This weekend’s national ‘ahhhh ‘ story centered around “Jarhead”: the six-month old black bear cub who spent at least the last ten days walking around the Ocala National Forest playing low rent spacebear with a plastic container stuck on his head. Cute as it looks, that jar presented a huge threat since the cub could neither eat nor drink with it in place. Worse, his protective mother was hell bent on hiding him from would-be rescuers. Eventually, authorities did track down the odd little bear family, hit Momma with a tranq gun, and freed the parched little furball.
Of course, since this is ostensibly a marketing related column, metaphoric comparisons between the threat created by the transitional state of our industry and the slowly-suffocating cub spring rapidly to mind. After all, we advertising people have an almost uncanny knack for taking most everything that happens and, in some way, twisting it to be all about us. So, with that in mind, will unbridled consumerism ultimately threaten the American consumer? Can traditional agencies find someone to remove the bottleneck that is choking their ability to price and leverage man-hour intensive new platforms? And doesn’t anyone just stick their head in the sand anymore?
Pick your allegory. But whatever it is, take comfort in the understanding that some tireless, smart people finally intervened and saved young Jarhead, so maybe our industry can find the industrious help we need as well. Like Jarhead, that helps me breathe easier.
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By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Element 79
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I blame the images found in popular culture of bears with their heads stuck in jars. No doubt this cub endured repeated exposure from sources like “Winnie the Pooh.” Now that this photo surfaced, society is supposed to act surprised? This was a time bomb that ticked away for the better part of a century. I only hope someone has the presence of mind to sue the A.A. Milne estate on behalf of the cub.