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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91698787475411741552014-05-27T18:17:25.755-07:00James P. OthmerAuthor of Holy Water, The Futurist and Adland: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded PlanetJames P. Othmerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-22224866548660977122010-06-19T04:49:00.000-07:002010-06-19T04:56:01.277-07:00Washington Post Book World: "HOLY WATER walks perfect line between satire and compassion."
James P. Othmer's comic novel "Holy Water,"

By Elinor Lipman
Sunday, June 20, 2010

HOLY WATER
By James P. Othmer
Doubleday
292 pp. $26.95

The hero of James P. Othmer's second novel, "Holy Water," is -- luckily for us -- living a middle-management life that has added up only to "the conscientious fulfillment of limited expectations." At 32, Henry Tuhoe has a résumé that traces his lateral moves and promotions from Oral Care to Non-headache-related Pain Relief to Laxatives to Silicon-based Sprays and Coatings and finally to vice president of the Underarm Division.

With the closing of "Armpits" -- one of the few places where the author's cleverness calls attention to itself -- corporate "rightsizing" coincides with the break-up of Henry's unhappy marriage to the unreasonable Rachel, who has forced him into a vasectomy. Or has she? This medical and marital mystery is where Henry first wins our sympathy and recruits us for his adventures. Not that he has a choice, but will his transfer be, as his boss characterizes it, "a chance to start over, an opportunity to lose his inherent wussiness"?

As with the author's acclaimed first novel, "The Futurist," "Holy Water" manages to be at the same time cynical and soul-searching, a difficult juggling act better served in some chapters than others. Henry must decide: Lose his job or be corporately exiled to the fictional third world Kingdom of Galado on the India-China border? There he will open a call center for Happy Mountain Springs bottled water, a sainted brand. Henry doesn't find out until he arrives that the citizens of the "unhinged monarchy" of Galado have no drinking water, that plastic bottles are outlawed, and that all the country's streams are toxic. But his corporate ennui turns into a personal humanitarian mission -- Clean water for all! -- fueled by love and eyes finally opened to the world outside himself. Alas, danger threatens and encroaches. "You have to know all the wrong people to get anything done in this country," he quickly learns.

His new home has a prince who is crazy to just the right megalomaniacal and comic degree. As a graduate of Northeastern, he speaks excellent English. Wearing Lycra workout tights while his iPod plays "High School Musical," he tells Henry, "I have decided to bypass governments and political diplomacy in favor of corporate diplomacy." As illiteracy, starvation and illness flourish, the prince dreams of office towers, banks, hotels, brand-name luxury boutiques and a 28-theater cineplex. His citizens, he asserts, despite demonstrations and uprisings to the contrary, do not want a democracy.

Though a layer of guy humor rests none too lightly on the first few chapters, we would miss larger-than-life Meredith, Henry's administrative assistant by day and an online nudist by night (her site, by subscription only: EEEEVA EEEENORMOUS and her 46EEEE Twins). Henry's secret voyeurism and respect for her multifold talents add a rewarding touchstone to the plot. No one-note porn star, the highly intelligent Meredith devours the National Review, the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. Back at headquarters, via e-mail, strictly business, she helps Henry in his mission to supply fresh water to the parched and needy citizens of Galado.

The call center, despite daily training sessions, is never quite up and running: No employees speak English, and Henry is mightily distracted by the political realities of Galado, by his conscience and by Maya, a native and his second in command.

"You don't want to be here, do you?" she asks Henry on his first day. He replies sarcastically: "In a tiny village in the middle of nowhere teaching workers from a drought-plagued region how to talk about crystal-clear water that comes in a container that, incidentally, is forbidden here?"

In "The Futurist" Othmer demonstrated a terrific eye for the absurd, for deflating the big, the pompous, the entitled. Sly sentence by sly sentence, "Holy Water" similarly does not have a wasted word. Once he gets Henry out of Manhattan and into Galado, the author walks a perfect line between satire and compassion. Less satisfying are the ambitious plot turns, in which Henry's altruism goes a little action-adventure. There is a lane switch in the last few chapters, not just into darker comedy but into a more solemnly muckraking tone. Momentum doesn't offer an easy glide to the finish. As Maya tells Henry, "You use your humor and your cynicism to protect what is essentially smothered idealism." The same could be said for the hand that spins this often brilliant, always caustic corporate satire.

Is the marketplace asking authors to James-Bond-up their plots? Might some readers wish Henry had stayed in suburban New York, commuting to Manhattan, Cheever meets Vonnegut, having faith in the domestic over global ambitions? We look forward to that down-size. Othmer is a smart, elegant, witty writer who could do small beautifully.

Elinor Lipman's ninth novel, "The Family Man," is now in paperback.James P. Othmerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-67615000597902507692010-06-19T04:31:00.000-07:002010-06-19T04:43:37.722-07:00800-CEO-READ is a friend of HOLY WATER
Not sure if this is a first, but it's rare that a company such as 800-CEO-READ, which works with the world's best non-fiction business books and authors, highlights a novel. But they've been kind enough to discuss HOLY WATER on their blog, and run an excerpt from the novel's prologue, which is reprinted below.

June 17, 2010
800-CEO-READ
Daily Blog: Holy Water

Like great fiction, good advertising tells a story. It creates an alternate reality we want to enter. So when an ad man like James P. Othmer writes fiction, he does so with a practiced skill set. You may know Othmer from his brilliant book on advertising from a year ago, Adland: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet, which was named one of Fast Company's Best Business Books of the Year and just came out in paperback. His new book, Holy Water, was released this week, and is his second novel (his first, The Futurist, was released in 1996).

When Chris Brogan visited our offices and saw the books scattered everywhere, he asked if we ever tire of reading all the business books that come through the office. My answer to him, and to the problem in general, is to read fiction at home. It's always a pleasure to have those two worlds meet, when an author you like works successfully in both genres. And with the darkly comic and satirical Holy Water, Othmer has returned to fiction flawlessly, making me a very happy reader.

If you liked Adland, I'm sure you'll like Othmer's fiction. He was kind enough to share a sample with us. The following excerpt, the book's introduction, sets the scene.

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

Riverfire

The river is burning down.

Or is it up? The river is burning up. More than a hundred feet up. And since his boat is upwind from the night-burning pit furnaces to the south and stars are shining defiantly in a sky that rarely allows them to and the white-tipped lesser Himalayas loom on either side of the valley to the east and west, he thinks that this is a disturbingly beautiful thing. This riverfire.

They didn't tell him about this phenomenon at the executive briefing in Manhattan. The exit interview at the home office. Nowhere in the Winning Business Abroad Six Sigma Powerpoint presentation does he recall hearing anything about a body of water consumed by flame.

All they told him was, In this economy, be thankful you have a freakin' job.

His groin aches. The epicenter of phantom pains. The karmic vortex. The fleshy receptacle of damaged memories. Formerly known as his testicles.

The fire is highest where debris collects in the crooked river's bend.

He is a big believer in the symbolic weight of what song is playing at a particular moment. And if a song isn't playing, he will assign a song to the moment and force the symbolism, revel in the false epiphany. His suggested soundtrack for this moment would be Spoon's "The Beast and the Dragon Adored".

"That's beautiful. Is it some kind of welcome ceremony organized by the villagers?" he asks, even though he knows that this isn't some kind of welcome ceremony organized by the villagers. He knows that the river up here was coated with a black skin of waste that was waiting to burn. Daring someone to light the match.

Like what? The Cuyahoga. Near Cleveland in 1969. He is too young to remember the actual fire but not too young to get his history from REM's "Cuyahoga".

This is where we walked, this is where we swam. . .

"It is not a ceremony," explains his corporate liaison/host/executioner. "It is toxic, this river." The man waves at the flaming water, as if it is a hyperkinetic child. "Sometimes it does that."

Henry and the corporate liaison exchange a glance that signals a transition in their relationship. The end of bullshit. Previously the liaison had told him that a pro-democracy demonstration in the capital city was a birthday celebration for the King, that the black ash that fell like nightmare snow on Shangri-La Square was volcanic and that his country was a human rights champion despite the fact that it still hasn't abolished slavery.

Let's put our heads together and start a new country up. . .

He sees this as a bad thing, this sudden telling of the truth. He decides that the end of bullshit means they no longer care what he thinks. His hosts. His corporate partners. The diminished bureaucrats of a fading monarchy. Because someone to whom they have decided to tell the truth is obviously someone who no longer matters. Out of the corner of his eye he sees the Madison Avenue PR exec brought in to work the same spin magic her firm did for the Beijing games staring at her out of service iPhone and quietly weeping.
He decides to give the corporate liaison another chance to lie. To help matters, he even spells out the premise of the lie for him. "Maybe there was, you know, an accident. A tanker spill or a factory mishap. Perhaps the Chinese…"

The liaison shakes his head, lights an American cigarette. "No," he answers. "Even rivers burn. This one… toxic, 24/7."

Cuyahoga gone. . .

