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You may have seen Google today or read about Wikipedia and other websites going dark in protest of SOPA and PIPA. First of all, what are SOPA and PIPA? SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, was introduced in Congress last October. PIPA, Protect IP Act, is SOPA’s counterpart in the U.S. Senate. 

At its simplest, the two bills are intended to give intellectual property owners (think movies and music) the right to completely eliminate foreign websites against whom they believe they have a copyright claim. What does it mean to completely eliminate? According to a recent Gizmodo story, “[they] could demand Google remove that site from its search results, that PayPal no longer accept payments to or from that site, that ad services pull all ads and finances from it, and—most dangerously—that the site's ISP prevent people from even going there.” 

Scary. But what’s worse is that any kind of legal due process is completely missing from the two bills. This means that any content provider may proactively shut down a site it thinks violates a copyright. And that CAN INCLUDE YOUR OWN, PERSONAL Facebook profile, or photo gallery or Twitter account. Facebook and Twitter would be legally required to remove your updates if there is a question of copyright infringement. 

SOPA and PIPA are “meant” for foreign websites. But the opportunity for abuse – at both the brand and personal levels – is immense. A chilling effect may be the least of our worries.

(Betsy Parkins)

ND&P designer, Grace Milburn shares her process in creating our 2011 Holiday card. Want in on the fun? Print your own card here.

For me, the idea for the printed card was more of a "Eureka" moment.  I had been talking to Grant (senior designer at ND&P) at his desk one day and saw a box behind him with printed triangles on it.  It gave me the idea that maybe we could do some sort of 3-dimensional card, resulting in origami or some sort of paper craft.  After doing some research, I found a shape that was holiday appropriate and ran from there.  The biggest challenge was definitely figuring out how to make the paper craft work.  What I mean by that is, how do the tabs attach to each other? How does it fold? Where are the different patterns supposed to go? I found a basic template online for the shape I wanted which was a good basis, but going beyond that was definitely where it got more challenging.  By the time our senior management group saw the final product, I had probably put together and taken apart the star at least 15 times to make sure it worked.  The original idea never changed from beginning to end, but the star definitely got less complex (with fewer points) and the template changed to make the star more stable.

(Grace Milburn)

Please click here to view the full article

Like excellence, the word innovation is often overused in healthcare, frequently espoused in well-intended promotional materials lacking in any real substance. Referred to indiscriminately, innovation is a nice feel-good notion. But implemented strategically, it can mean the difference between performing on par with the industry and achieving exceptional success that includes defining strong healthcare brands, serving as a magnet for patients and employees, and increasingly changing the way healthcare is practiced.

True innovation is a powerful concept with an inherently unique capacity to align people, foster creativity, and bring significant improvement to existing processes or transformational change to whole systems and industries.

In a recent article for the Journal of Healthcare Management, Ian Lazarus and I explore some of the ways health systems are fostering true innovation, partnering with outside industries to bring new products to market and improving the healthcare delivery system.

Below are a few of the tools and ideas you can use to help your organization or team become more innovative and a link to the full article appearing in the Journal: 

• Fostering Innovation – While there is no one single or right approach to increasing innovation within an organization, healthcare executives looking for ways to tap into the innovation spring can benefit from adopting some of these successful core concepts.
   
• Think Big—and Small – For healthcare institutions, incremental improvements can often be easier to implement yet over time have an additive effect that makes their impact even more potent. Such is the case with many Lean and Six Sigma tools that allow performance improvement efforts to focus equally on low-hanging fruit and true breakthrough improvement opportunities.
• Be Open to Everyone – Innovations can come from anywhere and anyone in an organization. Whether someone works in patient care, information systems, housekeeping, or patient records, she has ideas that can lead to real innovation.
• Look Everywhere for Inspiration – Healthcare organizations can benefit from analyzing the fields of retail, banking, and even aerospace.
• Use Your Resources – Consider finding a book that profiles a company or industry that has gone from good to great and purchasing a copy for every member of your management team.
  
