July 1, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 7 Comments

Let's assume, for a moment, that people are brands unto themselves.

So what you make of Tom Cruise's recent behavior in his interview with Matt Lauer?

Big movie stars like Cruise need to maximize their appeal to keep their lure at the box office. So when Cruise comes out and bashes psychiatry as well as all the people who take medication for mental health, is he damaging his own brand?

And Brooke Shields is responding to Cruise's comments about her post-partum depression. Defending, in a sense, her brand.

July 1, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 5 Comments

What you are about to read is fiction. It may seem like something else, but it's not.

I work for Cleve. I can't understand why that's such a tough concept to digest. I mean sure, I report directly to Steph, who reports to Tim. But Tim reports to Cleve, so it's pretty clear. Cleve hired me, not Tim, nor Steph. Only Cleve knows how much I make. Tim may know. Steph does not know. No way does she know.

We all work for Cleve. All sixty of us. That's how the creative department runs. From afar, you might think Cleve is a micro-manager but he's not. He lets his underlings—the CDs and ACDs—do plenty. Sure, what they and their teams do day-to-day is mostly mundane. After all, Cleve saves the best for himself. It's good to be King.

Working for one of these disgruntled CDs can be quite trying. When they discover, as some do, that I actually work for Cleve and not them, trouble looms.

"There's such a thing as a chain of command, you know. And from here on, you will recognize it," Steph scolded, one otherwise sunny day. She had become acutely aware of the fact that I work for Cleve, not her.

What she was really saying but not saying is, "Who the fuck do you think you are?" That's what CDs say when they find out that you work for Cleve, not them. The CD wants to have the hire/fire privilege. They want to determine how much raise to give, or not to give. They want to dole out the best projects as they see fit.

"I'm placing you on probation. For subordination," Steph said.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I told you to change the copy on that out-of-home before I went on vacation and you directly disobeyed me. Subordination."

"Uh, I don't think so. Cleve approved it."

"Listen to me. You simply do not get it. You work for me. Not Cleve."

"No, I work for the client. Then the agency, then Cleve, then Tim, then you."

"This is exactly what I'm talking about. You're impossible, and I'm over it. No raise and six months of probation. Sign this."

I looked at her bemusedly for too long a time. I pondered what was underneath all this. She couldn't care all that much about the outdoor. It was Cleve's personal posse that was on her mind. The fact that Cleve had his go-to copywriters and art directors, who he freely cherry-picked, often at inopportune times for his own awards-in-mind projects, leaving the CD a hand short, bewildered and mad.

But I can't help that I belong to Cleve's posse. I didn't try out for it.

"What's this really about? That shoot I was on in Costa Rica? I know you wanted to be there. Who wouldn't?"

"It's about your attitude. Simple as that."

Pretty much everyone knew that Cleve used his substantial discretionary budget to produce spec work, or fake work, that could then be submitted to the best awards shows. Cannes in spring is such a nice diversion. Anyway, he spent thousands on TV spots that never aired, when people could have had bonuses, trips to the spa, golf. Perks are big in advertising. And Creative Directors feel entitled to some.

"My attitude?"

"Your attitude."

July 2, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Apple says the release of its new podcast-enabled iTunes 4.9 has led to over 1 million podcast subscriptions in just two days.

“iTunes has done what possibly no one else could have accomplished, propelled Podcasting into the mainstream,” said Will Lewis, management consultant for KCRW. “Our servers have been swamped with a stratospheric increase in traffic. In fact, downloads have increased tenfold as a result of the iTunes 4.9 launch.”

“Podcasting is like cappuccino,” said August Trometer, developer of iPodderX. “Gourmet coffee was around for a long time, but it took Starbucks to put it on the map. Apple is like the Starbucks of Podcasting and advertisers will take us more seriously now.”

July 3, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The Guardian spoke with Yahoo founder, Jerry Yang last week.

What was it about Flickr that made it such a must-have acquisition?

Yang: There's a lot we can achieve through this acquisition because we'll be able to leverage their leading technology and product features such as tagging (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagging). The internet's a driving force in the change from mass media to "my media", in which consumers will be their own programmers. User-generated content or "social media" will be a large component, and Flickr (www. flickr.com) has one of the strongest, most active communities out there.

July 3, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Let's look for a minute at Lincoln, Nebraska. Lincoln is a small, liveable prairie city of 210,000. It's home to a major university, lots of bars and loads of Big Red fans. It's also home to the state capitol. Two other cities come to mind when considering this mix of government and students in the Midlands�Madison, WI and Austin, TX.

Like Austin, Lincoln has some heavyweight agencies. Bailey Lauerman has been getting the job done for clients like Union Pacific for thirty plus years. Adweek did a big feature on the shop in 2000. Upstarts Fuse Box and Archrival are contenders in their own right. Archrival has some sharpened Pencils they'll be happy to show you, and Fuse Box might do the same, except they don't play that. Communications Arts takes a look at Fuse Box in the current issue.

July 3, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

On July 4th, we're celebrating freedom--including the freedom to create silly viral videos. Like these, which use a song from the film Team America: World Police:

This one, which ditches the sarcasm in place of a jingoistic montage.

and

This one, truly inspired, which marries Trey Parker's music to mixed up footage of the horribly cheesy "America We Stand As One" video.

Happy 4th of July everybody! Don't light those fireworks when you're standing right in front of the grill.

July 4, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

Here's an interesting story from the AP:

States spend nearly a quarter of a billion dollars a year on remedial writing instruction for their employees, according to a new report that says the indirect costs of sloppy writing probably hurt taxpayers even more.

The National Commission on Writing, in a report to be released Tuesday, says that good writing skills are at least as important in the public sector as in private industry. Poor writing not only befuddles citizens but also slows down the government as bureaucrats struggle with unclear instructions or have to redo poorly written work.

As a writer, I'm fascinated by the changing nature of language. Thanks to e-mail and the blogosphere, more people are writing--and many are doing it badly. Now, part of that is due to the quick nature of postings and the importance of quick replies, but some people simply never learned how to write clearly and properly in the first place.

Even in ad agency life, which is a communication business, I constantly see correspondence that's badly written and full of grammar errors. Hey, I'm guilty of it, too. Is there a solution for this? If trends continue, and as hip-hop language becomes more and more influential in society, we may not be able to communicate effectively with anyone in another 10 years.

July 4, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

In effort to leave no space untouched, Ball Corporation is launching a new advertising medium that allows beverage can tabs to carry customized messaging.

"Beverage cans are increasingly used in growing, upscale categories such as energy drinks, wine, and wellness beverages, where product differentiation and image are key concerns," said Bob Tettero of Ball.

Tettero did not explain what would happen if annoyed beverage lovers nervously removed the tabs from cans, and flicked them in the trash.

July 4, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Lewis Lazare: Get ready for some station domination. The term, which has a definite ring to it, refers to an ad placement tactic where an advertiser commandeers all available ad space at a location and bombards consumers with a desired message without fear of any other advertiser causing a distraction.

Beginning this month, Dove and its ad agency, Ogilvy & Mather/ Chicago, are employing station domination at the Merchandise Mart L stop to introduce consumers to Dove's new intensive firming lotion. The ads themselves -- 33 in all dotting the platforms and entrances and exits to the station -- are part of Dove's and Ogilvy's ongoing "campaign for real beauty" that tries to suggest real people, not models, have a special beauty worth celebrating.

Whether or not L riders agree, they're going to be forced to deal with that particular beauty message from Dove -- and none other -- at least through the month of July. Dove and Ogilvy also are doing the station domination thing this month at selected locations in five other markets: New York, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

July 5, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Ad Age: McDonald’s is recruiting Russell Simmons, P. Diddy and Tommy Hilfiger to perform a miracle makeover: Turn its employees' mundane uniforms into hip street wear.

“Employees are becoming more and more important every day in delivering a brand experience,” said Allen Adamson, managing director at Landor, a branding and identity consultancy that's part of WPP Group. “How people feel about a company and brand directly affects their ability to deliver on the promise. Job One is to feel good about the company and Job Two is to understand the brand idea so they can deliver the brand and live its promise.”

Fashion is one of the “languages” that McDonald’s is tapping into to improve its relevance with young adults. When the burger behemoth launched its “I’m lovin’ it” platform nearly two years ago, fashionable crew uniforms in the Netherlands became the rage and customers begged to buy their own versions.

July 5, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

Adweek: Former Goodby, Silverstein & Partners creatives Frederic Raillard and Farid Mokart have opened their own agency called Marcel in Paris, effective immediately.

The Publicis-owned venture, which opened yesterday with 10-12 clients shifted from the holding company's other agencies, is intended to compete with smaller, integrated and creatively focused shops such as Mother in London and New York, 180 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and even Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Miami. French natives Raillard, 34, and Mokart, 38, who go by Fred & Farid and share art directing and copywriting duties, will be co-presidents and report to Publicis CEO Maurice Levy.

The agency is "based on the fact that advertising now has to change, we have to write strong stories featuring the brand, then choose the best media," said Raillard, speaking for both himself and Mokart. "So we believe we're not competing against other campaigns, but all other stories in media. Our role in the agency is to write the strongest story. It's simple to say but hard to do."

Thanks to The Hidden Persuader for the pointer.

July 5, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

Thanks to Steve Hall over at Adrants for pointing out what could be the worst name ever:

Morongo Casino Resort & Spa

July 5, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Flickr user, Lizzy Poo, shares a gallery of her chalk drawings for Roth's--a 12 store supermarket chain in Oregon. Here's her masterpiece.

July 5, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

If you believe the dinosaur speak on Henderson Advertising's site, the Greenville, SC agency was the first big time shop in the Southeast. Founded in 1946 by Jim Henderson, the shop grew to 120 employees and $100 million in billings by 1986, the year its founder retired. In 1980, Henderson was named "Agency of the Year" by Adweek, a distinction no agency outside New York nor Chicago had ever earned.

