Advertising award shows are to blame.

You see, no matter what the Academy says, Avatar was this year’s best picture. Think what you will about Avatar’s story being cliché, its dialogue hackneyed and its acting wooden. You’re probably right, but you know what, who cares? Avatar isn’t about nuanced plotlines and performances. It’s a special-effects spectacular – almost three hours of digital 3-D wizardry that created a world unlike anything seen on the big screen before and that let audiences tromp through that world in ways they never imagined.

Avatar worked. Worked until it became the highest grossing film of all time, effectively rewriting the rulebook on 3-D and digital animation. That’s got to be worth something.
In contrast, The Hurt Locker is the lowest grossing Best Picture winner in history, with worldwide theater earnings of around $20 million, compared to Avatar’s $2.5 billion.
Of course, ticket sales don’t matter to the Academy. They’re judging “theatrical art,” and billings aren’t a barometer of Best Picture merit.

Advertising award show judges critique in pretty much the same way. They’re judging “advertising creativity,” so the most unique, shocking and entertaining ads usually take the top prizes, irrespective of the money those ads earned or lost for the companies that ran them.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Often, the most creative advertising is also the most effective, especially in this new age of social media. The ads that creatively capture the public’s attention get seen more, passed along more, and deliver more of a return on an advertiser’s investment.

However, open almost any award show-winner’s book, and you’ll find it chockablock with creative-but-ineffective (or creative-but-fictitious) advertising. Because of this fact, a growing number of advertising agencies are refusing to enter creative award shows. Granted, many of these agencies are refusing to enter for the same reason that the ugly kids in high school “refused” to go to the prom, but it’s still a trend.

There’s a popular, and utterly incorrect, saying in the ad industry that “It isn’t creative if it doesn’t sell.” Lots of creative ads don’t sell. A more accurate adage might be, “If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t advertising.”

Advertising is commercial. The purpose of advertising is to sell products, sell opinions and sell behaviors. If an ad doesn’t sell, it’s flawed at a fundamental level.

This year, I was behind the scenes at a local advertising awards show and watched a panel of judges debate the merits of two different advertising campaigns being considered for “Best of Show” honors. Both campaigns displayed excellent craftsmanship and creativity. Both captivated audiences in their own way, one with humor and the other with emotionally engaging stories. As the debate raged on, one judge mentioned how the emotionally engaging campaign meshed so well with the company’s Web site, which he visited earlier in his hotel room. Another judge agreed with him, having visited the Web site too. Then the judges all had an epiphany: If the one campaign was so compelling that the judges visited the company’s Web site after seeing the ads, maybe it should be the Best of Show. Faced with two “creative” advertising campaigns, maybe the one that sold its product better should win. Go figure.

Both Avatar and The Hurt Locker were commercial films. (The Hurt Locker isn’t art house). Both were artistically brilliant in their own way. However, one film’s “art” captivated the world, while the other’s art captivated critics.

I’m siding with the world on this one.

Granted, I did say that the sponsors would hang in there if there weren’t a large number of further revelations. As we all know, there were. Still, color me wrong.

Which brings us to today. Tiger is back home in Orlando, working on his game. The extremely uncomfortable televised apology is behind him and whatever therapy he was involved in seems to be finished, at least for the time being. I have no idea what shape his marriage is in. It’s none of my business anyway. For me, and for golf fans everywhere, the question now is…when? When will he return to the PGA Tour? Jack Nicklaus says he’d be surprised if Tiger doesn’t play in the Masters, but that looks like speculation on his part. He doesn’t seem to have any inside information.

I hope he’s back for Augusta. But even if he isn’t, he has said that he will be back eventually. When that day comes, I believe some brands will have an opportunity – and a big decision to make. Tiger’s bag used to carry the AT&T logo. If you’re the CMO for Sprint or Verizon, do you make a deal to put your logo there in its place? Gatorade’s gone away. If you control Powerade’s marketing, do you approach the world’s No. 1 golfer about a relationship that will utilize him to stick it to your larger rival? Accenture’s ads now feature real wild animals instead of Tiger. Lots of people age 35-64 with financial portfolios that need managing still watch golf. Do you tie your brand to Tiger?

