It’s not everyday you’ll find me agreeing with The New York Times. The review below, however, is spot-on right: the Alister Sims version of A Christmas Carol is not only the standard by which all such efforts should be judged. It is more timely with its message of greed winning out over morality.This time next week, we’ll be wishing one and all Merry Christmas…. Merry Christmas, everyone.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The scrooges at The New York Times have pulled down the embeddable version of this review. You can see it now by clicking here. Restricting access to compelling content is legacy media think that has the Times on the precipice of irrelevance. 

This is half of a Christmas  double-feature at my house every year. What’s the second feature? You’ll have ask my daughter Zuzu. Or, just click the link below to see the sweetest part of that film.

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And, you're only selling a product or service. Right?

Impact is a function of relevance. This one speaks to the spirit in every human, placing beer at the pinnacle of Maslow's hierarchy as an artifact of human actualization. True, it seems a stretch when your left-brain takes over and thinks about it logically. But, effective advertising sneaks in through the right with intriguing abstract ideas, a sweet treat for the mind. Does your advertising do that?

How long does it take you to figure out what he's talking about? The time taken doing so pry open the door to your right brain to stir your thinking before the left can say, "It's only beer, isn't it?"

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Set aside your politics. Last Tuesday signaled more than a sweeping shift of power in our Capital. It represented an long-predicted turn in social thought.*  Whether you agree or not, the fundamentals are shifting as we enter an age of civic responsibility. 

In her "Open apology to boomers everywhere," Heather Havrilesky speaks from the heart of what's driving this shift, where it's going, and its hopeful outcome. She is an alpha-voice signaling a changing of the guard to those still unaware.

Dismissive head shaking won't reverse this sea change any more than salmon have turned rivers over centuries of swimming upstream. Pour yourself a big cup of BE REAL and wrap your brain around this watershed moment: we're selling in a new market. Changes in the rules of engagement are profound.

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Opening a book opens your mind, birthing new understandings. I was 14 and the book was The Selling of the President. Joe McGinniss fascinated me with how Richard Nixon was packaged, presented, and sold.  I came to understand that the world is a series of marketing propositions. Barack Obama must have read the same book.

Obama's not only President-Elect, but Advertising Age Magazine's Marketer of the Year, beating out Apple, Nike, Coors, and, of course, John McCain. (The Arizona Senator came in  6th.) Al Ries wonders why more advertisers don't look at Obama's victory for clues to their own success.

Ries and Jack Trout authored the seminal work on modern branding, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind and later wrote the timeless, 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. Chances are if you're reading this, you've read both; if not, make a point to do so.

Obama's branding success is built on three basic principles: Simplicity, Consistency, Relevance.

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