Citizen Brand

KaBOOM looking for play spaces

What a cool idea that helps many good causes. KaBOOM is looking for 100,000 play spaces in the next 100 days. And if you identify one, you can help a cause of your choice too.  Check it out here.

Thanks to my Barkley colleague, Celeste, for the tip.

A Magical PSA

A winner at Cannes, this PSA needs no introduction. Thanks to my Barkley colleague Dave Thornhill for pointing me to this simple, powerful message from Peru.

Sheer Madness

You have to love The Onion. Just click on the screen and enjoy a very funny bit.

NCAA Expands March Madness To Include 4,096 Teams

Hiding Places

As we go through our daily trials and tribulations of life in a bad economy, it is easy to forget that there are people facing much more dire circumstances around the globe. Abject poverty and hunger, lack of clean water and families being torn apart are the daily trials and tribulations they face. This PSA from Trocaire, the overseas developmental agency for the Catholic Church of Ireland, gives us a face and a voice for these people.

Life of a beer bottle

Excuse me for following up a post about reckless teen driving with an ad for beer. But this ad for Heineken is priceless. McCann Erickson Dublin created it. Courtesy of Adrants.

Teens behind the Wheel

More teens die in car crashes than any other single cause of death. 5,000 per year. The Ad Council just released a new campaign aimed at curbing teenage reckless driving. The campaign is in concert with Attorneys General around the country and was developed by Y&R/NY.

The key thrust behind the "Speak Up or Else"  campaign is peer to peer pressure empowering teens to say something to friends who aren't driving safe. People do listen to their friends. Friends just have to be willing to step up. In fact, a survey tells us that eight in 10 teens will alter their driving behavior if a friend tells them they are uncomfortable with the way they are driving.

Click here to check out a news release as well as some of the campaign elements. Social media is a big play as you would expect with any campaign targeted to teens as well as more traditional elements. Check out this widget you can embed which contains all elements of the campaign. A great PSA plays when you click on it here. Tell the teens in your life about this campaign.

Letterman on Limbaugh

I can't resist this take on Limbaugh by my main man David Letterman. Katie Couric co-stars.

Filling the Republican vacuum

No one loves it more than him. The fact that Rush Limbaugh has become the center of all things Republican since Barack Obama moved into the White House makes him very happy. His ratings are probably strong which means he can charge his advertisers more for his daily dose of entertainment disguised as political discussion. His pronouncements that he hopes President Obama fails continue which begs the question, what is it you are for Rush? We always know what you are against.

What right thinking Republicans must be asking themselves now is how did we get here? The party of Lincoln, T. Roosevelt and Reagan is in search of their next leader. The Party apparatus elected an African American as Chairman, but no one seems to be showing him respect yet. They sent out poor Bobby Jindal to follow the President and he didn't fare so well. But who would with the tired and worn out format of the "opposition response" to the President. It's not a fair fight and should be scrapped in the future. Why not set a speech the next day for someone in front of a friendly crowd to lay out the loyal opposition's agenda.

Right now, Republicans are in search of their voice and in desperate need of focused leadership. Romney, Palin, Jindal, Gingrich and the GOP leaders in Congress are talking all at once. Which brings us back to the loudest voice the Republicans have right now - Rush Limbaugh. He has the biggest megaphone and any Republican who doesn't fall into line gets called out on the air and forced to apologize to the big guy if they dare criticize him.

The Obama White House is stoking the fire. From the Chief of Staff to the Press Secretary to the President himself, all have said over and over that it is obvious that Rush Limbaugh is the defacto leader of the Republican Party today. This political sideshow is interesting to watch. Who will be the Republican to step up and try to wrest the megaphone away from Limbaugh? Will the Democrats keep throwing logs on the fire to keep Rush the face and voice of the GOP? Will Limbaugh sacrifice the Party that has kept him in the lifestyle to which he has become accustomed in order to keep the spotlight on him?

Stay tuned. It can only get more interesting.