One of my writer's group designed an Earth Day postage stamp when he was 13 years old.

 

The third Thursday night of every month for the last 11 years, a writer's group meets at my house to critique each other's novels-in-progress. Over that time, we've published seven novels (with 5 more in process), one anthology of award winning short stories, and are negotiating movie/television deals.

One of our cabal is Brian C Hailes, who is also one of the judges of Galaxy Press's ILLUSTRATORS OF THE FUTURE contest. At 13 years old, Brian competed with 150,000 grade school children in an environmental design contest sponsored by the USPS and McDonalds. He was one of 4 winners, and for the first time the USPS actually put the designer's name on a postage stamp. 5 million stamps. McDonalds gave him unlimited food for 3 years (a growing teenager's dream come true). And the town of Millville, Utah made Saturday, April 29, 1995 BRIAN HAILES DAY.

Small world. Frank Herbert, author of Dune and one of the creators of EARTH DAY, also supported me when I ran for congress in 1978.

Expect big things from our not-so-fledgling writer's group.

Sincerely yours,
Rick Bennett
Ad Hit Man

I learned all I know about psychology from the 1960 movie PSYCHO.

 

My folks took me and my 12-year-old brother to see Psycho in 1960. Because there wasn't assigned seating yet, my brother and I sat together, and our parents sat elsewhere. Sweet mother! We sat behind an elderly couple who laughed all the way through the scariest movie we'd ever seen. Right then, I came up with my net-net for nut jobs. You're neurotic when you walk into a room, hear someone laughing, and think they're laughing at you. You're psychotic when you walk into a room and hear someone laughing, but there's nobody in the room. Period. Any questions. I have met several bonafide psycopaths in my life. I only dare mention one here, because he's dead and can't show up at my door with a chainsaw. His name was Stanley Dean Baker. I met him in my 8th-grade social studies class in Sheridan, Wyoming. I was showing a friend how to shine sunlight through a magnifying glass and set paper on fire. The next day, good old Dean Baker brought his own mangifying glass and shined it on boxelder bugs crawling across his desk. They'd slow down and then…POP! I can still hear Dean's laugh. But the best part came in high school. Dean took to kidnapping and murdering hitchhikers and then eating them. He finally got caught in a stolen car by a California highway patrolman who probably had to go into therapy for years afterward. Dean said to the officer: "I think I've got a problem," while taking some human fingers out of his pocket and munching on them. I kid you not. Google Stanley Dean Baker. He went to prison and later, as a totally reformed pillar of society, when around to high schools talking about the evils of Satan worship. He's dead now. I have my own private list of psychos for whom I keep checking the social security death index. Whenever one pops up, I may celebrate his leaving Earth in this blog. Sincerely yours, Rick Bennett Ad Hit Man

This Steve McQueen movie BULLITT made me decide to go into advertising.

 

In 1968, I was in college majoring in mathematics. The BULLITT scene where the bad guys were following McQueen changed my life. Suddenly, McQueen turned the tables and sneaked behind their Charger in his Mustang. What did the goons do that changed my life? The Charger driver calmly buckled his seatbelt, ready for business. How did this change my life? Simple. Until this point in my young life, I'd ignored the public service messages singing, "Buckle up for safety, buckle up…" What a waste of air time. But the role model of serious people getting down to business behind the wheel by buckling up was GREAT. From that point on, whenever I got behind the wheel of my car, I buckled up. Now THAT WAS ADVERTISING THAT WORKED. Hollywood morons insisted that people don't emulate characters in movies and sued ClearPlay for allowing people to edit what comes into their homes. They said it violated the right of writers/directors to have their creative output altered. What unadulterated crap. Congress actually told Hollywood to back off…or else. Good call. Thanks, BULLITT. Seatbelts have saved me more than once. Sincerely yours, Rick Bennett Ad Hit Man

My wonderful history with HORROR MOVIES and the new technology that lets me create memories for my grandkids.

 

When I grew up in Sheridan, Wyoming, my parents owned a drive-in theater. I saw every movie between 1952 and 1963 at least three times. My favorites were horror movies like Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Werewolf. Naturally, when I raised my own children, I delighted in watching Friday night's CREATURE FEATURES, or KOLCHAK THE NIGHTSTALKER, or taking them to ALIEN. In that first ALIEN, I noticed they all had their hands over their eyes. So I said, "Hey, you know Tom Skeritt isn't going to die, because he's the star." The signed and uncovered their eyes just as the alien monster killed him. Heh heh. Signorey Weaver was the star! I went home that night with black and blue arms from getting punched. Early on, I told the kids how I learned to deal with nightmares about monsters. I'd turn around when the monster was about to pounce and say, "Let's go have a peanut butter sandwich upstairs." In the history of advertising, that original Frankenstein movie (where the little girl was picking daisy's by the stream) inspired the greatest political ad of all times: Tony Schwartz's DAISY commercial, which ran only one time on one network and completely destroyed Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign. Now, thanks to ClearPlay on-the-fly DVD movie-editing (I put them on the map with their first WSJ ad), I created a new family tradition with my grandchildren: I play the cleaned-up (no foul language from Woody Harrelson) movie ZOMBIELAND. One of the great lines from the movie involved zombiekiller rule #2: DOUBLE TAP. In fact, in her church talk prior to leaving on an LDS mission for Chile, my granddaughter Aimee was challenged to use the term "double tap" in her farewell talk. Not only did she cleverly use it, but the other speakers that Sunday mentioned it in their talks. Double tap. Words to live by. Interestingly, one of my Wall Street buddies ran a brokerage firm. While he was at lunch, is brother Sean Cunningham met with his team and funded the movie FRIDAY THE 13TH. I still remember that knife going through Kevin Bacon's heart from underneath the bed. Besides ZOMBILAND, I haven't seen a horror movie in over 30 years. It's just no fun, now that the kids are grown. In fact, most of my grandkids are married with their own children. But it's about time for me to introduce my growning heard of great-grandchildren to the edited version of ZOMBILAND. Sincerely yours, Rick Bennett Ad Hit Man

When I was 8 years old, I wanted to be Harry Houdini.

 

The 1953 movie where Tony Curtis played Harry Houdini inspired me. My folks owned a drive-in theater in Sheridan, Wyoming. I saw every movie that came out between 1950 and 1963 three times. I became an official member of the magicians union (kids sign up for every mail-order scam going). I read all the biographies of Houdini. I begged my dad to borrow some handcuffs from the police, which he finally did (he was a lawyer). He even took me to jail, where they locked me up, handcuffed in a cell. Getting my handcuff lock pick out of my butt cheeks was tough, given that I'd been cuffed from the front. But I managed and amazed the local constabulary. I still have my own set of handcuffs with which I amaze an occasional Sunday School class to this day (no, I don't do the butt-cheek-pick routine any more). But I guess showmanship and wonderful magic caused me to gravitate toward entertaining guerrilla warfare advertsing. Have a great Memorial Day weekend. Let me know if you'd like to see some real magic. Sincerely yours, Rick Bennett Ad Hit Man