Wine Braves Long Ocean Journey

Like many a Latvian hooker, OCD is coming to America. AND, like those hookers, OCD is coming via shipping container, though there are no breathing holes drilled in our container. We've also had our container painted to attract as much attention as possible as we've been reading marketing books that suggest we should garner attention at all costs. In fact, the marketing book, called "Get Rich or Go To Jail" advocates a scorched-earth philosophy to marketing in the age of the 3 second attention span.  The theory is that if your not offending the minority, you'll never sell to the majority.  The theory behind this is of course the idea of the repressed id.  We all want to listen to the devil on our shoulder, but have been brutally socialized to keep those thoughts to ourselves.  That doesn't stop us from consulting our little id or privately enjoying some of his ideas and marketers often take advantage of this virgin/whore rift within our own psyche.  I'm not sure if it's the best idea for the long run, as we constantly erode the notion of a public personae in favor of getting attention - to wit, the high school principle with 2 out of 6 abs showing a hint of definition, posting a topless shot of himself on his myspace page thinking it'll up his cool factor (or he's just trying to have sex with minors like most mouth-breathing Y chromosoids).  Anywho - as we dismantle the fourth wall, normally called civility, in favor of a relentless and shameless quest for our life-justifying 15 minutes of fame, we as a society sacrifice shared goals.  How can you have a community when it's all about me?  Am I being a prude?  Perhaps.  Do I lament the fact that an an average night of television there are approximately 20,000 bleeps inserted by censors on shows watched primarily by a younger generation?  I do.  It suggests a reversion to brutality in some ways and represents a fire sale of our future.  The dumb will embrace this roughness thinking it de rigeur while the educated will realize it's just a way for the classes to continue to migrate in opposite directions and further their own ascension through education and discipline.

Back to OCD.  So what do we do?  We need attention to sell our wine.  However, taste is a funny thing, especially when held up to a personal litmus test:  all will judge differently based on their ethos.  How are we going to market this wine?  To what ends will we go to 'get that money' as is often rapped.  I'm torn.  A business has an edict to succeed at all costs.  The bottom line is just that, but one shouldn't have to exist on the bottom of the barrel to generate that bottom line.  We're hoping the people who enjoy our wine and our gestalt are just a bit smarter than that (with apologies for my prurient attention getting first line).

So how did we decorate that container?  We did need to get some attention after all and last I checked, the nicer jails had tennis courts, softball leagues, dining rooms, excellent security and television - all without the constant worry of bills or a mortgage.  Hell, in prison you look forward to opening your mail!  That sealed it for me: (scroll down)

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Sorry - image got yanked by a loyal reader who didn't want me to damage our brand image. If you'd like to see the image, simply email me at chris@communalbrands.com and I'll send it to you. Maybe my sense of humor is a bit over the top, but the world is a crazy place, no?