“Welcome to Boys Club.” Okay, that’s not literally what was said to me after I switched departments at David&Goliath. But it certainly was uttered inside of my head. I didn’t start out as a Copywriter—in fact, I wasn’t even a creative. Straight out of undergrad, I landed what many 22-year-old women would consider their dream job in Account Management. I’ll admit, it was an amazing opportunity and I learned a lot from it. But what I mostly learned was that it wasn’t my dream job. Though it was always a part of the plan. 

Instead of applying to a creative portfolio school post undergrad, I used that old-fashioned trick of “getting my foot in the door.” And it worked. A year later, and after moonlighting as a copywriter on many pitches, working double hours (and drinking double at happy hours), David&Goliath gave me a shot as a real-life Copywriter.

I have so much respect for women in Creative Advertising. You gotta have some balls (figuratively, of course) to step in and say, “I’m just as funny as you. Hell—I’m going to be funnier than you. And smarter about it too.” I’m not gonna lie—this industry as a whole is still a little behind the times. It’s not exactly like the ad days of Mad Men anymore, but you’d be surprised how few female Creatives there are.

So, boys club. The great news is it’s not an exclusive club. Everyone at David&Goliath has always made me feel welcome and accepted—that’s part of the reason I have so much respect for this Agency. Still, boys will be boys. Advertising is a healthy competitive industry. You always have to stay sharp, and strive to be better. Even in the off hours (which there aren’t any), the guys feel the need to be on their game. I’ve seen many a pissing contest. One-upping, over-sexualizing, shot-for-shot drinking, and the snowballing of impressive stories is the norm. It never ends. And hell, I partake in it too. But sometimes I feel like I’m running a marathon. Can’t we all just act civilized for once? (Spoken like a true woman.)

In this testosterone-fueled industry, women have the ability to make a powerful impact. We see the world a bit differently, and bring something unique to the table that can really produce amazing results. Now, I’m not about to go all girl power on you. And I’m also not going to tell you we need a womanly approach to advertising. I think it’s the balance of thinking from both sexes that makes idea generation 100 times more powerful. At work, my Art Director partner is male. And I wouldn’t change that for the world. Aside from just being two very different creative people, I think being a male-female team with a natural system of checks & balances gives us a creative edge. I give props to David&Goliath for putting us together.

As a female in Advertising, there’s only one way I want to be treated—and that’s like everyone else. We are unique, but we aren’t special. And we aren’t a cliché. Don’t assume we’re gonna nail a campaign about tampons—because I guarantee there’s some guys out there that will come up with some disturbingly good work. And don’t worry about our ability to write a sports-themed headline, or target the male segment. But always make sure we’re there, in your department and in your Agency, offering our point of view. Because if you don’t, well, you’re only representing 50% of the world, aren’t you?

Since day one, I’ve always imagined creating an agency model that was different from anywhere else. One based on a culture and a mindset designed to take on challenges of any size.  

In fact, it’s never been about an ad agency per se. We’re in the business of brand building and creating consumer affinity in the most honest and approachable way possible.

To do so, we created a brand called David&Goliath. Our philosophy is about being BRAVE — a filter we use for everything that we do. From the people we hire, the clients we work with, to how we approach life on a daily basis. Now BRAVE isn’t about picking up a sword and swinging blindly into the fray, it’s about being smart, efficient, flexible and entrepreneurial. It’s about giving yourself permission to step outside of your comfort zone, to dare to be better and take on Goliath-like obstacles that most people would run from. We do this because we know, that before you can do anything great, you have to be BRAVE first.

I’m not saying we’re for everyone. There are probably a few people out there who couldn’t give a rat’s ass about bravery. And we’re totally cool with that. In fact, we encourage those people to find the place that’s right for them.

What we are saying, is that in order to build any type of brand affinity, you have to start with you, and ask yourself what you believe in and whether or not you are marching to that beat in the most passionate, confident, and undeniable way possible.

