Advertising Hits and Misses

Fashion Videos and Fashion Ads better than Superbowl

2012-02-10T21:19:00.000-08:00

I was reading Time online and noticed they were running the "Top 10 Fashion Video Ad Campaigns"... WOW! These were GREAT! Usually I would scoff and say before seeing: "Brainless!"
"Vain and vacuous" or something to that effect....but these are very very clever, original and experimental ads...they create a brand or impression of a brand that is so different from the usual
ordinary beer, car, pop, cellphone, munchie ads....some are very beautiful, some are really really just out there theatre, some are visual feasts, some have compelling stories and delivery...all of them are the most original things going that I have seen in a long long long time. Only droga5 was mentioned as an actual "ad agency" doing a spectacular job for puma...there was a Chanel ad that was of course with star endorsement (Kidman), and Sophia Coppolla directed one that was visually weak and her usual meaningless stuff but with those two exceptions most of the other work is really really good...especially Prada's and Puma's and Yves St. Laurant's ...
This is really where breakthrough work is being done. This is the stuff that should have run during the SuperBowl... Go to the Time website and check it out.

The Superbowl ADS

2012-02-09T09:13:00.000-08:00

Another blah year for Superbowl ads. All that money. All the big star endorsements. All the hours of shooting and post production. And have you ever noticed it's always by just a handful of the usual agencies? The Wiedens, the Crispins, the same agencies you always read about in AdAge adnauseum...blah blah blah blah .... blahhhhhhhhhhhughhhhhhhhhhh...
These "A-list" shops spend and get more PR than they deserve. They are always the shops that get Agency of the Year. And it just rotates between eight or ten shops all the time. Same with the people who work for them. These guys just rotate between shops. And it's always the same. Once you get in it's almost like you are "made". Yet with all the PR attention, with hiring the hot shots at astronomical salaries, with the real hard working stiffs (the young bucks earning little and working and waiting for their chance to be "made") the end result is a real lack of results in every way.

The bottom line is: WE ARE IN TROUBLE HERE FOLKS. The creative solutions these "A-listers" are showcasing are by and large: mediocre at best.

GONE. Are real compelling ideas.
GONE. Are clients who trust agencies enough to risk for a big idea.
GONE. Are the agency people who knew what a big idea was and knew how to lead a client to embrace that idea.
GONE. Are the Senior people who really know what great advertising is all about.
GONE. Is the mandate of an agency to adhere to the "idea is king" credo.
GONE. Are clients who respect and admire great thinking about their product or service and who will allow agencies the TIME NEEDED to really deliver on that premise.
GONE. Is where the advertising agency will be as a place products and services will go to for breakout positioning and brilliant creative.

What the advertising gurus are forgetting is that "everything changes and nothing changes". Yes, tactical changes like social, web, guerrilla, mobile are all new and exciting arenas for delivering a message.

But before all the tactics, before all the big production dollars, celebrity endorsements, and Superbowl TV buys, there has to be a MESSAGE.....but not just any message. It has to be RELEVANT. It has to be INTERESTING. It has to strategically position the brand. It has to be MEMORABLE. It has to be ZIGGING WHEN EVERYONE ELSE IS ZAGGING. And it has to be
able to pull you into the message and leave you awestruck.

Not one, not even the Halftime ad for Detroit's made in America ad did that for me this Superbowl. I am tired of a 1%'er like Clint Eastwood telling me we are down but not out. I am tired of patronizing patriotism. I am tired of seeing beauty shots of Detroit when I have driven there and it looks like Dresden after the bombing...

If Wieden wanted to really shake people up and get them off their couches they should have skewed that message to the 1%. But the owners of Wieden won't do that because they are 1%'ers....get where I am going here??? They bravely could have said something like: Only 1% can live like 1% suckers....and you're not it....

You are the 99% sitting on your couch, anesthetized by widescreen gladiator football and eating your Doritos, eating your M&M's, swilling beer and cokes, thinking maybe, since you are underwater anyway with a mortgage that you are no longer paying, you might just be able to go out and buy one of these new cars being advertised to help Detroit get moving again, on credit of course, with the money you saved on not paying your mortgage...why heck, that sounds like a great idea...

or how about an ad with the idea that 1% of your fellow Americans have sold out the other 99%...

think advertising that truth would fly?

... I kinda doubt Clint Eastwood would be available to deliver that message...

This truly is the Great Recession.

Let's talk about mediocrity

2012-01-24T07:52:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons the creative output in most places that have a creative department, is totally forgettable is due to one thing:

Fear.

Fear of taking a risk, fear of getting it wrong, fear of getting it right, fear of standing out, fear of failure, all those fear reasons.

So what does the agency produce instead?

Mediocrity.

When you have too many people trying to second guess the target group, when you have too many people who have to "weigh in on the creative" whether they have any training or not or because their title or their culture is the "it takes a village" mentality (which is the worse), what gets produced is: mediocrity. And mediocrity translates to invisible. 99% of all creative I see is mediocre at best.

And it's because marketing and creative are afraid to take a risk. People have forgotten what it is to listen to their inner voice. People that have the talent and training to strive for great creative solutions are reduced to order takers by inept marketing people who wield way too much power. And believe me, it doesn't take much to beat a creative department into submission.

I see it over and over again.

When an agency or group is overloaded with account service and keeps creative people enslaved to their Mac's, this is a sign that everything is out of balance and nothing really break through will come from this model.

When I read articles in AdAge and Marketing and all the trade pubs about "the death of creative" or " why is nothing notable coming from the creative side" ... this is why.

Is it any wonder, that the "new" silver bullet is social media (a p.r. function) and all the other new digital and mobil tactics?

Everyone has pretty much given up on "the message" and gone with "the medium" as the new creative....which is also absurd...

Regardless of the tactics...if you produce mediocrity...you send out mediocrity...and the perception is mediocrity....every time.

Creatives...it's time to get your game on...time for a new creative revolution...which means creative people have to be strong and not be afraid to be the best and do their best...and to champion great work...in the face of great odds and in the face of people who can't see great work...it is our job to stop being willing to accept mediocrity as the best we can do.

Mediocrity is meaningless. Mediocrity is where people who are scared seem safe and invisible

and not answerable to anyone or anything.

It's time for a new creative revolution. May Doyle Dane and Bernbach be with you.

New Year New Way of Looking at Ads

2012-01-02T18:45:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year one and all. Let's hope this year brings some really great ad campaigns with BIG IDEAS driving the brands rather than tactical gimmicks and overdone special effects that have no reason for being other than trying to make you think they are creating an idea when in fact the overuse of special effects is to mask the fact that there is nothing really going on idea-wise.

I just finished looking at the 5 top ads that were most viewed on YOutube in 2011. I have to say, it was pathetic. One was for T-Mobile and it's no wonder they are in the toilet financially when I see the pathetic, non-sensical ads they are running. Another was for some water Jennifer Anniston was hawking and it was also just another spokesperson ad with some gratuituous b.s. thrown in, meant to be humourous but instead was humourless.

The only two that seemed to resonate with me of course was Old Spice and the Chrysler ad that ran for the SuperBowl with the tag line: Imported from Detroit....now that's a great ad.

Whatever has been put in the KoolAide, let's hope the Creative folks have figured out it causes lobotomies and they stop drinking it.

Also, it's time to mentor and guide the account groups it seems. They also have lost their way when ads of this low calibre are being sold to clients. It's no wonder clients feel bamboozled....because they are....

It's also time for agencies to start hiring people over the age of 40 to bring some refreshing ideas and real thinking to the creative table. Otherwise the creative side of the business is definitely going to become extinct...it's well on its way as it is....

Cheers and I hope to be showcasing some great work and some ghastly work this year as usual.

The best ideas...

2011-12-06T17:48:00.000-08:00

...are always the simplest...and so is this the case for the newest from DDBLondon (of course) for

the clothier Harvey Nichols...there are no words, you don't need them...watch:

tiff bell lightbox, Grace Kelly and me...

2011-11-25T11:30:00.000-08:00

I had a bit of a contract doing some work launching the Grace Kelly campaign for the exhibition at tiff bell lightbox in Toronto. It was my first time working for a not for profit arts and working from inside the not for profit rather than working from the ad agency side.

It's exciting to be part of a campaign of this magnitude and involved in its shape. It truly is a huge undertaking and includes all the same processes as branding a consumer product or service. What is great is seeing the campaign integrate across so many different variables. Of course there's print, radio, web and splash pages, eblasts, direct response, invitations, promotions and various phases: like pre-opening, opening, holidays, and end phases. Additonally there are banners and building scrims, and elevator doors and a myriad of other smaller venues to get the messaging out.

The subject matter, Grace Kelly, would seem a slam dunk, but the other consideration is reaching a new, younger target group of people who may not know who Grace Kelly is. She died in a car accident 30 years ago, so for much of our younger group, she was gone before they were born. Plus, she didn't have a long movie career. Most of her life was spent as a mother raising a family and representing her husband's tiny country of Monaco as their Princess. So it wasn't like she was a powerful Princess. Her power lie in her beauty. And that she truly was.

We were fortunate to have some incredible photos to choose from. And the campaign photo we chose, is absolutely stunning.

We created two separate window scrims. One announcing the exhibition and in the same vein as the main campaign, but we also created a scrim of old Toronto newspapers, with every article on the papers about her wedding. Instead of still photos, the photo areas have been cutout and using flat screens her wedding is projected and the newspapers look like the magical newspapers in Harry Potter movies. People love to stop on the sidewalk and watch and read the articles.

The exhibition is on until January 22 and it's very interesting. It's gotten great revues and well worth an hour or so of your time. It's at the tiff bell lightbox in Toronto at King and John Sts.

open everyday except Mondays. Check it out.

Sanders/Wingo

2011-06-10T18:30:00.000-07:00

Sanders/ Wingo is a smallish agency in El Paso and Austin Texas. They handle a great roster of clients like :

State Farm Insurance, AT&T, El Paso Electric and a small artsy movie theatre called Alamo Drafthouse (it's embedded below this post as an example of their work). This regional agency embodies the philosophy that ads don't have to hit you over the head to be memorable. They believe the people the ads are directed to are the real creative directors, that being in touch with people and insightful about the human condition, is a higher place, where all people strive to be. Besides the screechingly funny spots for Alamo Drafthouse, they further prove their abilities to be quintessential with a promotional video for the Convention Visitors Bureau of El Paso. In the 4 or 5 minutes there is one sentence: "Can you still get someplace real in America" and from there you are taken to a visual slice and dice of all the usual shots you always find in most CVB promos accompanied with a southwest influence, of course. HOWEVER, there is ONE HUGE difference: they took those standard stock shots and did amazing, impeccably timed editing to a BRILLIANT, EMOTIVE AND EVOCATIVE music track. By the end of it I am dancing. And they are making trips to the podium.

