June 1, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

WakeUpWalMart.com has launched an advertising campaign aiming to dissuade what it calls Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s core customers -- Southerners and conservative Republicans -- from shopping at the retailer.

WakeUpWalMart.com, which was formed two years ago by the United Food and Commercial Workers union. The UFCW's tagline is "A Voice for Working America."

The first ad to air criticizes Wal-Mart's ties to China. The ad alleges that Wal-Mart has contributed to the loss of American jobs by purchasing Chinese-made goods, proclaiming "It's just not American."

[via The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.)]

June 1, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Ad Age and the Chicago Sun Times are both writing about JWT's Chicago office today.

Lewis Lazare leads with:

It didn't take long for the other shoe to drop at JWT/Chicago. Just weeks after a quarter of the agency's staff was axed, JWT/Chicago also is jettisoning its top managers -- President Ros King and executive creative director Graham Woodall. This latest management upheaval comes in the wake of Kraft's recent decision to pull more than $180 million worth of business from the agency. The list of Kraft products yanked from the JWT roster ranged from Kraft cheese singles to Lunchables and Ritz crackers. Kraft's relationship with the JWT Chicago office dates back more than 70 years.

Rosemarie Ryan and Ty Montague, co-presidents of JWT's New York office will eventually oversee a new, local management team.

Before coming to Chicago, Woodall was ECD at D’Arcy/New York. King came from JWT/London.

June 1, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

The Wall Street Journal wants to sell its Weekend Edition. Their creative leaders campaign is intended to do just that.

Here's their pitch:

Even in an industry full of radical thinking there are standouts—individuals whose ideas consistently break new ground, no matter how quickly circumstances shift. These pioneeers realize that even as the work week ends, the next big thing is about to begin. Weekend Edition is proud to share their insights and ideas with you. Weekend Edition. Where business meets leisure, creativity happens.

Naturally, Alex Bogusky is the go-to poster boy for this effort. Nothing says "weekend" like squeezing some work in between trips to the motocross track.

June 1, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

This Hanft Raboy and Partners ad for Chemistry.com is timely.

Reuters is reporting that dating site eHarmony is facing legal action in California for denying lesbians and gays the right to use its service. Lawyers bringing the action on behalf of Linda Carlson are seeking to make their case into a class action lawsuit.

eHarmony was founded in 2000 by evangelical Christian Dr. Neil Clark Warren and had strong early ties with the influential religious conservative group Focus on the Family.

According to USA Today, Warren says eHarmony promotes heterosexual marriage, about which he has done extensive research. He says he does not know enough about gay and lesbian relationships to do same-sex matching.

Lesbians and gays are not the only ones unwelcome on eHarmony; Warren says he rejects 16% of those who take his patented personality test because they're poor marriage prospects.

June 2, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

I saw a TV spot last night that led me to Google and then to Nikon's wonderful "Picturetown" microsite, created to promote their D40 camera.

Nikon, with the help of McCann Erickson/New York, has put together a remarkable campaign. Remarkable because it's a consumer generated content initiative that looks and feels extremely high-quality. Consumers will no doubt attribute this to the D40's ease-of use, which from my perspective is more of the magic at work here.

Nikon went to scenic and historic Georgetown, SC (near Myrtle Beach) and gave away 200 $499 cameras to citizens of "Picturetown." Their photos are displayed in the gallery-like site, where they can also be downloaded, emailed and commented upon.

June 2, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 5 Comments

I guess that when you read a blog called Why Advertising Sucks you know what you're in for, but still it's some good reading. There's a perfectly well-timed and well-crafted rant entry:

You won’t matter for however much people insist that you do because no matter what, someone else will do your job and since your full potential shall never be utilized, then no worries, because someone half as good as you can provide the same material and guess what, that person will fight less and be cheaper which means kudos for the agency for getting rid of that problematic creative that insisted that he wanted to help our company when he consistently did the opposite of what he’s told. Who needs creative criterion when you should be taking orders. You live in an information buffet, a restaurant service where you serve the exact dishes offered. Don’t improvise, don’t modify, don’t even think.

There's more. Lots more. Read the whole thing. The author, named "Joker," clearly feels my pain. Or channeled my innermost thoughts yesterday.

June 3, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

In her latest Hog Blog post Sally Hogshead explains the value of anarchy and reminds us the "The Declaration of Independence" was once considered an anarchist document.

As much as I love where she's going with her "Anarchy Now!" call to action, what I really like is her paragraph on transparency.

Companies are coming to terms with the need to be “transparent” with consumers, realizing that poor service, shoddy products, and old-economy weaknesses can’t be shellacked with a fresh coat of PR. But instead of genuinely fixing problems and being transparent about it, they’re trying to “do” transparency, managing their image via corporate blogs and videos. Transparency is not a strategy. Strategies are voluntary and optional, and transparency is neither. Like it or not, consumers will pay attention to that man behind the curtain.

June 3, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Today's New York Times "Sunday Styles" section explores the rise of high end bakeries in Los Angeles. To understand how a culture moves full speed from fear of carbs and sugar to the need for indulgence, the Times reporter turns to cultural anthropologist, Grant McCracken and food critic Jonathan Gold for answers.

Blame it on a culture where the BlackBerry-obsessed run around like overcaffeinated track stars, but there is a tremendous craving for comfort, particularly in fast-paced cities like Los Angeles, said Grant McCracken, the author of the book Culture and Consumption II: Markets, Meaning and Brand Management. For many people, he said, “baking represents that, it harks back to a simpler time.”

Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer-winning food critic for LA Weekly, said hardly a week goes by without a box of cookies or cupcakes landing on his desk from a new place he’s never heard of. “And they’re not just cupcakes,” he said. “They’re cupcakes with publicists.”

As for budding cupcake empires, that designation belongs to Sprinkles. Sprinkles opened in Beverly Hills in April 2005 and now counts celebs like Oprah and Katie Holmes among its customers. Sprinkles also has stores in Dallas and Newport Beach, with plans to open a dozen more.

June 4, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

A cognitive scientist in the employ of Arnold is responsible for clouding up what was once a very simple execution. Yuo know the one—two men in the role of cranberry growers stand knee-deep in a bog. The duo has been appearing in Ocean Spray ads since late 2005. But now the growers have company in the bog. Now there's a group of women exercising behind them. You know, because cranberry bogs make such great work out areas.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Lisa Haverty, the cognitive sceintist in question, believes the presence of the women exercising will form a question in the consumer's mind about why they're exercising. People will want to seek an answer, which will make the image more memorable.

June 4, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Ad Age wants its readers to know how essential blogs are to the media mix and product promotion.

One of the big reasons blogs have such impact is their credibility among readers. In a February poll from We Media and Zogby Interactive, 72% of adults said they were dissatisfied with the quality of American journalism today. Another 55% said bloggers are important to the future of American journalism, and 74% said citizen journalism will play a vital role, according to the poll.

Consumers are also taking bloggers' word before they buy. A late 2006 Ipsos MORI survey found that blogs were a more trusted source of information than advertising or e-mail marketing. One-third of respondents said they had decided not to buy a product after reading a negative blog post, while 52% were persuaded to buy after reading a positive review.

June 4, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The staff at Rogue Ales Brewery in Newport, Oregon understands video and its place on the intertubes.

June 4, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 13 Comments

Just so Courtney doesn't sue us, I won't show the Doc Martens ad featuring Kurt Cobain in heaven. It was only supposed to be seen in a British music magazine. But the International Herald Tribune has more on what happened next:

The trouble began when an employee - disobeying instructions, Saatchi insisted - submitted the images to www.adcritic.com, a U.S.-based ad industry Web site. In the United States, the estates of dead celebrities are allowed to control the use of their images, unlike in Britain, where, lawyers say, no approval is needed.

A spokeswoman for Saatchi, Eleanor Conroy, said the employee who was responsible for the breach had been dismissed.

"While we believe the creative is a beautiful tribute to four legendary musicians, the individual broke both agency and client protocol in this situation by placing the ads on a U.S. advertising Web site and acting as an unauthorized spokesperson for the company," Kate Stanners, executive creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi London, said in a statement.

Sending ads to sites like AdCritic is common, particularly when an agency or ad executive is trying to "seed" it so that it can spread "virally" on the Internet. Creative types like to do this in order to generate chatter about their ads, which is helpful when awards season rolls around. Clients rarely complain, because they get free advertising.

In this case, however, Airwair International, the British company that makes Dr. Martens, was not impressed. It canceled its contract with Saatchi & Saatchi, reportedly worth £5 million, or $9.9 million, over three years.

So the agency got fired, and in turn, fired whoever uploaded the ad to AdCritic.

June 4, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The Washington Post's Gene Weingarten is fed up with the language employed by PR execs. So he came up with a solution. He turned the tables and queried them with language that mimics their own.

Here he is asking his contact at Meir Kahtan a question about MasterCard:

Given the degree to which the deployment of incentives-based purchasing paradigms leads to the accretion of goods and the contracting of services by consumers in patterns and to extents that may prove inimical to the sorts of budgetarily sagacious decision-making vis-a-vis the prudent marshaling of available resources and or investment strategies, might your new program, through positive reinforcement of negatively nuanced patterns of behavior, contribute to economic nonviability on a user-based scale?

Brilliant.

[via Andy Lark]

June 4, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 7 Comments

On May 25th, Brand Republic claimed, "the digital world really made its mark at last night's D&AD ceremony." But DDB London creative Rob Messeter ain't buyin' it. In a guest post on Scamp he says:

I know it's the future and everything, and everyone seems to be wetting themselves with excitement over it (particularly marketing people) but, is it me, or is most online advertising really pony?

I’m not just talking about the big shouty garish banners, or the annoying pop up things, I'm actually thinking of the supposedly award-winning stuff.

Here's a link to the winning entries, so you can judge for yourself.

An anonymous commenter on Scamp weighed in with this ego-based drivel, "the unfortunate reality, ladies and gentlemen, is that our industry is rapidly losing its glamour and the geeks are taking over. and there's bugger all we can do about it."

