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A great joy of working in an agency environment is interacting with the rich mix of interesting and creative people it takes to develop great communication. One of those folks here at GlynnDevins is writer Charles Harris. Charles is always sharing his eclectic collection of news and notes internally, and we thought our growing community of GlynnDevins blog readers would find Charles’ take just as refreshing. So take a walk through Charles’ world and look for more musings every month or so – he does have a day job you know.

Notes from a dimly lit cubicle.

• Asked why he moved to a CCRC, one man said, “I’d had enough mowing.”

• When I read about banner blindness, where my brain doesn’t recognize an online advertising banner even though my eyes see it, I think I must’ve missed a lot. I suppose I’ll never know.

• The word “enjoy” is bone-weary after years of overuse in advertising and by wait staff.

• Travel tip: If three carnivorous women target a hotdog restaurant for lunch, a vegetarian copywriter traveling with them can make do with tater tots and a milkshake.

• Print, direct mail and broadcast are passive. The web isn’t. “Linear vs. non-linear. Author-driven vs. reader-driven. Storytelling vs. ruthless pursuit of actionable content. Anecdotal examples vs. comprehensive data. Sentences vs. fragments.” (Jakob Nielsen) Understanding this changes everything about writing and designing for the web.

• Once championed for its response-boosting effectiveness, now neglected. I seldom see a Johnson Box in direct mail letters anymore.

• Travel tip: Everybody knows Houston has 2 airports. If you inadvertently drop off your rental at the wrong one and amble off looking for the Southwest terminal that isn’t there, call for Luis, the High-Speed Cabbie. And tell him his new friends at GlynnDevins say hello.

• Interviewing retirement community residents for testimonial ad campaigns is almost as energizing for the GlynnDevins writers as Starbucks.

• Among my “Friends” on Facebook, it looks like the most active are those who’re burning the midnight oil in Farmville.

• From a 72-year study of 268 men that began in the 1930s: “Their lives were too human for science, too beautiful for numbers, too sad for diagnosis and too immortal for bound journals.” A rather nice way to think of our target demographic.

And life goes on. So far.

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