Maybe it's a joke, maybe it's not, but millions of American Idol viewers are voting for this fool: Seems that bad advertising--just like bad singing--is still out there. It wouldn't be if it didn't work. And the masses still put up with it. Why? Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t try to produce better work. Quite the opposite; I believe in the power of differentiation. Never mind trying to sell a One Show-worthy idea: …
Hearst Plans To Meet Their Consumers On Fox
Ad Age spoke to Hearst Magazines Editorial Director Ellen Levine about the publisher's new partnership with Fox Television Studios. The development deal includes two initial webisode projects inspired by CosmoGirl and Popular Mechanics. "We're not going out there and saying, 'We're going to have a one-hour magazine show,'" Ms. Levine said. "We're going to create material for new platforms, not take previously …
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Bond On Bond
Stuart Elliott of The New York Times spoke to MDC Partners CEO Miles Nadal, a man he calls "The Monty Hall of Madison Avenue." He also spoke to some of the agency heads in bed with MDC. “The really talented, creative people don’t like being told what to do,” said Jonathan Bond, co-chairman of Kirshenbaum Bond in New York, who with Richard Kirshenbaum sold 60 percent of the agency to Mr. Nadal in 2004. “I don’t know …
Copycat Ads Make Me Wanna Puke
Here's an article (with accompanying ad) from Reebok's new ad campaign. It looked familiar to me. Oh yeah, Nike, 10 years ago... OK, so the message is a little different. But can't they make their point without regurgitating this visual idea? …
Honda Gives Up The Funk
Sometime last fall, the crew at RPA switched the Honday Odyssey's theme song from Foghat's "Slow Ride" to P-Funk's "Give Up The Funk." I can't find the spot online, although you can see the earlier Foghat version at RPA.com. Given that the spot is not online, I present George Clinton on David Letterman circa 1986, care of YouTube. It's hard to imagine Dr. Funkenstein is endorsing a minivan. The very idea would have …
Shakira Fans Click Play
Los Angeles Times looks at the record industry's foray into consumer generated media (and what it can do for their star generated media). Last year, Epic Records held a contest offering fans a chance to help create a video for Colombian pop diva Shakira. The contest yielded some 500 submissions of fans lip-syncing and booty-shaking in extremis that were spliced together by a professional editor to create a single …
Kevin Roberts Just Wants To Connect
Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi and author of Lovemarks, quietly entered the bloatosphere last month with a Blogger site called KR Connect. Earlier this week he regaled us with tales of visiting actual record stores. Yes, this hep cat is old school. Whilst the music business goes through incredible turmoil, I’ve recently visited two of my favorite independent music outlets, Real Groovy in Auckland …
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Air Leaking From Vonage Tires
According to Wired, a federal judge today will decide whether to give Vonage an extra 120 days to appeal his ruling that the internet phone provider be barred from operating after a jury decided it had infringed on several Verizon patents. The ban would prevent Vonage from using technology to connect its online customers to the internet and would effectively put the company out of business. The Washington Post says …