It's All Advertising

Gone Nuts

2007-11-19T12:29:00.000-06:00

I don't know if anyone visits this site anymore since I haven't posted in... over a year (sorry). But now I'm over at AdvertisingForPeanuts as a weekly columnist. So come check me out there if you want and also read thoughts of some of the brightest minds in the industry.

See you there!

Adiou,

-Thomas

Sponge Bob Spinach Pants

2006-04-30T20:41:00.000-05:00

Most likely because all the crappy junk food already has a picture of him on it, SpongeBob now appears on...SPINACH!
Apparently Nickelodeon has signed a deal and will have its characters appearing on all kinds of fruits and veggies. Can it be true? Has the mad marketing machine finally switched it's gears to support health and wellness? Must be where the money is. Regardless of the reason, I'm happy that something positive is going on out there as we prey on the minds of the youth market.

Check out the new Nicktrition website.

Pearly Ad Gates

2006-04-24T23:13:00.000-05:00

Leo Burnett Chicago's Lobby

Door sign at TBWA Chiat/Day-San Francisco

CPB's entryway.

Here's something for all you ad nerds out there... Yes, exactly the type that would visit a blog dedicated to advertising.
If you've got one to send, please do. Send Here

Butt paste

2006-04-24T22:57:00.000-05:00

This one pretty much speaks for itself.

(oh crap, I think my ass fell off...oh, phew, good thing I had some butt paste on hand)

Cool Star Trek banner

2006-04-17T01:55:00.000-05:00

Here's a nice little banner ad from 72 and Sunny in Los Angeles. It's just a simple rollover, but it advertises the show nicely, and is kinda fun too.

No way it's True.

2006-04-16T17:28:00.000-05:00

Whether they'll admit it or not, every guy in the world both loves and hates the True web ads. They pop up on every website and make us look like total sleezes when we're browsing the web at work for inspiration. Plus, it's for a dating service that almost certainly doesn't have girls in it that look like those models. Which makes us hate them once again because that's just mean to both girls and guys. My buddy signed up to find out what the site was about. I asked him if he'd sent a message to the girl in the black dress yet. He said he had, and that it's a spinal condition. Glad that's cleared up.

With the right packaging...

2006-04-16T16:45:00.000-05:00

This dude is an absolute genius. A guy named Justin Gignac is packaging and selling...wait for it...GARBAGE! That's right, he's selling the finest select pieces of NYC trash in clear plastic cases, signed and numbered, to people literally around the world. He's sold over 700 so far, at $50 a pop. It seems ridiculous to me that someone can pull this off, but I find myself wanting to buy one. What a conversation piece! You can't even be mad at him because he's cleaning up the city too. This is the best thing since pet rock. I hope this guy becomes a millionaire. Check his site out.

WhiteWash

2006-04-07T12:23:00.000-05:00

Has anyone else noticed that every commercial seems to be going into this crazy all-white craze? Not all white people (that's not new), but all white backgrounds/clothing/etc. Check out these spots for Adidas, Subway, and Puma

Is this some new trend? Man, I can't wait until teal becomes the "it" color.

Pulled over

2006-03-29T20:30:00.000-06:00

Advertising For Peanuts pointed to the ad with the runner. And then I saw this ad for bicycles. It seems like it's a pretty common premise (pulled-over = fast). I really like the flip of the cop being on the bike instead of the person being pulled over. It's a pleasant twist. The other one might be a bit obvious, but it is nicely done.

Ad nerd shirt

2006-03-28T16:00:00.000-06:00

Here's the link to buy this very nerdy/ very cool art director shirt. I think it's astounding. Here's what the creators wrote about it:

"Drop Shadows Not Bombs, PLAYGROUND OF THE STARS first t-shirt project, is inspired by endlessly dropping shadows while working in advertising combined with the "drop acid not bombs" and "make love not war" mantras of the sixties."

Cool stuff. Looking forward to other awesome/stupid shirts to come.

Why old people shouldn't try to be hip.

2006-03-27T17:22:00.000-06:00

Even from some of the great agencies I've seen slop on the web. No doubt some CD in their 60s started explaining to their young creatives about how to write for young people. They probably said something like "look on the web, you just need to be random and stupid, that's what is viral, just something crazy!!!" And you know what...they're wrong. There is a deep sophistication to stuff that's popular on the web (tits and weird foreigners singing aside).

