A link to the past

Never in a million years did I think my two beautiful, wonderful daughters would follow in my clunky size 11, triple EEE footsteps. And if I had my druthers they wouldn't have.

But life can be surprising. In bad, and in good ways. 

I thought for sure my eldest, with a degree in Public Health from the very esteemed University of Washington would be a nurse. Or a Physician's Assistant. Or, if she hadn't been sidetracked by so many Kardashian adventures, a full-fledged doctor.

I was equally confident that my youngest, whose cup runneth over with imagination (and sometimes, worldly angst), would fall in love with a keyboard and make with the clicking and clacking. Preferably not in the field of advertising.

And maybe, since they're both very young, fate will have other ideas in store.

But for now, they're both in the biz. On the production side of things. 

I suppose it's not bad. After all, had they fallen into chartered accountancy or law or any number of other fields for which I was woefully unequipped, I would be miserably unable to assist them. 

To that end, last week one of the girls asked if I knew a particular vendor. Know them? Hell, twenty years ago we stuffed their gills with money from our Earthlink client.

That sent me scurrying in a fit of nostalgia to YouTube to track down some work from my inglorious past. In the couple of years my partner John Shirley and I were creatively managing the Earthlink account we managed to churn out a dozen or more commercials. 

I couldn't find most of them, but did locate these two for your viewing pleasure. Oddly, enough, the internet issues addressed here are still issues that are concerning in 2023: privacy and data harvesting.

In fact, the astute observer will notice these commercials are eerily similar to new spots from Internet providers and Big Tech. And with the advent of AI are even more critical.

You can view the work here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78FbUKJ1Hzs

I was also able to find another spot, directed by the great Michel Gondry on what could have been the most boring shoot I've ever been on. A 30 second spot with a cast of more than 100 actors. All shot 5-10 frames at a time. 

"Wake me up when it's over, I'll be in the trailer, napping."

You can view that one here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyHbQSL8epU

And now for some important accreditation. 

First, to my friend and former client, Claudia Caplan, who gave us free rein to do good work as long as it was strategic and smart. I like to think it was. Cory Mitchell and Valencia Gayles steered us through the Nincompoop Forest. And then there were the young creatives who wrote and and art directed the work including Chuck Monk, Jeff Maki, Margaret Keene, Raymond Hwang, and probably some others I don't remember. My apologies. 

Oh yeah, our producer Guia Iacomin makes a cameo as the woman on the street asking Harris if he'd like to know his future.

Not surprisingly, they've all gone on to do great things in and outside the business. I'm hoping my daughters follow in their footsteps as well.