Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

People who try to stay “on the cutting edge” tend to see everything as new. But the thing that has been will be again. And that which currently is, has been, long before our time.If this observation seems familiar to you, it's probably because you remember it from a book written a few thousand years ago. Solomon went looking for the meaning of life and the essay he wrote about his journey, Ecclesiastes, opens with a similar observation about the cyclical nature of things.I call such observations Laws of the Universe and I depend on them to make my clients rich. Sounds like a book title, doesn't it? The Wizard's Laws of the Universe? Perhaps I'll write it someday.Right now I'm looking at a business card I've been carrying in my wallet since late autumn, 2000; Pennie and I were in Stratford, Ontario, while the Bush-Gore “hanging chad” debate raged in Florida. No one was sure who had been elected president. So at dinner in the basement of Fellini's, my partner Steve Rae casually asked, “So what do you think will happen if your boy gets elected?”My reply was detached and instant. “We'll be at war within a year.”Stunned, the table went quiet until Dave Martin, our host, set down his fork and asked, “Why?”“Never put a Texan in the White House,” were the eight short words of my answer. Then, looking across the table at Bob Shrubsall, I said, “They tell me you know more about the science of paint than anyone I'll ever meet. Is that true?” Bob, in the understated way that is typical of Canadians, shared a little of his lifelong obsession with pigmentation and how it had led him into a specialized course of higher education that culminated in several college degrees and a career in research and development.“So what makes one paint different from another?” I asked.This question obviously energized Bob, so I pulled out a pen and began writing down what he said; “Paint, any paint,” he said, “is composed of only 4 things: pigment, vehicle, additives, and resin.”Funny thing. Advertising is like that, too.The pigment of an ad is its color, tone, temperament or style. It's what makes us recognize the ad as part of a specific campaign. Think of this “ad pigment” as brand essence. Most ads today are evocatively pale due to a lack of pigment.The vehicle of an ad is the media which delivers it; newspaper, television, radio, outdoor, direct mail, internet, yellow pages and word-of-mouth are all vehicles of message delivery.The additives of advertising are the specific message points it hopes to deliver.The resin of an ad is what makes it stick in your mind. Surprising Broca and adding a Third Gravitating Body are just two methods of adding stickiness. Ultimately though, your ad's resin is the salience of the message as measured by the central executive of Working Memory in the dorsolateral prefrontal association area of the brain's left hemisphere.Yes, there are laws of the universe. And one of them is that lots of things are like paint. Advertising is like paint. Reputations are like paint. It pays to understand paint.Half the people reading this memo were likely irritated by the hyper-generalized nature of the 8-word statement I made at dinner in the basement of Fellini's. “It's more complicated than that, dammit! To say 'never put a Texan in the White House' is just shallow and simplistic and childish and irresponsible.”Yeah, you're probably right.But we did invade Afghanistan 10 months later.Roy H. Williams

A few years ago, your customer could compare you only to your competitor down the street. But information gathering and comparison shopping have since become effortless, thanks to the internet. Tens of millions of us are gathering and comparing info 24/7 in the comfort and seclusion of our own homes.But we're not “your customer,” right?I recently spoke to an audience of 1600 businesspeople at a conference in Las Vegas. Just before I walked onstage into the spotlight, my host whispered into my ear, “It would probably be better if you didn't make any references to the internet, because this audience is almost exclusively 55 and older.” I smiled and nodded at him just as the man at the microphone said “Roy H. Williams” and I walked out from behind the curtain to meet my fate.Taking center stage, I raised my hand and asked, “How many of you have used a search engine in the last 7 days to research a purchase that you were considering?” At least 90 percent of the hands in the room were instantly raised. I looked offstage and shot a smile to my host who was staring bug-eyed at the ocean of fingers.But I suppose none of those people were “your customer,” either.To get in step with the times, you must begin seeing the internet as an information directory at your customer's fingertips, because I can assure you that's how your customer sees it.But unlike yesterday's yellow pages, this new information directory is consumer reactive, offering sights and sounds and detailed information. “To heck with letting your fingers do the walking. Let your fingers trigger the adventure.” Today's new directory can deliver streaming video of your best salesperson making his best presentation on his best day, directly into your customer's home. It can answer all your customer's questions and calm their unspoken fears. But no salesman is going to schedule an appointment with you to make sure you're “in the book.” This is a call you have to initiate on your own.The times, they are a'changing.Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's enough to tell your customer, “Call or come into the store before closing time and our friendly staff will be happy to answer all your questions.” Yes, perhaps “your customer” has lots of free time and nothing better to do with it. Perhaps things aren't changing at all. Perhaps the old methods of marketing will always work.But then I am reminded of C.S. Lewis, who said: “The safest road to hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”Yeah. That's it. Just keep on doing what you've always done. I'm sure it will all work out.Roy H. Williams

NOTICE: This memo ends with a link to an ad writing course description. So don't be surprised.The last line in most TV or radio ads is usually a “call to action,” right? Especially if the ad was produced locally:“Hurry. These prices won't last long.”“Act Now. Offer expires soon.”“You must be present to win.”We say these things because we're trying to create a sense of urgency. We want to see customers respond immediately, so we yank the chain of self-interest. But the public is growing tired of having its chain yanked. And for this reason, ads that attempt to create a sense of urgency are becoming passé. We're developing an immunity to ad-speak.From the Great Depression through WWII, any product with the courage to advertise relentlessly was assured a place in the national consciousness. Mass media was cheap and all of America could easily be reached by it. You had three TV networks, a local newspaper and a small group of AM radio stations. Take your pick.Then we tumbled into the 60s and advertising got creative. Along came the 70s, FM radio arrived and right behind it, cable TV.Babies born in 1980 emerged into a plastic world of flashing lights and shallow hype. Cartoons like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were interrupted by ads for the Popeil Pocket Fisherman and the amazing Veg-O-matic. “It makes mounds and mounds of julienne fries! But wait! There's more!” Disco music and line dancing and riding the mechanical bull. Pop like a flashcube, baby. Then in 1983, Michael Jackson swept the Grammies and Madonna leapt onto the charts with Material Girl. “We are liv-ing in a material world. And I am a material girl.”Fast forward a quarter century: Never has a generation had so much to do and so little time. We're drowning in recreational opportunities. The Saturday morning cartoons of childhood blossomed into their own round-the-clock cartoon network and the nightly news has become a series of non-stop news channels. Comedy has its own unending comedy channel, movies their own 24-hour movie channel and department stores have morphed into a theme park of superstores known as Power Centers where we can watch the retail giants slug it out for our discretionary dollar: Circuit City vs. Best Buy. Linens'n'Things vs. Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Lowe's vs. Home Depot, OfficeMax vs. Office Depot, and PetsMart vs. Petco.What is a citizen to do?Those jaded infants of 1980 are turning 25 this year and they bring with them a new sensibility: Use technology to block out a too-much world.1. Digital Video Recorders allow us to skip TV commercials.2. Satellite radio and iPods allow us to hide from radio ads.3. Video games allow us to run from reality as we withdraw into an online world unreachable by modern advertising.MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) like EverQuest and WarCraft are a movie that never ends. The reality hook is that you are connected with other people who know you only as you have chosen to be known. Think of it as the ultimate costume party.Did you know that you can type a text message on the keys of your cell phone that will instantly appear on the cell phone of a friend? This “instant messaging” is slow and laborious, but millions do it as a way of showing courtesy to their friends. “Ring the phone when your message can't wait, send a text when it can.” Non-interruption is a high value among the emerging generation and they're beginning to spread an appreciation of it to their Baby Boomer parents as well.Bottom line: Our growing immunity to ad-speak means that the believability of ads that attempt to trigger urgency must be linked to the credibility of your desperation. So how do you think these “Hurry! Hurry!” lines are going to work in the future?