Last Thursday, something bigger than words can describe started here at Firehouse. It’s an initiative born out of Mark’s belief that big ideas can make a difference, and that the power of prayer is, well, powerful – and can be life changing.

Anna Basso is a 16-year-old girl who lives in Dallas and whose family also lives next door to Mark – they have been neighbors for 10 years. She’s been battling Stage 4 Ewing’s Sarcoma (a rare type of bone cancer) since November 2009 and has a tough fight ahead.

Anna has become an inspiration to us all, and while she is getting terrific medical care, it’s going to take more than that to help her win this fight.

To encourage Anna in her battle against cancer, the agency set a lofty goal of getting one million prayers for her. It all comes together at http://www.1millionprayers.com, where friends, family and even strangers are pledging to pray for Anna and sending their collective goodwill her way.

Please join us in supporting this amazing young woman, day in and day out. A special time has been set aside every day to pray – 12:12 p.m. This time is a direct reference to Romans 12:12 – Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Anna can really feel the strength of each individual behind her.

Pledge to pray for Anna on the website (1millionprayers.com), and help us spread the word via Facebook and Twitter (#1million4anna).

This news clip does a great job of telling the story of the 1 Million 4 Anna project, with footage from a party we hosted for Anna on April 22.

Exhibit A from the article:

The defense rests, your Honor.

Oh, one more thing, did I mention that it has 1,380 grams of salt–an entire day’s allowance in one whopping, deep-fried dose. The court finds the defendant guilty of attempted culinary manslaughter.

But what’s going on here? For some reason, at a time when obesity rates top 20% in most states, some brands are cranking the calories to 11, ripping the nob off and walking away. Too far, you bet. What really baffles me though is that many of these same brands are also pushing “healthier” options.  This, of course, includes KFC (see above) who only last year launched their “healthier” grilled menu.

Their new menu reminds me of a guy with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, but this time the devil is deep fried and served with two sides (but that’s probably just me…and weird.)

See for yourself. Our food is so heavy it will crush your house to death:

Wait, did I say that? I mean to say that our food is so light, it’ll make you throw your sassy hands in the air like you just don’t care:

Colonel, it’s like I don’t even know who you are anymore.

This type of brand schizophrenia has become commonplace in the QSR world. The conundrum seems to be, “Do we serve food that tastes really good or are do we serve food people really want to eat?” In the panic to be everything to everyone, a lot of marketing dollars are being spent communicating contradictory messages. What you get are brands that don’t mean much to anyone.

But some upstart QSR brands are out to prove they can serve up good food that also–gasp–tastes good and do so without developing a serious personality disorder.

Brands like Naked Pizza are laser focused on bringing truly healthier options to the QSR market. Its menu was created to offer the “world’s healthiest pizza”, with each slice only containing just a fraction of the calories and fat of a standard pizza. Plus, their pies are still bona fide delicious according to Yelp reviewers. And it looks like they’re going to be far from a local or regional phenomenon: Mark Cuban just partnered with the company to turn it into a national franchise.

Sadly, not the first thing that popped up when I Googled "naked pizza."

Feisty, focused challenger brands like Naked Pizza that truly know who they are, what they stand for and are in line with where consumers’ minds are at are going to start giving the big fish palpitations soon.  According to the whip-smart folks over at Iconoculture, Americans are becoming less and less willing to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous gastronomic misadventure:

Consumers have come to see food as a key to all that ails them; physically, mentally, sociologically and psychologically.

Gosh, I dunno, perhaps doubling-down on deep-fried gut bombs isn’t the best long-term strategy given consumers’ current mindsets. So it’s also probably not a good idea to spend millions to bombard consumers with confusing, scatter-brained messages either. After all, if a brand has no idea who they are, they shouldn’t expect consumers to have a clue either. Something to consider in a hyper-competitive industry where few brands are safe forever.

Any big fish brand confident they won’t end up on the fryer should join me down at Bennigan’s for a nice Monte Cristo Sand…oops, never mind.

R.I.P. Sweet Temptress.

Update: Canada has decided to pass on the Double Down. (Back bacon on the other hand? Still totally fine.)

Update 2: Hardees doubles down on Double Down.

Crowd sourced photography, 3d mapping, social media integration and the whole kitchen sink is coming to Bing Maps sooner than you might think. Also, the live backpack video camera = your mind blown.

The possibilities for advertisers are both ominous in an Orwellian-esque way and exciting in a uber-geek-esque way. As both a sci-fi buff and gadget nerd, I am both terrified and titillated.

