Few people are aware that I’ve been on camera since I was 11 months old. My first live performance was at age 7 and the show amazed and amused the audience. By age 9, I directed my first play and fell in love with directing, causing me to spend more time behind the scenes.

However, I still acted in a few productions like Toby Tyler and Peter Pan for two successful runs. Calamity Jane launched my singing and dancing abilities and Godspell allowed me to spend some time behind the scenes when I wasn’t performing on stage.

Once at college, I found myself crossing back and forth between acting in television shows for the Wisconsin Television Network (WTN) and directing for ABC and CBS affiliate stations. I starred in a variety special for WTN, made numerous appearances as a fill in anchor at WLSU-TV and appeared in my first feature “Foolin’ Around.”

After experiencing work on a feature, I shifted behind the camera and spent far more time as a cinematographer and director. I racked up hundreds of credits over the years, but realized that staying in touch with acting made me a better director. So I got back into acting to improve my directing, and the next picture I directed gifted me with three awards for best directing.

One of the films I acted in got enough of a buzz going that I landed a small part in “The Dark Knight” as an extra, where I was able to meet Christopher Nolan and cinematographer Wally Pfister. I learned a lot about filmmaking in my brief few minutes with them and I had a great time acting in the six short scenes that took 14 hours to shoot.

Maia Films, who took on a challenge by the IFC Media Lab to make a short film under very specific requirements and time constraints, made the film that launched my opportunity to be in “The Dark Knight.” I played a sniper in the film titled 3-1-2, where my character was hired to do a job, but found himself in a battle for his own life. Here is the short film.

Fads seem to come and go in waves, just as babies being born within generational circles. During the process every one adapts to the latest pediatric care trend to facilitate a healthy baby. As the little one grows, everyone baby proofs their home for each visit of the toddler. And, children’s films and theme parks are frequented once the preschool years hit.

I’m amazed at how much our lives change by our own choices in order to encourage the next generation. Even our finances shift to help improve their lives and help prepare them for outrageous college fees (An estimated $300,000 for those born this year).

Society doesn’t see things in the same way. Rather than helping the child to be a kid and kept innocent during their early years of development, commercial companies push to develop them as their own brand baby. The race to drive them into being the ideal consumer is launched at birth, especially with corporate America attempting to preprogram children in time for their critical job of driving family buying decisions once they become teens.

Disney studios determined that a push every seven years introduces another group of growing children into the world of Disney and forms them as a brand junky for life. I recently read that in the county where I live allowances are up to $40 a week, driven by the commercial explorations our kids are surrounded by daily. Even Coke and Pepsi get exclusive contracts in our kids’ schools for the sake of building life long brand junkies.

So the question I have is, do we teach our kids about how the media manipulates their buying decision so they can make better choices, or do we keep them away from the onslaught of commercialism as long as possible? Since I can’t be with my kids all of the time, I chose to educate them on advertising, public relations, and product placement.

The stealthiest form of advertising is called gorilla advertising. In adult circles, it’s when a company hires two sexy women to sit in a bar all night flirting with men and drinking their product, or smoking their cigarettes. In Jr. high, it shows up in the form of a popular guy who is given a free cool product to show off at school, driving dozen of purchases over the next two months. Junior clothing is the biggest influx of gorilla advertising.

Those who get sucked in to buying $120 jeans are most often the recipient of being targeted by well planned gorilla advertising. It is so subtle that most people buy into the concepts and dreams without one thought of having been targeted.

When I was a senior in high school and the leader of the drum section, a new type of drumstick came out that was black. It was original, artistic and a result of a new cutting edge production technique. I was given a couple new pairs by the music store and told to use them in all of the bands and orchestras I played in, which back then included four groups. The result was numerous purchases that led to hundreds of dollars in add on sales.

The manufacturer gave every music store a couple free pairs to be given away in gorilla advertising. I later learned that every pair generated about $2,000 in various sales for the store and $600 for the manufacturer. The promotional costs to the manufacturer were only $0.50 per pair of sticks, generating a great return on its money. Everyone won, except for those people who had a fine pair of sticks that didn’t need replacing.