No one told him about any of this. No one told him about the corruption, the poverty, the malaprop billboard in the half-built "Free Zone" touting "Quality Manufactured Gods". No one told him that the non-party constitutional democracy to which he was being extra-sourced was actually an unhinged monarchy which is, when the U.N. and Amnesty International aren't looking, a dictatorship. No one told him about the delusional, profit and Bollywood-obsessed-despot in waiting. And no one told him that his five-star "spiritual eco lodge" with a private bathing garden, infinity pool and extensive spa menu was also a whorehouse that sat on a hilltop less than a mile from water-challenged village with one occasionally working pump that tapped into an aquifer of the most polluted and, as it turns out, flammable river on the planet.

Which would have been nice, since he works for a recently purchased subsidiary of an American held bottled water company whose mission statement, printed on the cover of its stunningly produced annual report, is "Bringing fresh water to a thirsty world."

No one told him. But then again, it's not like he'd asked a whole lot of questions.

"What do you put it out with?" Henry asks. The liaison doesn't answer. He just watches the flames.

But the front man from the yet to be dispatched U.S. Congressional delegation, a young Republican who had vomited over the side of the boat less than ten minutes ago, does have an answer. "You put it out with truth," he says. "And courage."

This elicits laughter from the in-country deal maker for the biggest brand at the gates, the Wal-Mart delegation, which is just waiting for the proverbial green light. The wink and nod from the Palace. He removes the stem of a silver hashish pipe from his lips that had been passed to him by an Australian corporate mercenary. "Courage? My God, son. Don't start going all John McCain on us now."

Randy Newman had a Cuyahoga song, too. "Burn on, Big River"

He squirts a glob of Purel into his left palm and rubs as if it can kill nightmares and coup d'etats as well as 99.9 percent of most common germs.

Before he left New York he did the most perfunctory of searches. Google. Lonely Planet. An old atlas. It's all he had time for, considering what he left, how fast it all happened. His old boss called it a chance to start over, opportunity to lose his inherent wussiness. His new boss, whom he is yet to meet, called it, via email, History waiting to happen, the next Bangalore. Wikipedia called it, "a secret and mysterious kingdom, long isolated from international politics and commerce."

"Wow, what a shit-hole," he hears the Wal-Mart guy say as they skirt east of the fire and drift past a shoreline village. Women with buckets are wading into those sections of the water that are not burning. Children are running along the river's edge, keeping pace with the slow-moving boat.

He's not sure where they're taking him. Either to a party in his honor, he thinks, or to kill him, to preserve what's left of theirs.
His soon to be ex-wife called it the perfect place for him to suffer the slow and painful death he deserves.
The woman with whom he thought he was falling in love called it something, too, but he can't be sure because she said it in a language he doesn't understand.

He doesn't know and no one told him anything.

Yet here he is. A newly made VP of Global Water, Investor Relations, for a company whose headquarters he's never seen, whose founders he just met and one of whom is huddled somewhere in the hold of this boat, on a burning river in a country he didn't know existed three months ago.

As they reverse engines and slow alongside a floating dock at the far end of the village that his suspiciously beaming host had just called a shit-hole, he looks at the people gathering to meet them, to throw them a line, their faces aglow with hope and reflected riverfire.

Or is that hate instead of hope?

He listens for the symbolic song to accompany the moment. Perhaps a chant supplied by the locals or faint notes from a far-off boom box. Then, hearing only the wailing of strangers, he attempts to assign one. But this moment needs more than one song, he decides. It needs a soundtrack. A playlist.

A Mixtape for the Apocalypse.James P. Othmerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-28762296418717672222010-06-09T12:42:00.000-07:002010-06-09T12:52:15.010-07:00HOLY WATER available everywhere June 15

Good stuff coming this summer. In addition to local appearances and media on behalf of HOLY WATER, I just found out that at the end of August I'll be heading to Australia (with family) for two weeks of media and writers conferences and retreats. Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast and Brisbane. Thanks to my enthusiastic and brilliant new AUS/NZ publisher for HOLY WATER and ADLAND, UWA.

More to come soon, including, I'm hoping, some great news regarding the development of a major motion picture adaptation of THE FUTURIST.James P. Othmerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-56861788973541170962010-06-01T07:45:00.000-07:002010-06-01T07:48:59.853-07:00ADLAND out in paperback today!

The Vintage/Anchor trade paperback edition of ADLAND is now available wherever books are sold. Amazon has a nice discounted special for anyone who orders ADLAND together with my new novel HOLY WATER, coming from Doubleday on June 15.James P. Othmerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-3949543432249899982010-05-27T09:03:00.000-07:002010-05-27T09:11:31.179-07:00Fast Company on HOLY WATER: "Beach read for BlackBerry addicts."

"Nothing in the corporate world should shock anyone anymore. Whatever you think will happen won't, and whatever you think doesn't have a chance will sneak up and kick you in the ass." That's Henry Tuhoe's philosophy, and he's our knowing protagonist through this dark screwball business comedy by James P. Othmer. The action starts when a conglomerate transfers Tuhoe from marketing deodorant to setting up a call center for a bottled-water brand in a Himalayan country that has little potable H2O. As Tuhoe evolves from goofball to grown-up, Othmer, a former ad creative, keeps the action humming with satirical riffs on corporate trainers, figurehead founders, and how business really gets done in a developing nation. The book's gooey center inside its hard-candy shell is about finding meaning in work and life, and after all the high jinks in this beach read for BlackBerry addicts, Othmer has earned it. -- DLJames P. Othmerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-27263770510534289292010-04-08T10:53:00.000-07:002010-04-09T07:53:37.652-07:00FROM THE DAILY BEAST: "I'm Tiger's Sex Addiction Counselor, and I approved this ad."by James P. Othmer

The latest from Nike and Tiger Woods, dropped into rotation on ESPN and the Golf Channel just in time for his ballyhooed return to golf at the Masters, is not an ad. It's a provocation. A collaboration between a multi-billion dollar conglomerate, a man who just got out of sex rehab and the voice of a dead man who, when he prowled amongst the living, probably could have used a bit of counseling if not rehab himself.

In a way, I can see why Nike would make it. It automatically puts the brand front and center in a national conversation on the eve of one of sport's most prestigious events. Provocations are gold for brands, and there is no doubt that Tiger Woods is a brand. But why would Tiger Woods the wanna-be human green-light it? Why would he choose to let us know the inner workings of his troubled soul via a :30 second piece communications that at best is branding and at worst is insensitive propaganda?

Tiger likes to perpetuate the myth of Earl Woods almost as much as his own, but this commercial, which many have already called poignant and moving, isn't just odd, it's creepy.

The raw and purposely under-produced sound quality gives Earl Woods's voiceover a sort of Rod Serling from the grave to your conscience feel. Team Nike/Tiger could have cleaned this up but I imagine the conversation in the edit involved a lot of talk about "authenticity". What would a dead man's words sound like? What does remorse look like ("shut up and look at the camera"). Should posthumous parental disgust sound crisp and polished or distressed and analog, like a sound artifact recovered from Edison's workshop.

Then there are the words. "Did you learn anything?" asks Otherworldly Earl, the man who made Tiger in every sense of the word, and with whom Tiger still has issues that he has curiously chosen to work out through a commercial. "Tiger, I wanna find out what your thinking was. I wanna find out what your feelings are, and, did you learn anything." Well, yeah. So does everyone from Perez Hilton and TMZ to Katy Couric and the million other media outlets lurking outside the gates of Augusta, each of whom would love to have a heart-to-heart with him. By going there, by teasing and provoking us, Nike and Tiger are both brilliant and contemptible.

This is why I hate this ad. And why I can't stop watching it.

Should "Subconsciously Spanked by Earl" be the lead track on the Nike-produced mix-tape labeled "Tiger's Redemption"? Should Tiger still be listening to the guy who had him swinging a club in front of a TV camera when he was three, or on the TV show "That's Incredible!" when he was five? Should he be still be getting love and life guidance from the ghost of a twice married man who has shocked and disappointed him with his own marital indiscretions?

The first thing I thought when I watched this spot is, What if, instead of Earl, Elin Woods was given an opportunity to lay down her own version of a voice track for this ad. Now that would be authentic. Even if she said the same words, but with a slightly different inflection: HAVE YOU LEARNED ANYTHING, TIGER?! I imagine re-mixed parody versions of this very concept are being downloaded for public consumption right now.

Despite the fact that he was by then a 33-year-old man, Tiger was still listening to Earl that night in Orlando, when he hit or was hit by all kinds of things, from fire hydrants to the realization that the non-stop booty call was over, to the effects of the prescription drug Ambien. A believable version of the story has him impaired that night because he was, if fact, taking Ambien—which Tiger began taking when Earl was dying.

