Monday, October 18, 2021

Meme-ories, like the corners of my mind


I've made hundreds of memes over the past 5 years. 

The one pictured above is one of my favorites, because it looks so authentic. It was one of two dozen in the Person Woman Man Camera TV series. A series that still makes me smile because of the sheer idiocy of it all.

Imagine a sitting president, with a compelling need to inform the country that he was still mentally cognizant, and peacocking his 3rd grader's performance in a Senility Test. As mentioned in his famous TV interview, he got extra points for getting it right

EXTRA POINTS!!!

Two weeks ago, before I spent a week in the Facebook Hole, I stumbled upon another meme series.

There've been so many I've forgotten what I did. But I do remember one of my colleagues suggesting I make room for these popular Shitgibbon memes in my online portfolio.

And so I did

I carved out a whole new section on my incredibly outdated portfolio and uploaded what I consider to be some of the better and more graphic memes. I already threw 30-40 up there before I came to realize there are many, many more lurking on my computer, with its haphazard "filing" system. And on my Facebook timeline, which is impossible to navigate lest I want to grow a nasty callous on my scrolling finger.

You might be thinking, "Rich, do you think it's wise to pollute your portfolio with political -- and incredibly juvenile -- memes about TFG?"

You're probably not wrong to think that, but it makes a convenient segue. And the truth is, "I simply don't care."

The other truth is, and I don't mean this in a humblebrag way, no one wants to look at my portfolio. They haven't in a good twenty years. Though that never stopped me from a lucrative career as a freelance copywriter. For better or worse, mostly worse, I have a somewhat established reputation in the industry.

"Maybe we should get that old cranky snarky Trump Hater to write this. He's funny. Sometimes."

If potential clients or agencies wanted to hire me and see samples of my "writing" they simply turned to RoundSeventeen, which has in effect, supplanted my portfolio. 

I suspect the same holds true for my friend George Tannenbaum and his blog. Or Jeff Gelberg and his underrated but superbly written blog, Rotation and Balance. As well as Jeff Eaker, whose up and coming blog Kingdom of Failure is fast becoming a staple in the ad world.  

So why take the time to refresh my portfolio, other than to manufacture a reason to blog about something? Well, for one thing it makes a nice convenient place to store all the laughs we've enjoyed at Captain Ouchie Foot's expense.

And it serves as a sad reminder of a time when advertising was about ideas, creative expression and polarizing disruptive ways of thinking. All, unfortunately, supplanted by lifeless, anodyne, pedestrian data driven drivel. 

Have a great week.





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