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

Todd at A Penny For is sick of all the blog hype. I too, am growing tired of the generalizations, overstatements and inner circle elitism. Speaking of cliques, check out this cartoon from Hugh MacLeod.

Here's the comment I left at his site.

It's all downhill after you do (jump the shark). Right?

Regarding the C-listers comment, is it not funny that a technology that purports to free us from such hierarchies, does not?

We're humans, regardless of which tools we employ. And humans want order/structure, just like wolves.

So, when I see Steve Rubel make a post about how Scoble and Dave Winer are coming to NYC for tomorrow's Geek Dinner, I'm at a loss. This is worthy of a post? It's only news if you're deep inside that clique.

I generally enjoy Rubel's blog, and he certainly has every right to post whatever he wants. Winer and Scoble add star power to the event in question, and for people coming to the Geek Dinner, or considering, that star power is important. What I'm saying is screw blogging stars. I know nothing can be done about it. It's human nature to want stars, and want to be a star. Maybe I'm in a mood, but the whole idea rubs me the wrong way.

May 2, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to Advertising Age magazine’s 61st annual Agency Report, revenue from U.S.-based traditional and marketing-services agencies rose to $17.59 billion in the U.S. for a solid 8.6% growth, compared to a 1.7% decline in 2001, and 3.1% and 3.7% upticks in 2002 and 2003, respectively.

Strong gains in both advertising and marketing services could reflect what agency executives are identifying as a marketing mixture in which marketing services is moving from below-the-line to around the table.

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

from San Francisco Chronicle: MindManager, a program for organizing and presenting ideas offers an alternative to Microsoft's ubiquitous PowerPoint. MindManager is based on the theories of mind mapping, a graphics-heavy philosophy of organizing and presenting ideas using circles and lines. The technique was developed by author Tony Buzan in the late 1960s.

With MindManager, a user can present ideas on a computer the way one lays out ideas on a whiteboard using diagrams and words.

Users create circles or boxes, type ideas in them and link them with lines and arrows. Users can include Web site links and other files like videos, photos, a Microsoft Word or Excel document, or a database.

Executives and analysts who have tried it say MindManager offers a more dynamic way to make presentations than PowerPoint, in which a user lays out ideas in a series of slides.

"You see PowerPoint presentations that go on and on," said Claire Schooley, a senior industry analyst with Forrester Research. "It's very linear. ... With MindManager, you can go in many directions."

Stephen Wehrenberg, director of Future Force, a Coast Guard program for improving the agency, has used MindManager for years and says the visual approach is more conducive to discussing plans and projects.

"You can see more complexity," he said. "It's more conducive to telling a story with its complexities and feedbacks and delays and so on than a linear method of transmitting information."

May 2, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

from Palm Beach Post: Seven men of Middle Eastern descent have sued a South Florida Denny's restaurant franchisee and one of its managers for $28 million, saying they were kicked out because of their ancestry and compared to Osama Bin Laden.

The men, who are all U.S. citizens, are seeking $4 million each from Restaurant Collection Inc., which owns the Denny's franchise, and shift manager Eduardo Ascano, whom they say compared them to the Al-Qaida terrorist leader.

Denny's restaurants have long been the targets of discrimination lawsuits across the country.

The 1,600-restaurant chain, which has annual sales that exceed $2 billion, settled a 1994 lawsuit for $54.4 million that accused the chain of asking blacks to prepay for meals. Since then, it has faced at least six more discrimination lawsuits filed by African-Americans and Hispanics and has been investigated in at least two cases involving discrimination against people of Middle Eastern descent.

Debbie Atkins, a spokeswoman at Denny's Spartanburg, S.C., headquarters said Thursday that the company stands by the independent investigation that cleared Restaurant Collection, but reiterated "we have zero tolerance for discrimination." She said the company has instituted several diversity and anti-discrimination programs in recent years.

"We are a very different company" compared to a decade ago when it was facing the earlier discrimination charges, Atkins said.

May 2, 2005 by Shawn Hartley | Permalink | 0 Comments

Wired brings more info to the table about Project Apollo

Marketers are testing new techniques to measure whether advertisers' messages are getting across, and they are prepared to spend vast sums and deploy astonishingly complex technologies to do so.

To measure the impact of ad campaigns, VNU, the parent company of television-audience measurement firm Nielsen Media Research, and Arbitron, the media research firm, are developing an experimental program called Project Apollo that takes the concept of viewer tracking to a level of unprecedented detail.

The project, which the companies hope to roll out on a trial basis next year, will require participants to carry a pager-sized device that records all advertising messages to which its wearer is exposed. Participants will also record everything they buy, so that advertisers can figure out exactly which messages made an impact.

Read the whole story at Wired.com

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

Archie McPhee, Outfitters of Popular Culture.® Since 1980. present Bacon Strips Adhesive Bandages.

These bandages really don't need any copy support, but Archie McPhee provides some anyway.

And if a fancy bandage isn't enough to dry up your tears, how about a FREE TOY! Each comes in a 3-3/4" tall metal pocket tin and contains a small plastic trinket to help make even the ouchiest owies feel all better in no time.

Thanks to Cheesedip and Hustler of Culture for the pointers.

May 2, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

According to Adweek, Mad Dogs & Englishmen in New York City is facing an uncertain future following a major reduction in spending by Atkins Nutritionals, one of its major clients.

While I hope they stay in business, there's a lesson here:

When I was in school 10 years ago, Mad Dogs was THE hot shop everyone wanted to work for. Their work for The Village Voice and Thom McAn was refreshingly funny at the time, and Nick Cohen, the agency's founder, was thought to be a savior of the ad business. People I know went to intern (read: produce ads for them) there for free.

It's a phenomenon I've written about before. Somewhere along the line, they Jumped The Shark. For some reason, ad agencies have a tendency to do that.

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

from USA Today: Toyota started its Scion division from scratch to aim straight at the teens and twentysomethings of Generation Y, roughly those born after 1977.

To attract Gen Y's attention, Scion created a traveling art show featuring works by artists with names such as Buff Monster and Stay High 149. Gordon Wangers of Automotive Marketing Consultants, which did some of the outreach for Scion, says his "tattooed, pierced and dreadlocked crew" held test-drive events in front of popular restaurants, clubs and record stores.

Like other automakers, Scion has embraced music as a way of getting through. In Scion's case, that meant creating an alternative record label for such bands as the Dakah Hip Hop Orchestra.

It also takes part in Hot Import Nights, a festival of cars and music that has proved to be a showcase for several automakers.

Toyota's tactics seems to be working. When Gen Y consumers are asked to name the brands they will consider for their next new car purchase, Scion rocketed from 30th place last year to ninth place today, says Rick Wainschel of Kelley Blue Book.

May 3, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 6 Comments

I drive a 1995 Mitsubishi Montero with 140,000 miles on it. I love it, but at the rate the automaker is going, I won't be able to buy one to replace it.

Adweek reports on the departure of two more marketing executives from Mitsubishi, the latest in a long string of 'em.

Mitusbishi's sales declined 39% in the first quarter this year. Only Isuzu (remember them??) had a larger decline at 45%.

Mitsubishi's ad account is now at BBDO New York, having left Deutsch/LA last December. I'd say David Lubars & Co. have their hands full on this one--provided there's anything left to advertise.

Interestingly, Isuzu pulled their advertising account away from Goodby and moved it to a retail ad shop named Malone Advertising in Akron, Ohio. I suppose it was a move to get away from flashy brand advertising in an attempt to drive sales, but the only thing Malone's driven are nails into Isuzu's coffin.

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

from Adweek: Luckie & Co. is launching a new television campaign for Express Oil Change and Service Centers next week that will introduce Otis, an opossum, as the company's spokescharacter, the shop said.

Not Otis

"In a category where we are outnumbered and outspent, our goal was to find a way to break through the clutter and the obvious choice was with an opossum," said Brad White, the independent Birmingham, Ala., shop's executive creative director. "An opossum spends more time on the road than most people."

Express Oil Change and Service Centers of Birmingham, Ala., operates 149 locations in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida.

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

Ego is the biggest reason that corporate blogging may be an oxymoron. Working for the man often means subsuming your ego to that of the organization, and blogging makes that difficult. It's one reason that there have been high profile firings of corporate bloggers at places like Google. It's hard to have two voices (the writer's and the shareholders') competing and often conflicting." -Seth Godin

While the exploration of ego and the blog is happening over at Seth's place, Robert Patterson is examining the recent case of Los Alamos National Labratory employees outing their dictatorial chief executive via a blog.

Much of the issue about blogging and the corporation will revolve around the culture. No one will be able to control blogging now. The issue for leaders is will they behave in a way that is socially acceptable. The same is true for marketing. The issue will be how good is your product or your service. Blogging will expose lies in marketing as it will expose an authoritarian culture. -Robert Patterson

These two explorations make for an interesting juxtaposition. No?

May 4, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 9 Comments

All sorts of interesting characters are writing books these days. As previously reported here, Dr. Angus has a diet book out. Now soap stars are getting in on the act.

from New York Times: A little more than a year ago, Marcie Walsh decided to write a mystery novel. It was a big step, considering that she was a college student and part-time receptionist. Also, she had picked up a rare disease after being thrown into a Dumpster (long story) and given it to her boyfriend, who died. But she got over all that and sent her manuscript to an editor at Hyperion named Gretchen Young, who accepted it. Chip Kidd, the sought-after book-jacket designer, did the cover. The book was published this past February and made it onto The New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-seller lists.

Marcie Walsh may not be as celebrated a young author as, say, Jonathan Safran Foer. But on the other hand, she didn't have the advantage of an Ivy League education and the support of critics who see her as a master of experimental fiction. In fact, she doesn't even exist. Her book, ''The Killing Club,'' is quite real. It was written ''with'' Michael Malone, the prize-winning (and nonfictional) author of several mysteries, and there are 150,000 copies in print. Walsh, however, is a character on the ABC soap opera ''One Life to Live,'' which pulls in about 3 million viewers a day; the big author photo on the back cover is of Kathy Brier, the actress who plays Walsh on the show.

If you'd prefer to read a real book by a real author, advertising is full of them (real writers with real books, that is). For instance, former BJK&E copywriter, Bob Drake, has a new book out, Paper Boys: A Novel In Five Part Harmony.

Michael Stodola, an Amazon reviewer says, "My sense of Norman-Rockwellesque-American-Childhood was brutally mugged by Bob Drake's Paper Boys." That's quite an endorsement.

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

Last month Adweek held an online poll where you could rate certain agencies in certain categories.

I can't find an online link to the full report, but I've seen it in print. Here are some of the top category vote getters:

Most Competitive: Crispin Porter & Bogusky
Most Complacent: Grey
Most Overrated: Deutsch
Most Underrated: GSD&M
Most Like a Playground: Crispin
Most Like a Sweatshop: Grey (ironically, Crispin came in second here)
Most Likely to Languish: Young & Rubicam
Most Like to Disappear: Lowe
Best at Consumer Insight: Goodby
Best at Branded Entertainment: Fallon
Best Run Holding Company: Omnicom

In all fairness, the winning margins weren't overwheming, but it's interesting to see how people respond. The quick take from all of the polls: Crispin's great, Grey & Y&R suck, Goodby's still pretty good.