Given that advertising people have notoriously short attention spans, it would be fair to ask, "Great, but what has Henderson done lately?" This Costa del Mar print ad is one answer to that.

Greenville is also home to some other interesting ad peeps. Erwin-Penland is a unit of Boston powerhouse, Hill Holliday. But the most promising development in Greenville ad circles has to be Brains On Fire. Not only do they have a cool name and sweet digs, they're one of the few agencies anywhere with an actively updated blog.

July 6, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 4 Comments

From CNN:

Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs personally called the family of a 15-year-old New York teenager to offer his condolences after the teen was killed last week during a fight over an iPod, according to a report published Wednesday.

The New York Times reported that Jobs and the victim's father, Errol Rose, spoke for a few minutes earlier this week after Jobs' assistant called the paper asking for Rose's telephone number.

"Some people talk to you like they're something remote. He was so familiar. After every word, he paused, as if each word he said came from his heart," Rose told the Times.

Jobs' persuasive skills are legendary. At first glance, this seems to be quite a classy move on Jobs' part.

Knowing that he takes much of what Apple does personally, this incident brought a dark side to a brand that has always tried to stand for making technology accessible to the masses, and I'll bet Jobs feels this very deeply.

Should other CEO's feel a sense of personal remorse when tragedies result in part because of their products? And what should they do about it?

July 6, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Associated Press: Passengers who love those little bags of pretzels given away aboard US Airways flights had better move fast to get some more because the airline is cutting them from the menu.

Beginning in September, US Airways will pull the pretzels from domestic flights in a move expected to save more than $1 million a year. The savings is part of the airline's larger effort to compete with low-fare airlines, spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said Tuesday.

Last month, Northwest Airlines replaced free pretzels with 3-ounce bags of trail mix that passengers can buy for $1.

July 6, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to this Live Journal post, Mariah Carey, shown here with perfect abs, actually had them painted on by her makeup artist for Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular show.

July 6, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Well, there you have it.

Thanks to Brand Infection for the post, and Influx for the pointer.

July 6, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

from Welcome to Optimism: W+K gave a lecture June 29th at the D&AD New Blood event. The theme was 'crazysensible' - our belief that in order to do the most extreme creative work, you need the most solid strategic foundation. It's only when you have the right balance of crazy and sensible that you get ideas that are not only radical but also relevant.

July 7, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

According to The New York Times, former Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca will be the spokesman in a series of upcoming commercials for the company.

When Chrysler was facing backruptcy in the early 1980s, Iacocca appeared in Chrysler commercials, challenging viewers, "If you can find a better car, buy it." The line will be reused, but this time will be spoken by Jason Alexander.

Personally, I'd rather see them bring back Ricardo Montalban to talk about the rich Corinthian leather.

25 years ago, Iacocca became famous--and turned around the company in the process. I wonder if it'll work again. It also makes me wonder about their target audience: Does anyone under 30 know who Iacocca is, or what he did for that company? Or have they decided to focus primarily on an 35+ crowd? Does Iacocca still have any appeal now that he doesn't run the company?

July 7, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

I just learned of today's London terror attacks, not from MSM, but from Johnnie Moore's blog.

Images are already pouring in to Flickr.

July 7, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

It's hard to follow a post on terror, but this bit from Cool Hunting seems highly appropriate.

Fans of Vivienne Westwood's fashions can now bring her punk sensibilities home with a series of new carpet designs for The Rug Company. Westwood's tattered Union Jack is unconventional patriotism at it's best, sprung from a partnership with the British-based purveyers of quality, modern floor coverings. Since 2000, The Rug Company has been tapping fashion, interior, textile, and product designers to create a line of unique rugs. All carpets are available at their London and New York showrooms, come in several sizes, and can be custom-fitted.

July 7, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Chris at Shotgun Concepts gives us this to chew on.

"What is the difference between unethical and ethical advertising? Unethical advertising uses falsehoods to deceive the public; ethical advertising uses truth to deceive the public." - Vilhjalmur Stefansson, "Discovery", 1964

Steffansson was an Arctic explorer, author and anthropologist.

July 7, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Adweek reports that catalog powerhouse, L.L. Bean, is moving its account from five-year incumbent, Martin Williams.

The Omnicom Group shop in Minneapolis confirmed it will no longer work on the business. "We're disappointed because the work is producing outstanding results," said Steve Collins, agency CEO, in a statement. "In 2004, Bean had its second consecutive year of record sales and new customer acquisition was the largest ever, so it's strange to hear them say they want to move in a different direction."

Beyond that, the shop offered no explanation for the split, and the client in Freeport, Maine, did not immediately return calls.

The company spent $20 million on advertising last year, but only $400,000 through the first quarter of this year, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus.

July 8, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

You'll need an online subscription, or go pick up a copy, but today's Wall Street Journal has a fascinating story on China's insistence that advertisers like P&G be truthful in their ad claims:

For years, multinational advertisers had a fairly free hand in China, where regulatory oversight has been less stringent than in developed markets. But recent government actions against consumer-products giant Procter & Gamble Co. indicate a stricter approach.

In one example the article cites, P&G ads for Pantene shampoo were banned because the company failed to cite the source of its claims--that Pantene makes hair 10 times stronger, for instance.

UPDATE: Here's the story, picked up by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

July 8, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Washington Post: If you no longer marvel at the Internet's power to connect and transform the world, you need to hear the story of a woman known to many around the globe as, loosely translated, Dog Poop Girl.

Recently, the woman was on the subway in her native South Korea when her dog decided that this was a good place to do its business.

The woman made no move to clean up the mess, and several fellow travelers got agitated. The woman allegedly grew belligerent in response.

One of the train riders took pictures of the incident with a camera phone and posted them on a popular Web site. Net dwellers soon began to call her by the unflattering nickname, and issued a call to arms for more information about her.

According to one blog that has covered the story, "within days, her identity and her past were revealed.

Howard Rheingold, who studies and writes about the impact of technology on the behavior of groups, said the debate should begin with an understanding that the rules of privacy have changed.

"The shadow side of the empowerment that comes with a billion and a half people being online is the surveillance aspect," he said. "We used to worry about big brother -- the state -- but now of course it's our neighbors, or people on the subway."

July 8, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

MPR: Whiplash is a 19-year-old Capuchin monkey from Texas. He saddles up on a border collie, wears a sombrero, and rides to the rescue bearing Mexican fast-food.

Of course, there's a decent chance you already know this. For the Minneapolis-based Kerker ad agency, Whiplash is that holy grail of television advertising: A repeat character that clicks with the public. He's been a ticket to financial success and industry honors since Kerker cast him in his first commercial for them early last year.

The 10th and 11th ads in the Whiplash series began airing this week. Despite all the sequels, Kerker sees no need to retire the monkey any time soon, nor does Taco John's. The Wyoming-based company says its 11 percent sales growth in the past year is the best in its 30-year history.

July 8, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Scoble: Microsoft has been a leader in transparency, blogging, and Channel 9. Why did you allow blogging to happen?

Ballmer: In the world of developers I don’t think it would have mattered if I wanted to allow blogging to happen or not. But I think it’s been a great way for us to communicate to our customers and for our customers, more importantly, to communicate with us. We trust our people to represent our company. That’s what they are paid to do. If they don’t want to be here they wouldn’t be here. So in a sense you don’t run any more risk letting someone express themselves on a blog than you do letting them go out and see a customer on their own anyway. It just touches more people.

July 8, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Brandweek: Subaru is breaking a network TV and cable push for its first SUV, the B9 Tribeca.

The effort, via Subaru's new agency, DDB in New York, shows the SUV rolling along city streets. The spot, set to Kansas' classic-rock staple Dust in the Wind, has other SUVs turning to dust, rusting away and becoming junkyard scrap as the Tribeca passes them.

Tim Bennett, director of advertising at the Cherry Hill, N.J., automaker, said a large grassroots and Internet effort aim to reach people who "are very active, not always in front of a TV.

"One of the targets is definitely the urban buyer," said Bennett. "There's an urban sensibility; we are targeting the kind of people—young families—coming into the city for film festivals, or museum visits. It's a bit different for us than the traditional core for vehicles like Outback."

July 8, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Octopus Drop Kick reports on this truly odd brand extension (that steals from Nike and a famous athlete all at once).

A Japanese company is offering pillows shaped like tennis star Maria Sharapova's breasts and lap.

July 10, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Russell Beattie works on new mobile products at Yahoo. He's also 6' 2" with graying hair, but I digress. Russell is pissed at P.R. people who pitch him without doing their homework first. In other words, he needs the pitch to be totally personalized.

You know, now that people in Public Relations have "discovered" blogging, I'm seeing a notable downward trend in the quality of the discussions online. These are the people who think they understand communication and people in general, yet seem to be the last ones to be arriving to the blogosphere... But arrived they have and now the signal to noise ratio seems to be skyrocketing in the wrong direction. I mean, the great thing about blogging is we were finally able to cut out these morons and get to the opinions and ideas of the people who actually contribute to the world! Yet now these bullshit artists are sort of weasling their way back into the conversation somehow and it's annoying. And don't misunderstand, these people aren't trying to participate in the conversation, they're trying to "influence" it.

Steve Rubel of Micropersuasion fame made the mistake of sending Beattie a rote pitch, and now Rubel's taking it on the chin for this miscalculation.

B. L. Ochman defends Rubel and counters with the suggestion that this chatter could be a ploy to raise Beattie's profile in the bloatosphere. She also claims Beattie is, himself, some form of P.R. person for Yahoo.

In an interesting twist, Beattie knocks Ochman off her horse with this comment:

One would think I would have been on the radar from the last time you wondered who I was:

http://www.whatsnextblog.com/archives/2005/03/twenty_most_inf.asp

-Russ

When you follow the link, it takes you to a listing of "the twenty most influential bloggers." Beattie is on the list, while Ochman and Rubel are not. I could call the list's credibility into question, but I'd rather say, "What great Sunday entertainment. Like pro wrestling but with type."