Before you say no, think about it for a minute. Chances are good you can get a deal for less than the previous guys were paying. And you can’t deny that Tiger’s return will draw some of the biggest audiences in televised golf history – at least for the first few events. Granted, the man’s star has lost a lot of its luster. He will probably never be revered in quite the same way he was before that November night.

But…

What if he comes back playing better than ever, with a renewed purpose and a fierce determination to show the world he’s still the boss inside the ropes? I think the chances are good given his competitive drive, laser focus and limitless skill. Remember, this is the guy who won the U.S. Open playing basically on one leg.

What if all the stuff he said he was going to do actually comes to pass? He straightens out his personal situation and approaches life – and golf – with a greater level of respect?

What if he wins two or three majors in the next 18 months, getting ever closer to Jack’s career record? Do you think he will be a pariah in most peoples’ eyes? I don’t. I’m not sure he is now, but that’s beside the point.

The point is, America, and American sports fans, love a comeback story. The fact that Kobe Bryant and Alex Rodriguez are now being cheered unconditionally by their fans illustrate our willingness to forgive and move on, especially when the biggest stars are involved.

If Tiger comes back in a big way, and manages to stay out of the National Enquirer while he’s doing it, then I believe he can again be a massive marketing force. Maybe not as strong as he once was, but still on a very short list of the world’s biggest. And those brands that stuck with him through the darks days – Nike, EA Sports – will not only receive a big bump but will also be seen as having been loyal to their guy in his time of need. They didn’t cut and run. A lot of sports fans will be impressed.

And if you’re Verizon or Powerade or any other brand willing to take the chance, you’ll be along for the ride too. Say he’s back on top in 2012. How many people will even remember that, back in 2009, he was a spokesman for AT&T and Gatorade? What was Kobe promoting in 2007 or A-Rod in 2008? I don’t remember either.

I think there’s a huge potential upside in taking a chance on Tiger now. Is there a downside? Of course there is. This thing could end up taking away his drive and turning him into just another Tour pro. His personal life could take another strange detour. He could give up the sport and enter a Buddhist monastery. All kinds of stuff could happen. Just look at the last four months. Who could have predicted any of that? But if it doesn’t and he does come back big, in two or three years you and your brand could be seen as the visionaries who took a risk back in 2010.

In marketing circles, you could be what Tiger once was in golf. A hero.

Twitter and YouTube are also rolling out new features. On Twitter, the new “Be Found On Twitter” feature allows users to opt-in to share their email address and/or phone number, making it easier for contacts to find them. For YouTube, it’s a massive redesign that will improve the user experience by adding a video queue feature and improved playlist design. The redesign also includes the release of an AutoPlay feature, which will allow YouTube to be consumed more like TV, allowing the user to sit back and just watch one video after another in a push model rather than the current pull model. Find out more about these releases under the New Features heading below.

“Have you heard of Chatroulette?”  The latest fad of social media, Chatroulette is a video chat service which will randomly pair you to another video conferencing user. It’s a bare bones interface with minimalistic functionality- basically just two web cam windows and a chat room. The site connects users to complete strangers, there is no way to control who will pop up on the other side. Some believe that Chatroulette will become as popular as Twitter, though it’s not the first interactive video conferencing site, and probably won’t be the last.  I don’t think Chatroulette will be able to go mainstream without significant investment and added functionality. If the interest continues to increase, there’s a good chance that established social networking platforms like Facebook will adopt video conferencing as a new feature, which may kill Chatroulette before it has a chance to get out of the gate.

