Does This Work on You?

There are moments when I actually think that maybe my 22 years of education do have relevance in my work life. After all, I spend most of my time writing. I've had the opportunity to use a liberal studies background to promote a liberal studies masters program. And lately, I've been able to play a poor man's Christopher Guest and produce mockumentary videos for clients.

But then I go to cnn.com and see the banner ad above, and all my thinking about the state of 21st century communication, the graphics on the evolution of "brand" that I throw out at meetings, my careful thoughts on how to keep the high school yearbook relevant in the era of Facebook... fly into the irrelevance void, because THIS is what actually works on people.

What I don't understood--and I remember starting to feel this way sometime in the 80s when Budweiser launched its Spuds McKenzie campaign--is how I can't seem to convince a drowning man to put on a life jacket, while apparently other people can sit in a meeting with people who make 10 times their annual salaries and blow them away with, "Okay, here it is... a man and woman with really big heads!"

Wait a minute, less than $1,498 a month?