I received an email and spent 10 minutes talking to Bill Kelman the director of the Ad that I blogged below: he was happy to have his reply up on the site, and I think his reply is a good, balanced one.

Dear John,

I’m sorry that I offended you with my Geico spec spot. I’m not sure if you understood the context in which it was made. The spot was done as a spec spot and not authorized by anyone at Geico. Spec spots are done as part of a director’s sample reel to get other work. There’s a tacit understanding by companies when new director’s use their brand for sample spots. I’ve even made a spec spot that I sold to company.

We did this spot because Geico had been doing a US campaign that took certain types of television shows, sucked you in by making you think you were watching a Bay Watch type show or an infomercial then having the character interrupt and pitch Geico insurance. Most probably it did not play in Sweden. In this spot we wanted to make you think you were watching an actual CNN report.

So far it does indeed play very well for US and have gotten some great comments as well a one or two that said it was tasteless, including one production company in NYC that is repping me. They just took it off my reel which was fine by me. I’ve played it for creative directors, copywriters, etc and it always gets a laugh, albeit a dark, naughty laugh. I’ve even had a website or two and several cell phone content companies want to license it from me, although I can’t for obvious reasons.

My feeling about Osama Bin Laden and the tragedy of 9/11 is that we are giving a terrorist way too much power over our lives and thoughts. Osama Bin Laden and his ilk were made by the US because of our policies. That being said, our government has opened up a hornet’s nest. Do we let Osama Bin Laden haunt us and give him any power over our lives? Of course not. He is the devil and if we can and should laugh at him. In the spot he’s selling out as a pitch man. In reality, he sold out his people by giving the west reasons to hate.

Anyways, John, I’m sorry you misinterpreted our intent on this spot and thought that this was a real spot. That ultimately is the intent of doing sample spec spots, making you believe it’s a real spot. If you’d like, you can check out my reel at www.billkelman.com I think you’ll get a few laughs from my work. I’m a firm believer in new media, virals, etc and as a new guy, getting attention is what it is all about.

Please stay in touch and likewise, I will do the same.

Sincerely,

Dear John,

I’m sorry that I offended you with my Geico spec spot. I’m not sure if you understood the context in which it was made. The spot was done as a spec spot and not authorized by anyone at Geico. Spec spots are done as part of a director’s sample reel to get other work. There’s a tacit understanding by companies when new director’s use their brand for sample spots. I’ve even made a spec spot that I sold to company.

We did this spot because Geico had been doing a US campaign that took certain types of television shows, sucked you in by making you think you were watching a Bay Watch type show or an infomercial then having the character interrupt and pitch Geico insurance. Most probably it did not play in Sweden. In this spot we wanted to make you think you were watching an actual CNN report.

So far it does indeed play very well for US and have gotten some great comments as well a one or two that said it was tasteless, including one production company in NYC that is repping me. They just took it off my reel which was fine by me. I’ve played it for creative directors, copywriters, etc and it always gets a laugh, albeit a dark, naughty laugh. I’ve even had a website or two and several cell phone content companies want to license it from me, although I can’t for obvious reasons.

My feeling about Osama Bin Laden and the tragedy of 9/11 is that we are giving a terrorist way too much power over our lives and thoughts. Osama Bin Laden and his ilk were made by the US because of our policies. That being said, our government has opened up a hornet’s nest. Do we let Osama Bin Laden haunt us and give him any power over our lives? Of course not. He is the devil and if we can and should laugh at him. In the spot he’s selling out as a pitch man. In reality, he sold out his people by giving the west reasons to hate.

Anyways, John, I’m sorry you misinterpreted our intent on this spot and thought that this was a real spot. That ultimately is the intent of doing sample spec spots, making you believe it’s a real spot. If you’d like, you can check out my reel at www.billkelman.com I think you’ll get a few laughs from my work. I’m a firm believer in new media, virals, etc and as a new guy, getting attention is what it is all about.

Please stay in touch and likewise, I will do the same.

Sincerely,

As a professional speaker, as well as coach, I use viral video and commercials. I was appalled by a viral video from Geico car insurance, a subsiduary of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, this morning. At first, it seems to be the kind of easy satire of the type that Letterman and Leno like to go with: an Osama Bin Laden lookalike promising “Death to America” while also claiming he saved “a whole bunch of money by switching to Geico” with a deprecating wink…

Ok, nothing really to laugh about, but offensive? After so many examples of this particular genre most would file it under D for Dull.

So why am I so worked up? Well, the agency who made this for Geico used a CNN ticker frame, and put in the feed the headline “5 marines killed in ambush outside Kabul” — which is really NOT, and I mean NOT, acceptable. Some controversy is good; even bad publicity; but expecting the US public to buy insurance when the Marine Corp and their men and women are misused might just be a PR disaster.