I love this agency. They do fresh, original, tasteful work. The idea is king and you know this by the lack of big production values. It's their level of thinking, their level of writing, their level of ideas, their use of strong emotive music and even more brilliant is their use of holding back, that answers one of their main criteria: "is it magical".

Check them out: http://www.sanderswingo.com/

Don't Talk - Angry Voicemail (Uncensored)

2011-06-10T18:19:00.000-07:00

Walmart does it right with the Martin Agency

2011-05-01T13:52:00.001-07:00

Walmart's ad campaign from the Martin Agency is fabulous.

The series feature a few seconds opening with several items. Some I am sure, are shown and mentioned because alone, they don't constitute enough revenue to get a commercial, but as part of a group they warrant a see and say (which is very clever on the agency's part). So items relevant to the story coming up are featured on the checkout belt before the spot begins. Then we get the scenario for using the items by kids ages oh 4 to 7 I would guess. The 3 spots I have seen so far have been charming. One for skin cream, one for fabric softener and laundry detergent and another for a chain saw and shortening.

The thing about Walmart and its ads is they are such a huge chain, with many years of advertising behind them from every agency known to man. Some are good spots but none have been great, until now. I can only imagine how difficult it is to sell in anything charming or funny to the boys from Benton. But Martin Agency has managed to do it. And to incorporate the co-oping of products relevant to these spots upfront is a brilliant way to answer what I am sure was probably a strategy "must have" seamlessly into the spots.

What is also great is the directing. Whoever is handling the shoots for these is a genius. The kids are really natural in their delivery. Which is what makes these commercials so very special.

The tone, the attitude, the delivery, the writing and art directing are bang on. Kudos to the Martin Agency who has shown us that having a behemoth account like Walmart doesn't mean you have to give up and sacrifice great creative, which every other agency that's ever worked with them has done.

Being The Yardstick

2011-04-16T19:52:00.000-07:00

Finding an agency home is a gruelling process even at the best of times. When you are a candidate that is toyed with and held up as the yard stick against which others are measured, it becomes almost unbearable. Agency owners do this all the time. They really have no intention of hiring you. Never did. But they will do a phone interview or two just to get an idea of how you think, what you think, your take on their shop, the future of the ad game etc. etc. Meantime, their old buddy from agency X is really who they intend to hire. And it was a done deal even before the agency owner picked up the phone to talk to you. But the rub is; you don't know that until after the fact. They lead you on. They let you think there is a real chance of a position, maybe even a partnership. But that is their game. And these guys must all go to the same old boys school because it is becoming more and more frequent. And it stinks. Some even have the gaul to tell you that after keeping you on the hook for a week or two, never returning an email inquiry about the status of the position or having the decency to call and tell you in person that they've hired their old pal, that if their old buddy doesn't work out, they'll give ya a call. Wink wink, nudge nudge. Right. You can fool me once.

Discover Card - Peggy Customer Service #1

2011-04-04T07:18:00.000-07:00

Discover Peggy

2011-04-04T07:09:00.000-07:00

On the flip side of my last entry, there is the wonderful campaign created by the Martin Agency for the Discover Card. It is a series of TV spots with a spokesperson called "Peggy". But Peggy isn't your ordinary hawker. The Martin Agency creatives obviously have tapped into a few of the consumer's biggest gripes about credit cards: 1.) the rewards systems 2.) customer service and 3.) replacing a lost card and on and on and on....Peggy can address all these problems and more....and so she/he does with brilliant writing, fabulous acting and a charming set. These spots can't help but make you smile and better yet, colorfully tap into the consumer's imagination of who is really on the other end of their customer service calls. This is brilliant, charming, memorable and has all the right stuff that great advertising is all about. Cudos to a big agency that sold this to Discover Card. There is still a small light out there in the distance...

The MAGIC of a big idea

2011-03-14T16:33:00.001-07:00

I have been watching a forum of Creative Directors talk about the "new" Creative Director. And it has saddened me to see a panel of men with one young token woman from the digital side, speaking like they are accountants. Every one of them appears afraid to speak out in defense of being a strong Creative Person who is or should be the face of the agencies Creative ideas, the expert at knowing when an idea is an idea and being the visionary leader/ keeper for the agencies accounts. Each one of them appears weak and beaten down and scared to say anything that might jeopardize their job and I am sure, their big pay checks. Ultimately, it will be the undoing of any respect or need for a Creative Director if this truly is representative of what is going on in the big agencies. I am honestly ashamed that this panel is so mundane and so so ordinary. Is it any wonder then clients work is just as mundane?

A big idea takes guts to fight for. It takes vision to see it. It takes real risk taking on the part of a Creative Director to stand up for it. It might mean putting your job and reputation on the line.

But these days, a Creative Director is a dime a dozen, because they comprise ordinary people who are so willing to say nothing or do nothing that might upset management or heaven forbid, go against the grain of the account service people or even worse, make the client nervous. So is it any wonder that clients have now learned to look to tactics and media cleverness to outshine the creative and the social, digital, guerrilla, grab your attention any way you can gimmick has more power than the message?

This is the death knell for Creative. And until clients can see that it is the idea that is delivered that is going to make or break a brand....the magic of any brand is the big idea....again.....we will be living with mediocre work on brands that could be doing so much better if they only had a strong, brave Creative Director at the helm.

But in writing this I feel like no one cares. Not even the clients. They have historically always been willing to throw the big ideas under the bus for the sake of a quick return and with not a whit of care about the long term implications of a one off spike.

These are dark times for the ad game. And usually the ad world is a fair barometer for what is going on in the world at large.

Sad.

EQUALS

2011-03-11T14:50:00.000-08:00

The NEW Harley Davidson campaign

2011-02-16T08:57:00.000-08:00

Carmichael Lynch lost Harley Davidson in an agency review, where they decided not to participate. Here is a brand that had been with Carmichael Lynch basically forever. You could probably go so far as to say that Carmichael Lynch literally created the brand. I think they were together something like over thirty years. That is a long marriage these days.

Yesterday the new ad campaign was launched from an upstart agency called Victors and Spoils. This agency works on the premise that everything they do is "Consumer Created" work. And the ideas are actually sourced from regular folks out there who think they know all about advertising and that just about anybody and their monkey can do ads.

The particular TV spot that we have all seen is the brainchild of a fellow Harley owner from Kentucky named Whit Hiler. It is based on the biker moniker that anyone who doesn't ride a motorcycle is in a "cage" meaning a car. Victors and Spoils tries to extend this to all people who do not ride Harleys live in a cage. The spot shows people in all walks of life performing their daily tasks...right you got it....in a cage. And of course, the only person not in a cage is a guy on his Harley who passes another guy in a car/cage and goes cycling on down the street.

In the meantime, the voiceover and ending shows a bike being customized, which has absolutely nothing to do with what is going on with people in cages.

First of all, I am prejudiced. I LOVE Carmichael Lynch and every bit of work they do. I would give them my right, no, left arm to work there. I would work there as a janitor, just so I could empty their wastebaskets and see the ad ideas that they threw away. I am not kidding.

So when I see this drivel that was born from a gimmick driven agency model of "consumer consensus" ideas being the face of the ad game future, it makes me gag. This TV spot is worse than any first year advertising's students attempt at creative. It is an embarrassment and compete slap in the face to all creative agencies, most of all, Carmichael Lynch.

Harley Davidson deserves to fail. And it will if it continues on with this "agency".

Sadly, it is THIS kind of new communal ad model and variations thereof that are beginning to pepper the industry. And sadly, this kind of new communal ad model is beginning to sink those of us who have spent years and years working and honing our craft and talent; sinking the real ad agencies whose creative people are trained to know the brand as well or better than the client. Agencies made up of a group of creatives who have lived, eaten and slept with a client's brand for years. Agencies whose creative people arm themselves with the kind of knowledge that becomes strategically highly intuitive. Long term agency relationships with the brand and client forges advertising that is not only brilliant and expansive but most importantly, over time, iconic. And sometimes, like the work of Carmichael Lynch, the advertising can also become Art.

SUPERBOWL ADS 2011

2011-02-07T08:40:00.000-08:00

Last week weather forecasters proclaimed we were going to have the biggest blizzard in I don't know how many years. All the media in NorthAmerica picked up on it and everyone was rushing around buying candles and batteries, groceries, rearranging plane tickets as airlines and airports began to cancel flights ahead of time. When the storm finally hit, it was nothing horrific like we had been told. It was really just a regular snow storm for most areas. And the media-hype was far more disproportionate than the actual event.

Well same can be said for this years Superbowl ads. All the hype, all the pre-game teasers were just so much of the same....hype with no substance.

When I looked at these and saw all the production money, the over the top bit parts for big stars commanding HUGE $$$$ for guys like Eminem, I cringed.

It's no wonder the ad game is in shambles. We are in WORSE SHAPE creatively than Detroit in my opinion. At least Detroit is trying to recover and their anthemic spot was not bad.

These ads, with almost no exception, were PATHETIC. Including the one everyone is touting as being so precious: The little darth vader VW ad. Now I have worked on VW and this ad doesn't even begin to resonate with the calibre of work that has been done for that brand in the past. The sad thing is, people don't even recognize that the charm in this ad was completely lost. The magic moment should have been when the kid's dad turned on the car and the kid should have FREAKED!!! and run away....that would have been charming.

His bespoke Vader costume was too over the top for me....what kid is gonna have a costume so well articulated as this one in his play box? Come on....if he'd had a homemade costume that looked enough like Vader, had some real HUMAN RELATIONSHIP with us as consumers, it would have worked far far better. Even Dad and Mom had no reaction to the kid's response which made the ad distant for me as a consumer. It didn't have that magic moment.

We have lost touch with what really touches us. We have become robotic in our approach to human nature.

Many of the ads had a real "gotcha" mean edge to them, which isn't funny and isn't cool and isn't a creative idea. One in particular is for PepsiLight or whatever they call their alternative low cal drink, where a black couple are on a bench outside and a blonde white woman sits down and black girlfriend or wife lobs the can at boyfriend, husband whatever and he ducks and the blonde takes it in the face...this is not funny, here is a woman, who takes it in the face and what do the perps do??? RUN AWAY...Yeah, that's really funny, that's really a big idea.....