Fact is, we are all brands. The key to being our best is to live our brand in everything we do, not just advertising. For us, it’s all about being BRAVE here and everywhere. Because the more we step outside of our comfort zone on a daily basis, the more we inspire others to do the same.

At David&Goliath, we ask all our employees to frame their worst fear and hang it on the Wall of Goliath. On a daily basis, they are reminded of what they need to overcome. In addition, we have office doors painted with the words, “Do what you fear, watch it disappear.”  So every day we’re reminded that fear is the one thing that stands between us and our potential. We’ve lived and breathed it since the beginning. It’s what separates us from everyone else out there.

We believe that before you can ask a client or anyone else to embrace their brand, you need to know who you are first. And when you embrace your truth, it’s the easiest thing to remember.

We are David&Goliath. Welcome to our BRAVE culture.

What do Clint Eastwood, Willie Nelson, a big cat, and Mr. T all have in common? If you said abnormally fuzzy knuckles, then yes, you would be correct. But more importantly, they’ve all played a starring role in broadcast’s trendy new format, the extended version television ad. Over the past few months we’ve seen spots from Chrysler, Chipotle, Cartier and Old Navy hit the airwaves in grand form, each with a run time of two minutes or longer.

By now we’re all accustomed to lengthy ads being dropped in the time-shifted digital media system. But that’s because consumer engagement in the digital space, for the most part, is optional. The harsh reality is the Interwebs have a rather natural way of dealing with crappy content; ignore it, allow it to quietly die, and fade into the abyss. This reality has challenged brands to think different and focus on creating awesome content – in other words, stuff that compels one to divert attention from Angelina Jolie leg memes, Pinterest, and blurred clips of the KONY 2012 guy’s salacious meltdown.

But what happens when heightened consumer expectations and the natural selection of awesome cross over from the web and into the broadcast world? Well, we adapt. Or face extinction.

It’s safe to say that competition for attention during TV viewing time has reached a critical mass. With record sales of the new iPad 3, Smartphone penetration crossing the majority threshold, and Ultrabooks hitting the market, co-consumption behaviors will surely continue to increase while attention spans continue to dwindle. So while still in its infancy, it seems as if TV advertising’s attempt to evolve and thrive is coming in the form of these extended ads.

What does this all mean to the ad world? Here’s my two cents – the extended spot format signals broadcast advertising’s past-due acceptance of one simple truth: people want awesome content, awesome advertising is simply a byproduct.

Adapt accordingly.

In advertising, we’re sometimes asked to convince people that they need something. Lemon-scented detergent. Or a soda that’ll change their life. But a group of us at David&Goliath recently worked on a series of pro-bono projects that promoted the most basic of needs. We partnered with the Weingart Center to help the 50,000 homeless living on the streets of Los Angeles. This was our chance to work on something we truly believe in. Something that was BRAVE. With the Weingart Projects, we set out to create a difference for the homeless. 

For the first project, we used chalk to sketch a scene around homeless volunteers on the streets of LA. As pedestrians walked by, they saw a representation of what was possible. Around one homeless woman, we sketched a bedroom in a house. Around a homeless man, a chair in a living room. And around another, a table in a kitchen. The drawings were visible if you simply changed your perspective. A nearby sign gave people a way to respond, as pedestrians were asked to “Text Them Home” and, in the process, make a donation.

For the second project, we considered the number of homeless people who die on the streets every day in LA and brought attention to that. We looked at the material the homeless often sleep on — cardboard boxes. Then we used the cardboard to create coffins. Each coffin was printed with the message: “Every day in LA, one person who sleeps on the street, dies there.” Then we set up the coffins in high-traffic areas in LA, from City Hall to Disney Hall. In each coffin, a homeless volunteer slept. As pedestrians considered the possible outcome of those in the coffins, they were directed to the Weingart Center website, where they too could make a donation.

