The band is Middle Class Rut (also known as MC Rut). They are a Sacramento alternative rock duo consisting of a vocalist/guitarist and a vocalist/drummer. The song is “New Low.” Awesome song. I first heard these guys on a local show months ago while driving home after dropping my mother off one Sunday. In the [...]
October 7, 2010 - 7:55 am
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“In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so.” Immanuel Kant quotes (German Philosopher one of the foremost thinkers of the Enlightenment. 1724-1804) Since Bruce is on leave, I get to drive for a while. I steer clear of [...]
September 27, 2010 - 12:17 pm
Tags: actions today make who i am tomorrow, avoid the gray, believe, black or white, change begins in the head, change takes remarkable effort, character, choosing to be true, Clone, collector of moments, communication, Copy Cat, decision making, desire everything at the same time, difficult to discern good guys from bad guys, enlightened conflict, enlightened people, facts and truth, Fads, fashion, Female Ideas, Fembots, follow the truth, freedom of, ignorance, investing energy when appropriate, is anything back or white anymore, leadership, learning, lessons, life, life is a struggle, life is about making choices, life lessons, Magazine Ads, making changes personally, ordinary people don’t think they are remarkable, perception, power of words, quotations, quotes, randomness of life, relationships, resiliency, respect, responsibility, rodrigo, seek truth, seeking the way of truth, self image issues, shades of gray, small gestures in trivial looking moments, sorting out the truth, strength of character to make change, struggle between energy and indolence, struggle between vitality and decay, Stuff I Like, that i will be tomorrow, this i am today, thomas jefferson, thoughts, trends, trivial moments, trivial moments in bigger life, truth, truth goggles, truth is rarely simple, truth or lies, truth or nothing, words
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Well. (this is how Bruce starts a lot of his posts, and I didn’t want to startle anyone since I’m just “guest-ing”) Is it just me, or are women’s magazines really just ONE magazine with different covers? Granted, there are a few exceptions out there (Oprah readers, just stand down…), but after a week cooped [...]
Owl City “The Bird and the Worm.” The Bird and The Worm – Owl Ci… Ok. This song could possibly be called “part 2 of Fireflies” (because it just sounds like some producer said “hey can we cut out three and ½ minutes of that 7 minute firefly song you wrote and call it something [...]
March 15, 2010 - 11:39 am
Tags: a good idea is a good idea, a scared organization, a swinging organization, accountable decision making, actions today make who i am tomorrow, advertising, Al Ries, alignment, alignment has dimensions, analysis paralysis, apple, architects of fate, astonish people, at some point you are accountable, attitudes and behavior, autonomy, avoiding the business pendulum, behavior, being accountable, being fearless in a room of fear is frustrating, being scared as a leader, being soft in business, big ideas, big ideas are crap, bookending alignment, breaking life decisions down, Business Thoughts, can someone really give 110%, cannot be happy and scared, capacity of the human mind, change begins in the head, change forces prioritizing, change is easier if you simplify, change takes remarkable effort, changed behavior, changing objectives to make change, character, choice between alternatives, choice by numbers, choice cannot be made with statistics alone, communication, complex simplified, consensus, consensus kills ideas, core competency, cowardly decision making, creating desired behavior, cynicism, daniel pink, death is a forever nap, decision making, decision making under uncertainty, decision utility, desired, difficult to manage expectations, disappointment created by expectations, do what is right, doing the right thing, doing the right thing is hard, emotional, employees, employees running scared is bad, encouraging, energy, enlightened conflict, every one is an architect of life, external people get confused, fear, fear of being wrong, fearlessness, fragmentation, functional, functional superiority, generations changing behavior, grounded in what is important, guilt and obligation, hard choices, hard decisions, heightening value in life choices, hiding behind statistics, i like numbers, I think opinions, ideas, ideas in any shape and size are good, immutable laws, inability to manage expectations, incentives, inefficient crevasses in an organization, informing a decision, innovation, iPad, iphone, iPod, isolating variables using statistics, Jack Trout, judgement, judgment is not easy, juggling versus balancing, knowing what is right is not enough, knowledge, kodak, lack of alignment, lack of responsibility, lazy decision making, leadership, leadership split, learning, lessons, letting go is difficult, letting go is not simple, life, life formulas, life is not as simple as it seems, life lessons, logical decision making, Macintosh, maintain autonomy, making changes personally, making the hard choice, management, management by exception, marbles on a table, marketing, maybe life is not that complicated, moral fiber, motivation, no ideas, no substitute for judgment, not all big ideas are good ideas, numbers are facts, numbers are facts crap, numbers are facts nonsense, numbers are not accountable, numbers can play a role, numbers have a role, numbers show possibilities, numbers will confess anything, obligation to do, obligation to do the right thing, ordinary people don’t think they are remarkable, organization not aligned, organizational, organizational marbles, organizations, performance, perspective can help with the complex, prioritizing actions, prioritizing what is right or wrong, productivity, providing perspective, purposeful fragmentation, quotations, quotes, reason to believe, relationships, renovation, renovator, resiliency, respect, responsibility, right is right, running a business, safe, say it is happening when it isn’t, say that something is happening when it is, scared, sharp insights are best, simplicity in life, simplifying to make choices easier, smallest actions contribute, soft choices, statistical decision theory, statistics, statistics cannot make the decision for you, statistics getting in the way of a good decision, strategy, strength of character to make change, Stuff I Like, swallowing nonsense, tactics, that i will be tomorrow, the answers are within you, the numbers told me what to do, the organizational crack, this i am today, torture numbers, torturing numbers, truth, truth and expectations, truth is what really happened, unclear leader, understanding what you do as an organization, unfocused leaders, using data out of fear, vision, want to share ownership of an idea, wasted energy worrying, what I know opinions, woefully inadequate data, words
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So. In 1993 a pretty smart couple of guys wrote a book called The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (the smart guys were Al Ries and Jack Trout). Here are the first two of The 22 Immutable Laws: 1. It is better to be first than it is to be better. 2. If you can’t [...]
