Lindsey’s Daily Deal: Be Citywise, A Bunch of Guys With A Crazy Idea and a Fully Grown Love Plant Waiting to Be Fertilized

By Lindsey Campbell, Captains of Industry

Hey Captains’ readers,

Here’s your Wednesday Deal:

1. Be Citywise

It all started when I was 16 years old. After years of only receiving lame credit card offers and belated birthday cards from distant relatives, I longed to open the mailbox and actually find a piece of mail addressed to me—and only me. To lift my spirits, my mom used to let me open the letters addressed “To The Campbell Family,” but alas, it just didn’t satiate the thrill of opening my own piece of correspondence. But then one glorious day, it all changed. I was bombarded—make that assaulted—with mail. I got postcards. I got packages. I got letters. It was like Christmas every day at 3:30. In fact, I’d say that I received the most mail out of anyone in my household. Why the sudden change? I certainly wasn’t paying the bills, and I didn’t pick up any pen pals. Nope, all I had to do was turn 16. This is the age when teenagers start thinking about which college they want to go to—and the signal for any college or university in the country to start peddling their brochure-ware.

After my initial postal buzz wore off (as most buzzes eventually do), I found myself chucking what was once my most precious commodity in the trash before I even read their glossy contents–mostly because they were all the same. Why am I telling you this? Because in a sea of similarity, you have to stand out if you want to get noticed. Which is what Seattle’s Creature did for the City University of Seattle. Rather than recruiting potential students with politically correct copy that straddles the line between something both a potential student and parent would love, they did something that turned heads and jumpstarted brains. How exactly? Well, Seattle’s Creature used the context of the medium, such as billboards, bus wraps, coffee sleeves, gas stations and radio ads, to deliver their message to prospective students. My favorite is the bus wrap that says, “Game theory: when you decide to walk to the next bus stop rather than wait.” Way to appeal to your audience in a way that doesn’t drive them to stuff you in the trash. Which is really the ultimate goal, isn’t it?

2. Once upon a time, a bunch of guys had a crazy idea…

Chevrolet knows how to speak to Americans. Even better, they did it without even the mention of baseball, hot dogs or apple pie. These days, commercials that try to stir our inner patriotism tend to fall back on played out clichés that don’t muster even a swell of pride inside our hearts anymore. But recently, Chevrolet blew my patriotic mind with their latest commercial for their Corvette. Rather than pledging themselves to the red, white and blue, they built their commercial around the one thing that made the United States possible—our pit bull-like stance on taking a dream and making it happen with nothing but our brains and unrelenting determination.

It’s nice to know America still builds rockets.

3. You’re a fully-grown love plant just waiting to be fertilized

Marriage proposals have turned into a big deal. You can’t just bring a gal to a restaurant anymore and stick a diamond in her soufflé. These days, you’ve got to think it through. Most guys, the ones that are probably worth the lifetime commitment, know this and are scrambling to figure out how they should ask their lady love to be their mate for life. Well, no matter what you think you’ve got up your sleeve, fellas, @Jsbeals has you beat. This tweeter asked Isaiah Mustafa, the “Old Spice Guy,” to ask his girlfriend, Angela Hutt-Chamberlin, to marry him on his behalf via Twitter. And guess what, less than three hours later, Mustafa was standing in a candlelit bathroom honorably honoring his honorable request.

Congratulations Mrs. Soon-To-Be-Angela-Hutt-Chamberlin-Beals. Whew. Maybe you should take his name, girl.

Until tomorrow,

Captain Lindsey