Barbie

The niece. Getting pumped to see her this weekend for the 4th.

Amazon just doesn't know me anymore.

Being a person is a full time job

I was thinking of hiring a personal assistant. Then I realized I didn't have the money to. Then I realized why I didn't have the money to.

First, there's the rent payment. Then the car payment.

After that there's the credit card bill, the electric bill, the water bill, the cable bill.

Oh. And do I need to mention gas?

Plus there's insurance for the car, for the home, for the me. And I'm sure I'm leaving some stuff off.

All of these have real-time deadlines. It's like work just to live.

So I need somebody else to live my life so I can live my life.

Any takers?

I did this over the weekend.

Dumb

I don't have a MySpace account, nor do I ever intend to.

And this guy just confirmed why:



It reminds me of a story my sister-in-law recalled about a conversation she once had with her aging, southern grandmother. In this conversation her grandmother stated that traveling by air was merely a fad, sure to pass within decent time. Essentially, she presumed that train travel would pick up again and that the Atlantic would be traversed solely by ship - since, clearly, flying was on its way out.

Mr. Murdoch's assumption doesn't fall far from this tree. In fact, I think might even be still attached at the limb.

Have you seen MySpace lately? Have you taken a good look at it? Done a side-by-side comparison, perhaps?

MySpace reminds me of a website I might have had when I was in middle school - in every sense of the world. It behaves like the immature little brother of Facebook. With it's spastic, ADD layout and it's graphics from '96, MySpace is trapped in an era of thinking it's cool

And even though I've been prompted over a dozen times to "register/sign-up to view XXXX's profile", I haven't. Just like jumping out of a plane without a shoot, I've never been compelled.

So while Facebook may just be a fad, I'm happy to ride it out. I don't care if it's just a "directory" either. Facebook works 100% better for me as a directory than MySpace ever could as a...well, whatever MySpace is.

I do feel compelled to hate MySpace based solely on Rupert's picture. And his name. Rupert? Please.


Post Script.

Maybe there cold be a hybrid called FaceSpace. or MyFace. And Apple can come out with a laptop called MyBook.

oooohhhhhhh.

Guilty Pleasure

I like it.

Considering it's local, I like it even more.

TEXT: "Your Wife Is Hot. / Better get the A/C fixed."

(I would've said "Better fix the A/C" - but who's counting?)

75 North, Dallas, TX

Funny how tried and tired are seperated only by the placement of two letters.

Promises

I never made promises lightly
And there have been some that I've broken
But I swear in the days still left
We'll walk in the fields of gold
We'll walk in the fields of gold.
- Fields of Gold, Sting

A bad ad promises.
A promise is a lie because it has not come true.
[Consumers] know better than to listen to a promise because they've all been broken up with when they were in highschool by boys and girls who'd promised to love them forever.
- A promise is an Infomercial, Fenske

;)

While I loath the little beasts, emoticons seem necessary at times to diffuse an otherwise misinterpreted email.

No, I didn't say I "hated" you.

I said I "hated you ;)"

They change something that could be misconstrued as sarcastic and hateful into something that's funny and delightful, even though it's subsequently intended to mock you.

But there's still something about them that makes me hate them. Perhaps it's when they're used too often. There's an essence of fakeness associated with them.

I mean, they help me understand your mood when I can't see you. So, to that extent, they're somewhat useful. But when they're used in excess, I get the feeling you aren't sincere, or that you're an excessively happy person which is equally annoying.

Perhaps, in that regard, they're something like exclamation points. And it's hard to be sincere with exclamation points.

Thanks!

Dana

Yes

UK VW AD

better than the VW ads running state-side right now.





The making of (very interesting insight into the making of a collaborative ad):

Apple's future is in 1960.

As with most things, I'm sure most people knew this before I was even born. But, nevertheless, I came across this article about Apple's design.

It seems to be highly inspired by a one Dieter Rams. A Braun designer from the 60's.

Take a look.

IDK

The first viral to successfully have people not know it's an ad (Don't believe me? Check out the comments below or here). But is that a good thing? I mean, they're jeans. But never once do you see a tight shot of "Levi's" even though that's who it's done for by the up and coming Cutwater.

Good? Bad? Who knows?

I'm not even sure if I like it.

Yet.