So, even at 33, it's still all about Daddy for Tiger. Which is why this is such a strange and troubling choice for Nike, and especially for Tiger. The question for Nike is, Does a swoosh-crazy public really want to see its hero on the brink being repeatedly spanked, this time by his Daddy? Or do they want him to shut up and play golf, and let us go back to re-mixing the Tiger narrative on our own terms? Nike claims the commercial (which it thoughtfully only "aired" until 4pm Wednesday but will of course live forever on YouTube) is a show of support for Tiger. But at a certain point the accumulation of mea culpas and serial chastisement takes on the stench of James Frey on Oprah. And last I checked, Frey didn't have a footwear and apparel deal.

For human-not-brand Tiger and his family, the questions are more complicated. Perhaps it would have made more sense if, a la political ads, this latest from Nike ended with a legal voiceover that said, "I'm Tiger Woods' Sex Addiction Therapist, and I approved this ad."

James P. Othmer is the author of ADLAND: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet and the novel THE FUTURIST.James P. Othmerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-49928192628793478822010-03-23T09:11:00.000-07:002010-03-23T09:17:11.158-07:00From the Daily Beast: Don Draper Takes on Health Care
by James P. Othmer

President Obama is about to undertake the most daunting branding challenge in recent history: Sell skeptical America on a plan that doesn't kick in until 2014. Former advertising executive James P. Othmer gives Obamacare a Madison Avenue makeover.

Obama is not a brand. Just ask Desiree Rogers, the former White House social secretary who made the mistake last spring of equating the president of the United States with the tagline for the soft drink Snapple when she told WSJ magazine, "We have the best brand on earth: the Obama brand." Now, she's looking for work.

Similarly, health-care reform is not a product. Just ask the dozens of corporations, industry coalitions, and political organizations on both sides of the issue who have thrown tens of millions of dollars into TV ads, and who will start it all over again today, with fresh campaigns to sell or un-sell the unbranded non-product that is health-care reform.

The Brand Obama that I want to see moving forward is the one too busy fixing things to stop to talk to the likes of me.

But for the sake of argument, let's pretend that presidents do continue to be a brands even after elections, and that their policies are the products upon which their equity is built and that in the case of health-care reform, the real selling has only just begun.

In advertising parlance, the product (health-care reform) is pretty much the same, but now the brief (how to sell it) has significantly changed. Sunday, Obama was selling something to consumers who had a choice. Today, he is selling the justification of a product that, like it or not, will be a part of every American's life. And he's selling it to a demographic filled with a Toyota-esque anger and cynicism and a deepening sense that neither side is telling anything near the truth.

In a product brief, the first question often posed by an agency to its client is, Why are you advertising? The most recent and frequent answer to this hypothetical question from Messrs. Plouffe and Axelrod seems to be along the lines of "To demystify and clearly explain the legislation, especially for the enraged half of the population that wants nothing to do with it." It's a valid enough intent, but one has to wonder how they can have more success, post-legislation, enlightening a jaded, cynical audience about an issue it can no longer influence. Early reports mention the likelihood of a talking points campaign that will attempt to break down in 30-second spots that which could not be sufficiently explained by either side for more than a year. Good luck with that.

Indeed, at 2,700 pages, with an additional 153 pages of last-minute changes, this is a product that seems to defy advertising and, if anything, seems designed to confuse. Instead, for a public that basically wants to know, How will this effect me?, what's needed isn't so much an ad but some kind of James Cameron-invented, alternate-reality avatar module that will immerse consumers onto the planet Healthora, where every one of us will play the role of Jake Sully and our health care future will finally, magically, make sense, down to the last penny on our monthly premium.

Often, an agency will look to case histories of similar products and marketplaces for lessons learned before determining a course of action, and it's been reported that the Obama administration has been studying the public's reception to President Johnson's Medicare and Medicaid reform of 1965. Again, not a bad thought, but the circumstances surrounding the two bills are vastly different. Johnson announced his intentions for reform as part of his vision for a "Great Society" during his State of the Union Address in February 1965. It was passed by the end of July by a margin of 307-116 in the House and 70-24 in the Senate. Not one Republican voted for the Obama legislation. Also, in a nice piece of branding, I mean statesmanship, Johnson signed his bill in Independence, Missouri, and enrolled none other than Harry S Truman and Bess Truman as the first card-carrying Medicare beneficiaries.

While some may realize immediate benefits from Obama's program, the vast majority of the population won't see results, positive or negative, until enrollment commences sometime in 2014. For an instant-gratification world quick to judge, this is a long time to keep the populace informed, engaged, and satisfied, especially compared to the fact that two months after Johnson's legislation passed, more than 1 million Medicare patients had already been admitted to hospitals. Increasingly in adland the concept of a campaign, or a fixed period of time during which an advertising message is broadcast, is becoming obsolete. In a 24/7 media cycle during which consumers can pick and choose when and where they want to engage with content, it's important to keep the dialogue going, but not to inundate.

My advice to the president: Do the heavy lifting behind the scenes and keep your message in, and your face out of, the next waves of ads. Over the last year we've all kind of seen too much process, from the town halls to the Tea Parties to the back slapping and hand shaking taking place on the Senate floor Sunday night between people who had spent the day calling each other baby killers and racists. Transparency in branding and in politics is a good thing in 2010. Ubiquity, not so much.

The Brand Obama that I want to see moving forward is the one too busy fixing things to stop to talk to the likes of me. When the bill is handed to you act like you've been there before and will soon be there again. For instance, don't Tweet: "In your face, Rush! #HR 3590." Do tell will.i.am thanks, but there's no need for a celebratory health-care song on YouTube. In fact, given the public mood, it might be a good idea to go as far as to somehow "misplace" your NCAA pool (especially if you have Cornell making the Sweet 16). To win again would only be construed as an act of unconscionable hubris.

Finally, regarding the signing: At all costs, avoid using the words Mission and Accomplished; avoid giving any speeches on aircraft carrier decks or standing on top of a hospital gurney in full surgical scrubs. In fact, rather than travel to Independence, Missouri, or to some medical facility where someone is receiving the first token benefit, stay back at the office. Take a few minutes from your incredibly busy day spent fixing Iraq and Afghanistan and the economy and helping people who'd be a lot less likely to be sick in the first place if they had jobs, and put pen to paper. Sure, let someone film it. It might make for a nice ad in 2012. Then get back to work.

James P. Othmer is the author of ADLAND: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet and the novel The Futurist.James P. Othmerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-66507384673197766102010-03-19T10:38:00.001-07:002010-03-19T10:42:47.453-07:00In LA, building sides have become giant refrigerators upon which studios display the mediocre art of their needy children.
James P. Othmerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-61052859840472370472010-02-24T08:19:00.000-08:002010-02-24T08:52:59.072-08:00The Art of Marketing Conference in TorontoI'm getting ready to join some great speakers at The Art of Marketing Conference in Toronto on March 2. I'm scheduled to talk about branding and creativity, but I'll also be test driving the insights behind my non-fiction book in progress about the future of entertainment and branding.

Here are the details from the producers:

theartofmarketing.ca

About The Art of Marketing Conference
This one day conference features six internationally renowned bestselling authors and leaders who will share an exciting blend of cutting edge thinking and real world experience on today's most critical marketing issues. Don't miss out on your chance to be a part of history and network with over 1,200 of Canada's most influential marketers.

Why are we doing this?
Developed to answer the questions currently facing your organization The Art of Marketing will provide a clearer understanding of how marketing has changed, what role it now plays in the buying decision, its impact on your business and ultimately how the consumer views, interacts and positions your brand in a crowded marketplace.

When?
Tuesday March 2nd, 2010
9:00AM – 5:00PM

Where?
NOTE: Due to an overwhelming response we've moved the conference to a larger room...

Metro Toronto Convention Centre
South Building - Hall G
222 Bremner Blvd.
Toronto, Ontario M5V 3L9
t. 416-585-8000
w. mtccc.com

Who Should Attend?
Marketing is an integral part of every company, from a local start-up to a multi-national brand it's the driving force between your products and your customers. As such the forum is attended by a wide variety of leaders from across the industry from agency to client to media our delegates include…

Account Executives
Advertising Coordinators
Advertising Managers
Advertising Directors
Art / Creative Directors
Brand Managers
Category Managers
Communications Co-ordinators
Communications Managers
Consultants
Digital Marketers
Direct Marketers
Directors of Marketing
Events Coordinators
Marketing Analysts
Marketing Assistants
Marketing Coordinators
Marketing Managers
Marketing Representatives
Media Relations / Publicists
Online Marketers
Product Managers
Vice Presidents, Business Dev.
Vice-Presidents, Marketing

Who's Behind This?
The Art of Productions Inc. designs and produces a collection of world class live events. Each event educates and entertains audiences from communities of interest by bringing together leading authorities and internationally renowned presenters. "The Art of…" programs are learning experiences where participants gain key concepts that can be applied to their professional and personal lives. Engaging and informative programming guarantees an educational and empowering experience.James P. Othmerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-23230816291403944022010-02-14T18:16:00.000-08:002010-02-14T18:38:25.162-08:00"The nuttiest thing you'll ever read." -- New York Times
Recently, Lift Trucks Project, a new gallery space in Croton Falls asked me to participate in a program in which writers choose a piece of art from a tremendous international selection, and comment upon it. I was immediately drawn to a trio of sculptures by the German artist Ottmar Horl. Who could resist lime green garden gnomes flipping the bird? A bit of research revealed that Horl had gained international renown and had almost been arrested in Germany for a similar display featuring a small army of gnomes giving the Sieg Heil! salute in a park in a Munich suburb -- a definite illegal no-no in post Hitler Germany. This got me thinking about what Hitler would think of Horl's work. Today the Times reviewed the exhibit, and called my short essay, which was written to be read in public with a flawed German accent, "the nuttiest thing you'll ever read." I take this as a compliment, though I've read much nuttier.

