I love marketing

Thought of something on the treadmill last night, and automatically filed it in the "blog this" folder. Slammed the drawer shut and continued running. Hit another 3 mi.s in 24 mins. tonight. Satisfactory, considering I struggled through one, eased through 2, and mentally fought through 3.

Gatorade ads.

These things power me on. I see them on the treadmill and they put me in the zone. That's what running is for me - finding the zone. When you get there, everything else evaporates. Its like a cheap shortcut to really good meditation. You don't have to do the mental work, you just physically exhaust yourself to the point that your brain can only focus on one thing. Anyway, the Gatorade ads do it for me. You see the fierceness in the face of the swimmer gasping for a breath, the bright orange sweat drop from the goalie's eyebrow, the neon blue blood flowing from the bent-over-runner's knee...what have you. Its when you look the athlete in the eye, that's what does it. The intensity makes me feel like I could run forever. The Mia Hamm one sticks out.

But its not just Gatorade. In fact, their ads, of late have been rather lackluster. Still enough for me to find the zone, but even Nike has been beating them out lately. See Lance Armstrong. Download the player if you have to. Its the coolest ad since the Volkswagen driving at night one, if not the best ad ever. Buy a 10 pack of yellow wrist bands. Help people with cancer. Its a disease you don't get by choice - like MS. Put your money into the ones that people don't get because of something they decided. I'm firm on this.

Some other fun ads here (PGH hat tip), here, and one of the coolest ads ever, here.