July 11, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 4 Comments

The New York Times today reports on some sell sheets and marketing materials produced by Anheuser Busch that emphasizes the company's American pedigree.

According to the article:

The materials consist of at least two sheets of information that apparently are meant to depict Anheuser-Busch as the brand of choice for patriotic Americans. One sheet criticizes the company's major competitors, SABMiller and Molson Coors, for being "owned by foreigners." The other states that Anheuser-Busch is expanding internationally to bring profits "back to the United States."

Americans are feeling the effects of globalism and outsourcing as more and more goods are made overseas and once decent-paying textile and manufacturing jobs disappear, and it makes me wonder if we'll start seeing more efforts like this.

But it is a viable marketing strategy for a company like Anheuser-Busch, which also does a lot of business abroad? Can any company market itself with a "Made In America" position? Do consumers care?

July 11, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

USA Today: A convoy of brawny Nissan Titan pickups will ride into the new Dukes of Hazzard movie in August, while the Quest minivan will shuttle children in an NBC reality show called Meet Mister Mom.

More recently, a Titan was parked on Desperate Housewives' Wisteria Lane, where more than 20 million ABC viewers could see it. Its driver: plumber Mike Delfino, played by Jim Denton.

And a Nissan Armada SUV was on hand to transport the seven cast members of MTV's 15th version of The Real World, set in Philadelphia.

Nissan doesn't pay cash for placements, said Clarke Osborne, product placement manager for Nissan's North American division. Instead, the automaker gave Warner Bros. 12 Titans, some of which will be used for background shots, for the filmmaker's Dukes of Hazzard.

"The placement has to be organic," Osborne said. "Like Mike in Desperate Housewives. It would be natural that he would drive a pickup truck. ... What if Mike was driving the Quest (minivan)? It wouldn't appear natural."

July 11, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Austin American-Statesman: On a recent episode of the HBO drama "Six Feet Under," Brenda Chenowith, one of the main characters, told her husband, Nate Fisher, to pick up some soy milk at Whole Foods on his way home.

In March, actress Sandra Bullock gushed about Whole Foods' just-opened downtown Austin store on David Letterman's late-night talk show.

It's the kind of publicity for which many companies shell out big bucks.

But Whole Foods Market Inc. doesn't pay for product placements or mentions on television shows. It has managed to make its brand name synonymous with healthy living, and grow its sales at a double-digit clip, while spending little on traditional advertising and marketing.

Whole Foods doesn't have to spend heavily on advertising, said John Moore, head of Brand Autopsy, an Austin marketing consulting firm and a former marketing manager at Whole Foods.

"They never set out to build a brand," he said. "They set out to build a business, one that stood for something. They build bigger, better stores rather than bigger, funnier ads."

July 11, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 11 Comments

Al Ries writing in Ad Age says it's imperative to describe one's brand in three words.

Powerful, long-lasting brands are built by owning a word in the mind.

What’s a Volvo? A safe car.

What’s a BMW? Fun to drive.

What’s a Barilla? Italy’s No. 1 pasta.

It’s astounding how many marketing executives can’t grasp this simple strategy: Own a word in the mind. A few years ago the CEO of Wal-Mart’s ad agency was asked, “What would you say is Wal-Mart’s USP?”

Without hesitation, he replied: “Value, loyalty and quality.” Rosser Reeves would have turned over in his grave. “Value, loyalty and quality” are hardly a uinique selling proposition. Outside of every Wal-Mart are the words, “We sell for less.” In every Wal-Mart ad are the words, “Always low prices. Always.” What word does Wal-Mart own? It’s “cheap.” Not a bad word. It has made Wal-Mart the world’s largest retailer.

Just for fun, let's put Ries three-word mission to the test.

What's Budweiser? Flag Waving Swill

What's Fox News? Conservative Propaganda Machine

What's Al Ries? Undisputed Positioning Guru

Perhaps you'd like to offer some others. Come on. It's good practice.

July 12, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Lewis Lazare: Why are we not surprised that Fremont Co., one of the nation's largest producers of sauerkraut, was having trouble getting younger consumers interested in its product? The rather unappetizing-sounding product name alone could turn off millions of customers.

Lacking a giant advertising budget, the Fremont, Ohio-based company recently turned to an unlikely resource, Chicago public relations firm Bigfrontier Communications Group. Unlikely, because Steve Lundin founded Bigfrontier three years ago primarily as a tech-focused public relations firm.

Lundin suggested Fremont reposition sauerkraut as a food product with glamor. He came up with the idea of promoting a new drink called the "K-tini" -- a martini made with olives stuffed with sauerkraut.

To get the word out, Bigfrontier planned parties in the hottest nightclubs nationwide. But coming from a tech PR background, Lundin quickly found out he and his associates weren't the most adept of nightclub party planners. So they developed a K-tini party kit that was shipped to nightclub operators with the suggestion they throw their own K-tini parties. And they did.

The buzz about the K-tini finally gave it some invaluable exposure on ABC's "Good Morning America," where a K-tini was made on air.

Now Lundin is distributing information about the health attributes of sauerkraut, and is busily gathering data for the third component of his public relations thrust -- focusing on what he refers to as sauerkraut's "phenomenal flavor."

July 12, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

Should art directors and copywriters become more involved in developing the strategy for the ads they work on? Can you do anything about if you're handed a bad strategy? What if your client wants to push a bad strategy on you?

That's the focus of my new column on TalentZoo.com.

Hey, I never said I had all the answers. But, to give one glaring example, when KFC came out last year and used the strategy "Fried chicken is part of a nutritious diet," somebody involved must have had their bullshit detector on.

I want to know what you think.

July 12, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

New York Times: Displaced baseball fans who used to need a pricey cable package or a high-speed Internet connection to follow their favorite teams now only require a hand-held satellite radio, the familiar voice of a hometown broadcaster and a healthy imagination.

"I feel like a kid again," said Nathan Olson, a Cubs fan from Pine Bluff, Ark. "I haven't listened to the radio like this since the 80's."

Technology has taken fans like Olson from radio to television to the Internet and back again. With XM, a truck driver who grew up outside St. Louis listens to the Cardinals as he makes 600-mile runs. A husband and wife in South Carolina channel surf over dinner between her Orioles and his Indians. And Olson can go to sleep with his headphones on tuned to the Cubs game, just as when he was growing up in an Iowa farm town.

"The reaction was incredibly emotional and incredibly personal," said David Butler, director of corporate affairs for XM, which paid Major League Baseball $650 million for the right to broadcast games over the next 11 years.

July 12, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Adfreak's David Kiefaber knows how to break the really big stories.

Looks like pop musicians and rapping cartoons aren’t the only ones selling novelty ringtones anymore. A decidedly unorthodox performer has been given the opportunity to strum his way into a few hearts and annoy the hell out of the rest of us. I’m talking, of course, about the Naked Cowboy. CNET News reports that, Chicken Soup Makes Me Poop, one of his songs, “is being made into a ringtone by Acotel Group, an Italian Web portal.” Fox5 News mentioned that the ringtones were priced at $2.

July 12, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The Observer: Kate Moss's very public scrap with Pete Doherty - which took place apres the Paris couture shows on a London-bound Eurostar train on Wednesday night - was much more than a mere row. It was a fashion statement.

photo courtesy of Sakura

Moss and Doherty are riding the vanguard of skank chic. It's a look and a lifestyle - a trashy subversion of normal notions of glamour and civilised celebrity behaviour - which embraces matted hair, a residual air of grubbiness and the kind of roller-coaster, booze-and-drug-addled passion that can inspire physical fights in speeding trains. Moss and Doherty weren't just fighting. They were locked in a spontaneous and terribly fashionable performance-art moment.

'Skank chic as a style statement is the ultimate in anti-glamour and anti-pretty, isn't it?' says Harriet Quick, fashion features editor of Vogue. 'Kate Moss, she's the living incarnation of course, looking mud-splattered but impossibly glamorous against all the odds in Glastonbury. It's those dirty-grey drain-pipe jeans that look filthy even if they're not. It's the antithesis of flawless plastic Hollywood.'

July 12, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

DM News: Consumers who use Coupons Inc.’s Web site to download offers will be able to view video coupons starting next month.

Coupons president/chief operating officer Jeffrey Weitzman said yesterday that marketers will be able to allow their customers to view a 15- or 30-second video advertisement on Coupons’ Digital FSI distribution platform and receive a cents-off coupon for the product once it’s completed.

“We see the merging of rich media with couponing to be a trend," said Weitzman. "It offers a powerful branding tool with the proven effectiveness of coupons.”

“In 2006, for many of our biggest clients, 10 percent of their total coupon budget is going toward our Digital FSI platform," he said.

The reason for this is a combination of things: the increase in households online; the decrease in Sunday newspaper circulation where traditional paper-based coupons appear; and the fact that online couponing allows a client to track whether a coupon was downloaded and redeemed.

July 13, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Dean Gemmell, president of Black Lab Five, an enthusiast marketing specialist in Michigan wants L.L. Bean to consider his shop for projects. He offers the letter he sent to Bean and details on his consequent conversations with "the sweet and polite Nadira Vallee at Pile & Company, the consultant handling the review process for L.L. Bean."

Sweet Nadira even mentioned that an invited agency would need direct mail capabilities. Please, lead me to the agency that will show America's venerable catalog retailer how to do direct mail.

There's another interesting tidbit in Gemmell's piece.

Since we've always felt that advertising people typically fail to understand the challenges of running a business that has to sell products, we're launching our own line of steel furniture next week.

July 13, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Adweek: Fallon Worldwide said it would no longer operate a full-service outpost in New York following the departures today of office president Anne Bologna and executive creative director Ari Merkin.

"While we have loved doing business in New York, and have a great group of talent, the truth is that New York is not a necessary part of Fallon's U.S. offering," said agency founder and chairman Pat Fallon in a statement. "We believe our clients will be best served by a single office."

Clients of the 40-person office, which include Georgia-Pacific, SoBe and Virgin Mobile, have been notified of the change, according to Fallon.

Employees at the agency's New York office have been offered positions in Minneapolis, he said.

Bologna and Merkin are launching their own agency in New York. Details of that startup were not immediately available.

July 13, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

According to Hostess, "as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory premieres on the big screen, Hostess Cup Cakes are trumpeting a blockbuster debut of their own.

Limited-edition Chocolicious Wonka Cakes, featuring star-studded movie-themed packaging, yummy purple icing and smooth creamy filling, are making magic in stores nationwide."

July 13, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

New York Times: In a bid to widen significantly the audience for concerts and live events, America Online and XM Satellite Radio are backing a venture that will deliver live performances to Internet, satellite and wireless customers and through other media.

The venture is expected to start offering its performances this fall. Many of them will originate from arenas and theaters owned by the AEG division of the Anschutz Company, a concert promoter that also holds a stake in the venture. Kevin Wall, executive producer of broadcasts of the multicity Live 8 concert this month calling for aid to Africa, will run the new venture, Network Live.

Mr. Wall, former vice chairman of the Internet services company iXL Enterprises, said AEG was aiming to offer up to 40 concerts from major acts this year and develop its own brand-name series, which could then be distributed or downloaded to an array of devices.

The company plans to generate revenue by licensing its events to various distributors, including AOL and XM, and by selling advertising and corporate sponsorships tied to its concerts, Mr. Wall said.

July 13, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

I'm not sure what devotional candles have to do with the X-Games, but the candles do make for some interesting out of home executions.

Thanks to Flickr user, cybele-la for the image.

July 14, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

I would have never taken Lewis Lazare for a Southerner, nor a fan of country music, but his piece in today's Sun Times reveals these personal truths.

As it happens, Lazare rather likes the new Fruit of the Loom television from Richards Group.

The new spot casts the familiar Fruit of the Loom icons, the Fruit Guys, as a country band -- a wonderfully odd positioning -- that we hear crooning an original country tune called "You Can't Over Love." As the lyric quickly reveals, the love you can't get over is for your underwear.

The commercial's visuals are full of people with terribly sad looks with "cold Kentucky rain" falling all around them. Lots of rain, which nicely reinforces the music's corny sentiment.

You gotta like "You Can't Over Love," if only because the commercial dares use unabashedly emotional country music to get consumers to bond with Fruit of the Loom.

Also in today's column, Lazare rips the spine from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association's new book, Measuring Word of Mouth.

What is WOMMA trying to do?

Buzz used to be a fun, if somewhat ethereal part of the marketing mix.

But if our skim of the new book's stultifying contents is any indication, this research goes a long way toward making word of mouth seem like just another bland marketing tool researchers with too much time on their hands are relentlessly over-analyzing.

July 14, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

There's something wonderful about truth in advertising.

Thanks to my friend, Evil Vince, for the image.

July 14, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 3 Comments

From Adweek:

Former Ogilvy & Mather executive Shona Seifert today was sentenced in U.S. District Court here to 18 months imprisonment (and two years probation) for her role in a scheme to overbill the government's $1 billion Office of National Drug Control Policy account to cover a $3 million revenue shortfall on the business.

Seifert must also pay a $125,000 fine and a $1,000 special assessment, as well as write a "code of ethics" for the ad industry.

I can't wait to read that. Anyone got any suggestions for her to throw in there?

UPDATE (7:45 PM): Edward O'Meara has some very interesting thoughts on the whole Ogilvy overbilling scandal, and I tend to agree with much of what he says.

July 14, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

Think Memphis--blues, barbeque, the mighty Mississippi and Elvis. Think Memphis again--Thompson & Company.

Thompson & Company will be a firm that grows by encouraging and developing the personal genius of every employee, to the benefit of every client.

I'd like to show you some of the agency's print work, but they protect it with Flash. I don't much like Flash, but I do like smart headlines. Like this one for Georgia Boot, "Handles Anything Farm Life Can Dish Out. Even The Stuff Cows Dish Out."

July 14, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Normally, advertising's creative people come from previous occupations like bartender, cab driver or scuba instructor. But not David Bonner, the newly appointed senior vice president and chief creative officer at Louisville shop, Doe-Anderson.

According to Adweek, Bonner, 39, worked at JWT Chicago, Gee Jeffrey & Partners and BBDO. But before that he was a federal agent for the NCIS and a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy.

July 15, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to Lewis Lazare, on Wednesday, Outside magazine will host the first-ever Chicago Ad Cup, a sailing regatta for Chicago ad agency teams at the Columbia Yacht Club. The event celebrates Chicago's inclusion on Outside's list of the top 10 American dream towns in its August issue.

My money's on Y&R. Who do you like?

July 15, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Normally, liquor advertising has to be put through tight legal screens. Looks like New Orleans-based drinking establishments don't play by those rules, which of course lends itself to better work.

Creative courtesy of Sullivan St. Claire, Mobile, AL--a new contender for our "Agencies In Strange Places" series.

July 15, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

USA Today: Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants, who lives in a pineapple under the sea, soon will star on spinach, carrot and fruit bags in supermarkets.

While the big marketers in the $70 billion food-and-beverage industry are trying to stave off regulation on marketing to children amid obesity concerns, Boskovich Farms (spinach), Grimmway Farms (carrots) and LGS Specialty Sales (citrus fruit) will use marketing pizazz to promote their already-healthy products.

Through a licensing deal, SpongeBob SquarePants and other Nick characters will grace the bags. In the bags will be packs of temporary tattoos.

July 15, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to Variety, sophmoric web site, CollegeHumor.com has struck a development deal with Paramount. The studio is looking for the next Animal House (good luck), and the web site's founders are looking to get listed in the IMDb.

CollegeHumor.com signed a book deal with Penguin a few months ago, with the "CollegeHumor.com Guide to College" expected to be released in April. The site also operates a comedy tour.

July 15, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

IF is featuring an interview with Niku Banaie, Naked's director of innovations. Here's a sample:

Q. How will brands use portable wireless devices to interact with their audience as they become more prominent?

A. The obvious idea is to transplant existing traditional ideas onto this medium, kind of like what happened with the web and people directly placing their print ads on this medium and thinking its going to work – very naïve! The way forward and most engaging way is to think from a service design perspective – what can you do that would really add value to the lives of your consumers? Orange in the UK had a great service initiative with the Orange Wednesdays 241 txt cinema offer, where by texting 241 on a Wednesday you receive two for the price of one cinema tickets. By designing ideas like these you start to build long term relationships versus flash in the pan awareness. Wouldn’t it be great if a travel company like Virgin started to offer location based travel guides – once the technology is ready, it is examples like these that will make the real difference!

July 15, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Promo Magazine: Dr Pepper is in the midst of giving away one Mini-Cooper convertible a day in an under-the-cap promo to boost summer sales and to encourage trial of its new Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper.

Game codes can be found under yellow bottle caps on specially marked 20-ounce, 2-liter bottles and inside specially marked 12-pack wraps of Dr Pepper, Diet Dr Pepper, Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper and Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper. Game pieces can also be obtained by mail. Dr Pepper began giving away the Minis on May 18 and will offer up the last one on July 31, 75 consecutive days later.

Last October, Dr Pepper parent, Cadbury Schweppes, debuted Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper in both regular and diet versions. Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe imitators around the company's Plano, TX, headquarters promoted the new beverage that carries the tagline, "Tastes so good you get lost in it." In addition, hundreds of roller skating carhops delivered 80,000 samples to consumers in 26 markets. Fifteen-second TV spots, 30- and 60-radio ads and two outdoor campaigns supported the launch.

July 16, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

"It's hard to know exactly when it happened, just as it's impossible to know if, or when, it will end. But for now, it's clear: We're all Wal-Mart's bitches." - John Dicker

I have to admit, I'm fascinated by Wal-Mart. I've written about this phenomenon before, as well as noted how Wal-Mart's bumbling PR negates the effects of lead agency Bernstein-Rein's shiny happy image ads when it compares its opponents to Nazi book-burners.

So naturally, I highly recommend John Dicker's new book The United States of Wal-Mart.

Dicker isn't a cheerleader for Wal-Mart, but he also isn't a complete Wal-Mart basher, either. He goes to great lengths to describe the retailer's history, evolution, culture, growth curve, current PR and merchandising tactics, as well as all the opposition to Wal-Mart's growth and labor practices. He assesses how America today has embraced Wal-Mart for both good and bad. It's well-annotated and researched.

Everyone in advertising has clients who are directly or indirectly affected by Wal-Mart. So it's best to understand the retailer as much as possible. Get this book.

July 17, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

So I'm watching the British Open, and right now Tiger Woods has a 4 shot lead with about 5 holes to play.

Good thing, too--because Nike and American Express are blanketing the commercial breaks with Tiger ads. See the new Nike one here at Adcritic.

It's unlike the Masters, when Tiger sank a sweet putt and Nike didn't capitalize on it with an ad for a month or two, letting Joseph Jaffe claim some credit for quickly assembling a viral ad.

This time, they came prepared, and luckily, Tiger's got his "A" game.

July 17, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

Bohemian Cafe, S. 13th St., Omaha, NE (care of Flickr user, Norchas)

I've been spending more time on Flickr, of late. The experience is a lot like reading blogs, but the content is all visual. Like blogs, people promote what they find most interesting. For some, it's their self-image, for other's it's semi-erotic images, flirting or artful nudes. Still others find fabric fascinating or dead malls. And by no means is Flickr limited to photos. Artists can share their illustrations, design or painting just as easily.

Ken Kesey used to say, "Always stay in your own movie."

Today, with the explosion of blogs, photo sharing sites and podcasts, people are, without a doubt, starring in their own movies. People who use this "social software" feel empowered to find and develop community by like interest to a degree and at a pace never before realized.

Here's how one New Orlean's playwrite feels about it.

I have written about a play a year since I was 22, and, at 37, I have written eight that I am very satisfied with. I am now at the point that I want to see more productions of these plays (and, with some of them, would like to see any production at all). And technology has reached a point where doing so is not a huge investment of time and resources. The Internet has proven to be the cheapest, fastest, most efficient and democratic publishing tool ever created. I might as well take advantage of the fact.

