Episode Transcript
Don Mock 0:00
All right. Episode 120 we’re back, baby.
Rob Broadfoot 0:22
It’s one tweezy.
Don Mock 0:23
One tweezy. I like it. That ties into the rap battle that seems to be going around right now as well.
Drake versus
this is gonna be old news by the time this podcast actually comes out,
Rob Broadfoot 0:34
we are in the throes of the Drake versus Kendrick Lamar rap battle.
Don Mock 0:38
We’re a couple old guys. We can, we can, we can be behind the time sometimes you know
Rob Broadfoot 0:41
You know who just dropped a new track. Also, I’ve just, literally just listened to
Don Mock 0:45
MGK
Rob Broadfoot 0:46
No, Macklemore.
Don Mock 0:48
I don’t know who that is. Macklemore.
Rob Broadfoot 0:50
Oh, my god
Don Mock 0:51
Yeah, I’m old dude, I listen to metal, I listen to rock
Rob Broadfoot 0:54
You know, I’m gonna pop some tags.The thrift store?
Don Mock 0:59
No.
Rob Broadfoot 0:59
Oh boy.
Don Mock 1:00
No, my favorite, there’s a fantastic, fantastic podcaster, YouTuber, everybody look him up. He’s actually here in Atlanta. His name’s Rick Beato. You ever heard of this guy?
Rob Broadfoot 1:12
Can I share my Macklemore story?
Don Mock 1:14
Oh, okay, yeah, go for it.
Rob Broadfoot 1:16
Who everybody else knows except for you? dropped a track about the campus protest, the Palestine.
Okay.Okay, interesting, intense.
And it’s called Hind Hall, and I think it’s named after the Columbia University, like one of the dorms. Okay, anyway, go listen to it. It’s interesting. I’m not gonna weigh in on it.
Don Mock 1:39
Okay, that’s the end of the story?
Rob Broadfoot 1:41
That’s the end of the story. He dropped it in the middle of the and The reason I bring it up is because he references the Drake Kendrick Lamar in his new song.
Don Mock 1:51
It’s amazing how quickly music comes out. Now, do you know what I mean? Like, I mean, it’s, I mean, again, we’ve got Pro Tools, we’ve got all the stuff everybody’s,
Rob Broadfoot 1:59
yeah, it’s all about the home studio now.
Don Mock 2:01
it’s not like, oh my god, I gotta buy time at the whatever and go record it and mix it and, you know, tape and there’s no tapes involved, and then that kind of stuff anymore.
Rob Broadfoot 2:11
Well, it’s also because a lot of them are independents, and they don’t require a label to distribute and do all the producing and all the things
Don Mock 2:17
I’m gonna tag back in on my Rick Beato. He’s a, he’s an Atlanta guy, and he is an amazing musician, guitar player, but can play everything, right? And he has all the music, all the musicians. If they come through Atlanta, they go and sit on his tour. He just had, I mean, you could, he’s got hundreds and hundreds of YouTube videos,
Rob Broadfoot 2:36
Podcast and musician. That’s what he does?
Don Mock 2:38
yeah, but he interviews. He’s the interviewer of musicians, right? And, God, he probably taught half of Atlanta how to play guitar. At one point he had his own band. He just interviewed Josh Freese, the new foo fighter drummer, which is a fantastic interview, goes through his entire career and how he got the call from Dave, and things like that. But he’s an amazing guitarist, and one of his funny little YouTube things like 10 minutes, right? He will do the Spotify top 10, and he will review it, right, okay. And he’ll sit there, turn the camera on, put on the laptop, do and say, like, Hey, I don’t know what the top 10 is. And he goes through and he sits there and he listens to it, and he’s got his guitar, you know, slung around. And he sits there and he figures out how to play the song, you know, within the first, yeah, 30 seconds, or whatever that. And then He gives you, like, the musical breakdown. I’m like, Oh, this is an A minor. This is a this, you know, there’s the chord progression, time and double,
Yeah, and the Spotify top 10. It’ll be like, you know, Taylor Swift, but then it’ll be, it’s the global Spotify top 10.
