Check out the article here.

Let me know your thoughts… I am not sure how I feel about this right now. Ferris Bueller was my favorite “sick day” movie growing up so I love a good flash back, just not sure if I was ready for this extreme branding.

Content will also include polls and quizzes.

With Social TV like this, the whole concept of “couch potato” may need to be revamped!

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-Don Strickland, ex VP of Kodak Digital Imaging.

The humbled and understandably remorseful former executive told Bloomberg TV earlier today what the CEO doesn’t seem to have the stomach to below… After a storied, centurial history, Kodak is going out of business.

The real Kodak that is, the American company we all know and remember. In Mr. Perez’s words they’re using “Chapter 11 processes” and “restructuring.” There is truth to that of course. Certain of Kodak’s profitable business units in digital imaging, namely in Europe, will remain. So technically there will still be some semblance of Kodak, somewhere. But the photo company that left an indelible mark on the lives of nearly every single American in the 20^th century will soon be gone.

“Kodak… was the company we entrusted our most treasured possession to – our memories,” Robert Burley, a photography professor at Toronto’s Ryerson University, told TIME.

Kodak was the pioneer in film. Everyone knows that. What most probably don’t know (what I was very surprised to learn myself this morning) is that they also invented the first ever digital camera. In 1975. They put it on the shelf because it stood to threaten their extremely lucrative business they had built around film.

The company never pursued their own industry-altering innovation until decades later. At which time they were already too late, unable to compete with the likes of Canon and Nikon. Those companies were quick to adapt, able to part ways with the past and embrace digital, around the turn of the century.

And so friends, after 130 years a real American brand has died (and there aren’t many left). A titan has fallen. Now is a moment to remember. A moment to learn lessons. A moment to, dare I say it, mourn. Those of us in entertainment, advertising, and many others owe Kodak an irreparable debt and should remember them fondly.  What we do would not be possible without what they did.

We won’t postulate on the why. Neither the time nor the place. Suffice it so say Kodak was trapped in the glimmer of nostalgia. Now let’s make sure the rest of us are not.

No, you probably didn’t need to know that one million babies are born in the amount of video runtime uploaded to YouTube every 63 seconds, and it might frighten you that the Sahara Desert expands 5,000 feet for every 96 YouTube seconds (I know I’m not the only one frightened by large deserts). What you should know, however, is the amazing raw stat at the crux of this whole exercise: one hour of video is uploaded to Google’s digital video empire every second of real time.

For a lot of TV networks and other traditional content distributors, that is scarier than expanding deserts (cmon… nobody?)

Inspired by Donna Karan and her Urban Zen Foundation, Aisle C partnered with filmmakers Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke to produce the film. Sundance predicts Escape Fire is “destined to be hailed as a definitive film on American healthcare.”

A look at our medical symbols shed a powerful light on the impetus behind the documentary film. The “caduceus”, an image of a rod wrapped in two intertwined snakes and topped with wings, is widely associated with healthcare. The caduceus was the trusted staff of Hermes – the god of war and protector of merchants and thieves – and by origin represents commerce, not medicine.

This symbol is widely used by commercial healthcare organizations, notably the pharmaceutical industry and the U.S. government.

What we see in our healthcare system today is, sadly, well represented by the caduceus symbol. The words caducity and caducous are associated with temporality, frailty and perishability, while the medical profession should espouse longevity, vitality and health.

Escape Fire hopes to shed light on these weaknesses and evolve the discussion around healthcare, to bring about “high-touch, low-cost, preventive methods of healing into our high-tech, costly system”. The filmmakers aim to bring our focus onto healthcare, not disease-management, and to patients instead of profits.

Sundance Film Festival’s senior programmer David Courier touches on the immediacy of the film’s message, saying “I think Washington needs to see this film, desperately.”

To help support our work please Like us at Facebook, visit The Website and watch the Trailer.