So I have taken the eight plays I feel strongest about, converted them into PDFs, and placed them online, so that anyone may download them.

As I think about the media I consume today, it's obvious that I and others like me make room for citizens' media first. Mainstream media still has an important place, for sure, but it's a shared space now. I want to see the world through an individual's eyes, not a corporation's. We may not have true democracy in the governing bodies of our land, but our media is fully democratic.

One of the big shifts resulting from this freeing of the media space is elimination of middle men. For instance, writers don't need agents or in some cases publishers to help them find an audience. They can find it on their own, as so can businesses, big and small, which is why some are screaming about the death of advertising. Advertising is made of middle men and middle women.

What all this means for marketers of dish soap and their cronies is what concerned agency types are scrambling to answer. Some of the answers have been so bad all you can do is laugh. Others have tried to muscle in on the action—paying people to create good word-of-mouth for a product is a telling example. Ultimately the answers will need to be smarter than that.

July 17, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Stay Free! is a bi-annual magazine with a blog component. Unlike Adbusters, the culture jamming subversives at Stay Free! are funny. And funny is good. I like funny. Don't you?

July 18, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Adweek: Duffy & Shanley said it has been hired by Narragansett Brewing to help relaunch the company's namesake beer brand via an October campaign that will initially focus on promotions and point-of-sale materials.

The independent agency in Providence, R.I., is also handling package redesign, Web marketing and public relations.

The beer was first brewed in 1890 in Cranston, R.I. By the 1960s, it had grown into one of the region's best-selling beers and also had a presence in the national marketplace.

The company changed hands numerous times, with Pabst eventually acquiring the trademark and continuing to brew the beer for a small group of loyal customers. By 2003, annual volume had declined to 1,500 barrels from a peak of 1.7 million in the '60s.

Mark Hellendrung, former president of Nantucket Nectars, purchased the brand from Pabst earlier this year.

July 18, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

BBC: The state of Kentucky is set to withdraw the design of the state's smiling sunshine face from its licence plates because it is so unpopular.

Perched beneath the line "It's that friendly" on the plates, the smiling sun has met ridicule and scorn.

Drivers have been drawing moustaches on the face, or transforming the smile into a scowl in protest.

The new design features an outline of the state of Kentucky in the centre and the words "Unbridled spirit".

"A lot of people found them so obnoxious they wouldn't put them on their cars," county official Don Blevins told the Associated Press.

July 18, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

At a time when athletes like Kobe and the mouth with a bat dominate the headlines, it's good to know there is at least one real American sports hero for us to gain inspiration from.

The above image is available as a screen saver at WearYellow.com, a Nike site.

July 18, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Have you seen Blow Out on Bravo? It's all about Jonathan Antin, hairdresser to the stars, and his product launch. In other words it's a 60-minute commercial.

Here's a quote from the man himself on his QVC appearance:

People that watch the show know that I am not normally at a loss for words, but QVC is huge. Once they started telling me that the channel is in 87 million homes, I started to see it as a huge stepping stone. That was a little frightening at first. But, you know what, you got to just go for it. I knew I could do it. It was in me. I just had to stay in the moment and be about the hair.

p.s. Did you know QVC stands for Quality Value Convenience? You learn something every day.

July 18, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Rance Crain longs for some good old-fashioned TV viewing, presumably so the industry his magazine reports on will continue to generate news.

The ad industry is counting on product placement in movies, TV shows, electronic games and mobile phones to be its salvation, but the ugly thought is beginning to seep into people’s brains that one reason box-office receipts for movies, and most recently DVD sales, are off is because movies are increasingly one gigantic product placement. Consumers object to paying for entertainment when they’re being sold stuff as part of the deal.

I'm willing to concede product placement is no cure all, but it's an important part of the marketing mix, just the same. And maybe movies aren't selling because, like 99% of all ads produced, they suck. Not due to product placement, as the esteemed Lance Crain posits. They suck for the same reason ads suck. They've been stripped of most art, in favor of all commerce. That is, they're a product first and a film second.

Art and commerce must work together. Until they do, the crap faucet will sadly remain wide open.

July 19, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to a New York Times report, Canadian holding company, MDC Partners, is buying Powell, a small creative shop in New York, and folding it in with Margeotes Fertitta & Partners, a mid-sized shop already in the MDC stable.

MDC bought a majority of Margeotes Fertitta in 1998; the rest is owned by Mr. Fertitta and other senior managers. Some of the other shops under the MDC umbrella include Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Cliff Freeman & Partners, Kirshenbaum Bond and Mono.

The Powell deal would be the first in which MDC has acquired an American agency and merged it with one that MDC already owns. MDC has previously done that in making some Canadian acquisitions.

The combined Margeotes Fertitta Powell is to have about 167 employees, 150 from Margeotes Fertitta and 17 from Powell. Combined billings are estimated at $255 million, $25 million from Powell and $230 million from Margeotes Fertitta.

July 19, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to a New York Times report, New York agency, Trollbäck, is breaking a multimillion-dollar campaign for Court TV.

There will be posters, billboards and signs on buses, phone kiosks, taxicab tops and construction sites as well as ads in unexpected places — sleeves on coffee cups, umbrellas over the carts of street vendors, bags at neighborhood delis and T-shirts.

The ads atop taxicabs will say “Getaway car.” The deli bags will be labeled “The stash.” The umbrellas will declare “Undercover.” The signs on the sides of buses will say “Witness relocation” and the signs on the backs will say “Roadblock.”

Mr. Trollbäck, whose agency has also created campaigns for cable networks like AMC, Lifetime, TNT and TV Land, says he believes that “the only way to get a message across is to engage your audience in some way.”

That is a lesson he says he learned before working in advertising, when he was a D.J. and realized “if you can’t engage people, you’re a loser.”

July 19, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

Michele Miller at Wonder Branding has some nice things to say about Costco Wholesale and the retail giant's CEO, Jim Sinegal. I also love the way she says it.

Thanks to Jim Sinegal, the bigwigs down on Wall Street have their undies in a bunch.

Costco puts Wal-Mart to shame in the arena of low pricing. They steadfastly hold to the rule that nothing shall be marked up more than 15% (compared with competitor's markup of 25% and more). They pay their employees an average of $17 per hour... 42% higher than Sam's Club... and have one of the best health plans in the industry.

Costco's stock has risen more than 10% in the last year. Employee turnover rate is nearly non-existent. Sales revenue for June of 2005 is up 9% from the same period last year.

What does Wall Street have to say about this? If you can get their thumbs out of their mouths long enough to tell you, they wail that Joe is too generous. He just isn't shaving enough off the top for them to get their greedy little hands on. An analyst from Deutsche Bank whines, "it's better to be an employee or a customer than a shareholder."

Wah, wah, wah. Jim's not playing the game by our rules. He's too traditional, too old-fashioned. And on top of that (horror of horrors) he only took a $200,000 bonus last year. We don't wanna play anymore!

My God. A business that puts its employees and customers before the Almighty Profit does exist. Isn't it amazing that a simple thing like that would create cult-like customer loyalty and $40 billion in revenue... with almost no advertising?

July 20, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

New York Times: For decades Lucasfilm, the director's privately held company, and its two main divisions - LucasArts, the video game producer, and Industrial Light and Magic, a leading designer of movie special effects - were tucked away in barely marked structures in northern San Rafael and behind the impenetrable walls of nearby Skywalker Ranch.

But as of last week, the company has adopted a new attitude, embodied in this four-building complex, the Letterman Digital Arts Center, in the federally owned park that once boasted an Army hospital and a 13-acre parking lot.

"This is very public, and it's deliberate on our part," said Micheline Chau, the president of Lucasfilm, eating lunch in the company commissary, with its panoramic view of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and the TransAmerica building downtown. "We spent a lot of years hidden away, and I'm not sure if it was good for the company as a whole. The world has changed. To be the epicenter of the digital revolution, we have to be out here, evangelizing the cause."

July 20, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

CNN has caught on to the latest in a long line of culture jamming tactics. This one is called shopdropping, a term that refers the act of covertly placing merchandise on display in a store, or reverse shoplifting. For example, shopdroppers place canned goods that have been repackaged with more artistic labels (complete with barcodes) on a grocer's shelf for purchase.

While the name is new, the concept has been in practice by activist "guerilla art" groups for some time. Since 1989, the Barbie Liberation Organization has been tackling what it sees as sexism among children's toys; the group swapped the voice hardware of Barbies with those in GI Joe dolls and replaced the products on store shelves. Shoppers expecting to push a button on Barbie's back and be greeted with the doll's familiar bubbly voice instead heard a masculine voice bellowing, "Vengeance is mine!" while unsuspecting G.I. Joe owners were greeted with a chirpy feminine voice proclaiming, "I love shopping!"

July 20, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Adweek: Shari Kurzrok, a 31-year-old public relations vice president at Ogilvy PR who is less than three months from her wedding date, needs a liver transplant in days to survive, the agency said.

She was admitted to New York University Medical Center last weekend, and within 24 hours she was told she needed a liver transplant to save her life.

"I just pray that what Shari has loved to do for a living comes back to help her," said her fiancé, Robby Schnall, 35, a marketing executive at Cole Haan, in a statement. Their wedding is planned for Oct. 15 at Woodbury Jewish Center on Long Island.

"Shari is a phenomenal friend and colleague, and it is hard to imagine that someone who only recently led the largest-ever blood donor initiative for the American Red Cross with such energy and enthusiasm is now in vital need of a liver donation," said Kym White, managing director of Ogilvy PR Worldwide.

Potential donors must be Type A or Type O blood.

Anyone wanting to help Kurzrok with a liver transplant referral should call 877-223-3386 or e-mail liverforalife@yahoo.com.

