{"id":1182,"date":"2019-07-01T01:35:13","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T01:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/?p=1182"},"modified":"2019-05-16T18:43:54","modified_gmt":"2019-05-16T18:43:54","slug":"the-chicken-goggle-solution-by-james-barr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/2019\/07\/01\/the-chicken-goggle-solution-by-james-barr\/","title":{"rendered":"The Chicken Goggle Solution by James Barr"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For decades, Jim wrote TV commercials for many well known products and brands while working as a creative director at two national ad agencies. But in his early days, he had to come up with features and benefits for chicken goggles. Yes, chicken goggles.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n


The Chicken Goggle Solution<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t think of a better conversation starter than this: \u201cI\nused to write copy about chicken goggles.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a copywriter for the Montgomery Ward Farm and Garden Catalog<\/em>, I really did write about chicken goggles.\nWhile the catalog was brimming with other products like tractors, tillers and\nhydraulic scoop claws, nothing came close to writing about those goggles. Not a\nfrivolous fashion accessory, these beak-borne devices helped prevent bloodshed\nin the barnyard. You see, chickens are serious peckers and even engage in\ncannibalism. Two things I suggest you forget about the next time you walk into\nKFC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there\u2019s any good news here, it\u2019s that chickens usually\nonly attack only the bird that\u2019s directly in front of their faces. So if you\never come back to earth as a chicken, that\u2019s a good thing to know. The goggles\nhinder the chicken\u2019s view so it won\u2019t go into full attack mode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I learned all this in Chicago\u2019s Montgomery Ward building,\nnow an architectural landmark. Built before central air conditioning, the\nbuilding had rotating fans mounted high on concrete columns. Seated before my\ntypewriter, I learned to type with one hand while the other hand held down my\npapers as the fan rotated past my desk. Then as the fan began its return\nrotation, my other hand covered my papers while the other hand typed. And so it\nwent for 8 hours a day during the summer. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working in my open office area, the writers\u2019 desks were\narranged side-by-side. Over in a corner, my boss sat in his own cubicle. He was\na chain cigar smoker and I rarely saw his face. A cloud of smoke perpetually\nencircled his head. Only by watching the red end of the cigar could I at least\naim my conversation toward his mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sitting atop one of the file cabinets, we had a bowl of\npeanuts in the shell. One day, I took an X-acto knife and carefully opened a\npeanut. I then trimmed a long, narrow strip of paper and wrote a note from\n\u201cRabu,\u201d a worker being held prisoner on a peanut farm in Cameroon. He was\nclearly pleading for rescue. Rolling the note tightly, I squeezed it into the\nshell, carefully sealed the shell\u2019s edges with rubber cement and placed the\nspecial goober deep down in the bowl where it sat for months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One quiet afternoon, there was a shriek loud enough to crack\ncrystal. A secretary had opened the peanut and became near faint. To this day,\nshe thinks a much older Rabu is still being held hostage on the peanut farm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So forget about using a life coach to teach you how to get\nyour associates to \u201cLean in\u201d to what you\u2019re about to say. Forget about going to\nseminars teaching you how to get your voice heard. All you really need to know\nare two little words and you\u2019re on your way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChicken goggles\u201d works for me every time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For decades, Jim wrote TV commercials for many well known products and brands while working as a creative director at two national ad agencies. But in his early days, he had to come up with features and benefits for chicken goggles. Yes, chicken goggles. The Chicken Goggle Solution I can\u2019t think of a better conversation … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creative-non-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa867U-j4","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1182"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1186,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182\/revisions\/1186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}