June 5, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

In a sign that the more things change, the more they stay the same, Ad Age reminds us the degree of emphasis some brands place on running a winning Super Bowl spot.

After a messy split with its previous agency, Cramer-Krasselt, CareerBuilder.com said it has handed its $60 million creative advertising account to Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, Ore.

The Chicago-based job website had placed its account into review after Super Bowl spots produced by longtime agency Cramer-Krasselt failed to place in the top 10 of USA Today's "Ad Meter" poll. Cramer-Krasselt immediately resigned the business.

I'll say this, given their objectives—a killer Super Bowl spot—CareerBuilder turned to the right people. Weiden can deliver that and more.

June 5, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Cambridge-educated brand planner Richard Huntington wonders aloud on his blog adliterate if blogging is killing planning.

The idea that blogging is killing planning is arrant nonsense. The main accusation is that it encourages people to share half thought through thinking. Well no shit, in a 2.0 world where you should always be in Beta test, this is the whole point.

The plannersphere is not a journal of record for the science of advertising it is a place where we try out our new thinking for the first time. It is a place where a planner like me can submit half-baked ideas to the collective intelligence of the online planning community for their scrutiny, contribution and improvement.

And it is a place where a planner from any part of the globe, can gain access to the best thinking in our discipline and support from a global community of planners.

Blogging isn’t killing planning it’s the best thing that has happened since the death of the overhead projector.

I don't know where this debate is coming from, but I find it interesting, particularly so since AdPulp in many ways is a poor man's planner. One of the things we're doing here is making a database of good ideas, which might later inform the work we do for paying clients. Of course, since anyone with a connection to the intertubes can also read through our collection, "the advantage" is shared. That's the upset apple cart aspect of what we, and so many others, do.

June 5, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

After I mentioned the StrawberryFrog ad that ran in Fortune magazine, I got a nice note from Peter Levitan of Ralston360 in Bend, Oregon.

Peter mentioned that his agency too believes in promoting itself through ads, and he passed along a few examples that have run in Oregon markets. These ads use traditional print advertising to highlight the agency's non-traditional thinking. Click on them for a larger view.

He also promotes the agency and their thinking through regular email marketing.

I applaud efforts like these, and I know good agency self-promotion takes a fair amount of time and money. I still believe not enough agencies are doing this. Because if we can't promote our own brands, how can we persuade a client that we can promote theirs?

June 5, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

So what happens when you try to launch a new mobile phone service with edgy ads that say "Try not to die--Amp'd Mobile is coming"?

Yeah, you get a lot of edgy cool hip viral buzz--and a whole lot of deadbeat customers. From BusinessWeek:

The gold rush of specialized cell-phone companies targeting niche audiences took another hit on June 1 as Amp'd Mobile, an edgy upstart geared to free-spending youths, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Apparently, those free-spending youths don't care much for paying their cell-phone bills. A court motion filed on June 4 explains that Amp'd "experienced an unprecedented growth of subscribers" between November, 2006, and February after running ads on MTV (VIA) about the wireless phone company's lineup of mobile music and video content.

Collecting payments from these subscribers proved to be a challenge, however. "Approximately 90% of the debtor's customers were on 18-month service contracts," according to the filing. "The debtor began to find a host of credit and collections problems (that) contributed ultimately to a liquidity crisis." By May, the number of nonpaying customers reached 80,000. That's nearly half of Amp'd's current customer base of 175,000 subscribers.

Maybe it works better for Combos and Skittles to target youth, 'cause you don't need a service contract to buy those.

June 6, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to The Wall Street Journal (paid sub req), Anheuser-Busch CEO August Busch IV is under the spell of a Carribean crooner.

In its latest move to test the liquor market, beer giant Anheuser-Busch Cos. said it reached an agreement with singer Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville Spirits to distribute Margaritaville Tequila in Massachusetts.

The St. Louis brewer has recently test-marketed several spirits products amid slow growth in its core business. Earlier this year, Anheuser teamed with Mr. Buffett to develop LandShark Lager -- dubbed an "original island lager" -- through an Anheuser unit, Margaritaville Brewing Co.

June 6, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Dana Milbank attended a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC where he got to witness the Sudanese ambassador to Washington, John Ukec Lueth Ukec, make a fool of himself.

In a bizarre twist of events, the ambassador threatened to cut off shipments of the emulsifier gum arabic, thereby depriving the world of cola.

"I want you to know that the gum arabic which runs all the soft drinks all over the world, including the United States, mainly 80 percent is imported from my country," the ambassador said after raising a bottle of Coca-Cola.

A reporter asked if Sudan was threatening to "stop the export of gum arabic and bring down the Western world."

"I can stop that gum arabic and all of us will have lost this," Khartoum Karl warned anew, beckoning to the Coke bottle. "But I don't want to go that way."

Thankfully, The Washington Post has video coverage. The ambassador's presentation would be surreal if it wasn't such a time-honored practice to face the cameras and lie, lie, lie.

June 6, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Lewis Lazare looks today at the departure of another creative department mucky muck from DDB/Chicago.

Normally, I would hesitate to bring this "news" to your attention, but Lazare dangles the compensation carrot—something I find impossible to resist.

As recently as last winter, (Senior Vice President and Director of Content Production, David) Rolfe threatened to leave DDB when he was offered a top production job at JWT/New York. But Rolfe was cajoled into staying at DDB with a fatter paycheck. In an interview Tuesday, Rolfe said the bump up in salary he got at the time of the JWT offer was "minor."

But one source familiar with developments maintains Rolfe negotiated a doubling of his salary from $400,000 to an eye-popping $800,000. DDB/Chicago leader Dana Anderson called such a figure "ludicrous" and "beyond inaccurate."

Clearly, Lazare's figures lack proper verification, but these are some lofty digits being bandied about. Can anyone add substance to this speculation? Is this what production heads make at large agencies? 400-800K?

June 6, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The dream of home ownership is scaled back considerably for those Americans who chose Manhattan as their residence. Just how far that vision is scaled back is revealed in a new campaign from Woods Witt Dealy & Sons for real estate developer Newport Associates Development.

Newport Associates highlights a typical young couple with child who finds themselves squeezed out of their rent-controlled apartment and into their parent's walk-in closet—a far worse situation than choosing to move from NYC to Joyzee. It's a funny idea, and one that just might motivate some people to cross the Husdon River twice a day.

[via Adweek]

June 6, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

The video above is the work of Penn Masala, the world's first Hindi a cappella group. The group's "Facebook Skit" is a parody of Enrique Iglesias' song "Hero." The video, which is critical of online social networking, has been viewed nearly one and half million times on YouTube.

In related news, Washington Post media columnist Howard Kurtz wrote a humorous piece, "Searching for Friends," about being an "old guy" on Facebook.

June 7, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

News that Coca-Cola Co. is launching a new mobile social network called "Sprite Yard" is all over the intertubes. Information Week, Online Media Daily, RCR Wireless News and Adweek are all running with it.

According to RCR Wireless News:

Coca-Cola Co. is moving aggressively onto the mobile marketing playground with a kind of mobile MySpace centered on the company’s Sprite brand.

The soft drink titan plans to launch a worldwide community allowing users to create profiles and exchange photos and messages, executive Mark Greatrex said during the keynote address at the Mobile Marketing Forum in New York. The free downloadable application, dubbed “Sprite Yard,” will be available via a short code and also offer wallpapers, games and video clips.

The effort launched in China last week and is set to launch in the United States beginning June 22. To access the application, U.S. consumers can text “YARD” to 59666 and receive a reply with a WAP link to access the Sprite Yard for the fist time.

“Sprite will be our pioneer in the fast-moving world of mobile marketing,” Greatrex told the audience. “We believe Sprite Yard is the most comprehensive mobile marketing effort on the planet.”

Adweek reports that Aegis Group digital agencies Molecular and Marvelous are behind the effort.

June 7, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

I'd forgotten all about Hadrian's Wall recent merger with Toronto agency Zig, an MDC Company. Somehow, the very sharp minds at Zig knew this about me-that I'm sometimes forgetful. So they set up an eBay auction of old Hadrian's Wall gear to remind me. Do these people know how to "surprise and delight" or what?

June 7, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Associated Press reports that mail-order retailer L.L. Bean is looking to develop a theme park-style adventure center near its flagship store in Freeport, Maine that will build on the company's outdoors heritage, drive sales and add another attraction for tourists.

Visitors to the site and another Bean-owned property along Casco Bay could try activities from biking and archery to kayaking and snowshoeing. There are no plans for roller coasters or log flumes. Instead, the idea would build upon efforts by outdoors outfitters like Cabela's, L.L. Bean and Bass Pro Shops to generate customer traffic by offering rock-climbing walls, aquariums and even ponds to let customers try out equipment.

The concept is the brainchild of former chief executive and current board chairman Leon Gorman — the grandson of Leon Leonwood Bean.

June 7, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

[via Jamie Starr at JoshSpear.com]

June 8, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to Stuart Elliott, mobile marketing is at a nascent stage in the United States, as evidenced by spending last year of just $150 million. But that figure is expected to grow to almost $1.3 billion by 2009, as more advertisers change their media choices to reflect the fast-moving shifts in consumer behavior.

“The 15-to-24-year-old can’t imagine a world without technology,” said Jon Maron, senior director for marketing at LG Electronics MobileComm USA in San Diego, a division of LG Electronics, “so we have to think about our marketing programs in very different terms.”

“The mobile phone is an extension of everything they do,” Mr. Maron said of the young members of the connected generation, “and blogging is becoming as much of a news source for them as the news itself.”

With this consumer insight in mind, LG is joining with the respected music publication Billboard for its Mobile Beat promotion that will send up to 30 contestants (and would be rock critics) to concerts around the country.

The 30 or so youthful "critics" will file reviews and photos on deadline from concert sites, from late June through mid-September. Their reports will be posted on blogs housed on Billboard.com. In true democratic fashion, the bloatosphere will then select the contest’s three finalists as well as the ultimate winner, all chosen based on the number of hits to the individual blogs.

June 8, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

While doing a Google search on a recruiter I used to know, I stumbled on to AgencyScoop.

