Wills & Co Media Strategies approached me with Do Over Day. For a viral campaign, it went totally bird flu. TV news and talk shows, radio stations, bloggers, surfers went nuts over it. Anyone who heard about it generally got caught up in it. The videographer, sent out to ask punters what their do overs would be, hit a pub in Cabbagetown, did some interviews, and when he returned a few hours later, everyone was still talking do overs.

I wrote the copy for dooverday.ca along with collateral — T-shirts, notepads, etc. — which I’ll post as soon as I can get my wife to shoot it all with her fancy-ass new camera that I can never get into focus.

Top design work by Laura at Messenger. Hope to be doing more with her, also my collaborator on the OurStage work.

jib.ca

George Argyropoulos, co-owner and CD of Jib Advertising & Design, asked me to write the copy for his company’s rethought site. We both agreed that nobody wants to read about your patented creative process, the zany company picnic or how many awards you’ve won. They just want to see what you can do for them.

This is that.

www.harmonyphi.com

One of many jobs I’ve worked up for master jeweller Michael daCosta of Fortunes Fine Jewellers (via Jib Advertising & Design).

Michael has long been fixated with the idea of phi, aka the Golden Ratio. In early ‘08 he designed a silver and gold pendant around the concept. He named it the HarmonyPhi and asked Jib, who brought me in, to launch it and tell the story. It’s available for Christmas ‘08 and is priced under $200.

Expect to hear more about this deviously clever product.

Our contribution to the greatest race ever won.

www.makeithappen4me.com

Make It Happen is a London, England-based collective of film, music, sports and fashion veterans who’ve pulled together to help young folk at risk of high naughtiness get into their respective industries. They came to me with no brief for the site. I spoke to them on the phone awhile, got the gist, and out came this. The group are already making it happen for many young sparks. The URL was taken, so ‘4me’ got tacked on the rear end somewhere along the way.

www.thedigitaltribe.com

The clients approached me to write up their concept for start-up Digital Tribe — namely, stories of three extinct societies that communicate metaphorically DT’s purpose in life. The UK firm, populated by dot-com and other tech veterans, invests in promising start-ups within the digital firmament. I like how it works, and especially, how it looks.

I wrote a letter to Conrad Black in prison and he wrote me back. Here are my letter and his reply (with typos):

Dear Mr Black,

I have been itching to write you for years, as I have been both an admirer of, and in occasional apoplectic opposition to, your ideas since I first heard of you in the 1980s. So, running through this weekend’s National Post and noting that it’s far less than half the paper it was in 1998, and seeing your article ‘The Good News from Iraq,’ I thought, it’s time to attempt commencing a correspondence with this man who so fascinates and bludgeons like no other commentator.

First thing, I truly miss the Conrad Black version of the Post. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first picked it up in 1998. I had goosebumps, I laughed out loud, I practically forced strangers sitting next to me in the diner to listen to me quote its many slashes of brilliance and common sense. Finally, Canada has a real newspaper. I miss it like a long-dead best friend. The current proprietors simply lack all qualifications to run a newspaper. All they possess is a collection of mistuned political horns blowing only to the benefit of their own wearisome corporate and political interests, which are ludicrously out of step with the times. For that first year or two under your ownership, it was the finest paper in history, at least that I’ve read or read about.

So what the hell am I bothering you for? Well, I’m not taking any issue with your Iraq article, because I’ve been too busy to be up to date enough to know if I agree or not. What I want to know, Mr Black, is what’s prison like? Do you have all the reading material you could ask for? Are you getting all the writing done that you’ve always wanted to get done? Do your wife and family get in to see you often? Is your wife holding up okay? Are you getting fit? Are the other kids being nice to you? Does time slog or chug along? My dinner party guests and I want to know. I mean, what could be more fascinating than the play-by-play on a life of privilege interrupted by prison? Tell the world what jail time’s doing to/for you and your ideas, what rubbing elbows with criminals and being in the penal system really means to a man like you. Is it humbling or emboldening or just dull as watching stone age. A daily dispatch in your best former paper is in order. Believe me, the world’s dying to know. Think of it as your way of taking back the Post without spending a nickel. Christ, somebody’s gotta.

But I also want to engage you on conservatism, which like you, has attracted and terrified me since I was old enough to vote. I lived in SE Asia for over a decade, and have seen the fruits of the Chicago School of economic liberation, as one Naomi Klein refers to it (by the way I recommend her new Shock Doctrine book — it’s neither as shrill nor as flagrantly leftish as you might expect, but is well researched, fairish and even kind of funny in places). I’ve seen first-hand all the horrors and benefits American politico-economic intervention has brought to countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Laos and Singapore, all of which I’ve lived and/or traveled in extensively. As a result of my own reading and eye-witnessing, I now believe that the classic right wing canon is simple justification for greed, selfishness and not helping your fellow citizen. However, I also realize that some citizens aren’t worthy of my help and should just be ignored or left to learn from their own mistakes, stupidity or ineptitude. I know I’ve learned from mine, wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’ll spare you the diatribe. Just like to engage, kick around ideas with people who have them. If you’re keen, reply. If not, may you rot. Kidding.

