to donate via text messaging. SoHo boutiques are holding fundraising events and even WyClef got involved.

Although the efforts are still under way, this is likely to be the greatest demonstration of solidarity in the history of natural catastrophes, surpassing the Great Tsunami of 2004 and Katrina in 2005.

Why?

This is the result of at least 2 factors:

1- The accelerated growth of digital media makes generosity both more visible (e.g. there were 1 million Facebook user when the Tsunami hit, vs. 375 million today) and easier (e.g. donating by text message)

2- As social beings, we are wired to help others: when we do, our brain rewards us in a similar ways as when we eat or have sex, two activities critical to the survival of our species.

This is the conclusion of a recent study conducted by a team of neuroscientists from Bethesda, Rio de Janeiro and Geneva, that found that the parts of the brain that light up when we think of donating to charity, are the same as when we think of sex or food.

These 2 observations provide the basis for an optimistic perspective on the future of humankind, but they also help explain the relation between "corporate social responsibility" (the second suggestion when you type "corporate" in google), the growth of digital media and human nature.

To donate $10 to the RedCross, text 'haiti' to 90999, or click here to find other ways to help