{"id":5977,"date":"2010-05-04T07:57:25","date_gmt":"2010-05-04T12:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/?p=5977"},"modified":"2010-05-04T07:57:25","modified_gmt":"2010-05-04T12:57:25","slug":"when_was_the_last_time_you_did_anything_really_really_useful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2010\/05\/when_was_the_last_time_you_did_anything_really_really_useful.html","title":{"rendered":"When Was The Last Time You Did Anything Really Really Useful?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Few people, especially ad people, get to use their skills <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/ny_local\/2010\/05\/04\/2010-05-04_saving_lives_his_inspiration_see_something_say_something_was_admans_response_to_.html\">this way<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;I was trying to think what I could do,&#8221; Kay recalled Monday. &#8220;One thing I know how to do is advertising.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On 9\/12, Kay was in his Manhattan office, asking himself the same question he and his colleagues did at the start of a big Honda campaign or when conceiving a Xerox commercial for the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n<p>. . .<\/p>\n<p>He recalled a famous phrase from World War II.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;&#8216;Loose lips sink ships&#8217; spread across the country,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If I could come up with a 21st century version of that &#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He again considered what would be the best message in this new war.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What really do I want to say?&#8221; he asked himself. &#8220;I want to say, &#8216;People, be alert.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As always, the idea just popped into his head. He wrote it down on one of the 3X5 cards he keeps handy for when inspiration strikes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>. . .<\/p>\n<p>His agency had done business with the MTA, and he figured this would be a perfect way to spread the message. He picked up the phone.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Very shortly thereafter it was in the subway and buses and trains,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The phrase kept spreading over the years, generating 159 million mentions on Google, imprinting itself on the psyches of even more individuals.<\/p>\n<p>Those individuals included Orton, who was selling T-shirts on W. 45th St. Saturday evening when he saw something in the form of a suspiciously parked SUV emitting acrid smoke. He immediately said something to the mounted cop he saw nearby, Police Officer Wayne Rhatigan.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Few people, especially ad people, get to use their skills this way: &#8220;I was trying to think what I could do,&#8221; Kay recalled Monday. &#8220;One thing I know how to do is advertising.&#8221; On 9\/12, Kay was in his Manhattan office, asking himself the same question he and his colleagues did at the start of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5977"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5978,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5977\/revisions\/5978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}