What makes a good planner

1. A planner is a deeply reflective individual who enjoys discovery. The person is part academic part social, because while they read and absorb a lot of literature, they know that many useful insights come directly from people.

2. A good planner makes friends easily. They have a warm personality and are great listeners.

3. Planners are constantly learning. They are like a sponge absorbing information, and constantly with their pulse on culture and trends.

4. They are investigators and journalists, they go beyond the superficial, and love digging deeper, like peeling layers off till they hit the core insight or truth, which can provide invaluable meaning to a business or brand.

5. The type of insights provided by a planner can solve problems and save brands, whether they are intrinsic business problems, or just lack misconception of consumer understanding.

6. Planning is a highly creative discipline. The planner’s source for information is endless. Information is pervasive. A planner learns the art of knowing where to look, what to absorb and how to interpret it.

7. A planner taps into all sources, and leaves nothing to assumption. A good planner goes by evidence and facts, but also by instincts

8. Planners are thinkers and problem solvers. They are philosophers and mathematicians. They love puzzles. Just hand them a Rubic’s cube and see!

9. They are also artists and wonderful writers, because learn to hone the art of self-expression, weather verbal, written, visual or even acted out.

10. Many times, the main thought or nugget of information or idea crucial to a campaign is hidden in the planner’s brief. Many good ad concepts are cracked in planning, before they even get to creative.

11. Planners believe in simplifying. Breaking things down, to more digestible, easily understandable, useful and relevant information. Many of their insights are moments of ‘aha!’

Cop Chase!

This evening, while I was driving to the gym, I came to this u-turn, and outta nowhere, this fast, low car with 98% tinted windows whiz past me. Of course it did, because it had a cop car at its tail!

Somebody, some stupid stupid body, was actually trying to escape a police vehicle in this city! Well the cop did a decent job of staying close to the speeding car, and the drivers on either side of the ‘runnaway car’ slowed down, thereby providing the necessary ‘obstacles’ and synergistically, it was a stellar job of cornering the poor bastards right into the pavement. It was like right out of CSI Miami! I think people took a second to look for the hidden camera. All the other cars around the action also slowed down considerably. Why bother getting out of the way, when you can slow down, and hang out to watch all the drama? (It should be mentioned here that I would have happily raced off to the gym so as not to miss my 5.30pm body combat class, but unfortunately, my car was positioned right behind the cops, so I couldn’t move, till they did!)

What I witnessed next was far from an accurate depiction of a Hollywood movie cop-car-chase. The cops got out of their car, and two other men got out from the car in front of the captive car (cops under cover? cop buddies? or just a couple of samaritans?). One of the men pulled opened the front door, and dragged the driver out by his collar. Another man was also pulled out from the front passenger seat, and a four or five year old boy from the back seat.

The two cops and their buddies then presumed to beat the driver and his co-pilot, by way of kicking them down to the floor, by elbowing them and jabbing them hard in the stomach and the behind. Them men put their hands together to shield themselves, and started to cry and wail. After a few minutes, when they had been helplessly handcuffed and on their knees, they were pushed into the back seat of the cop car. Sirens were still blaring as the cars sped off onto the Sheikh Zayed highway, presumably heading to the nearest police station.

Normally I would imagine that under such circumstances, a person caught is handcuffed and has their rights read out to them. But then a ‘cop chase’ is just such a rare event in this city, and it was all so dramatic… from the cop beating to the men wailing. I wonder how much of the ‘drama’ was an automatic learned response to watching the sensationalized versions of such events on the screen, and how much of it was pure reaction of emotions running high.

The poor guys who had their asses kicked, seemed in my opinion, like just a couple of harmless and stupid guys, who were scared as hell, and should have known better than to run from the cops in the first place. Was it really necessary to beat them down? I didn’t think so, but then, hopefully the ass-whopping will teach them not to be so dumb.

As for the cops motives, well, I can’t help but think that even among the nicest of men, a cop wouldn’t mind being ’seen’ doing his job well, especially in a place like this, where the opportunity for public acknowledgment rarely arises. I think their instinct to beat the men down was just a little show for the audiance. It was a moment of glorification. ‘Hey look at me, Im protecting the city!’ That kind of feeling is hard to beat, in what I imagine is a pretty lacklustre job out here, and so far from the grand Holllywood personification of it.

I like you

But I’m fighting it.

And if I keep fighting it, I’ll win

Unless you like me, and you’re fighting it.

‘I like you’ and ‘you like me’ battle it out

…

i can’t finish this poem. help??