“Prices so low we can't say them on the air!”“We won't be undersold!”“Be one of the first 200 people through the door and receive a free gift!”The marketplace is changing far more quickly than is advertising.That's why I'm here; to help you get in step with today's consumers. Do it and move ahead of the curve to where the sky is bright and the air is sweet.Let me know if you're interested.Roy H. WilliamsAuthor of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestselling Wizard of Ads trilogy

I wrote three memos to you this week, but decided not to send the first two. The first one, We Are Sancho Panza, is the dancing safari into symbolic thought that I promised you in last week's memo. It begins, “Who can explain our four-century attraction to Don Quixote? The book is hard reading and dull, full of inconsistencies, and confusing. A little like the Bible. And yet Quixote is the second most widely-read book on earth; second only to… yes, the Bible.” Powerful and flexible symbolic thought includes all forms of metaphor, simile and corollary. Its function is to relate that which is not understood to that which is understood. Even as the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 42, “deep calleth unto deep…” symbolic language calls to the unconscious; deep waters to deeper still.I decided not to send you We Are Sancho Panza because it might have been misconstrued as a spiritual ambush. Some might even have called it religious. It definitely travels beyond the boundaries I impose on these Monday Morning Memos, so don't click that link unless you really want to go there. You have been warned.The second memo I wrote but chose not to send was some very specific advice about radio advertising called “How to Make a Fabulous :30 from the Average :60.” But I decided to save those seven simple steps to deliver at an event I'll be doing in Dallas in May as a gift to my friend, Eric Rhoads, in honor of his 50th birthday.So having written two memos to you and deciding to send neither, I wandered over to Academy Hall to peep in at a guest lecture in progress. There, on our mammoth projection screen, it read: “What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?” An interesting question, it immediately triggered a deeper one: “What would you attempt if you knew nothing you did would ever work out?”The first question urges you to dream big. The second, to be truly committed.What is worth doing even if you can't succeed? Is there a mountain worth climbing even if there's no hope of ever reaching the top? Think about it. Standing on the top of the mountain is a moment, supposedly the moment “that makes it worth it all.” Makes it worth all what? A lifetime of disconnection, alienation and misplaced priorities? The world's saddest person is that tragic has-been who speaks incessantly about his or her shining moment long ago. Do you really want to be the woman who “used to be” Miss America? Or the man who “used to play” professional sports?No mountain climber ever stays long on the summit. But the brevity of these visits isn't because someone drove them off to take their place. They leave because there is nothing more to do. The movie is over. The credits are rolling. Holding an empty popcorn bucket and a soft-drink cup, they go looking for a trash can and a bathroom.Susan Ertz once wrote, “Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.” Life, if you will, is that rainy Sunday afternoon. What are you going to do with it?I'm talking about embracing a commitment to something far bigger than your own small and petty desires.Commitment is not to be found in brave talk, bold resolution, or dramatic gesture. And she will not be measured quickly. Strong and silent, Commitment steps into the light only in those dark and quiet moments when it would be easier to creep, unseen, away.How deep is your Commitment to what you're doing with your life? I ask only because I care.And it's never too late to change.Roy H. Williams