To an untrained (elder) mind, it may seem random, but it's the circular randomness (stupidity returning back on itself) that the web is great at. There seems to usually be some constant thought throughout whatever silly thing it is. Plus, (and this is crucial)it's not stupid done stupid, it's stupid done smart.

Also, webstuff is created in the author's voice. There are popular clips and websites from older web-folk, but they're not pretending that they're young and hip. I

That, and once something has been done, it's dead. If it's already popular on the web, you will find harsh blog backlash if you try and do it again.

I'd say the most obvious proof of how little most agencies get the web are their own websites (excluding Wexley School for Girls perhaps). If there are other amazing agency websites, drop a line and I'll update the post. I'd love to be proved wrong on this one.

Vagrant Creatives

2006-03-23T11:43:00.000-06:00

There was a time when I wanted to create a traveling creative team called the "Vagrant Creatives". But in this case I'm referring to the homeless community, and their occasional extremely witty approach. To start I'll mention a Chicago legend. The lovingly named "Shakespeare Bum" who despite wearing tattered clothing and having a ratty beard, quotes flawlessly from Shakespeare towards people passing on the street. He calls every man "kind sir" and every women "fair maiden". Quite a schtick.

I'm also reminded of a story (I believe attributed to the former DDB rockstar Susan Gillette). Supposedly known for her humanity and kindness, she once saw a blind man with a sign that read "Blind. Please Give Money" or something of that nature. She asked the man if she could edit his sign, she did, and the man was stunned as person after person began giving him money. He asked her what the sign said, she replied "It's a beautiful day outside, and I can't see it." Powerful stuff this advertising.

And most recently I saw a beggar on the streets in San Francisco with a sign that read "I bet you a $1 you'll read this sign." I say any sign that makes me laugh out loud deserves at least a dollar. Hell, there are billboards worth thousands that don't even make me smirk.

Personally I'm a fan of stories, and I always reward good ones with my hard earned duckets.

Adidas loves graffiti

2006-03-22T18:16:00.000-06:00

Some companies fight the up and coming hipness that's all around them, but not Adidas. They've hit upon another masterful idea with this. They're cool outdoor boards that taunt graffiti artists to mess them up/pretty them up.

Thanks to Woostercollective for the pics.
Thanks to Billy for the tip.

Buckin' Writers!

2006-03-22T13:37:00.000-06:00

Ok, I was going to wait to post this until I had a link to the actual spot, but nobody has come through and posted the clip. (well, except for Ad Critic, but then you have to subscribe).

So the writer, Jim Houck, actually used to ride rodeo. The spot seems so crazy and random, but if you consider his background, it's not that far off. But what's really cool about all this, is that I bet the rodeo riding itself is totally accurate. I mean, if you know it so well, you make it authentic, and that makes it extra good. Perhaps that's the allure of this spot (which I have to admit is my favorite CPB work as of late).

UPDATE: Aha! I found it! Here's the spot.

My photos

2006-03-22T13:03:00.000-06:00

So sorry to my loyal readers for the occasional crappy photo quality. They're taken with my cell phone camera. You see, I actually have a really nice digital camera, but I can't find the USB cord for it. Don't believe me? I'll prove it. Here's a picture of my camera that I took with my cell phone camera. (I'd show you the cell phone too, but I'd have to use my really nice digital camera).

Piercing Bench Ad

2006-03-22T13:00:00.000-06:00

Here's a cool little bench ad for a piercing parlor in Chicago. It's just a nice clean headline that let's you get what they're about. Nothing fluffy or pretty. I have no idea who did it, but good job.

Doing what the brand promised

2006-03-16T00:54:00.000-06:00

CITI Bank has put up little kiosk like phone booths next to their ATMs so customers can call them, and I think it's great. For several reasons I guess. One, if I ever feel the random overwhelming urge to talk to a guy in India, who is undoubtedly thousands of times smarter than me, then I can do so with ease. Secondly, what a great non-traditional marketing message! That phone probably costs them less than a single billboard, and it says so much more than they could ever put into words.

Is the AdWeak guy dead?