July 20, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 5 Comments

Context is crucial. When I take the following text from a Business Week article, for instance, it sounds as if marketers want to save money by having customers make their ads. Since, that's insanity, it must be something else. I must be taking it out of context.

In a time when consumers can scrub advertising from their laptops and distribute ad-free amateur radio shows online, marketers are giving away some control over their ads. Their hope is that the public will accept them as entertainment rather than advertising. The most successful have found it a way to spark buzz and get creative ads on the cheap.

The BW piece fails to make this point. Customer involved marketing is positive, but it's not a replacement for anything, it's one more tactic—a hot one—to be employed by marketers and their agencies.

July 21, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Here's what I like to see. Three recording/performing artists engaging their audience via web log. Peter Case, Tony Furtado and Kevin Gordon are hyper talented singer-songwriters who are used to doing things for themselves, like carrying amps out to the truck, that sort of thing. So it's a natural that they would take on chores a big label might provide, or a good publicist. Anyway, wouldn't you rather hear from the artist directly? Naturally.

Kevin Gordon and Lucinda Williams

KG's blog
TF's blog
PC's blog

July 21, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to Lewis Lazare, Draft/Chicago has developed a "Breakfast in the Bullpen" promotion for the Kellogg Co. and Jewel-Osco stores.

For nine designated games through Sept. 25, Kellogg is providing Jewel shoppers with a chance to win a special day at Wrigley Field that, among other things, includes four Chicago Cubs game tickets, breakfast with a Cubs player in the bullpen and winners' names on the center field scoreboard.

The promotion is being advertised via in-store posters and circulars featuring Tony the Tiger in a Cubs cap.

July 21, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

From Ad Age:

WellPoint, the nation's largest health insurer, has awarded its advertising account to Publicis Groupe's Publicis & Hal Riney, San Francisco, two executives familiar with the review said.

Hal Riney won the pitch against three WPP Group agencies, each of which fielded an integrated "best of class" team from across network offices. Y&R Cos. and Grey Worldwide, both San Francisco, and Ogilvy & Mather, Culver City, Calif., headed up their respective teams' efforts.

So how much money did WPP waste putting 3 of its divsions into a competition against each other, only to see all 3 lose? How many other companies in the world do this sort of thing?

You'll keep seeing more inefficiency like this, as I've written about before. The holding company model, partly designed to increase shareholder value, doesn't seem to be working so well right now.

July 21, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

New York Times: On hundreds of New York City subway cars, advertisements for Mitchum, a line of deodorants, are carrying playful messages that presumably evoke the can-do virility of the men in their 20's and 30's at whom the product is aimed.

One problem is that some of the messages directly contradict the policies of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

An authority spokesman, Tom Kelly, said yesterday that the ads were an error of judgment. He said the authority did not usually review ads before they went up, a task that has been contracted out to Viacom Outdoor.

"We were not aware of the wording of the advertising, because Viacom, the agent that sells it, did not call it to our attention," Mr. Kelly said. "We've spoken to them about it and it will not happen again."

Mitzie Y. Wilson, a financial consultant who rides the subway from Brooklyn, said she did not approve of the antics described in the ads. "If I saw the Mitchum Man, I would change trains," she said.

July 21, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Smoking Gun: Former Black Panther associates of Huey P. Newton, the late co-founder of the militant organization, are seeking to trademark the phrase "Burn Baby Burn" so they can slap the words--long associated with conflagrations that left cities like Watts and Newark in cinders--on hot sauce.

According to pending filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the Huey P. Newton Foundation also wants to trademark the phrase "Revolutionary Hot Sauce."

The Oakland-based group, which is run by Newton's widow Fredrika and ex-Panther David Hilliard, submitted the trademark applications late last year and, according to USPTO records, appears close to securing government approval of its requests.

July 21, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Fresh Inc., the Inc.com weblog, made a post today wherein they claim to be regular readers of AdPulp. We're flattered. Thanks Inc.

July 21, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Brandweek: IndyCar racer Danica Patrick has inked a multiyear deal to be spokeswoman for Old World Industries' antifreeze and windshield cleaning products.

The racer, one of two female IndyCar drivers and rookie of the year in 2005, will be touting PEAK Antifreeze and Mr. Clean windshield wash and wiper blades in advertising, promotions, events and in-store merchandising.

Patrick also promotes Argent Mortgage and Pioneer Electronics.

July 22, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

AP: Reebok International Ltd. said Thursday its second-quarter profit soared 71 percent on strong sales driven by the athletic shoe and apparel maker's high-performance model shoes and "I am what I am" marketing campaign.

Paul Fireman, Reebok's chairman and chief executive, said the "I am what I am" marketing campaign the company introduced in February is a success. The campaign features pitches from celebrity entertainers and athletes in an effort to draw younger buyers who regard sneakers as high fashion.

Fireman said the campaign "is beginning to positively impact our target consumers' intent to purchase."

One of the ads featuring the rapper 50 Cent was pulled in March amid complaints that it glorified gun violence.

This week, Reebok announced it had signed a long-term deal with three-time Grammy Award winning hip-hop artist Nelly, which includes a signature collection of athletic footwear, apparel and accessories. Nelly also will be featured in the "I am what I am" campaign, which also includes pro athletes Allen Iverson and Curt Schilling.

July 22, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Ad Age: Bread marketers are launching a variety of new whole-grain white breads in an effort to cater to the latest health trend while also catering to the tastes of the vast majority of consumers who don't like the taste of whole-grain bread.

Interstate Bakeries is launching a whole-grain version of its classic Wonder Bread dubbed "White Bread Fans 100% Whole Grain." The variety launches this month in six U.S. markets and is expected to be available nationally by early 2006.

Interstate Bakeries determined in research that eight out of 10 white-bread consumers were interested in whole-grain breads with the taste of white bread.

July 22, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Yahoo: Pigs tattooed with the logo of French luxury brand Louis Vuitton rest in a farm in the rural area of China's capital Beijing July 14, 2005. The pigs are owned by Belgian artist Wim Delvoye, who has a staff of local farmers and tattoo artists raising sows to use them as canvases for skin art.

According to Time, Delvoye's controversial art seems perfectly aligned with Europe's current indigestion over what it ingests. He was born in rural Flanders where there are more pigs than people, and he says he has always felt a pull to the "agrarian tradition" in Flemish art.

Thanks to A Socialite's Life for the pointer.

July 22, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

An ad can never say it all. Of course, clients often want to break this cardinal rule, because they have so many important (to them only) things to say.

Thanks to Flickr user, Fachtopia for the image.

July 22, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Boston Globe: It was any banker's worst nightmare. Shortly after Wachovia Corp. sent an e-mail inviting recipients to go to a new log-in page as a result of its merger with First Union Corp., some savvy customers swamped Wachovia's call center to inform officials that criminals apparently were attempting to steal the financial information of Wachovia's customers through a bogus hyperlink.

One problem: The e-mail was authentic.

According to a report by Javelin Strategy & Research, 55 percent of people who receive an e-mail with their bank's name and e-mail address that asks them to log in to their account will delete the e-mail without taking any action. The magnified awareness of phishing has nearly destroyed the trust in a valued avenue of communication between banks and customers that banks took years to build.

Another survey released last month authored by Avivah Litan of Gartner Inc. said that 28 percent of consumers have said that online attacks influence their online banking activity. The report said that 14 percent of that group have stopped paying bills online as a result and that 4 percent have stopped online banking altogether.

July 23, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Rohit Bhargava, of Ogilvy PR has some great things to say about the power of randomness.

What makes random such a powerful marketing tool?  Is it the promise of surprise?  Or the fact that it stands out from more traditional and predictable marketing messages?  Consumer attention is precious and most theories today focus on how attention can be driven by credibility, trust or brand authenticity.  While I agree with these theories, there is another force that works outside of any of these.  Curiosity.  Randomness drives curiosity, and curiosity drives attention.  Anyone who has worked with children knows this to be true.  Children are inherently curious - and this curiosity drives their attention.

Randomizing an experience can offer an unorganized, unsystematic means to the same end: driving curiosity and building a brief yet powerful emotional investment in what happens next.  For marketers, random can really be the new order. 

Bhargava points to Justcurio.us as an example where randomness mixed with anonymity produces a desirable effect.

July 24, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

New York Times: Putt-Putt is not a generic name for miniature golf. It is the brand name of a company that builds and franchises a particular style of miniature golf course designed specifically to make competitive putting possible. For something that sounds as if it was named by a child, Putt-Putt has a surprisingly grown-up creation story. The first Putt-Putt course was designed in 1954 by Don Clayton, a 28-year-old insurance salesman trying to stave off a nervous breakdown. Clayton was otherwise successful and healthy, but one day he went to a doctor in his hometown, Fayetteville, N.C., complaining of a strange symptom: sometimes while driving in his car, he found himself crying. The doctor ordered a monthlong vacation. Clayton decided to relax by playing miniature golf, which turned out to be a bad idea, since there are few things more challenging to sanity than missing short putts, especially when the cause is poor design or an errant windmill.

To keep his wits intact, Clayton sat down at his dining-room table and drew up on 3-by-5 cards a set of holes that were tough but fair. His version of the game would feature holes bordered by standard rails, smooth, feltlike carpets and obstacles that would punish only poorly struck putts. Clayton had intended to call his version of the game Shady Vale Golf, but while filling in forms at the bank he realized that he was not sure how to spell ''Vale,'' so he called it Putt-Putt instead. The Putt-Putt design made the game more like billiards in the consistent nature of the surface and the central role of the bank shot.

Before long, Clayton had created an entertainment empire based on the concept that it should be possible to ace every hole, but only with a perfectly conceived and struck putt. By keeping windmills and fiberglass jungle animals off the fairways, Clayton all but removed luck from his version of miniature golf, and his spare, tranquil courses, sold as franchises but built according to his strict rules of design, became the Zen gardens of the early American highway system. The Putt-Putt chain still stretches around the planet from North Carolina to Australia, by way of Cape Town, Beirut and Seoul.

