Ad Age editor Scott Donaton needed an idea for his latest column. So he wrote to 100 of his closest associates and asked them, "What keeps you up at night?" Here are some of the answers from the captains of our industry: "Will consumers under 30 feel they should ever pay ANYTHING for content?" "Clients who get way too involved in execution." "Delivering on the demand for accountability." "The trend toward …
Baby Got Back But Where’s The Copy?
Steve Hall of Adrants makes available a new ad from Nike that celebrates big butts. Given that Nike is a fitness company, one might think this approach incongruous. But from a strategic point-of-view, it makes sense to be inclusive of all body types. Sadly, from a creative execution point-of-view, this ad needs work. Here's the worst copy sequence from the ad: My butt is big... It's a border collie That herds skinny …
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Yes, I Want Chili Cheese In Between The Keys Of My Powerbook
I love Wi-Fi. It's great to surf the net anywhere you want. But I can't understand the appeal of bringing in your Powerbook to a Krystal, which is offering free Wi-Fi access in all of its stores. Unless you wrap your laptop in some sort of protective compu-condom, it sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Krystal is the South's version of White Castle. It's the greasiest place on earth. And I mean that in a good …
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Dog Days Of August Are But A Memory
Adweek: What happened to the dog days of summer, the time when nothing big happened in August and agency people took long overdue two-week vacations and spent Fridays on the golf course? "No one I know can remember an August like this," said Mike Duda, director of business development at Interpublic Group's Deutsch, who said it is the busiest August he has seen in 10 years. "The activity we're seeing now is what …
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An Anti-Theft Device For Your Ideas
International Herald Tribune: Five years ago, Brian Hoolahan started File-Reg because he decided there was a better way to "prove who thought up what, and exactly when." A former television producer, he said he began the company with a notion of creating a system for people in broadcasting to protect their ideas. Eventually, Hoolahan established four computer databases - Music-Reg, Science-Reg, Media-Reg and …
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A Plea For Consistency In Advertising
Steve McKee, writing in BusinessWeek, makes an effective argument for marketers to be patient with their ad campaigns: Companies have any number of reasons to feel the need to change their advertising approach, from fallen pitchmen to falling sales to (all too commonly) internal boredom with the "same old thing." But the companies with the strongest long-term track records do everything they can to maintain a …
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Burnett Bows Out
Lewis Lazare: Leo Burnett's decision to resign the $80 million Morgan Stanley account was a big blow on several fronts: A blow to the agency that had worked on the business for 17 years, and a blow to the Chicago advertising community that looks like it will lose another prestigious piece of business to another market. Just as significantly, the Morgan Stanley account resignation is a blow to the advertising …
Pakastani Girl Gets Windows
In a bit of good pr for Microsoft, Misbehaving and Popgadget both point to this Seattle Post-Intelligencer article on Arfa Karim Randhawa, a 10-year-old girl from Pakistan and the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in the world. Arfa, who has created basic Windows applications, such as a calculator and a sorting program, primarily in the C# programming language, received the certification when she was still …