In a long-ago blog post (that I can’t even find in archive.org), I remarked on the Livermore Centennial Light Bulb that is still burning after 106 years, and I wondered what technology that we use today will still be plugged in and running a hundred years from now.

One of my favorite effective TV ads was for Philips Marathon light bulbs. In the span of 30 seconds a college freshman arrives at his dorm room, and the first thing he does is screw in his Philips light bulb. Four years of college ensue, then graduation, then he packs up his dorm, unscrews his light bulb, and leaves. I can’t seem to find this ad online either, but you get the idea, and I would tend to believe them.

I thought of these when a light bulb burned out at my house recently. When I removed the glass globe and unscrewed the bulb, I read “Handicapped Workers – Long Life". We bought those bulbs before we moved into this house 20 years ago. I was skeptical when my wife bought them, but I didn’t have the kind of critical information sources (other than this) that we have today that might have convinced me one way or the other. I replaced the bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb that is supposed to last over 12,000 hours (compared to 4,000 for the old bulb, or 750 for a standard incandescent). I’ll let you know when I have to change it, if our archive is working as it should.

The recently-passed U.S. Energy bill phases out the sales of incandescent bulbs by 2014. I can already see the entry in the Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2036: "They never saw an incandescent light bulb for sale." Which brings me to one last question. When you learn something, does the light bulb go on or does the light bulb go off? Spellweb gives the edge to the light bulb going on, but only by a 3:1 margin. So it depends on whom you ask:

"That’s the beauty of teaching, watching the light bulb come on. When you help a student grasp a difficult concept they’ve been struggling with, it’s the best feeling in the world." - Lois Kreitzer-Housler, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford

or

"Seeing the light bulb go off in a student’s eyes when a key concept or idea is understood makes all of the preparation worthwhile." - Stephen Jones, St. Edward's University

I'm going to post these snippets from Adweek without comment. It's a perspective on the rise of user generated content by Phil Dusenberry, former chairman and chief creative officer of BBDO North America. He was inducted to the One Club Creative Hall of Fame this month. He is currently battling cancer, and I wish him the best.

Q: What do you think of the state of copywriting, given that we have user-generated content and consumer influence in the creative process?

A: As far as consumer-generated content, I think that's a joke because you should leave it to the pros to get something done. You may luck out and catch an idea from some amateur, but that's not really the way to go.

Q: So, you think it's a fad.

A: I don't think it's going to last, and you're going to see it take a powder very soon.

Q: Even though "consumer engagement" is the phrase of the moment?

A: The whole idea of consumers generating ideas is like pulling your own teeth as a dentist. Leave it to the professionals. That's what they're paid for.

Forbes.com ran a story this week by a couple of marketing-strategists, Marc E. Babej and Tim Pollak, on the surging popularity of Ayn Rand's Objectivism, a philosophy centered on rational egoism. Yaron Brook has been doing an amazing job running the the Ayn Ran Institute, especially in his drive to put copies of Rand's novels in high schools. The article calls out a tripling of resources since 2000 (to $7mil), but I would draw the real surge to 2001. I'm sure many people felt the way I did that September, that the ARI was an organization that could best fight for my values in a time when it seems to be so desperately needed.

But this post isn't a advertisement for Objectivism, rather it's about advertising Objectivism. The article is particularly interesting because it offers advice on how to improve the promotion of the philosophy. They are (paraphrased):

• Pick your demographic: conservatives who are fed up with the religious right
• Ask for help from those who already agree with you: business people
• Use traditional mass media: get on TV and in movies (Atlas Shrugged starring Angelina Jolie comes out next year)
• Be positive: state how things ought to be instead of complaining about how things are wrong
• Pick fights: imitate the Republicans by using wedge issues to keep people talking
• Use the Internet: communities formed around blogs are increasingly driving political debate, and now virtual worlds like Second Life are having an impact

TV is dead. Or it will be dead unless it evolves drastically. I came to this conclusion sometime in 2002-2003. That was the point when I was abruptly weened off religiously watching television. Since then, only a few shows have caught my attention enough to actually turn my TV into a TV, and not just the screen for my XBOX(/DVD player). However, I have seen a new direction for TV, and it came from NBC of all people. Their great show last season got me hooked into a new way to watch TV shows. Online viewing. And boy am I hooked. No cable service to buy, no expensive equipment to buy or lease, no endless commercials. Its just great. I can watch when I want, pretty much anywhere I want to and the commercials are minimal. I like it so much I even got my technologically-limited mom to start watching this way and its amazing how quickly she caught on.

Commercials are the real thing I wanted to blog about though. While watching Heroes online, I did get some commercials, but strangely, it seemed to be the same commercial every 10 minutes. But it was only one commercial every 10 minutes it seemed like so I could deal with it. Yet I found myself wanting more commercials, or at least more relevant commercials. This was a strange feeling for me, having always changed the channel or went and did something else while commercials were on.

Being online so much, I am always looking for more to do, more to see. I usually have at least 4 different programs running, some with 2 or more viewable things each. Call me ADHD if you will, but only call me that because the Internet made me that way. So when I said I wanted to see commercials, I was serious. I wanted something to focus my attention and keep me on that one screen. While watching Heroes, I would switch it to take over my whole monitor, one of them anyway, and I wanted something to fill the space the inevitable commercial would take up. I don't think I am alone in this feeling either.

TV execs, if you are reading this, take note. Give me options. Give me choices. You already do it by giving me the choice of which TV show to watch, so why not extend that to commercials. Here's a simple way to do it online that benefits you twofold and is very simple thing to do. Give me categories of commercials to choose from such as movies, cars, technology, food, etc. This benefits you because then I would be interested in the commercials and would probably watch them. It also benefits you because then you would know what I wanted to see and you can tell your advertisers: "See? He wants to see your content. Give us more money and we pretty much guarantee your ad will get the placement you are aiming for." After all, isn't that what advertisers want to hear, guaranteed product placement?