July 24, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 3 Comments

Has Catherine Zeta-Jones been lying to me this whole time?

From Ad Age:

New York's Department of Consumer Affairs is suing three wireless phone marketers for violating the city's consumer protection law.

Acting Commissioner Jonathan Mintz, in a suit filed in New York Supreme Court, charged Nextel Communications, Sprint Spectrum and T-Mobile USA, with deceptive advertising and is seeking maximum fines as well as compliance with the city's consumer protection laws.

In a statement, Mr. Mintz said, "You can't promise a great deal in the headline [of an ad] and hide the true costs in the fine print."

You can't? Someone needs to alert the phone companies. And the cable companies. And the banks. And the car dealers. And the brokerage firms. And the insurance companies.

There will be a mass layoff of proofreaders and legalese experts if this honesty thing ever catches on.

July 25, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

New York Times: With its long reliance on talk formats and call-in programs, radio was arguably the first open-source media form. Now a new Public Radio International program, "Open Source from P.R.I.," will test whether the collective intelligence permeating the Web can make not just loud radio, but smart radio. Not only does the program pull from unfiltered voices and opinions found on blogs, Open Source uses its own blog to cull ideas and sources from its listeners.

Listeners are invited to make suggestions on Open Source's blog, where they are openly posted along with ideas from the program's five producers. When the comment flow starts and suggestions are made - including recommendations for guests - the audience can watch the program come together, sometimes over the course of a week, other times in an afternoon.

Christopher Lydon, the program's host, who created it with its executive producer, Mary McGrath, said, "We are trying to push talk radio to a new range with the kind of Internet extensions in both getting the signal out and harvesting the energy and insight that comes on the Web."

John Barth, station collaboration manager at PRX, a platform for the exchange of public radio programs, said one attraction of the blog is its openness about the program's creation. It offers a ringside seat as the staff sorts through what works and what doesn't.

"I think they're taking a really bold step," Mr. Barth said. Because of the program's interactive component, its benchmark of success might be less the number of stations that ultimately carry the program and more the online presence Open Source establishes.

July 25, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Englishman, Piers Fawkes, visited London recently and came away unimpressed by the staidness evident in British ad circles.

There are a few folk in the UK who are very switched on, I grant you, but a lot of agency people I met in my short visit were rather bemused by PSFK and IF. Although blogs are championed by the Guardian newspaper - an important media read - the British marketing community seems to be dismissive of the new tools to develop dialog between brands and consumers.

The contrast with New York, where I am based, is vast. Agencies in New York get it - they may not be making the best attempts but they're trying hard. It's best to crash and burn than not not try at all, no? The buzz around new media tools is exemplified by the social networking going on here. Meanwhile in London, there seems to be an air of "well, we make the most creative advertising in the world, why should we listen to what's going on anywhere else." Everyone in Soho seems to be still in the pub talking about the next commercials director.

Hugh MacLeod agrees with Piers. He sees it this way:

The British advertising scene sees itself more as an extension of the Film-TV-Entertainment industry, than they see themselves an extensions of their clients' business.

Big. Mistake.

July 25, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

We reported in March on GoDaddy's decision to bring their account in-house, despite an avalanche of P.R. resulting from their big breasted Super Bowl ad.

I finally saw one of the direct TV spots, produced in-house, over the weekend while watching the Tour de France on OLN. The spot, which features a screaming DJ, is horrid. Good thing GoDaddy has some of the best pricing in the domain name registration game.

July 25, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Hipster - One who possesses tastes, social attitudes, and opinions deemed cool by the cool. (Note: it is no longer recommended that one use the term "cool"; a Hipster would instead say "deck.") The Hipster walks among the masses in daily life but is not a part of them and shuns or reduces to kitsch anything held dear by the mainstream.

Orlando Sentinel: For many twenty-, thirty- and fortysomethings, the appeal of being cool and edgy is rapidly deteriorating. "The last identity you would want to claim now is a hipster," says John Leland, author of Hip: The History. "It's the worst of insults."

Just what is hip has become nebulous in a digital age of microtrends, when a cultural blip goes from underground to overexposed in one season. Likewise, the original concept of hip as something outside the purview of the mainstream has been replaced by the hipstream: mainstream cool packaged by corporate marketing departments (my emphasis).

The inevitable backlash -- not against the bohemian veritas but the sycophantic consumer of cool -- is well under way.

Twenty-six-year-old "office slave" and aspiring novelist Brian Bernbaum founded the blog hipstersareannoying.com, under the pseudonym Aimee Plumley.

Bernbaum was inspired by what he viewed as a pose adopted by hipsters to deliberately obfuscate human interaction. "I felt people wouldn't level with you, that they were giving you their résumé of cool. You could never really get anything out of people that seemed like normal social interaction." Conversations at clubs and parties became "a one-upmanship of pop-culture encyclopedias."

July 25, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Cool Hunting reports on the pending opening of another Absolut Ice Bar—this time in London.

Joining the ranks of the world's most absurdly ambitious clubs and lounges, this 1,000 square-foot space will be constructed almost entirely out of ice shipped from the River Torne in northern Sweden. Nearly everything down to the barstools and single-use glasses will be painstakingly carved from the imported ice, said to be the world's purest.

July 26, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to USA Today, some patriotic, dog loving entrepreneurs from Bend, Oregon got their product—protective wear for dogs—into the hands of the Technical Support Working Group, a federal agency funded by the Department of Defense, which works to combat terrorism.

Since then, 60 pairs of 3D Bark'n Boots have been sent to the front lines in Iraq.

Founded 10 years ago, Ruff Wear started out specializing in collapsible water dishes for dogs on long walks. It has grown into an international distributor of dog gear, contracting with national retailers such as L.L. Bean and REI.

July 26, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

MSNBC: Brittany Murphy is the first celebrity Jordache jeans girl. She stars in a series of new ads for the company that became famous during the 1970s’ designer jeans craze.

The ads, shot by Patrick Demarchelier, are a twist on the horse-head logo, with the 27-year-old actress posing bareback on a horse in a field. Jordache said the first ads will run in national publications beginning in September.

Murphy’s screen credits include “8 Mile,” “Just Married” and “Sin City.”

At the photo shoot in upstate New York, Murphy told Jordache executives that it was the first time she had ridden a horse. After spending the day with Cloud, Murphy said she might take riding lessons when she’s done filming her new movie “Love and Other Disasters.”

The Jordache Vintage line is available in upscale stores, while the junior label is sold in Wal-Mart.

July 26, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Rhino Linings, the industry pioneer and worldwide leader in sprayed-on polyurethane linings, continues to redefine "toughness". Rhino Linings thick, durable linings provide superior protection for truck beds, jeeps, boats, trailers and a wide variety of consumer, commercial and industrial applications.

According to Promo Magazine, Rhino Linings is taking that infamous orange Dodge Charger, The General Lee, for a spin as part of a multi-city tour to promote the upcoming release of Warner Bros. Pictures' The Dukes of Hazzard movie.

To further leverage the film, Rhino Linings is running a sweepstakes, which offers fans the chance to win a Rhino Off-Road RTV. Consumers can enter the Rhino Linings Climbing the Hills of Hazzard Sweepstakes online at Rhinolinings.com/contest.

July 26, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

According to this New York Times article, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!, a Unilever brand that has long used traditional advertising, primarily television commercials, to reach its target market of women ages 35 and up is shifting gears and eschewing TV.

The new campaign, created by Byte Interactive in South Norwalk, Conn., is intended to be watched online, with four so-called Webisodes appearing on a dedicated site. The idea is for computer users to share the ads through e-mail messages.

"Classical advertising is not as effective and efficient as it has been in the past," said Javier Martin, who manages the brand at Unilever United States in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., "so we're looking for more innovative ways to reach our consumers."

July 26, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Manolo, the shoe blogger is now Manolo the shoe blogger with a column in the Express, the Washington Post's free daily.

Thanks to PSFK for the pointer.

July 26, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Jon Armstrong of Salt Lake City recently went on a road trip with two of old buddies. Here's a photo he's sharing on Flickr from the trip. He titled the photo, "Sacrament," proving that irreverence, alcohol consumption, and brand loyalty are all alive in well in Utah.

July 27, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

USA Today: In the latest marketing twist to burnish a venerable Detroit brand, every customer who buys a four-wheeled Cadillac car or light truck at Kay Blacklock's Toronto-area dealership receives a free Caddy two-wheeler worth about $615.

Through a special licensing agreement with GM, bicycle giant Kent International has created a Cadillac Bicycles unit and is producing a line of mid- to high-end bikes carrying the vaunted Cadillac brand name and logo.

The decision to lend the Cadillac name and its aura of premium luxury to a line of two-wheelers was based in large part on a desire to reach a younger, hipper buyer.

"The more unexpected brand contacts we can have, the more surprising it is for the consumer and the more chances we have to break through preconceptions of what they think they know about Cadillac now," says Doug Schumacker, Cadillac's accessories manager.

The bikes range in price from $500 to $1,900.

Dealers will be able to toss in a bike to help close a sale, or give them away as gestures of appreciation to customers or to sales personnel who meet or beat sales targets, Schumacker says.

July 27, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

I just have a hard time believing this article, but here 'tis, from the Times in Britain:

Drinks companies have been ordered to hire paunchy, balding men for advertisements to meet new rules forbidding any link between women’s drinking and sex. Watchdogs have issued a list of undesirable male characteristics that advertisers must abide by in order to comply with tougher rules designed to separate alcohol from sexual success.

Lambrini, the popular sparkling drink, is the first to suffer. Its manufacturers have complained after watchdogs rejected its latest campaign because it depicted women flirting with a man who was deemed too attractive.

The offending poster featured three women “hooking” a slim, young man in a parody of a fairground game scene. Harmless fun to lead its summer campaign, Lambrini argued.

But the Committee of Advertising Practice declared: “We would advise that the man in the picture should be unattractive — overweight, middle-aged, balding etc.”