FYI

While I use this blog mostly as a forum for advertising-related commentary, I came across this and felt the need to post it.

It contains information about a rare form of Breast Cancer. One that many people, one that many doctors, don't even know about: Inflammatory Breast Cancer.

Unlike most other forms of Breast Cancer, IBC doesn't show in any of the routine screenings. So you have to recognize the symptoms. And, in many cases, know them better than your doctor.

Reality Advertising

This spot appeared live on TVs across the UK last week on May 29th at 8:10pm. It looks to be sponsored by a news program so there's some initial set-up involved. It wasn't just sandwiched in between an ad for Charmin and one for Metamucil.

The reviews on AdCritic aren't that encouraging although the spot stands as one of the Top 20 on the site. They said it was boring and self-serving. And, yet again, I disagree.

While it did seem slow in the beginning, it felt like it was intended to build the suspense. I mean, I'm just waiting and waiting for them to jump. And I want to see what it is they're going to do to illustrate "Difficult is worth doing."

And maybe I was looking for it because I'm in advertising. But perhaps instead, the reviewers on AdCritic were the ones analyzing the ad as people in advertising instead of just people.

People who think different is cool.

And while being different doesn't necessarily sell cars, it isn't exactly a quantum leap to draw the connection they're trying to make between ad and brand.

One AdCritic reviewer asked "Where's the consumer in this?" I found the answer in another comment section, here.

Marty Cooke

So, AdWeek has this cool thing in the right panel of their site. It's a video feed with quick clips from people who have something to say in the ad industry.

Marty Cooke's name was listed among them and it caught my eye.

A year or so ago he came to the VCU AdCenter as a "Friday Speaker". He was our second Friday Speaker that year, prefaced by Jonah Bloom from AdAge. I took notes during those first few Speakers Series. In fact, I still have the notes from Marty's presentation here at my desk at work. Let me fetch them...

Ah, yes. Here they are.

"September 15th, 2006", I wrote. Immediately followed by SS+K est. 1993. Marty Cook on "Building Brands + Opinion in a Fractured World"

Let's see...what else...

He told a story about how they made "Fruitopia" what it is today. - a ubiquitous "snapple-like" drink some may recall emerging in the mid-90's. The most interesting part of the story was that Coke, the parent company, wanted to call the drink "Minute Made Naturals". Nice. Sounds like a laxative.

Marty told them the name sucked and reinvented the brand. Voila! Fruitopia.

That's not the only way they've been putting their thumb-print on brands.

Remember those hip yellow bracelets that came out a few years ago? The ones with LiveSTRONG seared into the rubber band? Yea. That was them.

And...oh yea, this was an idea he stressed several times...

He talked about every brand having a "Noble Purpose" - you had to write it down. It had to be six words or less. And there could be no "and" in it.

That's great. You get focused.

Wal-Mart: Make everyday stuff affordable.

Done.

BUT - ask a client to do that. Maaann, that'd be hard. There's so much you have to say and so much you can do and the consumer needs to be made aware of it and what if they don't know how great we are and I might lose my job!

Now that's clearly a generalization. But a lot of times, it seems to be the rule.

And that brings me back to the video from AdWeek. The reason I liked it is because Marty brings up another good point: "The worst part of advertising is the clients just don't trust us as much as they used to."

And while I haven't been in the industry near as long as Marty, maybe not even long enough to have experienced the days when they did "trust us", but I still feel it.

There are times when you wonder why they've hired an agency at all. It seems that you're just a scribe for their ideas to promote their brand. While, in reality, this is our business. This is our trade. This is what we know. We can help you. But only if you're willing. And it seems these days, they're not.

While flying from New York to London, you wouldn't suggest a different flight pattern and speed to your pilot. But the difference in this industry is that everybody has an opinion. And it just takes a bit of pop-culture knowledge to think it's a valid one.

There are so many brands that could meet endless success if only reins were dropped. Or at least loosened.

Granted, it's advisable to at least entertain some input from the client. I mean, it is their brand after all and ultimately, they do know it best.

That said, I would still love to see the day when, for a given period of time, complete control over brands was ushered to agencies. The client would see the end result on tv, just like everybody else. And they would laugh, cry, grow more attached to their brand, just like everybody else*.

Here's the video with the other interesting ideas he presents.

* In theory