Boikarabelo Needs YOU

Carol and I have been doing this whole interactive communications business thing for a while (Here we are Circa 2001), and we've done pretty well. We've created opportunities for the folks who work with us and helped a lot of companies with the noble cause of increasing their brand value and marketing their products (which in turn keeps our clients in their jobs, and help those companies keep making money so they can employ more people and return investment to their shareholders, and those shareholders can invest more and create more opportunities in the great circle of life. See, everything is noble if you view it with the right spin.)

But there is always need - and ways one can help beyond just being a productive and responsible member of this society.

In steps Mandy, one of our copywriter/PMs at SI who went to South Africa last year and brought back a cause. Boikarabelo, a village and aids orphanage that two fine folks gave up their upper middle class existence to dedicate their lives to. Mandy wanted to do something for them, having been very impressed and moved by the whole operation.

She pitched the cause to Carol and I, and to make a long story short we said "Hell Yes, let's make a site for them."

So the Sposto team has created a beautiful, touching and informative OFFICIAL SITE for the orphage, very nice work all around and one of our first "SpostoLIFE" initiatives. The village is also the subject of a documentary called Angel's in the Dust that will probably be winning an award in a film festival near you - check local listings.

Now here's the thing, we've been getting lots of visitors to the site, and the money donated through the DONATE button goes directly to the orphanage (no middle man). But we haven't seen a lot of donations.

Here's the pitch, folks. We've done our part - I'm asking you to give a little for your part. Read the site, learn what it's all about. Go to Boikarabelo.org and click the Donate button.

These folks have very little money - and a lot of mouths to feed.

Damn Ameriprise and their Chair

So I finally get to the point in my life where I can go ahead and get a couple of Eames Chairs (you know, the red ones).

Here I am sitting in one of them - they are strategically placed in the lobby of our firm to inspire creativity and good design and all that. (Really, it's so I can own a couple of Eames Chairs. They are so comfy.)

As soon as I get these things unpacked, I look at the TV and there's my "Beat Junior Hero" Dennis Hopper standing on MY CHAIR and telling his boomer buddies to go out and do whatever it is they want because their retirement "ain't no sitting around the fire, shuffle board, yadda yadda yadda retirement" thanks to Ameriprise financial.

He's sitting in my chair...

OK, At first I think it's cool and all. Kind of zeitgeisty and everything - I'm right on top of it, I'm hep.

But now that damned chair is everywhere...dozens of variations of the campaign in print, on TV, on the Web. I still love the chair, it's still the most comfortable hunk of plywood you will ever sit in - and the lines are to die for. It just makes me feel...older I guess. I'm not a boomer, I'm a Gen Xer - the chair wasn't for the boomers anyway - it was for their parents, fresh from the war and looking for a new future. Sitting in a Medallion home (for the uninitiated, a "Medallion" home was ALL ELECTRIC...YEAH!) on clean wooden floors with a Harmon-Kardon cabinet stereo.

The chair is for ME - the un-jaded embracer of the future who looks with longing on those Raytheon Tube Advertisements and as a kid read the World Book encyclopedia from cover to cover and thought the coolest thing to own would be a Nike Hercules missile.

I hope old Charles and Ray are getting royalties wherever they are, I hope Ameriprise is paying through the nose.