While we may have set out to create a difference for others, in the process, we too experienced a difference. We better understood what it was like to be ignored on the streets. And what it feels when the human spirit does prevail. We felt the rush of adrenaline as we carried the coffins to the front steps of City Hall. We felt inspired as others living on the street let us know our efforts were appreciated. 

And as we returned to the offices of David&Goliath, we felt the pride that comes from knowing that the company we work for was paying our salaries to do work that wasn’t paying bills, but serving a greater purpose. And that’s being BRAVE.

What defines bravery? Is it saving someone’s life? Is it bungee jumping off a bridge in New Zealand? Both are considered acts of bravery (or stupidity for the latter). The true definition of brave, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is having or showing courage. BRAVERY is defined as the quality or state of being brave.

When stopping and thinking about our everyday routines, the majority of us wake up, grab a cup of coffee, get dressed for the day (or help others get ready, like kids), and go on our merry way to work/school/gym. What we don’t realize is that we are brave in many of our everyday actions. It doesn’t take one to become a police officer/fire fighter/paramedic to be considered brave. Bravery starts at a very early age and we continue to tackle it more head-on as we get older.

As a child, we take that first step which displays the first sign of courage to the world.

Starting our first day of kindergarten and meeting new friends gets us out of our comfort zone. It demonstrates that we are ready to grow and be bold with others.

Learning to ride a bicycle for the first time is a frustrating part of many childhood memories. After one too many falls, that one time you get it shows that one was not only courageous, but brave to not give up.

Playing that first sport as a child or performing that first dance recital demonstrates our independence, but also shows us how bold and fearless we can be.

Driving a car for the first time is scary, yet thrilling, as it showcases our fearlessness, and once again, our independence. At that age, we couldn’t be happier to get out of the house.

How about that first date? Nerves and butterflies take over, but it takes guts to overcome our nerves and fears to keep putting ourselves out there.

Finally, how about starting that first job? Entering the world as a professional is risky, especially in such an unstable economy like today, but what we don’t know from that first day is how adventurous it will be and how audacious we will become over time.

All of these life stages that we are forced to overcome and enter can sometimes make us forget – especially as we get older – how to be brave. Ask yourself moving forward, how will I be brave today? What can I do to challenge myself and get out of my comfort zone? Don’t forget that those fighting for their lives or the lives of others don’t have a choice but to be as bold, brave and courageous as they can, because their life or the lives of others depend on their action.

Go on….BE BRAVE!

We Plan. We Prepare. But in the end, Perseverance makes Production results great. Imagine, as we did, preparing for the big Kia Soul Shuffle Slam online contest Finale. The band, LMFAO with RedFoo and SkyBlu, and the Quest Crew were all on board to judge and announce the winner of the contest and we would film it at a small, secure, garage location and then take the announcement live November 7^th.  Easy breezy.

Then on the Tuesday before the October 30^th filming, the band happen to see YouTube and LOVED the amazing video of a house in Riverside, CA which decorated for Halloween with a synched music and light show, including LMFAO’s hit song of the Summer “Party Rock Anthem” which is also the unforgettable music track of our Kia “Share Some Soul” TV commercial.

We had also seen the house on You Tube and with great minds thinking alike thought, “what if we filmed the finale at that house?” The Kia client LOVED the idea.

But now we needed move fast and replan for a host of other production challenges including location permitting, crew and truck parking, lights for a night shoot and agreement on how to feature the Kia Soul.So many logistics to work out in only 3 business days; was it possible?

Production company Rockhard Films and director Mickey Finnegan were on board.We proceeded to secure the location. The owner of the house was excited. He had quite a few people starting to show up at the house for the light show each night. Our enthusiasm started to get a bit tempered as over 400 people showed up the following night. Then over 1000 people showed up the next night, just for the light show. We needed to add more security to the agenda if we were going to film with a crowd around us. Then we were concerned the city of Riverside would deny our permit to film in the interest of public safety. What if the word got out that LMFAO and Quest Crew would actually be AT that house Sunday night? It could be chaos and interfere with achieving our ultimate goal. Everyone was ordered to radio silence about the filming. The house owner also posted that the light show was cancelled that Sunday night, hoping the crowds would not show up so we could film in peace.

