Citizen Brand

Paul Newman

Let's take a break from the chaos that is our political scene this week and pay homage to an authentic American, Paul Newman.  Newman , one of the finest actors and humanitarians of any generation, died today at the age of 83.

If Paul Newman was in a movie, you knew it would be good.  And he kept it real for decade after decade performing a wide range of characters, each of them memorable in their own right.  He wasn't one of those actors who succeeded because he played the same character each movie.  He could play the good guy, the bad guy, the sentimental guy or the tough one.  Every one was believable.  And he made everyone else in the movie with him better.

If all he had accomplished in his life was his movie career, we would still be honoring him.  But he accomplished so much more.  He and his wife, Joanne Woodward, were married for 50 years plus.  Woodward is a fantastic actress in her own right.  He loved fast cars and was in racing for a time.  But I believe he would tell us his most important achievement was Newman's Own.  

The food company he started as "a lark" with a friend has turned into perhaps the greatest example of cause branding by a company ever.  100 percent of the proceeds from the more than 150 food items manufactured and sold by Newman's Own goes to charity.  100 percent.

Paul Newman may have died, but he left a legacy that will live forever through his movies and through his philanthropy.  Here's looking at you, kid.  Thanks.

Lee National Denim Day - 2008

Tim Daly and Chandra Wilson will be our ambassadors for the 2008 edition of Lee National Denim Day.  The TV docs are teaming up to tell America to wear their jeans on October 3 and give five bucks to fund critical research in the fight against breast cancer.

This is the 13th year for Denim Day.  Lee Jeans and Barkley created the program in 1996 and today it is a model for grassroots cause branding programs.  Our partner, the Entertainment Industry Foundation and its Women's Cancer Initiatives use the millions of dollars raised to fund collaborative research teams at a dozen leading cancer research institutions nationwide.

As our client at Lee, Liz Cahill said, "We've learned from our incredible team of scientists in Lee Labs that just like jeans, one cancer treatment does not fit all.  Through our Lee Labs for translational research, the early detection blood test, and our work with the National Breast Cancer Coalition, we're making a significant impact in finding and treating this disease in its many different sub-types and arming people with the information they need if they're faced with a diagnosis."

Companies, organizations or individuals wanting to form their own teams can begin signing up June 5th at denimday.com.  And then be ready to wear your jeans and make a difference.

Blockbusted

Leave it to The Onion to cleverly throw dirt on the grave of a business model that is past its prime.  Click here and be ready to laugh out loud. 

The sad news is that Blockbuster is a brand that could have owned the movie at home market if they had thought about what their customers wanted instead of thinking they were in the business of renting movies to go.  Their customers want at home entertainment and they want it as convenient as possible on their terms, not on Blockbuster's terms.

Reminds me of the analogy that our founder at Barkley told many times to demonstrate that a company needs to think about its business through the eyes of its customers and act accordingly.  The analogy - a person wants to buy a drill because they need to drill a hole, not because they want to own a drill.

Like I said, leave it to The Onion to put another nail in the Blockbuster coffin.

La Vie En Rose

Let's end the suspense early for the Oscar for Best Actress next year.  If Marion Cotillard  is not delivering an acceptance speech in Hollywood in 2008, then it will be a crime.  Her performance as the legendary French singer, Edith Piaf, in the incredible film La Vie En Rose, is honestly one of the greatest performances I have ever seen.  My wife has always been a huge fan of Edith Piaf, so we thoroughly enjoyed this great film by Olivier Dahan.

There have been a lot of bio-pics, particularly of singers, recently.  But this is not an actress doing an impression of someone famous.  Marion Cotillard truly lives the tortured yet beautiful life of Edith Piaf.  Of course, the music is amazing and makes the movie even more enjoyable.  Piaf's voice is haunting, inspiring and reassuring all at once.  If you have not ever heard her sing, listen here or here and most especially listen here to one of her final performances.  This last song is one that inspired her to perform one last time toward the end of her life.  As she said, if she could not sing, she would not want to live.

As is usually the case with a film like this, it is being shown on a limited number of screens so you may have to hunt around for it.  It's worth the hunt.  Edith Piaf ended her life with an anthem called "No Regrets."  Her life was a full one and through this film, we have a chance to better understand her and her music.

And the Oscar goes to.....

I doubt I have much to add to the hundreds of thousands of words being written and broadcast about the Oscars, but here goes.  I do love movies and have to admit that I'm a sucker for award shows.  I had the incredible pleasure, along with my wife, to actually attend the Screen Actors Guild awards earlier this month.  The SAG Awards have always been billed as the best party among all the awards shows and Char and I can now attest to it.  Of course, we have no pictures since they are pretty picky about taking cameras in to these awards gatherings.

We had a wonderful weekend and want to thank our great host, Lisa Paulsen, president of one of our Barkley clients, the Entertainment Industry Foundation.  It was amazing to see hundreds of familiar faces, none of which you knew personally of course.  The fun part was seeing all those character actors that you recognize at a drop of a hat, but couldn't name them if your life depended on it.

So now back to the Oscars.  I think it was a great year for movies.  Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker turned in world class acting performances and are sweeping every award in site.  And perhaps Martin Scorsese will finally win the Oscar for his masterful direction of The Departed.  Of course he should have won for Raging Bull, Goodfellas, or Taxi Driver just to name three.  When you look at Scorsese's entire body of work, it makes you wonder why he hasn't won two lifetime achievement awards already.  He has to win this time.