2006-03-13T21:09:00.000-06:00

If you haven't ever visited Adweak, do so now, and then return bitter that the guy hasn't posted anything in like a year. I miss that random, witty, and often painfully true commentary on whatever crossed the editor's mind. Plus, I miss the constant apologizing for not having written in a while. I just miss it all... WHERE ARE YOU MASKED AD WONDER????

[Thanks to this site where I got the milk carton image from]

Hindi Burger King?

2006-03-13T20:34:00.000-06:00

I knew it!!! CP+B stole "The King" from an Indian ad agency! (okay, so they totally didn't). Look at this guy though. The picture was linked from some awards through one of my favorite ad blogs called 24. Not sure what exactly the ad is saying. I think it's discouraging drunk driving by saying you might run over a burger icon wearing a silly disguise mustaches. You gotta love it.

The rest of the winners can be seen here.

Harvard...SMART

2006-03-10T12:31:00.000-06:00

For some reason people think that Harvardites are a bunch of lame snooty jerks. But Conan O'Brien came from there, and he's hilarious. But I digress (isn't that we people often do in this situation). Hadrian's Wall did this really smart, really cool ad for the Harvard Business Review that's approachable and smart. I really like it because it's rare to see a no-copy ad anymore that doesn't just show what the product is. That and I really like the agency. Any company that publicly makes silly football bets is ok in my book.

Waterboy for Evian

2006-03-09T18:17:00.000-06:00

A buddy just forwarded me the winner of 2004's Epica Awards (for those of you that don't know, the Epicas claim to be "Europe's premiere creative awards"). This video was done by BETC EURO RSCG (could they fit any more letters into their name).
Watch the video here

Mint ads unlike any other

2006-03-09T11:33:00.000-06:00

A buddy of mine who is an illustrator/designer (not at all involved in advertising) somehow ended up interviewing at a tiny agency in Chicago. He went to the interview thinking they were looking for an illustrator, but what they really wanted was an illustrator/designer/art director.

He had no ads in his portfolio (obviously), but the guy wanted to test him, and told him to come up with a campaign for mints with the thought "extremely powerful mints". This was what he came up with.

They passed on him (stupidly), but when he showed me these ads I almost died. I think they are twisted, edgy and terrific, and I want to put them here so others can see.

You can see more of his work here

Sex dolls promote equal rights

2006-03-09T11:26:00.000-06:00

According to a BBC article the Mexican government has created a campaign using sex dolls dressed in various work uniforms that are saying "women aren't sex objects". I guess it's a problem because even Mexico's president made a remark according to the article that "[women were just] washing machines with two legs". Take that Gloria Steinem!

If it ain't Crispin, it outta be

2006-03-08T19:10:00.000-06:00

"Techmaster" on techeblog posted about a street legal VW bug that somebody apparently welded a giant jet engine onto. The guy, who supposedly has a Stanford PhD in mechanical engineering (who despite the distinction still refers to cars as "rides" *cough cough*), uses a GE Model T58-8F helicopter turboshaft engine converted to jet to make his car push 1350 horsepower(and says it's street legal). but maybe it's legit... riiiiight.

It's got 178 comments as of this writing, and I think it's still pretty new. It's no Brooke Burke/King (hilarity by the way!) but still plenty viral.

Wait...wasn't this a Darwin Award Winner?

New Chicago IKEA train wraps

2006-03-07T15:26:00.000-06:00

This new train wrap for IKEA has the line "Los Angeles has Four, but they're probably fake" in regards to Chicagoland opening up its second IKEA. There were other train wraps including something about the twin cities only having one, and something else that wasn't as memorable apparently (since I can't seem to remember it).

It's just interesting that they would make a stab at their own company to be regionally relevant. Especially knowing that some jerk (me) might end up putting it on the web and stirring up some controversy. Los Angeles, can you believe they're talking that way about you? :)

Liquor Ads With Bite

2006-03-07T00:03:00.000-06:00

Unicum Nite has taken an interesting approach to their malt beverage's advertising. Selling it based on what might be its greatest weakness.

Not sure if anyone out there has tried the malternative Unicum Nite (not sure if it's sold in US), or its full strength counterpart Zwack Unicum, but it bites like a teething otter (imagine Jagermeister, but 80 proof). Rather than hide from their beverage's fighting character, they embrace it and seem to make it a challenge.

It's a lot better way than what most brands do, which is ignore their shortcomings and hope no consumers notice. Szėp munka volt (Nice work).