Sounds like high school all over again. The popular kids end up in the yearbook most often.

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

from USA Today: Delta Faucet announced recently that it would spend 60% more on advertising this year than last. Delta's media blitz is designed to alert consumers to nearly a dozen products it will debut next week at the National Kitchen & Bath Association trade show in Las Vegas.

At the show, Delta will try to entertain and entice plumbing and building professionals at a haute couture-style fashion show with strutting models in dresses decorated with patterns of Delta's high-end Brizo faucets. Delta also will advertise Brizo in such magazines as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.

Delta's strategy is twofold. It first must keep up with consumers' demand for more choices as they decide which faucets they want in their homes. But Delta also must fend off its biggest competitor, Moen, whose growth drove strong profits for its parent company, Fortune Brands, last month.

Delta will also target its customers with more spots on such cable channels as HGTV, DIY and the Food Network rather than fewer ads on channels with broader audiences. Delta also is trying to reach potential customers right before they make a purchase by fighting for larger and more attractive displays at home improvement stores.

Delta projects the campaign will reach 90% of the home improvement audience almost 15 times each.

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

The Huckabees corporation is dedicated to bringing value to communities across the country and the world. While our low retail prices are one way that we accomplish this goal, it is our commitment to our shared values as Americans that is the guiding principle we rely on to guarantee success.

Okay, I know I'm a little slow, but I finally watched I Heart Huckabees last night, thanks to our trusty Netflix account. This film reminds me of The Big Lebowski. It's highly stylized and oozing with satire. I love satire. In a world gone mad, there may be no better way to address substantive issues (hence, the rise of Jon Stewart). And this work shies away from no issues. It's all here—environmental crisis, post-modern angst, corporate greed, willful deceit and spiritual impoverishment.

Anchoring the story line is fictitious retail giant, Huckabees. Much of the drama in the film is played out inside the corporate headquarters of this Wal-Mart-like firm. Brad Stand played by Jude Law is the sales exec hell bent on a corner office. His girlfriend Dawn Campbell, played by Naomi Watts, is the Huckabees spokesmodel/cheerleader. Given the setting, I suppose it's fitting that Fox Searchlight helps promote the film with a fake website, complete with fake Huckabees TV Spots. This is good fake, unlike some fake blogs I'll refrain from mentioning.

May 5, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

This article in the New York Times reports that Nike has decided to stop selling its shoes and clothing at Sears. The speculation is that Nike is afraid of having its brand end up at whatever types of low-end stores emerge from the Sears/Kmart merger.

I actually think this is a great move by Nike. They're protecting their brand. Many brands have been hurt by the get-our-stuff-into-big-box-retailers-at-all-costs mentality. Sometimes, exclusivity pays off. (The opposite here is Levi's, which you can buy at Wal-Mart now.)

And as an aside, I think Kmart's troubles are all Rain Man's fault. He had the best tagline of all time:
"Kmart sucks."

May 5, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 5 Comments

from Ad Age: In its latest bid to attract teenage males, Gillette Co.'s Tag body spray is offering them a date with a 33-year-old married woman -- MTV reality star Carmen Electra -- with bidding so far topping out at $17,200 on eBay.

Males ages 15 to 20 are eligible for the date with Ms. Electra, born Tara Leigh Patrick near Cincinnati. Winner of the auction receives an all-expense-paid trip to Los Angeles to have dinner with Carmen Electra at "one of Hollywood's hottest restaurants," according to Gillette -- but nothing more.

Proceeds of the auction benefit the National Prostate Cancer Coalition.

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

At the 4A's management conference in Bermuda, Volvo CEO Anne Belec made a speech in which she announced to the crowd that she was looking for new ideas for her auto brand. And she did it right in front of Ron Berger, the CEO of her current agency Euro RSCG, who introduced her to the crowd before she made her speech. Ad Age has the scoop.

This isn't the first time a car client has pulled a stunt like this. As I wrote about some time back, GM's CJ Fraleigh gave a speech in which notoriously held up a blank check that he promised to give to any shop who presented him with a killer idea.

Fraleigh was inundated with ideas, as I'm sure Belec will be. But agencies looking for a piece of Volvo will be wasting their time. This is an attention-getting trick, not a serious request or account review. And by the way, Fraleigh left his post as GM's Exec VP of Marketing and Advertising not long after he made his speech. Which proves that clients are sometimes as unstable as agencies are.

May 5, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 5 Comments

Another fake blog has reared its hideous head. This time P+G is the culprit. I understand, and can even sympathize with clients wanting to jump on the blog bandwagon. But please, will someone from the agency sector please help these clueless marketers do it right? Wrting tripe is not doing it right.

Posted by "Rose" at sparklebodyspray.com:

I am SO into poetry these days. It was, like, the rap music of the ancients, you know? Of course, not all poetry rhymes...I mean, those Greek guys wrote books of it like the Odyssey by Homer (I love the part about Helen of Troy being soooo beautiful that they started a war over her). They made a movie version last year called Troy starring Brad Pitt (yummy!!). Anyhow, lately I've moved from Greeks to great Americans like Robert Frost. He was such an individualist, you know (not like all of those clones at school…there is another store in the mall besides Abercrombie, people!!) You've heard his most famous poem, I'm sure: "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." SIGH. Will I ever be that good?! I've been writing a poem in my journal all week and scratching lines out. Here's all I've got…promise not to laugh?!?!

I am one girl,
In a big world,
Trying to make my way.
Every day,
I wonder what it will take,
To make you say,
“I see you.”

What do you think? It doesn’t feel finished yet. Suggestions?

Thanks to Modern Marketing for the pointer.

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

from USA Today: Taking a marketing feud between the nation's two largest brewers to new heights, Northwest Airlines has tapped Miller Lite to replace top-selling Bud Light on all of its flights worldwide.

Northwest and Northwest Airlink — offering beverage service on roughly 2,800 of the 3,012 flights they operate worldwide to 247 cities in 23 countries — expects to buy more than 700,000 cans of Miller Lite a year to be served aboard its 659-aircraft fleet.

Northwest made the switch because of passenger demand for "increasingly popular" Miller Lite in Milwaukee and Minneapolis, two of Northwest's biggest markets. With Miller's presence in Milwaukee, "Northwest also wanted to support one of our largest companies in one of our most-important U.S. markets," airline spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch said.

May 6, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 6 Comments

A bunch of fat cat ad execs descended upon the Fairmont Southhampton hotel in Bermuda this week, as part of the 4As management conference. Stuart Elliott of the New York Times was there.

Madison Avenue was warned yesterday that it risked being marginalized by profound changes in technology and demographics that are fundamentally changing the ways products are sold to consumers.

"Get past the notion the advertising process is an assembly line," said Jack Klues, chief executive of the Starcom MediaVest Group in Chicago, part of the Publicis Groupe, which handles media planning and buying for marketers like Procter & Gamble.

"We have to stop arguing about who owns the process," Mr. Klues said. "The consumer is boss, and there is plenty of room for anyone who can get us closer to the boss.

"Our failure to move now, and aggressively, will lead us to be held back," he warned, "perhaps forever."

Sounds like the media guy knows what's up. That's a start.

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

from Chicago Tribune: Steve Dahl thought he could be at the forefront of the so-called podcasting trend, which was virtually unknown a year ago.

Last month he began making his WCKG-FM 105.9 afternoon show available online as a digital audio file, so those with iPods and other portable media devices can download them and listen at leisure around the world.

But this re-purposing of Dahl's show has come to an abrupt halt because of copyright and royalty issues.

Lawyers for station-owner Infinity Broadcasting, a division of Viacom, have determined that the rights agreements covering live streaming of programs do not necessarily cover downloadable versions of those same shows.

As a result, the downloads of Dahl's show that had been available to fans for years also have been halted, though Dahl expects his weekday 2 to 7 p.m. show to be available for live Internet streaming by mid-July.

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

"Dialogues are more productive than monologues. We believe in teamwork, both internally and with clients. That's why we make our clients part of the community during the entire work process. It's an exchange focused on making the client's business grow. We help each other to become better."

My favorite part about subscribing to CA is the bi-monthly article featuring a particularly great agency. Having worked at more than a handful in my career, and harboring dreams of running my own someday, I pick up a piece here and a piece there, storing these scraps of precious information for future use. Sometimes it's about what not to do, other times it's the opposite.

The current CA zeros in on La Comunidad, an agency run by the Mollá brothers, with offices in Miami and Buenos Aires. José and Joaquín Mollá, both writers with careers in full swing at Wieden and BBDO respectively when they decided to disembark, have advertising in the blood. Their father and grandfather both opened and operated successful agencies in Buenos Aires. "We knew we would never be ready, so we just did it," José told CA's Matthew Porter, taking the crazy leap of faith that is the exclusive province of entrepreneurs.

The agency's state secret is actually revealed in its name, la comunidad, "the community." The operation is really more village than office—where everyone's contribution is honored and essential, where the whole is greater than its parts.

Taking a look at the shop's web site, one can view the two offices. Both are housed in houses. The house in Miami has a pool. I can almost hear José now. "I'll take that call out at the pool." Nice work if you can find it, or create it, as the case may be.

May 9, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Nick Denton, publisher of Gawker Media's bevy of blogs, debunks the revolutionary nature of blogs in the New York Times, calling them, "just the latest iteration of Internet media." It's an interesting piece, given that Denton's a leading figure in the "blogs as business" movement. Perhaps, that's his point though—that it's just business, and nothing to get all worked up about. I do agree that blog hype is out of bounds. Yet, I do not agree that it's all just business as usual.

Contradicting the idea that blogs are nothing special, "A blog," he says, "is much better at tearing things down - people, careers, brands - than it is at building them up."

Hugh MacLeod has an insightful write up on the story, wherein he paints Denton as an Old Media guy, whose nanopublishing concept has nothing new to offer.

May 9, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

Our good friends and sponsors at Talent Zoo have relaunched their web site with a new look and feel. Talent Zoo offers services for both jobseekers and employers in the advertising and marketing industries. Plus, there's all sorts of original content (some of which I write), ad industry guest columns, a salary monitor and career advice.

Check it out and let 'em know what you think.

May 9, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 4 Comments

After receiving the dubious award of "Worst Agency Reel" by the readers of Adweek, the folks at Grey decided to put their work up for everyone to see.

The Grey reel is online at worstagencyreel.com

I suppose I have seen worse, but I sure know I've seen better.

May 9, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

from C21 Media: Looking beyond the traditional TV world for inspiration, Fox Television Studios has inked a first-look deal with US ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B) for new programme ideas.