We zigged and zagged and arranged a miracle. And by “we” I don’t mean “me”. I mean an army of dedicated and brave people from agency, client, production, Interscope, LMFAO and Quest Crew management and a special shout out to our dedicated producer Jenn Mersis who spearheaded this part of the Contest. My involvement was much more supervisory but I was a witness .to the power of perseverance.

We set up production base camp at a school down the street from the house. Two little nine years olds went by on their bikes. I knew what was coming. Within minutes they were on their phones texting and tweeting that the LMFAO Party Rock van was in the neighborhood! That night over 2000 people still showed up at a small neighborhood location and were treated to a live (lip synch of course) performance by LMFAO and the Quest Crew. The crowd was great, hushing while the band spoke to camera, then cheering and screaming in between filming. The guys announced each of the top three finalists as “the winner” so that all the people in the crowd uploading their instant videos to Facebook and You Tube during our event filming wouldn’t unknowingly spill the beans on who was chosen as the actual winner before we announced it on our Kia Soul Shuffle Slam site. And it worked! The true winner was only announced on our site as planned.

It was a tough week, a great night, and a fitting end to a historic and successful contest for our client.

On May 22^nd 2011 an EF5 tornado hit my hometown of Joplin, MO.   The mile wide storm ripped through the center of the city killing over 160 people and destroying much of the town’s infrastructure including the hospital and high school.  I watched the news from Los Angeles in horror—uncertain if my family was safe. 

The phones in Joplin were down, so I relied on my Facebook page to get updates from the ground and keep in touch with my friends and family in the disaster zone.  Over the next 48 hours I stayed tuned into my social feeds, and I was relieved as one-by-one my family and friends announced that they were safe.  My heart sank as posts announcing the tragic deaths of the less fortunate began to appear. 

In the days following the storm, Facebook and Youtube became a way for Joplin residents to share their experiences through heartfelt posts, photos and videos.  The social media surrounding this event became the definitive account of the storm and its aftermath.  Relief efforts and pertinent recovery information was shared throughout the Facebook community as well.  People started donation efforts via Facebook, and some families even used the site to raise money to help pay for funeral costs.

As the dust settled and clean up began, people started finding photos that had been scattered during the storm.  Some photos were found as far as 70 miles from their places of origin.  Abi Almandinger created a Facebook page called “Joplin’s Found Photos” to facilitate the return of these photos to their owners.  In many cases those were the only photos families were able to recover.  Her inspirational use of Facebook was featured in the LA Times, and Abi’s efforts are the subject of an upcoming documentary.

Seven months after this tragic event, I am still using Facebook as a way to connect with my hometown.  It is inspiring to see Joplin as it rebuilds, and I can follow that recovery with the click of my mouse thanks to social networking sites.  Just this week I saw a post from a local photographer who is providing Christmas family portraits for free to families who lost their family photos in the storm.  Many people try to dismiss the power of social networking, but the reach of these sites is so much grander than I had ever realized.  For Joplin, this online community has helped preserve the past, cope with the present, and inspire the future.

My music is great and yours sucks. Which is why I often find it paralyzing to stray from the cozy bubble of my meticulously crafted playlists to spend time exploring the ether of music blogs and sites that run a dime a dozen. So it came as somewhat of a surprise to me when I unexpectedly came upon a site that captured my rare swayed interests— We Are Hunted. 

At the core it’s nothing completely new. Like Spotify, its success lies in making music social, aligning with Facebook, Twitter and SoundCloud to allow people to share self-curated playlists. Where it stood out for me was how the music featured on the site is built around top 99 song charts. These charts are created by amassing what people are saying about artists and their music on blogs, social media, message boards and P2P networks. In this way, the music on We Are Hunted changes regularly based on social chatter.

