June 2, 2010

Brodner’s Cartoon du Jour: NCS: THANKS!

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Saturday night I was honored to get to hang out with the National Cartoonists Society at their annual banquet. This was at the Hyatt in Jersey City (yes, Jersey City). It was a memorable evening. The hall was filled with wonderful artists and amazing legends: Bill Gallo, George Booth, Randall Enos (yes, THE Randall Enos), Mort Gerberg, Mell Lazarus, Mort Walker, Nick Meglin, and Sam Viviano were all there. The president is Jeff Keane. Yep, Jeffy. A very warm host and funny guy.

They gave the advertising award to an editorial illustrator who slipped on a banana peel and did an ad campaign. But hey, this is life, and sometimes it is absolutely sublime! I am extremely grateful to the NCS.

Here’s the campaign I’ve been having fun with this year:

It’s the Big ERP guys for PJA Advertising out of Cambridge. Amy Frith, Paul Yokoda, Chris Frame, and many other great people. The animations are done by my pals at Asterisk, Brian O’Connell and Richard O’Connor. Thanks also to Justin Rucker and Tammy Shannon of Shannon Associates, my reps.

Infor's competitors

Here’s the first one in the series. The big ugly guys trampling the customer, they represent Infor’s competitors, Oracle and Cisco. Sort of like, “We’re number three and we try harder.”

Infor--Carrots

These run as huge airport posters as well online (animated by Asterisk). This one is on the back page of the current Forbes.

There's this one: actually pasted on the luggage carousel at O'Hare. You can watch him eat your bags!There’s this one: actually pasted on the luggage carousel at O’Hare. You can watch him eat your bags!

This thing knocks me out. A motion-sensing technology. Working with Monster Media, Asterisk took my two stages and made this move. But they only move when you walk past…and apparently have your money vacuumed up. Art that constantly sucks!

My deepest gratitude to the Society and all the great folks I met Saturday night.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate