Yeah, we've put all our trust in Theo Epstein and co, even though the team itself is pretty weird.
It's going to take some getting used to, with the names and everything.
And with all the outfielders, for instance, how long is Marlon Byrd going to hang til he's traded... it's going to be a long and dramatic change, and you just hope it really turns out right.
Because like I said, I put all my trust in Theo.
Still not much going on so I thought I'd share another ad story.
About trust.
Did you know that a million years ago, when I was a baby art director, that they used to hand paint most of the billboards along the highway?
Yeah, they hadn't figured out how to make giant prints yet.
You'd have your art illustrated or photographed, send a small version of the art to maybe a hundred billboard painting places around the country, and they'd give that to their artists.
Somehow they knew how to paint it HUGE.
So this senior team sells a billboard to an alcoholic beverage company - it was their brandy.
This is basically the layout (without the headline):
A skiing couple at the top of a snowy hill, the brandy's label really huge in the snow, and the couple would have to ski over to get to a little cottage.
The headline read, "You're just a (product name) away from a perfect day."
So, pretty awful.
Anyway, I happened to be in the big meeting when this thing got sold (I was wearing a tie and my job was to play the a cd with mood music when they presented the television).
This was a very important new client.
Before they bought, they asked about the production of the billboards.
An account guy says, "We only work with the finest billboard painting companies across the country, and we'll send an art director to each one to personally inspect their work."
After the meeting, my creative director tells me I'm gonna be that guy and spend the next two and a half weeks flying or driving to roughly 2 states per day to inspect.
I can make this story go on for pages because it involved vomiting, ghosts, being lost, a travel planner who hated me, fear, crying, and learning alot about human beings... but I'll just tell you about the very first place I went.
Well I would if I could remember the name of the town.
I flew to Dubuque, Iowa, rented a car and drove for an hour to this small town where the billboard painting company was.
It's the size of an airplane hangar, because inside they're gonna be painting giant versions of the little billboard I'm carrying around.
I walk into the little office part up front, lets say the company was called "Harris Billboards".
There's one of those little signs in the lobby that you might see at a funeral - chrome stand and frame around black felt sign with removable little white letters so you can spell anything.
It says, "Welcome Tim Souers!"
I look up and there's a woman behind a desk, beaming at me.
"Hang on!" she says and disappears through a doorway.
When she comes back, there are 4 people with her and they all line up in front of me.
The boss guy says, "Welcome to Harris Billboards." and gives me a turquoise T-Shirt with their logo on it.
When I feel weird, I always imagine lighting myself on fire, so right about now my whole head is aflame.
The boss introduces everyone and then says, "Now, let me introduce you to our artist. (yells over his shoulder) JEREMY!"
A gangly 17 year old high school senior comes in, shakes my hand.
And now all my alarms are going off, like maybe I shoulda never trusted the account guy who said, "finest billboard painting companies in the country".
We walk into the back room, and the billboard (he's doing 3 or 4, but here's the finished one) is up on a scaffold with ladders and stuff all around, and it looked like this:
So this kid's hormones were obviously going crazy, because he took the view of the woman and changed it so we could now see the profile of a 20' breast in a sweater thin enough to feature a nipple sticking out that was bigger than my head.
He was so proud!
He couldn't wait for me to tell him how much he'd improved this layout.
Which is exactly what I did.
"Dude, you totally made the woman EXACTLY HOW IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE!"
This kid is so happy!
Then I look around the room like there might be spies.
"But here's the deal. The brandy company is going to surprise inspect a number of these billboards too. Might be right behind me, I don't know. They see that I didn't do my job, I can get fired and my agency might never use you guys again."
I watched him think that through and come to his own sad conclusion.
"Okay, I'll make it like the art you sent us."
The entire crew came outside and waved as I drove away.
So there you go, a little time waster story.
Not using this as an example for Theo, it's just the way this story went.
Thanks for visiting.
