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“Sometimes we’ll show a client ideas on Tuesday, expose it to consumers on Wednesday, and by Thursday we’ll have a strong sense of where the heat is.”

In addition to the tattoo guy (still no word if the client, Gucci, bought the work) and the NASA guy and the rest of the in-house staff, F-212 is hyperlinked to an equally eclectic stable of outside experts. Like the prolific George in Bulgaria, a 3-D-rendering artist who furiously churns out beautifully realized, broadcast-quality presentation designs for a price that does not portend good things for the future of American 3-D-rendering shops. And Dr. Abdul-Munem Mohammed Daoud Al-Shakarchi, an Iraqi expat scientist with no fewer than five degrees, including a PhD in microbial chemistry, who has some revolutionary thoughts about, of all things, deodorant.

Here’s how that went down: a phone call from Al-Shakarchi’s agent, who claimed that his client had invented what he called the world’s first truly all-natural deodorant. Vuleta took a meeting, then took home a sample of the unscented prototype, which used base carrier oils instead of aluminum for astringent, antibacterial purposes. Vuleta was digging the fact that it was all natural, but after three or four days of using the product, he became acutely aware of the sensation he felt after applying it. Which got him thinking about the relationship between sweat and emotion. Which led to the sort of eureka moment that he generally does not believe in: a tipping point in the history of sweat.

“In the middle of the night I rang up a friend who was a scientist at Procter & Gamble and asked if she thought that, because we sweat for an emotional reason, it would be possible to marry essential, mood-enhancing oils to our base natural product to interact with the sweat, and she said yes.” This led to an aromatherapy study, to the development of a patent for the world’s first all-natural, mood-enhancing pro-perspirant—meaning it treats sweat as an active ingredient—that can give you energy, make you horny, or help you relax.

Sure, it’s not exactly a miracle cure, or the discovery of a new species. It’s just freakin’ deodorant. But it’s unlike any that’s ever been used, a significant improvement on a mundane, un-improvable product. And they dreamed it up in what, a few months?

Which made me wonder what F-212 might do with something larger, like the music industry. Or with all the “off-line” toys Vuleta showed me that, because of confidentiality agreements, I’m not allowed to talk about. And then I can’t help but wonder what they might be able to do with challenges where the bottom line reflects less on profit and more on humanity. For instance, would it hurt to ask F-212 to spend a few days lifting the hood on something like the oil industry? Or Darfur? Or to do a big, fast, and doable brainstorm about the Sunnis and the Shiites, surges and diplomacy? Who knows, maybe they already are.

When I asked Vuleta if they also did an advertising program for the Diageo and deodorant projects, he waved me off. Advertising isn’t the point. It’s the power (read: monetary value) of the idea that he’s interested in.

For instance, Starbucks. Vuleta has a whole spiel about how Starbucks has lost its core focus, overproduced in-store adjacencies (non-coffee items), and under-delivered on its promise as a mystical coffee mecca. He wrote a three-page manifesto on the subject. In fact, F-212 has also done some unique and still-proprietary product development in the coffee category, replete with some pieces of print art and videos that, to the naked eye, look just like ads.

Turning Good Karma into Brand

Droga5

If there is a special wing in hell reserved for ad people, and I am almost convinced of its existence, David Droga, the creative chairman of the Publicis-owned advertising boutique Droga5, will not spend a millisecond there. Indeed, the Australian-born, New York–based Droga could spend the next fifty years making cigarette ads, peddling booze and handguns to toddlers, and doing recruitment ads for a polygamous