OK, now tell me that you’re 100% sure Bill Gates hasn’t secretly become a comic book super villain.

Like the number at the top there. It means effort, right? Well, not so fast. Today I sat down at my computer to attack another week here in 2010, and 110% came to mind. Not due to effort, but because it represents my confidence level. I am 110% confident that 2010 will be our best year yet here at Firehouse. Despite the economic and geopolitical headlines, we will achieve great things in 2010. I’m certain of it.

That’s because in times like this the safe thing is often times the wrong thing. The status quo is death. And while we’d been doing a good job of pushing our clients to do new things, we also saw an opportunity to take a fresh look at our own brand. We forced ourselves to rethink who we really are and what we are really well equipped and well motivated to do. And after a thorough review in late 2009 of where we were headed, we decided something needed to change. Our Brand Promise, although thoughtful and well crafted, did not represent who we really are. It wasn’t us. Because of that we didn’t really embrace it and live it. Therefore, it wasn’t working hard enough on our behalf. It was clear to me we needed a full overhaul.

The result was several weeks of a far more inclusive, far more collaborative exercise that culminated in an agency off-site meeting this past Friday. We went down to the North Texas Food Bank, and going back all the way to starting Firehouse in 1997, this was among the best days I’ve ever had at the agency. We talked through some key changes and identified ways to refocus our efforts as an agency. It was the ideal way to bridge the best parts of what we always have done well, with what will help set us apart moving forward. And giving back and helping others was a great way to help illustrate what makes this agency unique and special.

I spent the entire weekend excited to come to work today. I am confident now that we have more oars in the water and more people pulling in the same direction than ever before. Already great people and great ideas are now better aligned. Communication that already had been improving will do so even more rapidly. Direction from managers will be more clear, more decisive and easier to interpret where it is coming from.

In short, everyone is walking around with a little better clarity, and you can see how that translates to greater confidence simply by looking at the faces of the people walking throughout the agency.

If you want to make 2010 a great year, I encourage you to shake things up. Force those around you to rethink your brand—start with yourself. Whether that brand is a CPG, a service organization or even the brand called You. Do it now, while all those around you are playing it safe and playing not to lose. I’m confident it’ll make a difference.

2010 will be a great year at this agency.

The people here have always brought great effort. And now, more than ever, I have the confidence to match.

In the dark ages (ten years ago), the only way to spread your idea on a large scale was to do it yourself. This required large buckets of money and lots and lots of ads.

Today, clients get all sweaty thinking about how this magically happens, virally, for free. If it were only that easy.

What’s interesting is that different products and ideas are spread by different groups of people. There isn’t just one professional association of idea spreaders, with everyone else being passive.

For instance, if your authentic little Italian restaurant gets hot, it’s going to be because the chowhounds, the folks who love to talk about the next great place, are buzzing about it. On the other hand, if your blog gets a lot of traffic, it might just be because a few key bloggers are going on about it, spreading the idea.

As gatekeepers to our clients’ businesses, we have to stop and ask ourselves, “What am I doing about it? Have I figured out which portion of my user base are the talkers? Is it possible to focus my efforts on actually making something that they like? Or, am I confusing the people who talk about the competition, with the people I need to reach?” After all, these folks might not be from the same tribe…

Unfortunately, ideas oftentimes fail to spread. However, this may not be a result of their content, but rather, because they don’t have a committed group of people spreading the word about them. If you treat everyone the same, you’re not increasing the odds that some people will step up on your behalf.

The first question to ask someone who is frustrated at the rate their idea is spreading: “Who are you hoping will talk about you?” If you don’t know, it’s unlikely to happen all by itself. On the other hand, being smart about finding, courting and delighting the group most likely to spread the idea, is time well spent.

You see, we’re in the idea business. And we love what we do.

You may also notice (if you’ve seen our client list) that we have a great deal of restaurant experience. In fact, not just experience, but a real passion for the dining industry and tackling the unique challenges restaurant brands face.

So as the economy started going south and the media kept banging the gong of doom, people started hunkering down, staying home and spending less. But for some reason, things didn’t get a whole lot better.

Our planning and insights team started taking a hard look at behaviors, trends, statistics and a whole lot of other factors in order to see if something could be done to help not just our clients, but everyone else as well.

And as we dug, and learned and uncovered…an idea began to form.

Waiting around for bailouts and handouts isn’t the answer. The answer is us. All of us.

Our intent is to create a movement. One based on the simple premise of reminding people that they can contribute to the economic recovery by doing very normal things.

Like eating out at a restaurant.

Take a look at this video. Let us know what you think.

And eat out for a change, will ya?