The Ghosts of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels on Ottmar Horl's Gnomes Flipping the Bird
(translated, via medium, by James P. Othmer)

ADOLF HITLER'S GHOST (AHG): Hey, Joe, check out these spunky little green dudes.
JOSEPH GOEBBEL'S GHOST (JBG): They are garden gnomes, Mein Fuhrer.
AHG: Really? It's too bad that they are so little, and of an unnatural, impure color, and not, you know, white or in any way master race potential, because I must say, I like their feisty spirit.
JGG: They are inanimate, Mein Fuhrer.
AHG: Inanimate? Was…was that our doing? Were the gnomes, or for that matter, all little or green people part of…
JGG: No, Mein Fuhrer. Somehow the garden gnomes escaped our scrutiny.
AHG: Good. Because, animate or not, you have to admire the audacious hand salute. Did you know, Joey G., that when we made the whole stiff-armed Heil! the mandatory greeting back in '23, this…this flipping of the bird was the runner up. Hess was a huge fan of the middle finger salute. Makes me wonder if things would have turned out differently if we'd have run with it.
JGG: The thing about these gnomes, Mein Fuhrer, they are works of modern art. Sculpture.
AHG: Art? Did you know, Jo-Go, that I was something of an artist back in the day?
JGG: Yes, you have mentioned this once or twice in the past 88 years, Mein Fuhrer. In fact, your acrylic on canvas "Rotweilers Playing Poker With Jew" hung over my room in the bunker right up until, until I murdered my family and committed suicide. Not to imply that there was any connection between the two, Mein Fuhrer.
AHG: I've always said that in addition to being a master propagandist, Joltin' Joe Goebbels was a man of impeccable taste.
JGG: Thank you. If I may, the artist who created this is the same man who recently created quite the stir when he placed an army of 1,250 tiny gnomes raising their arms in our – make that your – salute, right in the center the Munich suburb of Straubing.
AHG: I knew that I saw something special in his work!
JGG: There was an outcry, because, as you know, anyone who is caught giving a Nazi salute in modern Germany can be subjected to a three-year jail term.
AHG: They threw 1,250 gnomes in jail?
JGG: No, Mein Fuhrer. The law applies specifically to humans. They wanted to prosecute the artist, Ottmar Horl, for displaying Nazi symbols in public.
AHG: So then, this Herr Horl, he is a hero! A born-again Nazi!
JGG: No, Mein Fuhrer. He is an artist. He claims that the gnomes were merely a provocation. A work of satire.
AHG: Satire? I don't understand.
JGG: It's kind of like irony. Do you remember our discussion about irony after we first got here and during orientation they told us that, among other things, we'd be eating gefilte fish three times a day for eternity?
AHG: Anyway, I wonder if Horl knows that this was the runner-up salute back in the old Reichstag days. I wonder if he's making some kind of statement about that, because I feel as if this art, this sculpture, this small, green, smirking bird-flipping gnome, this how you say satire, is talking, you know, exclusively to me.James P. Othmerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-8667357232736867712010-02-10T08:16:00.000-08:002010-02-10T08:26:49.399-08:00Publisher's Weekly's Review of HOLY WATER makes otherwise miserable novelist downright giddy.
Reviews of New Fiction, Mystery, Science Fiction and Comics
-- Publishers Weekly, 2/8/2010
Holy Water James P. Othmer. Doubleday, $25.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-385-52513-8

The latest from Othmer (The Futurist) reads like a very contemporary Heart of Darkness run through the satire blender. Longtime company man Henry Tuhoe has a self-absorbed wife who is learning witchcraft and pressuring him to have a vasectomy; he's increasingly alienated from his friends, and is forced to decide between getting fired or accepting a new position opening a call center in an obscure Third World country called Galado. So he takes the job. That the call center doesn't have working telephones or employees who can speak English are just a couple of Henry's concerns in a plot that bounces between everyday realism and the absurd. His new workplace is as morally and spiritually corrupt as the corporate culture back home, and Henry makes it his personal humanitarian mission to help provide clean water to Galado's poorest citizens. Othmer wrings humor from nearly every facet of contemporary culture, with many of the most comical moments taking place in brief anecdotes (as with a Gulf War I re-enactor). It's well-done satire—dark, but not too—in the vein of Gary Shteyngart and early Colson Whitehead. (June)James P. Othmerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-80844725237372400092010-02-10T07:59:00.000-08:002010-02-10T08:13:22.651-08:00Super Bowl Ad Recap in the Daily Beast
Super Bowl Advertisers Play It Safe

by James P. Othmer
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-02-08/super-bowl-ads-play-it-safe/?cid=tag:mostrecent1

Former ad exec James Othmer on why Abe Vigoda and Betty White were the stars of last night—and how companies are being cautious post-Tiger.

If the Super Bowl ads of a given year are a reflection of our culture, if not the national zeitgeist, then welcome to the Age of Vigoda. In the Age of Vigoda, as evidenced by last night's game, Super Bowl branding built around the high-energy star power of emerging mega-celebrities has been supplanted by ads featuring the likes of 83-year-old Don Rickles (Teleflora), 88-year-old Betty White (Snickers) and the 88-year-old Abe Vigoda (Snickers), whose most recent brush with fame occurred when People magazine erroneously reported him dead in 1982.

After decades of Super Bowl ads featuring present-tense stars near the height of their fame—from Joe Namath and Farrah Fawcett (Noxema) to Michael Jackson, Madonna and Britney Spears (Pepsi)—why the sudden rush on fading and octogenarian celebs? A case can be made that nostalgia plays well with an aging boomer population, supported by the fact that the White/Vigoda Snickers spot took the top position in USA Today's Super Bowl Ad Meter consumer poll. Another reason for the lack of a 21st-Century pop culture star presence can be attributed to the fact that Pepsi, the brand associated with so many of the most famous celebrity and youth-focused Super Bowl ads, sat out last night's game for the first time in 23 years, choosing instead to spend more than $20 million on its caused-based, celeb-free, social media campaign, Pepsi Refresh.

In the Age of Vigoda it's much better to play it safe—as brands did last night with ads featuring Kiss, Charles Barkley, Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo reprising their roles in National Lampoon Vacation (were the 1980s really that special?)—than risk squandering years of equity and consumer trust, not to mention tens of millions of dollars on a present-tense star who can be wearing a green Master's Jacket one minute and be licking his wounds in sex addiction counseling the next.

Celebrity spokesperson meltdowns are nothing new. It's always been risky for brands to go all in with an endorser at the top of the Q-ratings, but now advertisers seem more reluctant to go there then ever. Perhaps the poor economy allows brands less room for failure. Or perhaps the 24/7 TMZ news cycle, combined with the transparency and ubiquity of Internet gadgets has made celebrities more susceptible than ever to humiliating exposure. Of course, because of this, the only thing we enjoy more than the ascent of a celebrity is their plummet to mug shot, scandal-sheet hell.

So rather than seeing the stars of the moment performing in our ads and on our halftime shows, we are entertained by those who have won our trust over the span of decades. Tiger Woods and John Edwards have begotten Abe Vigoda and Betty White. Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake have led to Tom Petty and The Who. Apparently Roger Daltry is less of a risk to have a wardrobe malfunction than Janet Jackson, but lord help us all if he does.

The exceptions, of course, are the lesser brands that use the Super Bowl as a platform to court controversy and shock their way into a larger cultural discussion. Focus on the Family did this brilliantly this year with its now famous Tim Tebow pro-life/anti-abortion ad. The ad was a snooze, coming right after the Snickers ad and using the same visual gag originated years ago with Reebok's Terry Tate, Office Linebacker classic, but it didn't matter. The Focus on the Family ad was the most talked about ad for two weeks leading up to the game. Similarly the gay dating service Mancrunch.com got millions in free PR when CBS rejected its ad, prompting claims and counterclaims of discrimination and homophobia. One gets the sense that, with network TV struggling as a viable platform for advertisers the other 364 days of the year, the Super Bowl with its 100 million viewers may become a magnet for more and more intentionally controversial one-hit wonders.