“And all shall be well and All manner of thing shall be well When the tongues of flame are in-folded Into the crowned knot of fire And the fire and the rose are one.” In this strange passage from Little Gidding, poet T.S. Eliot links the mental image of a rose to the image of an infolded knot of flame. We see the connection; yes, a rose does look something like a knot of fire.Much has been written about intuition and creativity. Most of it is wrong.Allow me to explain; Intuition is merely pattern recognition, a principal function of the right hemisphere of your brain. Centered in that wordless realm, intuition whispers, “I've seen this movie, or one similar to it, so I think I know how it ends.” But your right brain is without word-language, so this thought must emerge in your consciousness only as a hunch, a gut feeling, a precognition, an inexplicable insight. When such insights flow unrestricted from the right brain to the left and then out through the tip of a pen, they become powerful, poetic language, such as that of T.S. Elliot above. When from the tip of a brush, fine art. And when from the point of a draftsman's pencil, a new invention.Intuition and art, indeed all “creativity,” is based upon seeing the link between two dissimilar things that have no obvious connection.Gutenberg connected coins to books and invented the printing press. The link between them: duplication. “Gosh, if a coin die will stamp an image onto countless pieces of metal to make coins, couldn't the same be done with letters of the alphabet to make the pages of a book? All I would need is something to hold the movable letters in place that could then be easily lifted up and pressed down. A wine press! I'll use the plate of a wine press to hold the letters!” And the world was changed that day.Your left brain is the home of sequential, logical, analytical thought – business thought – always seeking to forecast a result; “What is the next step? How do I get to the next level? What would be correct?” For those familiar with the Myers-Briggs instrument, left-brain preferences are identified by the S and J designations.Your right brain is the place of complex, fantastical abstract thought, ever seeking to find a pattern. (Obviously the N and P preference in Myers-Briggs terminology, though to my knowledge the MBTI people have never acknowledged these preferences to be rooted in Dr. Roger Sperry's brain lateralization. Dr. Sperry's findings on the two hemispheres of the brain and their respective functions earned him the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1981.) When the right brain begins to out-shout the left, we begin seeing connections and patterns that aren't really there. Ever see the Russell Crowe movie, A Beautiful Mind? Badda-bing, badda-bang, a right brain goes out of control and now you've got a genius weirdo on your hands. (Chances are you know at least one person who fits this description.)Symbolic thought is the key to discovery. We'll talk more about it next week. Unless, of course, the beagle in my brain gets a whiff of something more interesting and then arooo! aroo-aroooo! we're off and running. That Russell Crowe character got nothin' on the beagle.Yours,Roy H. Williams

Getting confidence and keeping confidence – emotional muscle – is like getting and keeping any other muscle; it just requires daily exercise.But where does confidence come from? Is it merely a feeling – the product of an optimistic attitude gained through positive thinking rituals learned at motivational seminars – or is it something more substantial?According to Baltasar Gracian, confidence comes from authority, “…and the highest authority is that which rests on an adequate knowledge of things and long experience in different occupations. Master the subject matter and you will come and go with grace and ease and speak with the force of a teacher; for it is easy to master one's listeners if one first masters knowledge. No sort of abstract speculation can give you this authority; only continual practice in one occupation or another. Mastery arrives from an action done often and well… Authority originates in nature and is perfected by art. Those who attain this quality find things already done for them. Superiority itself lends them ease and nothing holds them back: they shine, both in words and deeds, in every situation. Even mediocrity, helped out by authority, has a certain eminence, and a little showiness can make everything come out right.”Keys to confidence:1. Do your homework. Know what you're talking about. Study, prepare, experiment, then experiment some more. Become an expert. Prepare true answers – not canned responses – for the questions you'll probably never be asked.2. Tell the truth. You can't have real confidence when you know you're lying. A lie that makes you a dollar today will cost you a hundred dollars tomorrow due to the erosion of your own confidence. When you don't know the answer, say, “I don't know, but I'll find out and get back to you,” and then do it for the building of your own confidence even if you suspect the person has utterly forgotten your promise. The confidence you gain in yourself will make the whole exercise worthwhile. There's that word again; exercise.3. Be a Little Bit Showy. Most people are average, and average is always boring. Experts, due to their deep knowledge of the subject and the ease with which they speak of it, are free to be entertaining. And the response you get to your performance will only increase your confidence.Baltasar Gracian, by the way, lived three and a half centuries ago but his advice remains on target because some things never change.Roy H. Williams

This year marks the 400-year anniversary of the publication of Don Quixote, so I seized the opportunity to spend some hours in the study of 1605. (Arooo! Aroo-Aroooo!) And as all such beagle runs will do, this one led to a delightful surprise in the form of one 'Baltasar Gracian,' a Spaniard who was 4 years old when Don Quixote was published and 15 when Cervantes died.As an adult, Gracian was rival to Niccolo Machiavelli, author of The Prince, and his writings are the rich, sweet antidote to the bitter sting of Machiavellian code. Gracian's interpreter, Christopher Mauer, describes him this way; “In Gracian's world, no rules, no instructions, no set of [7?] habits lead directly to success. Rules are inflexible; no book of instructions will ever compete with the randomness of human activity; and any habit or pattern of behavior makes us predictable and therefore vulnerable to others: it is easy to shoot the bird that flies in a straight line, or defeat the person who always plays his cards in the same manner… For Gracian it is a melancholy fact of life that fools outnumber the intelligent and a large part of their foolishness lies in an inability to move beyond appearances to what lies within. Funny, subtle, loyal to his friends and a lover of natural beauty, Gracian is far more delightful company than his Jesuit records suggest.” Yes, Gracian was a Jesuit priest who stayed in trouble with his uptight superiors.Here are a few examples of his anti-Machiavellian wisdom:“The eyes of the soul are drawn to inner beauty, as those of the body are to outer.”“The French have always been gallant, and this was the path that led Louis XII to immortality. Those who had insulted him when he was Duke of Orleans feared his succession to the throne. But he turned vengeance into gallantry with these inestimable words: 'You have nothing to fear. The King of France does not avenge the injuries done to the Duke of Orleans…'”“It takes subtlety to turn a defect into a distinction. Be first to confess your faults and you'll have the last word: this is not self-scorn but heroic boldness. Unlike what happens when we praise ourselves, self-criticism can make us seem nobler.”“Some come home from their travels as uncouth as they departed. Those of little depth make little use of worldly observation. Ambrosia was not made for the taste of fools, and no such knowledge is found in redneck bastards, who never stir from the here and now.”Okay, I'll admit I substituted “redneck bastards” for Gracian's original invective, but only because I thought it fit the paragraph. By the way, I have nothing but deep respect for the agrarian lifestyle and I revel in the earthy wisdom of farmers. Singer-songwriter Willie Nelson is not a redneck bastard. Eric's father, (the fictional TV character from That 70's Show) Red Forman, is. The Redneck Bastard is every man of closed-minded platitudes and belligerent, self-righteous certainty who has neither the will to understand his adversary's heart nor a hunger to learn the truth. The Ku Klux Klan exists because of Redneck Bastards.Thank you for not being one.Roy H. Williams

You had friends and laughter, adventure and romance. Remember the halcyon days of your youth? But then the friends went away, the laughter faded, the adventure ended and the romance was over.It was time to go to work.Do you ever feel like you're wearing ankle irons, condemned to row forever with the other galley slaves in the dim life below ship's deck? “I too have had my dreams: ay, known indeed the crowded visions of a fiery youth which haunt me still.” – Oscar WildeOne of the happy accidents of Wizard Academy is that students often rediscover who they were when they were young. They come to the academy to become better salespeople and scientists, journalists and educators, authors and ministers, business people and bar bouncers, ad writers and artists and we certainly make them those things. But somewhere along the way, students remember how to love their lives again and the dream-seed that fell into the ground during the dark days of winter breaks through the warm soil of spring to shout its message to the sky.