CEO
Dorsey Pictures
1) The pause in digital advertising spend and a return to more trust in television delivery was a wake up call to those who jumped on the digital bandwagon too early. We’re hearing from numerous advertisers who want sales conversions and have become disillusioned by the digital sales narrative that’s heavy on reaching a consumer base that has no money to spend. Eventually all the platforms will wake up and realize that the most coveted demographic is 55+ because they control 75 percent of the country’s wealth and dominate purchases in most of the import consumer sectors. The biggest lie in media is that the 25-54 demo is all important. The first significant media company to own the 55+ crowd wins.
2) The American dream continues to be redefined and the world view gap between Millennials and Boomers seems to be ever widening. The housing market is an obvious manifestation of that gap. For instance, we continue to see massive interest from those under 40 in the tiny house movement that has broadened to include a wide variety of evolving structures—ranging from custom modified containers to old buses and abandoned cabins. Hence, our hit Tiny House Big Living series on HGTV spawned Tiny Paradise which gave rise to Containables and Bus Live Ever. Millennials and Gen-Z kids crave freedom and mobility and happily trade it for possessions and debt.
3) Messages with heart that awaken what’s best in us and bring us together stand out in a world where our institutions seem both dysfunctional, self serving, and chaotic. Any advertising that can create a personal relationship between a brand and a consumer always stands out and the Ram Trucks’ Super Bowl ad with Paul Harvey, ‘So God Made a Farmer’ stands out as a classic winner.
4) The massive repositioning of retail is and will continue to have profound ramifications on advertising, the overall economy, and how we live. Digital for digital’s sake will be replaced by lifestyle empowerment, community and inspiration through digital. Brands will continue to build their own media presence, cultivate their own communities, and will rely less and less on others to reach their consumers for them.
5) Validates the old axiom that emotion + information = communication…whether it’s a TV series, ad campaign, or a political campaign.
6) We continually experiment with new video and camera technologies that are helping transform the viewer experience. It’s a dynamic field and requires a corporate devotion to continuous improvement.
Review: Writer-Director Aaron Schimberg’s “A Different Man”
Imagine you could wake up one morning, stand at the mirror, and literally peel off any part of your looks you don't like — with only movie-star beauty remaining.
How would it change your life? How SHOULD it change your life?
That's a question – well, a launching point, really — for Edward, protagonist of Aaron Schimberg's fascinating, genre-bending, undeniably provocative and occasionally frustrating "A Different Man," featuring a stellar trio of Sebastian Stan, Adam Pearson and Renate Reinsve.
The very title is open to multiple interpretations. Who (and what) is "different"? The original Edward, who has neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes bulging tumors on his face? Or the man he becomes when he's able to slip out of that skin? And is he "different" to others, or to himself?
When we meet Edward, a struggling actor in New York (Stan, in elaborate makeup), he's filming some sort of commercial. We soon learn it's an instructional video on how to behave around colleagues with deformities. But even there, the director stops him, offering changes. "Wouldn't want to scare anyone," he says.
On Edward's way home on the subway, people stare. Back at his small apartment building, he meets a young woman in the hallway, in the midst of moving to the flat next door. She winces visibly when she first sees him, as virtually everyone does.
But later, Ingrid (Reinsve) tries to make it up to him, coming over to chat. She is charming and forthright, and tells Edward she's a budding playwright.
Edward goes for a medical checkup and learns that one of his tumors is slowly progressing over the eye. But he's also told of an experimental trial he could join. With the possibility — maybe — of a cure.
So... Read More