Can't we make it more sexy and cool? Shutterstock

In The Mood

OOH …Here’s One Thing

By OOH TODAY believes all voices, not just the loudest, must be heard Last updated Mar 18, 2024

Shutterstock

Can’t we make it more sexy and cool?

OOH …Here’s One Thing

In The Mood

by Jim Johnsen,
Managing Director, Johnsen, Fretty & Company

If the outdoor business were a piece of music, it would be a _____.

Just like coffee black or whiskey neat, it tastes like shit the first time, but with enough patience and an open mind, it soon becomes gold. Yes, I am talking about Jazz here. Am I the only one feeling like it’s been relegated to the record books?

I went to the dentist the other day to have another tooth pulled (one of the many side benefits of night grinding for decades) and he asked me if he could “enhance” my experience by playing music of my choice. Damn, a dentist with a sense of humor…that’s rarified air. As my tooth pulsated away…without missing a beat, I said how about some Miles Davis? Surely enough, the two attractive young dental assistants, with medieval equipment in both hands, immediately busted out a quizzical look. Luckily the oral surgeon who had at least three decades plus on hand and was worldly enough to have slipped an “Intro to Music” class beside his “Organic Chemistry” and “Molecular Biology” came to my rescue, stating that while 90% or his patients request Country under such circumstances, he thought Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong were peachy. Okay, we are getting somewhere; at least we’re in the neighborhood.

Exactly 20 minutes later, after Miles Davis – “So What”, Ella Fitzgerald – “They Can’t Take That Away from Me”, Charlie Parker – “Now’s The Time”, Louis Armstrong – “St. James Infirmary” and Billie Holiday – “Trav’ln Light”, I was using the contactless payment option at the front desk. Two items of note. First, who knew that Spotify has an AI “humor” feature, second, am I the last man standing to respect the Album art form? When I asked for Miles Davis, I was asking for The Birth of Cool or Bitches Brew, not the Spotify jazz radio channel. Hey but instead of giving me a crummy toy to take home he handed me my split tooth to keep. So, as Bill Murray says, at least I got that goin’ for me.

Kidding aside, if you have never listened to the genre, or have never seen the word jazz except when watching a hoops game, I would strongly encourage you to try it. Like the right coffee black or the dram of single malt neat, it’s indescribably complex, rich, and fluid.

Damn Johnsen, you just burnt another 5 minutes on my Monday morning and left me scratching my head. What’s the point? Well if Elon Musk is playing jazz, I think we, as an industry, are playing the Monkees. Nothing against the Monkees, but let’s face it, the music was pretty simple.

Okay toothless, you lost me. What are you really trying to say? One of my favorite Miles Davis quotes was: “If you understood everything I said, you’d be me”. But with that said, at a high level I am trying to say that as an industry do we challenge ourselves to drive the medium to more complex places? At the drastic risk of redundancy, do we always need to sell it by the pound? Can’t we sell art alongside the art supplies? Can’t we make it more sexy and cool? Instead of interfacing with the buyer on a repetitive 3-chord beat, can’t we bring them into a jazz standard? Do we have to run our large organizations like the rhythm from “Have You Never Been Mellow” instead of Dave Brubeck’s “Take 5”? Aka, while structured around some rules… it’s ever-changing, organic, improvisational, inclusive, risk-taking and fun. Or as Miles Davis also said, “Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there”.