Want to know how your brand compares to your competitor in social media? Try uberVu Compare. A freemium social media comparison tool, Compare is a new product from uberVu that performs a side-by-side comparison of two brands based on their social media performance. It could be considered overly simplistic for veteran social media analysts, but this a great tool for a quick snapshot of social media presence.

“Crowdsourcing” is a still a hip buzzword. Grogger is a new platform that allows you to crowdsource your blog content. Mash together the words “group” and “blog”, what do you get? A “Grog”! For people that believe two heads are better than one, Grogger is an appealing tool that allows a community of users to write, edit, and vote on blog content. For more details, read the TechCrunch review.

New Features

Be Found on Twitter: Connecting Our Dots in the Social Graph - RWW

Twitter Comes To Yahoo – PC World

YouTube Redesign Keeps You Watching - RWW

Facebook to Say Goodbye to App Notifications on March 1st - Mashable

Chatroulette

Did Chatroulette Just Launch the Interactive Video Conferencing Boom? - AdAge

Chatroulette, by the Numbers - WSJ Digits

Social Media: Strategy

Most Super Bowl Ads Don’t Go Viral - AdAge

Vitrue Adds Facebook ‘Wall Apps’ To Social Platform – MediaPost

Compare Social Media Performance Head-to-Head with uberVu - Mashable

Oh Yeah, Well I’m Going To Twitter You! – MediaPost

Social Media: Consumer Electronics

Scribd Makes Push Into Mobile - MediaPost

Consumers Are Pushing Up Sales of Smartphones - Yahoo! News

Digital Advertising

Measure the Web Like TV and Brand Advertising Will Follow - AdAge

Sources: Twitter Ad Platform Quite Google-Like – MediaPost

Display Ads Stimulate Search, Confirms Eyeblaster Study – MediaPost

Internet Trends

Social Networking In Matters Of Life And Death – MediaPost

Grogger: A New Platform That Lets You Crowdsource Your Blog’s Content - TechCrunch

E-Cards Are Dead… Except on Mother’s Day - RWW

Time Spent on Social Networks up 82% Around the World - BrianSolis

How Twitter in the Classroom is Boosting Student Engagement - Mashable

Facebook to Take 30% Cut of Developers’ Facebook Credits Revenues - Mashable

Rachelle Maisner is an Interactive Producer for R&R Partners, and writes about social media at FiveFeetOfDynamite.com.

Google by the numbers. They seem to be doing well.

Chuck Liddell should put some clothes on and work out longer. He might win more fights.

This makes delivery look easy.

Incredible Target display in Times Square featuring Shaun White. I’m sorry I missed it when I was there.

I don’t know how I feel about massaging a card, but it’s a great way to get a point across.

More stuff about being a man from French Connection. He knows not of sequins, only of skinny clothes.

My new favorite ad. And I can attest that Old Spice does not smell like a lady. It’s definitely Man Stench:

Free wallpapers from one of my favorites, Mark Weaver.

A great site filled with wonderful stuff to think about.

Some great new infographics.

Something that mixes all those Mad Men secretaries with new iPhone technology.

Everyone is on Facebook now. I don’t feel special anymore.

I pity the fool who eats Mr. T for breakfast.

Two of the many sites for the movie The Crazies. It looks like fun. Here’s one and here’s another.

Window-shopping for real with your iPhone.

Don’t leave home without your glow.

In the social media sphere, change happens in a blink of an eye. While I was on break from blogging a lot of big things happened in this space, most notably the release of Google Buzz. The buzz about Buzz is that it’s Google’s latest life-streaming social media portal. Like Twitter and Facebook, Buzz allows users to keep in touch with friends and by sharing status updates, links, photos, and more.

Is Buzz a formidable threat to Twitter and Facebook? Maybe, but probably not. Buzz is integrated with Google’s email platform Gmail, and I’m guessing Google thought that would be a good way to gain immediate adoption en masse. But for many internet users, email use is in decline as social media use continues to rise. If Google had released Buzz two or three years ago it could have gained real traction, but unfortunately many would-be early adopters have already abandoned their Gmail accounts in favor of Facebook messaging (which is moving towards a full webmail service, code named Project Titan).