Even the two ladies that invented the Post It notes used gorilla advertising. After the executives of 3M turned down their idea, they started using the Post It notes internally. After a few short months, the demand for more notes was raised to the point where 3M was forced to manufacture the product for their internal use. It wasn’t long before it became a steady seller at office supply locations and department stores.

The most successful brand managers take advantage of the wise proverb, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” The question is, at what point do you stop changing your life to fit the child’s and begin training the child about how to make decisions in the commercial world we live in?

It might not be wise to let your child figure things out for themselves during their early childhood years, as corporations are ready to train up every child. That’s why I taught my kids how the media worked and hoped that they would assess every message before accepting it. After all, the corporations weren’t going to stop broadcasting their messages on TV, radio or in the schools.

The proverb is true and corporations want to get to every child before the competition. There are even political indoctrination programs for young kids in order to submerge them in certain philosophies before they become teens. The key question is, are you an active parent or grandparent that is helping your kid or grandchild to understand family wishes and heartfelt desires, or are you leaving it up to corporations?

Copyright © 2011 By CJ Powers
Photo © Olga Sapegina – Fotolia.com

There is one thing that drives the devastation in the corporate world that is warned about in the religious world – Unbelief. When employees lose the corporate vision or leaders forget to paint the vision, employees change their behaviors and become less productive. We’ve seen the effects of it many times and will soon see it again with the reduction of service at the post office.

It amazes me that during the generation of service, the postal office has determined the best way to reduce its expenses is to slow down its service – Can they get any slower? I’m a firm believer that the postal service doesn’t have a visionary encouraging workers to be faster and thereby reducing the need for certain expenses. After all, visionaries are always about finding ways to make things better, cheaper and faster.

The total blame can’t be put on the corporate visionary, as it’s the people who decide what they want to believe. This is true when it comes to following any of society’s bibles. Some follow the “green” bible with all diligence in recycling, the avoidance of fossil fuels and managing organic composes. Others subscribe to the bible of political correctness. And, many hold to the teachings of the Holy Bible.

Regardless of ones perspective, it takes belief to follow any bible religiously. It takes even more belief to evangelize one’s viewpoints in today’s society. Proselytizing someone with a mantra about carbon emissions takes even more belief due to our love of cars. After hitting many brick walls of apathy, few will continue to get the word out.

If we were to take the lead from the religious world, we would know that “sin” is the greatest hinderance of employees fulfilling the corporate vision. While many would suggest that sin in the corporate sense includes the distractions of the marketplace, I’m a firm subscriber to it being about disbelief. After all, in the religious world sin is more about not trusting God to do what he says he will do, which leads to people taking life upon themselves and choosing a vice for comfort rather than turning to God for their answers.

This unbelief also holds true in the corporate world. If we don’t buy-in to the corporate vision or it wasn’t painted for the employees, most will eventually gravitate to anything that the crowds are doing. This mentality comes from the idea that it must be right if so many people have made the decision to do it. Unfortunately, fortune 100 greatness has only come about through true evangelists that stand their ground in spite of the sense of isolation that they live with.

Steve Jobs was one of those evangelists who was fortunate enough to draw in a group of true believers to his products, like the iPad I’m typing this blog on while riding the train into Chicago. Not only did I become a believer in Apple products that are easy to operate, but I’ve made it a part of my lifestyle. I find myself using my iPad 1-2 hours a day. Can you imagine the results of people spending 1-2 hours a day developing religious morals or sharing compassion?

Regardless of which bible we follow in life, the real question is do we believe in it to the point of making life changing decisions as a result of it?

The test of any belief system is how we act it out. In the corporate world our actions reveal our beliefs. The people we follow or trust, and the action steps we take toward our objectives or into the minutiae that doesn’t matter, all speak to our belief system. Just as religion drives us to live moral upright lives, the corporate financial and innovation goals drive us to improve our services and products through better quality, cheaper pricing, and faster delivery and production cycles.

I’m not convinced the postal service has a bible, let alone subscribes to any visionary. But what about us? What of our actions reveal what vision we follow? Do we believe in it enough to evangelize it like Steve Jobs? A moment of self reflection on our actions can quickly bring perspective to what is in our hearts and minds. Frankly, I think it’s time we make the decision to walk away from apathy and put some energy behind what we believe in.