Yet people laugh because this kind of cruelty has somehow been rationalized to represent slap-stick humor so now instead of pies in the face aka Soupy Sales, Lucille Ball et.al , people are getting smacked with pop cans or Roseanne Barr is whacked with a log or Betty White is tackled, but none of it has the punch it needs to take it to big idea land. Frankly these old vaudeville tricks just aren't funny any more. And to see two or three or more ads that are just variations on that same theme within the same game, is even more pathetic.

I did like the Best Buy spot with Ozzie and Bieber. It was hilarious. Good for BestBuy and using Osbourne the way he is in his persona. It works.

I did like Career Builders spot with the chimps. It works. And it's funny. And it's simple and memorable.

All the BEER spots: espeically Stella and all of Budweiser's, all the CAR spots, all the DOT COM spots were terrible. The DORITOS spots were terrible. The SNICKERS spot was an abomination and I have worked on Snickers so that doesn't surprise me. The COKE spots were terrible as were all the PEPSI spots.

The Groupon ad with Timothy Hutton; the agency that did that abomination should be fired and the marketing group at Groupon that okayed that abomination should be fired.

The Golden Age of Advertising was short lived. One decade, maybe two. And we've never been able to even remotely get back to that place since on a national level. Sad sad sad....

WHS - Kitty Midnight Madness

2011-01-31T09:22:00.000-08:00

Kitty Midnight Madness

2011-01-31T08:41:00.000-08:00

Now this is a great ad for the Winnipeg Humane Society. It's fun, cute, well written, and very very charming.

The monolog is a parody of a used car salesman and works beautifully for hawking an overabundance of cats and kitties. The video is strictly low budget just like you find on your local tv stations, shot with a cheap digital camera and transferred to scotch tape hahaha. Which makes it even more charming. Forget any production values here it is lots of quick cuts to kitty calendar cutouts and badly photoshopped cats popping on couches torn and mended with duck tape.

I love his "buy one and get five free" claim hahaha and the "scratch and dent" models for kittys who have been through some spats.

This is a great way to make saving an animal less serious and dire. There's no sob stories, no begging or tear jerking guilt. "Looks like someone left the kitty making machine on overnight and we have a cat-astrophe on our hands." hahahaha.

Very very clever writing. I bet there was a lineup at the Winnipeg Humane Society after this ran. He made pet ownership seem fun.

The Magic of the Web or things aren't always what they seem.

2011-01-28T05:11:00.000-08:00

Recently I was shoe-horned into what I thought was an "Advertising" agency to do some contract work and try to get the creative department's work out the door. I was excited at the prospect, although I found it interesting and in hindsight, odd, their need for me was so urgent.

Turns out the "acting" CD had walked when told he wasn't managing the job; the first red flag.

The second red flag was with their biggest account, a tourism account; when I saw the new campaign, it made absolutely no sense. The creative development for this project had been going on for months. No one seemed to see the lack of any idea. Oddly enough, the owner of the shop called in a strategist who advised them it wasn't working. However, it wasn't until myself and yet a third former creative director (who has charmed the owner beyond reason) both of us confirming this was waaaaayyyy off strategy, that the owner finally listened. The owner is a government worker who needs lots of consensus.

My first day on the job, we pulled the plug on the campaign. Of course this sent the stakeholders into a tailspin; which were my team of "creatives" the former creative director's girlfriend and her junior copywriter buddy, also hired by boyfriend and the chief account person who turns out was a buddy to the other two and the former Creative Director and is someone being groomed to take over the owner's job, sidebar note to owner: I would be leary about how well this account person is being mentored.

This is the shambles I walked into: Their tourism client had no idea it had been canned yet and I was left to scramble to retrace steps, inject some enthusiasm for starting again and pick up the pieces of this account to cobble some kind of campaign together with no money for any development left and no one wanting to do any more work on the darn thing.

I was in a lose /lose position before I even got there had I really taken the time to look closely. And had I done more due diligence before making this commitment to travel to a very remote geographical area, I would have seen this was so.

The companies new website makes you think this is an "Advertising Agency." It isn't. It is a beautifully designed site, created two Creative Directors ago, as his main project to put into the portfolio to get him a better job in a big city agency. Smart strategy and it worked. And basically the tourism campaign that was axed was the same scenario: a complete campaign ready for the portfolio to launch people into a better place to work.

Second, the folks there are clueless about what an advertising strategy is, how to make an ad, and who does what. Why? Because it is a communications firm with an owner background in government work and journalism. Turns out the firm handles only government communications in all its various forms. I am not knocking the company, but it is not positioned that way online. And my due diligence was mostly online and from a headhunter who also was misinformed.

I lasted one week of the four. And it is no wonder. I arrived thinking I would be making ads into a scenario that was complete chaos, with people not trained in ad making both on the creative and account service side. I was a stranger in a strange land. And the owner gave me all of 3 days to prove myself in this mess that was created before me.

Moral of the story: don't rely only on a website for due diligence. A website can make a company look like it is one thing, when in truth it is something else altogether. Granted, every place has its own story, but this was extreme misrepresentation from start to finish.

Facebook pulls "threatening" testicular cancer ad

2010-09-15T21:31:00.000-07:00

The ad Facebook won't allow.

Facebook pulls plug on ‘threatening’ testicular cancer ad

September 10, 2010Robert Cribb
STAFF REPORTER

Amid the countless racy images posted on Facebook, you will not find a Toronto Public Health ad warning of the dangers of testicular cancer.

The wildly popular social network website has censored the public service announcement for being a “threat” to its online audience.

When health officials recently attempted to place an ad on the website urging men to “check your package” for signs of the disease, Facebook officials took exception.

The advertisement, which features a male midsection alongside text urging men aged 18 to 35 to do monthly self exams, was deemed distasteful and “threatening” by Facebook officials, according to emails obtained by the Star.

“It is disappointing that Facebook, many of whose clients we want to reach, doesn’t see the importance of providing them with clear and effective communication,” said Dr. David McKeown, Toronto’s medical officer of health.

“We can’t afford to be squeamish about an important health problem.”

In a written response, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company said that while it supports “creative and compelling” ad campaigns, “we must ensure that the nature of each campaign adheres to the policies and guidelines that we have set out.”

Testicular cancer is most common in young men, with about 900 cases a year in Canada and 30 deaths. With incidents on the rise, early self-detection is a vital message, said McKeown.

The city had hoped Facebook, with its vast and youthful subscriber base of more than 500 million people, would provide a cost-effective way to heighten awareness around the shadowy public health issue.

Toronto Public Health designed several different versions of the ad and tested the results in focus groups comprised of male university students.

The “Check Your Package” headline and image was the clear favourite, says Mary Margaret Crapper, a Toronto Public Health spokesperson.

So, the city made a $10,000 ad buy for a four-week Facebook campaign.

But once Facebook’s advertising department examined the ad package, the deal got sacked.

“Just got feedback from the policy guys — looks like ‘check your package’ won’t fly,” wrote Facebook ad operations employee Roger Lu in an Aug. 27 email to city staff.

“And we’ll need an image change. Is there anything else we can use?”

City staff pushed back in an email response saying, “That might be an issue on our end since this entire campaign is called Check Your Package and has the same exact image. Is there absolutely no way we can push this through?”

In a Sept. 1 email, Lu advised the city that following an internal “escalation,” the ad simply gave Facebook officials the willies.

The image “must not focus on a specific body part, particularly a man’s crotch” and the “Check Your Package” headline was “unacceptable,” the email reads.

Facebook also objected to the words “Men 18-35 are at risk” as being “threatening to the user and we don’t allow age callouts under any circumstance.”

In its written response, Facebook officials said they “worked closely with the Toronto Public Health officers to come up with alternatives and encourage them to advertise on Facebook to support their important cause.”

That included substituting the man-in-underwear image with a far less intriguing logo of the Canadian Testicular Cancer Association, replacing “Check Your Package” with the words “Be Aware” and making a complete rewrite of the copy.

“Please keep in mind that it is not our intention to change the content/message of your campaign, but to take steps to contribute towards the overall success of the campaign,” reads the email from Lu to city staff. Lu declined comment to the Star.

Those efforts at compromise undermined the agency’s carefully crafted message, said McKeown.

“We feel we’ve already done the work required to identify an effective campaign and that’s our business. Clearly, Facebook’s policies are a barrier to effective public health education.”

I am reprinting this from the Toronto Star's HealthZone section and am shocked that Facebook pulled rank and felt they had the right to dictate creative content for a Public Service Campaign. Firstly, this ad was well tested in the marketplace before it was ever placed in media. But the audacity of Facebook to deem this creative as being "threatening" is ridiculous and ludicrous. Especially when you see some of the Facebook user's own pages that have almost pornographic photos and sexually explicit content.

This juvenile site has no concept what constitutes good advertising yet alone a great idea, which I think this little ad is. Here is a not for profit agency trying to caution young men about a very serious cancer by speaking to them in their own language and using a smart tactical placement in Facebook where a huge target market would see it. It should have been a slam dunk.

What is alarming to me is the fact that the very generation who came up with the premise for social networking is completely blind to clever, meaningful communication. The youth of today is overfraught with "political correctness" to the overkill degree. Obsessive political correctness has snuffed out even the smallest glimmer of the ability to interpret and discern messaging that is creatively presented to them. Their world has been encouraged to be dull and dependent on others for creative enlightenment. The emphasis has been on social awareness to the extreme. Political correctness is a form of repression. And these kids grew up with it. It is all they have ever known. And now it shows.

My worry is this is just the tip of the iceberg. These kids believe social networks liberate them from not having to watch their every move or worry about uber-protective parents hovering over their every thought. But it is those very things that have stunted their abilities to think outside the box. Hence, great creative appears threatening because they weren't allowed to develop the cognative power to understand those kinds of messages.

Now we are talking about a generation who is handicapped.

