You know you're old when you find it necessary to take up Sir Paul's cause. And I'm not even from his generation, but the next. One of the Adfreakers, Mark Dolliver to be exact, posted in favor of Sir Paul's Super Bowl halftime performance, as I did here a few days ago. Imagine my chagrin upon discovering blasphemy in the comments. "I thought it sucked - plain and simple. Too old, too corny, too boring, sooo not …
Listening In On Microbrands. Hook It Up!
LA Times is running a piece on the return of internet radio. Since I listen to internet radio every day (I'm near a computer), I hadn't realized the medium had gone away. In fact, I'm still discovering new stations all the time. Just last week, thanks to Bret Dougherty, I found WXYC in Chapel Hill and it instantly became a new favorite. Doc Searls didn't think much of the article. However, I did find some of it …
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Word Of Mouse
"You know what killed the first crop of stupid $100 million Internet consumer service startups? Advertising. They all believed that they need to spend millions to build a brand. …
Wal-Mart Frames The Message To Perfection
Cal Berkeley linguist, George Lakoff, talks eloquently about how politicians frame their messaging to achieve intended results. Those of us in the ad biz also know a little something about the practice of framing. For a great example of framing, let's look at Wal-Mart. The world's largest retailer is running a documentary-style TV spot right now that zooms in on Gastonia, NC. In the spot we hear from local merchants …
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Forget Michael Jackson. This Is The Trial To Keep An Eye On.
Where's Geraldo? Where's Court TV? Doesn't matter. I'm glued to Adweek's play-by-play coverage of the trial of Shona Seifert and Thomas Early, two former Ogilvy executives accused of fraud and conspiracy in an attempt to make up a $3 million revenue shortfall by overbilling the government on the Office of National Drug Control Policy account. Anyone looking for a revealing look at the kind of office politics, …
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Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained
from AdAge: Intelliseek of Cincinnati, a market research company, monitored 40 blogs during the Super Bowl to measure which ads were likely to generate the most buzz or controversy the day after the game. "As for building buzz," said Intelliseek's marketing chief, Pete Blackshaw, "they've done a great job, but for a lot of people, it was just a cheap thrill and I'm not sure the ad will sustain itself with …
Napster Does The Math
From the looks of it, Napster put all their money in to the Super Bowl media buy. Their spot consisted primarily of camera card with two juxtaposed equations--probably not a good idea in a party atmosphere, since equations require concentration. At any rate, the "picture math" basically made the argument that iTunes is expensive and Napster is not. Again, it's the bad is good ad model. Good, because it breaks through …
Sir Paul Rock God
The NFL has come a long way in one year. They cut the Cheeze Whiz from the halftime menu and went with a live mini-concert from a rock legend, who obviously still rocks the house, or the world as the case may be. Sir Paul opened his four-song set with "Drive My Car" right into a rockin' "Get Back". "Live And Let Live" from the Wings era was up next, then the former Beattle moved to the piano and delivered a …