• Build Your Brain – While good ideas do sometimes pop out of nowhere, the most successful and sustainable innovation arises from structured processes and a multidisciplinary approach to creative brainstorming.  
  
• Bust Through the Best Practices Ceiling – While identifying best practices can be immensely helpful in shaping the landscape and framing possible improvements, best practices rarely lead to meaningful innovations.
• Crowdsource Innovation – One rising approach to innovation and idea-generation is crowdsourcing—mass collaboration. While the technique is not without its limitations and pitfalls, crowdsourcing can be a powerful creative tool.  

Innovation or Stagnation? Crossing the Creativity Gap in Healthcare by R. Lazarus, FACHE, Director, KP OnCall LLC, and Senior Advisor, Creative Healthcare, and Daniel Fell, Executive Vice President, Neathawk Dubuque & Packett appears in the November/December 2011 issue of the Journal of Healthcare Management 

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

That, of course, is the voice-over script for the now famous “Think Different” television spot—the anchor of the “Steve Jobs’ Returns to Save Apple” phenomenon in 1997.

100 hundred words it runs, a phenomenally verbose spot in a medium where “show, don’t tell” had been a well-established mantra for years.

The spot’s “wordiness” is just one of the ways the work reflects its “think different” essence: using black-and-white photography; including an apparent grammatical faux pas in the tag line; featuring cultural icons, many deceased, like Einstein and Jimi Hendrix, and others not highly recognizable; never once mentioning a product, benefit or call-to-action.

Rightly, Jobs, San Francisco ad agency TBWA/Chiat/Day and creative legend Lee Clow have received the lion’s share of credit for the campaign; and like so many such campaigns, specific credit for certain aspects aren’t all that easily nailed down.

Copywriter Ken Segall, the man who put the “i” in iMac, is credited with the script, and has acknowledged that art director Craig Tanimoto conjured up the essential “Think Different” theme line.

It’s clear from reading Walter Jacobson’s recently published bio—Steve Jobs—that Jobs was always very hands-on, perfectly setting the agenda strategically, giving key agency players unprecedented access to proprietary R&D, even changing a word here and there in scripts.

The phrase, “push the human race forward” was Jobs’ en total and captures the motivation for his entire professional life, something he understood from his garage days with Wozniak.

While Jacobson makes no bones about presenting Jobs as a complex, volatile and sometimes cruel and maddening personality, it’s just as evident he truly “got” marketing. Upon Clow’s presentation of the “Think Different” campaign, Jobs openly wept, expressing his pure delight at seeing his vision realized so perfectly.

Moving someone to feel something is always an ad man’s goal. Moving a client to tears of joy may be the ultimate reward.

The book, by the way, is excellent—well worth each of its 600+ pages.

(Doug Cook)

Thanksgiving is full of some of our favorite things (or should we say “foods?”), so we polled our own ND&Pers for some scrumptious statistics, and here’s what we found:

What We're Eating

• On the “favorite pie” front, just over 1 in 3 claim PUMPKIN the winner (36%)

• Don’t fret, nut lovers – PECAN came in a close second at 27%

• Other pie preferences ranged from basics like chocolate and apple, to more exotic options such as coconut and mincemeat.
  
  

When it comes to sides, we like our spuds. About 32% of us claimed favorites in some form: sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes or potato salad. Almost 23% voted for a carb-cousin in either dressing or stuffing.

"Light Meat vs. Dark Meat" 64% of us raise our hands for light meat, 18% for both, 14% for dark and 4% may just be reaching for Tofurky (since they don’t eat meat)

In the big “dressing vs. stuffing” debate (think of stuffing as something that goes in the bird, and dressing as something that gets baked in a pan – though here, too, there is some gray area on definitions), 55% of us like our dressing and 27% of us go for stuffing. If you’re wondering about that “missing” percent – they either indulge in both, or are deep in discussion on the difference between the two.

“Least Favorite Side Dish” resulted in NO clear consensus. Of any kind. Apparently we dislike a wide variety of things – from “weird jello with fruit/any gelatin item” and “anything store bought” to faithful side dishes like green bean casserole and cranberries.

“Favorite Leftovers,” on the other hand, gave “turkey” the landslide victory, but many of us aren’t picky, claiming “whatever is available” or “all of them” as our favorites. And what do we do with that leftover turkey? You probably guessed it – 68% of us reach for bread and make a tantalizing turkey sandwich. When we’re tired of those, we opt for soup or turkey tetrazzini. And a few poor souls are simply left asking “what leftovers?”

What We’re Doing 

"Traveling vs. hosting" 41% of us are bravely hosting this auspicious feast, with the rest of us heading to a friend or relative’s (or even a restaurant)…(maybe that will get us out of having to do any dishes?)

Just for fun, we wondered how old we were the last time we sat at the kids’ table. Some of us don’t have a kids’ table, btw, but for those who did many of us were sitting there well into (or past) our teens. Some of us don’t remember (14% - maybe our memories are fuzzy?). And some of us (23%) are still sitting there - but don’t seem to mind it. We’re either sitting there next to our own young children, or enjoying it as a “drama-free table.”

And last – we were curious how big our family gatherings are. A significant 64% of us sit down to a Thanksgiving meal with 10 or more people, while the rest of us enjoy a more intimate company.

Those are some of our statistics, but in the big picture they’re just numbers. They don’t really do the holiday justice, so we asked our staff to share some of their Thanksgiving adventures and stories – and trust us, they’re worth the read!

Thanksgiving is (finally) here! Check out our fun tales of tradition and trickery as ND&P shares what we like to do on Turkey Day. For a more analytical breakdown, take a look at Thanksgiving 2011: By the Numbers.

Thanksgiving is a very important holiday for me. My Grandmother and my Great Grandmother tasked me with keeping the family together. Every year, it is hard having dinner without them, but I know that they are smiling down on me as I attempt to cook dinner for my family. As my Grandma, AKA Mama Joe used to say, “Cook and they will come.” So again this year, I plan to have anywhere from 30-40 people in my house. It’s crowded, but it just brings us all closer together. But watch the elbows as my cousin has been known to bite one that got in his way while eating. Happy Thanksgiving All.

 - Shannon Burnett

I've realized that most of my Thanksgiving stories involve:

• abuse of the elderly (me and my sisters hiding our great aunts' cigarettes) 
• abuse of children (cheating at hide-and-seek with my much, much younger cousins--I'd go inside while they were looking for me.)

  -Jason Anderson

One year a friend of mine wrapped a turkey in a blue blanket to keep it warm on the way to Thanksgiving. The turkey was warm - but covered in blue fuzz. So she had to "defuzz" it before serving!

 - Betsy Parkins

I remember one year when the dressing was forgotten in the oven and it burnt before it could be rescued. However, it’s second only to the turkey at our holiday (very old family recipe), so it didn’t really faze anyone. We all cut off the burnt bits and enjoyed it anyway!

 -Shaun-Amanda Herrmann

My favorite thing to do on Thanksgiving Day is the Turkey Trot – a 10k run through the University of Richmond area!

  -Susan Dubuque

15 years ago was a Thanksgiving to remember. You may not even remember that year, but we know it as the day the turkey bowl attacked my father.

It started off as a drama-free delicious meal. After, my grandmother and mom were doing dishes in the kitchen talking up a storm. My dad decided to let the tryptophan from the turkey take over and plopped down for a nap on the couch. That couch was directly below the cut-out in the wall to the kitchen with a countertop looming over his sleepy little head. Mid-nap, the turkey-shaped dish launched off the counter still full of cranberry sauce. (Let me mention the fact that I know the bowl was still full because it was every year. My grandmother made the worst gelatinous cranberry sauce on the planet.) My father shot up off the couch screaming and confused. He had a tiny gash on his forehead that probably did produce a small amount of blood. But, from the cranberry sauce, it looked like a murder scene.

Long story short, he had to go to the ER for stitches. No hard feelings once everyone could laugh about it. I love the humor of my grandmother because she made sure to specifically have that in her will go to my father when she passed away.
-Desiree Pillsbury

I married into a musical family (think Von Traps) - so we'll break out the instruments and song books. It's a veritable band geek festival, and I love it.

 -Dave Peterson

My cousin burnt a hole in the turkey while defrosting it in the microwave. You have no idea how bad burnt turkey can smell. Gross.

  -Janae Johnson

Around 1986, my then-best friend and fellow copywriter Steve Parker and I were at loose ends over Thanksgiving. Bizarrely, we ate two Thanksgiving Day meals together—at the local Waffle House.

Guinness Book of World Records aside,we were certain this “feeding feat” had never previously been, um, achieved.

So, there was that.  

Entertaining ourselves was no problem. University of Tennessee grads, sons of newspaper lifers who’d migrated from journalism into advertising, same age, roughly the same passions—writing, music, movies, books and the fairer gender . . . and fabled Waffle House culture—we shared some common ground.

We both had even worked—at different times—with Chattanooga native Steve Holland, then with UPI in Paris, soon to be Reuters’ White House correspondent.

Far from hearth and home, we scarcely felt deprived. Amidst shouting waitresses—“egg plate over, scattered, smothered covered, dry raisin, sausage!!”—the din of truckers, travelers and random wayward souls eating, commiserating and feeding the jukebox, we hashed over almost everything. The meaning of life; the soulful Baltimore brilliance of Barry Levinson’s Diner; the still-perplexing machinations behind Bubble Puppy’s 1968  hit, “Hot Smoke & Sassafras.”

And we disassembled and re-assembled our long languishing screenplay: “The Man Who Would Beijing.”

Charlene shouted: “Hash browns—all the way—scattered, smothered, covered, chunked, capped and topped!!!”+

That was the topper we’d been waiting for.

+ Recently added hash brown option: “Country”—that’s with sausage gravy. For those scoring at home, that brings Da House’s hash brown accouterment options to, um, eight.  
  -Doug Cook

Executive VP Danny Fell gives us an inside look at the test launch of Project Pegasus...

Over the past few weeks, NDP staffers Ed Sunder, Tim Ritzema, Damon Crumley and Dave Peterson have been working with a science class at Chattanooga Christian School in Chattanooga, TN, to design and build a low atmosphere balloon to attempt near space photography and test the recording and tracking capabilities of several new, low cost digital devices. On Friday, November 11, a small team conducted a test launch to evaluate what they have built so far. The maiden test flight gave us some amazing images, as well as useful information for possible future improvements, and was deemed a success. 

The device consists of a durable box containing three digital video cameras, two gps units and a cell phone tethered to a low atmosphere balloon which holds approximately 180 cu ft of helium and connected to a recovery parachute. At about 90,000 feet the balloon pops and the parachute brings the device safely back down to earth. In the links below you can see some of the preparation for the launch and some actual still photos recovered from the device. 

Stay tuned to hear more about the project and the next test flight. To learn more, check out the following links: 

Photos of the preparation and launch.

Images captured from Pegasus.

Watch the launch and flight video.

A satellite tracking map (it landed about 100 miles east of Chattanooga in the mountains of north GA and our team recovered the device late Friday night).

(Danny Fell)

I was asked not long ago what winning a Summit Award meant to me and to my organization. It didn’t take me long to answer. And my answer was confirmed again last Friday at the 2011 Blue Ridge Chapter, PRSA Summit Awards Gala.

Summit Awards are about excellent clients: clients who have a vision and a strong determination to make their vision a reality. ND&P is blessed to work with and collaborate with dozens of such clients. They believe in strategic, effective, creative communication. They have their eye on business goals, without a doubt. But they genuinely plan for their communication to have a positive effect on – and honestly engage – their audiences.