Treatment
www.RoboticOncology.com

Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

2010-09-06T17:01:00.000-07:00

Vintage Old Spice Commercial - 1957

2010-09-06T16:40:00.000-07:00

Old Brand Gets Face Lift

2010-09-06T16:36:00.000-07:00

Old Spice is one of those brands that just keeps staying afloat. It has been around forever. My Dad used to have a bottle of this stuff on his dresser. And this year, it has swept the Cannes Award show with Best in Show for its new campaign that shows a hot guy in nothing but a towel and some fancy blue screen tricks visually that take him from shower to shore. So what makes this so different for the brand? One word ATTITUDE. The writing is strong and creates a kind of he-man listen to me do as I say girl approach. He commands you; literally when he says: "look at me now look at your man, now back to me" where he is in complete control of your imagination. It is some of the best writing I have heard in 30 seconds for a long time. It also helps that the casting was absolutely right on for this spokesperson. He is handsome, built and real eye candy for women. And he comes across as the kind of man every woman dreams would take control of her lacklustre life. He is literally telling her what to do; but in a great non-condescending, non-threatening very sexy way. It isn't a new idea having a spokesperson to revitalize a brand...that idea is as old as the hills. What is new is the ATTITUDE. And it really works. Look at the difference from an early Old Spice TV spot to the one currently running; The two spots are to the right in the archive area for this posting. Click on an old one and then view the new one by clicking on it to see just how far this brand has evolved.

Where did all the Art Directing Go?

2010-08-11T20:27:00.000-07:00

I was schlepping into a meeting on the subway. And of course, checking out all the bad ads. Why is it that the worse ads are always in the subway cars? It's the one place where you have literally a captured audience and it truly is wasted. If I were a big brand, I would seriously think about doing some great ads in the subway cars.

Honda tried to do this with a used car poster. While the headline was good, the Art Direction was absolutely horrible. It was a photoshop nightmare to my eye. I want to believe that the poor Art Director who got this assignment, also got no budget. And therefore had to find a stock background shot to marry a stock car shot into. I cannot rationalize this any other way. Because, to my Art Directing eye I couldn't help but cringe when I saw that the light sources were completely wrong. One was for the background and the other for the car and both were totally different. And whoever the bozo AD was or photoshop person was, didn't know the difference. What has happened to the CRAFT of Art Directing? I see this more and more as so many ads use stock shots that are composited rather than spending what it takes to achieve the idea.

This isn't Joe's used cars. It's HONDA. HONDA has a standard that is set by its international advertising. But it was absent in this ad. It had the HONDA tone of voice but not the HONDA visual standards. Now maybe just maybe this ad was relegated to the junior art director/writer team.

That being said, where was the CD who approved this?

The art of great, tight, every element counts crafted Art Directing seems to be going out the window. So many ideas go flat because an element is wrong or there's too much or the layout is wonky or any number of a million things are off. And I wonder where these folks studied to be Art Directors.

And who is mentoring and guiding them...or is anyone?

In these tight times the trend is to not invest in seasoned creative people who can teach the younger ones the tricks and fine tuning it takes for an ad to go from yuck to brilliant. And in this case, the headline was a great idea, but it was ruined by the art directing or lack thereof.

I was lucky. I had two fabulous mentors. Both crazy and wild and full of passion about the biz. Both very different in personalities but totally the same when it came to teaching the skills, the way to think and look at how you generate ideas, the way to execute those ideas to be as good as they can be and lastly the way to present and sell those ideas to a client. That can never be taught in a school or through a computer program. It is invaluable. And it becomes the DNA that really makes or breaks you as a creative person.

This is advertising for a great brand, done fast and on the cheap. And it shows. Pity.

Let the Rich Fail Too

2010-07-19T08:18:00.001-07:00

I am going to reprint an article I read in the Metro Business section weekend edition of July 16-18. It's important and struck a chord for me as I find real jobs harder and harder to find and apply for both full time and getting freelance work. I know I am not the only one having this problem. I am not reprinting this article because I am bitter but things have to start changing in a real way. Not just in words and political slogans. And I don't want this blog to turn into a political forum, however, I see no improvement in the economy. I see ads purporting high living and excess and I wonder: who are these talking to? All the people I know and have discourse with don't live this way. And when I get no response or little interest in real work, I wonder, well what are all those job placement people and ads for work really? Is this just internet propaganda?

Anyway the article is by David Descoteaux who writes a column for Metro Business, here it is:

"The gap between rich and poor is widening to record levels. Some blame the "free market." But what if government was also a culprit?

Since 2002, 65% of the wealth created in the United States ended up in the pockets of the richest 1%, according to a study. Who are these filthy rich? Many of them work on Wall Street.

For years, brokers gunned their roaring Maseratis at every corner, wore $3000 suits around the office, and let the Bordeaux wine flow...at a lunch.

Then the stock market crashed. And it became clear that the emperor had no clothes. Most of these newly rich didn't deserve their Maseratis, nor their suits. Paper profits vanished, and now most banks are drowning in debt. CEO's took on too much risk, and failed.

In a true free market, these cowboys would lose their fortunes. But the U.S. government chose to bail them out (here's a couple billion dollars; don't spend it all on one bonus). The State buries ordinary citizens--who earn just $40,000. per year--under a mountain of public debt to prevent Wall Street millionaires from having to sell a boat or two to pay the bills.

By bypassing the natural "clean-up" of the economy, the government perpetuates wealth disparity. Every crisis ends the same way. In the U.S. or elsewhere, governments save companies they consider "too big to fail" along with their shareholders.

You call this a free market?

A free market rewards success AND punishes failure. No bailouts at taxpayer expense. You failed? See you in the unemployment lines. The poor do not pay for the mistakes of the rich.

On Wall Street, JPMorgan recently hired 2,000 new graduates. Thanks to government support. Wall Street is thriving again. Is this a good thing? In 1972 five per cent of Harvard MBA graduates went to work in finance. Today, it's 45 per cent. Thousands of beautiful minds build complex algebraic models to sell refrigerators to Eskimos, instead of working on cleaner energy or curing cancer. The State must get out of the way and let this industry shrink in order to free up these brains.

If you scorn big banks, Wall Street or wealth disparities you have good reason to do so. But don't blame "the free market." Better to blame this rigged system of ours in which the State meddles in everything and takes from the poor to give to the rich." David Desckoteaux

Them's powerful words as they say. I'm thinking it's tme to start using Facebook, Twitter and all the other social media in a real, empowering way (the way Obama did and does) rather than using it to dawdle and waste space over which cleaner is a better deal or how your fishing trip was.

We have far bigger fish to fry.

Anti Tourism Ad for Alberta or You Can Run But You Can't Hide

2010-07-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

Alberta is being 'busted' by San Francisco based Corporate Ethics International posting anti-tourism themed outdoor boards in Seattle, Portland, Denver and Minneapolis. Alberta spends millions to brand itself as 'environmentally friendly destination' when in fact, the Alberta tarsands are just the opposite.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/835662--anti-oilsands-ad-urges-tourists-to-rethink-visit-to-alberta

There is also a very compelling tv spot that intercuts between gorgeous shots of Alberta as the tourism board would like you to think of them against ghastly shots of the tarsands, the native peoples who are sick from the contaminants in the water from the tarsands and of course the requisite oil covered birds and aerial shots of the muck polluting the atmosphere.

We can't afford to talk out of both sides of our mouths any more trying to invent a brand that is basically not living up to the ideals it tries to project from tourism boardrooms and political hallways. The world is watching now more than ever. And about time too.

I have worked on Tourism and know how politically sensitive everyone is about their slice of turf. But you cannot have it both ways. Honestly, it is shameful that Alberta has the tar sands.

But even more shameful that politicians and ad makers think people are dumb enough to buy the snakeoil "Brokeback Mountain" vistas while trying to hide the dead snake under the rug.

Let's see....is there an elephant in the room?

Alberta should put their tourism dollars behind creating a campaign appeal to everyday people to put pressure on the political machine running the tar sands and getting them shut down. The end benefit being repairing the damage that has scarred that part of their turf and getting it well enough again that they can be the "brokeback mountain image" they are now touting to be.

Also by testing water tables and providing healthy water and doctors who can deal with the native peoples illness from exposure to the white man's bad medicine, to make them well and back living in the repaired lands that we stole from them.

This would be the honorable and just thing for Alberta to do. It would enhance their credibility and leadership as a province and naturally attract the kind of people that would recognize the remarkable good they had done. And they could be an example to the world.

Digital Creative Directors

2010-07-01T09:08:00.000-07:00

Most ad agencies are tooled for digital. More and more I see ads for Creative Directors for DIGITAL. What that means is: you have worked your way up the system from computer dweeb possibly from the back end of systems and various programs or through the front end of designing popups, banners, landing pages and email blasts. Short copy, short animated blips of stuff. Knowing search words and terms, the art of interruption, lots of color and motion with little to no real content (especially on the front pages of online newspapers). If you had to classify them from a marketing standpoint, roughly its promotional or response, where of course click through can be or is trying to be measured. It's all about measurement, math and programming. Very little creative from how I know and practice creative. There are tons of these agencies doing this drone work. What advertisers are failing to see is: there are no ideas here. There is nothing lasting about a brand that can be done with these tactics unless it is as a reminder to the consumer which relies on the consumer already knowing about the brand from other sources. Creative sources. The digital work depends on idea makers that strategize and lay the foundation of the brands idea outside of digital. TRADITIONAL sources like: TV and Print.

Why?

Because TV AND PRINT are LASTING and TIME CAPTURING. Which is the foundation for branding. TV ads run over and over again....ad nauseum to coin a pun. Print lasts...you can return again and again to a page. It can sit for years in your dentists office and usually does.

A banner ad or popup although annoying, is only visible until you take it off, which is usually lightening fast for me.

Don't get me wrong. I am a proponent of any and all delivery systems. And I am constantly playing with those tactics to deliver more creative ways to utilize them within the context of furthering a brands brand. I was doing social media before social media was coined. But it isn't the idea. It is a tactic...in other words, a way to deliver an idea.

I think a lot of clients aren't being told that. And digital agencies don't want to tell them because they have a lot invested in programs, computers and people that need to be paid.

When I see an ad for a digital Creative Director, it is a cautionary flag to me about the agency unless it is an agency where the digital CD is overseen by an ECD from the more traditional side.

A good ECD knows about digital. We are familiar with the structure of new media. What we are always managing and questioning is how does this tool fit into furthering the brand? It isn't about knowing CADI or FLASH or the myriad other computer programs available for the digital world or the color spectrum on a computer screen or the metrics for how the metrics are measured.

