I love the letter B. When I babysat, and the kids were learning the alphabet, every time we got to the letter B, I would stop, jump up, put my hands above my head and shout, “B is for Brandie.” The kids would giggle and join in the fun. I’m pretty sure that to this day all the kids I babysat for still say that whenever they come across the letter B

With my love for the letter B, I’m always on the lookout for giant ones whenever I am out or traveling. Surprisingly, I always manage to find one.

Although I posted this one to all my other social networks, I’m posting it here too because it’s my absolute favorite. I mean, how can it not be? There’s even B’s in the woman’s skirt! The logo is from a store called Beckley Boutique located in The Cosmopolitan hotel. Sadly, I’m not a fan of much in the store, but I wish I was! I also wish I had thought of this logo before them! I want to use it for my stuff!

While in San Diego, I walked by a very strange looking billboard during the day. An advertisement for Newcastle, the billboard had a tagline and then a ton of what looked like randomly placed bottle caps. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what shape or pattern these bottle caps made. After a few moments, we shrugged our shoulders and kept walking.

Luckily, we passed the billboard again at night. This time, the experience was different. This time, the bottle caps helped to create the shadow of a man reaching for the pint of Newcastle. Very cool. This time, we also noticed a small plaque below the billboard. On the plaque were directions to view the billboard at night. In addition, it contained a QR code to learn more about the making of the billboard, etc.

While the campaign was cool, there were two issues. First, both myself and friend never noticed this plaque during the day. It’s also too small to notice unless you were walking directly by the billboard vs. the other side of the street or driving. But, the worst offender? The QR code. While in theory, great. However, it wasn’t scannable!?!?! I’m not sure if it was because it was too far away (the plaque was offset from the sidewalk behind a fence), if my scanner just wasn’t working or if it really didn’t scan. Luckily, the plaque also contained a URL to (what I assume) was the same content behind the QR code.

The other piece? Besides me, in the fifteen minutes we hung out and watched people stop to check out the billboard, not a single person pulled out their phone to scan the QR code. Maybe they didn’t notice it. Maybe it was a hassle. Or maybe they just didn’t care. Either way, the piece was a great execution in Out-of-Home advertising, but fell a tad short in the digital arena.

How many lines are there?

There’s the first line, the second line, but then there’s a line of negative space that runs between them. See it? 1+1=3. How many times in our lives, careers, thoughts, etc. do we only see the white lines? How many times do we miss the beauty and innovation that’s right in front of our faces?

In marketing, innovation and interactive experiences seem to be the overriding buzzwords. Marketers endlessly struggle with the next “big” thing. We rack our brains, search far and wide and often end up with costly flops. But, what if instead of searching far and wide, we slowed down and looked between the “lines” right in front of our faces? Sometimes, you have to slow down to get ahead. And sometimes, one plus one really does equal three.

Thanks to this post for the inspiration.

Looking back on my posts from last January, I stumbled on this one. I thought it might be fun to update the project with my tweets from 2009. So, here it is, with @replies removed again. Thanks to TweetScan and Wordle for the fun and insights!

Worlde of Tweets from 2008:

Some things, some people, just fit together undeniably. And, no matter how hard you try, you can’t unfit yourselves.

This photo album of pictures from the Neon Sign Graveyard is so amazing that I had to share it here. For obvious reasons, below are a few favorites

Courtesy of Post Secret

I’ve lost some good things in life. Some have been replaced by GREAT things, some haven’t. I hope there’s more great things to come.

Ahhh, the roller coaster of emotions I had this week. Yeah, girls are crazy and fickle. This is clearly proof

Just having fun with a few of my favorite brands. Can you guess what they are?

This week, Director and Writer John Hughes passed away. He directed eight movies and wrote countless scripts. Some include The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Weird Science, Curly Sue, Beethoven and Home Alone. Classic movies, huh? With classics, always come memorable quotes. Here’s a few of my favorites:

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off:
A person should not believe in an ism, he should believe in himself.

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Pretty in Pink:
You said you couldn’t be with someone who didn’t believe in you. Well I believed in you. I just didn’t believe in myself.

Andie, hon. Listen, it’s after 7:00. Don’t waste good lip gloss.

Sixteen Candles:
Would you stop feeling sorry for yourself? It’s bad for your complexion.

When you don’t have anything, you don’t have anything to lose. Right?

That’s why they call them crushes. If they were easy, they’d call them something else.

The Breakfast Club:
You ask me one more question and I’m beating the shit out of you.

We’re all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that’s all.

I could keep going on and on, instead, check out this compilation or get your fill at IMDB.