Last night several brands avoided the possibility of celebrity endorser blowup by eliminating humans altogether: Kia Motors cast its quirkily appealing commercial for the Sonesta with a Sock Monkey puppet, Muno from Yo Gabba Gabba and the Mr. X toy; one of Coke's uncharacteristically flat spots starred the animated cast of The Simpsons; and from Google, the brand that could have spent more production dollars than anyone, came the most simple, charming, and effective ad of the night, Paris Love Story, which brilliantly managed to distill the powerful human arc of a long-term romance and the utility of its search function down to a series of typewritten words in the brand's iconic box. I never thought of Google as anything other than a soulless conglomerate bent on ruling the world, but that ad made me blink.

Toyota also went the all-type route with its buzzkilling mea culpa ads about the circumstances surrounding its crippling recall and repair effort. This was quite a contrast to the joy and energy of Kia's Sock Monkey Crew, as well as a winning ad for the Hyundai Sonato that defied the trend toward nostalgia and pseudo celebrities. Hyundai hired a genuine celebrity of the moment, Brett Favre, and sent him to a place where today's scandals can never go: the future.

James P. Othmer is the author of ADLAND: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet and the novel The Futurist.

For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at email@example.com P. Othmerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-75988186906920282542010-01-29T13:24:00.000-08:002010-01-29T13:38:43.723-08:00Congratulations ADLAND Twitter Giveaway WinnersLEGAL COPY: Congratulations. With this valuable prize comes great (legally enforceable) responsibility. Please read carefully before accepting your gift. Winner agrees to become James P. Othmer's social media BFF (ie: #FF recos, Retweets, FB "Likes" and serial reposts). Winner agrees to write a five star Amazon review of no less than two paragraphs. Winner agrees to frequently troll the ad blogs and comment when necessary, praising Othmer and refuting slights against his career, writing ability and any mention of a hairpiece. Winner agrees to read the book in public places (or at least wrap the cover around another book) and laugh out loud (preferably a guffaw) while shaking the head and saying, things such as "That James P. Othmer just kills me!" or "They have to make a movie out of this!"James P. Othmerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-22812422822877581342010-01-21T08:10:00.000-08:002010-01-21T08:26:28.499-08:00Advance Praise for Holy Water trickling in.
My second novel HOLY WATER comes out June 15 from Doubleday, and while I'm still working hard on behalf ADLAND, I wanted to share some of early blurbs that have come in from three of my favorite writers: Ben Greenman (of The New Yorker), Jonathan Evison, and John McNally.

"Saul Bellow had Henderson, the Rain King. Bioy Casares had The Invention of Morel. James P. Othmer has Holy Water, and you should, too. Othmer's hero is a modern man whose life has ceased to make sense to him, and his escape to a distant nation raises (and then gleefully answers) all kinds of questions about love, life, god(s), health, big business, and bottled water. They say that no man is an island, but Othmer's Henry Tuhoe comes close." -Ben Greenman, author of What He's Poised to Do and Please Step Back

"Holy Water is hilarious, disquieting, razor sharp, and Now with a capital N . . .Othmer is an absurdist straight from the trenches, a keen-eyed witness to the troubling but strangely hopeful times in which we live, and a stylist of the first order." --Jonathan Evison, author of All About Lulu and West of Here

"If you've been looking for Kurt Vonnegut's successor, look no further. James P. Othmer has picked up the master satirist's torch and taken off running with it. The moment you meet Henry Tuhoe, Vice President of Underarm Research, you know you've entered a world that is at once wildly absurd and frighteningly credible. If ever there was a novel for these troubled and bizarre times, this is it. What The Futurist predicted, Holy Water confirms: Mr. Othmer is on the brink of a major career. So it goes." --John McNally, author of After the Workshop and The Book of Ralph

Also, stay tuned for Holy Water related news about an alliance with a major water charity, and hopefully a massive, yet well-intentioned launch party.James P. Othmerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-17591627259327526682010-01-19T07:56:00.000-08:002010-01-19T09:07:16.373-08:00Speaking of Speaking EngagementsThis is a big deal for me. A few weeks ago, the organizers of The Art of Marketing Conference in Toronto contacted me to see if I'd be interested in appearing as a speaker for the one day (March 2nd) event (theartofmarketing.ca). The other speakers: Seth Godin, Dan Heath, Sally Hogshead, Mitch Joel and Max Lenderman. Unlike me, they are all speaking circuit stars, and unlike me, they are all bestselling authors. I've presented before hundreds of clients, spoken to filled university auditoriums, and also to sales forces and marketing departments of corporate groups. But this kind of gig is a first.

I now realize there are several reasons for this: first, my 2006 novel THE FUTURIST, wasn't exactly kind to the denizens of the pro speaking circuit. In fact, when the book came out I received quite a few angry letters from futurists who claimed that I was out to undermine their livelihood. My response: if your livelihood is peddling bullshit, then that's the way it goes. If your livelihood is to share valuable insights about business and culture, then you have nothing to worry about (other than your incredibly thin skin). Other than university appearances, where my topics were corporate ethics, vocation and the search for meaning in work, speaking gigs were slow to materialize for THE FUTURIST. At one point I was asked to speak to the marketing and sales force of a large software company for a fee that was 10 times more than I'd ever made in a day. Then, three weeks before the event, the organizer called to cancel. Her boss did not get the humor or the message of the book. "What is he gonna do," her boss speculated, "tell us all to quit and go find meaning?"

With ADLAND, the speaking situation has been more encouraging, and I believe that the change in our economy and our place in the world has something to do with this. One would think that a recession would further increase the focus on profit, but I've found that people are increasingly eager to not just talk about work, but work with meaning. ADLAND looks at the ad industry and my career without sentimentality, or glorification, or the sort of "Top 10 Ways to Reinvigorate Your Brand and Your Life" lists that are requisite in the pop business book world. Instead, it describes the good and the bad of the business and my intention was that it would have value for anyone thinking of entering the ad profession, or who is rethinking their place in it. To be sure, there's plenty of wisdom and insights in ADLAND, including a straightforward look at the future of advertising (which I promise I will discuss on March 2 in Toronto). But it also speaks to the soul of the modern businessperson.

In 2010 people want more than rules to be successful in the workplace. They want insight into the human condition. More and more clients are getting this. For starters, they're calling more. And they're asking me to discuss the ethical questions that face not just branding folks, but anyone working in the information age. Audiences like the idea of someone telling tales from the trenches of adland, rather than from a corner office. They nod their heads when I tell them that there is value, opportunity and honor in learning and leading from the middle. At the Brandcenter at Virginia Commonwealth University I told an auditorium filled with some of the most promising ad students in the world that not all was exciting and sparkly in their chosen profession. I told them, from 20 years of experience, that not everyone would rise to have their name on the door of an agency, and that they should constantly evaluate their place in their agency and their life. Just to be sure, I threw in a list: Top Five Ways to Keep Your Career from Sucking. I'm looking forward to joining such an esteemed lineup in Toronto, and to not sucking.James P. Othmerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-90905018062935336422010-01-19T07:15:00.000-08:002010-01-19T07:46:32.744-08:00The Futurist movie update: We Have a Script (sort of).
I don't get a ton of reader mail, but when I do, it often includes an inquiry about the status of the film version of my 2006 novel THE FUTURIST. Well, lately there's been some movement, and here's what I can report: After three years of seeking the perfect screenwriter and/or director, we found both at the start of last year, and get this -- it's the same person! This person, who has written and directed four successful films, and whose name I've been asked to not mention until we have real news, spent much of the last year writing a script. The first draft, I was told, was great and true to the book, but long. The second draft was also great, true to the book, and shorter, but still kind of long, which I find funny because the book was only 276 pages. The third and hopefully final draft is due soon. When everyone loves this draft the next step will be to take it to my dream choice for the role of Yates who, incidentally, has read the book and has met our writer/director and is quite interested in the part. If dream actor is good with it, and not previously committed to five years worth of other dream actor projects, I'm told that the script/writer-director/dream actor package will then go to the studios, seeking the proverbial green light. Which would be nice.James P. Othmerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-61440150213664349982010-01-18T14:57:00.000-08:002010-01-18T15:04:46.310-08:00Belligerent Gnomes, Hitler, Art and Good Company

Lift Trucks Project is an exchange between artists and writers curated by Pam Hart of the Katonah Museum of Art. The opening/reading is 1/30 from 5-8pm and the exhibit runs through 3/27 at their space near the Croton Falls train station. A few months ago Pam asked me to participate and let me pick my subject from among many fine artists of international renown. I chose Ottmar Horl's Plastic Garden Gnomes Giving the Finger not because I knew anything about Horl, who is also the creator of Plastic Garden Gnomes Saluting Heil Hitler, but because who could resist not one but two garden gnomes giving the world the bird? My piece, from which they have generously invited me to read on 1/30, is actually a conversation between Adolph Hitler's Ghost and Joseph Goebbel's ghost about the racial purity of gnomes, censorship, Horl's controversial status in Germany, and Hitler's lost Rotweilers Playing Poker paintings. For more, see LTProject.com.James P. Othmerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-27980175167863209922009-12-22T09:03:00.000-08:002009-12-22T09:08:35.728-08:00ADLAND is one of FAST COMPANY magazine's Best of 2009