It's an interesting site, I'm just beginning to delve into it, but it seems to be a place where folks can comment on agencies, recruiters, jobs, etc. It was started by Jason Culbertson, who says:

This site was created as a result of my own struggles trying to get a foot into the advertising industry. As I looked around I found that there was very little out there to help me find a job. I had to rely on friends or friends of friends to find recruiters and info on where to send my book. Eventually, I was able to find my way into a job, but once in I was shocked that the job that I thought I was starting was much different then I was promised, thus began my idea for Agency Scoop.

What began as a simple blog where people could leave anonymous feedback on agencies and recruiters in advertising has developed into a central repository for those in all creative industries to find news, jobs, agencies, and recruiters to help them succeed and bring the power back into the hands of us, the little people.

Check it out. I think it's just in its beginning stages.

Of course, with its ability to accept guest/anonymous comments, you might wanna take anything you read with a grain of salt.

June 8, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Burger King and its famous Whopper returned to Japan Friday after a six-year hiatus, and customers who lined up for hours at the first new branch needed no translation to understand "whopper" means "outlandishly huge."

"It feels more like you're eating a burger," said Shinichi Fujiki, 37, who wore a paper crown as one of the first 100 customers at the Tokyo restaurant's opening. Many hamburgers sold here are small, with thin slices of meat.

The return to Japan is part of Burger King's global expansion efforts.

The chain — which runs more than 11,000 restaurants worldwide, including Europe and Latin America — is opening its first stores this year in Egypt, Hong Kong and Poland.

[via Associated Press]

June 9, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

If you've been wondering who Josh Spear is and how he went from a college drop out to a jet setting trend analyst and brand consultant with a hugely popular online presence, this video of his talk at Zeitgeist Europe 2007 will help.

Spear's talk is 18 minutes long. If you don't have that kind of time to invest, I'll take the liberty of condensing his key points to this: young people love their cell phones--it's "their center of gravity"--and they feel naked without them. Of course, this isn't news. Spear adds value via the details. He explains how digital youth use their phones and services like Twitter and i'm in like with you to interact with their friends.

Here's my favorite soundbite from his presentation:

When it comes to reaching or selling anything to Ally or to digital youth, it's not about finding her--there are unbelievable researchers that can tell you exactly what they're doing--and it's certainly not about interrupting her, we know that, we learned that a long time ago. It's about creating content and functionality that she's going to seek out, use or interact with on a day-to-day basis.

Spear likes to climb rocks, so naturally he's based in Boulder, CO. And yes, Alex Bogusky has him on speed dial.

June 10, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

New York City copywriter and anonymous blogger, The Toad Stool, typed up an interesting post about "the real digital revolution."

The real digital revolution has nothing to do with advertising or marketing. In fact, it's the mortal enemy of advertising and marketing.

Because the real digital revolution is about consumer empowerment, the ability to research and learn about products and services and make decisions independent of marketing and advertising.

Toad goes on to say, "the informed digital consumer is a threat to any business where there are objective standards for judging the product."

This whole argument takes me back to brand consultants calls for investment in better products and better customer service. The thought being that even great advertising won't move the needle for a product or service with a bad reputation.

But what ad agency is in a place to impact these non-advertising areas? Most are nowhere near ready to make this leap; yet, there's an immense business opportunity for agencies who genuinely care about customers' total experience with a client's brand.

June 10, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

June 11, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Bob Garfield caught up with Lee Clow in Cannes. He asked him if he was still an ad guy, what this brave new digital world is all about, if Cannes does more harm than good and other high-minded questions.

On the emergence of digital "the "oldest guy" in this business "thinks he gets it."

As opposed to just being this new digital age, I think it's this new age of transparency and kind of obligation that everything that a brand does is a message, and it needs to be done artfully and truthfully and intelligently, because that's how people are ultimately going to evaluate brands that they want to do business with. And I think ultimately brands are going to become media.

Yep, he gets it.

June 11, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Netscape founder and serial entrepreneur Marc Andreessen started a blog recently. One of his early entries claims there's no such thing as Web 2.0 and cautions against the use of such vague terms.

Before the "Web 2.0 space", you had the "dot com space", the "intranet space", the "B2B space", the "B2C space", the "security space", the "mobile space" (still going strong!)... and before that, the "pen computing" space, the "CD-ROM multimedia space", the "artificial intelligence" space, the "mini-supercomputer space", and going way back, the "personal computer space". And many others.

But there is no such thing as a "space".

There is such a thing as a market -- that's a group of people who will directly or indirectly pay money for something.

There is such a thing as a product -- that's an offering of a new kind of good or service that is brought to a market.

There is such a thing as a company -- that's an organized business entity that brings a product to a market.

But there is no such thing as a "space".

June 11, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

USA Today's On Deadline blog shares a fascinating dispute between the stodgy old NCAA and a mainstream media company over the practice of live blogging.

The NCAA had a newspaper reporter tossed out of the press box yesterday because he was posting updates on a baseball game to the The Louisville Courier-Journal's website.

The NCAA argues in a memo that blogs are a "live representation of the game" that violate copyright restrictions, therefore "no blog entries are permitted between the first pitch and the final out of each game."

The paper, which is owned by the same company as USA TODAY, thinks that's nonsense. "Once a player hits a home run, that's a fact. It's on TV. Everybody sees it. The NCAA can't copyright that fact. The blog wasn't a simulcast or a recreation of the game. It was an analysis," the paper's lawyer says.

June 11, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The New York Post is reporting that Downtown Records and Internet entrepreneur Peter Rojas plan to launch an online-only record label that will offer its music for free and generate revenue only through advertising and sponsorships.

One source familiar with the project described it as a "curated YouTube or MySpace for music with an editorially driven filter."

This source said RCRD LBL would feature a central destination site from which content for various genres of music from rock to electronica to urban can be accessed by consumers and branded or sponsored by advertisers.

"There's an urgency in the industry to find new ways to monetize content," said one source familiar with the project, "and the economics of the Internet facilitate this model because it allows for a leaner organization while letting fans dictate the process."

Downtown Records has Cold War Kids, Gnarls Barkley, Wax on Radio, Art Brut and others in their stable of artists.

June 12, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 5 Comments

In today's Chicago Sun-Times, Lewis Lazare highlights a letter he received from a local post-production veteran:

Copywriters were hired for the number of tattoos and piercings on their bodies rather than writing skill or cleverness. Chicago agencies brought people in from the West Coast and London to give their places a cool vibe, not to sell a client's products. Now the entire scene is disintegrating because advertisers still want to sell stuff, but too few people in the ad business know or care much about doing that persuasive "sell thing."

Also the pompous and condescending attitude that local ad folk have toward Chicago production and editing talent has been painful for the whole community. Oddly enough, I spoke to Graham Woodall (just fired from his job as JWT/Chicago's creative leader) at his "Welcome to Chicago" party a few years back.

After introducing myself and my Chicago-based company, Woodall peered at me and snorted: "I only work in New York or London, sometimes L.A." I said we have wonderful editors here. He said something like "that's interesting, but I have my favorites in New York" and walked away. I thought to myself, this guy is going to ruin JWT, as he is a self-absorbed clown. In the meantime, my business has declined from a fun and busy place to a shell of its former self.

It's a potent reminder that the ad industry itself has all sorts of vendors--photographers, production houses, etc.,-- that are also struggling to navigate the new media landscape, as well as the old attitudes of self-appointed creative stars.

June 12, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Downtown Partners/Chicago has a minimalist, but well designed web presence. Having said that, I fail to grasp the significance of the darkness their imagery conveys. I keep thinking Spiderman or some other superhero is going to swoop in, but that doesn't happen. Rather, a few pigeons make their way across the screen. What's your take?

June 12, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to Adweek, holding company IPG is combining two of its "regional" shops, hoping, as it has before, that the arranged marriage succeeds.

In a deal quietly in the works for months, Dallas-based TM (formerly known as Temerlin McLain) will now absorb Seattle boutique Sedgwick Rd.

"We've both been regional agencies for a long time," said Jim Walker, president and CCO of Sedgwick Rd. "What it takes [to succeed] right now are more disciplines, more creativity and more talent."

The merged agency will have about $460 million in billings and estimated revenue of $54 million. The agency will will operate under the TM name until a more fitting moniker can be finalized.

Other IPG arranged marriages include: Draft and Foote, Cone & Belding; Ammirati Puris Lintas and Lowe; Austin Kelley and Fitzgerald + Co.; Dailey and Suissa Miller; and Long Haymes Carr and Mullen.

[FOOTNOTE] Check out how Sedgwick Rd. describes themselves:

Sedgwick Rd. is the alternative to business-as-usual. We don't try to solve unique problems with boilerplate answers. We have guts. And we practice what we preach. In 2001 we left the safe McCann-Erickson fold to forge our own IPG brand. The result is a nimble, independently minded agency that embraces change and innovation over doing things the way they've always been done.

Have they left "the safe McCann-Erickson fold" to find themselves right back where they started? I'm sure they'd deny it. But they might want to pull that copy off their home page.

June 12, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Denise Spidle of Studio 55 in Naples, Florida

Have you noticed that your favorite newspaper is diving deep into online video production? Industry trade mag, Broadcasting & Cable, has.

In the race to capitalize on the popularity of broadband video, newspapers are continuing to take a page from TV stations’ playbooks by producing increasingly sophisticated newscasts and other Web programs.

Although newspapers have long offered Web video, they are turning to newscasts to grow that online stake. The Roanoke Times offers a daily afternoon program produced in a new multimedia studio and control room. The Naples Daily News produces 30-minute daily “VODcasts” on its online channel, Studio 55. And Gannett’s Wilmington, Del.-based News Journal offers the twice-daily Delaware Online, which features a dedicated Web anchor.

Last November, Fast Company took an interest in The Naples News video programming and in Rob Curley, the man responsible for it.

