From USA Today: The ads are jazzy, edgy, hip — everything you don't expect in politics. Which is the point for at least two candidates using them this year to portray themselves as likable, with-it guys. The ads for Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Maryland Senate candidate Michael Steele look more like spots for Target or Apple or The Gap than for a pair of Republicans. They're the latest attempt by political …
Eerily Familiar
Coins In The McArcade
This Ad Age piece on retail fusion is a quick look at where fast food environments are headed. McDonald's franchisees John and Karen O'Keefe watched sales flatline for most of the year at their store in Chicago's suburban Woodfield Mall while other restaurants in the fast-food chain's system pulled in gains of 2% or better. But after the couple installed a digital video-and-music system in their store, sales shot up …
02138 > 90210
The New York Times looks at a magazine named after a prestigious area code, which is mildly interesting, I suppose. But what really jumps out at me is Harvard's defensive stance against unsanctioned brand dilution. Harvard University spends somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million every year to protect its brand name — to keep other institutions from billing themselves as, say, the Harvard of Dog Training Schools or …
Enter Burnett’s “Cathedral Of Ideas” With A Simple Click
Ad Age is reporting on Leo Burnett's move into virtual reality. Leo Burnett Worldwide is hoping that setting up shop in a virtual world can improve its real-world results. The iconic Chicago agency -- which has absorbed the losses of long-held, major accounts such as Cadillac and the U.S. Army of late -- is opening an "ideas hub" within Second Life, a virtual, three-dimensional, internet-based alternate reality …
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Be Glad You Don’t Work For Gannett’s IT Department
For all of you skimming this post on a beautiful Friday afternoon, let's have a moment of sympathetic silence for the poor schleps who are "working around the clock" to solve this mysterious problem. You know the feeling, don't you? It's Friday, you want to go home, but the &^%$#@! Web site STILL won't work--and nobody knows why. From today's Editor & Publisher: Newspaper company Gannett has been having "severe" …
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Will You Get Hannitized If You Buy A GM Car?
I'm not sure what advertising agency or promo firm is working on this, but right-wing talk show host Sean Hannity is co-sponsoring a contest to give away GM cars. Listeners to his show (and yes, I've listened) know that if they get on the air and say "Hi Sean, you're a Great American!" he'll return the compliment right back. Hence, The Sean Hannity You're A Great American Car Give Away. On a few liberal blogs …
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Is DDB Chicago In Turmoil?
He loves anonymous sources, speculation and rumors, but still, Lewis Lazare's column is always a good read. Such as today's focus on DDB's Chicago office. Sources say that some of the agency's best creatives have called the decision to put Tilley in the top creative post the equivalent of "the last straw." They are angry because Tilley is perceived by many to lack the skills -- and talent -- to be the strong creative …
