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Robert Crais is my favorite author these days. His Elvis Cole and Joe Pike novels read like nine-hour action movies. I usually listen to them on audiobook, but I’ll occasionally read them the old fashion way as well. In Indigo Slam, Elvis Cole, the self-proclaimed world’s greatest detective, is hired by three young kids to find their missing father. At first Elvis considers calling Social Services and having the state take care of the kids, but then Elvis discovers that the kids are in a whole hurt of trouble with the Russian mob and that they’re father isn’t what he appears. Meanwhile, Elvis’s girlfriend Lucy is making arrangements to take a job in LA to be close to Elvis, but Lucy’s ex-husband is playing hardball. This novel was written before The Last Detective, which deals more with Lucy’s husband and the lengths he’ll go to to maintain control over his wife and son. So if you haven’t read either, read Indigo Slam first.

What I respect most about Crais is how much research he does for each of his novels. In Indigo, Crais delves deep into the particulars of a certain type of crime (one I won’t divulge here) and the federal agency responsible for stopping it. It’s fascinating. That’s what’s great about Crais. You can be entertained and educated at the same time. Granted, it’s always crime education, how bad people do what they do. But hey, it’s learning.

Is there a character in fiction tougher and filled with more testosterone than Jack Reacher? I think not. Joe Pike, a recurring character in Robert Crais novels, would give Jack Reacher a run for his money, but Pike is more of a weapons guy, shotguns, Glocks, that sort of thing, whereas Jack Reacher can kill a man with his bare hands, or in the case of this novel, with his bare hand (singular).

In this Reacher outing, Reacher gets a distress call from someone in his past, a member of the Specials Investigations Unit he ran during his military days. Turns out another member of the unit has been brutally murdered and others are missing. Reacher and team meet up in LA to solve the crime themselves and carry out some serious vengeance, Jack Reacher style.

It’s a great read. Fast paced plot. Devious bad guys. A solid team of experts, each with their own talents and skills. And plenty of bang up action. What’s great about Jack Reacher is that he’s unapologetically violent. He’s not like the noble hero that Hollywood has created, the god guy who has the bad guy in his snare and could kill him easily but doesn’t because that would be “wrong.” That would be stooping to the bad guy’s level and no true hero would sink so low. No, our heroes have to be noble.

Of course, the bad guy always exploits this nobility right at the last second and kills himself as a result. That way, we as the audience are pacified in seeing the bad guy get his just reward but also relieved to see that our hero was not responsible and therefore true to his squeaky clean nobility.

Well Jack Reacher don’t play that game. If he finds a bad guy and that bad guy has served his purpose (ie. given Reacher the information he needs), Jack Reacher blows his brains out. Not because he’s psychotic. Not because he’s consumed with rage. But because that’s what needs to be done. Jack Reacher is a man who gets it done. And in Bad Luck and Trouble he lives up to his reputation.

A few years ago Holiday Inn launched a campaign for their Express line of hotels that basically implied that Holiday Inn Express makes you smarter. You see, you get such a good night’s rest at HIE, that the next day you’re always at the top of your game. It’s a strategy that’s both ridiculous and ingenious at the same time. We’ve all stayed at uncomfortable hotels and tossed and turned all night. We all know what it’s like to have a crappy night’s sleep. It affects your performance. Well, working with ad agency Fallon Minneapolis, Holiday Inn Express is back with three hilarious additional executions entitled “Baby,” “Fainter,” and “Rapper.”

Enjoy.

An awesome new spot for American Airlines. The casting is spot on. Brilliant. I only wish this youtube file was less pixelated so you could see all the nuances of the actors’ performances.

Also, this youtube version isn’t the funniest cut of the spot. The one I saw has Milos getting a spot on the Shanghai team. It’s a funnier ending. But hey, this one’s worth the peek-a-loo.

Microsoft just spent a boatload in advertising in an attempt to bring a little credibility back to the brand, but all of that came crashing down the moment Chiat Day, the LA-based ad agency with the Apple account, created this humdinger of a spot.

This is, without question, the best ad I’ve ever seen to discredit a competitor. Two guys in front of a white background, a desk, a stack of money, and a bookie cap. That’s it. That’s the production.

Oh, and some brilliant PC/Mac banter.

Compare that to the super-expensive 90-second Seinfeld spots or the subsequent (and super-expensive) global-hopping “I’m a PC” spots created for Microsoft, and Apple wins hands down for getting the most bang for their advertising buck.

The Apple spot is so dead-on brilliant in fact, that I can’t help but feel a little sorry for Microsoft. Before they launched their campaign, Microsoft was like the nerdy IT guy three years behind the times. But now, after a $300 million global ad campaign and a single Apple spot, Microsoft seems more like the real Wizard of Oz: all theatrics and no substance. Pull back that curtain, Toto, and you’ll find a very desperate Bill Gates turning all the knobs and switches.

It’s genius, folks. Genius. If Microsoft thought they had egg on their face before, this is what I’d consider a whole omelet, complete with cheese and ham and all the fixings.

It’s advertising at its greatest and yet most cruel. Sorry Microsoft, this battle goes to Apple.

Burger King, in conjunction with ad agency Crispin Porter, which has been getting far too many blog posts from me recently, created a website some time ago that allows users to upload a self portrait and turn themselves into Simpson characters. I decided to give the site a try. You can do so yourself by clicking here.

You have to answer a series of questions, like what color you want to be, your age and style of hair. I think the final outcome is more a product of the answers to the questions than the photo you upload. My character didn’t even have glasses when it finished. I had to ask the site to add them.

In the end, though, I thought the final outcome looked surprisingly like me. What a handsome devil!