The best books of the year have two stories to tell: How we got into this economic crisis (and how we can prevent it from happening again) and how there's a class of companies wreaking their own brand of havoc on their industries. Both offer fascinating tales of innovation, and you'll learn everything from the secret underpinning some of the world's fastest-growing companies to strategies and insights for building a more sustainable society in the wake of the recession.
Adland by James P. Othmer
State-of-the-industry advertising manifestos are usually written by titans of the business, not former mid-level creatives who bounced around a number of large agencies. Yet this unlikely guide is the perfect one to take us through the apocalypse current roiling "Adland." Othmer shows us what's wrong about the old model by telling war stories with a jaundiced eye, and he then uses that same eye to look in on the cutting-edge, next-generation "don't call us an ad agency" creative shops defining the future.
Essence in a quote: "Instead of the traditional copywriter/art-director dynamic employed by most ad agencies, 42 Entertainment (which is also the company behind the campaign for the highly successful launch of the box-office-record-breaking Batman film The Dark Knight) typically relies on its alternate-reality-game background and involves everyone from sci-fi authors and sitcom writers to video game developers to create an experience that they say is exponentially more engaging and immersive than any traditional TV commercial."
The full list: Adland, Bright-Sided, Busted, Change by Design, Create Your Own Economy, Googled, In Cheap We Trust, In-N-Out Burger, Leadership, Strategy for Sustainability, Viral LoopJames P. Othmerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-38866744418288645792009-12-09T10:44:00.000-08:002009-12-09T10:47:25.134-08:00In Ad Age, Cindy Gallop Gives Adland Three Martinis, Up

'Futurist' Author Returns to Share His Adman Past
Cindy Gallop Gives 'Adland' Three Martinis, Up

by Cindy Gallop on 12.02.09

Some months ago I came across @drapersbastard on Twitter, proclaiming himself the "branded spawn of a titanic ego and someone from the secretarial pool who had one too many gimlets." His tweets were funny, simultaneously pointed and poignant. So I started following him. I'm a big fan of clever faux industry Twitterers, like @NotSirSorrell, and actually find @BogusBogusky rather more entertaining than @bogusky. (Sorry, Alex!)

I became so intrigued I challenged @drapersbastard to a Three-Martini Lunch. Subsequent dialogue revealed that @drapersbastard was in fact James P. Othmer, author of bestselling novel "The Futurist" and, most recently, an industry romp called "Adland." James and I became "social media friends" -- that is, friends who'd never actually met until our most enjoyable Three-Martini Lunch at 11 Madison Park in September (thoroughly recommended, by the way).

I highlight this original encounter because it is emblematic of why I found "Adland" such an enjoyable and profound read. "Adland" is a meditation on our industry through the lens of a personal story, told by a veteran of the Old World Order who is rapidly acclimatizing to the new. It resonates with everything we love about this industry, everything we hate, everything that keeps us working in it, everything that makes us want to leave and everything that makes us believe in what could still be possible.

"Adland" had me at Chapter 1, which tells the story of Y&R, as the incumbent, trying to retain a very large account that's up for review. Othmer, a former Y&R creative director, is careful not to identify the account, but industry readers will place it immediately. (Especially if, like me and BBH, yours was one of the "younger, hipper" agencies on the pitch list.) It's a brilliant encapsulation of a mix of emotions, ridiculousness, error and desperation that's all too appallingly recognizable:

"With advertising there's something about the combination of having to solve a major corporation's strategic problem in a creative way, while a clock is ticking, the whole time knowing that others in your building and in buildings around the world are also trying to solve the same problem, with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake, that is thrilling and somewhat addictive. ... It is creativity. And in the right environment it is contagious. This is what happened to us that morning under the fluorescent lights at that ugly conference table. ... The negativity of the cynic was replaced by the enthusiasm of the creative evangelist. It's a great time. But it is also the most dangerous time for a creative advertising person or anyone in the business of creating ideas for others. Because it is when we begin to care."

"Adland" speaks to all of us who care. It combines Othmer's personal journey with an exploration of how our industry is facing the future via dialogues with Toy, BBDO, Fahrenheit 212, Droga5 and Goodby. Buy it now.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cindy Gallop is the founder and CEO of IfWeRanTheWorld, an extremely simple crowd-sourced web platform designed to turn good intentions into action that will be launched this fall. Ms. Gallop spent most of her advertising career at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, where she launched the agency's New York office. She continues to work as an advertising and marketing consultant and is an adviser to a number of technology and media startups. In 2003, Advertising Women of New York named her its Advertising Woman of the Year.James P. Othmerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-91023015916226762462009-11-24T07:21:00.001-08:002009-11-24T07:27:53.800-08:00Galley Cat on Hudson's Best Books of 2009 List, featuring ADLAND

Best Books of 2009, Airport Edition
By Jason Boog on Nov 23, 2009 12:23 PM
A few writers received an unexpected bookstore boost today as they nabbed spots on Hudson Booksellers' Best Books of the Year list. The list will earn these writers some coveted placement in the company's bookstores, reaching the most captive readership in the whole world--the airport reader.

Hudson runs 65 full-service bookstores around North America, but sells books in over 350 Hudson News stands in airports and transportation hubs. This year the company sold $93 million worth of books. Here are the fiction winners, a list with only a single National Book Award nominee on it. The best nonfiction, business, and young adult books follow after the jump...

Best Fiction: "The Year of the Flood" by Margaret Atwood, "Little Bee" by Chris Cleave, "Spooner" by Pete Dexter, "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman, "The Lacuna" by Barbara Kingsolver, "Fool" by Christopher Moore, "The Song is You" by Arthur Phillips, "Lark & Termite" by Jayne Anne Phillips, "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett, and "Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.

Best Business Interest: The Silver Lining by Scott D. Anthony, What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell, Super Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner, Adland by James P. Othmer, Cheap by Ellen Ruppel Shell

Best NonFiction: Last Words by George Carlin, Manhood for Amateurs by Michael Chabon, Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, Lit by Mary Karr, Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder, Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer, Either You're in or You're in the Way by Logan and Noah Miller, Stitches by David Small, Emergency by Neil Strauss

Best Young Readers: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, The Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech, The Maze Runner by James Dashner, The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff KinneyJames P. Othmerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-41973430531118420102009-11-20T15:42:00.001-08:002009-11-20T15:45:52.527-08:00MEDIA BISTRO: SO WHAT DO YOU DO, JAMES OTHMER?So What Do You Do, James Othmer, Ad Creative Turned Author?
Truth in advertising comes through in this former creative director's revealing tome
By Mathew Van Hoven – November 18, 2009

James Othmer grew up thinking he'd go nowhere. A kid with zero direction, his only career advice came early on from his older sister, who suggested that his wise-cracking personality might be suited for a copywriting job in the advertising industry. To her credit, Othmer says, "She spent five minutes more than anyone else spent in my life at that time thinking about what Jim can do with his future." But it was the writing he later honed as a reporter for The Boston Globe and New Haven Register that truly propelled him into the field as a copywriter, and later creative director, leading campaigns for clients like KFC and AT&T.

Fast forward to today and Othmer has become an in-demand author. As his debut The Futurist is being prepped for the big screen, his recently released Adland is a tell-all of his days in the advertising world. Drawing on his experiences watching Young & Rubicam miss the 'Internet' boat along with almost everyone else, Othmer takes us through what it was like knowing his once-Herculean shop couldn't compete with smaller, nimbler agencies. And he was partially to blame. Those stories and others were the basis for Adland -- in which he describes himself as an average copywriter. Things haven't been any easier for him as an author. From one agent that quit representing him to go to clown school to another that passed away, Othmer's been to the bottom more than once. We sat down to discuss how he got back up and where he's going next.

Name: James P. Othmer
Position: Writer/creative consultant
Resume: Started out as a reporter for The Boston Globe and New Haven Register. Later did stints as a copywriter and creative director for several companies, including Dell Publishing, Franklin Spier, Grey Entertainment & Media, and Young & Rubicam. Author of The Futurist, Adland, and Holy Water. Also a freelance contributor for Esquire, Condé Nast Portfolio, New York Times, Forbes, and more.
Birthdate: October 17, 1960
Hometown: Mahopac, NY
Education: B.S. in Journalism from Northeastern University; MFA in Creative Writing from NYU.
Marital status: Married 26 years.
First section of the Sunday New York Times: "Week in Review."
Favorite TV show: CBS Sunday Morning
Last book read: Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann
Guilty pleasure: "Going out and pretending I still have an expense account."

Tell us a little about your background in advertising and your transition to published author.
I got into advertising in a roundabout way -- unlike people, say at Creative Circus or VCU Brand center, who are fixed on it and know what they want to do and are locked in on advertising as a career. I started as a journalist. I left The Boston Globe and the New Haven Register and gave up on some sports writing because I didn't want to work nights and weekends, and the money wasn't so wonderful. So I went into publishing and then eventually writing ads about books. And then I went to a mainstream agency; my first big mainstream agency was N.W. Ayer. I left newspapers so I didn't have to work nights and weekends, but I immediately realized that advertising was all about working nights and weekends.