A Rant

2010-06-10T09:32:00.000-07:00

Sarah Jessica Parker is hosting a new reality show. The premise is about finding the best, up and coming artist. Contestants will have approximately 13 hours to create their masterpieces. They have to create different pieces of art that are assigned to them. The judging panel comprises various curators and fine art elite supposedly. Being from the Art Directing side, having to perform within a short deadline is not new to me. Actually over time you find yourself automatically thinking of ideas constantly. It's like having had a drill sergeant in your head all these years and now you are Olympic ready to ideate at the drop of a hat. But my ideas are commercially based, not fine art based.

I hold fine art on a higher plane. I can't imagine someone like Brancusi or Michelangello or Motherwell or Picasso on a reality show. Somehow it just seems like fine art has been reduced to commercial crass. Like everything else.

And for me it is yet another example of how we as a society are squandering our time and lives and goals for hollywoodized spoon fed versions of gratification vs. our own need for real in-depth vision and voice.

We all need to slow down. We all need to put down or turn off the screens. We all need to take out the earplugs and engage one on one with each other again.

Real art has no time limit. Real art has no age limit. Real art is about being engaged with the world, the real world and not some new world order world of screens and earplugs and tweets and facebooks that are all so vicarious and fake and soften our minds and gobble our time.

Facing the real world is far more difficult. It means we have to be accountable. It means we have to take off the 3D glasses and look at what the aftermath has been of our disenagement.

We need to stop pretending that a reality show is reality. We all need to create our own uniquely different reality by plugging into our own talents, passions and interests. It means seeing our world differently. It means believing we can effectively make a difference in our world and striving for that. Whether it is stuffing envelopes for a cause you believe in or going out on a weekend and picking up garbage on the side of a road or helping in a soup kitchen.

We all need to get up off the couch and do something to help this planet and each other.

And that is my rant for today.

The Death of Depth: Less and less of more and more...

2010-06-02T06:03:00.000-07:00

Tony Schwartz a contributor at the Huffington Post has a most interesting article today. "The

death of depth: Less and less of more and more."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-schwartz/self-help-the-death-of-de_b_595720.html

It so speaks to the onslaught of sound and word bytes we in advertising want to flock to for our brands. It becomes just so much oil slick on an already crowded ocean of bad advertising. We always have had bad ads. The vast majority are bad. Now an additional layer of Tweets and YouTube wannagovirals, banners and popups (which are far far more annoying to me than any insert in a magazine), junk emails, and the list goes on and on....of just too much vacuous information that crowds and clamours for a nanosecond of your attention. It is no wonder NONE of this stuff works.

I have to agree with Schwartz there is no real meat in most of the new media. It's like Chinese food, you can stuff yourself and an hour later you are starving. It leaves a bad unsatisfying feeling that there has to be something better, richer, deeper and longer lasting.

He talks of our innate inability to have a long attention span to any one thing. Well it is like anything, if it isn't there, if we have lost the connection to that part of us, we need to retrain, and reintroduce it back into our lives.

Can advertising campaigns reinvent themself into a deeper relationship with a consumer?

Maybe, after all is said and done, after the smoke finally clears from hoping the silver bullet was Tweets, email blasts, virals and all the other short shorts the real answer was right in front of us all the time: and it is that very thing....time....time to grow a brand like a tree: plant the seed, water, sun, protection from the elements, planning on long term growth as the foundation with short term bursts... constant small steps and attention and it will become a fully viable, memorable, valuable product or service entrenched in a consumers mind and buying habits.

IBM

2010-04-19T21:35:00.000-07:00

IBM has a new campaign. It's about 'data'. It's about 'data' building a 'better planet'. Oooookkk.

So what has that got to do with IBM? International Business Machines? I'm sorry. You lost me.

I have no idea what these ads have to do with what you do IBM. Have you gone from being business machines to being data collectors? This new IBM is new to me. Talk about a makeover.

And one that as a consumer, I don't get at all. The tv spots are beautifully shot, well written and well executed but that doesn't make up for the disconnect I have watching them. I don't get who or what you are trying to be IBM. And therefore, all this beautiful, expensive messaging obviously isn't for me, the general consumer. But if it isn't for me then the media buy is way out of whack too. Because these are seen on regular showtime slots. And one can only assume it is for the general public. These ads are more like big corporate positioning ads. And IBM is spending alot of money to make me forget they used to be office machine suppliers as in copiers, fax machines, adding machines etc. etc. Or maybe Ogilvy, the agency that created this campaign somewhere along the way got caught up in the navel gazing along with the client. And in this new IBM makeover, forgot to build a bridge to get us from point A to point B. It can happen sometimes when you get too close to a client. Build the bridge folks before you try to get us to the other side. IBM should consult with Madonna. She's a pro at reinvention.

Perfect Storm

2010-03-20T05:41:00.000-07:00

Facebook and Greenpeace have joined forces in beginning to make a huge statement about Nestle and their use of ruining the rainforest and endangering the orangutang by close cutting to obtain palm oil. In today's Marketing the article and ad which depicts a young corporate guy taking his midday snack with a Nestle chocolate bar is a grisly reminder of what we are doing to our planet.

The worse part is that Nestle and their p.r. department have taken a strict defensive attitude about the misuse of the wordmarks, products etc. onto Facebook....big mistake.

http://www.marketingmag.ca/english/news/pr/article.jsp?content=20100319_150530_10900

This battle could well be a real game changer for many brands. Right now Facebook and Greenpeace have Nestle on the run. And Nestle's true colors have been shown in their comments.

I have new respect for Facebook and its power.

Children see, children do.

2010-03-19T17:14:00.000-07:00

This spot is still so great I want to move it up to be seen again. I t is a FABULOUS not for profit idea that is timeless.

A breath of fresh air in Detroit...

2010-03-17T22:06:00.000-07:00

Detroit is certainly suffering from a mass exodus of manufacturing and the money it used to bring. The downtown seems to have a pulse. However, driving on the interstate you still see many boarded and abandoned houses and buildings, which is eerie. Poking up through the ruin are some hardy ad agencies. I am not talking about the big boys, the old car agencies like the Leo's and the BBDO's, the Y&R's oh no, they are just as much dinosaurs as the big 3 they used to represent. I am talking about a few independent small shops.

One in particular is in Ann Arbor; Perich Advertising.

They tout a respectable client list both local and regional. Not one ad in their portfolio is shabby. Everything they do is really smart. Perich has the kind of work that as a creative person you drool and say: Wish I had done that. I like their culture, approach and attitude in all they seem to do for their clients. The work is clean, intelligent, well thought out and memorable. The writing is simple, articulate and superb. The art directing is tastefully crafted with a mature, intelligent eye. The ideas are memorable. All seems balanced and focused and dare I say...fun.

That's the good news.

The bad news is their website.

It is overly done, overly cute-sy, overly difficult to navigate and just plain tries too hard for my taste. It is the opposite of their work. I hate to ever use this word, especially since the portfolio is so great, but their website is .... corny. Just trying to manoeuvre through and around the corniness of it, not to mention the difficulty in really seeing what and who they are within it, leaves a bad impression. It is so out of keeping with all else they do. Because a website is usually your first impression of an agency these days, Perich needs to seriously address this and have the site reflect them in the same tone and manner as the work they do for others. If I were a client, or prospective client landing on this site, I would cringe at the thought that a meeting with them would mean a level of shtick comparable to whoopee cushions on the boardroom chairs, bad jokes and buzzers in their palms.

Put up with the site and check them out despite it at:

http://www.perich.com/

I've got a headace....

2010-03-12T10:07:00.000-08:00

Poor e-trade....being sued by Lindsay Lohan...sheesh how feeble is that. Like we really know her as just "Lyndsay" ... not. She is the sad product of being a Disney kid star who had one hit...an unremarkable remake of the Parent Trap where she plays twins. Since then, her p.r. firm has been working quadruple time always throwing something, anything in the Metro or 24Hours using the tactic that "bad publicity is better than none." She was also just recently dropped by Ungaro or one of the fashion houses in Paris...and rightfully so. Lindsay should just fold her tent and gracefully fade from whatever scenes she tries to create. No one really cares. And her twitter "friends" sadly don't realize that again it is her p.r. machine that writes this crap and is the job d jour as I have said before, for all unemployed copywriters or wannabe copywriter/texterwannabees.

It's time for some Lydia Pinkham's vegetable compound tablets for Lindsay. She might do well to be the spokesperson for them.

On an even sadder note, I am sure it never even occured to Lohan to sue because originally she was bragging on her own site about e-trade using her name. So again, she is following her lawyers bad advice by pursuing a ridiculous suit against e-trade and forgetting that what is really going on is the shameless possibility that all everyone really wants from Lohan is her money.

What makes a great ad a great ad?

2010-02-26T08:37:00.000-08:00

Canada's Marketing mag presented six tv spots featuring their products as sponsors for the winter olympics. Readers were asked to view and vote. One was for Tim Horton's about a family immigrating to Canada. One was for Canadian Tire where a dad dresses his little boy in hockey gear for his first skate. Molson's was an anthem piece about being Canadian as was HomeDepot although HD's was toned down considerably compared to Molson's. Bombardier's ad was about their having designed the Olympic Torch. And the sixth one I can't even recall. Oh Yes, it was for Air Canada, but I don't recall the spot.

All of these ads, except one, are variations on a hackneyed theme. Yes, the music is different, yes, the cinematography is different, yes, the creative team is undoubtedly different. All of them try to be tear jerkers or make you want to place your hand over your heart, however, they are all big budgets, over art directed, written with a heavy hand and with little content. More importantly all these themes are beyond worn out. They are dated in their thinking and thus the corporations they represent. And this is important because over time and over many creative teams, the corporate spots the agencies are generating are just knockoffs of previous ideas. One could argue that it is the idea of repetition that is going on here, but surely if that is the case, all the more reason not to repeat the same scenarios. It is one thing to stick with a positioning line for a corporation, quite another to just repeat the same scenarios over and over, which sadly with one exception, all these other spots do.

Again, the one gem among them is the Bombardier spot. I mentioned this tv ad in an earlier post but it is worth mentioning again because it contains all the right stuff to me. It takes place on a windy mountainside someplace in south america where llamas are herded, candles are lit and the men still smoke. It's a fun idea about fire going out each time someone tries to light a match and how they could use an Olympic torch. The music sets the tone, the art directing and writing is perfect and the one line is delivered in Spanish, but you don't need to know the lingo to get what is being said.

In a few words; It is charming. It is memorable. It is recallable. It makes you smile and feel good. And most important of all, it has the rare distinction of being an ORIGINAL IDEA.