Also while I was off the grid, I missed a couple of birthdays. Flickr and Facebook both turned six years old this month.  That’s a pretty long time in Internet years; do you think they’ll make it another six?

Google Buzz

If Google Wave Is The Future, Google Buzz Is The Present - TechCrunch

Google Buzz: What It Means for Twitter and Facebook - Mashable

Google Will Ask Buzz’s Early Adopters to Confirm Privacy Choices - Wired

Google Buzz May Help Its Rivals More Than Itself - MediaPost

Facebook

PayPal and Facebook Credits Will Play Nice After All - Mashable

The Fun of Facebook Measurement - Gilligan on Data

Facebook Moves Towards World — Not Just Social Networking – Domination -MediaPost

Social Media: Strategy

5 Ways Airlines and Hotels Can Drive Revenue with Social Media - Mashable

HOW TO: Deal With Negative Feedback in Social Media - Mashable

How Much Blog Would a Blogger Blog If a Blog Chucked Its Comments? - MediaPost

Social Media: Consumer Electronics

Official Twitter App for BlackBerry Looks Really Good – Mashable

Fashion Show Goers Purchased Clothes Straight From the Runway Using a BlackBerry App - Gizmodo

Motorola Backflip Will Be the First Android Phone on AT&T - Wired

Digital Advertising

Online Video Gets an Ad Exchange - AdAge

Live TV’s Alive as Ever, Boosted by Social Media - AdAge

Pre-Roll Video Ads Still Hated, Here to Stay – AdAge

Beyond the Badge: Big Media Brands Strike Foursquare Deals - AdAge

Internet Trends

How Social Media Is Changing the Super Bowl – Mashable

Walmart Buys Vudu, Jumping Into Online Movie Rentals – Wired

School District Halts Webcam Surveillance – Wired

It’s Official: Google Can Sell Power Like a Utility – Wired

Checking In, Checking Out [a great article summing up the latest location-based mobile/social apps] - MediaPost

Rachelle Maisner is an Interactive Producer for R&R Partners, and  writes about social media at FiveFeetOfDynamite.com.

We were all looking for him to take responsibility in a meaningful way and to a certain extent, he did that. By saying that it doesn’t matter what he says to his wife, but how he demonstrates his love for her over time told us that he gets it.

The fact that he is not rushing back to golf, but is instead going back to rehab, also tells us that he is sincere about moving past this chapter of his life.

Bottom line, he continues to be a very private individual who will only be “managed” so much. Americans, and those across the world, should know better than to ever have believed he was holier than thou. Tigers are after all, wild animals!  He’s a great golfer and that’s what we should expect from him.

First, he said he would not re-sign with Sirius XM. Given their $0.86 stock price and $1 billion in debt, Stern just may get his wish. If he doesn’t re-sign with Sirius, then what?

BusinessWeek reported Clear Channel thinks Stern is a ‘logical’ choice for them, even though his new contract would be a huge sum to take on as terrestrial radio revenue continues to decline year over year. And leaving the freedom of satellite back to the muddled arms of the FCC does not seem like a path he would be likely to follow.

On Monday, Stern confirmed he was in talks with American Idol, which will be looking for a new abrasive judge after Simon Cowell exits at the end of this season. His qualifications to judge a singing contest are about as deep as current judge, Ellen DeGeneres, so why not? American Idol is one of the few outlets that could actually afford Stern’s current paycheck.

You have to create demand to be in demand. Stern has always proclaimed himself the “King of all Media” and the way the press is jumping at the chance to cover his every move (or possibility of a move), maybe he still is.

Google won by simply being themselves. The eTrade babies’ “milkaholic” ad was a winner. Punxsutawney Polamalu is not only difficult to spell – it was also fairly creepy, but effective. Coke, while easy to spell, was painfully irrelevant. The GoDaddy ads should just go away.