The deal gives FtvS first refusal on any of CP+B's ideas for scripted and unscripted series, and comes as networks, TV producers and advertisers the world over forge closer relationships with branded entertainment and sponsored content.

Award-winning CP+B, based in Miami, is best-known for its Truth anti-smoking campaign, and also works for the likes of BMW, Burger King, Google, Earthlink, Gateway and Virgin Atlantic Airways.

“CP+B is universally recognized for its cutting edge campaigns and highly successful approach to branded content,” explained FtvS president Angela Shapiro-Mathes, adding that the agency's "unique creativity and out-of-the-box thinking will complement our development across all media."

“Our goal is to create franchises and find innovative ways of reaching the audience," she added. "To do that, we’re bringing in the most talented people we can identify from all over the world. The relationship with CP+B underscores our commitment to reach out into varied arenas to effectively execute that strategy."

Thanks to Adrants for the pointer.

May 9, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Weblogs, Inc. CEO, Jason Calacanis, claims he's being stalked by a deranged European cartoonist.

The stalker’s basic claim is that I’m a slave master who is taking over the blogosphere… you see, I’ve got this massive plan to own all 8 million blogs out there and have everyone in the world either come to work for me or get crushed by my might Jedi Powers!

Sending out dozens and dozens of checks a month to bloggers paying them for writing whatever they want is obviously evil…

Stalking is not funny, but this cartoon is (sort of).

The third frame references the now infamous Winer vs. Calacanis RSS bout.

May 9, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

from Rebecca Bolin at Law Meme: A group of undergraduates painted the whole area in front of the main library with a bright Yale blue and white Louis Vuitton® signature print--easily the most pretentious thing I'd seen yet here at Yale. My first thought was that this was trademark dilution in advertising for some unrelated event. I expected this article to be about Vuitton's fiercely policed trademark. But it turns out this was just a tasteless advertisement, guerilla trademark enhancement if you will.

This was a professional advertising operation that didn't even benefit the school in the way other advertising, for example sponsorship in school papers, does. I fear the kind of advertising it may herald. Yale has plenty more spaces to chalk, tons more sidewalk and even brick, and plenty of students to do it. Why not chalk the whole school? When it rains, just go out the next day with your Pepsi® stencil again. Maybe this time you can get the space Coke® got last time.

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

Ad Age editor, Scott Donaton, talks tough in his recent column.

Marketers don’t want partners.

They want ideas. They want results. They want creative solutions to business challenges.

The faster big global agency networks recognize that -- and stop pining for some mystical, transcendent client relationship that bears no resemblance to their current status or worth -- the faster they can define their actual value and compete for a spot on the roster.

Of course, Donaton couldn't be any more correct in his assessment. Yet, there's a didactic tone here that I find distasteful. It's like being scolded by a teacher, who takes pains to carefully explain what's already plainly obvious.

May 10, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Erwin Penland of Greenville, SC created the following print ad for the Greenville Bombers, a class A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.

I wonder if the brass in Beantown got to see the ad before it ran.

May 10, 2005 by Wade Sturdivant | Permalink | 2 Comments

Hello fellow ad creatives. It’s almost June, and you know what that means. Time for Cannes! What’s that you say? You’re not going? Fiddlesticks. You must be one of the poor suckers at the agency who actually has work to do. If so, see if any of the following rings true.

First, for those of you unfamiliar with the inner-workings of large advertising agencies (and the perks a select few in said mega-corps still allow themselves), the event I’m referring to is the advertising industry equivalent of the famous Cannes Film Festival. You know, the annual festival in France that honors mostly good films with the occasional nod to Hollywood crap thrown in for good measure? Well, Ad Cannes (my name for it) purports to honor the best in advertising (an oxymoron to anyone outside the ad world, I know), but unlike the aforementioned nod to Hollywood crap, Ad Cannes consists almost entirely of nods to self-indulgent, trendy art films with logos at the end masquerading as TV commercials. (Preferably ones with nudity, because that makes them edgy. Even to Europeans, apparently. But I digress.) There are also categories for print, outdoor and internet advertising, but it’s really all about TV. How important is Ad Cannes to ad creatives? So important that they managed to keep it a secret from their clients for a long, long, long time. But then the clients found out and started going, too. You know the old saying: if you can’t beat ‘em as they expense a trip to the French Riviera every year, join ‘em.

Not that Ad Cannes is all silly extravagance, of course. As with any awards show, there are always a few deserving souls in attendance who rose to the challenge of creating insightful, memorable and effective work. And they deserve all the recognition they get. Far too many, however, can be described thusly:

1. Young Hot Shot Creatives. The so-called creative “stars” of the industry. They tend to travel in small packs, going from award show to award show where they take turns judging each others’ work and accepting awards from each other. Sort of like the way people spread herpes. Basically, they do just enough work each year to have something to enter, and then the cycle continues. Also, all Young Hot Shot Creatives are pre-D/D/D. (Divorce/Drinking/Drug problem).

2. Old Hot Shot Creatives. They were once YHSCs, but after their own personal D/D/D they live vicariously through the YHSCs by giving them phony project briefs, then “running” the resulting “ads” by securing a single media location just long enough to claim the “ad” actually ran. For TV, this means a single, late-night cable buy somewhere in Montana. For outdoor, hanging something on your brother-in-law’s garage will do, as long as it provides a good photo for the entry kit. But that’s not the only trick the OHSCs have up their sleeve. After all, who are the judging panels at all major award shows headed by? That’s right, your friendly neighborhood OHSC. Nothing tops the shows where the Best Of Show award goes to work from the Judging Chairman’s own agency. Nice one, dude. Your parents must be proud.

2. Agency Recruiters. This is an overwhelmingly female group (nudge, nudge) who have somehow (nudge, nudge) convinced the overwhelmingly male Creative Directors (nudge, nudge) that going to Cannes is absolutely vital to recruiting the best and brightest Young Hot Shot Creatives for next year’s trip to Cannes.

3. The Regulars. This small-but-hearty group of ad professionals has been attending Cannes since the days agency employees other than themselves actually got bonuses (yeah, that long ago), and will continue to attend until they die, retire, or their respective deals with Lucifer come due, whichever comes first. These guys were all fortunate enough to have their prime earning years accented quite nicely by the stock market booms and IPOs of the 80s and 90s, yet to hear them talk you’d think they all founded the agencies that provide the gravy train they’ve been riding on ever since. You know the layoffs that constantly occur in the ad industry? The members of this group decide who gets the axe. They see going to Cannes as their chance to forget about how hard it is laying people off all the time. It’s also when they get their picture in Ad Age.

Hey, it’s nice work if you can get it. And like I said, there will definitely be a few deserving people there. But it all reminds me of something I heard John Stewart say once (while he was hosting the One Show, as a matter of fact) about the plethora of ad award shows. It was something along the lines of “Jeez, pat yourselves on the back much, people?”

Yes, ad people sure do. And nowhere is that more apparent (and often more ridiculous) than at Cannes.

May 10, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

Today's LA Times has a great story on the continuing preoccupation with marketing to 18-to-49 year olds.

The article suggests that today's 50+ consumers aren't the fuddy-duddy, set-in-their-ways people their parents were; rather they're people with money to spend and a desire to try new brands and new experiences.

Since few people in advertising (or anyone who writes the ads on a day-to-day basis), media or marketing is over 50, obviously the ad industry ignores that audience. Out of sight, out of mind.

I wrote about this before. Perhaps there's a place for all the supposed "over the hill" ad people--by marketing to people their own age. Who could do it better?

May 10, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

A shameless plug for my new column on Talent Zoo.

I've noticed for a long time how many ad people get away with being igorant about the new media landscape. It's rather odd timing, since I began working on it prior to last week's AAAA conference.

Admittedly, I don't think anyone reading AdPulp has the problem I describe in the column. Y'all are staying well-informed and relevant.

May 11, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

Seth Godin recently wrote a list of "What Every Good Marketer Should Know" and the folks at BrandPlay have designed his words as a downloadable PDF poster.

You can download it by clicking here.

Among the nuggets I particularly like are:

"Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills and your returns policy."

and

"People all over the world, and of every income level, respond to marketing that promises and delivers basic human wants."

It's all good advice. Check it out.

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

from Reuters: Robert Redford's Sundance Channel has partnered with Grey Goose Vodka to produce a six-part series called "Iconoclasts," which will start airing on the cable outlet beginning in November,

Each episode will bring together two innovators from different fields, including film and television, architecture and design, fashion, food, music and sports. One will act as a guide into the world of the other to explore each individual's creative process, inspirations and passions. The producers said they have not yet cast any "Iconoclasts."

The series is the first project for Grey Goose Entertainment, the new production arm of Bacardi's Grey Goose Vodka, which hopes to extend its high-end vodka brand by creating entertainment that appeals to its consumer base.

Grey Goose Vodka is not expected to be featured in the show but likely will show up off-air at series launch events planned for the top 25 media markets, said Sundance Channel vp marketing Kirk Iwanowski. Because Sundance Channel does not run commercials, there will be no spots for Grey Goose Vodka surrounding the series.

"You will see Grey Goose utilize this as an off-air marketing platform," Iwanowski said. "Grey Goose Entertainment is in and of itself a brand extension (of Grey Goose Vodka). It's an opportunity for them to reach out to their target demographic beyond traditional advertising or their core product," Iwanowski said.

May 11, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

John Podhoretz writing in the New York Post yesterday had this to say:

The mass-media melt down is happening everywhere you look — from the multiplex to the newsstand, from late-night television to drive-time radio.

It can't be a coincidence that the five major pillars of the American media — movies, television, radio, recorded music and newspapers — are all suffering at the same time. And it isn't. Something major has changed over the past year, as the availability of alternative sources of information and entertainment has finally reached critical mass.

Newly empowered consumers are letting the producers, creators and managers of the nation's creative and news content know that they are dissatisfied with the product they're being peddled.

Mike Elgan writing in Personal Tech Pipeline considers the Podhoretz piece and has five more points to add. Here's a taste of what he has to say:

The mainstream media outlets, particularly the various news media, are obsessed with blogs. But as institutions they seem unable or unwilling to truly understand their appeal -- or to grasp that blogs have already transformed the public.

Blogs deliver ideas and information in a much more "real" way. They tend to be delivered in plain language by people who know they'll be "called" on their baloney. Falsehoods are immediately exposed on other blogs. Incomplete coverage is completed. So when people spend time getting news and opinions from blogs, then return to TV, they find it a strange and alien land. The pancake makeup, hairdos, bizarre body language and vocal intonations and forced, informal chit-chat delivered through a clenched-teeth grimace that passes for a TV smile -- all that suddenly looks like a bunch of crazy people with nothing to say.

I think we can safely say that mainstream marketers can be lumped in to the clueless pile, when it comes to blogs, and the more important part of the equation here—communicating with honesty and integrity.