Rob Broadfoot 3:34
So you get an eclectic
Don Mock 3:35
So you’ll get some reggaeton, you get all sorts of weird stuff in there, right? But even the craziest hip hop or non guitar based thing, he will figure out the musical aspect of how it goes. And he laughs and laughs about how he doesn’t know who any of these bands are. And then, and I sit there and watch it going, I don’t know who any of these bands are, either. I mean, to your point about Macklemore I’m like, you know, there’s nobody in the Spotify Top 10 worldwide that I personally listen to, you know, when I’m listening in my office. So, yeah, I always get a kick out of that. And He most recently, I mean, watch out, the Swifties are gonna come after him.
Oh, Lord
Whatever. One of the new Taylor Swift songs is in there. He was ripping on,
Rob Broadfoot 4:12
well, all of them are on their. I feel like
Don Mock 4:14
It’s all of them. But he was talking about how, oh, one of the lyrics is, she’s so depressed about something, okay, and but his funny juxtaposition was, well, use your minor keys if you’re gonna write a depressing song. And here it is, this upbeat, you know, goes on the he’s like what do you have to be depressed about? Like, you are literally queen of the world all that kind of, you know. So, I mean, he interjects his own fun little stuff, or whatever
Rob Broadfoot 4:39
It is interesting that a lot of musicians, very successful musicians, and I’ll give you an anecdote in a minute, but don’t know how to read music, and just the idea of listening and learning by ear versus actually being able to read sheet music. Sure, sure, I cannot read sheet music at one point. Point in time I learned sort of how to do it
Don Mock 5:03
In high school I think we all learned
Rob Broadfoot 5:05
And then I’ve since forgotten, but I, but I can. I can learn stuff by ear, yeah, not like sounds like this guy can, but, but I can pick up stuff by ear and kind of figure it out that way. And it was interesting. There was a Howard Stern was interviewing, and did like, a town hall with Billy Joel not long ago, And Billy Joel was saying the same thing. I mean, we think of the piano man, And he’s like, Oh, I don’t know how to read sheet music, And he said the same thing. He’s like, I he’s like, a long time ago I learned how, and I was very proficient at reading sheet music. He’s like, and then I just totally forgot how to do it. He’s like, I have no idea how to read sheet music anymore, which is interesting, if you think about a somebody that’s that proficient. I mean, who is the piano man
Don Mock 5:51
He’s an accomplished singer songwriter, obviously
Rob Broadfoot 5:54
But then also to, Oh, I did totally learn how to do that, and now I don’t remember how to do that.
Don Mock 6:00
What’s interesting too is your entire career is based on music. Yet you haven’t needed to do that for, arguably, 40-50, years, right? It’s not a requirement.
Rob Broadfoot 6:11
You would think that would be a fundamental requirement for your occupation,
Don Mock 6:15
It’s almost like you really need, actually, more music engineering now, right? And more of the Pro Tools and more of the digital sphere, then you need to actually document how to play that song, a you know, and we’ve got guitar tabs, you’ve got, you know, chord progressions. It’s really more about
Rob Broadfoot 6:31
Well once tablature came out, then it was like, Okay, well, we don’t need staffs and treble clefs and thing, you know, we don’t need all that stuff.
Don Mock 6:39
Yeah, you don’t need any of that stuff. So, yeah, it’s interesting you know, there’s a fair there’s more musicians out there like that than I think we probably realized, to be honest.
Rob Broadfoot 6:47
Yeah, I think there are too.
Don Mock 6:50
I don’t know how to tie that into today’s topic. I don’t know how we do a hard pivot from that, but maybe, since we just went on a five minute riff about sort of the world around us, that is the topic for today, I thought, right? Is inspiration from the world around us.
Rob Broadfoot 7:05
That’s right.
Don Mock 7:06
And I think this came from, we’re working on a campaign right now, right? We had a great call with client. Presented a bunch of different ideas. They picked the direction, right? And it’s okay. We’ve got a path to head down
Rob Broadfoot 7:16
for a chicken brand of all things
Don Mock 7:18
yeah, Where do we go from here? Right? Like, here’s kind of the initial platform idea, okay, well, it’s, I don’t know that it’s in an emphasis to break the campaign, but it’s in an emphasis to sort of test it and make sure that it’s viable for multiple different applications, and it’s got legs to run, right? Would you agree with that?
Rob Broadfoot 7:37
Yeah, yeah.
