I sometimes call myself a content machine. Yet, Ground Zero's Court Crandall deserves a higher distinction. We can call him a content god. According to Adweek, Crandall--whose second film, A Lobster Tale, is released on DVD this week--sees a bright future for content in the agency world. "I have no intention of jumping ship [for Hollywood]," said Crandall. "My hope is that divisions in other agencies starting with …
For Common Sense, We Have to Turn to Beer
According to Ad Age, Miller High Life sales rose by nearly 1% during the second quarter, a strong performance for a brand in a challenged category (full-calorie domestic macrobrews) that had seen steep declines in sales for several years leading up to the advent of the current Common Sense campaign. Here's the latest, politically themed twist in the campaign: …
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And You May Ask Yourself, Where Does That Highway Go?
The following video is the work of Howard Pyle, creative director at Local Theory, the New York boutique that created and produced the Nokia Young Lions film competition sponsorship campaign. MTV plans to use some of this footage in an upcoming special on Cannes. Nokia Nseries sponsored the Young Lions film competition, providing mobile cameras (the Nokia N93i) that the teams used to create 30 second commercials on …
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George Parker Spanked by Contrarian
From the looks of things, Bob Hoffman found his inner contrarian a long time ago. In the most recent post on his blog, Ad Contrarian, he spells out what it takes to write copy that will court an online audience. The F Word: It’s Fucking Awesome! On the internet, content is king. And dirty words is queen. If you are writing a blog, you must be hard-boiled and never show weakness. You must not let on that you are from …
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A Piece of the Trillion. That’s All I Ask.
USA Today points to this study from private equity firm, Veronis Suhler Stevenson, which forecasts media expenditures in the coming years. VSS projects that communications spending will increase 5.4% to $923.91 billion in 2008, as strong gains in the institutional and alternative media sectors (like gaming) offset the downward pressure of declining traditional advertising spending. VSS also notes that communications …
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Displaycement
The economic downturn has to hurt the ad business at some point. According to the Los Angeles Times, certain sectors like online display advertising are already feeling the pain. In one ominous example, Lee Enterprises Inc., which owns 54 newspapers including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, said in its most recent earnings report that its online ad revenue had dropped 9.1% while print ad revenue fell 10.1%. Companies …
Epigramatic for the People
"Advertisers are the interpreters of our dreams — Joseph interpreting for Pharaoh. Like the movies, they infect the routine futility of our days with purposeful adventure. Their weapons are our weaknesses: fear, ambition, illness, pride, selfishness, desire, ignorance. And these weapons must be kept as bright as a sword." -E.B. White, "Truth in Advertising," The New Yorker So begins The Happy Soul Industry, by …
Brands Forced To Learn New Customs
That the web is a revolutionary medium, goes without saying today. But James Cherkoff's thinking may lead one to say it, regardless. Many big brands are shocked to discover that their fame is almost irrelevant online. Checkoff says brand's offline fame must be "exchanged into local currency that is instantly recognised, trusted and circulated" and that they way to do that is let people remake it in the web's …