“Work is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying.” – Studs TerkelI want you to come to Austin on April 23. It's a Saturday. Tuscan Hall, our auditorium, is now complete except for the flagstone plaza and water features that will surround it and we'll certainly have those done before you get here. Likewise, construction is ahead of schedule for the April 23 opening of Chapel Dulcinea, the small, cliff's-edge structure that symbolizes the academy's heart and provides the fuel for its dreams.What are the dreams of Wizard Academy? To build a school of discovery in the arts and sciences: in short, the Harvard of a brighter tomorrow. Our students, partners, and adjunct faculty are already changing the world of business through more persuasive ad writing, 'New School' sales training, and revolutionary internet solutions. Additionally, my partner Sonja Howle will soon be taking the reigns of our Art Marketing Workshop to help artists in every discipline – all over the world – make a better living from their work because we are convinced their work is essential. We'll soon be adding a new course in visionary architecture taught by one of America's greatest living architects who, miraculously, has agreed to participate in our April 23 event to explain in detail all the symbolism and feeling that is woven into the very architecture of the school. Prepare to be amazed.Now I need you to take a slow breath and sit down, okay? Because I'm getting ready to share with you a part of the dream that could easily sound delusional: It is our conviction that this school will exist and thrive for at least 500 years. That's why we've been careful to use only such construction materials and techniques that will withstand the wear of centuries.Every organization closely tied to the identity of its founder dies shortly after its founder's passing. We don't want that to happen. That's why the academy is now a non-profit organization governed by a board of directors beyond my control. It must become independent of me long before I'm gone. I will not build a monument to myself. Look closely at any of my bestselling Wizard of Ads books and you'll see that my name isn't on the cover of any of them. This was my choice. My plan from the beginning has been only to kick open closed doors and point toward the horizon for an army of world-changers who will follow. Will you be counted among them?The Academy's students, faculty and directors want the school's powerful, inside-out way of thinking to be passed like a torch from generation to generation, providing the fuel, the research and the inspiration to create constant improvement forever in every field of endeavor. And they're doing everything it takes to make sure it happens.Are we crazy? Maybe.Come be crazy with us.Roy H. Williams

A brief summary of this episodeNiche marketing was born the day a clear-eyed realist chose to dominate a subcategory when the master category seemed too high a hill to climb. “Instead of trying to become a major retailer of home furniture, I'll become the king of affordable dinettes. Instead of making a run at used cars, I'll dominate used Corvettes instead.”Focused specialization makes sense, and in some circumstances it's exactly the right thing to do. But beware the temptation to think too small. Climbing molehills is easy. And when the time comes to plant your flag on top, you'll find there's already a convenient hole in it for you. Long live the king.But then what have you really got?Early in my consulting career most of my advice centered around the idea of focusing on a niche, a subcategory, a genre. My first client was a jeweler who deeply loved rubies, emeralds, sapphires, tourmalines, kunzites, garnets and all manner of colored gemstones. Even better, he was a nationally recognized expert on them. So what better strategy could I recommend than suggest that his store specialize in colored gems? Thank God he didn't agree to it. If Woody Justice had taken my advice that day, he would have quickly become King of a Molehill instead of spending a delightful two decades becoming something much bigger than either of us dared dream.Sad it is to live your whole life without ever having a dream, a hope, a goal. Sadder still is to have a goal, but never achieve it. But saddest of all is to have a goal, achieve it, and then have nothing to do.I'm not being poetic or playing with double meanings. I mean exactly what I said. But I'm not the first, John Steinbeck said it this way: “In the dark the other night I wrote in my head a whole dialogue between St. George and the Dragon. Very close relatives those two. They are eternally tied together – actually two parts of one whole… So St. George must always kill the dragon and it must be repeated because if the dragon were finally killed, there would be no St. George – only a lonely man looking for something to do.”In the year 410, the man in North Africa who would be remembered as St. Augustine of Hippo wrote, “Why does it say in the holy Psalm, 'The hearts of them shall rejoice that seek the Lord, that seek His face forever?' Why does it not say, 'The hearts of them shall rejoice that find the Lord?'” Augustine ponders this awhile, then offers us his conclusion: “Things incomprehensible must be so investigated.” In other words, Augustine believed we are magnetically drawn and thrilled by what is too big for us. It makes our hearts rejoice.I think I agree. And that's why next week I'm going to share with you a dream too big for me alone. Heck, maybe it's too big for all of us together. But it makes my heart rejoice and it may do the same for you.We'll see.Roy H. Williams