That’s the general consensus from a solid hour of R&R Partners’ Monday morning quarterbacking of the advertising blitz surrounding that roman numeral-suffixed game played the day before. Our panel of critics included people from all disciplines within the agency.

In case you used commercial breaks for something other than awaiting the unveiling of new advertisements, every spot is easily viewable online. Check out YouTube’s channel, where you can vote for your favorite, or Fox/MSN’s site, which organizes them by quarter.

Overall, our panel thought the 2010 ads were mediocre, with a few bright spots. Absent were the emotional tearjerkers and ads with brand engagement through the Internet. Plentiful were ads bashing white, out-of-shape men – and other concepts we felt like we’d seen many times before.

“I just don’t like the tired formulas,” Associate Creative Director Tony Marin said. “People getting hit, underwear jokes – all of that just makes me cringe.”

“It’s a reflection of the times, but everybody is very, very afraid of doing anything that isn’t pretty safe,” Executive Vice President/Creative Director Randy Snow added. “Even the stuff that was ‘edgy’ was pretty safe. As much as I loved the Google ad, it was just a product demo. There was really no risk in that ad. … It’s because of the economy. Nobody wants to take a shot with $3 million. They’d rather animate animals or pull Troy Polamalu out of a hole.”

That fear kept some normally ad-friendly brands, such as Fed Ex, out of the game entirely.

“They said it was because of cost and because of scrutiny. They laid off employees,” Executive Vice President Rob Dondero said. “And the official NFL beer, Coors, wasn’t even in it.”

Public Relations Group Account Director Clinton Pope asked about the propensity of allowing people to preview the ads prior to the game through YouTube, etc.

Executive Creative Director Arnie DiGeorge had firsthand knowledge. “I did that; I went on the night before and watched all the ones that I could actually see before the game and they all seemed to be bad ones, for the most part. I think those are the ones people are previewing – the ones that really don’t have confidence,” he said. “Your best choice is to have a teaser for the ad that isn’t the ad. But it still has to be great.”

That’s what it boils down to, of course – having a great ad. Some brands, like Doritos and Bud Light, chose quantity over quality, each using a bunch of completely unrelated spots hoping for one or two that “stuck.” Some chose to stick to one message.

“If you’ve got a good campaign and you’ve got multiple pieces of the same thing telling the story, that’s cool, and if you’ve got a brim of broad audiences and you’ve got one against different passion points, that’s cool, too,” Associate Media Director Jeremy Thompson said.

“I thought the Budweiser ads fell short. You go into it with people really expecting a lot from them, and I don’t think they got there,” LVCVA Group Account Director Kim Downing said.     “I really liked the (Volkswagen) ‘slugbug’ ad. It was nostalgic; it showed the product. I just thought it was really good.”

Corporate Director of Digital Marketing Sean Corbett was enamored with the reaction from perhaps the world’s largest focus group – the instantaneous opinions offered up on Twitter.

“The minute a spot ran, you’d start seeing the opinions flow through the Twitter stream. It was really cool to watch. A lot of ad folks, obviously, every agency in the country, seemed to be online last night – and then general people catching on and talking about the ads was really cool,” he said.

WINNERS

• Google’s spot, essentially a product demo, was lauded by the entire group. “It did everything it needed to do. It showed you how much Google is part of our life, it told a story. It was simple. It used their user interface. … It was a great spot,” DiGeorge said.

“It reminded me of why I choose to use it every day over Bing. They are about simplicity; they are about ease-of-use. It was a really great change-up from everything we had seen,” Corbett added.

“I think they accomplished in one ad what Bing has been trying to accomplish with tons of ads,” Marin said.

• The T-Pain ad, even though it was basically a different vision of the “Wassup” ads of a few years so, still worked.
• The eTrade babies, specifically the “milkaholic” spot, was solid.

“I liked the eTrade babies but I’d like to see them go in a different direction now. This should be the end of that type of campaign,” Pope said.

LOSERS

• Coke’s efforts, which included a certainly-not-cheap use of “The Simpsons” and a few even less memorable spots, completely missed the mark. Nobody really cared for the sleepwalking guy, either.

“The fact that a bunch of people from an ad agency sat in a room just to talk about the commercials, and for an hour Coke never entered the discussion – for a brand that big to go that unnoticed says a lot,” said yours truly, Web Content Developer Sal DeFilippo.

• The Who, and more so, the people who were stuck watching them.

“The Twitter backlash on The Who was vicious. One of the better comments was, “can somebody please hurry up and wrap up The Who show because they have to get home and watch Matlock.”

• GoDaddy.com – most disappointing “by far,” according to Pope.
• Taco Bell – the commercials that aired in advance leading up to a very dull “Green Eggs and Ham” spot featuring Charles Barkley. (Note: In fairness, not too many words rhyme with “gordita.”)

What I’m not going to do here is review the films I saw. I did reviews in my last entry. No need for more of that. Instead, I’m going to share some observations from my first trip to what has become America’s largest and most influential film festival.

A Trip to Sundance Doesn’t Need to Cost an Arm and a Leg

I suppose you can spend a ton at Sundance, but you don’t have to. Tickets to the screenings are $15 each. And if you stay in Salt Lake City, which is only a 35-minute drive on I-80 from Park City, there are a bunch of affordable hotels and restaurants. Leave the high-end resorts and pricey Park City restaurants to the folks from Paramount and Universal with the big expense accounts.

Given Its Size and Scope, Sundance is Really Well Organized

The festival lasts 11 days. It screens more than 500 different films in 15 different theaters in four different cities. Screenings begin at 8:30 each morning and go past midnight every day. And it all runs like clockwork. The shuttle buses are there to take you where you need to go when you need to get there. The screenings start on time. The quality of the sound and picture in every venue – many of which are not movie theaters – is impeccable. There are volunteers everywhere to get you in and out of screenings, answer questions, fix problems and deal with complaints. I’m guessing they probably started working on the logistics for the 2011 festival the day after the 2010 version ended. The preparation shows. Sundance has become a well-oiled machine.

The Audience Is Surprisingly Diverse

Full disclosure. I went to Sundance fully expecting to be immersed in a world of insufferable hipsters, pretentious film snobs and obnoxious Hollywood types. Granted, I ran into all three, but the bulk of the crowds were, for the most part, normal people. Young people, seniors, parents and kids, gay, straight, Muslims, Mormons, Asians, African-Americans and Caucasians. And because they receive a discount on tickets, the screenings attract lots of locals. The one thing everyone shared was a love of film and a desire to see things that probably aren’t going to show up at the local multiplex.

Finally, there was one more thing about the Sundance audiences that I found surprisingly refreshing, leading to my next observation:

Sundance Audiences Are Unfailingly Polite

They queue up and wait patiently until it’s time for their screening to be seated. They show up on time. They don’t cut in line. They carry on intelligent conversations about film with others while waiting in line. They turn off their cell phones during the films. Let me repeat that: They turn off their cell phones during the films. They don’t carry on personal conversations while others are trying to hear the movie. They applaud for every film. They stay engaged and ask intelligent questions at screenings that feature Q & A (and most do). In other words, while the audiences may look a lot like those you’re likely to see on a regular Saturday at your favorite 16-screener, they certainly don’t act like them. Did I mention they turn off their cell phones during the films?

