I had a weird dream the other night. Alex Bogusky--a man I have never met--came to my current workplace. He went through my book with the entire creative team looking on, then offered me a job at CP+B's Paris office. My cube was kind of small over there. …
I Salute Thee, Rothenberg
Randall Rothenberg is letting go of his Ad Age column in order to assume the helm of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. In his farewell piece, he delivers some delcious prose, the kind found in Where the Suckers Moon, his landmark book about Weiden + Kennedy's handling of the Subaru account. Although I was to the manor born, a child of marketers in a house guested frequently by creative revolutionaries, we baby …
The Profile Is the Ad
Biz Report looks at the importance one retailer places on maintaining an active MySpace profile. Five percent of the TopShop fashion store's online traffic was driven from its MySpace profile, five times more than a year ago. MySpace traffic accounted for more than twice as much traffic than was received from MSN and Yahoo Search combined. TopShop.co.uk’s profile page describes the store as a 24-year old, single …
In Search of the Uncommercial
Stuart Elliott reports that TV execs are exploring changes in the way they deliver commercials in attempt to better hold viewers' attention throughout the program. At a meeting scheduled for today in Burbank, Calif., ABC, part of the Walt Disney Company, will show several ideas to executives from media agencies gathered for the network’s annual spring development meeting. The meeting offers ABC a chance to share …
Sex Sells Science
Adrants reports that Amanda Congdon is shilling for DuPont. On her blog, Amanda says, "I see nothing wrong with doing commercials." She apparently felt the need to defend herself, after Huffington Post wrote this headline about her: ABC Videocaster Congdon Caught Working For DuPont On The Side. …
The Face-to-Face Effect
Kathy Sierra has been attending conferences for 20 years, but speaking at them only for the past few. In the following passage from her blog, she describes why so many of us climb aboard cramped airplanes for hours on end to gather in a central real-life place. The most underrated benefit of the face-to-face effect of conferences is INSPIRATION. For me, the single biggest reason to attend an event like SXSW is the …
Gimmicks Don’t Sell Beer
Stuart Elliott lets us in on a new interactive campaign meant to sell "the world's most refreshing beer." Coors Light is planning an interactive initiative, scheduled to start in mid-April, that promotes 4:53 p.m. as the new 5 o’clock. At 4:53 p.m. local time on weekdays, the Coors Light brand symbol, an old-fashioned train called the Silver Bullet, will race across entertainment, news and sports Web sites that are …
P&G Is Not Affiliated With Satan
Anyone who owns P&G stock knows that the company would never split profits with anyone, least of all Satan. But for those who still entertain doubts, be advised: P&G just won $19.25 million in a decade-long civil suit against four former Amway distributors accused of spreading rumors that the company was affiliated with the Church of Satan. The rumor was basically this: P&G's CEO "came out of the closet" on the Phil …