Legends

I’m up so so late brainstorming on a new Smokey the Bear campaign for our friends at the USDA Forest Service and I was thinking about my former Tarzana neighbor, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (née Meghan Markle), would be struggling to stay awake if I were the Queen of England and Meghan wanted to retire to bed. Apparently the Queen and I would get along very well at Buckingham Palace whipping out ad copy to late night champagne toasts. A boy can dream, right?

Queen Elizabeth II, legend.

(Uhhh, you do know who Smokey the Bear is, right?* If you don’t scroll to the bottom and read up. Read, read, read.)

These late nights get me thinking about dedication and perseverance. I work in a profession where many of my colleagues show up every day, do what’s asked and go home. Day in and day out. You would be surprised at the resistance you get you ask for a certain level of dedication. The labored response is something like this:

“Oh you want a press release written?”
“You want the framework of that media buy flushed out this week?”
“I can go hard hard this week if you need me to.”

Yeah, not that many in the advertising workforce are working hard. In fact, maybe 2% of our industry are working at top speed. I’m talking the total, absolute commitment where you take it home with you…

…Live it…
…Dream it…
…Master it.

Pop-Tarts, legend.

Most everyone just gives you the minimum required. These people are the reason I’ve had to listen to motivation speeches from the account managers over the years.

You know the Man upstairs hands out the DNA, but if you get lucky and you have the gift that’s not enough. Once you mix in the complete obsessive, compulsive behavior, then you’re onto something special. But then the commitment to maintain this greatness might actually be harder that becoming great.

Every morning I wake up and read the trades and watch what the greats are doing. Hone your craft through research, mind exercises, and an relenting passion to keep climbing. Read, read, read. It’s okay to be the modern day Sisyphus and let the rock roll back over you. Get up again and keep pushing.

(Uhhh, you do know who Sisyphus is, right?** If you don’t scroll to the bottom and read up. Read, read, read.)

It’s that extra effort that makes you great. That thing you read today will be a tiny seed that germinates into that big idea one day. The extra work is the one thing that will separate you from the pack. I know this to be fact, you should too.

The greats (and by no means am I calling myself “great”) have a sickness. The sickness is called compulsion. If you’re punching a clock, you’ll be good, but never great. You have to be obsessed with it all. It’s that simple.

You know what get’s a bad rap?

“OBSESSIVE.”

Jerry Seinfeld, legend.

When you say “obsessive”, people say, “WHOA! That guy is obsessive.” Obsessive, my friends is the difference between great and legendary.

I was on the New York Times website this morning (yes, read, read, read) and saw that Jerry Seinfeld was asked how long does it take for him to create a 90-minute comedy set. He said, “I don’t know. I go to bed thinking about jokes. I wake up thinking about jokes. When I walk my dog I think about constructing jokes. There is not concept of time there.”

(Uhhh, you do know who Jerry Seinfeld is, right?** Jerry Seinfeld is not some regular comic, he’s a legend. $600 million net worth. Co-creator of a Top 10 television show of all time. Arguable the best stand-up act ever. There’s a thousand of slap-happy comedians at the local stand-up place with a great set trying to make rent, but Seinfeld is legend. Yet I digress…)

In the New York Times article, he talks about writing a joke about a Pop-Tart. It took him two yearsto get is right. He talks about every comma and every syllable, and how he’s never thrown away a joke. He keeps them written on yellow pads. Here’s a quick excerpt about his Pop-Tart process:

“Two years is a long time to spend on something that means absolutely nothing. But that’s what I do. In comedy you think of something that you think is funny and then you go from there. It’s a fun thing to say…Pop…Tart. I like the first line to be funny right away. Then I talk about shredded wheat that’s like wrapping your mouth around a wood chipper. You have breakfast and then you take two days off for the scars to heal so you speak again. Then I had to figure out how to end the thing and that’s the hardest part if you have a long bit, the funniest part has to be at the end. It has to be. It can’t be in the middle or in the end. ‘It can’t go stale, because it was never fresh,” that took a long time. I know it sounds like nothing, and it is…”

But is was something, it was a joke: His craft.

And, he was obsessive about it.

Now, I’ll go back to being obsessed with finding the next big idea for a legendary bear…

* – About Smokey the Bear:

For those of you not aware, created in 1944, the Smokey Bear Wildfire Prevention campaign is the longest-running public service advertising campaign in U.S. history, educating generations of

Smokey the Bear, legend.

Americans about their role in preventing wildfires. As one of the world’s most recognizable characters, Smokey’s image is protected by U.S. federal law and is administered by the USDA Forest Service, the National Association of State Foresters and the Ad Council. Despite the campaign’s success over the years, wildfire prevention remains one of the most critical issues affecting our country. Smokey’s message is as relevant and urgent today as it was in 1944.

Smokey’s original catchphrase was “Smokey Says – Care Will Prevent 9 out of 10 Forest Fires.” In 1947, it became “Remember… Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires.” In 2001, it was again updated to its current version of “Only You Can Prevent Wildfires” in response to a massive outbreak of wildfires in natural areas other than forests and to clarify that Smokey is promoting the prevention of unwanted and unplanned outdoor fires versus prescribed fires.

** – Who is Sisyphus?

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus, the cunning king of Corinth, was punished in Hades by having repeatedly to roll a huge stone up a hill only to have it roll down again as soon as he had brought it to

Sisyphus, legend.

the summit. This fate is related in Homer’s Odyssey, Book XI. In Homer’s Iliad, Book VI, Sisyphus, living at Ephyre (later Corinth), was the son of Aeolus (eponymous ancestor of the Aeolians) and the father of Glaucus. In post-Homeric times he was called the father of Odysseus through his seduction of Anticleia; cunning obviously provided the link between them. Sisyphus was the reputed founder of the Isthmian Games. Later legend related that when Death came to fetch him, Sisyphus chained him up so that no one died until Ares came to aid Death, and Sisyphus had to submit. In the meantime, Sisyphus had told his wife, Merope, not to perform the usual sacrifices and to leave his body unburied. Thus, when he reached the underworld he was permitted to return to punish her for the omission. Once back at home, he continued to live to a ripe old age before dying a second time.

Seinfeld’s Pop-Tart Joke