Mediaboss Marketing

CLEVELAND, Ohio - It takes bravery to make history. And according to Jeff Charney, the chief marketing officer behind characters like Flo, the Aflac Duck and Dr. Rick, its sorely needed for good advertising too.

Thats why MKHSTRY, his new marketing collective, makes potential customers take a 75-question test as a bravery barometer before theyre invited to hire his new company.

I want to work with the bravest gamechangers possible, Charney said.

Charney, 62, has been working in the advertising industry since he was 17. Hes been the chief marketing officer at QVC, Aflac and most recently Progressive in suburban Mayfield, where he worked for 11 years before retiring from Progressive.

Over his career he won more than 100 awards for advertising that was disruptive and made brands stand out.

Even though he was named Ad Ages BRAND CMO of the Year in 2021, Charney said he wanted to walk away from the corporate world on top to launch his own marketing collective based in the Cleveland area.

MKHSTRY isnt an advertising agency or a normal consulting firm, Charney said. The collective is built around accelerating ideas and getting brands and agencies to do things in new ways.

Charney announced the new company in late March, and since then hundreds of companies have already reached out to try to become clients, he said.

He only wants to work on ideas that crack the code with innovative ways to advertise. Charney also wants people that have courage to make decisions, which is why customers have to be invited to hire the collective.

Charney said the best campaigns he worked on, whether it was a motorcycle riding insurance saleswoman or a loud duck, worked because they were unusual for the time, and because he and his team didnt treat them like traditional ad campaigns.

Actress and comedian Stephanie Courtney, who plays the television character "Flo" in commercials for Progressive, throws out a ceremonial pitch before a a Cleveland Indians game in 2009. Mark Duncan, AP

He said the best characters were the ones they treated like a Saturday Night Live cast member.

Flo was a character he inherited a year after her creation, but Charney said Progressive kept her relevant and made her a household name because they leaned on comedian Stephanie Courtneys improv skills.

Charney said she told him she was funnier than what the writers were coming up with. So they bet on those skills and surrounded her with other improv actors. When Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield started doing commercials, Charney said they made sure he got improv training too.

The Aflac Duck, another character he inherited but worked with for many years, was created because the CEO didnt care if he needed to scream Aflac at the top of his lungs. Hed do anything that worked.

So when the copywriters who created the character came across a loud, obnoxious duck at lunchtime they went with it. Even choosing the bird over actor Ray Romano, who was doing ad campaigns at the time.

One of Progressives newest characters, Dr. Rick, is probably better known as the life coach that tries to stop people from turning into their parents. He doesnt sell insurance directly, but he does try to keep people from hoarding lawn gnomes, clapping at the end of movies or giving unsolicited grilling advice at barbecues.

Charney said characters like that become memorable because theyre authentic and relatable. The Progressive ads about parentamorphosis were partly inspired by Charneys own experiences, like when he ran after a speeding driver doing 60 mph in the 30-mph zone near his home.

I was doing the same thing my dad did 30 years earlier, Charney said.

MKHSTRYs aim is to help both companies modernize, or to help them get an idea off the ground. MKHSTRY isnt designed to be a brands longtime consultant.

When presented with an idea that could be game-changing, Charney said the collective will help companies will be a team with experts tailored to that industry or task. The aim is to help get that idea off the ground and to teach the company how to fly on its own.

MKHSTRY will also work with advertising agencies and train them to do things differently and in a modern way. The collective will also be a lifestyle brand, selling clothing and other items.

The traditional advertising model is for brands to buy space, whether it be in print, TV, radio or digital. Its also slow and often companies play it safe, he said, saying advertising has used the same model for 150 years.

Charney said technologies like blockchain and Web3 are removing the gatekeepers and opening more avenues and less rules around advertising. Its a great time for someone who wants to be bold and idea-first, but they have to be willing to act fast and do things out of their comfort zone.

Right now the collective has six main partners outside of Charney, who are all working remotely, he said. The company will continue to have no offices, walls or bureaucracy as it builds out, he said. But as they start to bring in clients, hell build out individual teams for each company or project.

He believes its the roaring 20s of marketing and that the industry is ready for disruption. As the name implies, Charney said he wants to work on ideas that accomplish one main thing, making history and changing the game for advertising.

