Sep 1, 2016

Look Up. Waaayyy Up.

For many fellow Canadians, before All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulguhm, there was The Friendly Giant.

Dressed in our footy pajamas, we'd perch on our living room floors with our faces so close to the boxy black and white television set that we could almost climb in. We believed the castle really was so big that you had to look waaayyy up. And we watched right to the very end to make sure those three wooden chairs got put back exactly where they belonged before the drawbridge closed.

Friendly, Jerome and Rusty
Much has changed since the days of rabbit ears and two channels, but one thing that will never change: the value of a well told story.

Friendly Giant taught us, in his quiet, thoughtful way, to use words, pictures and music to not only tell, but to show stories.

There's always more to learn, but most of what we professional communicators really need to know, we learned from Friendly, Jerome and Rusty.

Oh, and while poking around the internet thinking about this post, I stumbled upon this:

Look Up – Way Up! The Friendly Giant
The Biography of Robert Homme by Grant D. Fairley

In case you're wondering... hell yeah, I bought it!


5 comments:

  1. Agree that "the story" is a critic part of corporate (and other) communications. I often hear at work "What's our story?" And if we don't have a "story", if we only have a list of facts, or attributes, or figures, that is so much less effective. And yup, LOVED The Friendly Giant!!!

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    1. I love how many Friendly Giant lovers there are out there. Thanks for stopping by, Gina

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  2. Agree that "the story" is a critic part of corporate (and other) communications. I often hear at work "What's our story?" And if we don't have a "story", if we only have a list of facts, or attributes, or figures, that is so much less effective. And yup, LOVED The Friendly Giant!!!

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  3. Great name. I still find myself saying "Look up, way up".

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  4. Thank you! We all need to remember to keep looking up.

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