Remember Kobe Bryant, the alleged rapist? Did you follow the very public charges, counter-charges, the trial in Colorado? That’s over.

Remember Kobe Bryant, the whiner? Fighting with Shaq. Fighting with Coach Phil Jackson. Bygones.

You don’t hear about that Kobe these days. He seems to have put those issues behind him. His new signature show from Nike, the Zoom Kobe III is selling well. In fact, he sold it out, on his website, within hours.

And that, right there, is part of the key to Kobe’s rebirth. His new website, in which he appears in a series of videos designed to give you the appearance of a likable Kobe appearing in costumes, being involved in the director’s chair and more. His new website, where he controls the message, where he controls the product distribution.

It’s the first time an athlete’s personal website has been used as a retailer of Nike products.

This is big. It’s bigger than Kobe’s image. It’s a sign of how easy it is to bypass traditional everything in your marketing. It feels like he’s giving you a sneak peek behind the curtain, even though it’s oh so carefully managed.

Is it working for Kobe? It’s hard not to like him when you watch him dunking in all those costumes.

But beyond that, the ramifications for all of us in terms of marketing best practices are significant…

An article today in Advertising Age http://adage.com/article?article_id=125794 reports that “the owner of Georgi vodka says that he is in talks to put the derriere of former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s call girl on the backside of every bus in New York.”  The company that owns the US rights to the Georgi vodka brand reports that it is close to making a deal with Ashley Dupre.  They want to feature her as this year’s Georgi “butt girl” pinup that the brand places on city buses and taxis.

Wow.  On one hand, I admire the marketing balls.  Taking a controversial and timely issue and mating it with one’s brand.  On the other hand, I cannot shake the image of Spitzer’s obviously anguished wife and I cannot help but empathize with the pain his family must be enduring.

I can only conclude:  I am SO not the target audience for the Georgi vodka brand.  What do you think?  Who is the audience?  What are they supposed to think if this campaign ever sees the light of day?  Is this a legitimate liaison of marketing and current events or is it something sordid?  Where do you stand on this issue?

Photo Credit: Ashley Alexandra Dupre/Entertainment Pictures

Longtime agency partner Scott Werner recently took the reins as Managing Partner here at Brogan. His move is part of our company’s practice of rotating the key position among top management. Werner takes over for Maria Marcotte who served as managing partner over the last year. Maria will continue her role as agency partner and chief operating officer.

Scott is now responsible for leading day-to-day operations and implementing strategy set forth by the Board of Directors, with support from the agency’s partners. He’ll report to the chairman on a daily basis and the Board of Directors quarterly. Scott personifies persistence and a tireless work ethic. In announcing his appointment recently, CEO Marcie Brogan mentioned that Scott started at Brogan 16 years ago as an unpaid intern fresh out of Eastern Michigan University.

I love great marketing, particularly when it’s someone who does something both new and elegant and creates an attention grabbing campaign. The marketing idea behind this is brilliant. Amnesty International must have considered (rightly, I suspect) that people would care more about things happening around the world if they could imagine them happening where they live.

The marketers then had a brilliant production idea. Make the billboards transparent, other than the central image. By doing that simple thing, it would look like the activity was happening right on the street in that neighborhood. Genius. Take a look at this campaign, called “It’s not happening here, but it is happening.”

It’s inevitable. We stroll the halls of hospitals galore, confident and nonplussed in our role as healthcare marketing professional. We meet the eyes of the gurney-bound and empathize with their plight as we continue to chatter about the newest expansion, brand campaign, or survey results.

Then our turn comes. And boy do things feel different. Your briefcase is replaced with a plastic bag to hold all of your personal belongings, please. Your sense of control melts into nervousness and vulnerability.

In my case, I was in pain, and grouchy from adhering to the “no food, drink or meds after midnght” rule. I glared at every chatty Starbucks-carrying person I saw.

However, I always try to use my patient experiences as learning tools. I become a mystery shopper, trying to notice every touch point (difficult when caffeine and med deprived). The older gentleman who opened my car door was an angel from above, even at 6 a.m., bless his heart. A huge contrast from the check-in clerk, who got through her litany of monotone questions without once making eye contact with me.

Eventually, a bed to lie in! Heaven! Curtains shut and my own nurse who proceeded to accomplish her myriad of tasks (including many redundant questions). I’m not perky at 6:30 a.m. either, but a little personality, maybe an attempt at some light humor, could have eased my nerves. She was nice enough as she completed her duties, while I laid under the warmed blanket meditating, praying, trying to get a grip. But I can’t say we “connected”.  And I can’t say we had to.

Things brightened considerably when my doc appeared. Relief. Comfort. Reassurance. I like her very much, but my emotions escalated to love at this moment in time. “Save me from my pain. Make me myself again”, I pleaded with my eyes. She held my hand, said she’d see me in a few in the O.R. and it would all be over soon.

I didn’t think it could get better until the anesthesiologist arrived . “Well, HI THERE! How are we doing today? I’m just going to give you a little something now to take the edge off — we’ll roll you down the hall to the O.R. –and then I’ll give you more for the procedure.” Call me shallow, but at this moment, after being in uncontrollable pain for weeks, I think I fell in love on the spot. He was an honest man too! Everything he said was true. I love how you can’t remember the procedure. I just don’t understand why he couldn’t come home with me and take care of the post-procedure recovery pain!

My post surgery nurse was all smiles and perky fun. We shared stories (can’t remember what they were) and she made me laugh. I later pondered how this was likely the result of the high Julia, who was feeling no pain. Yet.

Again, an elderly gentleman escorted me ever so tenderly to my car and wished me well. All that and it was only 9:30 a.m.!

Moral of the story: I’m in hospitals all the time and they don’t bother me a bit, but they really aren’t so much fun for the patient. However, the people and caretakers you encounter do make a difference in every little thing they do.

Another suggestion I would definitely make is to bring in that anesthesiologist a little sooner!

The New York Times is reporting today that Alka-Seltzer is bringing back good ole Speedy, which our older blog readers might remember from ads from 1951 to 1980.

Not a bad idea, I think. Can anyone recall an Alka-Seltzer ad since “Plop, plop, fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is,” came out of our 19″ console TVs with wood paneling and knobs? Not me. Even Pepto-Bismol ads, as rough as those are, are at least memorable.

The NY Times has posted two cute videos of a couple Speedy spots. (Link 1. Link 2.) Alas, the NY Times is greedy and doesn’t let me embed them into this post. But listen to Speedy in these spots. How can you not like that little guy?

So is this a trend, should everyone return to their ads from the days of yore? That depends. Have times changed too much for your product to go backwards? This ad suggests that it certainly has for some folks. Now, it’s more like, “Blow in her face and she’ll kick your butt…”