Unlike previous ink-stained generations, he and his mostly young charges practice journalism with software code, video, podcasts, audio, slide shows, blogs--whatever works. Multimedia storytelling comes as naturally to him as satire did to Mencken. Likewise, interactivity: The notion of a newspaper as a conversation rather than a lecture doesn't strike fear in Curley, the way it does some newspaper purists.

This story reminds me that while walls crumble, new structures rise to replace them. In other words, it may seem like a terrible time to go into the news business, but it's not. It's actually the perfect time, because there's real opportunity to make an impact and help save some storied news brands.

June 12, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

In a bold move, Atlanta- and Tampa-based ad agency West Wayne, (you know, the place where Luke Sullivan once worked) has left the making of mere adverts to a lesser class of communications professionals.

No longer ad men and women, West Wayners are now "friendship experts."

[via Everything's Better With Brentter]

June 12, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to The Detroit News, the Ford Expedition's starring role in the finale of "The Sopranos" was not an official product placement:

The scene in question begins with a lingering close-up of the Blue Oval badge on the grille of an Expedition that carries Phil Leotardo, a New York mob boss locked in a deadly feud with series star Tony Soprano. Leotardo gets out of the passenger side and is promptly shot in the head by one of the latter's henchmen. The mafia don falls, his head landing right before the front wheel of the SUV as his wife leaps from the driver's seat, fleeing from the shooter.

The camera then shifts again to the Ford logo, this time emblazoned on the wheel of the Expedition. The wheel begins to turn, rolling slowly over Leotardo's head, which is crushed with a sickening crunch.

Despite the heavy use of Ford imagery, the automaker said it was as surprised by the scene as anybody else.

"The Expedition that appeared in the series finale of 'The Sopranos' last night was not a product placement deal," said Ford spokeswoman Whitney Drake, quoting a prepared statement.

She would not say whether the automaker was pleased or displeased with the depiction of its powerful SUV.

I'd say Ford could use any publicity it can get. I mean, crushing a mafia boss with a Kia Spectra just doesn't have the same effect.

I'm sure someone's out there putting together a Sopranos/Ford YouTube mashup commercial right now. If they haven't done so already.

June 13, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

We might all thank (or blame) Soprano's writer and executive producer, Matthew Weiner, for injecting some Hollywood-style glam into our industry's sagging self-image. I mean just look what he did for New Jersey and gangsters.

His new series "Mad Men" will premiere on AMC in July. The show takes place in 1960 at Sterling Cooper, a fictional Madison Avenue ad agency.

Marc E. Babej and Tim Pollak, writing for Forbes say the show, "brings to life the advertising industry and milieu in its heyday: the execs, their assistants, the drinking and smoking, the unabashed political incorrectness."

June 13, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

Seems that nearly everything I've read lately has focused on the need to communicate one-on-one with consumers, engage them, have a conversation with them. Is that at all possible with mass marketing?

Let’s try an experiment. I want you to form a mental image of “Joe Sixpack.”

Advertising people talk about “Joe Sixpack” all the time. But what does he look like?

Picture him in your mind. Look away from the screen until you’ve got him pictured…then come back and read the rest.

Got a picture?

OK. Now…let me ask you a question:

For the rest, you'll have to read my new column on Talent Zoo.

If you've got any better ways advertising and marketing can treat and depict people as individuals, not target markets, I'm all ears.

June 13, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The New York Times investigates increased online activity at many of the nation's mainstream radio stations. These moves to stay relevant and reach listeners where they live come at a tough time for all who would dare to stream audio, as the federal Copyright Royalty Board is intent on levying monolithic fees for such use.

After ceding ground (and potential advertising dollars) for years to an army of autonomous Internet radio stations, some of which are run from basements and spare bedrooms, the nation’s biggest broadcasters are now marching online, determined to corral the next generation of listeners. The result may be a showdown to define the future of the medium.

All of this comes at an inopportune moment for small, Internet-based radio stations, which are facing a sharp increase in the royalties they must pay to record labels (and artists) for playing their music.

Soma FM, a San Francisco-based Web site housing 11 stations specializing in genres like rootsy Americana and spy-movie themes, owed about $20,000 for 2006 under the previous rate structure, said the site’s founder, Rusty Hodge. But Mr. Hodge, who said the stations combined generally attracted a peak audience of 12,000 at any given moment, figures that the rates would translate to a bill of $600,000 for the same year.

The cost of playing music online could become a deterrent for the traditional radio broadcasters too as more of them stream music on the Web. But it’s a price they may not be able to avoid; advertisers are flocking online.

June 13, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 3 Comments

Consider this bit from blogger Seth Goldstein:

It is as if in a matter of months, both the high end of LinkedIn and the high-end of MySpace had been absorbed into the Facebook social graph. LinkedIn is suddenly no longer the social network of choice for us chic geeks. Yes, we learned how to tell our professional stories these past few years in the LinkedIn profile fields, but- as in summer of our 8th grade- we are now ready to lose the awkward friends we had accumulated , and start from scratch in a new environment.

Meanwhile, the kids who treated their MySpace profile, and concomitant friend requests, with the same reckless abandon that we have done with our LinkedIn profiles, have now de-camped for Facebook.

Is it just me, or is there a strange similarity between all these social networking sites and say, areas of a city that get hot with all sorts of bars and nightclubs and then go cold in a matter of months? I mean, Friendster was huge, then it wasn't. LinkedIn got big, MySpace got big, and now Facebook seems to be getting big. Someday, Facebook will be cold, too. Just like neighborhoods or nightclubs.

June 13, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Random Culture is providing a recap of the Future of Online Advertising conference held in NYC last week.

Here's my favorite bit:

I think one of the biggest lessons from the conference is that advertisers need to have more guts. Wired magazine VP Drew Schutte talked about this very topic. Why is it important for advertisers to have guts? Because consumers do. Without guts, agencies and advertisers will always be months, maybe even years behind consumers.

Now, that's what I'm talking about.

June 13, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 10 Comments

Can't say I can recall seeing a banner ad like this before. Partners+Simons in Boston is looking for a copywriter. And on some parts of Adweek.com, they've got a banner ad on the site just to advertise the one job opening.

Wow. Back in 2002, they'd have had a million folks applying right away. What's going on in the job market in this industry these days?

June 14, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

A study by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor showed that the United States was unusual among developed countries in having a higher business start-up rate among its 18- to 24-year-olds than its 35- to 44-year-olds.

[via The New York Times]

June 14, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

The Wall Street Journal shines its light on the Japanese ad market, showing just how closely held it is by the Japanese themselves. Recognizing this fact has led some international players like TBWA to invent new structures that work within Japanese business culture, instead of the lame (if not imperialist) "If it works in the U.S. it'll work here too" approach.

For years, Western advertising agencies have had a hard time making inroads into Japan. The world's second-largest ad market after the U.S. in terms of spending is dominated by two big agencies, Dentsu and Hakuhodo. Together, they control 40% of the media and advertising market.

Foreign ad agencies have only about 10% of the total $50 billion in advertising spending, according to the Japan Advertising Agencies Association, and that is mostly by foreign companies.

Now, TBWA Worldwide, a unit of Omnicom Group, is making a new push here. Last year, it formed a joint-venture agency with Hakuhodo, the No. 2 agency, called TBWA\Hakuhodo. The agency, in which Hakuhodo owns 60% and TBWA owns 40%, recently moved into a new office to formally start operations.

But many tie-ups between Western and Japanese agencies have failed before, plagued by cultural and operational differences.

June 15, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Thanks to the constant clicking through from one page to another on this very intertubes, some savvy marketers are introducing condensed versions of programming and advertising that lets viewers get their fix without taxing their diminished attention spans.

According to The New York Times, Honda is teaming up with Sony Pictures Television to help launch the Minisode Network—a series of re-edited TV classics like “Charlie’s Angels,” “The Facts of Life,” “Fantasy Island” and “Who’s the Boss." The minisodes are not intended as pastiches or excerpts; they are edited carefully so the plots can be followed from beginning to end in an intertube-friendly 4-to-6 minutes.

Plans call for the contents of the Minisode Network to eventually be available on mobile devices like cellphones.

Here's a sample program for your viewing pleasure.

June 15, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to a spokesperson from Springer & Jacoby International in Amsterdam, the shop has positioned themselves as "a sparring partner to clients, helping and challenging them to overcome their own brand's conventions. In this vein, the agency worked up a rebranding campaign for Atradius - one of the world's leading credit insurers. The new campaign concentrates on the freedom that credit insurance provides, and stands out in a category traditionally defined by negativity and scare tactics."

See the print campaign on S+J's Flickr page (what, your agency doesn't have a Flickr page? Get on it!)

June 15, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 4 Comments

I'm sure by now you've heard about Roy Pearson, the numbnuts judge in DC who's suing his dry cleaners for $54 million because they misplaced his pants.

Why does he think he's entitled to all that cash from the Chungs, who own the dry cleaners? Here's a trial excerpt, as he's being questioned by Judge Judith Bartnoff:

Pearson has argued that the Chungs committed fraud by posting a sign that read, "Satisfaction Guaranteed."

He told Bartnoff that the Chungs had to be held to account for making such a claim.

"Your position is that 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' means they have to satisfy whatever you demand, with no limitations, absolutely unconditionally?" Bartnoff asked, according to The Washington Post.

"That's correct," Pearson replied.

"I have grave doubts about that," said the judge.

Now, we all know that most times, "satisfaction guaranteed" is just another moronic advertising cliche. And no, it's not always specific as to what the guarantee is, or what ensures someone's satisfaction.

But clients are driven by fear--especially of $54 million lawsuits--so that's why the legal department picks apart ad copy, and why clients are so often afraid so say anything substantial.

June 16, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

I just spent a few days in Minnesota, which allowed me to get my morning espresso fix at Minneapolis-based Caribou Coffee. While in their Northwoods cabin-like retail environment, I noticed some interesting table tents that describe Caribou's commitment to sourcing coffees produced in environmentally and socially responsible ways through best-practices farm management.

Turns out Caribou is working with the Rainforest Alliance to certify its coffees.

By the end of 2008, 50% of Caribou’s coffees will be Rainforest Alliance certified.