January 16, 2010 - 3:18 pm
Tags: addictive, album, band, dance, Emily Haines, fantasies, help I'm alive, metric, modern, music, new wave, recommendation, rock, song
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Metric is an indie pop rock group from Canada led by singer-songwriter Emily Haines. Their music is best described as a mix between new wave and modern dance rock. Suffice it to say it is energetic. The band’s sound is glammed-up 4/4 synth rock, with songs within songs and complex rhythm changes. “The idea is, [...]
I subscribed to trendwatching.com for two straight years at my last company. We wasted the opportunity to appropriately use the information as a company, but I personally used the information throughout client and company experience all the time. Incredibly interesting, forward-thinking consumer trend information that is delivered in interesting sound bite fashion. While I highly [...]
January 15, 2010 - 10:34 am
Tags: about marketing truths, actions today make who i am tomorrow, affecting people’s conflict behavior, aligning generational attitude and technology and consumer trends, attitudes and behavior, broadcast, building character, business, Business Thoughts, challenge, change begins in the head, change forces prioritizing, change takes remarkable effort, character, christianity, christians, church, communication, conflict and people, content dissemination trends, conversations, convincing people to buy shit they don’t need, created truths, creating interest, creating the next generation of thinkers, creating the next generation of thinkers using the web, crowd clout, crowds providing unsolicited feedback, curiosity is the enemy of ignorance, decision making, developing cross cultural skills, developing minds of next generation of thinkers, developing social and emotional competencies, discipline, discovery, education, education to enlighten, encouraging curiosity, encouraging understanding of choices, enlightened conflict, ethical advertising, evil in marketing, exploration not ROI, extremism, fabricate unimportant truths, facebook, failure of imagination, finding what is possible from impossible, finding your way is tough, freedom of choice, generation of measurement, generational ideation, global collaboration, global respect, god, having moral and ethical substance, ignorance, ignorance is the enemy, imagination, influencers are still influencers, influencing purchases, insights, insights are about truth, insights don’t exploit, intrusive and annoying, is marketing evil, islam, it has become uncool to do simple things in business, leadership, learning, lessons, life, life is a winding road, life lessons, making the simple complicated, making unimportant important, marketing, marketing has an image issue, marketing people are responsible, marketing’s ethical compass, maslow and marketing, maslow needs, measuring generational attitudes, measuring generational behavior, measuring global education, meeting the challenges of concentration, more honest online, most people cannot recognize simple solutions, most things in life are not black or white, muslims, no one believes in simplicity anymore, online friends, only few find the way, organizational, organizations, predictions, project global generation, pursuing the way, quality versus quantity online, quotes, rare to make complicated simple, religion, research, respect, respect for individual choice, responsibility, ROI versus imagination, rules, self actualization, selling truth, simplicity has gone the way of the dodo, simplicity takes remarkable effort, six impossible things before breakfast, social media, strategy, strength of character to make change, strip away the undoable and identify the doable, Stuff I Like, substance versus style, success of ROI, telling the truth, telling the truth in marketing is hard, telling the truth is not impossible, that i will be tomorrow, the absence of truth, the best interest of the people, the responsibility in marketing, there are a lot of insights, thinking, thinking impossible things, thinking is good, this i am today, truth, truth in marketing, truth should be simple, twitter triumph of humanity, unethical advertising, unimportant truths, use your imagination, using truth to deceive, values
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(note: kicking ass for now) I am not a theologian nor particularly religiously knowledgeable. However Christianity, and its role around the world, is very important to a number of people I care about and respect. Through work and some friendships I have been on the periphery of the religious discussion and Christianity’s place in today’s [...]
January 15, 2010 - 9:31 am
Posted in Business Thoughts | No comments
I can be hired. My first priority is insuring my mother is completely settled and moving in with this portion of her life but I now have more flexibility to work on some projects. With that said feel free and contact me at bruce@brucemctague.com if interested in any of these things: Presentations on any topic [...]
January 14, 2010 - 11:54 am
Tags: a business consultant, account management in ad agencies, action and consequences, advertising, affecting organization thru actions, agency, alignment, architects of fate, be still in midst of activity, brand, brand ambassadors, builders versus renovators, building a culture, business, Business Thoughts, character, chemistry, client, client services, communication, company of adventurers, corporate values, creating positive touchpoints, david ogilvy, decision making, depth of character to face everyday life, Don Perkins, dynamic beyond our own purposes, employees, employees have ability to create impressions, events are meant to be commanded not feared, every one is an architect of life, fairness, fun, GSD&M, leaders and character, leaders are still and active, leaders have strength of character, leadership, learning, lessons, life, life lessons, luke sullivan, managing people to be successful in life and business, managing perceptions, managing transitional moments, marketing, one foot in history one foot in future, organizations, partner, partnership, quotations, quotes, relationships, respect, responsibility, restless consistency, roy spence, seek out events without fear, smallest actions contribute, strategy, Stuff I Like, transformational people, truth, unique person in an ad agency, vibrantly alive in repose, what we are seeking explanations, wisdom, words
Posted in Business Thoughts, Favorite Quotes, Stuff I Like | No comments
I have been fortunate throughout my career in advertising agencies to not only have worked with many really smart people but also to have heard some really smart things. What I love about advertising people is that they typically find simple ways to say some complex thoughts (except people in account service, who typically use [...]