I never looked at [becoming an author] as a change; I looked at it as a goal. I realized that if I wrote a nice little jewel of a novel that would have a small readership and was well-reviewed, I would never come close to making the money I was making, even as a copywriter. I realized it was an unrealistic goal to say I'll be a self-sustaining writer of fiction. So I kept at it, and I wrote three novels. I had several agents. One agent died, one agent quit to go to clown school.

Clown school, seriously?
Yeah. She quit to go to clown school. We were going to talk about auction strategy [for my first book], and soon after, she informed me that she would be going to clown school. So I went home to my wife and I said, "My agent is going to clown school. If I really want to write at this point, when your agent goes to clown school, you must really want it bad." Because if there was ever a time to completely be psychologically crushed, this would be the time. I even thought, you know, "Can you do both?" I wanted to, like, beg [my agent] to stay and, "Just make sure to take the little red nose off and the big shoes before you go into pitches," but I realized that even if I wasn't guaranteed success or publishing, being published, I was going to stick to it. And ironically that's when I wrote the first chapter of The Futurist, and that set things in motion.

"Writing radio copy [for] the ear while there's a clock ticking and a pissed off client and a celebrity talent in the next booth... is a really interesting exercise that has to make you a better writer."

Could you ever go back to advertising?
I have gone back. It's funny -- I Tweeted the other day, "What's the difference between freelancing and consulting?" I guess pay, a little bit. And you feel a little bit better about yourself consulting. But I've been asked to come in and not knock out ads, but take a look at a brand, and lift the hood up and see if there was something I could bring to it.

What motivated you to write Adland?
I did not write Adland as a love letter to advertising, nor did I write it as a condemnation to advertising. I just thought that as a novelist, as a journalist, and as a writer who happened to spend 20 years in advertising during this really amazing transitional time, it would be great for someone to get it down who was on the inside, wasn't a CEO, wasn't a legendary ad person, and wasn't an embedded journalist. It's kind of a middle manager's story of what it's like, and that's the part where I realize the timelessness, timeliness of it wasn't important, because if you can do that and say, "This is what it's like."... When you get a job, think about what it entails, what the implications are, what the consequences are, what the choices are. If there's a good thing that I've noticed, [it's that] younger people are asking those questions before they start, unlike sad people like me who ask these questions 20 years later having a 48-year-old midlife crisis. I think that the fact that it's written by a relative nobody, truthfully without an agenda to say, "This is how I did this, and how I translated this industry, company," is kind of good.

You explain in Adland that you were nudged into advertising by your sister. Is there anything about your youth that stands out and shouts that you were meant for advertising, or writing?
A friend who followed me a long time in my advertising read [Adland], and he had read a couple of pieces of the fiction and some of my earlier ads. He said, "You tapped into your inner wise-ass." It's not this great story about how I found my voice, but I think he's right, and I think my sister saw that I had a gift with language, I had a vivid imagination, I had a smart mouth and I was curiousTo her credit, she spent five minutes more than anyone else spent in my life at that time thinking about what Jim can do with his future, and she said advertising would be good.

What was the worst experience you had in the advertising business, and what effect did that have on your career as an author?
I think my worst experience was the KFC experience. I was asked to help out on a pitch, [and] I enlisted my nephew to help. He was going to school in Florida State at the time, and he did the demos for me in his garage. The next thing I know, my nephew was driving from the suburbs, 50 miles, to work with me every day and watching me get yelled at by clients. I think we had just lost Citibank and I had to build something that was ours again, so I said, "Okay, I'll do KFC." And it was not the most rewarding creative experience. It was lots of travel, lots of tension, and lots of stress because the account was about to walk. We saved it, but they ultimately walked while I had it.

"[While] researching Adland, I found shops still saying, 'This is our digital side, and this is our other side.' It's really surprised me that it wasn't incumbent upon everyone to be versed in all of it."

You are a copywriter-turned-author. Talk about the transition from short-ish form to long form.
I think advertising was great training for fiction, and fiction was great training for advertising. I would pilfer freely from both sides. Writing radio copy [for] the ear while there's a clock ticking and a pissed off client and a celebrity talent in the next booth -- and you had to cut 20 seconds out and still maintain the concept -- is a really interesting exercise that has to make you a better writer. I was great at writing the vision statements, the strategic pitch thing, but I did not have some wonderful ad career or killer reel or anything. People who knew me in advertising knew I delivered good work, smart strategic work, creative work -- stuff that usually came in second place.

In Adland you reiterate that in the mid-late '90s, Young & Rubicam wasn't ready for the digital advertising changeover. What did it feel like to know that the techniques you'd used for years would need a complete overhaul?
Part of the problem with Y&R at the time was they were encumbered by legacy people, and teams, and systems, and satellite offices, and they would buy an Internet play rather than seamlessly integrate it into the program. And then I went walking around the country in 2007-2008 researching Adland, I found shops still saying, "This is our digital side, and this is our other side." It's really surprised me that it wasn't incumbent upon everyone to be versed in all of it.

How did you get permission to tell Y&R's stories in Adland?
I did not. It's funny 'cause most of the people are gone who are in the book. Most of the people, I think, I reflected upon them pretty well. If I complain about something, I'll usually give context and say, what I realize now is what strain they were under, or what they were hearing from their boss. I wasn't out to hammer the industry, or [to] hammer any individuals. But nah, I didn't ask permission.

It was already written?
It was already written. Yeah. So it was about a 16-month turn around just from a written book. Adland was very frustrating in that I really felt that there was a born-on date, or a shelf life for a book like this, and I urged my publisher to try to get it into print as quickly as possible. I put pencils down when I got back from Cannes in 2008, and [the book] didn't come out until mid-September of 2009.

How did you get your first book published as a relative unknown?
I published the first chapter of The Futurist in the Virginia Quarterly review. It came out in November of 2004, I believe, and it was then picked with Salman Rushdie and a couple of other writers as a finalist for the National Magazine Award for fiction. So after clown school agents and agents who died and all that stuff, I had agents calling me for the first time. The guy I ended up with is John Grisham's agent.

What's next for you?
My next novel will be called Holy Water; it's coming out in June. That's about a water-filtration salesman who gets transferred to a third-world nation to open up a back office in a drought-plagued nation. His wife has thrown him out of the house because he lied about his vasectomy. It's one of those books. But he's vice president of Underarms and Sweat at a P&G Colgate-like multinational. It's this kind of droning job. It touches upon globalization, consumerism, 'What are we doing with our lives?'

I have TV projects in the works. The Futurist is being produced as a feature film by Reason Pictures. It's not on any schedule yet, but it's been optioned, there's a film option for that. There's a good director attached to it, there's a really good actor that I can tell you off the record, attached to it.

Mathew van Hoven is editor of AgencySpy.

[This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]James P. Othmerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-68075533440483632192009-11-13T12:54:00.000-08:002009-11-13T13:00:50.518-08:00Veteran's Day Tribute<object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-3be9f0338257ba89" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/get_player"><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="flashvars" value="flvurl=http://redirector.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D3be9f0338257ba89%26itag%3D5%26source%3Dblogger%26app%3Dblogger%26cmo%3Dsensitive_content%3Dyes%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1414213941%26sparams%3Dip,ipbits,expire,id,itag,source%26signature%3D69A22317034D06D6C1F970496ED4888F86E29B16.12BA7607F7D812B5A9F08A1AE414B73EAC4AC559%26key%3Dck2&iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D3be9f0338257ba89%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3DCDu0vbJpNMVGdyGiQlhYI0CcrQY&autoplay=0&ps=blogger"><embed src="//www.youtube.com/get_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashvars="flvurl=http://redirector.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D3be9f0338257ba89%26itag%3D5%26source%3Dblogger%26app%3Dblogger%26cmo%3Dsensitive_content%3Dyes%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1414213941%26sparams%3Dip,ipbits,expire,id,itag,source%26signature%3D69A22317034D06D6C1F970496ED4888F86E29B16.12BA7607F7D812B5A9F08A1AE414B73EAC4AC559%26key%3Dck2&iurl=http://video.google.com/ThumbnailServer2?app%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D3be9f0338257ba89%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw160%26sigh%3DCDu0vbJpNMVGdyGiQlhYI0CcrQY&autoplay=0&ps=blogger" allowFullScreen="true" /></object>

I shot this AT&T commercial in Normandy 15 years ago in honor of the 50th Anniversary of D-day. Wrote about it in ADLAND and finally tracked it down thanks to Lisa Goore and Northern Lights Editorial. AD: Kenny Evans; Producer: Lisa Goore; CD: Steve Feinberg.James P. Othmerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-50116415055840849582009-11-11T04:34:00.001-08:002009-11-11T04:41:34.839-08:00ADLAND goes back to press!