As the media vehicles pull in to the garage for repairs, ad men and women have the same obligation to look at their own outdated assumptions and mechanisms. The fix is not about moving to blogs, or top-down word-of-mouth or idiotic viral tactis. The fix is at the root, and the root is rotten.

Dumbing everything down to the least common denominator is a lose-lose situation, because markets (and the people who make them up) have gotten smarter. The mass-market once courted on three TV stations is gone. The market today is fractured into thousands of collectives, grouped by interest. The customer can still be reached and possibly even persuaded, but it will be on the customer's terms and turf.

To my mind, there's nothing to fear here. Prognosticators calling for the death of Madison Avenue are doing a lot of wishful thinking. Yes, those refusing to change will fall to the wayside. Everyone can't be saved. Oh well. For those willing to adapt, the future of branded communications is as bright, if not brighter, than ever. Why? Because the work must get smarter to garner results. Having a fondness for smart work, I see the future as a better place. You can argue with me, if you'd like. That's the way we do it now.

May 11, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

The top story in the ad world today--Ad Age and Adweek both report on the $3.2 Billion GM Media business being awarded to Starcom MediaVest based in Chicago.

The incumbents were GM Mediaworks in Warren, Mich., and LCI in New York.

I can't even concieve of the numbers involved. It just blows my mind how a review like this could be conducted and how the decision gets made.

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

from New York Times: Wolfgang Puck introduced a new line of lattes this month. That the Los Angeles chef has stamped his name on yet another product isn't surprising. But the container is. It heats itself.

The coffee, which comes in four flavors, goes on sale at Kroger grocery stores this month and will eventually move to other retailers.

Thanks to Brand Noise for the pointer.

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

You can download a list of the winners at last night's One Show here.

A quick perusal of the list reveals very few American winners--and a whole bunch of countries are represented.

What this means is that, in least in the judges' minds, ideas that are simple, visual, and universal tend to win awards at the One Show. Ads full of American colloquialisms and language don't.

So what chance do you have if you need to have some words and information in an ad?

May 12, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

from CNN Money: Wendy's restaurants are giving away free Frostys frozen desserts this weekend as a thank you to customers who supported the burger chain following an embarrassing incident in California where a women allegedly planted a severed finger in a bowl of chili.

"Our customers stood by us while we defended our good name and protected our employees' livelihoods, so now we're showing our appreciation with free Frostys," Tom Mueller, Wendy's chief executive, said in a press release. "We're moving on."

The incident has hurt Wendy's business, particularly on the West Coast, with the company estimating same store sales took a 2 to 2.5 percent hit in the most recent quarter.

The company estimates it will give away 14 million Junior Frostys during the event, which runs nationwide from Friday through Sunday. No other purchase is required.

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

If the medium is the message, then environmental consciousness is oh so fashionable and hip today. Could it be that Ms. Hilton is more caring (and clever) than she lets on?

Thanks to A Socialite's Life for the image.

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

Influx recently interviewed Karl Carter, Current TV's VP of Marketing.

Karl talks to us about Current's new advertising model and its radical plan to involve the consumer in the development of both programming and advertising.

Is it true Current's ad model is radically different from other networks-if so why?

Actually, the Current ad model is able to work with both traditional and non-traditional spots. We will accommodate the traditional :30 and:60 spots, but we'll also try longer-format ads, up to two minutes in length, and reduce clutter and cluster by running some spots by themselves between programming segments. This has the potential to prevent people with DVR from skipping over our ads, making us "Tivo-proof".

In addition, were also exploring new forms of creative, having our viewers produce spots for our advertisers, which has the potential to more effectively reach the audience they're trying to communicate with.

So far, we're getting a lot of interest.

How does Current intend to connect and engage its audience in programming?

Were already running contests to get Viewer-Contributed Content (VC2) submissions, and with relatively little promotion, weve already received a few thousand submissions. Our latest contest will give the winner a development deal, where well work with them to produce a piece that will air on the network.

In addition, we will utilize grassroots, online and mass media vehicles to reach out and ask people to tell us whats on their minds.

Who do you believe will advertise on the network?

We have already started to receive strong commitments and are in the enviable position of working with cool, smart and passionate leaders in the advertising industry. What is more interesting is that due to developments in the media world, more and more advertisers are producing short-form content or long-form advertising, depending on who youre talking to.

So many advertisers are already interested in what were doing.

Its a great time to be Current, the industry seems ready for some major changes.

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

Dawn and Drew, a married couple with a popular podcast emanating from their 1895 Wisconsin farmhouse, have struck a deal with condom maker, Durex, according to Ad Age.

Durex last month launched an unusual brand integration campaign featuring unscripted X-rated banter on the “The Dawn and Drew Show,” the No. 2 podcast as currently ranked by visitors to PodcastAlley.com.

“We’ve always got TV on the radar,” said Ted Conley, vice president of consumer marketing of Durex, but for now he believes, radio, integration into online gaming and emerging media like podcasts make more sense.

He has himself gotten hooked on Dawn and Drew, a kinder, gentler yet even more foul-mouthed take on such radio-cum-satellite personalities as Howard Stern and Opie & Anthony. Mr. Conley now makes room on his packed 40-gigabyte iPod for regular downloads of the Dawn and Dave podcasts.

“Particularly since this has been an underground medium, we don’t want to take it too commercial too fast or transform it into something it isn’t,” he said, so Durex never considered running a conventional radio spot on the podcast. “We want to craft the message so it fits into the show.”

He also likes the ease of doing podcast deals. “We did the negotiations with Drew,” he said. “There aren’t a lot of advertisers knocking at their door.”

Given the present day mass-media meltdown, more knocks on the farmhouse door, as well as knocks on other "citizen media" doors, may well be forthcoming.

May 13, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

Coors Light (or Cold Light, if you will) has found their point of difference—that their beer is colder than the competition—and they're intent on milking it for all it's worth. Which is fine. What I don't get is why it matters.

Do you care that Cold Light is colder than Miller Lite of Bud Light? I know I don't. I care about what the beer tastes like, and if it'll give me a headache or not.

Thanks to Optimus Prime for the image and Adjab for the pointer.

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

There have been a lot of creative uses of eBay of late. People have been auctioning off their names and their bodies (as human billboards) to advertisers. Here's a new twist.

My name is Jellio, and I write for a blog called YesButNoButYes.com, proclaimed by almost all our writers to be the greatest pop culture blog on the net. We've been around for about six months now, and the response has been amazing. At this point, you might not call us wildly successful, or even moderately succesful. The thing is, we have huge potential.

Now here's the deal...if you win this auction, I will write about you (anything you want*) for FIVE DAYS STRAIGHT!!! That's right, I will post five articles about you, or any subject you wish, once a day for an entire week.

The YesButNoButYes traffic is consistently in the 1,000 - 1,200 visitors a day range. THAT'S LIKE 10,000 VISITORS OVER THE FIVE DAY PERIOD. And when you take out repeat traffic, we're sure that's still at least 50 or 60 people that will see your stories.

So go ahead...make your day.

*Please nothing violent or crazy or anything...don't go all Jeff Dahmer on us.

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

from The Onion: Hungry shoppers at the Gurnee Mills outlet mall can now get a name-brand lunch at a bargain-basement price, thanks to the Monday opening of McDonald's first "Not Quite Perfect" outlet store, offering imperfect and irregular items from the fast-food giant's menu.

"It's true that consistency is part of what makes McDonald's the leader in the fast-food industry, but so is good value," said Brian Landers, manager of the McDonald's outlet. "When customers see the low, low prices, they're more than willing to give our Six-Piece Quarter Pounders and Fish McGriddles a try. The food's a little different at this McDonald's, but it's really very close."

Continued Landers: "Now, who's ready for factory seconds?!"

"McDonald's prides itself on having exacting standards for its products," Landers said. "But throwing away all-carrot Salad Shakers, parallelogram-shaped hash browns, and McRibNuggets seemed so wasteful. With more of our customers struggling to make ends meet, we knew people would appreciate the opportunity to buy these slightly irregular products at irresistibly low prices."

In spite of the few complaints, most outlet patrons say the bargain prices are well worth enduring the irregular food.

"It's not like the meat's tainted," said Mack Vesper, a longtime McDonald's customer. "A Quarter Pounder on a half-size seedless bun tastes just as good. And, while the gray Shamrock Shake took some getting used to, once you realize that you're getting all the flavor at an eighth of the price, you adapt. Besides, who looks at the color of the shake once you start drinking it?"

May 14, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

Wal-Mart has a long history of using Political Action Committees and funding pseudo-grassroots groups to influence public opinion when the company wants to change zoning laws or put a new store in a neighborhood that may oppose it.

But this ad in the Arizona Daily Sun obviously went too far:

Wal-Mart opposes Proposition 100 in Flagstaff, which would put restrictions on big-box stores. So Wal-Mart paid a group $280,000 to create ads like this one, which uses a Nazi-era book burning image to suggest that if you oppose government book-burning, you should also oppose government zoning laws. The photo that's used is available for purchase as a stock photo and if you look closely enough, you can see swastikas.

Wal-Mart, of course, is now apologizing. Here's the story from The Arizona Daily Sun and The Los Angeles Times. The Wal-Mart funded group in Flagstaff is called Protect Flagstaff's Future. For the opposition side, see YesOnProp100.com (largely funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers union) and Wal-Mart Watch, a national group.

I actually think companies should be completely free to use ads like these for issue advocacy and to promote their values. Because it exposes their explicit and implicit agendas and allows the consumer to decide. Wal-Mart recently has been trying to counter negative press with a PR effort pushing a shiny happy image. But as long as ads like these are in full view to the public, both sides of the issue can be seen.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

May 16, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

from The Independent: A new book claims that a shopping trip to Ikea improves marital harmony.

Great Ikea! A Brand for All the People, published later this month, attributes much of the store's success to the fact that its self-assembly furniture allows men to reclaim their hunter-gatherer roots, and so keep their relationships healthy - by demonstrating to their wives and children that they are capable of masculine tasks.

Relate, the relationship guidance charity, said shopping was a major source of conflict for couples, although improving their home environment was a way of increasing domestic harmony.

"My experience of couples visiting Ikea is that it has caused a great deal more arguments and frustrations," said Denise Knowles, a marriage counsellor for Relate, who is not a fan of Ikea.

"In a sanitised world, about the only way people can show the practical side of themselves is through DIY. But I think that it is more about improving their environment. That is why places like Ikea work for families."

May 16, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Richard Huntington, a planner at HHCL Red Cell in London, wants us ad folk to get over ourselves. And while were at it, he thinks it wise to drop our branding shtik for more relevant and meaningful language. Here's some of what he has to say.

Fundamentally we neglected the fact that brands do not belong to us and do not reside in the HQ’s of organizations but rather exist only in the minds of consumers. This has lead to a number of assumptions that are counter-productive and have effectively neutered the power of the brand.

We got confused about products and brands believing that they were one and the same thing. We forgot that brands are the perceptual halos around products, services and organisations not the products themselves.