Im not doing it to spite the industry, Charney said. Im doing it because I love the industry.

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Progressives former top marketing executive, behind many Flo, Baker Mayfield and Aflac Duck ads, starts his - cleveland.com

The new liberalism

Since the terms socialism, Marxism and communism carry the stigma of philosophies that have failed, groups who believe in those ideologies started calling themselves progressives in the 1920s. Their goal was to usurp control of the Democratic Party by creating problems and then offering solutions to the problems they created.

In order to create problems, progressives introduced political correctness and diversity. Type Saul Alinsky into any search engine. Read Rules for Radicals. You will then know what progressives have in store for America.

Liberalism does not mean what it used to mean. If Democrats knew what they were really voting for, they would vote for another party.

Todays Democratic Party is not the party of President John F. Kennedy. Since the 1960s, many laws have been for social reform, such as civil rights and environmentalism. Rules then written by Washington bureaucrats in charge of enforcing those laws are regulations that businesses and you and I must obey or risk fines and imprisonment.

Progressives favor policies that promote social progress by using the government to force reforms while promoting submission to the government, because, according to them, the government always knows whats best for everyone.

Progressives believe in collectivism, not individualism. When you think of Social Security, Medicare or the income tax, do you think of individuals?

New laws normally benefit groups or corporations that have lobbied for them, not individuals, while additional regulations add additional costs that are passed on to us. Along with those costs there can be hidden taxes we never see on our sales receipts.

In medieval times, serfs had to give their lord one-third of all they produced. Today, because of embedded (invisible) taxes, every dollar you spend you are unknowingly paying almost 40% for local, state and federal taxes!

What does that make us?

Sonny Heninger, Leesburg

One picture says it all.

I'm talking about Nancy Polosi tearing up the State of the Union address a few years ago. I guess some people think this is an example of class.

Ever notice how Democrats just don't seem to be able to get past Trump? No matter what else is going on, it's always Trump, Trump, Trump.

I guess it's not surprising, after all. You can't expect them to mention the disastrous exit from Afghanistan (Biden ignoring advice from military advisers); the unspeakable situation on our southern border (caused and then ignored by Biden); the surge in crime in so many Democrat-run cities (ignored again); our completely embarrassing and incompetent vice president (ignored again); the skyrocketing inflation (Bidens solution is to spend more); or the systematic destruction of our coal, gas and oil industries (a policy too unbelievable to believe).

Of course, don't remind them of Biden's campaign promise to unite the country, shut down the coronavirus, or never to invoke mask or inoculation mandates. But, the most troubling of all is their plan to remake our country into what they think it should be. Take the country that has achieved the highest level of industrial success, greatest military strength ever achieved and the highest standard of living ever, and turn it into some kind of socialistic state, a system that has been tried in many different forms and has never worked! Could it be that their real and only objective is to gain as much power as they can?

The Democratic plan: Keep the people thinking about Trump, and they will not notice what we are doing behind their back.

Roger Ball, Leesburg

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Today's letters: Readers comment on the term 'progressives' and the Democratic plan - Daily Commercial

Whitby Abbey in North Yorkshire, England. (Image: Anna cicicic/Unsplash.com)

I gave a talk recently on Catholic Church history an overview, a quick hits kind of tour. Instead of trying to actually go through a lot of dates and events, I focused on the Catholic understanding of history, contrasting it with the secular view which is the view most of us, Catholic or not, assume is the normative paradigm.

What is that secular view? That the human journey on earth is one ofprogressandadvancement.

It makes sense, in a way, for one of the major features of human life, especially since the Enlightenment is obvious technological and material progress and betterment. And expansion of our sense and experience of human rights and civil liberties. It is not surprising that this has become our dominant paradigm for comparing past and present.

Given spice, of course, since Marx and through to the present, with the paradigm of class and now identity struggle and conflict.

But thats not the Catholic paradigm. I reallycant do better than to quote this from Timothy ODonnell:

It is important to note that the Christo-centric view of history is fundamentally different from the ideology of the progress of man. Those who exclude the Incarnation from the story of man preach a different gospel: that man, through his continued enlightenment, will eventually make sense of sufferingor even eliminate it. On the contrary, in this fallen world there will always be sin, sorrow and suffering, and only through Christ do these mysteries find meaning. Christ, the Prince of Peace, turns the human story upside down by defeating sin and death on the Cross, and by sanctifying suffering.

And then Benedict XVI, from Spe Salvi:

That is, Church Fathers such as Eusebius and Augustine understood God as speaking to his people through history, and not simply Church history proper. The rise and fall of nations were to be understood in terms of God calling his people to himself.

At the same time, two categories become increasingly central to the idea of progress: reason and freedom. Progress is primarily associated with the growing dominion of reason, and this reason is obviously considered to be a force of good and a force for good. Progress is the overcoming of all forms of dependencyit is progress towards perfect freedom. Likewise freedom is seen purely as a promise, in which man becomes more and more fully himself. In both conceptsfreedom and reasonthere is a political aspect. The kingdom of reason, in fact, is expected as the new condition of the human race once it has attained total freedom. The political conditions of such a kingdom of reason and freedom, however, appear at first sight somewhat ill defined. Reason and freedom seem to guarantee by themselves, by virtue of their intrinsic goodness, a new and perfect human community. The two key concepts of reason and freedom, however,were tacitly interpreted as being in conflict with the shackles of faith and of the Church as well as those of the political structures of the period. Both concepts therefore contain a revolutionary potential of enormous explosive force.

On this subject, all we can attempt here are a few brief observations. First we must ask ourselves: what does progress really mean; what does it promise and what does it not promise? In the nineteenth century, faith in progress was already subject to critique. In the twentieth century, Theodor W. Adorno formulated the problem of faith in progress quite drastically: he said that progress, seen accurately, is progress from the sling to the atom bomb.Now this is certainly an aspect of progress that must not be concealed. To put it another way: the ambiguity of progress becomes evident.Without doubt, it offers new possibilities for good, but it also opens up appalling possibilities for evilpossibilities that formerly did not exist. We have all witnessed the way in which progress, in the wrong hands, can become and has indeed become a terrifying progress in evil. If technical progress is not matched by corresponding progress in mans ethical formation, in mans inner growth (cf. Eph 3:16; 2 Cor 4:16), then it is not progress at all, but a threat for man and for the world. (Emphasis added)

And now to apply this to Church history specifically: Our stance towards the Catholic past just cannot be to point and laugh at how ignoranttheywere and howenlightenedwe are today.

No, our paradigm is to recognize that we all past, present and future share a common stance: on our knees before the Cross.

The Catholic view of our own history is one of humility and openness. We can learn, and we must learn its required, since our faith is rooted in both Revelation and Tradition, of course.

But we can take it in another direction, as well.

To engage with the past means to engage with human beings who might live in material circumstances, and social, political and economic landscapes that are quite different than ours, but who are still, at the beginning and end, human beings who were born, suffered, struggled, were in communion, and faced mortality under the same mysterious stars.

Encountering their traditions, ways and thoughts, we would do well to engage, rather than scoff, to dig deeply and ask why did they do this? What moved them? What do I share in common with those motivations? What do I do in the present that meets those same needs? Do my actions and choices make any more sense, in the end, than theirs do?

In other words, our instinctive reaction to some Catholic moment from the past might be:Wow, thats pretty crazy. And it might have been! But we might consider a follow-upas we consider our own lives:Wow, thats pretty crazy, too, to be honest.

As I said, ours is not to point and laugh and bask in our superiority. Because we dont have anything to brag about.

That is not to argue that the past is golden, ossified, and preserved in amber for our devotion and emulation. The Catholic past is a riotous dynamic which includes moments worth reverencing and moments worth critiquing.

For the history of the Church may not be properly understood by the secular definition of progress but it certainly has the dynamic of reform baked into it. That is indeed, our history: Establishing a thought or practice or other reality that is faithful to the Gospel, and then, invariably, that moment of drifting, corrupting and being an example, no longer of love, but of human pride and folly. And so we pray, discern, perhaps painfully tear down what have become idols, and begin again.

Again and again: rooting ourselves in the beauty and truth that has sprouted in the past, and then being completely open to the needs of the present moment, and then discerning, with the help of the Holy Spirit, what that moment calls for.

But never, ever laboring under the hubristic assumption that that our awareness of that Spirit represents any sort of necessary progressjust becauseitsnowand that wasthen.

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Progressives and Church history Catholic World Report - Catholic World Report

While most Americans were focused on partisan polarization in Washington, D.C., the U.S. criminal justice system has been quietly transformed by a group of radically liberal billionaires and millionaires. They have attacked our system of justice at its roots, bankrolling the campaigns of activist district attorney candidates who promise to give criminals soft sentences in the name of so-called social justice and equity.

Now self-styled progressive district attorneys, many of whom toppled conventional Democratic opponents across the country by running to their left, are enforcing their own warped sense of social justice instead of the actual law. Unsurprisingly, crime has risen in our cities the Council on Criminal Justice found that in 2021, murders increased in every major city in the U.S. My own state of Virginia is currently experiencing its highest murder rate in two decades.

The idea that being lenient on violent criminals will create a more just society is both naive and counterintuitive. Eliminating criminal justice is not criminal justice reform.

A new report from Capital Research revealed that progressives have spent nearly $30 million backing liberal activist district attorneys in over 20 communities, including big cities like Los Angeles and New York City, northern Virginia suburbs outside Washington, D.C., and rural communities in Georgia and Mississippi.

In Manhattan, the radical left spent over $1 million electing Alvin Bragg who, shortly after being sworn in, released a memo stating that his office would not seek any prison sentences for crimes such as armed robbery, drug dealing, and burglaries. Consequently, 72 of the 77 police precincts have seen an increase in crime; in Manhattan, NYPD CompStat numbers reveal that burglaries, grand larcenies, and felony assaults are rising at a rapid pace. These crimes not only violate decency in daily life theyre also gateway offenses for people who become career criminals.

Meanwhile, in the northern Virginia suburbs outside of Washington, D.C., liberal activist attorneys have been elected in Arlington County, Fairfax County, and Loudoun County.Fairfax County Commonwealths Attorney Steve Descano recently decided not to prosecute more than 20 different categories of crimes. Descano is trying to usurp the legislatures rightful role of deciding what is illegal and what is not and hes putting the public at risk in the process. Since Descanos election, the murder rate in Fairfax County has doubled, prompting a recall petition.

In fact, the alleged serial killer responsible for the murder and attempted murders of multiple homeless men in D.C. and New York City was previously arrested in Fairfax County. Steve Descano fought to lower his sentence and returned him to the streets.

Those murders shouldnt have happened. The criminal first, victim last mindset behind this tragedy is a danger to the public.

In an effort to make our cities and suburbs more secure, we need district attorneys who will follow the law instead of giving criminals a slap on the wrist.Arbitrary and inconsistent enforcement creates the dangerous precedent that there are no consequences for breaking the law.

The great irony is that the vast majority of the liberal elites bank-rolling this soft-on-crime agenda live in wealthy, gated neighborhoods and will never experience the consequences of their advocacy. The victims of this agenda are the poor, the working class, and the marginalized.

As a former city prosecutor, Ive held the hands of victims. I know that their worst fear is being forgotten, and that the person who hurt them will hurt someone else.Thats why I am proud to announce that I will serve as honorary chairman of Protecting Americans Project Action Fund.

This organization will serve as a new firewall to stop the advancement of dangerous left-wing prosecutors and their warped sense of justice.We will support individuals in key state and local elections who are committed to enforcing the law, calling balls and strikes, and putting the safety of our communities first.

Together, Protecting Americans Project Action Fund will work to elect officials who believe that our judicial system should be consistent and impartial, rather than serving as a fiefdom for liberal activist district attorneys administering the law as they see fit. Well work to restore accountability in the judicial process and faith that prosecutors will enforce the law and do the jobs they were elected to do.

Jason Miyares is attorney general of Virginia and the first Hispanic elected statewide in Virginia. He was previously a prosecutor in the City of Virginia Beach.

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Progressive District Attorneys Are Making Our Cities Unsafe - RealClearPolitics

Online survey asks New Westminster residents and businesses to identify key priorities

The New West Progressives are holding a series of townhall forums to get input that will help shape their 2022 election platform.