June 17, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

Here's an interesting unofficial spot for the iPhone:

It's made by a production company called "The Consultants." It's certainly more representative of real life in New York City than the other "diversity" oriented ads I've seen.

According to MacRumors.com, this ad was the result of a Craigslist casting call. The casting call asked for "people of diverse ethnic backgrounds discussing different functions and attributes of the unreleased phone in their native tongue while participating in everyday activities." The song used is called "Young Folks" By Peter Bjorn and John.

So what's your take on all this iPhone mania? Are massive amounts of people going to fork over $600 and upwards of $60 a month for this thing? We've got 12 days left. Are you gonna get one?

June 17, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

I'm posting this print ad for Saturn's Aura because what they're saying here is key to the resurgence of the American car market. Simply "Buying American" is not sufficient when the product is inferior. Then one's patriotism and concern for American labor actually costs a great deal, unnecesarily.

June 17, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 6 Comments

I’ve learned some things in my ten plus years working in advertising. Perhaps the most important thing I’ve learned is that I’m ill suited for this business. Simply put, I have the wrong temperament. I lack all patience for the daily compromises that must be made. That’s what this business is, like politics, one compromise after the next. I also have zero interest in serving “corporate America.” I loathe corporate America. Note, I did not say I loathe business. In fact, I love business. Business with a higher sense of purpose can do a lot of good for its workers, its customers and the community at large. Take Patagonia. Patagonia doesn’t just manufacture outdoor clothing and gear to make money. Patagonia is not part of corporate America, they’re part of corporate Utopia. The company is a change agent on many levels. When the founder and CEO writes a book called Let My People Go Surfing, you know it’s far from business as usual in Ventura.

Let My People Go Surfing is the antithesis of the book most captains of industry keep near and dear. Their book might be titled Let My People Eat Shit Sandwiches, because that’s the primary diet in corporate America. The ingredients that go into preparing this dish include: incompetence, greed, poor communication skills, need to know power trips, headgames, meritless advancement, fear for one’s job and a commitment to maintain the status quo at all costs. What’s lacking from the menu: innovation, honesty, trust, instinct, real teamwork and a moral compass to name just a few.

June 18, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to The New York Times, MTV unveiled its latest public service advertising campaign last week. Its aim is to promote environmentally friendly lifestyle choices among youth (without upsetting MTV's carbon-sucking underwriters).

The advertisements, created by six agencies — 180 Los Angeles, Cake, Lowe Worldwide, Ogilvy & Mather, Wieden & Kennedy and Young & Rubicam — will be shown in 162 countries. The Web site for the campaign called Switch, shows how the green movement has gone mainstream.

“O.K., so we like to consume,” it says. “That’s fine.... Switch isn’t here to tell you to start hugging trees and become an eco-warrior — although it’s fine, if that’s what you’re into. Nah, all we’re here to do is ask you to make little changes to the way you consume. So small are these changes that you won’t even notice them.”

The idea that consumers can continue to consume, making tiny changes in their behavior, is attractive to marketers, too. Not only can they keep promoting consumption, they can turn greenness into a selling point.

Have you read anything this cynical and absurd yet today? The kind of changes we need to make are FAR from tiny.

June 18, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Egg in Seattle is one agency committed to making a difference in the world. The focus of their work is on sustainable brands, but they're also putting plans in place to reduce their own footprint.

Our goals: full carbon neutrality for our agency, and carbon-neutral print advertisement and website development options for our clients. Kevin Wilhelm, of Innovative Strategies, a sustainability consulting firm, paid a visit to our offices and walked our entire staff through the basics of the carbon footprint calculation process. We discussed transportation, energy, materials, waste, and the crucial issue of reducing our footprint rather than just buying offsets. We talked about shady offset shops, the efficacy of planting trees, and the fact that you could negate the impact of an entire year of carbon-righteous living with a single long-haul airplane trip.

Rock on, Egg.

June 18, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

When I was flying last Wednesday evening I started thinking about a tool that would allow users of multiple social networks to manage their content from one place, as opposed to all the individual places they must now log into and become comfortable with.

I often say, "If you're thinking it, someone's doing it." And that has proven true once again. BusinessWeek published a story today that reveals a handful of companies busy working on this very problem. BusinessWeek lists ProfileLinker, ProfileFly, Tabber, SocialURL and Dandelife.com as social network aggregators already in the game.

But how effective are these various offerings? I don't know, having just learned of them minutes ago. At any rate, BusinessWeek offers a clue.

As useful as these sites may be in pulling together information from other sites onto a single location, they're less helpful when it comes to sending updates to those various sites. In many cases, that's because social networks don't want to share traffic and associated ad dollars with other sites, requiring users to log in before making changes or communicating with friends. "Will a profile aggregator siphon traffic away?" says Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst at eMarketer. "If so, the social networks won't like it very much and will try to shut down the service."

I'd love to hear from you if you use one of these aggregators? Does it meet your needs? If no, what improvements are you hoping to see implemented?

June 19, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

In a Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.) article about brands' success with behavioral targeting, this little gem popped out.

"We've never been able to get to this level of granularity," says John Vail, director of the interactive marketing group at Pepsi-Cola North America.

I know what granular means. It means powdery. As for this client-speak specimen, I have no idea.

June 19, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

Smart Power is a nationwide, non-profit marketing campaign promoting clean energy. As part of their efforts, Smart Power conducted a consumer-generated advertising contest with a $10,000 grand prize. The winning entry, shown above, is the work of Dan Sheppard, a 19 year old advertising major at University of Nebraska. Sheppard is currently interning at Grey in New York City.

Sheppard's reel (link removed at Dan's request) is filled with mostly humorous spots for Chipotle, Doritos, Engadget, JVC and Southwest Airlines--all firms who have conducted consumer generated advertising contests. It's not much of a stretch, or a revelation, to say this guy has a bright future ahead of him in the ad biz.

June 19, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 7 Comments

426,000 cell phones are "retired" in the U.S. every day

The photo above (zoomed in version) from Chris Jordan's "Running the Numbers" exhibition is currently showing at Von Lintel Gallery in NYC.

Here's the opening paragraph of his artist's statement:

Exploring around our country’s shipping ports and industrial yards, where the accumulated detritus of our consumption is exposed to view like eroded layers in the Grand Canyon, I find evidence of a slow-motion apocalypse in progress. I am appalled by these scenes, and yet also drawn into them with awe and fascination. The immense scale of our consumption can appear desolate, macabre, oddly comical and ironic, and even darkly beautiful; for me its consistent feature is a staggering complexity.

Speaking to the meaning of his work and the process by which he brings it to life, Jordan says "Running the Numbers":

...looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 426,000 cell phones retired every day. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs.

So, how does this display of grotesque consumption and waste make you feel? It makes me feel responsible, both in my personal consumption choices and in the line of work I have chosen to pursue.

June 19, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Steve Rubel rubbed elbows with technology and media elites in Silicon Valley last week. Here's one of his take aways:

Silicon Valley must break bread with the media-industrial complex. The challenge is there is a vast chasm in the culture and ethos between the two sides. Tech and Internet companies develop their products in the open. This is very different in the media-industrial complex, where secrecy rules. He/she who dies with the most information is king/queen. However, technology is changing all of us. We are all becoming more and more Valley every day, whether we like or not.

Marketers are joining the club too. American Express just launched a beta program where you can test new concepts. Everyone is beginning to recognize that the principles of Wikinomics that were pioneered in the Valley - openness, peering, sharing and acting globally - are good business overall. It's like the end of communism in the 1980s. The changes were gradual at first, then dramatic.

June 19, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Scott Karp explains the importance of aggregators to content producers, particularly to newspapers who, with some notable exceptions, don't quite get it.

Publishing 2.0 gets 73% of its traffic from search and referring sites, which include aggregators like Techmeme. Some of my content is also syndicated in full text on Seeking Alpha, Yahoo, and Digital Media Wire (with links back to the site, which yield significant traffic) — this is anathema to the traditional media mindset.

Yet the only way to consistently get all Publishing 2.0 content is to subscribe — the result is that Publishing 2.0’s RSS and email subscribers are growing at a compound monthly rate of 16%, meaning the subscriber base doubles about every 5 months. That means that although my content is distributed across the web through channels and applications that I don’t control, people are finding enough value in the content that they discover through aggregators or other referrers — either the first time or after multiple interactions — that they choose to subscribe to the source.

AdPulp also gets a ton of traffic via search. And that's great, but not nearly as important to us as the number of RSS subscribers we have and the number of return visitors to the site. There are also a number of aggregators who pick up our feed (but none with the kind of stature Techmeme enjoys), and we're cool with it as long as they include a link back to the source.

Shawn also aggregates Omaha-based blog content at TopTray and we have plans to expand this type of service to other Tier 2 and Tier 3 media markets.

June 20, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Ad Age is reporting that Network BBDO, Johannesburg, took home the Cannes Grand Prix in outdoor for a solar-powered billboard.

What ultimately swayed the jury in the favor of the NedBank "Power to the People" work was that the solar power being collected by the billboard was helping to power several community buildings, including a schoolhouse. That the work made a difference in the community made all the difference to the jury.

At a time when it is so common to have short-term promotions, that the "work that continues to work and continues providing" was key, said jury chair Jean-Remy Von Matt, founder-chairman, Jung Von Matt, Hamburg.

The fact that this advertisement is for a bank is key. Banks invest in the community and help make it what it is, for good or for bad. To see the NedBank's outdoor advertising put to work for the benefit of the community is the perfect brand message.

June 20, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The Wall Street Journal looks at the difficulty online marketers face when trying to put their messages in front of web surfers, who are conditioned to cruise right by any such claptrap.

Soon after traditional banner ads started cropping up on the Web a decade ago, the term "banner blindness" followed.

The phenomenon, discovered by scientists who track mouse clicks and eye movements to measure which areas of Web sites people pay attention to, describes how people ignore these ads even when they include relevant information. Most people look at Web sites in an F-shaped pattern, merely scanning the top before homing in on the middle of the page where the meat of the content most often appears.