To learn more about Escape Fire:

1. The 10 Most Anticipated

2. Sundance’s Heart with 99%

3. 10 Hot Docs to Watch

We can do it!

It’s not often that I’ll butt heads with the masterminds behind Harvard Business Review’s blog. I’m aware that it’s not a recommended move, but armed with insight from a recent FCC panel debate on SOPA, I’m willing to take the risk.

I had the privilege of attending a panel discussion and dinner hosted by Digital Hollywood in NYC focused on the FCC, Media and Government Initiatives. While the title didn’t sound like the typical topic interest for someone from a creative agency, my background in business strategy and compliance gave me some interest in figuring out exactly where our work at OgilvyEntertainment is intersecting with the legal system. Much of the evening was spent discussing spectrum availability, access to universal broadband and finally the proposed legislation of SOPA.

The esteemed panel included:

-       Steven Waldman, Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis, FCC

-       Josh Gottheimer, Senior Counselor, FCC

-       Susan Crawford, Professor at Cardozo Law School, former FCC Transition Team Leader

-       Bruce Gottlieb, General Counsel, Atlantic Media Company, former, Chief Counsel, FCC

-       Adam Thierer, Senior Research Fellow, George Mason University, former President, The Progress & Freedom Foundation.

What the panel communicated was the idea that SOPA (and in turn PIPA) will go beyond simply targeting piracy sites and will “deputize” sites like YouTube and Facebook to enforce the law and restrict content that may infringe on copyright laws. While many in the audience were concerned about what that meant for smaller sites hosting content – the fact that their IP addresses could be de-listed and simply inaccessible – my concern was with the future of user generated content.

While I’m on the same side of the argument with HBR, that SOPA and PIPA as they’re currently drafted don’t work in a society based heavily in First Amendment rights, HBR’s blog states that the “real SOPA battle” is between Goliaths and Innovators; with the Goliaths including the likes of Disney, L’Oreal and Ford and the Innovators being championed by Google, Wikipedia and Twitter. They go on to state “SOPA is a legislative attempt by big companies with vested interests to protect their downside”.

The week that I attended the Digital Hollywood dinner, I was fortunate enough to have watched a beautifully illustrated POV from Jonathan Mildenhall and Coca Cola. The piece, entitled Content 2020, underlines the idea that brands must move from one-way storytelling through advertising to dynamic storytelling and that much of the contribution to the story is from consumers.

Coca Cola is a Goliath. Coca Cola is an Innovator. And they’re not the only one that holds both of these titles. There are so many compelling reasons for brands to embrace user generated content that there is little argument nowadays on the topic.

I raised my hand in the session after we had some debate on the technical implications, and after a brief apology for changing the course of the dialogue, I asked what this meant for creative strategies and specifically user generated content that infringes on copyrighted material. Professor Crawford informed me that there would be a general understanding of which brands would be “likely plaintiffs” and that the biggest offenders would be the main targets rather than individual consumers. While this makes sense in theory, with millions of brands and billions of users generating content, how do we draw the line between copyright infringement and consumer content creators?  Furthermore, if we are deputizing sites like YouTube and Facebook to enforce these laws, how do we ensure that there is a consistent interpretation of the rules?

Brands need user-generated content.

Nearly 64% of respondents surveyed had watched a user-generated video review, and more than three-quarters of that group said it helped them make a purchase decision—either for or against a product or brand. 81.3% listed the ability to see the product in action as their favorite thing about video reviews. (Internet Retailer, June 2010). 

Consumers want user-generated content.

56% of UK website owners say that user-generated content lifts conversion levels; 77% say it increases traffic; and 42% say it increases the average spend on site.(eConsultancy survey, November 2008).

Innovative brands (yes, sometimes even Goliath brands) incorporate it into their marketing strategy as an earned or owned media value.

User Generated Content is a key to long tail user engagement. (Internet Retailer, June 2010.)

Until we can more accurately define the line between copyright infringement and consumer content creators, SOPA won’t float.