The Adnostic

It did take longer than last year, but Heather LeFever, patron saint planning industry perspective, has finally published the results from the 2008 planner survey.

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(I suggest going to the SlideShare page and viewing the presentation full screen. It's fairly dense.)

Not only is this a great help for determining salary expectations, but I was ever so glad that this year she included the answers from open ended questions to planning directors on career and salary negotiation advice:

"Never tell your current salary. You deserve what your skills and talent pull in the market, not what looks better next to your old salary."

"Women need to be stronger, firmer, and ask for what they want. Even if it's uncomfortable."

"Articulate your value."

"Get everything in writing."

On a sad note, job satisfaction is down and people looking to go to another agency within the next year are up. Good for recruiters and good for me I suppose, but bad for agencies and clients who want to maintain an experienced and informed relationship.

Richard Huntington was surprised by the lack of job satisfaction in the US compared to the UK (which did its own survey via the IPA). His advice - we all pack up, move to the UK, and have above average job satisfaction for the rest of our lives. Kind of like the children of Lake Woebegone. Happy to. Glad to. When can I start?

On another note, I found this great job listing for Saatchi S. If you have ten years experience as a planner and wish to help brands become better citizens of our much abused planet, then have a go. Lord knows I would love the opportunity to cleanse my soul with devising green marketing initiatives.

The wedding was surprisingly lovely. Not one single breakdown, blow-up, or bridezilla moment occurred. For me, it was really nice to be away and not worry about who I'm interviewing with, who I could be interviewing with, what agencies I need to follow up with, and who has my resume.

I drove from Los Angeles to San Francisco to pick up Dave listening to Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman the entire way. (side note - For long drives I highly recommend audiobooks. They help defeat the monotony and keep the brain engaged, preventing nod-offs and those disconcerting where-did-the-last-ten-minutes-go moments. Gaiman has become somewhat of an audiobook standby for me. His books are light and funny while still being clever and interesting and topped with a healthy layer of geek.) I arrived right on time at SFO after negotiating their parking structure, met Dave at the baggage claim, and we were off to wine country for a weekend of food, wine, ceremonies of fidelity, and family dealings.

In Napa we of course did the winery thing. We went to the Robert Sinskey Vinyard, which was okay. I wasn't terribly impressed with any of their offerings besides their most expensive Cabernet and mom was far more interested in feeding the koi fish on the patio than drinking. From there we traveled to Domaine Chandon for a champagne tasting only to have the serendipity to arrive on a day they were having a special on champagne and oysters. Ms. Jen had once told me that they had a surprisingly good Pinto Noir, but I didn't get a chance to try it. Instead I had a sample of their sparkling red. It had a gorgeous color, but the taste left much to be desired (too sweet, like a mild medicine).

The day of the wedding Dave and I had some time to kill before I got my hair done so we stopped by the Rubicon Estate of Coppola family fame to do a quick tasting and tour the movie memorabilia upstairs. When we got there it was immediately explained there there was a $25 visitor's fee just to tour the estate. Dave wouldn't let me pay for that racket given our time constraints so we got a couple glasses of wine from their cafe, sat on the patio, and enjoyed the morning view. I did manage to con the server into letting me try their estate reserve blended white, which was amazing. It was probably the most complex white I had ever tasted and it put my Sauvignon Blanc to shame.

The ceremony was wonderful and seemingly effortless. Leah and Tom's vows were honest, funny, and heartfelt. Leah, in all of her wisdom, let the professionals do their jobs and just laid back and enjoyed the day. Dinner was delicious and we danced well into the night to a healthy mix of 80's nostalgia and modern pop. Dave didn't even need coaxing onto the dance floor. He was right there with me the entire time, dance for dance. He is certainly my perfect partner.

The next day we stopped at Acme Fine Wines to say hi to Karen and to try a few of their more obscure selection. My dad got a case of Prisoner to split with himself and a colleague, Dave got a bottle of Prisoner for himself and one for me, and I walked away with a bottle of Luli Chardonnay and a bottle of Bridesmaid because I couldn't help myself.

Then it was off to San Francisco to meet up with our internet friends for coffee before I took Dave to the airport.

After a long goodbye to Dave I headed to Oakland for a nice Chinese dinner with the newly blended family and then I drove back to SanFran to crash at my friend Cindy's place, but not before American Idol karaoke and Mario Kart on the Wii with a few of her friends.

I want to live a greener lifestyle. I want to move to a city with better public transportation so I can drive less. I try to avoid drinking bottled water by using a Britta filter for my daily drinking water, reusing the PET bottle a few times when I can't avoid it, and requesting a glass of the city's finest when I'm dining out. I carry a baggu bag with me wherever I go and use it at every possible occasion. I hardly have any plastic bags for trash anymore. I buy organic food even though its more expensive and I'm not gainfully employed. I recycle sparingly, but I want to increase that effort once I'm in my own place (my roommate isn't much for recycling so I hide my bottles and cans in the neighbors' recycling bins). I want to start buying carbon offsets eventually, but I'm not sure if that's any more effective than investing in socially responsible mutual funds. And so on, and so forth.

