Picked up a package of peanuts at Jenny Lou's last week based primarily on the fact that they were cheap and salted (seriously, why import Planters Dry Roasted UNSALTED Peanuts? Nobody in China is watching their sodium. Have you ever tasted soy sauce?)
I was about to tear into it when I was stopped by the steely gaze of the angry old man on the package:
I'm not sure what he's doing there, and I'm not sure why he isn't wearing a shirt. But I am sure he's very disappointed in me. "You kids nowadays," he seems to be saying. "You think you know what suffering is. Bah! I didn't take a bullet in the kidney during the war just so YOU could go traipsing around the world with your cell phones and your phat pants and your wallet chains. Here, look at the scar! LOOK AT IT! Bah, I say! Oh, and enjoy your peanuts."
The rest of the package is more ambiguous, but also seems to be more upbeat:
"A present first choose best enjoyment
TASTE LIFE'S NATURAL
Balance. Have it, you'll have the world."
They mostly tasted peanutty, but I think there was a HINT of life's natural in there.
For the record, I think he looks a lot like John Locke from ABC's hit show "LOST." Maybe this is a clue! Let the theories begin.
WORK UPDATE:
Actually getting a bit busy. I have a first review of my TV commercial storyboard/script tomorrow, along with some print executions. I've been kicking these around off and on for six weeks, so I guess now it's showtime. The first client presentation is August 2, so we'll see if any of my ideas survive.
We're also making final revisions for some print ads for a software client. All the work is taking place in Chinese now, so my role is to polish the back-translation - the work has to be approved by English-speakers, so it has to strike the tone that THEY want to hear while still being true to the original Chinese. Interesting balancing act.
The client farewell video I mentioned yesterday has swelled into a surprisingly complex little undertaking. The client wants 126 photos in the slideshow, and originally wanted each one up for 5 seconds. I was ready to throw in the towel but the account people had me meet the client and present alternative ways to organize it, and unfortunately the client loved the ideas. (That's not ego - he really LOVED the idea. So much so that it was almost a little unnerving.) So now we need to do it.
Eye of the tiger, people! Eye of the tiger!