I was writing an upbeat and instructional memo to send you today called Confidence: Where to Get It and How to Keep It. But it's going to have to wait. This other thing just wouldn't turn me loose until I wrote it down and sent it to you.Have you ever had a concept slap you in the face with every twist of your consciousness? The slap-fest began for me on Friday, when my chief media buyer asked to have a long discussion with me about television. Juan Guillermo Tornoe rarely requests my time. We had a long heart-to-heart about TV ads and then went home for the weekend.Upon checking my email that evening I learned that FCC chairman Michael Powell – the man who had tried to deregulate TV and radio so that a tiny handful of people could control what we see and hear – had finally stepped down. I slept a little more peacefully that night.I awoke the next morning, hopped into my truck to run some errands and stuck a new CD into the player, having no idea what to expect. I'd not heard of the group Green Day, but bought the CD impulsively when Amazon.com had suggested it. I had no idea what sort of music to expect. Here are the lyrics to the first song:“Don't wanna be an American idiot.One nation controlled by the media.Information age of hysteria.It's calling out to idiot America…”Again the pervasiveness of TV had popped up like a prairie dog the moment I lifted my glance to the horizon.Upon my arrival home the rotating quote that greeted me when I logged on to wizardacademy.org was, “All television is educational television. The question is what is it teaching?” – Nicholas JohnsonMore than 700 rotating quotes and that's the one I get. Hmm…Just then Pennie, having no idea how often I'd already been confronted with the idea of television's pervasive place in our lives, hung up the phone and mentioned that her sister called to say she felt Dr. James Dobson had finally stepped over the line into the land of the paranoid with his accusation that TV's SpongeBob Squarepants is teaching young children to be homosexuals.I wasn't much interested in the squabble between JamesDob and SpongeBob. The thing that snagged my attention is that Pennie and her sister had been discussing a TV newscast that reported what a media minister had said another TV show might be doing to children.The next morning Pennie handed me the newspaper's Parade insert because the cover story was an article by literary giant Norman Mailer. I don't ever read the paper, so when the Princess finds something in it she thinks I might want to see, she saves it for me. You guessed it. The great Norman Mailer was railing against TV. “If the desire to read diminishes, so does one's ability to read. The search for a culprit does not have to go far… If we want to have the best of all possible worlds, I believe that television commercials have got to go. The constant interruption of concentration of TV advertising not only dominates much of our lives, but over the long run is bound to bleed into our prosperity… Let us pay directly for what we enjoy on television rather than pass the spiritual cost on to our children and their children.”Halfway through Mailer's rant my email dinged for my attention. It was a note from a friend I'd not heard from in awhile. There's no way Dan knew what I was pondering. I swear I'm not making any of this up. Here's his email:“Two years ago I watched my last local TV newscast. I was fed up with hearing about murder after murder. I was beginning to believe, as many viewers must, that our society was out of control, with everyone shooting everyone on every street corner. It's not true. Not even close. I feel better about my country since I turned off the local news, which is really “crime news.” You know. . . “if it bleeds, it leads.” But, sadly, a lot of people seem to accept the idea that being informed about a murder across town is relevant and somehow important to know. It's not. It's mind poison.” – Excerpt from RV Travel, Issue 144, EDITOR'S CORNER by Chuck WoodburyWhat do all these disjointed thoughts add up to? Only this: television's magnetic hold on us seems to be on the mind of a lot of people right now. And I, for one, am going to ponder this awhile and come to some sort of conclusion. And then I'll probably take some sort of action. What it will be, I have no idea.There's room in this think-tank for you, too, if you want to jump in.See you in the deep end.Yours,Roy H. Williams