The site filters its charts in various ways, so you can go to “Emerging Chart” to explore newer, more indie artists (Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs is my new go to) or fulfill your Katy kick at the “Mainstream Chart.” Everything is packaged in a user interface creatives drool over — visually driven, intuitive and simple. In this way, We Are Hunted reinforces the future direction of music consumption — where music lives as a growing body of people’s ever changing tastes at any given moment rather than a stagnant file that sits in your hard drive.

One of the best examples of bravery I have witnessed in my career is in someone I have been fortunate enough to have as a client. I’ve worked with him over the last five years and have seen him take on seemingly insurmountable tasks. His name is Marc Barasch and he is the founder of Greenworld – an environmental organization that regenerates the world’s most degraded regions by planting trees.

Re-greening the planet is a colossal task. The world is now losing 80,000 acres of forest everyday. Where does one person find the inspiration to take on such an overwhelming ‘Goliath’? Part of the answer comes from a book: Marc is not a tree-hugging environmentalist (well, perhaps a bit) or an expert in agro-forestry. He is a best selling author. When he wrote his book, The Compassionate Life,  he never dreamed it would compel him to live up to the book’s core message. Perhaps hanging out with homeless shelter workers and kidney donors affected him on a deep level. He realized that before penning another book, he needed to get up from behind his desk and do some good in the world.

Marc had an epiphany he describes as ‘green compassion’. He worked for free, using his kitchen table as his headquarters. He partnered with individuals around the world – including farmers in Ethiopia, villagers in the Philippines and the indigenous Tlahuica community in Mexico, who are standing up to the logging companies that are clear-cutting their ancestral forest.

Soon, Marc had a small army of supporters: a climate change lawyer in London, a former World Bank country director, a geo-spatial expert in Berkeley and yes, an ad agency with the rather appropriate name of David & Goliath. 

However, this wasn’t an easy undertaking. When his personal savings were depleted, he began to doubt his sanity. Out of nowhere, a Hollywood director wrote a check to support him for a year. “I like the idea of planting trees,” he told me, “but right now, I'd like to water the tree-planter.”

As new projects were added and those first saplings promised to become living forests, Marc continued to find ways to get the word out. Last March, Marc approached us about creating an Earth Day Times Square ‘takeover’. We had a miniscule budget but I knew Marc well enough to take his idea seriously. We actually pulled off this seemingly impossible stunt in less than 30 days. Several companies donated $2 million in free media. We produced a beautifully animated film in just over a week. The film, broadcast on 10 jumbotrons, encouraged spectators to text in a donation to plant trees. One screen featured a massive real time digital tree that grew with each contribution.

With each success there are endless challenges, yet Marc has stayed unwaveringly committed to his vision. I have rarely witnessed anyone so persistent and, yes, brave. Someone I am lucky enough to also call a client. 

After social media helped spread the message of “Let’s burn London down” from smaller towns and villages to key London districts, can we continue to deny the controversial role it plays in spreading massive unrest and in the case of Egypt, revolution? As the harsh sentences come down today in the UK, it will echo around the world that the consequences of social media engagement for the incitement of violence and destruction can have serious and surprising consequences.

Libel cases involving twitter are heating up as well – especially in the entertainment and music communities, with notable cases involving stars Johnny Gill and Courtney Love (including, in Love’s case, a $430,000 settlement!).

Flash mobs, once an innovative way to celebrate the life of Michael Jackson, have taken a dark turn. Flash mobs have been used to instigate a Northern California transit strike, leaving commuters stranded and have been used to organize as many as 28 people to loot a local 7-11 in Maryland.

With all that’s going on out there, how can companies safely engage consumers with their brands? The answer is a simple one: social media is still a powerful tool for positive brand building through messages which seek to build communities, empower entrepreneurs and work for social good and justice. It is a fluid ecosystem which is constantly trying to respond and compete with itself and in that sense, provides the ultimate opportunity for cut through.  