Don Mock 7:38
So concept did a bunch of new directions for that. And it’s okay, it’s time to, you know, scrap together some comps and see what this thing’s gonna look like, right? And hilariously enough, you know, we’re all computer jockeys, and we’ve got all these great, you know, Adobe Creative Suite tools. Couldn’t find what I needed to visualize the idea, and the light bulb went off. Oh, let me just take a picture with my phone of something in the office, and use that, you know what I mean, rather than I got to go to the stock photo place or this or that, you know? And you kind of forget, that’s how both you and I started, you know, was if you didn’t have it, you just make it, right? You just sort of create it, I guess, you know, you know. And we used to scan in a lot of things
Rob Broadfoot 8:22
A lot of scanning
Don Mock 8:23
You know, like, Oh, I found this gum wrapper in the gutter,
Rob Broadfoot 8:26
or a texture
Don Mock 8:29
I need a ripped paper. Like, let me physically rip some paper and then scan that bad boy in, you know. But then we got so used to just sort of sitting in our desks and pulling up, you know, imagery and the magical, beautiful worlds and the cesspool of the internet, right? But it was like, oh, man, let me just kick it old school and literally, just grab something from the office to put in the comp, right?
Rob Broadfoot 8:49
Well, and I think that works from that, you know, there’s a there’s a production story, right? Of using the world around you to facilitate production. But let’s back it up a little bit further, and the particular concept, which I’m happy to share, was sort of inspired by the world around us, right? And it’s, it’s, if you think about creativity, and when you’re putting together a campaign, a lot of times, what you want to do is sort of find little human truths, right? You want to find things that people can relate to
Don Mock 9:19
Sure, to tell the story
Rob Broadfoot 9:20
Totell the story. It makes it a little bit more effective. It helps strike a chord with the audience and all this.
Don Mock 9:24
I See what you did there with bringing the music back in, strike the chord.
Rob Broadfoot 9:29
There you go.
Don Mock 9:29
I don’t know what sound effect button is. Perfect. Yeah. Okay. Anyway
Rob Broadfoot 9:37
So in concepting it, it was the idea that ended up coming, coming out of our heads, and the one that actually went through is this idea that, again, we’re talking about chicken, and I can share the concept, it’s fine, but the idea ended up being this platform of, sort of tough deserves tender, right? So they wanted to talk about the tenderness of the Chicken and all these things. So the idea platform was tough, deserves tender. And it was, well, what if we create these, like everyday, little sort of life moments, right? That cause you to have a tough day And so you deserve a tender chicken dinner
Don Mock 10:14
Yeah Absolutely.
Rob Broadfoot 10:14
So that was sort of the platform that went through, and now, you know, we’re in this phase of coming up with all of these little, everyday, typical scenarios from the world around us, yeah, that people can relate to, whether it’s having a flat tire or whether it’s getting stung by a bee, or it’s all of just these little things that happen in a day that sort of cause a tough day, and you get to reward yourself with a tough dinner.
Don Mock 10:38
Yeah, exactly, a tender dinner.
Rob Broadfoot 10:40
What did I say?
Don Mock 10:41
A thoughtough dinner
Rob Broadfoot 10:42
Oh, I see, I don’t even know. Yeah, a tender dinner.
