Climate Change is Coming So Get Prepared
I thought I'd share a relatively short TED video about what countries and cities are doing to prepare for climate change. This video is fitting as we all gloomily look out the window (at least on the East Coast) wondering when our favorite season, Fall, will actually begin. Some of us may even be contemplating what happens to environmental policies if Romney wins the election. Hopefully they'll address those issues in upcoming debates.http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf
Cats of All Sizes
I recently watched a TED talk by Beverly + Dereck Joubert about big cats in Africa. They spent 3 years studying a leopard they named Legadema, Setswana for "light from the sky." How beautiful is that? Perhaps my emotions are running high from all the changes I've been experiencing - mostly overwhelmed with happiness, but I teared up many times during their 20 minute talk. I'm not going to ruin the video for you but I will say it was heartbreaking to learn how these big cats are being decimated by poachers and hunters. According to the Joubert's, over the last 50 years: Lions have gone from 450,000 to only 20,000 today.
Tigers from 45,000 to only 3,000
Cheetahs from 50,000 to 12,000
and Leopards from 700,000 to only 50,000.
From global warming to killing animals needlessly, we have lost touch with nature. But this is something we should easily be able to prevent. How could we, as humans, knownigly be responsible for this type of behavior? In the video, they pointed out that killing one lion disrupts an entire ecosystem. The new lion that enters the pride, kills all the cubs and sometimes even the mothers protecting them in order to establish his power. It's interesting to learn how violent nature is, and in this case - as unnecessary as war itself. But humans are causing that added violence.
Before you lose hope completely, there's a beautiful and bright side to nature - specifically an incident of motherly instincts that we see through Legadema. But I'm not going to tell you what happens. You'll just have to watch for yourself and if you're interested in learning more, you can check out this post via Roar Africa, a company that offers guided tours of Africa.
http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf
TED Talk: Simon Sinek - How Great Leaders Inspire Action
After reading a hilarious and somewhat accurate critique of TED Talks via Stuff White People Like (thanks P!), I had trouble listening to this talk, emailed to me by someone at Miami Ad School, without wanting to roll my eyes. And then a minute in, I realized I had already heard the talk via podcast on my iPhone. The memories of me walking through the beautiful, tree lined streets of the Manhattan's East 60's in late Spring, while on the way to the Apple store came flooding back. Yes, the irony is not lost on me.Essentially, he's describing the type of emotional connection that brands and leaders want to create with their consumers. As account planners, it's our job to find the insight that leads to that connection. About 30 years ago, Bill Bernbach had a similar insight:
“At the heart of an effective creative philosophy is the belief that nothing is so powerful as an insight into human nature, what compulsions drive a man, what instincts dominate his action, even though his language so often camouflages what really motivates him. For if you know these things about (a) man you can touch him at the core of his being."
http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf
What brands do you connect with? Why?