As quickly as the Blackberry Smartphone snapped pictures which looters posted to twitter, users turned the tide, commenting on Facebook in an effort to organize community cleanup and communicate information regarding public safety.

Corporations are seeing the benefits of aggregating content by creating Facebook hubs which direct traffic away from brand profiles to measurable hotspots on the interwebs. All this has pushed Facebook to up its game (as we speak) and find ways of providing analytics to marketing professionals (including my phone number, not to be posted in the DNG bathroom wall!).  Grassroots brands like Tupperware have taken their parties to a whole new level by moving the “original” social network online and putting additional power into the hands of purveyors to organize.  (“Also, Supperware products are ideal for storing leftovers to help stretch your food dollar.” - Airplane)

Mashable honored the best social media campaigns of 2010, bringing awareness to sites like PSGive.org which allows users to participate in online events by nonprofits and win cool prizes like the iPad, while helping a charity of choice. Twitchange.org stands as the web’s first celebrity twitter auction where users can up their twitter credibility by adding a super star tweeter to their followers, while working for social change. All these efforts push the user one step further beyond “Liking” the traditional cause pages on Facebook to actually creating change.

As we follow President Barak Obama on Foursquare (you joined now, didn’t you?) on his re-election campaign (for more hope), and track any updates to Wikipedia that may be required based on presidential stump speeches (Paul RevereDID wake the British accidentally!), its sure to be a brave undertaking to get in and play the game and do it for good.

At David & Goliath, Brave is our motto 24/7. That means even when you’re say, on vacation in Maui, you need to keep that in mind. Last week, I was there celebrating my birthday and decided - why not scuba dive with sharks, without a cage. 

For the days leading up to the event, I mentally prepared myself watching Shark Week on Discovery Channel. Of course that wasn’t all. I also caught an assortment of shark related YouTube clips, including one of a jackass who attempted to kiss a Nurse shark, only to have his lips bitten off.  Then I figured I was ready.
 
The morning arrived and I woke up with excitement not fear. But just to be safe, I opted not to shave for fear of cutting myself and getting the sharks excited.
 
I arrived at the Maui Ocean Center and signed several pages of liability waivers.
Surprisingly the dive was open to any certified diver with “Ball$.” And by “Ball$” I mean anyone with “ball$” of cash to pay for such an opportunity. Then it was time to begin. As I leaned over the dock and dipped my mask into the water to clean the fog I noticed the dorsal fin and striped topside of a Tiger shark pass by. If my memory was correct, that was #2 on Shark Week’s list of the ten most dangerous sharks. The dive master tried to put me at ease telling me it was a 6 foot juvenile Tiger shark they picked up last week off the coast. While the size did seem slightly less intimidating, the fact that this shark had very little human contact made my heart pound just a little faster. I took a deep breath and entered the water.
 
As I descended, I soon found myself surrounded by more than 20 sharks. White Tips, Black Tips, and several Scalloped Hammerheads. All of which were also on the top ten notorious list.
 
As if that wasn’t enough, there were half dozen stingrays that were no joke 15 feet in length. As I looked one in the eyes, I couldn’t help but think about how my friend dressed up like Steve Irwin with a stingray barb through stomach for Halloween. And how I laughed hysterically. Could this be karma wielding its ugly barbed tail? Crikey, I hope not. But as I petted its buttery flaps, I discovered this creature had no beef with me.
 
Then came the fun part. The 11 AM daily shark feeding. Soon foot long dead tuna were being dropped into the tank all around me. The Hammerheads began to circle in a frenzy. “Fins to the left, fins to the right.”  Come to think of it, now would be a good time to be sipping on a drink in Margaritaville. Then past the sharks, I noticed the crowd of people pressed against the dry side of the aquarium, waiting for a good show. Like Romans waiting for the lions to feed on the Christians. Even my wife had a somewhat sadistic smile on her face. Was she looking forward to cashing in on that new life insurance policy on me? I would soon find out.
 