[Ads by BBDO-Hungary]

CP+B Podcast

2006-03-06T11:57:00.000-06:00

Maybe I've totally missed the boat here, but Crispin Porter + Bogusky has a podcast where their VP of agency communications interviews and talks with some advertising bigshots. It's called "The Hook, with Katie Kempner" and it airs live on Tuesdays at 2:00 on webmasterradio.fm or you can listen to old shows here.

They take forever to download, and there are a bunch of stupid commercials (clearly not writen by CP+B), but worth checking out. There's no interviews with Alex Bogusky yet, but Chuck Porter was the first interview back in December, and he's about as cool a guy as they come.

Paradessence

2006-03-03T12:52:00.000-06:00

There's a novel out there called Savage Girl by Alex Shakar, that talks about a really cool theory that seems to hold a lot of truth. It's called "paradessence" and it's essentially the thought that every successful product has an inherent paradox. I don't remember the examples from the book, but here are some I've thought of: Harley Davidson has created a community of individuality, McDonald's is a cold and undifferentiated family restaurant, bottled water is a commodity that's a luxury.

If you take this theory one step further you can actually begin to concept on your product this way. You take the characteristics of your brand, and you begin to market the opposite. Look at the H3 "Monster" ad, they don't sell the Hummer as big, they sell it as small.

I like to do this when I get writer's block, or I can't get my head around a brand benefit, I'll just draw a line with 2 arrows on the ends and put one aspect of the paradox on each end and think about where the brand is, and sell the opposite. It's kind of a Yin and Yang way of branding.

Untouchable Media

2006-03-03T12:39:00.000-06:00

Could celebrity nipples be the next great ad medium? Think about it, any time a nipple happens to slip out, thousands of photographers capture it, and it's all over the web in a day. Go on ifilms top 100 and after movie trailers, the most common theme is nipple slips. I mean it's clearly not for everyone, but put a Nike swoosh on a nice, toned olympian tit, and you've just won marketing gold.

[Inspired by a Huffington Post article]

Blogger Time

2006-03-03T12:32:00.000-06:00

I would have a nice introduction here, but I can't contain it... MC HAMMER HAS A BLOG!!! I read about it on the Huffington Post, and then looked at the site myself. It's got all kinds of crazy stuff like weird dreams he's had, sports talk, and a ton of other random stuff. How awesome is that? I've got one request though, Hammer...don't hurt 'em.

Apple will eat your babies!!!

2006-03-02T14:42:00.000-06:00

There's nothing cuter/scarier than turning your baby into an ipod. A site called ipopmybaby(obviously to avoid lawsuits) has created baby clothes that have the well-known ipod dial on them. It may seem wrong to some of you, but it's really just getting your child ready for the future when their shirts will probably be able to surf the web and send them penis enlargment pill promotion deals wherever they go.

Strange Potter People

2006-03-02T00:44:00.000-06:00

After AdFreak's expose on one Hermoine Granger drinking Corona I think it's appropriate to use the image shown here and to talk about a weird/cool consumer generated blog thingy. It's called PotterPuffs and it's a mix of a popular cartoon show and of course the well-known movies and books. As far as I know there have been no cease and desist orders, which is good because they'd just blog it and make all the old people scrambling to hold onto the old ways look bad.

Lent for Advertising

2006-03-01T13:24:00.000-06:00

I'm not catholic, but I've gotten into the habit of giving stuff up for Lent. Last year I gave up meat (that was really tough) and this year I'm doing no chocolate and no drinking.

I wonder if anyone has any suggestions for things that advertising people should give up for Lent? Here's the format: No..... for 40 days.
I'll start:

No ads with yoga on mountain tops for 40 days.

Banks and credit cards are next to go

2006-03-01T12:53:00.000-06:00

Remember when music was purchased in a music store? Remember when Napster and Kazaa ruled the land and screwed record stores? Well, banks are next on the chopping block. This site called Prosper was created to allow people to privately and safely lend each other money at whatever interest rate they decide. Sort of an ebay for loans. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Skin Watch

2006-02-28T23:47:00.000-06:00

This really cool watch concept comes from a strange and oddly amazing design place called Yanko Design. It's a "non-permanent" watch. Which from what I can gather means disposable. It seems to be part of a growing trend to make daily wares disposable. What about one time use ads? You see it once and then throw it away... oh, I guess we already have those.

