The Imaginative Life of Clifford Medney... in my own words.
I imagine I was born to imagine. If not, I could never have imagined my early life's one two punch. My mother passing when I was six years old from heart disease and three months later being diagnosed with Rheumatic Fever and being hospitalized for months at Mt. Sinai in New York City. Back in the early 60's kids were not allowed to have other kids visit. So I created imaginary friends. These "friends" would be the basis of characters I would later market... I take great joy in knowing over 10 million of my friends have had the opportunity to make friends of their own.
But that was then. And because of the blessing of a never quit, totally loving and devoted father and a big brother who always played very big, I got better and got to play with the other kids. Eventually, I even played a little college football at the University of Georgia; while, getting a degree in Sociology... the study of human interaction. From there my imagination and interest in humans landed me in the world of marketing at a big NY advertising agency, BBDO.
It proved to be great training... very creative people acting very creatively. I worked on Visa and Pepsi. I took note and actually started writing them. Observational notes filled with word twists, puns and thoughts to provoke. It was a great beginning and it was very cool.
But, I wanted to see what, if anything was in the heart, soul and cafeteria of what was known as a "client". So I became one, first at A&W Beverages, the soft drink company, then at cookie giant Nabisco. Ten years. I not only loved them both, I learned the business of business. But most importantly, I learned I didn't belong there. I could visit, just not live there.
So, I became a consultant and an entrepreneur. Selling creativity to world class advertising and marketing agencies, as well as, to companies like Nabisco, Starz Encore, Starbucks and creating kid character properties. Slimamander™, A Mander on a Mission of Fun was licensed to KFC as an international kid's meal ambassador and to Golden Books. Another group of imaginary friends, The Treeples™ also got to play at KFC and followed Star Wars as a major kid's meal event. The property featured six tree creatures "people"... hence Treeples (FYI, Rachel Raccoon and Stevie the Squirrel are still my favs).
One other property worthy of mention is Shoulders™. Shoulders and his dog pal, Heal™ were created to provide sick kids, with a variety of diseases, Friendship, Facts and Fun. Licensed to Intellihealth, the medical web site of Johns Hopkins University in 1999, Shoulders became an early go- to kid's web site, as well as, a very huggable, comforting doll friend for the special little ones who really do need it. Shoulders (and me too) were proud to be featured on PBS's Frontiers of Medicine.
I know this is a crazy long bio, but please stick with me, we're almost done, thanks. So, again it's 1999, almost 10 years ago. I just got re-married in July and on September 26th, Sunday morning 7:15AM I have a massive heart attack. My wife, Josana saves my life by her actions and everything medically that needed to happen, happened- ambulance in minutes, TPA clot buster miracle drug, angioplasty with high tech stents- all textbook. But reality is reality: mom's heart challenged genes and insulin dependant diabetes trumps marathon running, chicken loving guy... I guess.
Through all of this, even the open heart surgery in early 2000, I never stopped imagining and I've never stopped writing my little notes, my twists and perspective on life. While I have been published many times in such top marketing publications like Advertising Age, Brand Week and Promo Magazine and have spoke at dozens of marketing association and business events from the recent (Sept. 08) American Marketing Association meeting to the Marketing Creativity Conference in 2000 to MENSA almost 20 years ago, it's the opportunity to write and speak about the human interest side of marketing and business that really interests me. Please go to Consulting where you can see my recent article on Empathy (Advertising Age, 8/11/08) and my writing/speaking history.
When not speaking/writing, I continue to be a passionate marketing professional living in NYC. I am also the very proud father of 20 year old Matt, 17 year old Samantha and 4 year old Abby, our adopted Airedale. And, I am still UNBELIEVABLY happily married to my life saving wife, Josana!!!
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