Stay strong,

Paul

Dear Mr. Fenn,

Thanks for your message. The answer to the first six questions following your “what’s prison like?” is yes. After five years of persecution, I measure events against the trend over that time. This place is not at all oppressive, much less dangerous. There has been no unpleasantness with anyone. It is not excessively regimental; I have practically unlimited email, media, and visitor access, and read a lot. I did not have a life of privilege, and have had worse times than this. I have always worked hard and still do. As you know, I won 80% of my case at trial, and the remaining counts are nonsense. I expect to dispose of them on appeal. I view my confinement like St. Thomas More viewed his hair shirt, though it is not voluntary. As the chances of my committing any illegalities re less than zero, an assault on this scale from the world’s most powerful and detested institution, (US govt.) took some getting usd to, but I feel I have held my corner quite well. I am philosophical and assimilate this interlude fairly effortlessly. Many of the people here are somewhat interesting and I have been able to confirm my ability to get on well with almost anyone. It is not humbling, not emboldening, and not especially dull. it’s what you make of it and I enjoy tutoring high school leaving candidates in English and teaching a weekly class in American history.

Thank you for your kind words about the NP and about my writing. Allowing people to do what they want and retain the fruits of their own efforts does lead to some garish and even sociopathic behaviour, but substituting the government for individual freedom produces worse consequences and never really works, other than in emergency national effort under inspired leadership toward a magnificent objective, as in the Anglo-American war effort under Churchill and Roosevelt. Best wishes to you.

Yours sincerely,
CONRAD BLACK

I get my share of unusual gigs, but a dental clinic’s wall was new. The idea was to educate kids about their choppers and reduce the fear by making them laugh. This also won an Applied Arts award.

Not sure if all were used, but these are the lines I supplied:

Bored?
Try moving only your upper jaw next time you chew.

Though their mouths are smaller than a pinhead, snails have 25,000 teeth. And no dentists.

You have 32 dependents.

You’re issued with 8 pre-molars.
Care for them and they’ll never become post-molars.

In his mouth George Washington had teeth from sheep, hippos, ivory and other people. He didn’t smile much.

Ninety-foot Blue whales can’t eat anything bigger than a shrimp.

Your 8 premolars are middle managers.
They do what front-office canines and backroom molars won’t.

You have four kinds of teeth.
Quick: What are they called?

No two teeth are identical. Even those of identical twins.

The words eat, tooth and dentist are all come from the same Proto-Indo-European root ed.

A tooth wort is not contagious – it’s a type of plant.

With over 40 sets of teeth in their life,
sharks can afford to bite anything that moves.

Some people naturally have fangs.
Try not to make them angry.

Tooth enamel is the toughest substance in your body. Unless you’re Wolverine.

Killer whales’ teeth interlock in a perfect smile.
If you see one while underwater, try to smile back.

Don’t care for your teeth and you earn commemorative plaque.

Gums often bleed the first few times you floss.

Most junk food is also bad for your teeth.

Pee-you! People once used old urine as mouthwash.

Engraved whales’ teeth are known as scrimshaw.
At least that’s what the whales tell us.

Pain-free dentistry is not an oxymoron.
Ask us about it.

Drinking lots of coffee gives teeth a tan.

Clean, healthy teeth say to the world,
“World, I don’t have grave personal hygiene issues.”

Are you a flossopher?

Always brush away from your gums,
or you’ll brush away your gums.

Your gums need your teeth need your gums.

Bad breath can indicate tooth decay.
(Or a great Caesar salad.)

A wise, but toothless, man once said,
“Wook affer yer heeff.”

Your baby teeth are your practice set.

Without a full set of teeth it’s hard to say,
“A full set of teeth.”

Pretzels are worse for your teeth than candy.

If you don’t throw out your toothbrush after a cold or flu, you can get the same cold or flu back again.

Q: What’s the worst thing in the world for teeth?
A: Ignorance.

Chew your food well – your stomach can’t.

Verity Club is a privately owned women’s club. Between the exceptional amenities, the sweetgrass spa, sweetgrass flowers, George restaurant and the boutique hotel (three gorgeous suites), it’s so fine an establishment it makes me wish I were a girl.

The club is owned by a family of smart, worldly people who don’t give a toss about prescribed communication practices. It shows in the ads they let us (Jib and I) get away with.

Until I get the proper functioning web banners posted I’ll make do with these murky screen grabs I wrote and suggested the art direction for. See more Verity work in Print.

www.ninety7.com

Client didn’t really change a word of my copy. That makes about five in 15 years in the business.