a hundred avatars

Black Teens on Unicycles

Here's a post based on my facebook status/twitter update based on a quick obversation the other day while driving through Mt Vernon not far from the Bronx.

 

Black teens on unicycles (I’ve noticed five or six on the street in Mt Vernon, Yonkers and the Bronx over the last six months) is shorthand for the way of the world.  The more we become a true multi-culture, a culture filled with a  multiplicity of various smaller cultures (not just White, Black and Brown, but surfers, eco-surfers, teachers, English speaking Latino Punks for Obama and so on) the more we have to keep an eye out for the Black kids on unicylces.

 A multi culture means that we are shaping a national narrative not with one overarching story, but with many. Not one big story, but a massive story that pieces together each of our individual narratives.  Culture used to mean the attitudes of a particular group. More and more we’re moving into the secondary meaning: that of a medium in which other things grow and flourish (like a culture of bacteria or some other living organism).

To see what’s growing and where it’s going, instead of watching the middle, we have to watch the fringes.

 This weekend’s New York Times had two articles that highlighted why the idea of Black kids on unicycles matter. 

The first is on the intergenerational differences between teens and 20 year olds today.  Kids under 15 already believe that information is something to be manipulated on screens, not keyboards and that email is as outdated as sending a note using paper. With things changing so quickly, the fringes become the center quickly.

Black kids on unicycles is also about making connections and noticing things. Check out this article on the rise of integrated thinking in business education (it's about time, right?). It’s about thinking critically enough to recognize the object, even if it is coincidental or not indicative of a broader trend (maybe there’s just a circus school nearby) as significant in some way. Business is about culture and about building the skills to read and respond to that, not just some vocational training program.

At the very least we have to recognize interesting things for their own merit, and use our ability for critical and creative thinking to integrate what are apparently contradictory pieces of information into an interesting whole.

Also, unicycles are cool. 

Struggling Nuyoricans

This story on struggling Nuyoricans was interesting. It turns out that Puerto Ricans in NY tend to be far more likely to live in poverty than others, including other Latinos.  Could be selection error (i.e., Puerto Ricans who have done well have left the city and moved elsewhere, thereby making it seem as though the community hasn't progressed) or could be accurate, but either way it's interesting.

Puerto Ricans are some of the most prominent figures in New York politics and culture, so some people are surprised when they hear that, overall, Puerto Ricans are among the poorest and least educated New Yorkers. Almost a third in New York are living in poverty.

It's particularly relevant since Puerto Ricans tend not to have many of the same apparent difficulties other Latinos have: most speak English, have been here for many generations, are citizens, etc. Yet despite these advantages, they've remained behind. As mentioned before, this could be nonrepresentative sampling or it could be the result of bad luck (PRs in NYC since 1950 in summary: come to work in factories, factories close, move into projects, projects deteriorate, NYC melts down in the '70s, crack epidemic in the '80s, gentrificiation, etc). Bad luck indeed.

Either way, 2010 leaves us holding the bag. The powers that be in NYC (many of whom are Puerto Rican, need to keep this in mind and create development that responds and builds other communities in a way that they avoid the challenges Nuyoricans have faced.

Planning killed the connections star

Maybe or maybe not. No time to respond really (and i've been meaning to read this for weeks anyway) but I quite liked this presentation from Gareth and Jason. Apparently connections planning needs some fixing. Hear hear. What doesn't? ;-)

Connections Planningness

View more documents from Jason Oke.

Smart Hyundai

Speaks for itself. Smart intervention because Hyundai understands the social web and why people might love the brand.

Fun! (or, media that is really social)

I loved this video from Volkswagen, which goes to show the power of a brand going beyond its purview to bring a benefit greater than itself to people's lives. (as well as the power of what Thaler and Sunstein's Nudge calls libertarian paternalism). More brands should really think about how to help people, beyond just RTBs.

 

It also raises an interesting question with viral videos as to what credit (or blame) an agency in Sweden should get for changing brand perception of a global brand in the US. For me, this video does more to improve my opinion of VW than anything Crispin has done for them here in the US.

Tribes and Members, by a Member of the Tribe

Two TED talks I recently came across and an interesting article from Ad Age.

The first, of Dave Logan on Tribal Leadership 

 

 And the second, the inimitable Seth Godin 

 

And the article:  No More Joe Consumer

All are interesting (and flawed, in their own way, but who cares, they're interesting), with the main point being the importance of tribes (and individuals with unique backgrounds) in the spreading of ideas over the 20th Century model driven by mass production, mechanization and advertising

Good stuff. Guess I picked a good time to go back to the fringes, since that's where it all is happening.

Although the whole 'Tribes' motif could be negative (you aren't you, you're your group) the most interesting interpretations are humanistic and empowering. 

1. Tribes are self selected, not just inherited. Great point that Godin makes: you don't need everyone, you just need 1000 people who will spread your message.
2. Tribes aren't really as much about their leaders as they are about the group. If the point he makes is true (leaders have charisma because they lead, they don't lead because they have charisma), tribes are a matter of will?
3.  Godin: You don’t need everyone, you just need 1000 people who will spread your message 
4. Good questions Godin ends his talk to move us forward that every 'tribal leader' should ask: Who are you upsetting? Who are you connecting? Who are you leading? 

What's great about this? Well in Adland all of it begins to upends the  notion of the USP and the WHO. Less single minded ness, less always trying to answer the question "do we have their permission to do X' from people who are worried that the answer is no.  All of this means that you don’t need people’s permission to lead them, just a good idea that you can convince people to coalesce around.

Wing + LATISM

OK, they kinda got the name of the agency wrong, but I'm not complaining. It's always an honor even to be nominated (ahem). 

I just found out that Wing has been nominated by LATISM (Latinos in Social Media) as one of the “Best Hispanic NY Marketing / PR Firm using Social Media”.

 
This is a totally spontaneous, crowd sourced nomination from the latino social media / blogging community. Apparently we are the second most nominated company.
 
The award show is this Thursday and whoever gets the most votes, wins.
 
If you want to participate in the vote, please go here or http://latism.org/latism-ny/latism-ny-finalists/

… and click on the “VOTE NOW” link. There are a number of categories that you can vote on if you wish, or leave blank. Our category is the fourth and we are at the bottom of the list.
 
Feel free to also forward it so we get as many votes as possible. Thanks! 

The Prize + Face to Face

The Prize 

Face to Face

C Jean-Louis Blondeau via 

Paula Scher and the Geography of Design

In a few short interviews directed by Nicolas Heller and produced by former colleague Brian Collins for the Art Directors Club, Paula Scher talks about how the energy of the city affects her work. Part two talks about her maps, which are amazing renderings of the layers of perception that maps really represent.

She's doing the signage for our new office, which is really cool.

And part two

Management vs. Self Direction

Dan Pink makes an argument for autonomy, mastery and purpose as a way to motivate people involved in 21st century tasks and beyond (yes, money too, but we need more.)