Call of Duty, Influencers, and Jay-Z.

As per usual, a blog of random thoughts...aren't those the best kind?

I scowered the Internet for approximately 90 seconds to verify the validity of the following ad. It's for the video game, Call of Duty: Black Ops.  If you don't know what Call of Duty is,  then unlock the zipper on your bubble and find out for yourself.

This ad, however, is legitimate:



Yes, because war and violence should be this fun and casual.  Stressed because you didn't get that promotion at work? Pick up an M-16 assault rifle and start sniping.  Getting picked on in school?  Grab that shotgun, fire a few rounds, and feel empowered.  Kids obviously don't look up to Kobe Bryant, watch him religiously on TV, or buy his jersey in droves.  Of course it's okay to show him firing a couple rounds of ammo at a guy wearing a throwback USC OJ Simpson jersey.  You know, because OJ deserves it.

I watched a slick mini-documentary called Influencers: How Trends and Creativity become Contagious. I put a link to it on my Twitter, but here's another link here.  Just some real cool cats talking about creativity, and how ideas and trends becomes popular.  In the doc, New York is spoken of as an important beacon of influence and creativity.  There's so much networking of interesting minds in NYC, yet also a maintenance of independence which creates an essential balance and formula to make things happen.  Makes Winnipeg seem kinda lame.  I feel like there's so much restriction with creativity within the city, (the MLCC and their guidelines on advertising being one example), that I think most of us don't even know how much potential we really have.

Someone in the doc mentions Jay-Z as being an iconic influencer.  I agree 100 percent.  Jay's the man.  If he ever came to Winnipeg, I'd drop an easy $200 to see him live.  No questions asked.  He has a firm grip on the pulse of everything essentially cool.  Which is sort of interesting, because most historical icons, such as Bob Dylan,  Jack Keroauc, and Marlon Brando, to name only a few, were cool, but didn't try to be.  It was just natural.  I'm not saying that Jay doesn't have that natural ability to be cool, because he does. It's just that every aspect of his public existence is put together with precision and purpose.  From what he wears, to how he wears it, is scrutinized and planned.  And it works.  It's still credible to both the boardroom executive and the street corner hustler.