"The big finding is that banner blindness is real. It is not just advertising banners but anything that looks like an advertising banner," says Jakob Nielsen, a principal at Internet user research firm Nielsen Norman Group in Fremont, Calif.

June 20, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Fast Company writer Bill Breen interviewed Dan Wieden recently for a feature in the magazine. As always, Dan has some interesting things to say.

FC: So in world that's saturated with marketing messages, how does a brand demonstrate that it is, in fact, authentic?

Wieden: Authenticity comes from having a real passion for the thing. When we first started working with Nike, we didn't bother with focus groups and planning. We were just a group of people who were absolutely turned on by sports and athletes, and what Phil Knight was creating, and we just wanted to turn other people on. We weren't trying to manipulate anyone. We were trying to share something that we loved. It was that simple.

FC: Why, then, does The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, with its fake newscasts, come across as authentic?

Wieden: Fiction is often more authentic than fact, because fact rarely reveals anything of import, whereas fiction is fully capable of showing us fundamental human truths. Jon Stewart delivers a fake newscast, but he is authentic. His humor strips away all the phoniness of politics and the pomposity of the network news.

"We were just trying to share something that we loved." Imagaine if we all had the luxury of doing the same. The ad world would be a different place.

June 20, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Ernie Schenck is jazzed about JWT's animated poetry project, featuring the work of former U.S. Poet Laureate, Billy Collins. It is mesmerizing work.

According to a Fast Company feature from June 2006, the project grew out of Rosemarie Ryan's and Ty Montague's efforts to revitalize JWT and their desire to see creative for creative's sake.

Toby Barlow, the firm's executive creative director took his bosses' wishes to heart. He persuaded Collins to let him set some of his poems to animation, with the writer himself reading the work. A few weeks later, at a dinner, Barlow mentioned the project to someone from the Sundance Channel, who was interested in using the short films to fill the 10-minute gaps in Sundance's programming. Back at JWT, a producer connected Barlow with eight animators willing to do the project on the cheap, given the subject and the potential for national exposure. The whole thing began to feel like fate.

Last September, Barlow surprised Montague and Ryan with 11 artsy shorts that drew on visuals ranging from Japanese art to smoke rings. "A lot of times, agencies shut you down," says Barlow, amped up by the memory. "They're like, 'We just want you to work on the prescribed problem.' But it's really only by going out and being as creative as you can be, and showing that to the people you work with, that inspiration and cross-pollination start happening."

June 20, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 11 Comments

Okay, here's an open question for all of you.

I did some freelance work for an ad agency late last year. Two separate jobs for $900 apiece. I was paid for one, but not the other. I have the agency's PO issued for the unpaid job, dated January of this year. I have been steadily (once every two weeks or so) inquiring and emailing to the accounting department (and occasionally to an account person who deals with this client) of this agency and it's always "we're looking into it." But I've been blown off completely for the last month or so. I've been told that the agency has a policy of not paying freelancers until they themselves have been paid by the client, but I have no idea whether they've been paid or not.

What's my next move?

I have never had this much of a problem getting paid for freelance work. And oh, it's not exactly my style, but I'm SO tempted to name these guys right here on AdPulp as a warning for all potential people who deal with them, but they will go unnamed.

Is this type of thing more common in the ad biz than I thought it was?

June 20, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 4 Comments

Okay, for decades women all over the world have been guilt-tripped by advertising into changing their looks. But, wow, seeing this spot is just...well...take a look:

It's just so...blatant. I'm guessing the Cannes judges fawning over the Dove "Evolution" spot won't be talking about the cultural impact of this one.

[UPDATE] I didn't know this: The "Fair & Lovely" Skin Whitening brand? It's owned by Unilever--same as Dove. I guess a "Campaign for Real Beauty" doesn't sell in some parts of the world...

June 20, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

Inimitable George "Adscam" Parker took a look at Howard "I own FCB now" Draft's video interview from Cannes. Typically, he is not impressed.

He goes on and on about how he's still learning about creating the world's greatest agency, whilst taking the credit for the South African branch of FCB picking up a couple of gongs. He also says that after being in the business for over 30 years, nothing's changed. I couldn't figure out if he thought that was good or bad. Or, even if he fucking cared. Lots of bullshit about everything being in silos and how his mission was to break up the silos - Why do these BDA CEO's always end up saying the same fucking thing?

Because George, it's the speech they give themselves in front of their steamed up mirror each morning before heading into the office where people smarter than them work on the accounts they've been sly enough to wrangle.

Another Cannes attendee and presenter, Rob Campbell, describes the sun-drenched ego fest thusly, "It’s absolute and total wank … but as absolute and total wank goes, it’s fun!"

June 21, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to The Wall Street Journal, Timex—the brand that takes a licking and keeps on ticking—is keeping some pretty fancy company these days.

This morning, family-owned Salvatore Ferragamo SpA will open the doors of its medieval palazzo on the banks of the Arno River in Florence to Timex Group Chief Executive Joe Santana, who is expected to unveil a deal whereby the U.S.-based company will produce high-end watches for the Italian fashion house.

Closely held Timex has similar partnerships with two other illustrious names in the Italian fashion scene -- family-owned Versace SpA and Valentino Fashion Group SpA, recently taken over by private-equity firm Permira -- to make watches in the $2,000 to $55,000 range.

Timex, based in Middlebury, Conn., and tracing its history back to 1854, doesn't boast the Swiss watch-making legacy that helps elite manufacturers such as Rolex create an aura of exclusivity. But since, we can't remember what happened ten years ago in America, this might not be much of a problem.

June 21, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

CreditCheck.com sold at auction in New York City today for $3,000,000. Seniors.com fetched $1,800,000. And so on. Probably my favorite of the lot is Cantaloupe.com, which sold for $25,000—not bad for a melon.

[UPDATE] The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.) is reporting that Business.com (the business and the domain) is now on the auction block, and could fetch anywhere between $300 million and $400 million. Entrepreneurs Jake Winebaum and Sky Dayton were widely mocked for lavishing $7.5 million on a single Internet domain name -- business.com -- back in 1999. It was the single highest price paid for a domain name at the time.

June 22, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 9 Comments

Gossip blogger, Perez Hilton, whose real name is Mario Lavandeira, is fighting lawsuits by paparazzi and others who claim he posts their photos and video content on his site without permission, according to The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.).

His web site routinely posts tabloid photos of celebrities and adds scribbled commentary and rudimentary doodles. Mr. Lavandeira defends his actions, saying his commentary constitutes "fair use" and is protected by copyright law.

Bryan J. Freedman, Mr. Lavandeira's lawyer, said, "Perezhilton.com stands by its commitment to protect the freedom of people to transform content on the internet for the purpose of commentary and satire and unquestionably believes that it comports with the fair use exception."

Los Angeles photo agency X17 Inc. sued Mr. Lavandeira in federal court last year, asking for $7.6 million in damages. Unsuccessful in that attempt, X17 persuaded the Australian Web hosting company Crucial Paradigm to shut down Lavandeira's site, but that ploy didn't work for long. After a brief downtime yesterday, the site has a new host--BlogAds--and is now up again.

June 24, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 18 Comments

[UPDATE 7/5/07] If you came from the link on TalentZoo.com, welcome. I think this is simply a very interesting comparison of how one company, albeit a conglomerate, markets its products in different cultures and countries.

Well, Dove Evolution won big at Cannes, as many predicted. From Adweek:

"It's a big idea, beautiful execution and a powerful story for Dove to tell," said Bob Scarpelli, jury president of the Film and Press Lions and chairman and CCO at DDB Worldwide. "We believe in the power and the goodness of the idea."

So what does Unilever, Dove's parent company, believe? Let's see 2 Unilever ads, side-by-side, one for Dove and one for a skin whitening product called "Fair and Lovely":

So, does a global company like Unilever have any responsibility to promote its multiple brands in an equally uplifting manner? Should Cannes judges emerge from their drunken stupor to care about what a company really believes as opposed to just deciding that an ad is cool? Is there any hope for consistent messaging in fashion and beauty advertising?

Oh, and is anyone else really creeped out by the copy in the Fair and Lovely ad, which suggests that you'll only be hired for a TV gig if you use a skin cream that lets you acheive "total fairness"?

I'd love to know what y'all think. I'd especially love to hear from Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin, i.e, "Jancy", who made the Dove spot. After all, the same company paid for and approved of both of these. How can anyone reconcile the disparity between these two spots? Is it our job as advertising professionals to care what our clients do on a larger scale? Should anyone give a shit?

June 25, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

Newton Vineyard of St. Helena, Calif., with the aid of Dentsu/Los Angeles has mined a new space for its messaging—the gutter, that heretofore unused space between the binding and the first column of text.

According to The New York Times, Newton Vineyard purchased a series of gutter ads in the June 15 issue of Wine Spectator.

Morgan Halme, a copywriter at Dentsu said he thought placing ads in the gutter was unprecedented, but he cited as inspiration a 2004 campaign for the Mini Cooper by Crispin Porter & Bogusky in The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly, in which four Minis are parked between other small ads and a fifth appears to be driving over another ad to fit into a space.

June 25, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

In its April issue, Wired magazine, in partnership with Xerox, invited subscribers to upload their photographs to Wired.com. The first 5,000 who did so are now receiving their July issue with themselves as the cover art.

Not coincidentally, the editorial theme of the issue is the growing personalization of all things in cyberspace, and the headline over the photo is “You are here.”

And while the Xerox name is not on the covers themselves, the promotions and Web site made clear that the project depended on software from Xerox and the company’s iGen3 110 digital production press.

For another two months, anyone can upload a photo to Wired.com, write a headline, and print a personalized cover, e-mail it to friends or post it on blogs or MySpace pages.

[via The New York Times]

June 25, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Executive Coach, Doug Sundheim, describes the problem that plagues many businesses, particulary organizations that rely on lots of meetings.

What passes as "communication" in most organizations is nothing more than people talking AT each other. Firing different opinions around a room with little structure to productively move any action forward. The dialogue is dysfunctional - meaning that it doesn't produce a deeper understanding of the issues at hand. Eventually, when a decision must be made, it's often the person who has spoken the loudest, longest, or with the most conviction that wins - whether it was the best idea or not.

