People v. State

I hesitate to post this TV commercial featuring yours truly, for a couple reasons.

First, I’m keenly aware that just about everybody who’s anybody in the practical blawgosphere has expressed disdain for lawyer marketing in general. I share those sentiments to a large extent, and certainly aspire to reach the point, like these luminaries of the practical blawgosphere, where my practice is fueled solely by word-of-mouth and referrals from satisfied customers. But I’m not there yet, and so in the meantime feel like I should take some modest steps to let people in my community know that I exist. Hence, I’m in the Yellow Pages, both in print and online. And, more non-traditionally, I’m even on a few bus stop benches, and on a couple taxis in the fleet owned by an old high school friend.

Second, when I was approached by someone from the local TV station (where the ad has in fact run on a limited basis on late night TV over the past month) about producing and running a TV ad with them, and realized it wasn’t nearly as expensive as I assumed it would be, I wasn’t sure whether there was any possible way to produce any such ad that I would be comfortable with and wouldn’t think was embarrassingly corny. Even after deciding to go ahead and give it a shot, I’m still not sure. An ad like this, so they tell me, has to convey a personal and caring touch. That’s the whole point of putting your mug on TV, I suppose, as opposed to the phone book, etc. In point of fact, I do think my level of genuine care and sense of personal responsibility towards my clients is one of my distinguishing traits as a lawyer. I take my work home with me, in more ways than one. Still, it’s pretty much impossible to convey that personal and caring touch toward the whole world in general without it seeming, and being, somewhat forced and artificial.

And so despite these hesitations, I’m posting the ad for a few reasons: to put a face and a voice to this blawg(er); to prove once again that I don’t really care what everybody who’s anybody in the practical blawgosphere thinks; and . . . because I’d really like to know what you all think. Is this ad ill-advised? Is it too corny? Does it make my head look fat?