Don Mock 10:44
Well, we’re still in development. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, no, it’s, it’s, it’s, but then visually, right? It’s pulling inspiration from the world around us, which I think is, which I think is pretty cool. I love the idea of bringing in a little bit of humor, especially when, you know, hey, it’s a cold ass world out there. You know what I mean? And like, you know, my check engine light went on, or whatever the case may be, right? And, but visually, art directionally, it’s like, oh, there’s nothing better. There’s no stock photo that’s going to be better than actually the item that is around us, right? You know what I mean? So it truly is kind of old school advertising, which I love, which is, let’s grab all the things around us
Rob Broadfoot 11:22
And not only that, but you can use your iPhone to take the picture. This is comp this is for comp purposes mind you. no, every photographer out there just is immediately unsubscribed from our podcast after that last comment
Don Mock 11:37
yeah, I put my iPhone on point five and flipped it upside down and took it, you know. No, we’re not doing that, when this gets real, we’ll, you know, actually document things, of course, you know. So, yeah, I think, you know, it’s, I think it’s important to get up out of your desk, you know what I mean, and remember that there is the inspiration all around us, you know what I mean. And you know, in this instance, it’s obviously turning a negative into a negative into a positive, right, that juxtaposition. But you know, where else, you know,
Rob Broadfoot 11:38
I always tell my kids this, this is a random, here we go. But I always teach my kids, no matter what they’re doing, awareness. Just be aware of your surroundings. I don’t care whether it’s on teaching my my daughter to drive, yeah, and it’s just, hey, I need you to be aware of everything around you. But I think that applies to in and I’ve told my kids this too, like, Oh, they’re like, how do you come up with ideas and things, and how do you do, you know, figure out all this stuff? And I’m like, Well Because I’m just aware. It’s just awareness of the world around you, and awareness of everything from, you know, funny little things that happen in life, to being aware of people’s emotions to being aware of the traffic around you. And I think that’s a just kind of a nice universal lesson
Don Mock 13:02
and that is honestly the basis of probably most comedy, right? That’s very Jerry Seinfeld of you, right? Seinfeld is famous for, and again, we’re dating ourselves, because, you know, although he does have the number one movie on Netflix, right? so, but you know Where do you come up with It’s like, just look around you. That’s what he always says, Just look around you like, it’s ridiculous everywhere. Humor is everywhere that you know. So, I mean, that’s definitely one type of comedy, right? It’s just that observational humor, right? So, yeah, I mean, it makes, it makes a lot of sense. So I’m always telling my kids to be aware of your surroundings, but more in the Don’t be a clumsy person. Like,
Rob Broadfoot 13:40
Oh, you just tripped over a thing.
Don Mock 13:42
You know, you spilled your drink because you put it right on the edge of the counter,
Rob Broadfoot 13:46
That drives Don crazy. crazy.If Don Mock hates one thing, is spilling.
Don Mock 13:52
Oh, my Lord. Oh my lord, I am scarred from spilling. So, yeah, do not. Do not put that drink right there.
Rob Broadfoot 14:00
Do not set it on the edge of the table.
Don Mock 14:04
And I’ll tell you what the last time this happened, and I was so upset, I physically stood up and left the room and shout out to Kathy, who’s probably listening to this, the one time I didn’t say something in the last 10 years, right? One time you know
Rob Broadfoot 14:19
Kathy, your mother in law?
Don Mock 14:20
Kathy, yeah. Big family gathering, nice, big Bloody Mary right on the edge of this little, I don’t even know what you call it, like bench kind of table thing, right in front of the couch. And it’s right there teetering on the edge.
Rob Broadfoot 14:33
Bloody Mary too. Tomato juice.
Don Mock 14:36
And it’s the brand new carpet that we put down, the rug, I should say the brand new rug that was put down because
Rob Broadfoot 14:42
What colour was the rug?
Don Mock 14:42
white, white, it’s a nice white, tannish, natural sort of thing, you know? And one of those thick rug, like, Sicily things, but not the hard crustally, like, like, You can walk on it barefoot, but it’s a big knit kind of rug scenario, right?
Rob Broadfoot 14:59
Cracks, a lot of cracks.
Don Mock 15:01
God. And I’m sitting there looking at it, and I’m looking at it, and I’m like, do I say something? And then boom, that whole bloody mary
Rob Broadfoot 15:09
Did she knock it?
Don Mock 15:11
Knocked right over
Rob Broadfoot 15:13
but hit the glass or knock the table. And then the glass knocked over.
Don Mock 15:18
Hit the glass, and the whole thing, right on the thing. And I just, I looked at it, and then I looked up, and then I looked at my wife, and I immediately left the room.
Rob Broadfoot 15:28
Did you go get something to clean it up?
Don Mock 15:32
was like, I have to
Rob Broadfoot 15:32
You were in such a fit of rage. You had to leave the leave the property.
Don Mock 15:36
I’m going to say something inappropriate in a family gathering.
Rob Broadfoot 15:39
Well it’s your mother in law so you were smart to bite your lip.
Don Mock 15:43
Let it be known. My mother in law was not the one who spilled the BloodyBloody Mary. I’m just I’m just saying shout out to Kathy, because I know that she listens to this podcast from time to time.
Rob Broadfoot 15:51
Who was the culprit?
Don Mock 15:52
Well, there’s a game of pass the buck on that one, and there are half of the witnesses think it was one person. Half of the witnesses think it was the other. And I’m not going to out them right now
Rob Broadfoot 16:06
do you know the truth?
Don Mock 16:07
I know who. Yeah, yeah, I’m you know, you want to talk about aware of the world around you, right? I’m a very like, observation is my like, I noticed the weirdest. It’s the art director in me, right?
Rob Broadfoot 16:20
You notice a lot of things that I would never notice. lot of people’s physical attributes,
Don Mock 16:27
yeah, well, that makes me sound shallow, but, I mean, I’m a visual. I see the world visually. I don’t see the world from an audio perspective, or, you know, narrative or anything like that. I don’t see, you know, I see visuals everywhere I go, right? So, so if you think, I don’t know who spilled that bloody Mary you are sorely mistaken, well, this has gone off the rails, but
Rob Broadfoot 16:50
I think there’s a lot of lids. There needs to be a lot of lids on a lot of Stanley’s in there just lids. Everything has a lid.
Don Mock 16:57
That Bloody Mary was full too. That was not a half… I mean, that was fresh out of the bar, right there,
Rob Broadfoot 17:04
ice and everything, ice and all maybe even a garnish.
Don Mock 17:08
Yeah, I see, I see it in slow motion.
Rob Broadfoot 17:10
Is the stain still there?
Don Mock 17:12
Yes it was impossible to get it out. And we tried, We removed all of the furniture from the room. I mean, it’s a huge rug, dude. It’s like, yeah, I don’t know, 15 feet long. I mean, it’s the whole room, basically, right? We lifted it up, reoriented the entire thing, and put it over in the back corner. Now, yeah, so it’s very, it’s not very visible.
Rob Broadfoot 17:35
Can’t find it,
Don Mock 17:35
can’t find it,I know it’s there. I know it’s there. Yeah,
Rob Broadfoot 17:36
speaking of cleaning rug, you need to go get you a steam cleaner. I rented one from Home Depot, from Lowe’s last time 39 bucks
Don Mock 17:49
I haven’t done that. I haven’t rented a carpet washing thing since I lived in an apartment and we had to do that to clean it up before we leave to get our security deposit.
Rob Broadfoot 17:59
39 bucks last weekend.
Don Mock 18:01
But then you gotta buy all the the goo, all the liquid, what did you clean some carpets?
Rob Broadfoot 18:07
Oh, boy, boy, howdy. I cleaned all the carpets in my house.
Don Mock 18:10
That’s a lot ofof work.
Rob Broadfoot 18:11
Oh, it’s so much work. Yeah, it’s a lot of browning points for that.
Don Mock 18:14
I didn’t realize you could do that.
Rob Broadfoot 18:16
I have three dogs. We have three dogs, so our carpets are a disaster
Don Mock 18:21
Well, they bring when is raining and muddy and whatever else. Yeah. Any other thoughts on observational comedy, observational the world around us. You know, I mean inspiration, this kind of morphed into inspiration
Rob Broadfoot 18:33
inspiration from everywhere and anywhere. And it’s, it is, I’ll agree with Seinfeld. It’s everything is. Everywhere you can find comedy, you can find serious situations, emotional situations, all those things, and all those things can be brought into what what we do, certainly. And that’s a lot of where we where we do, where we find our inspiration, be it on the front end strategy side or on the back end production side.
Don Mock 18:56
Yeah, absolutely.
Rob Broadfoot 18:58
Work with the world around you.
Don Mock 19:00
Yes. Where can people find us in the world?
Rob Broadfoot 19:02
Well, I was gonnagonna tie it into awareness. And I couldn’t, I couldn’t get there faster.
Don Mock 19:09
This one’s gone off the rails.
Rob Broadfoot 19:10
Yeah, how about the internet? www.mocktheagency.theagency.com or the socials @mocktheagencytheagency
Don Mock 19:14
Not every podcast’s a winner Rob,
Rob Broadfoot 19:16
I don’t think this one’s a loser. I give it a b minus.
Don Mock 19:20
Yeah, we’ve done better, and we’ve done worse,Let’s Let’s call it a day.
Rob Broadfoot 19:25
We’re aware.
Don Mock 19:26
We’re aware of our standard, yeah, our place in the world. All right. All right. Find us online. Everybody.
Rob Broadfoot 19:33
We will see you on Episode 121.
Don Mock 19:36
It’s gonna be amazing. Bye.
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