I like the recent Visa Signature card print ads I have seen in many of the magazines lying around the house (incidentally, we subscribe to WAY too many magazines):
I think it is an effective ad; at least effective from the point of view of the ad agency. In no way am I motivated to go out and get a Visa Signature card, but I have lingered on their print ads much longer than a typical ad and I even went to the associated interactive web site (click here). My interest all had to do with the Life Lists featured in the ads.
A week or so ago I heard an interesting segment on NPR’s Talk of the Nation about “Life Lists”. I guess the trend started in earnest with bird watchers who wanted to check-off birds they had seen in the wild (if you search “life lists” on Amazon, birding books will be among the highest results shown). Now there are a slew of “things to do before you die” books and even a movie or two in the works on the same topic.
Here are some audacious things on my non-comprehensive lifetime To-Do list:
- Visit Machu Pichu
- Learn to ride a unicycle
- Learn Spanish
- Visit the pyramids at Giza
- Sky dive
- Run a half marathon (maybe a full one too)
- Climb the Tetons
- Do an Olympic distance triathlon
- Beat the turkey at least once more
- Visit the natural history museum in London
- Visit the Louvre
- Travel to Jerusalem
- Return to Japan
- Visit all 50 states
- Go on a cross country motorcycle trip with my brothers
- Attend the Bondurant School of High Performance Driving
- White water raft down the Snake river again
- Return to Lake Powell
- Teach all of my kids how to ride a bike
- Ride California Screamin’ with Jacob
- A week at Disney World
- Touch a Redwood in the wild
- Buy and learn how to use an SLR camera
- See Mt. Rushmore
- Visit all the Smithsonian museums again
Don't let the fact that you live in the Western United States (where, for some reason market penetration is much lower) prevent your brain from being exposed to the most fascinating deluge of stories, events, news, analysis, and information. Start listening to NPR today: 91.5 FM in the Phoenix metro area, a cornucopia of NPR podcasts on iTunes.
