'H' is for Happy Birthday!
Maybe it’s the reality of graduation, paying back student loans, and having “responsibilities,” but lately I’ve been regressing back to my childhood. Last week I blogged about Pee-wee’s big comeback, which made me inordinately happy. Today I open Google, and what do I see? Two giant big bird legs, and there I am–six years old again–singing happy 40th birthday to Sesame Street.
It seems that when a brand hits us during our formative years, it does something to our psyche that stands the test of time. My friend Mitch can still sing the whole “Today’s Special” theme song. (He may have been Jeff for Hallowe’en this year. Maybe. He was.) People actually bought tickets to see the New Kids on the Block reunion tour. I had a dream a couple nights ago in which I thanked David Bowie profusely for his knock-out performance in Labyrinth. What happens to us?!
Regardless, Sesame Street is a testament to what it means to take an idea, and create a cultural phenomena. It’s the kind of idea most creative types would stake their careers on. Through the years they’ve taken television, education, and collaboration to places that most network shows wouldn’t have dared. This type of fluidity may be becoming the norm as technology, and society in general, challenge notions of marketing and communications, but at the time Big Bird was a pioneer.
Sesame Street collaborated before it was cool. In homage, here is my all-time favourite union: Sesame Street meets Feist.
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