Think Multicultural

One afternoon last week I was sitting at my desk in the office, pissed off and stressed, trying to figure out how to un-fu@# something that somebody else had royally messed up. As I sat there stewing and fuming, I heard a voice come just outside my office next to the elevator.

“Man, I wish I had your job!”

I looked out the door and saw a regular looking guy standing there smiling at me. “You do?” I asked. I was about ready to give it to him.

“Yeah, man, it’s hot out there. I work on the roof. I’m fixing the roof.”

I realized that although I thought I was miserable and stressed and stewing, he saw me sitting in a comfortable chair with my feet up on the desk in an air conditioned office. Which was a pretty accurate description, it turns out.

Suddenly I wasn’t so miserable. Although the guy’s English wasn’t perfect, he was clearly a sharp guy and not so different from me, except that he was putting tar on the roof in hot, humid weather, and I was sitting in my comfy chair in my office.

Kind of made it hard to feel sorry for myself.

I work in advertising. Although the clients are occasionally annoying and there are some tight deadlines, it’s not life or death. It’s advertising.

It’s also not laying tar on the roof. Next time you’re having a bad day at work, remember the roof guy and smile a little.

Happy Memorial Day. Have a good weekend.

Hey, check out our new logo and page header!

Yesterday, one of our creative directors sent me a Times Online UK article about the new superfast Internet called the grid.

If you haven’t heard about the grid, it is being touted as a replacement to what we currently know today as the Internet. With speeds 10,000x faster than the current Internet, academics at Cern (where the original Internet was developed) anticipate amazing connectivity in the very near future. Researchers say the grid will allow for super-connectivity capabilities including holographic video conferencing, online gaming between thousands at one time, and hyper social networking.

If the the recent pace of Internet technology expansion is any guide (we’re less than 15 years into the history of the Internet), this grid technology has the potential to rapidly and profoundly change the way we live our lives, let alone engage in marketing and advertising.

Isn’t this incredibly exciting?