Winning

I'm in no way making light of Charlie Sheen's current troubles, but this brilliant impersonation by Jimmy Fallon is dead on.  Sheen's troubles have set the world atwitter. 

I hope Sheen can win, reversing his unfortunate turn of personal and professional mishaps.  Not for a dispassionate audience who truly has no stake in his life, but for his family who depends on him to be there.

Net Neutrality

I think it's safe to say that those of us who troll, write for and live vicariously through the Internet, love the fact that we can do and be all we are on this marvelous platform.

I don't want that to change.  Do you?

An open Internet or Net Neutrality is essential for writers.  I think it's critical to anyone who enjoys the web.  

The following is taken from the Writers Guild of America website -- "Media consolidation and the resulting decline in the number of studios have made the Internet an important platform for writers. For this reason fighting for Net Neutrality is a focus of the Guild’s public policy work."

"On December 21, 2010, the FCC adopted rules to protect an open Internet.  The FCC believes these rules are important because the Internet is a platform for innovation, competition, free expression and civic engagement. The agency further states because broadband providers have both the incentive and the ability to limit Internet access and openness, the benefits of protecting an open Internet outweigh potential harms."

"The Guild submitted several filings to the FCC during their review of Net Neutrality. We consistently called for the Commission to prohibit Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from interfering with legal traffic, arbitrarily prioritizing certain content over others, charging customers for prioritized services, and to require ISPs to disclose their network management practices. While we didn’t get everything we wanted – such as application of all rules equally to fixed and mobile broadband – much of what we wanted is there."

"There is now an effort in Congress to block these new rules from taking effect. Using the “Congressional Review Act,” members of both the House and Senate have introduced legislation that would block the FCC from enforcing its new Net Neutrality rules. Additionally, not only would the Act stop these limited rules from taking effect, they would preclude the FCC from taking up this issue again without being specifically allowed to do so by Congress."

If you want to continue enjoying all those web liberties we all take for granted, talk to your local representative.

Let them know keeping our freedom to find information is as vital as free speech, and should remain as easily accessible.

Righteous Rebellion

I really don't know what's happened the past month, but the liberties sought, and realized, by the Egyptian people has sparked a wave of righteous rebellion across the globe.  Egypt, Tunisia, Wisconsin...

The driving force behind many of these actions is parity -- economic, social, cultural and so on.  It would seem people want to live their lives freely, with necessary but minimal government oversight, whereby everyone has just about the same amount of civil rights.  Imagine.

Looking at the 'why' people are doing what they doing, it's pretty simple really -- money.  You need it to live.  And when people have had enough of being oppressed, repressed, suppressed, not allowed to move the barometer to improve their lot, change becomes necessary, vital.  Life altering.

Exciting, these times.  Scary too.  But at the end of the day, we all want the same things.  The right to live our lives the way we see fit, within reason and healthy amounts of comfort and freedom.

You Go Girl - Helen Mirren Rebukes Tinseltown for Ageist, Sexist Fixation

Mirren knocks Hollywood for Obsessing over Youth & Young Men

Walking Dead Writing Staff takes a Hike

I'm not exactly getting the jump on this story, but the writing staff of AMC's hit zombie series, The Walking Dead, have been fired.  En masse.

Writers being fired from shows -- hits and otherwise, isn't exactly front page news.  Entire staffs from new hit shows are a bit of an anomaly.  The series had an order of six episodes this first season.  Even before last night's finale, the show was renewed for a 13 episode second season.  Six million viewers tuned in for last night's record breaking season one finale.

Season two's built on the premise of relying entirely on freelancers to get the job done.

Having worked on scripted TV shows for a number of years, managing 13 eppys with no in-house writing staff... um, yeah, Frank Darabont, the showrunner can expect to live in his office for the next year.  Cause that's what it's going to take to pull that off.  Since he'll be doing all of the development, writing, casting, budgeting, final say on production and editorial choices, not to mention all those hiccups that happen during day-to-day operations, dealing with the studio and networks... yeah, welcome to hell.

Now, not being part of a TV writing staff currently, the idea of freelancing is very appealing.  But being the realist I am and knowing there are all kinds of folk lining up to take those vacated spots... a combo platter of writing staff and freelancers is more than likely.

Ah, the business of show.  Don't you just love it...?   

Good Golly, Ms. Molly

Okay, I've been a bit remiss -- alright absent of late.  I've got a great excuse -- er, reason.  I've been working on a few things, and with super laser focus, have been doing great things (in my mind).

Truth is, I've had some family issues to wrangle, and unfortunately, this is an ongoing situation.

Remember when you were a kid and couldn't wait to grow up...?  Well.  Here we are.

To quote a line from a silly though pleasant movie, "Chin up, young person."

The Gift That Keeps On Giving...

Social media has arrived.  It's achieved critical mass.  Old Spice spokesman and now bonafide celebrity, Isaiah Mustafa has helped reinvigorate a brand that has languished in the male grooming products category for years.  With Mustafa's contribution, in addition to the brilliant ad agency behind this campaign -- Wieden + Kennedy, this Proctor & Gamble brand has seen an increase of sales to the tune of 107 percent.  Quite the feat.

Or is it?

Per AdAge, with SymphonyIRI, "(Old Spice) has been consistently gaining market share, even though that's only been enough to erase a deficit for the brand built up earlier.  In the 52 weeks ended June 13, it had a roughly flat share in a category that grew a robust 8.6 percent." 

Further, "Some other men's brands also have been making substantial share gains of late, including P&G sibling Gillette and Beierdorf's Nivea. And the thing Old Spice, Gillette and Nivea have in common isn't Mr. Mustafa, but rather multiple national drops of high-value coupons.  They included buy-one, get-one-free offers from both P&G brands and up to $4 off a single bottle of Nivea Men from Beiersdorf, reflecting unprecedented levels of promotional intensity in the category."

All these stats are a bit hard to swallow -- especially given all the ads we've seen, and yes, enjoyed.  We were engaged.  In fact Mustafa and company shot a series of 186 clips -- a two-day marathon of YouTube personalized videos in answer to Tweets from Old Spice's popular Twitter feed.  The videos generated more than 34 million aggregate views and a billion PR impression in a week, according to P&G.  In a single week, views of the personalized ads surpassed the nearly 29 million viral video views of Mr. Mustafa's four TV ads since February.

I could go on, but bottom line is P&G has won with a carefully crafted campaign, some say gift, that's created awareness, watercooler worthiness and just plain old enjoyment.  We have been and will continue to talk about Old Spice as long as they keep up the good work.  Some of us even buy the products.

And that's really what it's all about, right?