CPR Promotional Check-Up - Feb 27, 2012

The Screen Extra's Guild Theory Of Background Signage

Before I was kicked out (there was an "incident" and let's just leave it at that) I went to college in LA. Through a guy who I went to camp with, I got am SEG card that allowed me to make $36 for 14 hours of work; yep. I was an extra. Did a couple of shows. It was actually pretty fun. What did I do? I stood in the background and faked talking with someone while much more exciting things were occurring between me and the camera.

We all know how much TV hates acknowledging our presence in the Media Food Chain. They go to excruciating lengths to film around our banners. So when I go around and do Street School every Spring, I teach the interns how to stand unobtrusively in the background, with their logoed shirts visible, but without being obvious that we're trying to get on camera. Dancing around in the background in a shirt will guarantee that that clip won't make it past the editing table.

What The Hell Was That?

Power in Miami is consulted by Clifton and is one of the more-fun clients to work with. Kid Curry called me one day a few years back. They had just launched new bus panels but wanted to do something that would create some buzz. Hmmm...a puzzler. And then I remembered back to 4th grade at Wooddale Elementary School when Kerry Brown, who was always WAY ahead of her time, came to recess with the hot rumor of the day; if you looked at a certain male underwear model in the Sears catalog, you could see his winkie. And if Kerry said it was true, then it had to be. So we all rushed home and darn it if you didn't look hard enough, you thought you could actually see his dangling modifier.

So I suggested to Kid that he should stage a call from a "listener" who was changing his tire on the side of the road. Bent over he had an unusual angle to see the Power 96 bus side as it rumbled by. And, well, he saw "something" in the artwork. Was that intentional? They staged a bunch of other calls all from people who saw "something" and thought it was either funny or offensive. Soon, all over Dade County, people were rushing outside to look upside down at Power 96 bus art. And they all saw something. And of course there was nothing there.

Urban legends are such brilliant Non-Traditional Marketing. Start yours today.

Spring Training

The players are stretching, working out, hitting balls, and obtrusively scratching their genitals: baseball is about to return.

For Fathers Day, if your home field has natural turf, why not do Father Mows Best and let some dad have the Hank Hill-ish honor of mowing the thing. Salute him before the game and send him home with a new riding mower.

Are you an "older" or perhaps "family" radio station? Get a section in the bleachers at Sunday games designated as the (Station) Family Section. The hook? Only families can sit there and there's no booze in the section. So that my 2 and 4 year-olds don't have to listen to some drunk screaming obscenities at the visitor's bullpen.

Any time you can hand out 20,000 things for people to hold up during the game, well, that's just good fun. How about doing eye charts? The ump blows a call and everyone holds up their eye chart. These should have BIG logos on the back so that the people in the stands, looking towards the field, will see a sea of your call-letters. The actual eye chart? Should spell out your music position, ie: