Brain Wave

Direct TV ads score with Denis Leary & LL Cool J

Direct TV has the genius campaign going right now.

I saw two ads on CNN this morning, one featuring LL Cool J and the other with Denis Leary. Both of the guys are challenging us not to be the guys who miss the big NFL play due to the cable TV going out.

As an almost-40-year-old guy, I like both of these guys. In different ways, they were part of the pop culture consumption of my late teens and then my twenties. Now that I'm older, and have (a little) disposable income, LL Cool J and Denis Leary are just the guys who will catch my attention. I watched, even though I'm not a huge fan of pro footbal.

Good demographic thinking and marketing by Direct TV.

Is it possible to love a Web site as much as a news anchor?

Is it possible for a guy like, say, me, to love CNN.com as much as I love gorgeously informative anchors and reporters like, say, Kiran Chetry, Kyra Phillips, Brianna Kielar, Kate Bolduan, and sooo many others on the cable news channel?

Well, K.C. Estenson, new general manager of CNN.com, wants me to love the site just that much.

According to the Nielsen rating service, CNN.com has about a half billion more views than its nearest competitor, MSNBC.com, but Estenson told the New York Times that "my hunch is that people go to [CNN.com] more out of habit than they do out of love."

The Home-Schooling Advantage: A Dad's View

1. When the car breaks down on the side of a highway, it's a moment for expanding the kids' vocabulary.

2. Technological advances have made home-schooling easier. For example, most basic cable plans include access to PBS Kids, The History Channel, The Discovery Channel, and The Golf Channel.

3. Courses include Advanced Topics in Popular Culture, which is easy to teach when Dad is driving and really wants to listen to The Flaming Lips on the minivan's sound system.

4. A visit to the grocer’s produce section is an educational field trip, therefore tax-deductible.

5. Home-schooling encourages practical understandings of subjects like agriculture, botany, chemistry, and cultural heritage, especially when Dad breaks out the home-brewing kit.

- Colin Foote Burch
(c) copyright 2009 Colin Foote Burch

HAPPY NEW YEAR, CNN

From all of us to all of you at CNN: 

Happy New Year! 

We like you more than Fox News!

Any day!

Now, from some Bushmills...

Don Lemon, YOU ROCK!

Don Lemon has to be the coolest anchor / reporter on CNN.

Don, may I please work for you?!?!

You and Erica Hill are saving this New Year's Eve coverage...

: )=)

Now, Lynyrd Skynard, complete with Confederate Flag

All right, CNN has its New Year's Eve coverage with Kathy Griffin of "suck it, Jesus!" fame -- and now, coverage of Lynyrd Skynard, complete with a Confederate Flag tied around the lead singer's microphone.

CNN -- POLITICALLY INCORRECT AT LAST!!!! 

.

CNN: Lady Gaga?

Is it live, or is it pre-recorded?

I can't tell.

And I can't tell if my 8-year-old should watch...

Earlier we abandonned the Pussycat Dolls on another network.

Oops... OK, Anderson Cooper says yes, it's live... was live.

Commenting on Blagojevich from Dallas

For years I have considered Ed Lavandera one of CNN's best reporters, but come on, why did the CNN Newsroom producers have him commenting on Blagojevich from Dallas on Heidi Collins' program this morning? Isn't Dallas in, uh, Texas? Isn't Blagojevich the governor of, uh, Illinois?

An episode of 'Scrubs' on NBC explains ADD

Do you remember that episode of NBC's Scrubs in which Perry starts asking J.D. to do him a special favor?

While Perry is asking, J.D. starts talking to himself internally about how great it is that Perry is trusting him with a responsibility.

J.D. is so involved with his own thoughts, he completely misses the favor that Perry asks of him.

That's a good example of how my mind has wandered during movies, reading, or conversation. It's an example of how ADD kids 'zone-out' in the middle of their classroom environment.

-Colin Foote Burch