Here is what I don't want to be - I don't want to be a green know-it-all or a nag, but I'm worried. I'm worried that the sense of an immediate need for a united effort, from for businesses and consumers, isn't being felt and that a greater part of society isn't taking it seriously or doesn't believe it at all. It's not like I am completely certain that increasingly severe weather patterns are a continuous trend and not just a blip along the history of existence. But this video made it easy for me decide:

- If we do nothing and there is no climate crisis, then things continue as they are.
- If we do nothing and global warming continues, disaster is immanent.
- If we so something and climate change abates, then we consume less, are energy independent, produce less waste, etc.
- If we do something and the climate crisis turns out to be very real, then hopefully we can do enough to end or even reverse the pattern of causation.

Either way, it is far better to do something than to do nothing.

But what can we do? According to this article in the New York Times, many people who want to do something feel paralyzed by conflicting messages.

"An environmentally conscientious consumer is left to wonder: are low-energy compact fluorescent bulbs better than standard incandescents, even if they contain traces of mercury? Which salad is more earth-friendly, the one made with organic mixed greens trucked from thousands of miles away, or the one with lettuce raised on nearby industrial farms? Should they support nuclear power as a clean alternative to coal?"

Sure, we would all like to see the issue as black and white - if we do these things then the planet will be saved, but its usually not that simple. Especially for the larger purchases. The only way we can cease to have an impact is to not consume at all, otherwise, everything else is a trade off. Bamboo floor vs. wood = renewable resource vs. smaller carbon footprint. It is the act of making a conscious decision to weigh the costs and benefits to the earth and our future well-being that is important.

Therefore, it is our job as marketers to empower consumers to weigh the pluses and minuses without feeling overwhelmed by them. The M&S carbon footprint label is a good start, but it only tells one part of the story. We can't be can't all be Ed Begley Jr. (he's a borderline nutcase), but we can at least have the information we need to make the buying decisions that make us more good than bad.

I promised myself that once I left my last job that I would blog about more personal and major life events on this blog, mostly to keep the ambient intimacy going with friends I don't talk to as much as I would like. Being able to broadcast and share your life is one of the major benefits of blogging and web 2.0 in general.

My sister's wedding is this weekend. Dave bought a suit for the first time in ten years just for the occasion and I have to admit that he looks dead sexy in it. I pulled out a silk Shelly Segal dress from my closet and loaded up on accessories - new black satin peep-toe heels, jet crystal earrings, a black satin clutch, and a satin bolero jacket (I'm still on the fence about the jacket, I may switch it out for a pashmina wrap at the last minute). The purchases were ill advised considering my lack of steady income, but my sister will only be getting married once. Right?

I'll be driving up to San Francisco by myself, picking up Dave from the airport, and driving the rest of the way to Calistoga together until we reach this quaint little slice of weekend heaven:

It looks a little too Laura Ashley for my taste, but for just a few days on my parents dime, I'd be crazy to turn it down.

Aside from the rehearsal and the actual wedding, Dave and I (crossing fingers) will be left to our own devices. I'm going to try to play it fast and loose, which is very unlike me. I can usually be counted on to have trips like this planned down to the minute, but this time I only have two items on the itinerary:

- Acme Fine Wines in Napa - I met the proprietors when I helped out as a roadie for my friend's band at the Napa wine auction a few years ago. They were volunteers at the event assigned to the green room. We really hit it off and they invited my friend and I to drop by their store before we left the next day. Most of their stock was way out of my price range, but they turned me on to two good bottles under $30 that were way better than anything I could have picked out for myself.
Karen, one of the owners, said that if I was ever in Napa again to give them a call and about a week ago I did just that.

- Hopmonk Tavern in Sebastopol - This is actually a gastropub launched by Dean Biersch of Gordon-Biersch fame. A friend of mine who is about to publish a book on American microbreweries turned us on to it. I know that it seems kind of pointless to specifically seek out a place for obscure European and domestic microbrews when you're in the wine capitol of North America, but Dave loves beer and I love doing the unexpected. So in that light, it makes perfect sense.

Then there is the wedding. It will be very traditional, rest assured. Leah doesn't do much that doesn't follow the rules. The dress will be Wang (consignment natch) (the marriage may be mixed, but the Isaacsons are still Jewish). The bridesmaids dresses will be J. Crew. The colors will be a very 90's combination of chocolate brown and light blue. The wedding will be at a winery with a beautiful outdoor setting.

And the reception will be in the wine cellar (Dave will have a hard time with the lighting for photos, but c'est la vie).

I'm looking forward to the event. Tom is going to make a great addition to the family and it will be good to see the whole family at an event that involves caterers with a distinct absence of turkey and pumpkin pie. I have been promised that I will have most of the weekend free to spend with Dave, but he's bringing a book just in case. He knows my family all too well.