Obsessed with Conformity

Face for Radio, Voice for Twitter

Last Saturday I participated in an ad industry podcast. My first one. How'd it go? You can judge for yourself by clicking here. Bob Knorpp, @thebeancast on Twitter, was kind enough to invite me to join some very smart people on The BeanCast, a weekly, hour-long audio broadcast that brings the brightest minds from the ad business to a virtual round table to discuss current industry trends and news. 

This week's show featured Bill Green, @mtlb, Dirk Singer, @dirktherabbit and Ian Sohn, @iansohn, who are all accomplished professionals with wonderful speaking voices. Me, not so much. Plus, I rambled. And you can hear it all by clicking here. Yep, I loosely associated Toyota loyalty with how my father kept food on our table when I was a kid, and even proposed that the sticking gas pedals might be some kind of conspiracy. I don't know how Bob did it, but he somehow removed my inadvertent belching and all of my expletives. Bob is a pro. Really, he's like the younger, male, advertising version of Dianne Rehm. I strongly recommend that if you have anything to do with marketing and advertising, you subscribe to The BeanCast. You just download it to iTunes, then upload it to your mobile device and listen while you're at the gym, your kid's soccer practice or anywhere else you've got an hour to listen. I have for a while now, and have never been disappointed. Which is to say, you should download this week's show AND any of Bob's other 90 shows to establish your own reference point - and gain some keen industry insight. 

Thanks, Bob. 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of smashcommunications, llc. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv.  

The Tonight Show Side Show Late Night Debacle

So Conan and Jay are dominating the cultural trending topics lately. I don't like either of them but think Conan's the better writer. So for me it's just fun to sit back and watch NBC fumble over themselves. Again. Sure, some people will say that any PR is good PR - but I say bologna. 

In 1957, NBC launched The Tonight Show and Steve Allen was the host. Allen beget Jack Parr who beget Johnny Carson in 1962, and who held the post for the next 30 years. I didn't like Carson. His humor was too 'adult' for my taste. But there was this guy after Carson who was nothing like Carson. Late Night with David Letterman began airing in 1982, when I was 17. He was the anti-Carson and everyone my age loved him. So when Carson left The Tonight Show in '92, everyone assumed Letterman would take over. But Leno did instead. In 1993, Letterman went to CBS and launched The Late Show opposite the NBC slot. Leno did great against Letterman, but was ready to step down in 2009, and that's when Conan O'Brien took over - after 11 years in the slot behind The Tonight Show (just like Letterman.)

Leno had great success against Letterman, and maybe he will again. But if he was ready to step down the first time, and his 10 PM show is sucking wind, what makes NBC think it can plug him back in there and everything will be OK? I understand that everyone in social media loves Conan, whatever. But maybe it's time to give Jimmy Fallon a shot (the guy currently hosting the show in the slot after The Tonight Show)? Or what about Jimmy Kimmel (ABC)? Oh that's right, they're nothing like Leno. 

Bottom line, NBC ain't what it used to be. In fact, there was a time when Saturday Night Live was funny. Really. 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of the virtual ad agency smashcommunications, llc. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv.