Shhh…don’t tell the RIAA. Happy Friday, all.

Apparently, the spot was released as an attempt at a viral video timed to coincide with Babywearing Week. I haven’t confirmed if it was released on Motrin.com since the site is currently is in full-on “fail whale” 404 status.

While my delicate sensibilities as a dad and, on the rare occasion, former slingwearer were not damaged, I had to get the unbiased opinion of the missus. While our kids were in the nursing and slingwearing stage, she would medicate her aches and pains with Motrin and the occasional glass of red wine.  The first gasp came at the :14 mark with line “Supposedly, it’s a real bonding experience.” The are-you-fucking-kidding-me? moment came at :37 with “Plus it totally makes me look like an official mom.” After a moment of stunned silence, my wife’s first reaction? “You need to forward that on to R.,” who happens to be our good friend and a licensed lactation consultant.

And that in a nutshell, boy and girls, is what happened on Twitter this past weekend en masse and also inspired a 9 minute protest response video. Forrester analytst Jeremiah Owyang has tracked the backlash by the numbers and the chatter paints an interesting story in and of itself. The tempest in the proverbial baby sling, if you will.

For the most part, I find myself on Steve Hall’s side of the fence in terms of reaction. After all, there are so many more important things to find “offensive” in this world… war, hunger, the raping of our environment, the fact that Carl Peterson is still the general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs. Instead, I just find the effort lazily ignorant. While the spot was designed to appeal to soccer mom, in the processs they pissed off alpha mom, who is incredibly wired in terms of her online communication habits and is highly likely to create the sort of groundswell both for and (in this case) against your brand.

So the final thing my wife said to me before she headed off to work this morning?

“If I get a headache today, I’m totally taking a fucking Tylenol.”

This past weekend, I put the finishing touches on my deck with the help of my buddy and resident woodworking wizard Timo. It’s been nice to hang out there these past few weeks and enjoy the quietude of the backyard. I’m thrilled with the finished product and can’t wait to really break it in next summer.

Tonight I’m speechless. In this historic moment, I find myself nervous for the future but optimistic on what it could bring. I voted for Barack Obama, yes. But in the process I also promised myself to take a more active role in my community moving forward, to give what I could on a personal level to make my chosen corner of the world a little better. That’s a promise I intend to keep. 

So there’s a smile on my face and a bit of a knot in my stomach, but it’s a mixed feeling that I recognize.

This is what the beginnings of change feels likes. And it starts with me.

- Princeton publishes how-to guide for hacking Sequoia e-voting machines: Crap like this just scares the ever-living shit out of me. I'm all for technology, but there is a point where our analog ancestry starts to make more sense.

- 2007 to 2008 Social Technographic Data Indicates Increase In Adoption: Marking this to dig into more later. At first glance, the changes are rather startling, with adoption rates climbing faster than I would have anticipated.

- Students Competing For Slots At Elite Colleges Resorting To “Facebook Sabotage”: I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them learn to backstab. Show them all the bile they have inside. Give them a sense of deviousness to make it easier. Let the children's evil laughter remind us of how we have grown to be.

- Low-Cost Multi-point Interactive Whiteboards Using the Wiimote: How low cost? How does $50 and a few hours strike you?

- Attention economy: It's amazing some of the corners of the web that grab you from time to time. For instance, take this little nugget from Wikipedia…

Yet as the interactive flavor-of-the-moment for marketers and advertisers alike, it’s important to remember that only 23.4% of Americans currently participate in social networks [via Universal McCann]. Also keep in mind that of that user base, 78% participate in two to three different social networks [via William Blair & Company]. While that’s helpful from a frequency standpoint for advertisters that are active on multiple social networks, consideration needs to be given to how that possibly impacts reach.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s obviously a HUGE opportunity for brands crafting a presence within social networks and new case studies are coming out every day regarding brands that are doing it successfully. But before you add “Facebook” as part of a punchlist of executions on your next digital campaign for no other reason that “just because,” ask yourself this one important question: do I have a message that will be relevant and of value to the community I’m looking to engage? If you can’t answer “yes” or not sure of the answer, then it’s time to reconsider your approach.

If you’re going to join the virtual cocktail party, you have to avoid being that one guest that gets drunk on the host’s dime and can only talk about themself. That’s the surest way to end up on the front porch alone, yelling at passing cars and wondering why all the other guests are avoiding you.

While there’s little doubt that this current presidential election has been historic on a number of levels, it certainly has been an incredible study in the power of interactive marketing and the establishment of a robust digital dialogue with voters.