The Festival Is a Corporate Marketing Extravaganza

Honda, Hewlett-Packard and Entertainment Weekly were the primary corporate sponsors. Their logos, cars, magazines and materials were everywhere. Everyone was walking around with water bottles compliments of Brita. Every volunteer wore a jacket or vest emblazoned with a huge Kenneth Cole logo that stretched from shoulder to shoulder. Even the areas containing the serpentine lines we all had to stand in while waiting to get in to screenings were sponsored – appropriately – by Southwest Airlines. I suppose one could be up in arms that an event that began as a small, iconoclastic festival celebrating the rebellious spirit of independent filmmakers has become a “marketing platform” for companies like Honda and hp. But I’m not. What isn’t sponsored these days? Concert tours, college bowl games and fireworks displays all have corporate sponsorship attached. Why not the country’s biggest film festival? If the marketing support helps them make the event bigger, better and available to more people, where’s the harm? In America, that’s how we roll.

A Word About the Films

I saw seven features and five shorts in two and a half days. I would have seen eight, but the airline sponsor of the festival – Southwest – was 90 minutes late out of Las Vegas, denying me the opportunity to stand in their “sponsored” line to get into my first screening. But I digress.

Here’s the thing. Just because a film has been chosen to screen at Sundance does not mean it’s a masterpiece. Of the features I saw, three were very good, three were pretty good and one was ponderous, pretentious, political and – for all I know – still running. I bailed out after two hours when it was showing no signs of ending.

I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing that ratio pretty much held true for the whole festival. Some great, most pretty good and a few just difficult to get through. That’s OK. That’s the joy of film, especially independent and off-the-beaten-track film. Things get tried, experiments are conducted, and first-time directors gain the experience of making their first films. Not everything works for everyone. But everything probably works for someone. The joy of a festival like Sundance is that of discovery. I walked into each screening without any clue or preconception of what to expect. The point is, you never know. Chances are good you’ll see a film that will never show up at any theater or on any cable channel. Then again, you just might get a year’s head start on something great. Case in point: One of this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Film – Precious – premiered at the 2009 Sundance Festival. More than 20 years ago, a young unknown director named Quentin Tarantino brought a film called Reservoir Dogs to Park City. Stories like that abound. Think how cool it would have been to be at one of those screenings.

Overall, Sundance exceeded almost every one of my expectations. I had a great time. I wouldn’t want to do it every weekend, but it is great to immerse myself in film with thousands of others who share the same passion. I would suggest to anyone who enjoys the medium to get to a festival of some sort. It doesn’t have to be Sundance or Cannes. There are hundreds of smaller festivals throughout the year. Find one and enjoy it. We used to have one here in Las Vegas call CineVegas. It was great fun. Unfortunately, it was also a victim of the economic downturn. It is now “on hiatus.” No one knows if it will ever return. Which is a shame, because Las Vegas, with its theaters, its resorts, its nightlife and its energy, is the perfect place for a world-class fest. Anyone can dare to dream. In the meantime, I’m already making plans for my next visit to Park City.

A new survey out from e-poll research  lists the top-10 most trusted celebrities. And there’s more detail about it on Forbes.com

 The list includes James Earl Jones, Tom Hanks, Bill Cosby and even Mike Rowe, the host of Dirty Jobs (which is why he’s probably seen hawking Ford products) 

 America’s largest companies pay those celebs handsomely, hoping the trust they’ve earned in America will rub off and validate their brand too. Most of the actors on the list have spent decades in the public eye, often advocating for causes as well as their movies, while also avoiding public transgressions. Meaning, they earned it from a skeptical America.

 So much of what we do in advertising, public relations and more importantly – in life – is about earning a reputation built on trust and credibility.

 For these spokespeople and the companies it’s a business deal, but in your personal business, where do you stand on trust and credibility?

It’s certainluy an issue Toyota is wrestling with today and so many are watching them closely.

 It’s my firm belief that organizations and their leaders earn reputations every day through their actions, by how they respond to critics, take care of their customers, and how they respond to both opportunity and failure.

 For those companies who can’t afford a celebrity on the A-list (which is most companies) start by making sure your corporate behavior and leaders are worthy of being on your customer’s a-list of trust and admiration.