House music, elaborate costumes and the high desert. Someone's been to Burning Man. What was that? A new music video from Swedish House Mafia? Or a long-form ad from TBWA/Chiat/Day meant to sell Sweden's favorite vodka mixed with grapefruit juice? I have to say, I've never seen such an elaborate effort to promote the Greyhound, a drink I enjoy when miles from the nearest dive bar. Of course, the use of …
The AdPulp Interview: Ad Contrarian Revisited
Bob Hoffman, also known as The Ad Contrarian, has written two books about advertising. His first was self-titled and his second is 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising, which has been getting a solid reception since its release in eBook form last November. I had the opportunity to catch up with Hoffman over beers in Portland recently. He said he enjoyed making books more than blogs, and that he's putting his …
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No, It’s Not A New Vegas Casino, It’s A New Snack Foods Division.
Naming is tough. You end up with one word out of the hundreds or thousands of possibilities on the wall. And if a committee had anything to do with it, the one word chosen is likely to be stupid, or at best uninspired. Such is the case with this new made up word: Mondelez. According to Chicago Tribune, Kraft Foods is proposing to change the name of its global snacks business to Mondelez International Inc. when …
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Directors Are Filmmakers And/Or Hustlers, This One’s A Filmmaker
"I was seduced." -Doug Nichol "Sunshine" is not your typical "making of" video. Rather, it's a dark look at globalization and our role in feeding the machine, from director Doug Nichol. In this short film, which is making the film festival rounds this year, Nichol illustrates what that the phrase "Sunshine" means in China. The staffers at McDonald's agency want "Sunshine people," or people who are very …
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The Rich And Jeff Show Comes To Cable
Rich and Jeff appeared on CNBC today in a segment titled "The Real Mad Men." Aside from the nod to this Sunday's return of the AMC program, the reporters on the show asked about Detroit and Chevy, social media's impact on the business and the challenges faced by HP. It's fun to see these "Real Mad Men" on camera speaking well of their Chevy client, and the OK Go video that they successfully …
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Move Over Howler Monkeys, Jim Beam Drinkers Are Making A Racket
Have you heard the call of Jim Beam? If you live in Australia, chances are you know the from-deep-in-the-jungle sounds. According to The Inspiration Room, the noisy work stems from The Works in Sydney. The campaign began with jungle calls broadcast around Sydney in the three days leading up to the broadcast of the first television commercial. For all the talk about moving away from interruption …
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Storytelling Isn’t Journalism. And Brands Don’t Need To Tell The Truth.
If you've followed the news lately, then you've seen theater performer Mike Daisey on the defensive after the revelation that he fudged the truth about his experiences visiting Apple supplier Foxconn's plants in Shenzhen, China. Most notably, This American Life issued a retraction after featuring Daisey. The show's host and producers didn't feel that Daisey's account lived up to their journalistic …
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American Hipster, Only On YouTube
Hooray, American Hipster is coming. I say this with no mockery in my voice, for as much as I enjoyed Portlandia's pointy skewers of the self-important, the show lost some of its bite in season two. Ergo, we must seek other commentaries on the vacuousness of our time. American Hipster is part of YouTube's new $100 mil original programming venture. Starting next Monday, three episodes weekly -- …