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 …
Skin Whitening Ad Makes My Skin Crawl
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 …
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What Do You Do When You Don’t Get Paid For Freelance Work?
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 …
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Poetry Powerful Enough To Go Viral
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 …
Wieden’s Authentic Non-Fiction
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 …
On Banner Blindness
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 …
Green Is The New Gold
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 …
When You Don’t Own The Pipes, Aggregate
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 …
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