Though this has translated into a number of different tactical efforts from both campaigns, perhaps one of the more unexpected executions is the appearance of in-game Obama campaign ads in the latest version of the Xbox 360 title Burnout Paradise.

Sure, the notion of Obama campaigning in a virtual world may be an amusing thought, but remember this: according to eMarketer, overall US in-game advertising spends reached $295 million in 2007 and is predicted to reach $650 million by 2012. This number includes more than just console games for Xbox and Playstation, but online, PC and casual gaming sites as well.

And before you start to think that in-game advertising is all about reaching a teen, young adult audience or the geeks that still live in mom’s basement, thing again. According to the Entertainment Software Association, “four out of 10 US video gamers in July 2008 were female and that women ages 18 and older accounted for one-third of game players, compared with only 18% for boys ages 17 and younger.”

- advergirl: Practical advice on social media and your marketing mix: Advergirl does it again with a tight presentation on determining if you and your brand is ready for a little social action.

- Mysteries: Why is Google afraid of links?: The death knell for link relevance when it comes to search engine optimization? It's called shutting down another black hat loophole.

- Sad Guys on Trading Floors: From the darkest recesses of the mad mind of Chris over at the816.com.

- New in Labs: Stop sending mail you later regret: Late night drunk email sending begone! Enter Google Mail Goggles!

- SXSW Downtown Hotel Giveaway!: Man, I gotta make SXSW this year…

- The ladder of participation in social media: Three quick hits on social media participation models.

As it’s been since mid-August that I last posted pics of the deck construction here (though I have a few more from late August after I got the railings on stashed away on Flickr), here’s the word: work stoppage.

One of things I knew I would have to deal with eventually was the fact that the power and phones lines run to the corner of the house right by the new deck and would drape dangerously low over the main steps leading to the deck from the driveway. The only answer to get this addressed properly would be to bury these lines.

IPL proved to be great to work with in this regard. I dealt with responsive and friendly folks that first tried to get FEMA preventative maintenance money for me — apparently, there are were some Federal dollars out there recently to bury lines in certain areas so as to lessen the damage that can be done by ice and wind. When that didn’t pan out, they outlined their standard deal: a line burial for $750, with allowances for zero interest payment plans that can be extended as long as 5 years and tacked on to my monthly utility bill. (Balance payable if we move before then, of course.)

Um…duh. I’ll take door #1, Monty.

The guys that came out to trench the 116′ run from the service pole to the house were super careful around the deck. They even bored under a sidewalk for about 5 feet at no extra charge. And just when I was wondering when the electricians would come by to do the dirty work of connecting everything, I came home today to find all the work complete.

But let’s not forget about that phone line. While we ditched our land line back in October of last year, I figure that maintaining a connected line to the house is kind of one of those expected selling points. But given that I’m now on day 4 of trying to reach a living and breathing human at AT&T to get the current service changed from an aerial drop (hung) to a buried drop (um…buried), I’m ready to take a hatchet to the damn thing and call it done. Better judgement (read: the missus) is keeping that from happening.

So the next time you’ll hear from me will be after it’s finished, with pretty pictures of everything and close-ups of charred animal flesh cooking up on the new grill. I’m shooting for two weeks to call this one done.

It’s my birthday, so you’re just going to have to pardon the narcissistic self-indulgence of me waxing nostalgic. Deal with it. By the way, this post has a soundtrack; just hit play above and read on…

I don’t think there’s much special about turning 33. A bit of morbid curiosity lead me to the Wikipedia article titled “List of people who died in their thirties.” Some interesting folks have bitten it at 33. All things considered, I still hope to get quite a bit more done before I have to call it a life. But the other thing I noticed is that some interesting folks had also accomplished quite a bit by the time they were 33. Alexander the Great…Franz Schubert…Bruce Lee…Eazy E…Bill Hicks…Lester Bangs.

You know those times (that I think we all share) where one becomes painfully self-conscious about personal potential, wondering whether or not we’re making the grade, cosmically speaking? I find those moments popping up with more regularity the older I get. Yet the interesting thing is that lately, I been getting pretty good at keeping those feelings in check and using them as deep breaths of motivational energy.

In all honesty, getting older doesn’t really bother me. I feel good about the experiences I’ve had, blessed by the love of family and friends and maybe just a little wiser for the years that have passed. Sure, sometimes I wonder if I could have gotten where I am today (experientially speaking) a little faster. 

Maybe.

But that’s when I remind myself that it’s all about the journey, not necessarily the destination.