We invented a strand of communications called brand advertising, which in claiming it alone had a bearing on brand perceptions marginalised the brand, alienating it from the real business concerns of most clients. Just mention the word ‘brand’ to many retailers, for instance, and they develop a nervous tick.

This is not to say that the concept of the brand is redundant, just that the terminology with which it is associated no longer serves its purpose.

The preservation and growth of the brand concept into the future and the demands placed on those who seek to use it in the service of business demands an new vocabulary devoid of the baggage that currently weighs it down.

Fortunately there is already a such a concept that exists that is perfect for the task - the meme.

To see why meme is better than brand, read the man's treatise. He wants us to become meme doctors, which is certainly an improvement on professional bullshitter.

Thanks to Chroma for the pointer.

May 16, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Flickr user, Talker, posted this Delta Airlines outdoor board to his photostream recently. He doesn't like it much.

May 16, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

May 16, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

WE HATE SHEEP. Not because they're fat, lazy creatures that smell bad when it rains. No, we hate sheep because they remind us of marketing that's content to follow instead of lead. Advertising that's happy to be quiet, blend in with the flock and go completely unnoticed. The average person is deluged by 3000 messages a day but will only react to about ten. To be part of that Top Ten, your marketing must stand out. It must differentiate. And it must, must, must be relevant. Otherwise, it is an utter waste of time and money. And who has time and money for that? We believe sheep marketing slowly starves the brand that pays for it. Bottom line: Sheep kill brands dead. And that's why we hate 'em.

To see which other organizations have been admitted to the AdPulp Outstanding Mission Statements club, enter "mission statements" into our nifty search this site box on your right.

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

I always make it a point to glance at The New York Times online edition. But according to reports, including this one in Ad Age, some content including prominent columnists will only be available to subscribers who fork out $50 a year. (I'm sorry, that's $49.95.)

This is just the latest in the growing media trend in the US: consumers are being asked more and more to subsidize the media, when advertisers used to be the dominant supporters. What's more, net users are often being asked to shell out cash for a site that started out as free.

I simply don't know how many people will pay for NYT access, on top of other services that require monthly or annual fees, like NetFlix, eHarmony.com, Classmates.com, Sirius, XM Radio, TiVo, etc. Oh, and your internet DSL bill.

While I enjoy reading some of the news on the Times (which will stay free), I can live without the rest and I won't likely pay for it. Sooner or later, consumers will feel the pinch--and so will all these new media outlets.

May 17, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

from Adweek: Stolichnaya wants to own "cold." After a campaign that celebrated "little truths" found during a night out, the premium vodka brand has refined its positioning with an effort touting the fact that Stoli tastes best chilled.

Allied Domecq bought the brand in 2001. Since then, it has been researching how the target 21- to 29-year-olds relate to vodka brands.

"They were looking for a true, authentic product and any research we've done says true vodka is Russian," said Joanne Kletecka, brand director at Stoli.

May 17, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

We recently reported on the clueless guerilla-style chalking of Yale's private property by luxury brand, Louis Vuitton. Now, they're up to far worse transgressions, as they've entered into a frivolous legal battle with San Francisco boutique hotel, Hotel des Arts for—irony of all ironies—trademark infringement.

from eMedia Wire: The Hotel des Arts is a small San Francisco hotel that showcases the original fine art work of emerging artists from around the world. The San Francisco hotel's “Painted Rooms” exhibitions have received international acclaim as one-by-one, the 51 rooms of the hotel are transformed into works of fine art.

To date, nearly 30 of the rooms in the San Francisco hotel have been transformed, painted floor to ceiling by some of the premier emerging and underground artists in the world. The artists have been given free reign to create magic, and the project has been widely lauded as an amazing showcase of new artistic talent and fine art within this small San Francisco hotel.

One of the “Painted Rooms” in the art hotel features a series of hand painted floor-to-ceiling murals by San Francisco pop artist Tim Gaskin. Gaskin, whose artwork frequently juxtaposes celebrity icons with the iconography of contemporary advertising, included images of pop sensation Madonna on the walls of his room, superimposed on patterns and logos from luxury product manufacturer Louis Vuitton. The resultant work of original fine art is at once an homage, a commentary, and a critique of consumer culture and celebrity, and has received a great deal of press coverage and attention.

In a surprising twist, Hotel des Arts refuses to be intimidated.

"Removing the LV trademark from the walls of the hotel would necessitate destroying an original piece of fine art, and that is not something we are even going to consider," said the Hotel des Arts' Richard Singer. "Works of artistic expression are clearly protected by the First Amendment, and we absolutely refuse to be censored by a multinational corporation and their teams of lawyers."

If LV had any common sense at all, they would celebrate this artistic use of their iconic brand. But sadly, they've not yet heard, nor heeded Alex Wipperfürth's words, "Let go of the fallacy that your brand belongs to you. It belongs to the market."

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

Brand loyalty is normally something that's earned over time, but that's not the case when one is on the payroll of a given packaged goods company. Having worked on the Coors business for several years, I was made acutely aware of the necessity of drinking Coors anywhere near my coworkers, or the client. To do otherwise would be a firing offense. In fact, I remember ordering a Newcastle once and being scolded by a creative director, who proceeded to inform me that Killian's (a brand he worked on) was a direct competitor. I begged to differ, and still do. At any rate, when it comes to beer, people who sell and market it, often live and breathe the stuff.

from USA Today: Ross Hopkins still likes to drink Bud, even though he says a brief tryst with a Coors beer cost him his job at a Budweiser distributor.

Hopkins, 41, is suing American Eagle Distributing Co., saying the company wrongly fired him for drinking Coors in a bar two years ago.

"They flat-out told me 'We're putting food on your table so you could put it on theirs?'" he said Tuesday.

Colorado law says workers cannot be fired for a legal activity while off duty and away from work. There are exceptions, such as when a worker's actions relate to an occupational requirement or create a conflict of interest.

Hopkins, who was a warehouse supervisor for the distributor, said he was not wearing a uniform or representing American Eagle when he was at the bar in May 2003 with some co-workers. He said he had ordered a Budweiser but a waitress brought Coors. He decided to drink it because he didn't want to wait.

The son-in-law of the distributor's majority shareholder also was at the bar, and offered twice to buy him a Budweiser, but Hopkins turned it down both times.

He was fired the following Monday.

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

What do you do if you're an artist deluged by consumer imagery in a society obsessed with money, goods and the like? If you're Kate Bingaman, you work with it. You make art out of it. You have fun with it.

Wear Kate's debt!

Here's a take from her Artist Statement:

People identify themselves with objects. We as a society participate with signs and a network of signs and not with each other. It is our interactions that are displaced and suppressed. You don't just buy a product. You buy into the mindset that is sold with it.

Post modern theorist Jean Baudrillard believed that consumption is not a "passive process of absorption and appropriation, but that consumption is an active form of relationship, a mode of systematic activity and global response which founds our entire cultural system." He argues that everyday life has ceased to be a subject rich in subjectivity: it has become an object of social organization. Individuals have less control in self-realization and adopt market categories to describe themselves (object) as a member of the Pepsi generation, or some other brand club.

I am moved by the "life as art" philosophy of the Situationists. The Situationists were mostly European students in the late 1960's who believed that modern society had lost its spontaneity and had become passive. They believed in procrastination as a revolutionary method, urging people to never risk dying of boredom. To fight away the sense of emptiness forced by the invasion of images and over consumption that were devouring their culture, they created special conditions - "situations" - invented to fend off their own bourgeois impulses.

May 18, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

According to Wikipedia, "porn creep" is the process by which sexually explicit content infiltrates American pop culture. Many people blame (or credit) the abundance of sexual imagery and innuendo in movies, television and advertising on the increased accessibility and "cool factor" of pornography.

American Apparel, which has many otherwise redeeming qualities as a company, has made use of porn creep. And west coast burger joint, Carl's Jr., is all about it.

May 18, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

According to this article on Ad Age, brokerage firm Morgan Stanley has issued a directive to immediately pull all advertising from any publication that prints negative stories about the company.

The complicity between advertisers and the press is nothing new, but making overt demands like this isn't going to make the MSM (mainstream media) any more relevant these days. It's no wonder bloggers are getting noted for their investigative prowess and their pursuit of what's really happening behind the news. Whether they want to or they're being forced to, print journalists and TV news outlets are bending over for the powers that be.

May 18, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

Mark Wnek, writing yesterday in The Independent had this to say:

The number of people in or around the ad business spouting about the future "beyond advertising" etc etc is climbing up to the thousands.

In most cases these people are either commentators with no fiscal attachment to the accuracy of their predictions; people from ailing companies who would love it known that actually their poor performance in easily quantifiable areas is the result of their lack of interest in those areas and their "pioneering" activities in other, impossible to quantify areas; or people starting companies who need to have something "modern" to say.

The more you listen to this talk about "media neutral" thinking, "integration", "content" etc, the more it reminds you of schoolboys threatening each other.

But who has actually done anything radical, new and effective "beyond advertising" over the past decade? Only US agency Fallon with their 15-minute mini-films for BMW directed by and starring major Hollywood talent, and viewable only online.

Meanwhile the mouthing off continues, at its essence assertions and counter-assertions as to what the most important new medium (for which read "canvas") for commercial messaging will be. Once this frankly rudimentary process is over, who will fill these canvases in a way that excites consumers? The creative ladies and gentlemen who live in advertising agencies, that's who. In your haste to go beyond advertising, never ever forget who lays the golden eggs.

I agree with some of what the man says, but clearly not everything. For one, Fallon is not alone in growing the business. CP+B and Wieden have both done notable jobs creating breakthrough work that was never intended for a TV screen. I'm sure there are several more shops (and clients) that can be added to this list. But let's look at what he gets right for a moment. He is right about the squawking, and it can be awfully tiresome.

I grasp that people disdain advertising and just as often the people responsible for it. I also grasp that the solution is not to do away with it, as many would like. The solution is to make it better, more relevant and thus more effective. While there are some in the industry that do not acknowledge the disease, I believe there are just as many who do, and those who do spend their days working on a fix.

Thanks to Johnnie Moore and James Cherkoff for the pointers.

May 19, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

At times, it's hard to tell if eBay is a ribald joke or a fantastic business. Today is another one of those times.

Buy an award-winning advertising agency - office supplies AND creative staff. Highest bidder wins a box of fairly new office materials as well as incredibly motivated, often provocative and always high-concept group of copywriters/art directors. Ad Age's "Creativity Magazine" called one of their campaigns "A highlight of 2004." This entire agency can be yours. Just incorporate their brand within your's, give the principals a reasonable employment contract, take good care of them ...and the creative benefits you receive are sure to be endlessly exhilarating. Don't your clients deserve the best? Don't your new business people deserve to have excitement as part of their pitch? Don't you deserve to start having fun at work again? Well it can all be a reality - for the right price, baby. (Package comes with a few nice computers, a stack of unmarked pads and 3 new black markers.) To see Mad Injection and its work, go to www.madinjection.com.