It's called "Keep the Flame Burning" check in out on Youtube.

Sweet Spot

2010-02-16T09:45:00.000-08:00

Bombardier has a sweet spot for its design of the Olympic Torch.

http://www.marketingmag.ca/english/news/marketer/article.jsp?content=20100212_171820_5936

Handled by Taxi, it is simple, direct and touchingly human. I love an ad that makes you smile at the end. To me that is the ultimate connection. And the ad speaks volumes about a company without having to be boring or corporate.

Good job Taxi.

I also noticed my friend, "Little Salty" is back. This time he is a real loser, trying to hold up a jewelry store or something, not quite sure what...but obviously driven to the edge by rejection. Well as I said in an earlier post and as I now see "Little Salty" is now available as a promotional send in two boxtops kinda thing and get your own "Little Salty" to come and grace my or your table...so we can add the salt that is missing to whoever is advertising the soup that "Little Salty" is missing from....come on in "Little Salty" make your self at home.....

SuperBowl Sunday

2010-02-07T08:23:00.000-08:00

SuperBowl Sunday used to be the day everyone anticipated the new ads as much as the game.

It was the one time that advertising had a chance to really shine and reach consumers in the most creative best foot forward.

Unfortunately, it has now been dampened by previews, pre-previews, pre-pre-previews and on and on so everyone has already seen the ads long ago. This year in particular there has been hype with one of the football players being a schill for family values vs. a gay dating ad that was rejected for SB on air time, supposedly because of its cheap production values. Again, controversy always sparks curiosity but in this case it has nothing to do with the advertising itself; we already know what the guy is going to talk about.

The culprits are of course UTube, Twitter and all things social. My theory is these venues because they cannot find a way to make themselves profitable yet, are doing anything and everything to find a place in the consumer psyche. Kind of like the couple that crashed the Obama dinner party, these social venues will crash and reveal everything just to be there and say they did it.

Well in my opinion, this has dampened the spirit and lessened the anticipation for the ads and has left me feeling like, I have already seen the bride before she walked down the aisle.

There is something to be said for anticipation, for not knowing what is going to be shown, for waiting. It ranks up there with shaking christmas packages, preparing for a first date, and encourages the very thing that we are losing: the MAGIC of the moment, the payoff for all the waiting and imagining what was in the box, what the date would be like, the wonder, the awe factor....

Happy New year

2010-01-09T19:22:00.000-08:00

The other day I was reading a local free paper called Metro. In it there appeared an ad asking for an 'Angel'... saying it was looking for a liver donor. It went into some detail about how difficult and long the wait was for this person who needed a liver transplant within 3 months. It was an appeal for a stranger to come forward to freely offer 1/3 of their liver to save this fellow named "Rick". Something about this ad disturbed me, but I wasn't able to put my finger on it.

I showed it to several other people and all of them said it was sad and really upsetting. My feeling was different. Something about this appeal wasn't right. So of course I googled the email address that was on the ad and sure enough; it was a scam. This email address sent me to a music rapper's site. It was a bait and switch with no connection to liver donation than the man in the moon. This qualifies in my book as false advertising. I have not seen the ad since. And I am not sure if Metro got called about it but I have yet to see it run again. I have yet to see Metro run a disclaimer either. I don't know who came up with this shameless idea. I hope it wasn't anyone in the ad industry because if it was they should be shot. Accountability is really important in this arena. It is so difficult with the new media being rampantly unaccountable that a new standard or should I say, substandard, is set for everyone else to accept similar charlatanism just to maintain ad revenues. Shocking.

New Media is like having a baby...

2009-12-13T12:53:00.000-08:00

I wonder how many brands realize the constant attention you need to give to your website, blog, twitter or facebook presence. Your brand is your child now. It is constantly evolving, needing daily attention by web masters, back end providers, site architects, and a small army of digital geeks to keep it current and up and running. Depending on what your product or service is it also needs constant monitoring for consumer response. And if you are an established brand you also need creative art direction and copywriting to make sure the brand stays on track visually and verbally. And tweek tweek tweek daily. This army isn't free. And although blogging may be a freebie depending on where you set your site or Twittering may be cheap from the standpoint of the deliverable, nothing else is. Where you come up in a search engine, where you want to pop up in a pull also has a price tag. Maintaining a website, getting hits and click throughs all cost. And there is as much dreck out there to wade through as there was traditionally. So is it the best choice? I dunno. That's where a great planner and a lot of thought and research must be in place before you try anything like going viral with a u-tube video, which also costs money to put together and the chances of going viral are like winning a lottery. And the days of pulling up the info you want and not being in your face with ads is gone too. Heck, every time I go to CNN or my newspaper, popups and other unwanted garbage interferes with articles I want to read. Very annoying. So although there is a lot of pressure on brands to have a digital presence, it needs a lot of planning and I think it is a tactical choice far more than a creative one. That being said, it is not going away and like early tv it is still in its very early stages. But to think it isn't going to cost you or the comparative cost compared to traditional venues is far cheaper, I would argue that just isn't so. It is a bigger tool box for sure. And certainly opens up opportunities that didn't exist before, but like all new things it needs to be tempered with the old tried and true to make a complete picture for a brand.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

2009-11-19T09:15:00.000-08:00

The GOOD.

http://adage.com/agencynews/article?article_id=140610

Tim Williams has a great article about agency risks that is a must read. It drove home for me the notion that agencies are really at a turning point. The old model is done for. And even though some of his observations aren't quite on the mark, overall he is right. It brings into question everything about traditional agency contributions to a clients bottom line. And he points out that new media like websites and blogs and such are like organisms...they don't go away. Once created they must be maintained and updated constantly, and how do you get fairly compensated for that? Also, the roles of not just media and creative but account service are radically changed.

The BAD.

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=140591

On the other side of the spectrum is Coke's disastrous attempt at "social marketing" which is such an obvious gimmick. Talk about a swing and a miss. This whole notion of sending twenty somethings out to "find happiness" in the world is absurd. Coke is desperate. And all I have to say about this ridiculous misadventure is whoever sold Coke on this stunt truly can sell dead horses to the mounted police and I would like to know his/her secret to selling success. Undoubtedly it is costly, stupid, way off brand gimmicks like this that surely will net Coke nothing but a bad taste in its mouth about ad agencies. Ultimately and perhaps rightly so, the agency will be fingered as being the bad guys for selling Coke on this hair brained scheme. The whole notion of sending 3 kids around the world to find happiness and to social media it back home to me is decadent at best given the economy and quite frankly: who cares.

The UGLY

http://www.marketingmag.ca/english/news/marketer/article.jsp?content=20091118_144701_7296

Science World is trying their hand at a UTube video they are hoping will go viral by their agency REthink.

They have a bunch of grandma types licking vanilla ice cream cones in semi-soft porn-esque suggestive styles which quite honestly makes me rethink Grandma. It's message is that vanilla turns old boys on...now that is just a little bit too much information for me and turns me totally off. But I am not grandpa.

Does it make Science World a compelling show to watch? Not sure. I think I would have waited and done a series of videos with some other subjects so if the vanilla/old boy/ sexy grandma thing wasn't my cup of tea, I could get turned on to Science World for another insight.

FREE the best 4 letter F- word

2009-11-06T11:41:00.000-08:00

Everyone that reads this has to go to the website for these two guys that are doing tv ads for small local, and I mean local, businesses.

http://www.ilovelocalcommercials.com/

Rhett and Link are out to outdo us in offering anybody who wants a tv ad to get in touch with them and they will come to wherever you are and make a tv spot for you.

FREE yes, you read right....FREE and it is as you might expect, a no frills production. But they are so bad they are camp. And there is something totally charming about them in their simplicity and homemade style. All this is under the sponsorship of a company called MicroBilt and now SeeBolt their social marketing arm just for small businesses.

Rhett and Link know how to merchandise and have SnoopDog in their corner plus they made a full length movie about finding their 4th grade teacher.

These guys are smart. And if I do a commercial, they will definitely be on my list to contact.

Microbilt helps small businesses with debt collection, credit and pre-screening people for the same.

Anyway this is not a plug for the company just some background on how these two wild and crazy guys got into the adgame sideways so to speak.

And the ads themselves are fun and funny and highly memorable and just a screech.

...a random act of opportunity

2009-11-02T08:53:00.000-08:00

U-tube is fast becoming the venue for getting out a video statement quickly. Case in point: the bad parking job an old lady did in some Thornhill fitness parking lot. Once this video went viral it has had about 1.3 million views so far.

http://www.marketingmag.ca/english/news/pr/article.jsp?content=20091030_164721_12032

The P.R. opp for a new car giveaway couldn't have been sweeter for Hyundai thanks to the fast thinking of Bensimon Byrn's digital arm Mighty. And it makes complete sense that Hyundai replace the damaged car (which also was a Hyundai by the way) with this random act of kindness.

Personally, if I were Hyundai, I would have given the other guy whose car also was extensively damaged a new car too. After all, I think in the video, that car was completely trashed...and it would have been an even greater act of kindness because that car was not a Hyundai.

It now becomes a p.r. opp for Mighty with its subsequent blog and who knows maybe they are in negotiations now for a full length movie.

Mighty used the formula:

Yesterday: Idea Today: idea in Action

It really is about ambulance chasing and gambling.

YouTube is inundated with videos 24/7. Most of them are absolute dreck. Rarely does one really capture or show any imagination. And if I had the job to wade through the submissions for appropriateness of content, language etc. etc....well shoot me now.

So when one does catch on, it usually spreads faster than a wildfire.

And I am sure there are others out there who try to analyze on a full time salary basis just what it is that makes one go viral while another does not.

I don't know and I don't think any pundits do either. It is a completely random act of luck!

Akin to winning a lottery.

The trick , like Mighty understands, is to jump on it instantly and own it. And that can only happen when you have an appropriate brand (in this case Hyundai) and a client willing to act as fast as the video went viral.

It truly is about taking advantage of a very very narrow timeframe.

Cudos to Mighty and Hyundai.

Kleenex asks you to "choose a mom"

2009-10-28T09:14:00.000-07:00

Lets look at the newest effort from Kleenex. http://www.getmommed.com/#/home

It consists of an elaborate gimmick taking you to a website where a number of stereotypical "moms" pitch their lifestyle; asking you to choose which mom you would want to take care of you this cold and flu season. Of course Kleenex is mentioned every other word.