On Friday our clients, Carilion Clinic, Downtown Roanoke, Inc., AnMed Health and Lifestyle Spirits, brought home 12 Summit Awards – more than half of them Gold Awards, the highest honor.

I was happy for the ND&P teams who work so hard. But I was even happier for our clients.

(Betsy Parkins)

Sure, we’re fearless when it comes to advertising, but even the best of us have that certain thing that makes our hair stand on end. We asked our staff about their fears and they came back with some very interesting stories. Some of us have overcome them, but not all of us are quite as lucky. From rats to cats, it looks like these fears plan on haunting us forever.

The Ghouley Monster
When I was four I was terrified of the Ghouley Monster. I'd never actually seen the Ghouley Monster, only heard him make strange scratching/moaning noises. Much to my mom's chagrin (and later, great annoyance), the Ghouley Monster was my dad's idea of a practical joke. Sitting on the back porch, he'd secretly scratch on the screen door and make ghost sounds. I thought for sure this massive, five-headed, multi-colored being was about to snatch me away. Needless to say, I required that all my bedroom furniture be moved so I didn't have to sleep facing the window; that my bookshelf be moved in front of said window; that a giant stuffed animal sleep with me so I could hide; that a bright nightlight be installed so I could see every square inch of my bedroom; and that my parents respond to my bedside the very second I needed them at night. I'm fairly certain that after several months of sleep deprivation, my dad HATED the Ghouley Monster.

-Betsy Parkins

Gus, from AMCs “Breaking Bad”
Gustavo “Gus” Fring, with his thousand-mile stare and insatiable taste for cold-hearted revenge, makes your standard issue horror character seem like so much cardboard. He’s an international drug kingpin posing as upright-citizen owner of the Los Pollos Hernandos fast food franchise, seeming to possess an other-worldly anticipation for his foe’s next step. 

Anyway, during a dream a few days after the recent Season 4 finale, Gus—decked out in full meth-lab regalia and wielding a box cutter—chased me down a shadowy passageway (Jack’s Alley?)!

I woke up in a cold sweat, craving tacos. . .

*Spoiler Alert* We may take some solace from the season’s closing scene, during which Gus is blown up and appears as a robotic “two-face,” one side revealing mechanical inner-workings. In typical “buttoned-down Gus” fashion, he expires straightening his tie—but is he really gone?

-Doug Cook

Public Speaking
I used to be afraid of PUBLIC SPEAKING.  I’d practically have a panic attack beforehand – but the minute I got started I was fine.  The solution was to just keep doing it.  Now I love speaking and teaching.

-Susan Dubuque

Heights
As a kid, and leading into adulthood, I was afraid of heights - more specifically falling to my death. This was most prevalent on bridges. It came from an (perhaps irrational) distrust of the folks who made the building, railing, or horror of horrors - bridge I was on. It was sure to fail and I and all that I loved were doomed to a tragic end.

This fear was overcome in a couple of ways. One, the Army made me climb and scale things that would scare even those not usually afraid of heights. This taught me that even if something was dangerous you could train yourself to overcome the danger. The second thing I learned was to trust things that were made for a purpose and in good repair. I learned this first in the Army, then later with the fire department. This lead me from being one who just about had a panic attack crossing the Ohio river to someone who has repelled out of helicopters, worked ladder company in the fire department and was part of a cliff and cave rescue team.

-Dave Peterson

Snakes
I am deeply terrified of snakes. I can’t even look of pictures of them. It is so bad that belts have to be put away without any curves in them and out of sight. My brother use to roll up belts outside of the bathroom door and open the encyclopedia to the colorful page of snakes. It would make me think that they were coming out of the page. Almost like a 3-D effect.

-Shannon Burnette 

Mice
I am terrified of mice.  When I was little, one popped out of my top chest of drawers and ran down the front of my shirt.  Even now I still open that top drawer with anxiety.