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

from Associated Press: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is turning over its online DVD rental business to Netflix Inc., signaling that the world's largest retailer couldn't beat the Internet upstart at its own game.

Shares of Netflix surged after the agreement was announced Thursday, rising $4.38, or 28 percent, to $19.88 in pre-market trading.

Wal-Mart is offering its existing online DVD rental customers the chance to continue their subscriptions with Los Gatos-based Netflix at their current price for the next year. Those who don't sign up with Netflix by June 17 will lose their service. Wal-Mart plans to continue promoting the Netflix service on its Web site.

In return, Netflix will remind its subscribers that they can buy DVDs from Walmart.com.

May 19, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

from Promo Magazine: Procter & Gambles' Crest is on the road with a giant tube of toothpaste rolling across America.

The Crest Imagine Tour is making stops at major events including food and music festivals, vacation destinations, major cities and other venues where visitors can step into the toothpaste tube-Crest Whitening Plus Scope-to use brushing stations to brush their teeth. The tour stops next at the Riverbend Festival in Chattanooga, TN from May 28 through 30 (my note: actually, the festival is from June 10-18).

A Crest Hostess greets visitors who hands out toothbrushes and a "ticket" to enter the tricked out 18-wheeler. Visitors stop first in the lounge where they can enter a sweepstakes for a chance to win a trip to Jumby Bay Resort off the coast of Antigua.

May 19, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

"American Copywriter," John January, likes the new Levi's 501 Uncomplicate campaign a lot. What's not to like?

January says, "It's an absolute, total, way-out-of-the-park home run. The piece nails the brand's 'authenticity.'" He goes on to expain how the web offers a gigantic opportunity for branded storytelling, which is something I'm a big proponent of.

It's nice to see a brand--and an iconic brand, at that--get it right. Here's some copy from the microsite:

So, what's the deal these days?
Haircuts made to look like you just rolled out of bed.
Cars being 'pimped.'
Low-carb, no-sodium, non-alcoholic beer.
Designer everything, soap to soda.
Seriously...
We need to settle down. Get back to what's real.

If it takes you or one of your friends
More than five minutes to choose a pair of jeans--
If you're not sure whether to go with the distressed fade,
or the faded airbrushed,
or the super bleached distressed airburshed faded--

Then put down the half-caf soy latte with cinnamon,
Jump in the sport-utility, off-road,
Multi-person dual-purpose vehicle,
Or fire up the lightweight titanium panorama-screen laptop

And get help now.

Hats off to McCann-Erickson's TAG youth marketing unit, the creative group behind the work.

May 20, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

Apparently, it's not "Hip To Be Square."

But it is good to be square.

Click the above link to check out the latest viral mystery--it's from Wendy's, part of a campaign that will feature a little more explanation, and TV ads, next week.

You know, I love Wendy's and all, but I'm not sure having square hamburgers is a real benefit worth touting. So I hope there's more on the way.

I do like this little viral piece though. I guess all of us misfits are really just square hamburgers in a world of round buns.

May 20, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Dodge is bringing back the Charger after a 17-year hiatus. The Detroit car maker is gearing up for the summer selling season with an ad blitz set to unleash on June 1. Not incidentally, Warner Brothers studios is releasing the big screen version Dukes of Hazard this summer. You don't think the two events might be related, do you?

According to Ad Age, the peak sales year for the Charger was 1973, when it sold 119,318 units.

May 20, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

Let's assume for the sake of argument that there is such a thing as a fruit buzz. After all, I do feel pretty good after ingesting fresh fruit. What puzzles me here is the fact that McDonald's is going after the low-hanging fruit, as it were. The young ladies concerned with tight-fitting jeans are already convinced that fruit salad is the way to go. It seems the burger chain might do more good (and that is the point, is it not?) if they targeted the fattened on sugar and beef among us, using some truly persuasive selling to make us really want that fruit salad.

Thanks to Adfreak for the pointer.

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

Want to stay in an expensive shoe, next time you're in Barcelona? Then, Casa Camper could be just the place.

May 20, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

A lot of big-time consumer brands are jumping all over the viral bandwagon. From a creative standpoint, I think it's a good thing. From a media buying standpoint, it's exceptional. But, I'd like to make one point of clarification—a semantic point, if you will. So-called viral ads coming from wannabe film makers and/or wannabe ad peeps need a new name, or perhaps an old name.

Once upon a time, we called it spec work, as in speculative. Back in the day, spec work--wherein a brand is hikacked for the purposes of building one's book, or reel--was never viewed out of context. Today, with the advent of the internet, such "ads" are viewed out of context on a daily basis. They used to be viewed exclusively by creative directors in the privacy of their own office, as a means of judging the creator's talent, or the lack thereof. Now, an aspirant can simply launch a viral on a slap-and-paste web site and if it's any good people will pass it around. Then other people, let's call them pundits, make value judgements and sometimes say things like, "Advertising is dead. The consumer is now making better ads than the brand's hired hands." If it sucks, people ignore it, or that's the hope.

As someone who sees the value in brand stewardship, my issue with these speculative virals is the viewing audience (which can be large) doesn't know what to think. Are they to think the brand that's been hikacked is copacetic with the piece? The hijacked brand doesn't even know about it in most cases, and as we've discovered, they're often prepared to put their legal team on the case once they do know about it.

Where does this leave us? Will the spec virals stop due to concern for brand dillution and consumer confusion? No, I don't believe they will. Therefore, I suggest that we who care about such things call them what they are, "spec virals" (or something better), and that we either totally ignore poorly rendered works, or be prepared to put them through the critical shredder.

May 20, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Technorati is tracking over ten million blogs today. If your blog appears is in their top 100,000 you are in some pretty select company, as that equals the top one percent of all blogs tracked. If your blog is in the top 10,000 blogs tracked by Technorati, you're in the top tenth of one percent. So, are there 10,000 A-list bloggers? Are there 100,000?

One might reasonably conclude the term A-lister would apply to these ten thousand, or one hundred thousand on a generous day. For the top tenth of one percent is more like Summa Cum Laude—way beyond the simple A designation. Yet, if one were to consult Blogebrity, one would see that there are less than 100 so-called A-list bloggers. That's a wee fraction.

I know it's all a joke, but I thought I'd look at the math. Hope you don't mind.

May 23, 2005 by Shawn Hartley | Permalink | 0 Comments

From CNN:

Four journalists who brought news of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy into U.S. living rooms in 1963 have found a new level of fame by using the Internet to market their book about the experience.

They are among a growing group of people exploring the potential of blogs, or Web logs, as a marketing tool and advertising venue.

"We've been around, but this is the first time we've been around in cyberspace," said Bob Huffaker, a former reporter at CBS radio and television station KRLD in Dallas and one of the four authors of "When the News Went Live: Dallas 1963."

Read the Full Story.

It is a refreshing change to see a news story hit upon the marketing potential of blogs and avoid the often unnecessary slant of Blogs as News source.

As David has mentioned many times, we are strong proponents of Blogs as a business resource and in more ways than just the obvious Marketing implications.

May 23, 2005 by Shawn Hartley | Permalink | 0 Comments

First, I don't listen to much radio these days - a fortunate side effect of a 7 minute commute - but it seems that nearly every single day I manage to be in the car at the right time to hear an OnStar spot.

These are the spots using the original audio (or perhaps recreated?) from previous OnStar emergency calls; running the gamut from "Can you get me a phone number," to "I've locked my keys in the car," to "I've been in an accident, am bleeding profusely, and unless help gets here soon I'm likely to be dead in moments."

The operators at OnStar are typically spot on for their reactions to calls, but seem to have absolute inability to end one of these calls gracefully. The following quotes are reconstructed from memory and may not be the exact dialog in the spot.

From the guy trying to reach his relative when phone lines are out, and Onstar delivers:
operator: "Is there anything else we can help you with?"
caller (thick New England Accent): "Thank you so much, You're beautiful OnStar"
operator: "You're beautiful too."
Note to operator: Don't try and pull of the accent when you probably stuck in a callcenter somewhere in the accent free midwest.

Or the operator responding the lady in car accident who is bleeding heavily:
Operator: "The ambulance has arrived is there anything else we can do?"
caller: "No."
Operator: "Thank you for calling OnStar, we're there when you need us."
Note I find the eeriness overcoming as I picture the lady laying there bleeding, while the operator repeats the tagline to her. Kind of like a "No shit, I just had an accident and you were there for me, why do you insist on repeating the obvious to me while I lay here in pain?" There is just something wrong with that picture.

Maybe I'm just twisted, but then again, it is a slow-news Monday.

What's your favorite OnStar spot?

May 23, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

Congrats to Dailey & Associates, who have just won the MacGregor Golf account. But don't get too comfortable, fellas.

This story wouldn't have piqued my interest except for the fact that I was an intern at an Atlanta agency in 1995 when it had the MacGregor account. And I remember it was a short-lived affair, one of many for the old clubmaker brand. So, with the help of the Adweek and Ad Age archives, here's a little bit of MacGregor history for you:

February 27, 1995

MacGregor Golf Co., Atlanta, to Pollak Levitt Chaiet from Bockel Clark & Gill for its $2 million account.

August 14, 1996

MacGregor Golf Co., Atlanta, is reviewing its $2 million account from Pollak Levitt Chaiet, Atlanta.

October 13, 1997

Determined to start its second century with a return to prominence in the golfing industry, MacGregor Golf Co. last week placed its account at Howard, Merrell & Partners (HM&P) in Raleigh, N.C.

August 9, 1999

Equipment Maker Searches for Eighth Ad Partner in 15 Years. Less than six months after Howard, Merrill & Partners broke its first television advertising for MacGregor Golf, the client has sent out a request for proposal seeking a replacement, apparently without notifying the agency...

September 27, 1999

MacGregor Golf retained Fricks/Firestone, Atlanta, as its ad agency, replacing Howard Merrell, Raleigh, N.C.

February 14, 2000

In a departure from category advertising, Fricks/Firestone's new television spot for MacGregor golf clubs uses a rock jingle and aggressive humor to promote the client's hand-manufactured irons.

May 15, 2000

MacGregor Golf has been quietly contacting agencies about its oft-moved advertising account, according to sources. Currently, the estimated $3 million account is at Fricks/Firestone here.

September 24, 2001

MacGregor Golf, Atlanta, selected Magnani Continuum Marketing, Chicago, to handle strategic brand development, broadcast and print advertising, pr, retail promotions, direct and event marketing, Web activities and other support. Account is estimated at $8 million.

January 24, 2005

Norman, 'Passion' Tee Off In $12M+ MacGregor Pitch Albany, Ga.—MacGregor Golf introduces a new tagline, "It's all about passion," in four new TV spots, via Magnani, Chicago, scheduled to run now through late summer on CBS, NBC, ABC and cable telecasts of PGA Tour events.