It is so contrived, I hear the client saying: " our research shows" and "we want to target", not moms, but females across all ethnic and lifestyle stereotypes. We have the obligatory black, wasp, oriental, hispanic, italian, hippie, overachiever, southern belle, do it yourselfer, so hip it is unhip mom, etc. etc. All bases are covered.

Each one of these "moms" act out their ethnic stereotype. Not once did I feel the remotest connection. It is so obvious these women are actors. It was insulting listening to this drivel.

Also, the site doesn't load quick enough and you end up waiting for this to buffer. It became far too tedious for me on many levels. The site is overloaded with stereotypical visual stuff....it is over art directed. Because it is cluttered, it is complicated and overdone. So many elements pop or float on you don't know where to begin.

I left this site feeling annoyed. Not just at the lack of technical features not working but annoyed that so much time and effort and money was poured into this site. It all comes off like a bad soap opera. It made me wonder how much is tacked on to the cost of a box of Kleenex to support this kind of fluff.

All this while Greenpeace is after them for the clear cutting they are doing in Canada's ancient Boreal Forest. Which is another post all together really. But just off the top, I would think Kleenex marketing group would be very aware of this and want to rethink their position in consumerland.

The ad for the forest being saved (pictured) and bringing our attention to it is far more compelling and important to me than a site that mocks moms and ethnically stereotypes us still. It is condescending and completely irrelevant given our global situation.

It just shows me how blind Kleenex is.

Kleenex needs to rethink their place in the Green movement and eliminate this online garbage.

I like a fun website. I like it when the interaction is clever, well thought out and brings a real message that makes me feel good about a brand and spending some time with it. It is always about what is in it for me.

Who has time I ask you and who goes hunting or stays on these horrible sites other than an adgal curious about an article in Ad Age?

Makes me cry....pass me a hanky please.

A great little spot from Kaiser Permanente

2009-10-09T11:14:00.000-07:00

Every once in awhile a tv spot or print ad or website is a perfect gem. It does all the right stuff.

It is engaging, well paced, well thought out, well written and art directed and most of all, has an idea that is emotionally evocative that adds to the essence of the idea, not shock value for shock value sake or a corny knee slapper or a gimmick but genuinely touches your heart and makes you think about a product or service differently.

Which brings me to the newest tv spot for Kaiser Permanente. This is a simple, lovely, flawlessly executed tv spot. It begins with the classic Claire D'Loon piano concerto while the camera takes us through an amazing urban/forested environment and until the super at the end you have no idea what it is about. It is wonderful and soothing without being cloying. It makes you yearn for such an emerald place and to wonder if it could ever be....cudos Campbell Ewald LA

http://creativity-online.com/work/kaiser-permanente-emerald-cities-directors-cut/17556

What are these agencies thinking???or are they???

2009-10-06T08:08:00.000-07:00

Within the last two weeks I have read about two different categories: one was for Toyota the other for Mr. Sub, who created ads that have landed them in hot water.

Toyota created a character that was a psychopath who was targeted to Toyota owners. In this one case, he was sending harassing emails to a female Toyota owner and it scared her to death...mainly because she didn't know it was a "joke" and she was being "prankster-ed". This harassment continued evidently to the point where she couldn't sleep and when she did it was with a weapon next to her because this "character" said he was coming over to her house. She is now suing Toyota. And rightly so.

Now I see a campaign from Mr. Sub in Canada where in one scenario it is a wedding day and the groom needs to see his bride. He knocks on the bedroom door, opens it and finds his bride and his dad passionately kissing. Next commercial: large large family sitting at dinner table, father announces he is gay. 3rd commercial, wife in kitchen doing dishes, man enters dressed as some kind of s&m/burglar-esque type person, taps her on shoulder and she hits him over the head with a frying pan. This is not only an old corny bit, but the guy looks like a version of the hamburglar from 1980's McDonalds days in an s&m outfit...really awful and borders on the macabre.

http://www.marketingmag.ca/english/news/accounts/article.jsp?content=20091005_175305_7272

Of course this has brought about a backlash from the gay and lesbian groups to say the least.

Now I ask you: what has any of this got to do with Mr. Sub? What is the relevance? What has creating a psycho-menacing character who goes online and into social media to scare and harass customers got to do with advancing a positive image of Toyota? Especially when they land in court because of this crazy prank.

And I have to wonder: what is in the water folks? Have we become so desperate, so bereft of any real creative thinking that this is the new norm? And the biggest shocker, even more shocking than the cheese shock value these brands have created is; these "ideas" were sold to clients at some point well before the executions. Clients have a chance to see these things evolve and get produced and give their blessing and money to support them...

We are in serious trouble here as an industry if this is considered creative or anything remotely advantageous to furthering a brand.

But maybe I am the one completely out of step. After all, I am the one out of a job.

Perhaps the idea is to generate any kind of response because according to the old adage from p.r. folks, negative response is better than no response. If that was the conscious intent of the teams that created this dreck then I am out of the loop. And I cannot imagine even the greenest, lowest on the ladder client, buying into this rationale for representing their brand.

More and more though I am seeing shock shit like these two. And it is disturbing to me. I always thought it was our responsibility to represent a brand in its best light. After all, are we not always trying to "court" our consumer?

I see a world dominated by gamers and ad kiddies who were raised with little finesse. The finer things in life for them is the next XBox. A world of crass sensationalism and hee haw slap your thigh bullying is their norm. Kids spoiled with money and excess.

They are now hacking their way into the new age of communications and if you don't like it then to hell with ya. It's their time and it doesn't matter if things are off the rails. After all, it is the fun and games of it, right?

Culling the Herd

2009-10-04T10:55:00.000-07:00

All the articles I am reading have this doom and gloom thread about where the ad industry is going. Is it Dead? What is the new advertising industry? And it makes me wonder, as more and more products are pulling back their budgets (which any hard core advertiser will tell you is the worse thing you can do in a down economy) why these folks can't see that this is not new. We have been in economic slumps before. The economy is like a pendulum and it has its upswings and down.

Is this because when the economy goes into a nosedive, which I could see and feel long before it actually did rather than being creative with the budget you do have, it's just easier to bleat and bah and complain because that is what culling the herd is all about.

In this world where new media is all the rage and everyone believes it is the magic bullet, I stay firmly convinced that while there may be a lot of new ways to get a message out there...with all these new and exciting delivery systems I don't see much improvement in the calibre of IDEAS that are being delivered. If everyone clamouring to be heard, it is now overcrowded with screaming drek and hard to find much dross.

And while the new media may give EVERYONE AND THEIR UNCLE a chance to now have a voice, I have to ask .... who is listening?

It is bedlam out there. And everyone is in panic mode trying to be heard in the herd....

Small Agency of the Year

2009-09-28T11:59:00.000-07:00

I am glad to finally see the small shops getting recognition for good work. I am sure for every one that submitted work, there were many others just as good that didn't.

I know there is a school of thought that says creative people are too fixated on awards, but let's be honest, the hardware is what agencies are often measured by and so the people that helped create it.

What isn't recognized and should be, are all the people that helped get that work produced. It isn't just the creatives, it takes true team work with account service, planners (if you have one), media people who also can be as creative in suggesting how to get the best effectiveness from the idea and maybe even right down to the cleaners who might be muttering some magical incantation just at the right time as they passed to get the wastebasket into the room and where the brainstorming was taking place and someone overhearing them magically by osmosis adopted their thought as their own. Also production people are key key key in making or breaking an idea.

Heck, if you had to have everyone that touched the work in a direct or indirect way go up on a stage to accept an award, you would need a pretty big stage.

My Favorite Agency

2009-09-06T15:16:00.000-07:00

I absolutely and totally adore and bow down to Carmichael Lynch Advertising out of Minnesota. Hands down I think they are one of the top agencies in the U.S. today. In their shop the idea is still king. Ideas that fuel passion. Which is a direct quote from their website. Human connections. And to that I say a resounding YES! That approach is what made me want to be in advertising.

It is still all about the BIG IDEA.

The work is original, fresh and not gimmicky. Each campaign has a well thought out and touching reason for being to further your idea of a product or service.

And in every campaign it is such a normal simple premise. A simple human insight brought to our attention in a very memorable, meaningful entertaining way. Yes, entertaining. Something most agencies haven't been doing for years and years. Carmichael Lynch's work is of the calibre you want to see again and again. IMAGINE...actually wanting to see an American ad again.

Somewhere along the way so many agencies don't get it. Or never did get it.

Agencies compromise. Agencies have become order takers for clients rather than leaders and visionaries for their clients. They don't understand what it is they are supposed to be anymore. They are caught up in formulas and proprietary methodologies and new media and all the trappings of nothing; with their fancy powerpoint presentations and corny overdone websites they think that is their "edge", their differentiator. Creative is relegated to the lowest priority in most cases and it shows.

I had one agency principal show me a powerpoint presentation about their "proprietary program" that was so boring I almost went to sleep. But this person had nothing to say outside of that silly presentation. It was absurd. And this was an interview situation. Pathetic.

In my book, Carmichael Lynch is what a true advertising agency is supposed to be.

And what every agency should strive to be.

Check them out: http://www.carmichaellynch.com/#0

Enjoy.

Article in todays ADAGE

2009-09-01T08:53:00.000-07:00

http://adage.com/talentworks/article?article_id=138709

I wrote about this earlier and was advised to remove anything that was negative from my site if I want to ever get a job in the adgame again.

This is an old hot potato. It is what everyone in the adgame knows but never says anything about.

It goes without saying that it will never be equitable and we are certainly not the only career where gender makes a difference.

But the real kicker is that agency creative departments have their own culture. And it is fostered by those that are on the inside of that culture. And believe me, you know if you are "in" or "out".

And this culture is supported by the top down, which is management.

MadMen

2009-08-30T20:26:00.001-07:00

I love this show. It is advertising in the golden age. And Peggy Olson is my hero of course. The women are phenomenal this season. Everything about it is great and as an Art Director, everything about it is right. The clothes are fabulous, the sets perfect and the campaigns they are working on are familiar from ad history.

What an exciting time it was to be shaping brands and creating ideas that are still viable today.

A great idea is timeless. The great ads of the 60's could run today and be relevant. And some of the ideas that were fostered then like: You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's would probably be thrown out today because of the repressive "political correctness" obsession everyone is policing everyone else on and everyone has become so afraid of.

Time to lighten up. And brighten up. And sharpen up those brain cells again.

