OOH …Here’s One Thing
by Jim Johnsen,
Managing Director, Johnsen, Fretty & Company
Miami 2017 (I’ve Seen the Lights Go Down on Broadway)
“Confidence is 10% hard work and 90% delusion.” Tiny Fey.
How’s that for the start of your Monday morning? And if that’s not enough, I have two other items that I want to sting your neurons with. The first and the easier of the two is driven by an article I recently read in the Atlantic. It was a first hand account by a veteran of the Iraq war’s first sighting of his buddy’s memorial sign:
“South of downtown Columbus, Ohio, lost on the way to a tailgate, I saw the road sign bearing his name. The brown aluminum placard flashed between passing cars. I’d been holding my phone, listening to directions, and I dropped it. I could hardly make out the words on the sign, and then it disappeared behind semis, but I knew what they said: Army Specialist Nicholas E. Zimmer Memorial Highway. Fifteen years earlier, when he’d been killed by a rocket-propelled grenade near Kufa, Iraq…”
The basic premise of this long and heartfelt article is these sign memorials that now litter our interstate systems are not enough and have become an pathetic way to honor our fallen heroes.
“After Nick’s sign was installed, in a 2014 article about its dedication and placement, Ohio Representative Cheryl Grossman said, “This is very important … Let us never forget.” But with a similar memorial sign every few miles or so, how could we remember?”
I couldn’t agree more. But it got me thinking. Aren’t we communication specialists and sign experts in the Outdoor Advertising Industry? Maybe we can make something a little more special for those that gave their lives for us than a shitty monochromatic 4’x 6′ aluminum sign more akin to a tourist oriented directional sign (TODS) that is seen everywhere. Talk about a great cause for the industry and the OAAA to get behind! Hey maybe there is even a win win here somewhere? We dedicate some REAL digital signage to the fallen heroes and in exchange pick up some new signage rights? Am I out to lunch?
Speaking of out to lunch…at a recent lunch (ya believe it or not that still a thing for some of us) someone mentioned “The Great Reset” to me. Ever hear of it? Neither did I. Understand it?…I haven’t the foggiest…but I can tell you over the next couple weeks I am going to dig in as this environmental, social and political movement appears to be big. Depending upon which side of the mechanical bull you fall on, it’s either the greatest thing ever, or Ray Bradbury was finally right. The best I can tell, one side is pushing to never go back to the way it was. Their premise is we can have less destructive industries, we can work in different ways than in the past and the profit motive needs to take a back seat to other goals. For those on the other side, “The Great Reset (TGR)” is a way for world leaders to grab and consolidate power, to control industry, to dictate who wins and who gets wiped out and to most importantly to eliminate democracy. WTF Johnsen, that is some crazy shit. NSS. I will be checking back in on this one in a few weeks. Anyone with a good understanding of this TGR…please report to homeroom after school. I am all ears.
For your reference:
Highways Are an Ever-Expanding Museum of American Wars – The Atlantic
The Great Reset | Reset and shape the future
‘Liberal’ news host explains why The Great Reset is VERY CONCERNING – Glenn Beck
What is the Great Reset – and how did it get hijacked by conspiracy theories? – BBC News
And lastly, can you believe this song was from 1980? Billy Joel was dialed in on the future! Listen here⇒Miami 2017 (Iv’e seen the lights go down on Broadway)
“You know those lights were bright on Broadway
That was so many years ago
Before we all lived here in Florida
Before the Mafia took over Mexico
There are not many who remember
They say a handful still survive
To tell the world about
The way the lights went out
And keep the memory alive”
jfco.com
Securities transacted through StillPoint Capital Member firm FINRA/SiPC
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