-Denise Rushing 

Everything
I am afraid of rats, roaches, birds…I think they are great from a distance…their beaks creep me out. I just try to stay away from them. Oh yeah, and I don’t like dark, empty country roads, they make me think of horror movies and I think something is going to jump out of the woods. I always lock my doors and keep my brights on.  

-Ana Costa

Um...lol
Rats, thermonuclear holocausts and neckties.

-Mac Calhoun

Camel Crickets
I can handle most of the random scarier insects that invade my home (if you consider “handle” to include an initial shriek followed by a quick run for a broom and perhaps some frantic dancing around). But camel crickets are some unnatural phenomenon and freak of nature that surely don’t qualify as your run-of-the-mill “bug.” What other creature of such diminutive size is so fearless (or mindless) as to come after YOU? It doesn’t seem to matter how quickly you move to eject one from your home, it will invariably end up clinging to your pants leg, jumping on your arm or simply settle for chasing you around the room. And those suckers get BIG. I’d much rather chase a bug, than be chased by one… I’m sure my dog would, too. 

-Shaun Amanda Herrmann

Candyman
The year was 1992 and I made the worst decision 11 year old me could have possibly made– I watched the movie Candyman.  I am a fan of most horror movies and was totally unaffected by Freddie, Jason and Michael Myers. I feel like I may have even cheered them on at some point in time.  So imagine my surprise when one viewing of Candyman scarred me for life. Seriously. Even the music that runs at the credits is enough to make me freak out.  You know what, I’m just going to stop here, I’ve already said his name three times too many. I honestly don’t need him showing up with that hook.

-Janae Johnson

(Happy Halloween from ND&P)
 

Sometimes I’m afraid my cat Snickerdoodle will be the death of me.

I know it’s just how he shows love, but he’s always weaving in and out of my legs when I’m going down the stairs with the laundry basket.  We’re not all as sure-footed as you, Snickers!  Then there’s the way he’ll suddenly jump out at me from nowhere. I swear, he’s going to give me a heart attack one of these days! I guess it’s just part of being a pet owner, but if that big swooshy tail of his accidentally knocks the rat poison into my cereal bowl one more time, the kitchen counter is going to be off-limits to a certain four-legged troublemaker!

You cat lovers will appreciate this: I spent twenty bucks on a really nice scratching post for Snickerdoodle (the kind with the fuzzy ball on top), but Mr. Stubborn-Puss insists on scratching everything EXCEPT his post. Mostly my face and eyes. Usually while I’m asleep. Now I have to wear a hockey mask to bed. Krazy kitty!!

Also, he hid my heart medicine. And my inhaler.

Snickerdoodle must have some kind of vitamin deficiency because loves chewing on things. If it’s not the brake lines in my car, it’s the rope that holds up the heavy, razor-sharp crystal chandelier hanging over my bed. He even chewed up the end of an extension cord and brought it to me while I was in the tub! Um, hello? Aren’t cats supposed to bring their owners dead mice—and not frayed wires and live poisonous snakes and lit sticks of dynamite? What a rascal!

Like a lot of cats, Snickerdoodle thinks he’s people. Sorry, li’l doodle, but kitty-cats aren’t allowed to change the beneficiary on someone’s life insurance policy—no matter how cute your fuzzy little face is! And I hate to break it to you, furball, but most people know the difference between “On” and “Off” on the gas for the fireplace. No more “cat”-astrophes, please!

But I guess that’s the trade-off of having a pet. In exchange for loyal companionship and an endless supply of snuggles, you put up with the extra vacuuming, the litter box, and the occasional sip of Drano that somehow got into the coffee pot.

Like just now, I got up to fix the smoke detector (it’s always getting disconnected) and find another pile of oily rags that Snickerdoodle brought in through his cat door. Anyway, by the time I got back to my computer, you-know-who had walked all over the keyboard and accidentally purchased a mail-order shotgun. Again.

Oh, Snickerdoodle. You kill me!

(John Griessmayer)