Like the new Apple spots that ask, "Are you a Mac or a PC?" one might ask the same of the world's top search engines. Do you Google, or do you Yahoo? This New York Times story explores some of the differences in the two companies. Do Internet users prefer services that are consistent and predictable, like those offered by Yahoo, or are they more interested in Google’s wow factor? “Yahoo has lost its appetite for …
This Commercial Sucks. This Commercial Sucks. This Commercial Sucks.
Every so often, a commercial comes along that is the absolute antithesis of everything that creative people aspire to, but gets legendary amounts of attention. The ubiquitous HeadOn ad is just such a spot. Slate takes a closer look. According to Dan Charron, VP of sales and marketing for HeadOn, the company used focus groups to test all sorts of marketing tacks. One experimental approach maxed out on repetition, and …
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An Agragian Spirit In Adlandia
Advertising Age tells us today about Gay Gaddis, the Texas cattlewoman behind tech shop, T3. Ms. Gaddis, 50, and her husband, Lee, run an 800-acre working cattle ranch, about an hour and a half outside of Austin, near Marble Falls. "The land gives you a different set of values," said Ms. Gaddis, president-CEO of Austin marketing firm T3. "It gives a wholeness that guides a lot of who we are. It translates into how I …
Doggin’ It All The Way To The Bank
Nina Munk, a former writer for Fortune and a freelance writer for Vanity Fair, launched Urbanhound.com in 2000. The pet-friendly site is now expanding to San Francisco and Chicago. According to the New York Times, Munk represents a new type of business journalist—one with the will to step into an entrepreneur's shoes. With the pages of their own newspapers and magazines full of articles about cutbacks, buyouts and …
The Concierge’s Blazer
According to Lewis Lazare, Hotel Monaco, a division of Kimptom Hotels, will begin to sell its staff outfits to customers who want to look at home in the lobby. Of course these aren't exactly standard-issue hotel uniforms. Underscoring the Monaco's penchant for always displaying good taste, the small chain tapped noted fashion designer and Chicago native Cynthia Rowley to do the honors of giving Monaco employees a …
Because No One’s EVER Compared Cars To Sex Before
From the AP: Japanese carmaker Nissan said Friday it has pulled a raunchy commercial starring "Sex and the City" actress Kim Cattrall from New Zealand television after complaints over its content. Cattrall, who plays sex-obsessed, promiscuous Samantha Jones in the hugely successful U.S. series, appears in the ad purring with excitement about Nissan's new sedan. "Why didn't you tell me it was so big, I just wasn't …
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Citizen Reporters: The Bloatosphere’s Minority Party
photo courtesy of Flickr user, Lynetter The above figure comes from the recent Pew report on blogging, which you can learn more about here, here or here. There are a lot of ways to process the information presented by Pew. The image above focuses positively on the the idea that one third of bloggers see what they do as journalism. Whereas, my headline, takes the same data in a different direction. …
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How It’s Done
Former Wieden + Kennedy brand planner, Russell Davies, just drew a well marked path out of mediocrity, for any soul brave enough to follow it. 1. Hire advertising people, you get advertising 2. The key to creative genius; work harder 3. You can't divorce the medium from the message 4. Do good work, the money will follow 5. Hold everyone to the same standard 6. You can tell from the work if people enjoyed making it 7. …