New York Times: Miller High Life, which since 1997 has been sold with a series of humorous commercials centered on a sardonic, sometimes crotchety advertising character who views the world from a distinctly male perspective. Beginning next week, the "High Life Man" campaign will give way to spots featuring a female figuratively and literally out of this world: the "Girl in the Moon" character who has symbolized High …
Eighteen Plus Six
Lewis Lazare: Oak Brook-based Ace Hardware has renewed its contract with former football coach and television color analyst John Madden for an additional six years. The 18-year association between Madden and the nation's largest hardware cooperative is the second-longest spokesperson relationship existing today, just behind Michael Jordan and Nike. …
Abercrombie’s Protrusion
You know it's a hot story when Mia von Furstenber picks it up from Steve Hall at Adrants (who, by the way, has been showing a lot of male sexuality in advertising of late...I guess turnabout is fair play). And you know it's a story when the socialite titles her post, "The Bulge That Assaulted NYC." That's classic. Anyway, I'd like to see this Ohio-based retailer try to pull this off in Akron, Columbus or Cincinnati. …
Demographics Are Like Coal In Newcastle
Henry Copeland of Blogads spoke to the IFsters recently. I like what he said here: Cutting edge advertisers are starting to realize that the game isnt' just "buy ads on blogs" or "buy the blogosphere" but splicing your brand/service/ideas into specific networks of blogs, specific conversations, specific blogospheres. Second, a very few advertisers are realizing that demographics are like coal in Newcastle... …
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Honor The Creative Process. Damn The Outcome.
Mark Fenske teaches advertising in the graduate program at VCU in Richmond. He used to keep a sketch book, or what he calls a workbook. Here's a page from his workbook: Here's some text from Fenske's blog entry about workbooks: The job of a copywriter or art director isn't fun and it isn't easy. Jackasses often get the final say about whether our work runs or is even presented to a small group of people. Genuine …
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Lord Vishnu’s Love Handles
Need a reason to read the print version of Adweek? Here's one. They weave interesting tidbits into the print version that are not found online. Former DDB-Dallas copywriter, Will Clark, has a new book out. It's a black comedy about a psychic ex-dot-com-millionaire who falls in with paranormal spies, a Charles Manson-loving yogi, a chubby blue incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu and a pair of mentally conjoined …
Interpublic: Sell! Sell! Sell!
Brokerage firms are almost always eternal optimists when it comes to stocks. Even if they don't like a stock, they'll trot out a euphemism like "sector underperform" or "underweight" when they recommend dumping the stock but can't really say that due to corporate politics. So you know this is serious: Merrill Lynch on Thursday downgraded its rating of Interpublic Group's stock from "neutral" to "sell" with a high …
The Case Of The Shrinking iPod
Take everything you love about iPod and shrink it. Now shrink it again. With 2GB (500 songs) and 4GB (1,000 songs) models starting at $199, the pencil-thin iPod nano packs the entire iPod experience into an impossibly small design. …