May 20, 2005

Interpublic Group's Dailey & Associates was awarded the MacGregor Golf advertising account after an informal review, the agency said this week...New advertising, according to both Dailey and the client, would highlight MacGregor's superior innovation and craftsmanship, advanced technology and overall image as premium brand.

As recently as 3 weeks ago, Magnani was placing ads looking for people with golf experience, so obviously they didn't see this coming. Seems that as soon as new work for MacGregor breaks, the agency loses the account. Here's hoping Dailey can make it at least one round with this nutjob client.

May 24, 2005 by Shawn Hartley | Permalink | 3 Comments

We are looking to do an informal poll for our first Technology Tuesday column, mainly to gauge the level of usage of a couple key web-technologies.

1. Is your firm utilizing Blogs, either internal or external? And if you are an agency, are your clients utilizing Blogs?

2. Is your firm or your clients using a Wiki?

3. Is your firm or your clients producing Podcasts?

4. As an individual, are you using any of the above?

Please post your responses via the Comments or by email to the tips line (listed top-left of every page). We aren't looking for specifics details at this time, but feel free to include them if you wish. Anonymous submissions are acceptable (use anon -at- adpulp.com if you need something to fill out the email field of the comment form).

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

Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune music critic, spoke with Bono last week, at Bono's request. The rock icon wanted to clear the air about several issues he had with Kot's writing about his band. In the midst of the discussion, Bono said he's proud of U2's association with Apple, but points out that U2 turned down $23 million from another ad world suitor.

Bono: We have turned down enormous sums of money to put our songs in a commercial, where we felt, to your point, where it might change the way people appreciated the song. We were offered $23 million for just the music to "Where the Streets Have No Name."

Kot: I might have to consider that [laughs].

Bono: We almost did. We sat down. I know from my work in Africa what $23 million could buy. It was very hard to walk away from $23 million. So we thought, "We'll give the money away." But if we tell people we're giving the money away, it sounds pompous. So we'll just give it away, and take the hit. That's what we agreed. But if a show is a little off, and there's a hole, that's the one song we can guarantee that God will walk through the room as soon as we play it. So the idea that when we played it, people would go, "That's the 'such-and-such' commercial," we couldn't live with it. Had it been a cool thing, or didn't have a bad association, or it was a different song, we might've done it.

May 24, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 5 Comments

Steve Rubel points to a p.r. story where a group of patriotic bloggers (with nothing better to do), got their panties in a wad over a metaphor used by PepsiCo's CFO to describe America's central position in the world.

A message from PepsiCo's President & CFO, Indra Nooyi:

Following my remarks to the graduating class of Columbia University’s Business School in New York City, I have come to realize that my words and examples about America unintentionally depicted our country negatively and hurt people.

I appreciate the honest comments that have been shared with me since then, and am deeply sorry for offending anyone. I love America unshakably – without hesitation – and am extremely grateful for the opportunities and support our great nation has always provided me.

Over the years I’ve witnessed and advised others how a thoughtless gesture or comment can hurt good, caring people. Regrettably, I’ve proven my own point. Please accept my sincere apologies. – Indra Nooyi

Business Week's Diane Brady says about the incident, "...it's a shame that one executive's carefully worded opinion at a college speech should prompt such a backlash, then a mea culpa. In today's world of blogs and instant communications, though, even mild criticism can become fodder for a cyber-conflagration."

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

Ad Guy #1: Hey, I know. Let's meet. Then we can spend two hours making doodles while looking busy.

Ad Guy #2: Excellent!

Cartoon courtesy of Hugh MacLeod.

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

Ad Age reports that as part of a product placement deal in Broadway's Sweet Charity, playwright Neil Simon approved a script change to promote Gran Centenario tequila.

“I’ll have a double scotch on the rocks” was changed to a mention of the premium tequila. "We didn’t bastardize the script, and [playwright Neil Simon] OKed the change," Barry Weissler, the show's producer said.

The arrangement is the latest brand integration success by Amy Willstatter, president of New York-based Bridge to Hollywood/Broadway, who specializes in inserting product promotions in and around live theater productions.

“The play is a fun environment,” Ms. Willstatter said. What’s more, with a new-to-Broadway leading lady, Christina Applegate, best-known for her long-running role on TV’s Married with Children, Sweet Charity potentially brings to Broadway a new generation of theatergoers -- just the sort of upscale, experience-oriented consumers Gran Centenario was looking for.

A quick Google search indicates the premium tequila has also recently sponsored film festivals and fashion weeks.

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

Madison, WI almost banned the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. The city council—in this most progressive of American cities—sought to rid vehicular advertising from their fine streets. But then one astute council member asked the key question, “Are we banning Little Oscar?"

The encased meats producer (formerly a family business, now part of Kraft Foods) has been headquartered in Madison since 1955.

Thanks to Adfreak for the pointer.

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

from Ad Age: A clever campaign created by Peterson Milla Hooks, Minneapolis, for Target won Best of Show honors at last night’s OBIE Awards Gala. The OBIEs are awarded to agencies that craft the best outdoor creative executions of the year.

The Target campaign, titled “Needs and Wants,” married seemingly unrelated products -- toilet paper and a winter scarf, two pairs of jeans-clad legs and a slinky -- to demonstrate the range of products available at the retailer.

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

from CNN: The Federal Aviation Administration proposed to amend its regulations to ensure that it can enforce a law that prohibits "obtrusive" advertising in zero gravity.

"Objects placed in orbit, if large enough, could be seen by people around the world for long periods of time," the FAA said in a regulatory filing.

Currently, the FAA lacks the authority to enforce the existing law.

For instance, outsized billboards deployed by a space company into low Earth orbit could appear as large as the moon and be seen without a telescope, the FAA said. Big and bright advertisements might hinder astronomers.

"Large advertisements could destroy the darkness of the night sky," regulators said.

May 25, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Karpat Polat, a creative at creative powerhouse DM9DDB in Brazil, sent us his latest TV spot for home security company, Telemergencia. While this spot will most likely not win a Lion (something Karpat achieved while working in Instanbul), it does hold the viewer's attention with the clever use of sound.

Click the still to play.

May 25, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

Well, the soda's getting relaunched, thanks to Coca-Cola and Campbell-Mithun.
Adweek has the full story.

I don't really care about Fresca. I just wanted to quote Caddyshack today.
Rest In Peace, Ted Knight.

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

Sometimes it's not the words in a firm's mission statement that impresses, but the real actions of the company. New Belgium Brewery in Ft. Collins is one such example. New Belgium takes environmental consciousness to the next level by living it.

Founded by an electrical engineer and a social worker, it only makes sense that New Belgium has always looked for ways to be energy efficient and socially responsible. Through embracing new technologies, seeking out alternative forms of energy and reducing our waste stream, we strive to make smart business decisions and do well by the environment each and every day. We are currently focused on the following areas of environmental balance.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction • In 1998, New Belgium took an employee vote and decided to commit to being the nation’s first 100% wind-powered brewery. The decision came after our engineers, looking to minimize CO2 emissions, discovered that city’s power plant, which supplied the brewery with electricity, created the bulk of our emissions. Employee owners voted to dip into their bonus pool to help finance the conversion.

Healthy Watersheds • Water is a key ingredient of beer. Water is also a key ingredient of life, ergo beer is a key ingredient of life (well – that’s a stretch, but it’s a mighty fine thing). Water conservation may well be the critical environmental concern in the western U.S. As brewers, we need to take that seriously. Through recapture and reuse, New Belgium has nearly halved the industry average of using eight barrels of water to produce one barrel of beer.

Green Building • New Belgium has been a long-time participant in green building techniques. With each expansion of our facility we have incorporated new technologies and learned a few lessons along the way. In 2002 we agreed to participate in the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB) pilot program. From sun tubes and daylighting throughout the facility to reusing heat in the brewhouse, we continue to search out new ways to close loops and conserve resources.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle • The three ‘R’s of being an environmental steward. Our reuse program includes heat for the brewing process, cleaning chemicals, water and much more. Recyling at New Belgium takes on many forms, from turning “waste” products into something new and useful (like spent grain to cattle feed), to supporting the recycling market in creative ways (like turning our keg caps into table surfaces). We also buy recycled whenever we can, from paper to office furniture. Reduction surrounds us – from motion sensors on the lights throughout the building to induction fans that pull in cool winter air to chill our beer – offsetting our energy needs is the cornerstone to being environmentally efficient.

Living Sustainably • Having our own Sustainability Coordinator – or Sustainability Goddess as we like to refer to Hillary – has given us access to all sorts of great information. If you want to learn more about any of the programs to which New Belgium subscribes or maybe you’d like to have wind power at your home, check out these links.

In addition, New Belgium offers each employee an ownership share in the brewery and a fat tire cruiser bike after one year of service. And there's more. New Belgium’s practice of open-book management, a policy of fiscal transparency throughout the company, builds the kind of trust (and loyalty) that simply can not bought.

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

from Minneapolis Star Tribune: What do Mao Zedong, J. Edgar Hoover, Batgirl and Casanova have to do with the new Minneapolis Central Library?

They're part of an edgy new ad campaign from the Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library -- edgier than the organization even expected. It has generated heated e-mails from as far away as Taiwan, and the campaign hasn't even been formally launched.

Critics say that promoting the library with images of Mao and Hoover is inappropriate and offensive. But the creators say that misinformation spread through Web logs produced confusion about the ads' true content.

Still, the commotion is producing the desired result -- raising awareness about the new downtown library.

The $125 million, five-story building designed by Cesar Pelli is under construction on Nicollet Mall and is scheduled to open in spring 2006, the flagship of the city's 15-library system.

"If there is a scandal here, it's the closed signs in library windows," said Colin Hamilton, executive director of the Friends of the Minneapolis Library. "We've laid off 25 percent of our staff and cut hours by 35 percent. We couldn't rely on the same images we'd always used, like testimonials from librarians. They didn't work."

The ad campaign was donated by the Andrews/Birt agency, creator of such eye-catching campaigns as the city of Excelsior's "Secede from Starbucks Nation" that caused a ruckus a couple of years ago.

May 26, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Adweek reports on a new campaign fro the Atlanta Community Food Bank from Paprocki in Atlanta. But that's not the news I want to share with you this fine morning. What jumps out at me is, "Where's Huey?"

Paprocki opened his shop May 1 after splitting with his partner of seven years, Ron Huey. Together, they operated Huey/Paprocki in Atlanta. Huey also is opening a new shop in Atlanta this summer. The two split the agency's assets and clients when they shuttered operations at the end of April.

Divorce is ugly. And these two had such a beautiful union, at least from afar.

May 26, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 8 Comments

Yesterday, we reported on Target's OBIE-winning image-only outdoor. Today, we show another OBIE winner. This time the win is about context—another important consideration when placing out of home advertising.

This board, produced by Bailey Lauerman, appeared on I-180 just outside of Haymarket Park in Lincoln. 1139 feet from home plate, to be exact.

