I’m not a big fan of the cameras in camera-phones, but since it was a beautiful –and very important–morning, I took this while standing in line to vote. As any photographer knows, sometimes the subject compensates for the bad camera or cameraman.

Today was my opportunity to vote for the first time in the U.S. As a new immigrant, this is indeed an exciting day for me. Too many people tend to take voting for granted. It annoys me that people complain about the long lines outside voting booths, but have no problems spending as much time in a queue at Starbucks. The line this morning at Starbucks was much, much shorter, so one hopes that some of that lost traffic was queuing up elsewhere…

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Take a closer look at this picture.

London Bloggers Annie Mole (at London Blogger Underground) links to a story about creative vandalism.

London Bloggers seem to form a community, as you can see fromthis site.

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Ad Rants featured this story on Jeep.

Like Ikea, Adidas, and several other advertisers who have got it –that engaging your brand is more powerful than a bland ad– Jeep took product demonstration to new heights, as you can see from this photograph.

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It’s nice to hear a new blogger reflect on the business of PR and blogging. Michael O’Connor Clarke of Mansfield Communications makes an important point about marketing Communations. Referring to Cluetrain’s Doc Searls’ line that ‘markets are conversations’ he has this to say about why blogging hapens.

So marketers should be conversationalists. Explains why so many PR pros have ventured into blogspace. We’ve come here looking for the conversations – and hoping to start some.

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Interesting how British advertising seems to be going off in a direction that is a no-no in the U.S.
Take this ad for Amstrad’s videophone. Shows how to make a serious product in an age of cameraphones look interesting, by focusing on the unexpected benefit of a videophone. Viewer discretion advised!

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Unlike the official campaign sites, which are still stuck in the nineties, the sites urging people to get out the vote seem to have got it.

November2.Org does a good job of making the act of voting sound urgent, and interesting.

“Set the alarm early and loud. Wake the nation. Fill the car with neighbors. Drive to the polls. This is it. Now is here. We decide” says one ad

Other sites such as RockTheVote.Org and CitizenChange.Com featuring P. Diddy and Maya, are more provocative. (T-shirts have ‘Vote or Die’ slogans.) However, they take on even boring topics like ‘know your voting rights’ etc with captions such as “KNOW YOUR SHI*T”

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MarketingPower.com the Web site of the American Marketing Association, featured this quote from Jeremy Bullmore yesterday
Who’s he? First read the quote:

“Consumers build an image [of a brand] as birds build nests. From the scraps and straws they chance upon.”
Jeremy Bullmore

Then, consider this from another heavyweight:

“Brands are out of juice.”
Kevin Roberts

Bullmore was the former chairman of J. Walter Thompson Co.
And Kevin Roberts? Chairman/CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi.

Parting quote:

For the poor ad agency clients, it’s like when you were a child and went to the doctor’s. There was the nasty doctor who just shoved foul-tasting medicine down your throat. Then there was the nice doctor who empathised with your anxiety regarding the foul taste and had a nice sugar cube handy for you. Either way, you still got the same old medicine.
Mark Wnek

Tomorrow, a quote from (Sir) Martin Sorrell.

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