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.)]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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]

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."

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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?

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]

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.

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.

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?

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.

[via Jamie Starr at JoshSpear.com]

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.

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.

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]

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.

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.

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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

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?