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

from Newsday: A year after revelations of dumped papers led to lawsuits and federal investigations, dozens of bundles of a free Newsday advertising circular were found in an abandoned lot in Islip this past weekend.

Stacks of the Newsday Food Extra, a package of features, advertising circulars and coupons delivered free to non-subscribers, were visible in a box-trailer in an industrial area of Freeman Avenue off Spur Drive in Islip.

Photos of the bundles show the papers were dated May 21, the day they were discovered, meaning they'd been dumped recently.

While the papers are delivered free, Newsday charges advertising rates based in part on the pledge to deliver copies to targeted residents.

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

from Montgomery Advertiser: About 50 people, some clutching café con leches, café lattes and Frappuccinos, watched as Arthur Odle and Rebecca Lightfoot were married Friday night at Starbucks.

To some, it may have seemed like a strange place for a wedding, but for Odle and Lightfoot it made perfect sense. During the past year, not only coffee, but romance has been brewing at the Starbucks at 2107 East Blvd. Lightfoot said she helped Odle appreciate gourmet coffee when they were dating.

"When he proposed to me, it was at Starbucks. I didn't accept right away, but when I did, that was at Starbucks, too. I said jokingly that so much had happened here that we might as well get married here too. He laughed. I laughed, but then we thought about it."

"They weren't just regulars," Starbucks manager Blake Stevens said. "They were everyday regulars, and part of what Starbucks is about is building relationships with our customers."

Thanks to Starbucks Gossip for the pointer.

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

Motivated by Carl LaFong's generous commentary from earlier today (and the fact that place is ever important in business, as it is in life), we are reinstituting our "Agencies in Strange Places" series.

Today, we invite you to take a closer look at Kelliher Samets Volk in Burlington, VT.

We live in Burlington, Vermont. Lucky us.

In fact, we love the place. We love the look. The history. The architecture. The postcard setting. The people. The buzz. The hip feel. The fries and gravy.

Our city was named after the Earl of Burlington. Isn't that cool? It is to us anyway.

Burlington, Vermont isn't for everyone. But it is for us.

To view our two earlier posts on this subject, enter "Agencies In Strange Places" in the handy-dandy AdPulp search box on your right.

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

Tom Asacker is getting his Advertainment groove on.

Have you seen the new Gap commercial starring Joss Stone? It's a sign of things to come, as marketers dump traditional advertising and appropriate popular culture to sell their wares.

Here's how it works: The Gap pays Joss to record and star in a hot little number wearing Gap white jeans. The audience is exposed to it either through broadcast television or via the web, and then is directed to the Gap website where they can download a free copy of the song and order their own white jeans.

It's a win-win. The Gap gets a cultural icon. The icon gets massive exposure. Can you imagine other scenarios? How 'bout this? Levi's hires a popular graffiti artist to spray paint kickin' designs on jeans. See the ad on TV or the web, and then go to Levi's website to purchase your own custom pair.

It does seem like a good way to sell jeans, but when I went to The Gap download page, the song never made its way to my hard drive. Freaking technology.

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

We hear it all the time: "How did an agency this good end up in North Ideeho?"

The truth is, Dayne Hanna is originally from New York. Our creative director is from Denver. Many of our creatives have migrated from places like Los Angeles, Seattle, San Diego, Houston.

Why?

Becasue here we water-ski at lunch. We leave our cars unlocked, And, at most, we wear ties once a month. North Idaho is all the things Madsion Avenue wastes half its day dreaming about. So, we're content to spend our days coming up with big ideas for relatively small clients.

Of course, at our second location on the mean streets of Spokane, we HAVE come fact-to-face with a parking meter. But therapy is helping.

May 27, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Ernie Schenck might consider buying a Mica MP3 player from Norway, if it wasn't for the power of Apple—a brand indelibly stamped onto his mind.

This device has an FM radio and the ability to record. iPod does not.

May 27, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Name This Company is a site where you can enter your naming ideas for a company that aspires to be "an inspiration and education company that exists to accelerate the professional success and personal fulfillment of solopreneurs."

Now, you know why they need help naming their company.

They're giving $300 in Amazon.com credit to the winner and an autographed copy of Seth Godin's new Liars book to the runner up.

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

I understand this is not a mission statement, but it could be. The man who wrote it is full of such thoughts, so narrowing him down to one mission statement could be a lot to ask. Not that I have asked.

Hey Hugh, does this work for you as a Gapingvoid mission statement?

Gapingvoid is the perfect website to get your daily blogging fix. Filled to the brim with hilarious cartoons, it also offers timely and insightful commentary on the new realities of advertising and marketing. Indeed, some people would say it's just not the blogosphere without gapingvoid to enhance their quality blogging experience. Start your day the switched on way- subscribe here to get gapingvoid on your RSS feeder today!

I wrote the preceding paragraph to illustrate the intellectual bankruptcy of what I call "Dinosaurspeak". That rather sociopathic combination of being completely focused on customer benefit and yet completely selfish at the same time.

And yeah, if it doesn't work on gapingvoid, it ain't going to work on your product, either.

What is interesting to me is that this style of language was pretty universal only a few years ago. Sure, you had a few mavericks out there stirring things up, but most external business communication was pretty much stuck in firehose mode.

Thanks to Johnnie Moore for the reminder.

May 30, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

I didn't travel this weekend, but I'm sure some of you did, so I hope you enjoyed those free in-flight snacks, because they might be disappearing.

According to this article, Northwest Airlines will stop offering free pretzels on its flights in coach class. America's 6 major airlines have a tendency to quickly copy each other's ideas, so this one might catch on.

The airline says no more pretzels will save the airline $2 million a year. Isn't that a drop in the bucket in terms of operating costs? I think this is yet another sign of airlines' sticking it to customers that have to put up with more and more crap every time they fly.

Flying is simply not a pleasant experience these days. Now, that's not entirely the fault of the airlines, but for the sake of their individual brands, they need to make the best out of the part of the experience they do control. Yanking away the pretzels doesn't help.

I've written about the airlines' marketing problems before. And if I were at Northwest's ad agency (I don't even know what shop that is), I'd tell them that the money they'll save won't be worth the PR that makes the airline look cheap.

May 31, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

from New York Times: When the Meredith Corporation announced its purchase of Gruner & Jahr's women's magazines last Tuesday, Meredith said that Gruner's business magazines, Fast Company and Inc., were not "material" to the sale. What that means is that two magazines that sold for more than half a billion dollars four years ago now have a value of zero.

As it flees toward its exit from a billion-dollar experiment gone horribly wrong, Gruner & Jahr, a division of the German media giant Bertelsmann, may salvage a few dollars, if not its dignity, by selling Inc. But Fast Company, always more of an idea than an actual magazine, is probably gone for good.

May 31, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

from Reuters: Nike has a message for shoppers looking for the hottest shoe design: Just do it -- yourself.

The world's largest athletic shoemaker has relaunched a web site where shoppers design their own shoes, choosing everything from the color of the famous Nike swoosh to personalizing the tongue with a word or phrase.

The bid to target shoppers who want to stand out marks part of a growing trend toward customization in retail that analysts see as a way for companies to charge a premium for self-styled products.

May 31, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

from Forbes: Branded products have long been a strong draw in college stores, where they represent 10% of sales to identity-seeking students and nostalgic alums. But recently other consumers are buying into college brands as well. "Here's what I think is interesting," says Find/SVP analyst Kate Pennell, "foreign tourists are now snapping up college logos the way Americans go for Hermès and Wedgwood."

And companies are seemingly willing to pay heavily to put their names on teams, events and stadiums, in what Pennell says is a very subtle form of affinity marketing. "There's no direct return on investment." Yet, the corporate branding of arenas and teams has raised protests in another quarter from which major college donations come: loyal alumni who don't want the edge of their nostalgia blunted by crass name changes.

Ohio State, Boise State and Louisville alums must be immune from such considerations, as Newell Rubbermaid has claimed the Rubbermaid Home Products Courtyard at Ohio State University. Taco Bell, which is owned by Yum Brands, has branded Boise State University's basketball arena. And Papa John's International has its name over Cardinal Stadium at the University of Louisville.

May 31, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Rich...! at Hello World waxes poetic on an issue close to all our ad world hearts.

People are like dogs, they need to mark their territory, sadly for anyone who ever has to present creative/strategic ideas, in the land of men, outright acceptance is not seen as a sufficient marking tactic.

Right or wrong, people will generally want to criticise your product in some way, this is how they prove to themselves (and everyone else in the meeting) that they are worth every penny of their paycheck - I do it all the time.

As we debate the various causes of poor advertising, it might be time better spent to debate the subtle psychologies of selling.

May 31, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

At Peet's we take great pride in offering our customers coffees of uncompromising quality. One coffee that embodies this commitment is Las Hermanas, produced with great skill and care by a sisterhood of growers in Nicaragua - 184 women strong-on their own plots of land. These extraordinary women are part of a larger 650 member co-operative called Soppexcca.

In 1998, Fátima Ismael, an agronomist by profession, was asked to manage a struggling co-op plagued by poor management and a growing debt of nearly one million dollars. Fátima set out to develop a business plan that would help the co-op run efficiently and immediately initiated systems for training, education and cupping evaluation. To pay off the co-op's debt, she also established a 30-year payment plan with creditors. As Fátima explained, "For me, it was about protecting the lives of the farmers first and foremost."

May 31, 2005 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

A new report, after examining thousands of documents, says that tobacco companies went to great lengths to increase smoking among women.

Here's the story from the AP. You'll have to see it to believe it.

But here's a choice nugget:

One of the documents, a 1987 internal report from Philip Morris, extolled the virtues of making a longer, slimmer cigarette that offered the false promise of a "healthier" product.

"Most smokers have little notion of their brand's tar and nicotine levels," the report states. "Perception is more important than reality, and in this case the perception is of reduced tobacco consumption."

And another one:

"...a 1982 report from British-American Tobacco Co. that said women buy cigarettes to help them "cope with neuroticism."

"We can safely conclude that the strength of cigarettes that are purchased by women is related to their degree of neuroticism," the report stated.

I suppose none of this should really shock me, but seeing it in print still has an impact.

May 31, 2005 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

from Haaretz: Seeking to improve its image among Palestinians, the United States has launched an advertising campaign in the West Bank, using billboards and television commercials filled with grinning children to tell Palestinians they have cleaner water and more classrooms thanks to its generosity.

But the U.S. government's campaign is off to a tough start: No Palestinian entertainer or athlete was willing to serve as its goodwill ambassador, reflecting widespread anti-American sentiment. No political leaders were asked to participate.

Ads are broadcast 15 times a day on local radio and eight times a day on local TV stations as well as two Arab satellite stations, and messages are plastered on 70 billboards. Each ad ends with the slogan: "From people to people," separating the aid from U.S. government policy.

But the prevailing view is that the ad money is being wasted - and that attitudes won't budge until Washington drops what Palestinians consider its pro-Israel bias and gets serious about Palestinian statehood.