Maybe I don't believe it because America is the land of opportunity, where any fat guy, with the right personality or lots of money, can land a hot chick. You know, like on "The King of Queens."

There's a committee that determines this kind of stuff over there? Johnnie Moore, if you're reading this, maybe you could clarify this for us ignorant Americans.

July 27, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

Adfreak's Gregory Solman posted yesterday about Diet Coke's "seductive roller girl," actress Nicole Vicius. It's easy to understand why the public has an interest in this woman. She's the star of a really well done commercial!

The spot makes generous use of Paul Oakenfold's "Starry Eye Suprise" and is choreographed like a Dr. Pepper commercial from the 1970s.

Oh my, starry eyed surprise
Sundown to sunrise
Dance all night
We gonna dance all night
Dance all night to this DJ

The song is a collaboration between world-renowned DJ and producer Paul Oakenfold, and vocalist Shifty, a.k.a. Shifty Shellshock, a.k.a. Seth Brooks Binzer, a.k.a. the guy from Crazy Town.

July 27, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Herzogenaurach, a 1000-yeal old village in northern Germany is home to not one, but two big time athletic brands—Adidas and Puma.

A recent article in Sports Business Journal (subscribers only), profiled Puma's CEO, Jochen Zeitz and his affinity for blending fashion with sports.

Douglas Holt, L'Oreal Chair of Marketing at the University of Oxford said, "He reinvented Puma to live at this intersection, as the most stylish sports brand, or perhaps the most sporty fashion brand."

The article also recounts the history of Adidas and Puma. From 1924 until 1948, Rudy and Adolph Dassler sold sports shoes under the Dassler Bros. brand, drawing admiration of Olympians like Jesse Owens. Rudy split from his brother in 1948, forming Puma and making a town divided from what was once a company town.

July 27, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

Regarding the removal of sexual innuendo from BK's new micro site, Ad Age provides the quote of the day:

“Nothing on the site has changed because of any reaction to the site,” said Edna Johnson, senior vice president for global communications for Burger King Corp., which is owned by private equity firm Texas Pacific Group. Mrs. Johnson said photo cutlines were written and then assigned randomly by computer software that as since been disabled. She said malfunctions in the Flash and XML programming were responsible for putting the "Groupies love the Coq" on the photos of the young women.

That's right: It's the computer's fault!

July 27, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Mammatus Clouds over Hastings, Nebraska by Jorn Olsen

What do rare and beautiful cloud formations have to do with advertising?

TBS thinks the clouds are funny, that's what they have to do with advertising. The "Very Funny" cable channel posted about it on their new flog.

Funny + Blog = Flog.

July 28, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

If you tell people you work in advertising, have you ever heard someone say, "I've got a great commercial idea for Coke. What do you do, just call them up or send in your idea?"

And then they don't understand why you can't really do that. Here's why, courtesy of The New York Times:

A California small businessman contends in a lawsuit that American Express stole his idea for the tagline of the company's "My life. My card." advertising campaign, which features celebrities including Robert De Niro, Ellen DeGeneres and Tiger Woods.

Lawyers for the businessman, Stephen G. Goetz, a credit card marketer in San Francisco, said yesterday that they planned to subpoena evidence from Ogilvy & Mather, the advertising agency for American Express.

At issue is whether American Express independently conceived the idea for the campaign that began in November, or took it from Mr. Goetz, who claims he used it in a sales pitch to the financial services company in July.

Good lord. Ogilvy is attracting lots of legal attention these days. But in an age where ideas and information are becoming very tangible and valuable assets (as opposed to manufactured goods or physical stuff), are we going to see more suits like this? Plus, if consumers are starting to make their own ads, as we've seen lately, are they going to want some payment in return?

July 28, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

New York Times: Western boots worn out of season represent "a really strong trend, one that still is gaining momentum," said Michael Atmore, the editorial director of Footwear News, a trade weekly. And to judge by the number of boot makers who have added Western models to their lineups, Mr. Atmore said, "a lot of companies are banking on the look for spring, summer and fall."

It is something of a paradox that the Western boot, a classic emblem of Americana, derived much of its latest currency from the streets of London, where style-setting neo-bohemians like Kate Moss and Sienna Miller were snapped earlier this year wearing boots with flounced tunics or peasant skirts. Stateside, early adopters, flaunting boots as counterweight to the summer's wispy skirts, led to a spike in sales.

The clamor for summer boots prompted the Frye Company to raid its archives and reissue discontinued looks like the Daisy Duke, its onetime signature Western style. The company, which is privately owned, does not release sales figures but forecast that its boot business would more than double this year. Jim McCormick, the president of the company, said that a substantial portion of that growth "is reliant on brisk sales of boots in the traditionally slow months from February through August."

July 28, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

PR Newswire: Target turned the runway upside down during an electrifying Vertical Fall Fashion Show in the city that shares its love of style: New York. This event took place at Rockefeller Center, Wednesday, July 27, 2005 which featured a troupe of world-class athletes who leapt off the roof of a 9-story tower on the Plaza, then strutted down the building's side modeling the Target Fall 2005 women's and men's collections by Isaac Mizrahi, Mossimo, Liz Lange, Xhilaration, Merona, among others.

Relying on high-tech rappelling rope and form-fitting body harnesses, the fashion models/athletes descended down the building and incorporated a mix of acrobatics and dance, while they maintained their best high-fashion steely gaze. Upon landing at street level, the athletes were joined by more than 60 female and male models that walked the runway on the Plaza, keeping their feet firmly on the ground.

"We want to inspire our guests with our fall collection and want them to have fun with fashion," said John Remington, vice president of communications, Target. "Doing a runway show down the side of one of New York's most iconic buildings was a great way to do just that."

July 28, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

USA Today: Text messaging on cell phones is finally taking off in the USA. It has been around for years and is a huge part of life in Japan and South Korea. But in the U.S. market, text messaging had caught on only among teens and American Idol fans voting for their favorites — until the past year or so.

Now this seemingly bare-bones medium — a message limited to 160 text characters transmitted to a cell phone screen for a few cents — is a raging phenomenon.

"It's clearly exploding," says Sky Dayton, co-founder of Earthlink and who is now running a U.S. joint venture, SK Earthlink, with South Korea's biggest cellular operator. "It's an example of how a medium evolves into something you never expected it to. Who knows where it will go from here."

About 5 billion text messages are sent a month in the USA, up from 2.8 billion a year ago, according to the wireless trade association CTIA. But the real story is in the inventive ways this medium is being used and penetrating everyday life.

HRU — how are you? WU — what's up? WRUD — what are you doing? IMTNG — I'm in a meeting MSULkeCrZ — miss you like crazy LtsGt2gther — let's get together WIIFM — what's in it for me? DNR — dinner SLAP — sounds like a plan G2G — got to go B4N - bye for now OO — over and out

"We're starting to see major brands utilize text messaging," says Alex Campbell, CEO of Vibes Media, which has helped McDonald's, Budweiser and the Chicago White Sox with text-messaging campaigns. "That's new."

Vibes Media helped Anheuser-Busch run a promotion using text-to-screens in bars. Patrons could send a message to the bar's video system or to a special screen Vibes set up. Software filters block inappropriate text. Within minutes, Vibes CEO Campbell says, "it usually turns into a lot of flirting."

Look for the technology to come to sporting events. At some Los Angeles Angels baseball games this year, fans could send text to the scoreboard between innings. At U2 concerts this summer, fans text their names to show up on a giant screen behind the band — and register to be part of lead singer Bono's poverty-fighting ONE Campaign.

July 28, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Firefox impresario and Stanford student, Blake Ross, was pleased to see this screen grab from one of TV's most popular game shows.

July 28, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Allison at Qtags wrote to me recently asking me to check out her new service for advertisers. Not being all that text savvy, I didn't get it at first. Now, I do.

Her July 21st post helps explains the concept.

The goal of qtags is to help an advertiser's customers more easily remember them, and to more easily find them online.

Here is how the qtags 'text to web' service works --

1) Advertiser chooses a keyword & displays it on any media (print, radio, billboards, in-space, on-pack, on apparel, at events..).

2) Interested viewer / listener / reader texts the keyword to 78247

3) Texter gets a 160 charact txt message from advertiser & a web-link is placed in the texter's inbox. The web-link takes the texter directly to the appropriate page on-line, and can be updated by the advertiser anytime, real-time.

July 29, 2005 by Shawn Hartley | Permalink | 0 Comments

With the accounting issues that have plagued Interpublic Group and the loss of media-buying duties for General Motors still fresh in the rearview mirror, word out of the West Coast is that Bank of America, is spreading the RFP around. Notably to Omnicom and WPP. The is could be a disasterous loss for the troubled holding company, which has BA work spread through a dozen or so shops in the IPG network.

In 2004, Bank of America spent more than $261 million on measured media, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

According to its 10-K filing, Bank of America in 2004 spent $1.35 billion on overall marketing, up 37% from $985 million in 2003, due to "increased advertising for card programs and increased advertising costs in the Northeast," where it acquired FleetBoston Financial Corp. in April 2004.

Ad Age has the full story.

July 29, 2005 by Shawn Hartley | Permalink | 2 Comments

Hawaii is on the verge of implementing a cap on gasoline prices effective September 1st, meanwhile big oil is asking for a delay. The economics of the situation are rather interest, opponents of the price cap are arguing that a mandated cap will actually result in shortages as filling stations will opt to stop selling gas in lieu of a money losing situation and thus forcing higher prices on 'black market' for gasoline.

I commute by bike a couple days a week, and have for years, but primarily from an environment sensitivity. With gas prices, I've added an extra day here and there, but more out of convenience. Riding my bike into work today, I saw two cars with more than one occupant and got to thinking. Since the $2.00+/gallon prices are hitting everyone anyway, at what price point will you, or did you, seek alternative transportation?

For me, $3/gallon would probably get me riding as much as possible (in my neck of the woods we are around 2.20 right now). How about the rest of you?

July 29, 2005 by Shawn Hartley | Permalink | 0 Comments

Pardon our dust.

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