Adarchy in the UK

2006-02-28T23:19:00.000-06:00

Sex Pistols will never sell out...ever.

Apparently the crew essentially told off the music industry in a "formal" refusal letter for thinking they could conform them (or induct them) into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And here I thought punk was dead and its corpse was being used for marketing.

So the Sex Pistols might hate me forever for comparing them to a brand, but here it is: What great brand consistency for the Sex Pistols. If any other brand had this kind of strength, maybe they would be punk as hell too.

Goooooooaaallll!!!!!

2006-02-27T15:19:00.000-06:00

This is a picture from Venice Beach. It's a giant foosball table that has steering wheel like things on the end to turn the players. It's a really beautiful concept (Chiat-San Fran I believe) and it looks really cool. It's something big that was made small that was made big again. It was created as part of a bigger event with live junior soccer games on small fields, and a bunch of other "football" stuff, all created to help promote Adidas and the World Cup. The functionality isn't that awesome because it's difficult to turn the players and to get the ball out after a goal, but shhh, nobody in the awards shows needs to know. Nice job guys.
NOTE: Excuse the picture quality, all I had was my cell phone camera.

Yet more free Nintendo advertising

2006-02-24T15:29:00.000-06:00

This guy has made screenshots of Nintendo games with legos. Very cool. As I've writen before, it seems Nintendo might be better off just letting others do their marketing for them.

Interesting Marketing

2006-02-24T15:04:00.000-06:00

Artist Judi Werthein has created shoes for jumping the border into the US called "Brincos" that she's giving out for free to migrants at the Tijuana border fence. Apparently they are built tough to help them across the dangerous terrain.

The same exact shoes sell at shops for over $215.

You can feel however you want about what she does, but man is that some great guerilla marketing. What better proof could you give that these are real rugged shoes? I see them becoming very popular with people who never step off of paved sidewalks (hey, it worked for the SUV).

Nice going Cali...

2006-02-23T23:15:00.000-06:00

Maybe a few of those tax dollars should've been spent on education. :)

This was taken while I was in Los Angeles. I love that there are all sorts of sponsors and logos on it. This isn't in some far off place either, it's on a busy highway. What does this say about the state of California? To me it says...funny.

Love Potion Number 9.2

2006-02-21T11:56:00.000-06:00

Gee, I wonder if this product will sell? It's apparently been banned in several countries, but this "aphrodisiac soda" is going to be sold in the good ol' US of A. The fact that there is a guy and a girl going at it on the front of the can guarantees that millions of teenage boys will undoubtedly be buying it. The fact that it's called a "love drink" guarantees that sleezy dudes will too. "Hey baby, you, me, and some love potion?"

Nintendo doesn't even need an agency

2006-02-21T11:14:00.000-06:00

Either they have the most brilliant guerilla marketing minds ever on the Nintendo account, or people are just obsessed all on their own. I showed a few video clips in an earlier post, but now check this out, a guy made an old school Nintendo alarm clock.

Robots in Disguise?

2006-02-21T11:00:00.000-06:00

It's not quite the same without the sounds, but today is a joyous day my friends. Myself, and millions in my generation have waited for this glorious moment. After a brief glimmer of hope with the CP+B transformer campaign (which was sweet by the way, but not real), here's the real deal. Yes my friends, it is true. Now how about that movie we've been waiting for?

Nice Guerilla

2006-02-20T17:26:00.000-06:00

The St. Louis Cardinals have ripped down part of their own billboard for the sake of advertising. Cardinals from the billboard will apparently begin appearing on other billboards. Sounds pretty cool. I think it would be great if all boring billboards ripped themselves down and put themselves on one giant uber-lame billboard. And we could put it in Madison Wisconsin.

People Don't Care About Your Product!

2006-02-20T13:21:00.000-06:00

It's sad but true. Nobody out there gives a crap about your company and how you're changing/evolving/feeling/doing. You are not their buddy, you're a brand. If you want them to like you/pay attention to you/love you, you have to give them a damn good reason. Just because your ad gets across a brand message doesn't mean they will give a s#!t about that brand message, or believe it.