Just heard from Doubleday that ADLAND is going back to press! Two months after pub date the book is still going strong: additional feature coverage, NPR appearances, bookstore signings (hopefully at my new BFF Hudson Booksellers), book club, library and fancy restaurant readings and plenty of new content are all planned for the weeks ahead. Thanks to all for your support and for spreading the word.James P. Othmerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-37147974904695902362009-10-30T13:13:00.000-07:002009-10-30T13:19:08.063-07:00Hudson Booksellers Makes Adland a "Best of 2009" BookHudson Booksellers has chosen ADLAND as one of the five Best Business Books of 2009!

Hudson, which has great stores across the country and in dozens of airports, will run its special "Best of 2009" program from December 1st through January 31, with special shelf talkers and in-store displays.

Here are the choices in Business: The Silver Lining - Scott D. Anthony, What the Dog Saw - Malcolm Gladwell, Super Freakonomics - Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner, Adland - James P. Othmer, Cheap - Ellen Ruppel Shell.

Get thee to an airport.James P. Othmerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-9169878747541174155.post-11327933982670281102009-10-28T11:53:00.001-07:002009-10-28T11:58:57.781-07:00Fortune Magazine: Adland "picks up where Mad Men leaves off."

A Former Adman Tells all
by Jia Lynn Yang

MAD MEN, WHICH just won an Emmy for best drama, taps into nostalgia for the hedonistic glory days of Madison Avenue. Former adman James P. Othmer's new book picks up where the show leaves off. Sure, Adland: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet confirms that the $1,100 expensed bar tab lives on, but it also shows how the rise of the Internet and the DVR have upended the industry. Othmer takes us through his 20-year career, in which he watched 133-year-old N.W. Ayer crumble, and muses about the industry's future.

COCKTAIL PARTY FODDER: The average American is hit by up to 20,000 ad "impressions" a day. Companies have learned if they play a 30-second spot for weeks, they can switch to a cheaper 15-second version and get the same level of recall. Othmer also describes efforts to please clients like Yum Brands' KFC. His agency would prepare clever songs when all the franchisees wanted were close-ups of honey dripping over chicken strips. But he refuses to be too cynical: "Saying you're disillusioned with advertising is like saying you're disillusioned with politics or the porn industry."James P. Othmerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com


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Senator Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, has agreed to serve as a co-sponsor to S. 1461. Senator Landrieu serves as Chair of the U.S. Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee, and also serves on the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Committee on Energy & Natural Resources, and Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.
Senator Landrieu's support for S. 1461 comes at a critical juncture for the legislation, as now we need for all CRA members to be contacting the office of their members of the US Senate, asking that they too, serve as a co-sponsor on S. 1461.
In October, CRA delivered a letter to Senator Landrieu's office on behalf of the Louisiana Independent Tobacconist's Association, which spoke on behalf of over two dozen premium tobacconists in Louisiana.
Sarah Betz, President of the Louisiana Independent Tobacconist's Association stated, We truly appreciate Senator Landrieu for agreeing to co-sponsor S. 1461, and for her support of our small businesses in Louisiana and throughout the nation. We encourage other members of the Senate to follow her example, and also agree to co-sponsor this critical piece of legislation that will work to protect over 85,000 American jobs.
If your member is not on the list, call them and ask why! (Locate Your Member)
Please keep the pressure on, as Cigar Rights of America will be back in Washington, DC in each of the coming weeks with members of the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association, in our collective effort to ward off the heavy hand of the federal government from the simple pleasure of a great cigar.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
A sad day, got home to find one of my original bristlies (the male I hadn't named) decided he'd had enough and shuffled off his mortal coil. Was given these little fellas with the tank for an anniversary 3 1/2 years ago, they were mature then so I have no idea how old he was
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text:
RIVERSIDE --- Adam Hofacket went the distance and Luke Esquerra had three hits and four RBIs to lead California Baptist University to a 7-2 win over Point Loma Thursday in the second game of the 2013 NCCAA West Region Tournament at Totman Stadium.
The top-seed Lancers improve to 34-17 overall and move into the winner's bracket to play Fresno Pacific tomorrow at Noon.
The Sea Lions drop to 26-25 and into the loser's bracket to play Arizona Christian today at 3 p.m. in the tournament's first elimination game.
Hofacket (4-4) dazzled for seven innings, scattering seven hits, six of them singles. It was the freshman's second complete-game of the season.
The Sea Lions took a first-inning lead on a sacrifice fly by Bryan Burkhead in the first inning, giving ace Tyler Garkow an early advantage. The Lancers, who were playing the Sea Lions for the fifth time since last Thursday, scored seven consecutive runs to blow the game open.
Nathan Antoun, making his first start since March 29, hit the first of his two sacrifice flies to tie the game at 1-1 in the second. Esquerra then hit the first of his two home runs to give the Lancers a 2-1 lead in the third.
With two outs in the fourth, Travis Sais drew a walk to load the bases before Mark Sanchez singled to right and Esquerra hit a two-run single to give the Lancers a 5-1 lead. Antoun's second sac fly came in the fifth, and Esquerra hit another one-out solo shot to left, his 10th of the season, in the sixth.
Garkow was tagged for six earned runs in six innings, striking out three to fall to 7-5.
Matt Marnati was 2 for 3, getting his 275th career hit with a single to right in the fourth to become the Lancers' all-time leader in career hits. Matt Daugherty also had two hits as the Lancers had 10 as a team.


text:
They say "home is where the heart is," but there's a home in Brazil that may make your heart skip a beat!
It's called "The Stone House." Construction started more than 20 years ago.
tourists started showing up when the artist started being called "The Brazilian Gaudi" because his home resembled work by famed Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi. Now he charges $5 a head for tours of his eclectically decorated house.


text:
Rural investment to accelerate growth and poverty reduction in Kenya:
Abstract"Kenya's economy is relatively diverse, with both agricultural and industrial potential. However, the economy has performed poorly over the last decade, and poverty and inequality have risen. This paper examines the impact of alternative growth paths and rural investments on poverty using an economy-wide model. It finds that if Kenya continues along its current growth path, its economy will have to grow by more than 10 percent per year over the coming decade to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving poverty by 2015. Therefore, Kenya must search for alternative sources of poverty-reducing growth. The results of the model indicate that poverty is unlikely to decline significantly without an acceleration of agricultural growth. Growth in agriculture is found to benefit both urban and rural households, whereas industry-led growth benefits a smaller segment of the urban population, thus exacerbating inequality. Kenya's current Economic Recovery Strategy, however, is not optimistic about agriculture's growth potential, focusing more heavily on industry-led growth. Therefore, as Kenya prepares its new national strategy, the country should place greater emphasis on and direct resources toward accelerating agricultural growth. In assessing the impact of rural investments on growth and poverty, the paper finds that increasing agricultural spending to meet the 10 percent target set by the Maputo Declaration would lift an additional 1.5 million people above the poverty line by 2015. Specific agricultural investments have higher returns in different parts of the country, however. Irrigation favors the lowlands and the poorest segment of the population, while research and extension (R&E) favors the midlands and highlands. Investment in R&E is also found to have the highest returns in both growth and poverty reduction. However, increasing agricultural spending to 10 percent of total spending is insufficient to meet either the MDG or the 6 percent agricultural growth target of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program, which Kenya has recently adopted. . Achieving this target requires nonagricultural investments, such as in roads and market development. Building rural roads and reducing agricultural transaction costs significantly reduces poverty and encourages growth beyond rural areas. While it is necessary to increase spending on agriculture, the fiscal burden of an agricultural strategy can be greatly reduced by improving investment efficiency." from Author's Abstract
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Bibliographic InfoPaper provided by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in its series IFPRI discussion papers with number 723.
Date of creation: 2007
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Handle: RePEc:fpr:ifprid:723
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Related researchKeywords: Agriculture; Rural investment; Public investment; Poverty reduction; Inequality; Pro-poor growth;
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-AFR-2008-03-25 (Africa)
- NEP-AGR-2008-03-25 (Agricultural Economics)
- NEP-ALL-2008-03-25 (All new papers)
- NEP-DEV-2008-03-25 (Development)
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Cited by:
- World Bank, 2010. "Liberia - Employment and Pro-Poor Growth," World Bank Other Operational Studies 2966, The World Bank.
- Thurlow, James, 2010. "Implications of avian flu for economic development in Kenya:," IFPRI discussion papers, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) 951, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
- Diao, Xinshen & Hazell, Peter & Thurlow, James, 2010. "The Role of Agriculture in African Development," World Development, Elsevier, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 1375-1383, October.
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text: Send your Masquerade Prom guests home with a magnificent photo frame!Our Masquerade Memories Romance Glass Frame has a multitude of stars and Masquerade masks surrounding the left side of your photo. Choose your custom text and imprint color to create a one-of-a-kind 9 3/4 inch high x 7 3/4 inch wide photo frame that will hold one - 5 inch wide x 7 inch high photo. Add this Masquerade Memories Glass Frame to your guests' favor bags.


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