Best film?  What a diverse and wonderful category it is this year.  I loved The Departed and have already made my case for Martin Scorsese for best director, but I have to say that my vote for best picture this year has to go to Babel.  This was simply one of the most intense and interesting films I have seen in a long time.  It is a movie I look forward to watching again and again because it was so intricate, that I know there will be things I missed the first time.

My second best picture vote would go to Little Miss Sunshine.  It was unique, funny, poignant and satirical all at once.  That isn't easy to do.  Plus Alan Arkin is simply one of the finest actors ever.  If you have never seen the original movie - The In-Laws - with Arkin and Peter Falk, you are missing one of the all time classic comedies.  Burn the remake that Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks did a few years ago.  And I think the world of both of them, but that is another remake that should have never happened.

There is my take on the 79th annual Oscars.  But as an added bonus this year - please enjoy this jog down memory lane.  It was the 61st annual Oscars and the opening of the show is one for the ages.  Enjoy this.  If it doesn't make you laugh, nothing will.  And watch to the end.  It's worth it.

Red Carpet Causes

As Forrest Gump might have said, causes and celebrities are like peas and carrots.  They just go together.  And I think it's a good thing.  Sure there are times when some might seem to be doing it for the wrong reasons, but for the most part it is one of the best ways for a cause to get attention and money.

   A new website called SixDegrees.org has recently launched.  It shouldn't be difficult to figure out which star is behind it - Kevin Bacon.  It's a cool site that has about 20 celebrities and their causes highlighted.  You can learn more about each cause as well as donate to them.  And as Kevin Bacon tells you in a welcoming video, you can become the "celebrity" for your own cause on the site.  Great concept.

We have worked with celebrities in our cause programs at Barkley for more than a decade now.  And we have new programs we are working on where we believe celebrities can play an important role.  Whether we like to admit it or not, all of us like celebrities, whether they be in movies, music, sports or politics.  We may not like all of them, but the ones we do like can influence how we think and what actions we take.  Especially when it comes to helping us decide which causes we are going to support.  I'm not suggesting it's the only factor, but celebrity influence does matter.

So if you can ignore the dumb and outrageous actions of the few Paris Hiltons in the world, the next time you see a celebrity pushing their favorite cause, give them a gold star.  It's a good thing they are doing.

Thanks to Britt for pointing out SixDegrees.org.

RFK

I have been a lifelong Democrat.  My family, dating back to my grandfather, Ross Swenson, have always been Democrats.  I am also a fourth generation Kansan.  Kansas is considered a Republican state, but has had a unique history of electing Democrats as Governor, to Congress and a few other statewide offices.  So the election of 2006 is very interesting to me right now as the Democratic Party seems to have found its voice again.  We shall see.

Regardless of how you tend to vote, if you are a political junkie as I am, you will likely view the release of the movie, Bobby, as something to anticipate.  It is the story of a night when you can truly say history was changed.

It was June 4, 1968 and Robert F. Kennedy had just won the California presidential primary giving him the momentum he needed to capture the Democratic nomination for President and a date in November against the Republican nominee, Richard Nixon.  RFK's was a candidacy of destiny.  He was in part fulfilling the unfinished Presidency of his brother John.  But he had his own agenda and his own voice that was finally being heard.  And as he spoke from the podium of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles that late spring evening, his voice was sure and his destiny seemed certain.

But it was 1968.  We were just weeks removed from the assassination of Martin Luther King.  It was Bobby Kennedy's voice that terrible night that tried to calm the nation.  We were a nation in turmoil.  We were in a war that had lasted too long.  We had internal strife over that war in Vietnam.  We had internal strife over racial issues that had been going on since the Civil War more than a hundred years before.  It was a time we needed a voice of reason and calm to help guide us through the confusion.

I was 12 years old the night Bobby Kennedy was killed in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.  I went to sleep that night after hearing part of his victory speech claiming the California primary.  I awoke the next morning to the news that he had been shot and was near death.

Just two months before that, Bobby Kennedy shook my hand.  In 1968, at the age of 12, when an iconic figure such as Robert F. Kennedy shakes your hand, you do not ever forget it.  I remember that moment right now as if it were yesterday.

I wonder how a 12 year old thinks about our political leaders in 2006.  I fear that they don't have the same feelings that I had for Bobby Kennedy in 1968.  He was my first, and still, greatest political hero.  I believe to this day that our country and our world would have been different had he been elected President in 1968.

I will watch the movie Bobby when it comes out with a mixture of sadness and wonder.  It's a movie about the night RFK was killed which is sad.  But it will allow me the time to think about what might have been.  And it will reinforce to me how important it is for all of us to stay involved in our electoral process and vote for the people we think can make a difference.

Bobby Kennedy was shot on June 4, 1968 and history was forever altered.  But it also forever made me politically active.  For that, I have him to thank.

Little Miss Sunshine

If you have not taken a break and gone to see the movie, Little Miss Sunshine, do it right away.  It is the best laugh out loud movie since The Full Monty.

While we are discussing movies, another one worth seeing is Woody Allen's latest offering, The Scoop.

There are some good movies coming out this fall.  The Departed looks like a great drama with a killer cast - Matt Damon; Leonardo DiCaprio; Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin and Jack Nicholson.  It is a Martin Scorsese film and perhaps this will be the one for which he finally earns his Oscar.  I believe it might be time.