Sprint is Lame

2006-02-20T13:12:00.000-06:00

Sorry creatives, we know you wanted to do something fun and cool with this but I think you missed the mark. Just because it is technically interactive, and it plays off a tagline that you made up, sorta. Doesn't make it good viral. I think it could've been very cool if I actually cared/knew the guy in the car, but I don't.

Additional note: I'm not slamming the creatives that worked on this, I'm sure something key got mangled.

What the Phi?

2006-02-18T12:40:00.000-06:00

This plastic surgeon fellow named Marquardt used the golden ratio (1:1.618) to show all the ratios in the face that make someone look beautiful. Apparently this same ratio exists in just about everything that looks visually appealing. Does it exist in good ads? Can we check these ratios against the most visually perfect ads?

By the way, I'm not ever going to say that advertising can be simplified to a science, because it's the slight imperfections that make something really beautiful (like Cindy Crawford's Mole) and that's the art that comes down to good creative.

Cool. Let's Put an Ad in It!

2006-02-18T11:59:00.000-06:00

Here's this cool thing done by VW/Google. It's an Onstar like thing, but with 3d graphics of the road ahead. Hey... I bet you could put billboards on all the buildings, and flying through the sky, and there's already a VW logo on the bottom, so we're off to a good start. What if the roads were fruit roll-ups? Haha. Anyways, it's a cool technology and new media.

Some fun for creatives

2006-02-18T11:52:00.000-06:00

Here's a cool site to help you think. It's a sketch swap.

Consumer's Make Their Own Ads for Fun

2006-02-18T11:09:00.000-06:00

A friend of mine forwarded me this Nintendo related link. Just as a common forwarded email, I watched it, laughed, thought it was cool, forwarded it on to a bunch of people, but it wasn't until a few hours later that I thought... that was pretty much an ad. No logo, no brand name, no annoying announcer, but one hell of a brand recognition.

Here's a Chorus singing for Nintendo. this one's really cool. If anyone has any more, please comment. Looks like Nintendo's agency needs to pay attention.

UPDATE:
Mad kudos to littlejohn for mentioning this killer 11 string bass rendition of some classic Mario

Brooke Burke is a burger slut

2006-02-17T15:31:00.000-06:00

Saw this post on adrants about Brooke Burke going to McDonalds. Looks like a primo opportunity for a messy celebrity style break-up with the King. Let's hope my buddies at Crispin don't miss the chance.

Everything's in the details

2006-02-14T12:12:00.000-06:00

The Lord of the Rings trilogy were obviously some of the most successful movies of all time. I remember watching the special features and hearing them talk about the incredible detail they went into for every aspect of the making. At one point they were talking about how the suits of armor were incredibly heavy, so they had a bar that they could lean against to support some of the weight when they weren't acting. This is how it had been done in the past too, but here was a bar that nobody would ever see on the screen, and they engraved it with the symbols of Gondor.

That's the kind of ultimate attention to detail that makes something truly great. A CD friend of mine once said that in a truly great commercial, you could freeze any frame, and you could see the entire overall brand.

Look at CP+B, or any of the great houses of advertising, and you'll see that even if the big idea is lacking, the details are nearly flawless.

Degrees of ad seperation

2006-02-11T13:06:00.000-06:00

When someone comes up to me and says "I'm cool" the first thing I think is "no, you're not". But if someone else tells me that the person is cool, I'm more inclined to believe it. The degree of seperation makes it more plausible for some reason. I was thinking about those CoqRoq ads that were on, and one of the things that made them cool (until people realized just how BS they were) was that it was a third party endorser of Burger King.Rather than advertising Chicken Fries, CP+B only had to advertise CoqRoq, and CoqRoq would endorse the product.

This used to be done all the time in the 80's with the Leo Burnett's critters. They only had to draw attention to the critters, and the critters would sell the product.

Of course nowadays few agencies do icons this way. Many will advertise the product and then have a character just standing there for some random reason, probably because the client put them there "our focus groups show that people like puppies". Bad client...bad.

Tension

2006-02-10T10:57:00.000-06:00

I've given a lot of thought to why ads like wake up with the King and the VW wedding commercial, (an awesome spot my buddy and I decided is in both of our top 10 best ads ever lists). One of the things I think that makes them so successful is they have a lot of tension. There is some feeling you have in your stomach that is moderately uncomfortable when you watch them. Just like a good story, if there's good tension, people will keep paying attention (hey that rhymes, that makes it even cooler. Consider it trademarked).

