According to Adweek, JWT worldwide chairman and CEO Bob Jeffrey opened Nielsen Businesss Media's Next Big Idea Conference here yesterday with a broadside against current industry practices, declaring that in stressing "execution over ideas" agencies were responsible for "dumbing down" brands. "The relationship between the brands and their core truths are crumbling," Jeffrey said. "And we are all responsible for these …
Does Epsonality Have Wessonality?
I don't know the answer to that question, but upon hearing about the new Epson ad campaign, that's the first thing that came to my mind. The Epsonality site was very slow (kind of like the Epson photo printer I ditched for a Canon), but apparently there's some sort of quiz on there you can take to determine your Epsonality. I could swear there was another "-ality" campaign that came out recently, but I can't …
There’s No There, There
According to The Wall Street Journal, Target will stage a fashion show in Grand Central Terminal in New York City on Nov. 6 and 7. But not just any fashion show. This one will feature no models and no clothes. Instead holograms -- two-dimensional moving images that give the illusion of having three dimensions -- will walk down the runway every every 10 minutes from noon to midnight the first day and 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. …
The Sentiment Behind Sentimentality
Checking the comments section of Bob Garfield's column, it appears he ignited a shitstorm over his review of CVS's new TV commercial (also available at forallthewaysyoucare.com). Garfield doesn't mince words: You see a lot of bad ads if you watch long enough, but, really, how often it is that you see a TV commercial that makes you want to puke? And the comments run the gamut, like this one: It's obvious Bob's never …
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Gyro Offers Its City Some Nice Spec Work
I used to live in Philly and it's far from the ugliest city in America. Yet, Travel & Leisure named it such in a readers' poll. The readers have obviously never been to Gary, Indiana. At any rate, Philadelphia-based agency Gyro is now making lemonade from the lemons. Gyro CEO Steven Grasse remarks, “Walking around this city is like rubbernecking at a car accident. It’s hideous, but you just can’t stop gawking. It’s …
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The Gap Has A Gap In Its Value System
While the Gap loves to get activist celebrities like John Mayer involved in its ad campaigns, it's currently facing a bigger problem. Namely, the discovery of child labor abuses at its factories. From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Clothing retailer Gap Inc. said Sunday that it will convene all of its Indian suppliers to "forcefully reiterate" its prohibition on child labor after a British newspaper found …
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You Are Not Your Achievements
The New York Times is running a series called "Age of Riches." Today's installment looks at a weird strain of Silicon Valley youth culture. Max Levchin, who is now 32, is typical of a new generation of junior titans in Silicon Valley who might be called the prematurely rich — techies worth tens of millions of dollars, sometimes more, at an age when many others are just starting to figure out what to do with their …
The Big Three Are Invisible To Young Buyers
Having lived in both the Rust Belt and the Sun Belt in the last few years, it became very obvious to me that, outside a small sliver of the Midwest, no one has any affinity at all for cars from GM, Ford or Chrysler. Of all the troubles the Big 3 face, perception is the biggest one. Because there's nobody under the age of 30 who can associate domestic automakers with excellence. They simply don't remember a time when …
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