Sundheim says good dialogue can be boiled down to 5 key elements - Listening, Respecting, Suspending, Voicing, and Inquiring.

June 25, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The fifth annual PRWeek/Manning Selvage & Lee Marketing Management Survey polled 279 U.S. chief marketing officers, VPs of marketing, and marketing directors on new media/consumer generated media, integrated marketing and industry ethics.

Concenring CGM, the findings are more than a bit discouraging. Only 22% said they were "very willing" to allow consumers more control. Others said it could harm their businesses and there is no clear return on investment.

Mark Hass, global chief executive officer of Manning Selvage & Lee, said, "ROI is a convenient explanation for not engaging consumers in a very meaningful way."

In other words, risk means possible failure and that's not an option. Not when CMOs have 10,000 sf homes, club memberships and kids on their way to Brown.

[via Ad Age]

June 25, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Ad Age is running an interesting piece on the death of cigarette advertising. At a time when the FDA would like to control tobacco and possibly make print advertising for cigs illegal (to match the existing TV and radio bans), the move may prove to be purely symbolic (if it happens), for Big Tobacco has already curtailed this activity.

In 2006, for the first time since Philip Morris created the Marlboro Man in 1955, no Marlboro ads ran in U.S. consumer media. Cigarette media spending totaled just $56 million in 2005, the vast majority of that going to support Camel and Kool, both Reynolds American brands.

Of course, there's still plenty of marketing spending behind the products: cigarette makers in 2005 spent $13.1 billion on U.S. direct mail, events, in-store trade and consumer price-promotions.

Ad Age rightly explores what all this means to Madison Avenue. "It's exceptionally difficult to recruit people to work on a tobacco account," said Amy Hoover, exec VP at Talent Zoo. "It's a tough mark to have on your résumé."

June 25, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Speaking of stretching, Nokia conducted a “Young Creatives Competition" at Cannes, where two-person teams from around the globe had but two days to go from concept to commercial, using the Nokia N93i for their shoot. Team Italy won.

New Tee Vee has more.

June 26, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

I went to stream some indie rock on WOXY this morning, but none came through.

Today is a The Day of Silence, an international protest against exorbitant royalty rates that threaten the existence of all but the most well funded webcasters.

The Internet Radio Equality Act has recently been introduced in both the House and Senate to save the Internet radio industry. Webcasters are hoping The Day of Silence will encourage U.S. citizens to phone their senators and representative to ask them to co-sponsor the bill.

Marc Fisher of The Washington Post explains how the Copyright Royalty Board (part of Library of Congress) went wrong.

Why is the government doing this? Largely because the recording industry wants to stuff the genie back in the bottle and roll back the extraordinary blossoming of music programming available on the web. But the record industry isn't the only player here. The broadcast radio industry is clinging to its structural advantage over webradio: AM and FM radio stations must pay only one form of royalties--to composers of a given song--while webcasters must pay that royalty and an additional one to the performers of the tune.

Will webradio really die, or suffer a serious setback? It seems hard to believe, given that the web is one of the few bright spots in a generally dismal season for the recording and music industries.

Emerging and niche artists often find a substantial audience on internet radio. The recording industry is doing them no favors here. Not that that's a surprise. The mainstream recording industry has become a real bitch, of late.

June 26, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 4 Comments

A few great posts on some other blogs recently, if you haven't yet checked them out:

Tangerine Toad has a great 3-part series on "Web 2.0 Unmasked," exposing the issues faced when pushing brands in new media applications.

HighJive at MultiCultClassics outlines "an abridged lineup of stereotypical characters that effortlessly land Madison Avenue positions ahead of minorities." I've never worked in New York City ad agencies, but I have worked with all these folks.

George Parker keeps us updated on Julie Roehm's crazy article entitled "Signs It's Time To Fire Your CMO."

All good stuff. Who needs Adweek and Ad Age when you've got this kind of writing out there?

June 26, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 7 Comments

Scott Donaton, Publisher of Advertising Age, wanted sparks to fly from the panel he moderated in Cannes last week. Instead, he could barely muster enough smoke to smudge an industry wallowing in denial.

Here's what we learned at the high-powered Cannes Debate panel on agency reinvention, which I moderated during last week's International Advertising Festival: next to nothing.

Here's what that means: The ad business has a bigger problem than it realizes. Because its leaders refuse to share real learnings and best practices, or to discuss the frustrations they face in reinventing their legacy businesses, there's little chance of harnessing their collective wisdom to benefit the industry. Which means each player within it has to keep trying to figure it out on their own. That's a shame.

I can't help but smile at this scenario. We work in an industry dedicated to passing off utter bullshit as something wholesome and worthy of the customer's time. Then we go to fancy gatherings in France to celebrate our best bullshit from the preceeding year. Meanwhile the emperor stands alone and naked. Personlly, I'm glad. The brave and the few will move forward from this low point and create better work. As it should be. As for the rest, who really cares?

June 26, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Nando's Chicken Restaurants in the U.K. found a breakthrough means to espress the chain's addictive qualities. They cast a "working" mom as a poultry addict in need of a nicotine-like patch to assuage her hunger pangs. But the patch got in the way of her work duties, so she and her cute little family had to actually show up at Nando's for a meal.

For this campaign to really hit home, there needs to be a point-of-sale display featuring this pole-dancing mom.

[via Truth Completely Told]

June 26, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

One of the interweb's most famous academics, Danah Boyd, weighs in on class divisions found in social networking preferences among teens.

The goodie two shoes, jocks, athletes, or other "good" kids are now going to Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and going to college. They are part of what we'd call hegemonic society. They are primarily white, but not exclusively. They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after school activities.

MySpace is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens, immigrant teens, "burnouts," "alternative kids," "art fags," punks, emos, goths, gangstas, queer kids, and other kids who didn't play into the dominant high school popularity paradigm. These are kids whose parents didn't go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school. These are the teens who plan to go into the military immediately after schools. Teens who are really into music or in a band are also on MySpace. MySpace has most of the kids who are socially ostracized at school because they are geeks, freaks, or queers.

Marketers have already figured this out - they know who to market to where. Policy creators have figured this out - they know how to control different populations based on where they are networking. Have social workers figured it out? Or educators? What does it mean that our culture of fear has further divided a generation? What does it mean that, in a society where we can't talk about class, we can see it play out online?

Well this certainly explains why I've resisted joining Facebook, although I didn't know it until now. While I was raised in the quaint village of Hegemony, I departed for Freakdom as soon as I was able.

June 26, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

I have to admit, it's a little hard to come home after a day of dealing with client nonsense and try to tackle a book called "Work Like You're Showing Off! The Joy, Jazz and Kick of Being Better Tomorrow Than You Were Today." Especially when there's an exclamation point in the title and 2 dudes in suits literally jumping for joy on the cover.

But the book, written by Joe Calloway, a restauranteur and public speaker, did remind me of a number of things that you can easily see in ad agency life: Namely, that the happiest people in advertising (a rare breed) and the people who have a long career in the biz (a rarer breed) generally move through life unconcerned with their past trials and tribulations, concentrate on whatever project is on their desk today, do it the best they can and move on to the next thing, maintaining a good level of positivity and composure as much as possible.

It's a slim, self-help book for corporate types, and while there's nothing deeply revelatory in the book, it's a good counterpoint to all the stories we hear about self-absorbed prima donnas in the ad biz who got to where they are by steamrolling anyone and everyone in their way and throwing a hissy fit over every little problem they face. While many famous CD's got the big office that way, many others didn't and still managed to carve a nice career out for themselves, and time for a life, too.

(FULL DISCLOSURE: Special thanks to Anna Suknov of FSB Associates who sent me a copy of the book for review.)

June 27, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

You may have heard that automotive behemoth General Motors shifted its Buick and GMC truck advertising accounts to Leo Burnett without a review.

Sun Times ad columnist, Lewis Lazare, says it wasn't a creative decision, although he despises McCann Erickson's new tagline for Buick, "Drive Beautiful." In fact, Lazare calls the line "horrendously stupid."

Rather, GM wanted to establish Buick, Pontiac and GMC in one retail channel. Giving one ad agency all three car accounts allows marketing to mirror the distribution strategy. (emphasis added)

Burnett is already the AOR for Pontiac. All three accounts will be managed from Burnett's Detroit office.

June 27, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Thanks to Apple we have a story about how elegent product design drives intense desire in consumers. This Friday at 6:00 pm Apple's latest communications device goes on sale and people are already lined up in the heat of the summer to buy one, or more than one.

According to Info World, one man from Long Island is going to spend five days in line to be the first person in New York to own an iPhone. Greg Packer, a 43-year-old retired highway maintenance worker from Huntington, says, "I'm not really a technology person, but I'm doing the best I can to keep up with technology."

Packer isn't the only one consumed with iPhone fever. At 2 p.m. Tuesday, there were three people with chairs in line behind him, and a fifth person said he was joining the queue while Packer was being interviewed.

The Apple Store on Fifth Avenue is open 24 hours. Packer and others said they are taking breaks and using the store's restroom when needed. They're also getting help on their mission from friendly New Yorkers, who are bringing them food, water, and other items they might need for their long wait.

At Apple's Soho store another line has formed and this one is fronted by ad man Johnny Vulkan of Anomaly. Vulkan, like any great promoter, is using the occasion to highlight a cause (bigger than his own desire for the device).

In a totally unrelated note, Vulkan is also active in the t-shirt business.

June 27, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Slim Jim's in trouble. Next time I'm on a long road trip and hungry for beef jerky (that's about the only time I am), I'm reaching for Jack Link's. Why? Jerky's a parity product. I'm buying the advertising.

June 28, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Hellmann's mayonnaise, a Unilever brand, produced a new show they hoped would air on the Food Network. According to The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.) the marketer's ad agency, Ogilvy & Mather, couldn't reach a deal with the network's majority owner, E.W. Scripps. The network "wanted final cut, meaning they have the final say in the edit that airs on TV," says Doug Scott, executive director of entertainment at Ogilvy.