You know what's

2006-02-09T11:38:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I was thinking about a commercial done by a friend of mine that was supposed to be a huge hit, but for some reason fizzled. One of the reasons I think was that

Isn't it captivating to stop in mid-sentence? I'm reminded of an old Gossage ad where he ended the full page long copy ad in the middle of a sentence and continued it the following week (that man was a genius). This brings me back to my friend. His ad had a complete resolution at the end. There was nothing left to think about. There were actually 2 full anti-climaxes to the ad.

why would anyone keep thinking about an ad if there's nothing left to think about?

Where are your balls?

2006-02-07T18:20:00.000-06:00

Starting out, every successful creative did some stupid ballsy thing that got them to where they are. They talked back, took a risk, trusted their gut, and did something that nobody thought could/should be done.

Each time we do it we get something better (or get totally screwed...that happens too) and we all of a sudden have more things on the line. Eventually it seems that everyone gets to a point where A) they think they're already doing everything the right way, or B) they have so much at stake that they start convincing themselves that giving up a little of themselves is worth it to not shake things up.

I see it with rule breakers in every industry. I hope I never lose my balls, and I'm always willing to do the "stupid" thing because I think it's right. And if not, I hope my Bahama home is worth selling out for.

Dilemma

2006-02-06T11:53:00.000-06:00

OK, we all pretty much agree that the Super Bowl ads were disappointing. So I'd like to take a look at an underlying question that most people aren't thinking about. If your client came to you and said "hey, we want a Super Bowl commercial", and they weren't known for letting you get away with crazy stuff, would you tell them "no, sorry, I don't think that your ad will be good enough"? (I might, but I'm ballsy and stupid)

BTW, you can view them here.

Volcano Creative

2006-02-03T12:01:00.000-06:00

Most creatives I've met function like some type of volcano. There are basically 3 different types.

One type is like a shield volcano. In a shield volcano the lava steadily flows at all times from the volcano. This type of creative will steadily give out good ideas, but the lava never builds up, so they are always just good ideas.

Then there are the cinder cone volcanoes. They violently erupt from a single opening and shoot globs of lava into the air. This type of creative is the Neil French type (before the scandal). They are very powerful and great, but they have a single style that they are known for.

There is also the third type. The strato volcanoes. They general have large build ups of gases under the thicker magma. It makes them erupt only after a tremendous ammount of pressure has built up. This type of creative will give hundreds of ok ideas until eventually the one big idea explodes out, and might change the industry.

Not Absolute

2006-02-02T18:17:00.000-06:00

I took a fiction writing class a while ago, and we were discussing what makes a good character in a story. Apparently, if you make a good guy, he should have a negative quality (a weakness) and if you make a bad guy, he should have a redeeming quality.

The reason is that we have a built-in distrust of absolutes. If we see something as all good, or all bad, we just don’t believe it is real. Therefore writers often add in these things to make the story more believable.

In advertising a lot of times we try and make our brand flawless. Our commercials show it saving the day, or being the perfect solution to a challenge. Maybe this is why nobody believes advertising. It doesn’t sound authentic because it’s too polished. Maybe our adds would pull better if we admitted a product fault.

Love and Advertising

2006-02-01T23:36:00.000-06:00

Scientists have shown that the chemical response of romantic love fades away as you stay with the same person over time, and is replaced with a different chemical response that makes the couple stay together through friendship and a sense of bonding.

I wonder if a similar thing occurs with the love of a product.

I’ve got to admit, I’ve had a lot of product one night stands. Over time brands become boring and the infatuation disappears, leaving you with the feeling of waking up in the bed next to a now uninteresting person you once thought you were crazy about.

The initial spark of brand love is a necessity, but how do we convert this into a sense of friendship and bonding to convert it into long term brand loyalty?

In an article about love, National Geographic wrote about different types of relationship counseling programs created to help long term love and romance. One thing they mention is long term eye contact. Does this mean that an ad that has long copy could help to create better long term brand bonds (please stare into my beautiful copy). Maybe it’s just about spending longer amounts of time in the mind of brand lovers.

I think the brand has to find some new way of exciting us. Some surprise we didn’t expect. How about role playing? Could we find temporary new love with Sears if they rocked our socks with an ad involving cheerleaders??