News

The Great Depression pushed cotton prices to drastically low levels. The Memphis economy was suffering.

In early 1931, Arthur Halle and a group of businessmen founded a festival to promote cotton and Memphis. The first Cotton Carnival was held in March, but soon moved to May, a warmer month. Today’s Carnival is usually held the first week of June. 

Because of segregation, blacks could not participate. So Dr. R.Q. Venson founded what became the Cotton Makers Jubilee in 1935 for African-Americans. The events ran parallel to one another for nearly half a century.

It was ten minutes before the Memorial Day Grizzlies game against the San Antonio Spurs, and outside the FedExForum visitors were being urged to “believe.”

Believe, Memphis, that the team would come back after three straight losses and win the   Western Conference Finals. Everyone was sure this was going to happen.

In case you missed the game, it did not end with a blue Bear doing a victory dance on top of the Alamo.

It’s amazing how little substance there is in most brand advertising today. The vast majority of product campaigns all seem to be pretty photography and fluff.

Brand awareness obviously is the objective. But in most campaigns you have to ask the question, “awareness of what?”

Barbasol, a shaving product that came out almost a hundred years ago, aired a campaign this year that showed some substance.