Not to be detered, Hellmann's found a partner in Yahoo's Food section. Real Food is a 12-week series starring Dave Lieberman, chef and the host of a popular Food Network television show. He will travel the country seeking out interesting recipes, and once each episode he will cook up a recipe -- which in some cases will call for Hellmann's.

The Hellmann's program is light on subtlety. Some consumers may notice that the phrase "Real Food" in the show's title is also Hellmann's advertising tagline. Hellmann's logo will also appear on Yahoo's Food page alongside the videos. And then there's the occasional appearance of Hellmann's in the cooking segments.

Yahoo Food, launched about a year ago, drew about 4.3 million people in May, making it the U.S.'s fifth-largest food Web site, according to comScore.

Marketers producing content for the Web increasingly are tying up with a portal rather than creating their own site, reflecting a realization that drawing traffic to a stand-alone site can be challenging.

June 28, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Looking for that perfect domain name to launch a business or a personal website, but can't find a suitable name currently available for lease? You may have Marchex, Seattle-based media company, to blame.

Louise Story, writing on the NYT's tech blog, Bits, reveals that Marchex owns 200,000 domain names, 100,000 of which were acquired two years ago from Yun Ye, a software developer in California for $164 million.

Until now these pages have been filled only with ads. Now for 110,000 of the sites, the company will add listings of local merchants it has found by crawling and copying information from other Web sites. Someone looking for a veterinarian in San Francisco, for example, can find information focused solely on that topic at Marchex’s site www.sanfranciscoveterinarians.com. The niche sites summarize their findings from around the Web and link to those other sites.

“We see search technology as publishing, as creating new kinds of content that didn’t exist before,” said Matthew Berk, lead search architect for Marchex, which runs the sites through a subsidiary called Open List.

June 28, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

It's definitely not every day that I get a call from a reporter for Swedish national radio, but the other day, I did.

In response to the Dove/Fair And Lovely comparison I wrote about, I was interviewed by Sara Heyman, a reporter for Sveriges Radio, Radio Sweden. I discussed the two ads and the fact that YouTube, and the Internet in general, give people new insight into the different and disparate messages global companies like Unilever use in various countries.

The program is called Medierna, and the episode I'm scheduled to be featured on will be aired on Saturday. On the page is a link to archived shows if you want to listen in.

Most of the program is in Swedish, but obviously I was interviewed in English, so I'm not sure if you'll actually hear me or not. But it'll be interesting.

Who knew we were huge in Sweden?

June 28, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

The word "blog" has lost all meaning. From it's humble beginnings as something jobless people in pajamas did, it has fractured into a million pieces before finally being co-opted by mainstream media companies. Now, more and more, a blog is a website and a website a blog.

Point in case, AOL News and other AOL sites this week were turned into blog-like sites that display short news stories -- some as short as a single sentence -- accompanied by video clips, photographs or interactive polls intended to engage readers.

According to The Washington Post, inspiration for the move came from TMZ.com, the entertainment blog co-owned by AOL and Warner Bros.

The success of TMZ.com, which has become a magnet for those more interested in Paris Hilton than in President Bush, has taught the executives at AOL a few things about the habits of Web surfers, notably that online readers aren't afraid to scroll through several screens. And the more time users spend on a site, the more money AOL collects from advertisers.

"TMZ.com is a very long page, sometimes 10 or 12 posts or more," said Lewis D'Vorkin, senior vice president of AOL news and sports and an architect of TMZ.com. "One of the most clicked-on links on that page is at the bottom, the 'go to next page' link. If you give them what they want, people will scroll."

June 28, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

June 28, 2007 11:00 A.M.

A statement from Wall Street Journal reporters:

Wall Street Journal reporters across the country chose not to show up to work this morning.

We did so for two reasons.

First, The Wall Street Journal's long tradition of independence, which has been the hallmark of our news coverage for decades, is threatened today. We, along with hundreds of other Dow Jones employees represented by the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees, want to demonstrate our conviction that the Journal's editorial integrity depends on an owner committed to journalistic independence.

Second, by our absence from newsrooms around the country, we are reminding Dow Jones management that the quality of its publications depends on a top-quality professional staff. Dow Jones currently is in contract negotiations with its primary union, seeking severe cutbacks in our health benefits and limits on our pay. It is beyond debate that the professionals who create The Wall Street Journal and other Dow Jones publications every day deserve a fair contract that rewards their achievements. At a time when Dow Jones is finding the resources to award golden parachutes to 135 top executives, it should not be seeking to eviscerate employees' health benefits and impose salary adjustments that amount to a pay cut.

We put the reputation of The Wall Street Journal and the needs of its readers first. That's why we will be back at our desks this afternoon, producing the day's news reports. But we hope this demonstration will remind those entrusted with the future of Dow Jones that our publications' integrity must be protected, and sustained, from top to bottom.

[via Jim Romenesko at Poynter]

June 28, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

Will McGinness tears down walls for a living. Yet, he collects little dust.

McGinness joinied Goodby Silverstein + Partners as Interactive Creative Director after working on the VW account at Arnold. Now, he goes by the abbreviated title of Creative Director to reinforce the fact that interactive is no longer a separate discipline at Goodby.

BusinessWeek has more...

"We no longer have a separate interactive department. It's all one big creative pool of talent," McGinness reveals. "There's been a renaissance of sorts at the agency. Anything is possible, which has helped people break free of old executional habits."

"There will always be people that specialise in certain media," he continues. "The important thing is that the creative leadership for a project or campaign knows how to connect all the parts.

Today's consumer has a much more sophisticated bullshit meter. We need to pull people into our communication in a meaningful way. We have to be relevant and provide content that is desirable. The days of blasting consumers with unwanted crap are over. The trick is to create something that people will appreciate."

"The days of blasting consumers with unwanted crap are over." At Goodby, I might add, where those days never had a chance in hell. Everywhere else, with the exception of a handful of shops where creative has always been king, the bullshit parade is still in full swing.

June 29, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

What Ariel Waldman is talking about:

Boss: "Sex is what drives the web." Coworker to me: "And your BLOG." Boss to me: "And your TWITTER. Twitter that, bitch!"

What Steve Rubel is doing:

Security at the mall is keeping us outside. Thankfully weather is fine. I feel like one of the oldest here.

What Kate Consumption is doing:

updating all of my social apps. like a big nerd.

What iJustine is dealing with:

Apparently someone has my old verizon phone number and is replying to the twitter messages its getting.. Uh oh!

What Loic Le Meur is doing:

joined the group "declaring email bankrupcy" in Facebook...

June 29, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Slide by Black Belt Jones

According to Wikipedia, throughout his life Buckminster Fuller was concerned with the question "Does humanity have a chance to survive lastingly and successfully on planet Earth, and if so, how?" Considering himself an average individual without special monetary means or academic degree, he chose to devote his life to this question, trying to find out what an individual like him could do to improve humanity's condition that large organizations, governments, or private enterprises inherently could not do.

June 29, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Advertising Lab points to a new blog named for a Talking Heads' song. Ain't No Disco "invites agencies from across the world to show their inner sanctums."

Whilst our main focus is to showcase these interiors we also hope that this site will act as a good resource for seeking agencies of different specialties across the world, providing information about the agency, contact details, specialisms and a sneak peak into the four walls that encompass the company.

One of the places they showcase that I find interesting isn't an agency at all, rather it's a collective workspace in Denver. As such, a typical website would not do. These people collaborate! Thus, they opted for a wiki. I love smart people.

June 30, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 16 Comments

Okay, so I took off from work at 4:30 yesterday to go stand in line at the AT&T store to get an iPhone. That wasn't bad. Got out of there at 6:45, hoping to post a shot of the AdPulp home page as it appears on my iPhone. You know, just to complete the cycle of geekdom I reside in.

But instead, I get home and I find out the activation could take up to 24 hours because I'm switching from Verizon using my old cell number. So I wait...15 hours and counting.

I'm just bitching. But I guess if there's a product that's the result of a partnership between 2 brands, nothing kills my love for one (Apple) like my experience with the other (AT&T).

The only thing I can do with my iPhone is turn it on and use the "slider" on the screen to get the emergency call window. But that's fun. Sort of.

[UPDATE] So on Saturday night, after waiting 26 hours for AT&T to try and port my old cell number from Verizon and activate my phone, I decided to start over with a new cell phone number. And then my phone activated immediately. That's the way it should be.

June 30, 2007 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 4 Comments

So I made my debut on Swedish National Radio today, on the show Medierna talking about the 2 Unilever ads that have quite different messages.

If you're curious, click here to listen or download the June 30th show. It's a 30 minute show, and I appear somewhere around 26 minutes into it. But except for me, the whole show is in Swedish.

And a long overdue shout-out to The Consumerist, where the Fair & Lovely ad first caught my attention.

[UPDATE] Here's a file of just the 90 seconds where I'm featured. It's kinda bizarre, in a cool way.

June 30, 2007 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Jory Des Jardin, one of the founders of BlogHer, on the value of producing original content:

I get bored with blog content that simply riffs off of other content, even though there are content providers who do very well with this tactic. Let's be realistic: we need interpreters and evaluators of original content, but I didn't begin blogging with an eye toward keywords to embed, or A-List bloggers to emulate, in my content; I did it to extract ideas that I suspected I had, but that I hadn't given a chance to manifest. Hopefully, some of these ideas would be needed.

Des Jardin is a smart person and her personal take on blogging is valued by me, and I'm sure many others. There's no need to challenge her, but I do wonder where the idea of community is in this view of blogging. Where is the "markets are conversations" concept? Is that concept false? Or is it real? If it's real--and I think it is real in some cases--then the objective is not the production of original content. Rather in community-centric structures the idea is to talk, to share ideas, to learn. Together.

Given her creation of BlogHer, I imagine Des Jardin lives and breathes community. Yet, she is burdened by the need to create original content for her blog, which by its very nature is the solitary work of a writer. As a writer myself, I share her need to create original content. But I'm not convinced a multi-channel interactive space is the perfect home for it.