Now since this dive took place in the 750,000-gallon tank that was part of the Maui Ocean Center, I felt pretty confident that nothing was going to go wrong. Then again, these were wild animals, some of which were caught in the last 2 weeks, so you never know. Even one of the Shamus went postal on a trainer at Sea World.  And I wasn’t a trainer. I was a stranger in a shark tank. A stranger who just met them and already peed in their house.
 
Well, even though the hula pie birthday dessert I had the night before probably made my black wetsuit appear more seal-like than usual, these sharks were not nearly as interested in me as I was in them. I was able to appreciate them for the amazing creatures that they were. And I survived with all copywriting fingers still intact.
 
Now I didn’t do the dive to be Brave. Rather, my desire to experience this was simply greater than my fear. And for me that’s what it means to be Brave. Metaphorically speaking, whenever it is time for me to “sleep with the fishes,” I want to know, there’s not much left in my tank. I don’t want to say, I wish I had done this or that. I want to use everything I’ve got. And as I climbed out of the shark tank with less than 500 PSI of compressed air in my tank, at least I can say on that day, I did.
 

When marketing is the only real difference between two products and one product sells significantly worse than the other, what do you blame? If you’re Miller Lite, you blame the weather.  And while, force majeure may be the easy way out, a more honest assessment may lie in a failure to properly understand cultural nuances and the speed-of-light changes in consumer attitudes. 

For instance, shopping at a Walmart in Arkansas may signal American pride, but do the same in LA and you’re liable to get dirty looks.  Likewise, when Mr. T beckons British men to “Get Some Nuts” for Snickers, Miller Lite’s similar admonishment to American guys to “Man Up” completely misses the mark.

If culture is the operating system of society, then globalization and technology are allowing culture to transform faster than ever.  This means that, if you want to maintain relevance, you got to create more things, more often, with more current meaning.  There’s very little margin for error.  What was celebrated and embraced yesterday becomes the “Leave Britney Alone” of an hour ago and the “Chocolate Rain” of five minutes ago.  And, apparently, American dudes don’t think it’s funny for a beer company to tell them that they’re getting girly.  Only Mr. T can do that.  

When Mark Zuckerberg asked us to sign our names in blood on Facebook’s privacy policy, we gladly pricked our fingers.  Some of us even cheered.  And now, here comes Japanese band Sour, turning all of the evil beauty of our share-a-holic world into a web genre-bending and paradigm-shifting music video, “Mirror.”  It’s kind of social media Fantasia, connecting a viewer’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, along with his webcam, to become part of a hyper-interactive music experience.  “Mirror” has a strangely immersive — or is it invasive? — element as you see your name magically appear in the Google search bar, your Twitter followers come to life, and a giant robot composed of your Facebook friends walk through a Google map of Manhattan.  And then, holy crap, there you are in the video, composed of zeros and ones and pixels and other computer jibberish.   And just as you’re thinking how cool this all is, you can’t help but wonder – if a music video can do this with your Facebook account, what else can strangers do?

While mash-up music may have reached its apex with Danger Mouse’s Grammy win, a new generation of artists is taking a deeper and more thorough look at blending all kinds of different media.  These intrepid innovators are re-thinking the idea of media as a single-use communication tool, and using anything within their means as potential collage elements.  Pop-up books meets digital projection?  Check.  Fashion meets burlesque meets lights show meets hotel rooms?  Of course.  Harry Potter meets ink meets a public bathroom?  Why not?  Without boundaries or rules, media blending is transforming society’s idea of storytelling and its possibilities.  It makes you wonder whether the word “media” is even still relevant, since anything can now be turned into a piece to be cut, mashed, transformed, and repurposed.  And the resulting metamorphosis is often layered with the kind of magic that accompanies true innovation.