HELP SAVE Reading Rainbow

2009-08-28T08:54:00.000-07:00

My daughter grew up on Reading Rainbow with LeVar Burton. And next to Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers it is the longest running kids show on Public TV. But it is ending.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112312561

unless some good samaritan will come forward with the money to support it. PLEASE someone, SAVE Reading Rainbow. Our children need this show. It's about the LOVE of books. And that is soooo important. In a time when words are being shortened, ideas are being homogenized and marginalized, now more than ever...we need all the help we can get to further children's IMAGINATIONS.

If you are reading this and know anyone who can help...please contact them to help save this show.

Shadow Puppets

2009-08-24T11:22:00.000-07:00

http://adage.com/garfield/post?article_id=138605

Ad age's Bob Garfield talks today about a charming spot for shadow puppets in the form of two bunnies. The spot is from Publicis in San Fran (Hal Riney) and it is really sweet...aka "Little Salty" (see previous entry on my blog). But this time Bob is right, this simple, charming little ditty of two shadow puppets dancing across buildings to finally meet is a gimmick, number one and number two; totally vampires any selling message, which is treated as an afterthought with maybe 5 seconds of copy.

And this just makes me shake my head in a cartoon wubbah wubbah way and say: what the heck is going on here? It's no wonder advertising is dying, we don't know how to sell anymore. In actual fact, I haven't seen much breakthrough creative that does sell. It's either so crappy that you rush to hit the change or mute button with its nauseating sham woo pitch or it is so precious that we get caught up in its preciousness and forget who it is for...or in little salty's case, defend the oh so cute culprit.

Even in the height of MadMen, the golden 60's when Doyle and Dane and Bernbach and the Mary Wells of Wells Rich Greene or the Hal Riney's or the Leo Burnetts were hitting them consistently out of the ballpark, these genius ads still had ground rules. And the number one rule is SELL SELL SELL no matter how crass or beneath a creative this may seem, that is the bottom line folks.

So where are these creative folks getting their guidance from one must ask? Well my educated guess is they are being lead by a creative director not much older than themselves with little or no experience. And certainly there is no mentoring going on here.

Back in the Madmen days, the creatives were OLDER. They had some life experience under their belt. It wasn't unusual to see someone over 45 as a copywriter. Today the only one over 45 in an ad agency is either someone who has no real effectual power or the janitor.

And now where DELIVERY SYSTEMS like the web, facebook, twitter et al are considered and valued as being more creative than the creative itself, is it any wonder the creative product is floundering?

And each time a Little Salty or Shadow Puppets comes out and clients see no gain in sales, it is another nail in the coffin for creative being the king and more of a reason for clients to not seek agencies to creatively solve their marketing problems.

It's time to get back to basics. And if I were an agency principal right about now at Publicis I would be phoning my best headhunter to bring back an agency "old salt" who knows the ins and outs of the ad game and can oversee all these babies run amok. And that goes for every other agency on the planet as well.

Little Salty

2009-08-22T19:01:00.000-07:00

http://www.marketingmag.ca/english/creative/featuredcampaign/article.jsp?content=20090819_141352_5392

A soup company in canada has just launched a low sodium line of soups. The 30 sec tv spots feature a little character, a claymation salt shaker called Little Salty. It shows this little fellow outside the house window peering in. It is raining and he is all alone and forgotten. The family is busy eating soup. He bows his head and cries salt. Now this just makes me want to go and find Little Salty and rescue this poor little guy. He is so adorable. And my heart goes out to him. Heck I will give him a reason for being; I will use salt if it restores Little Salty back to cheerfulness. Now maybe my emotional connection to Little Salty is one I totally relate to, because it is how I feel about being on the outside looking in on the ad game. But it also reminds me of when I taught about the development and use of pneumonic devices. And I just passed along the sage wisdom I learned; pneumonic devices should represent the UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION of the product, not make me want to seek out and soothe the antithesis of it...which is what Little Salty presumably represents. Tony the Tiger delivered the famous tagline: They're grrrrrreeaaaattt!!! for Sugar Frosted Flakes cereal.

Snap, Crackle and Pop ... for Rice Krispies still represent the sound of the cereal when you pour milk on it....

the Michelin tire man is fat and looks like a multi-layered marshmallow...which visually represents the ride on the tire....

I think the DDB team needs a refresher course in what to emotionally connect the consumer to because as it stands, to heck with the soup, I want to find Little Salty and give him a place on my table....

For the Love of Newspapers

2009-07-29T08:18:00.000-07:00

I love newspapers. I love the smell of the ink on the paper. I love the way the ink rubs off on your fingers. I love the ritual of the read and the turning of the pages. I love the tactility and heft of a newspaper. I love the writing in newspapers, particularly the NY Times, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe but even the little local newspapers with the corny photos and local reports of summer carnivals and recipes, the sports, the social announcements, and all the bad local advertising

Newspapers are important. They have personalities and definitive tones of voice. Some really are hardwired to the right and some to the left. And you can choose which voice you want to follow and quote the next day in a conversation. They last. What is printed today, stays printed. The only way it can be altered is with a retraction the next day. Newspapers chronicle our history.

Newpapers are a real object. We pack our stuff with newspapers so when we are long gone and someone in the family is rummaging around the attic they can date our last time we handled a plate, a glass, a picture. And the newspaper itself becomes an article worth saving when something we are interested in or a news breaking historical moment is worth treasuring.

Newspapers are our treasure.

Watching them vanish is like watching old friends being laid to rest. We need to keep newpapers alive. And I don't mean the little throw aways that are filled with nothing but vacuous celebrity gossip, news sound bites from wire services and crossword puzzles. Newspapers reflect the opinions and styles of reporters and offer in depth reporting we can never get online. Series articles, political argument, and real investigative reporting happens only in newspapers. And if we didn't have time to read a particular column or article one evening, we can take it up again the next.

Watergate would never have happened if it hadn't been for newspaper reporting. Why from the beginning of political and religious questioning it has always been the broadsheet that has enlightened and informed in a way like no other.

I remember fantastic ads in newspapers. Especially fashion and department store ads.

My very first job before university, was as a layout artist with a department store. They had a person who did nothing but illustrate in pencil and ink the fashions for the week. I would take those high end illustrations and incorporate them into our big full page newspaper ads for the Saturday and Sunday editions. As a student I worked for a small community newspaper, again doing ad paste ups and layouts. The paper had a hot type machine which was ancient then. It used to clank and sputter and the fellow who set the type was as old as the machine itself. The owner /editor used to chew on his cigar stub as he proof read the articles before it went to plate making. All this he did with the type reading backwards. The sound of the rubber mallet hitting the type into place, the high pitch of the press running, shouted orders from pressmen to the inkmen and back, the clanking type setter mixed with the smells of hot lead and ink and paper and cigar smoke has left a rich memory.

I guess I must have gotten the ink in my blood.

New Media Pull vs. Old Media Push

2009-07-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

People talk about about new media being a delivery system where ads are "pulled" depending on how you do searches online and are associated by your personal interests. So the ads are tailored to your tastes and interests based on data input and are pulled from that source. The key to this, according to tech heads, is the search words you input. There are blogs and articles online and tons of argument and theories about how important or not it is. Somehow, none of this seems very creative to me. It's really all about data. And this data is continually being mined and refined. Think about it; practically every site of inquiry you go on makes a bigger inquiry about you. Data bases are gold mines.

BMW did an out of home campaign in the states a couple of years ago.They setup billboards across key urban areas and when a new BMW owner drove by, the computer chip embedded somewhere in the car key triggered the billboard with the owners name and it instantly became a personalized billboard message. It's the scene from Tom Cruise in Minority Report when he runs through a corridor and backlit ads literally call out to him by name.

I also read an article recently which suggested that even the premise of Minority Report is a possibility now. There is enough information about us, that scientists can predict our behaviour even before we do something. And we so willingly give out our personal information.

A friend of mine in Texas, a real computer head, knows of rogue programs that float in and out and hack unknowingly in cyberspace stealing our personal data. And we are not talking about Banana Republic here. And my friend and I are not conspiracy freaks or necessarily paranoid. Just cautious.

So I guess my point is that while right now we only see the top line of how great it is that the world knows your interests right down to the smallest detail and know where you shop and for what and they know where you like to hang out and where you work and who your friends are and what you did last night, there could be another side to this. A side we haven't seen yet. And like everything, it could be used for good or it could be used for bad.

New media is really all pretty new in the grand scheme of time and place.

But information is power.

And that isn't new.

Twitter or White Noise?????

2009-07-27T20:48:00.000-07:00

As an experiment, I joined Twitter. But I didn't post anything nor did I ever go on it. And since then, almost everyday, I get messages saying "So and so is following you on Twitter"...these from people I know in the adgame. I find it highly amusing that so many people are following nothing. And it makes me wonder: where do all these people get all this time to fritter on twitter?

I find it the singularly most overrated site on the Web. And if Ashton Kutcher or Demi Moore aren't getting paid or aren't big investors for this site I will eat my hat...not to mention all the out of work copywriters and public relations people that are now finding employment to Twitter for Liz Taylor and everyone else. Plllleeeeeease...how self indulgent is it to think your 140 character count...counts...or means anything to anyone except yourself. Warhol's 15 minutes of fame has just been shattered. And now if you aren't on FaceBook and MySpace and Twitter and LinkedIn...why you are NOBODY. This imbecilic false peer pressure that is implied to all who are not on this grid is outrageous. I tried to find out who owns Twitter. And that is another story altogether. I just couldn't get any real answers to that. Whoever it is has deep pockets and wishes to remain off the grid as far as revealing who he, she or they really are.

As far as branding with Twitter here's how I see it: the challenge becomes - how to harness the position, tone of voice and benefit in 140 characters or less...yes, characters, not words. A tall order for even the most gifted writers. But the big difference, unlike the other new media delivery systems, is the time it takes to get out there. Delivery time is now at warp speed.
Your brand is now condensed and compressed to fit that time frame. And Word of Mouth really becomes real time or less here to a lot more audience. It's simultaneous live broadcasting almost. But the audience isn't contained in a studio, they can be and are anyone and everyone anywhere in the world. So the pressure to get it right the first time is huge and intense. And getting it right also means from the Twitter standpoint, not contrived, not adspeak, not planted or deliberate but spontaneous and real...real meaning Twitter real. So now your brand's tone of voice and the Twitter tone of voice have to marry. And that hybrid has to seem spontaneous and real in 140 characters...maybe we need to try chimps with typewriters...