It certainly honors no-one, or I am out of step here?

Is the headline a real one? No, thank God. As far as a quick Google News search shows. If I am wrong then Geico is in real trouble. However, given the recent helicopter crash of May 6th the fact that no-one thought to scrap it makes the timing horrid. So, if not real, someone thought this up as a device. Great. I, for one, do not accept any claim that it was meant to add realism, or establish mood, or that it was meant to only mildly offend, or to remind of us the reality of the situation, of who knows what, is not a plausible excuse for a major INSURANCE company: what is your definition of acceptable risk?

Tony Nicely, CEO, and a lifetime career builder at Geico is on record saying after Geico lost 25% of their customer base in the 1970s through financial mismanagement that reputation and ethical behaviour are paramount. Geico has down a fantastic job at rebranding; the gekko logo is instantly recogniseable. This viral video is, in my mind, a huge error: if a large syndicated newsfeed picks it up then there could be reprocussions from middle America switching to MidAmerica.

Questions:
Who approved this, and then didn’t scream at the agency on the first viewing?
Who thought such bad taste to the memory in the news ticker would add realism?
Are 13-14yr olds the target for insurance buyers?
Who is out of step here?

The video was found at The Spec Spot.com

I have emailed Berkshire Hathaway and await a reply…

Bill O’Brien, the long-time CEO of Hanover Insurance, had a powerful strategy for combining learning and leadership. O’Brien observed that the calendars of many CEOs are divided into 15- to 30-minute increments, and their days may contain 10 to 20 meetings. “If there are issues that can be resolved in 15 minutes,” he asked, “why am I spending time on them? Those are exactly the issues that people should be dealing with at more local levels.” The solution was to spend less time in brief meetings and more time talking with people about learning organizations, about spirit and shared vision, about understanding interdependencies and business innovation. When he had executive meetings, they typically ran one to two days, to “wrestle, together, with complex, divergent issues that plagued local decision makers.” The outputs were often not decisions per se, but “better ways to frame key strategic dilemmas and help people understand short- versus long-term trade offs.”

After more than 20 years of service, during which time Hanover went from the bottom to the top quartile of the property and liability industry, O’Brien concluded that real organizational transformation is a journey few understand. “Everybody always buys into the ideas,” he told me. “After a while you start to wonder, if everybody wants to be part of an organization with shared vision, openness, and continual learning, why is it not the reality?”

He concluded that people have no idea of what it takes to lead such an organization. He discovered that to be an effective leader in a true learning organization you have to be willing to “continually give up your most cherished mental models.” You need to be willing to give up what’s made you effective in the past. Very few of us are.

Perhaps the most difficult mental models to give up concern the very nature of executive leadership. O’Brien said it was a big year if he made three decisions — and two of them were usually personnel-related, decisions that he was the only person in the organization able to make. “It’s not about making decisions,” says O’Brien. “If do a good job of understanding tough issues and clarifying and disseminating our principles, good decisions can be made throughout the organization.”

The above was written by Peter Senge in 1996 - it is more true than ever - leaders and managers need to give themselvese permission to give time to developing a vision, and making it real, and so prove what authentic leadership is.

There seems to be something moving through the decade - the more I analyze the literature and the authors the more I see the theme of empowerment - I am thinking in particular of the impact of “It’s your ship - managment techniques from the best damn ship in the Navy” by D Michael Abrashoff, and “Breaking the Mould” by Peter A Hunter. Both books are about stories of ordinary people who suddenly got it - they were given the chance to make their own decisions and became successful as a result- they did not destroy the organization they were working for - rather real money, and real progress was made - both books are truly inspirational in a way that many business books are not and should be checked out.

The central question here is one raised by Hertzberg in the 1950s and Greenleaf: do people need to be bullied and pushed in order to work well, or given true responsibility and trusted do they bloom? Sounds Utopian? A little. But great companies recruit great people then crush them; and there has to be a better way. Careful empowerment - where the people like boiling frogs do not notice the change, or rather grow acclimatized to it - is a good approach. This, of course, raises the question of how. Both the above books are practical tales of how.

This feels like a good day - Jonathan Morgan of Lookscankill.org has done a great job at listening about pictures and ideas and contributing. As I know move on with the new site I hope you will leave a comment of your opinion on the contact page - a huge thanks to all those who have made this site possible: to those who have contributed logos, photos, and advice; as well as the review panel. I am please with it; I think it is intelegant: simple, intelligent, elegant; and I hope that as the site grows with resources and media it will keep true to the Way Of Intelegant and keep it clear…