YOU'VE COME A LONG WAY BABY!

No-smoking a long skinny cigarette is not my idea of health-although most people may not even remember that Virginia Slims was the commercial that used that phrase to show women just how far they have come in the world-it was a post-feminism spot that was very successful for the company.
Cigarettes and health...advertising and women's rights? What is this all about????
The world of advertising is amazing-in both good and bad ways. I have always had a love for advertising. I have been creating ads for as long as I can remember (and according to my teenagers I am at least a century old! LOL). My formal, higher education, is in Marketing. Advertising is a slice of what marketing entails. I love to watch commercials, check out billboards, go through all the print media that hits my mailbox, etc.
Advertising, and the larger world of media in general, also has it's downside. From telling you why you need that extra patty on your bun (it's cheaper after all!) to the other extreme of the "fashion" industry.
It all comes down to this though: no one is forcing us to "drive-thru" or starve ourselves, or smoke, drink too much, gorge, puke, -whatever---buy a house beyond our means or any other thing that we do and when it back fires-look for someone to blame!
No company, no commercial, no product no endorsement made me get to the point that I was when I started this change in my life. I GOT ME THERE!
So now I am here. I'm here because I found something that really works. I found something that found something within me....something hovering just below the surface--screaming to get out---a voice that could not be heard through the layers, a sound muffled and shoved deep down beyond the place where I could hear it anymore.
That sound has rhyme and melody. A soothing, yet exhilarating beat like the waves crashing against the rocks. That essence has the sweet smell of the air just after a fresh rain on a warm spring day. A picnic I can share with others; and they with even more beyond my world.
This is what makes the effort worth it after all. The joy of seeing something become so much bigger and greater than oneself.
From Bernbach & Ogilvy to Carnegie & Buffet one thing remains: the best advertising is the one that doesn't have to be created, but rather, born--born from the heart of a great product, a great company and people who have a passion for something beyond themselves.