Ken Armstrong, who is the New West Progressives mayoral candidate, has announced a series of townhall forums that will take place in May in the neighbourhoods across the city. Community members are invited to participate in the meetings, which are on May 5, 10 and 17.

In the 2018 civic, our team of candidates developed an amazing and comprehensive 10-point platformthat caught the publics attention, Armstrong said in a news release. It was so good, that the current city council even took a page or two out of it and began to implement some of our ideas.

When asked by the Record what NWP ideas the current city council had implemented, Armstrong cited its platforms promise to "increase the overall visibility and scope of our separated bike lane network and cycle paths. (The citys 2015 master transportation plan prioritized active transportation over motor vehicles, and cited comfortable bicycle facilities as one of its sustainable transportation priorities.)

We also campaigned on making New Westminster a more Fun City, in part by increasing approved patio spaces by 25% within five years, and we're pleased to see the temporary patio program trialled in the summer of 2020 and renewed in 2021 through to at least June 1 this year, he said in a statement to the Record.

(In response to indoor dining restrictions and concerns about the spread of COVID-19, the city expanded opportunities to create seasonal outdoor and curbside patios in 2020, something thats carried on since it was introduced. Council recently considered changes to various regulations aimed at further supporting a patio program.)

According to Armstrong, the New West Progressives will be issuinga report card on how many of current councils promises were implemented.

The New West Progressives townhall forums are taking place at the Queensborough Community Centre on Thursday, May 5 from 6:30 to 8 p.m.; at the Inn at the Quay on Tuesday, May 10 from 7 to 8:30 p.m.; and at the Royal City Curling Club on Tuesday, May 17 from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

Now that were able to gather in-person once again to get direct feedback from the community, its important we do so to ensure that our platform reflects their priorities, Armstrong said. This type of policy development and feedback needs to happen more regularly at city hall. Its something our team intends to implement rather quickly after we get elected.

In addition to the townhall forums, the New West Progressives have launched an online survey to garner additional feedback from local residents and small businesses. The deadline to complete the survey is May 31.

The survey includes a section where community members are asked to rank 12 issues in terms of their importance, including transportation and transit, truth and reconciliation, crime and safety, densification, and arts and culture. It then asks respondents to rate the current councils efforts in these areas and to provide additional feedback.

The New West Progressives say theyll use feedback from the survey and townhall forums to develop its council campaign platform that will be released prior to the Oct. 15 civic election.

To provide your input, go to http://www.nwprogressives.ca/survey.

Whos running?

To date, Armstrong is the only candidate to officially declare plans to run in the Oct. 15 civic election. Downtown businessman Paul Minhas, owner of Begbies Tavern and the former Heritage Grill, recently announced he would be seeking support to run on the New West Progressives team.

According to Armstrong, the New West Progressives will be announcing two candidates at an April 7 fundraiser at Frankie Gs Pub in Queensborough and another candidate at an April 28 event at Begbies in downtown New West.

Whats happening with Forward New West?

On Dec. 5, 2021, school board chair Gurveen Dhaliwal and Mayor Jonathan Cote issued a press release announcing the formation of the Together New West Electors Society, a group whose commitments include creating affordable housing, engaging in reconciliation and decolonization, addressing the climate emergency and supporting a strong public education system.

It immediately encountered issues, however, when the Downtown New West BIA voiced concerns that the groups name was the same as the #togethernewwest campaign the BIA had launched in the spring of 2020. Dhaliwal told the media the group had no plans to change its name, but Cote issued a statement apologizing to the BIA and expressing disappointment that the Together New West party executive had decided not to work with the BIA to fully address the legitimate concerns theyd raised.

On Dec. 23, Together New Westminster registered a new name with Elections BC Forward New West. On Jan. 1, Cote announced he would not be seeking reelection in the Oct. 15, 2022 civic election.

The Record has contactedDhaliwal, who is listed as the groups authorized principal official, for an update. More to come.

Follow Theresa McManus on Twitter@TheresaMcManusEmailtmcmanus@newwestrecord.ca

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New West Progressives holding townhall forums to shape 2022 election platform - The Record (New Westminster)