The elephant.

Let's just go ahead and get it out. The Super Bowl. It's this weekend if you haven't heard. And if you haven't seen, Youtube is choice for breaking some of the highly anticipated ad-porn you're pining for.

Youtube is great on many levels as I'm sure everyone in the universe is well aware. It's a supreme (and free) way to put the fire under most any brand. Plus some videos give you a little more - like an inside peak on what it's like to create the holy grail of advertising: A Super Bowl spot.

While some have spoiled the fun and released their spots early (Career Builder), others have made clever teasers to build the suspense. Here's one from Bridgestone and The Richards Group:

Surf's up

Why do we "surf the web"?

Why don't we "ride the web" or "dive the web"? Maybe we could "side-saddle the web" or "skate the web".

No?

Snuggie

Like most people remember where they were when Kennedy was assassinated, I too recall the moments when I saw ground breaking ads. I remember the first time I saw a MasterCard "Priceless" spot. The first "I'm a Mac/PC" spot. And now, the first time I saw the Snuggie spot.

I was at the gym on the treadmill. It came on one of the many TVs without sound. Yet, still, I struggled to keep myself from dropping limp on the conveyor belt below me as I watched the horror unfold.

I could hear the announcer in my head - he was brimming with excessive joy and enthusiasm for this groundbreaking device that lets you enjoy the comforts of a blanket without all the hassle! (What?)

I usually enjoy 800 commercials. They're sly use of over acting and making simple things seem extraordinarily complex thrills me to no end. But this one took it over the edge.

Now, you too can experience the pleasure. Here's the original followed by an extremely well made spoof that pretty much sums up what everyone's thinking. Don't wait! View yours today!

ORIGINAL



SPOOF

Seriously.

I hate to clutter le blog with these kinds of entries. But, really? Really?

ProFlowers is trying to relate to me by dropping the OMG. The only problem being, that relates to my 15 year old sister who doesn't buy flowers for anyone.

It just further proves that every little bit of communication - whether a billboard in Times Square, or a puny little email blast - says something about your brand.

And right now, I'm not a fan of what ProFlowers is saying about itself.

I wish

For some reason, the lovely American Airlines Center here in Dallas thinks I have $3,000 to rent a "new 12 person suite" to watch a Maverick's and/or Stars game with me and my 11 closest mooching friends.

I covet the thought. But aside from appreciating the exclamatory "JUST" placed meaninglessly in front of the $3,000 price tag, covet is about all I can do.

Thanks for the email though, AAC.

The Amazon Link

I find it more than amusing that Amazon has discovered a correlation exists between people buying Coleman Coolers and Monty Python and The Holy Grail.

Curious.

Yes We Can use that slogan to benefit ourselves.

Political slogans have taken a nice two month snooze. And now, the alarm has gone off and they're once again stirring. The front runner? "Yes we can."

It's beautifully simple, can be wonderfully rhythmic, and painfully imitated.

Watching the NFL championships over the weekend, I was slightly annoyed to find CBS borrowing not only the slogan, but the familiar tri-chromatic postering to promote their line-up of sit-coms.


Boo.

And now, on inauguration day, foreign leaders are slicing themselves a big helping of Obamaism pie. With a heaping scoop of weird on the side.

Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah would like to let me know he supports Barack. How nice. It's quite possibly the strangest banner ad I've ever clicked on: a banner ad that's not even selling anything and links directly to a foreign diplomats web page.

(click image to launch into weirdness)

Maybe this is a good thing: a president the world can get behind.

But while imitation may be the greatest form of flattery, it's still just imitation to me.

Notable Quotes

I'm in the middle of my second Chuck Klosterman book, "Chuck Klosterman IV". It's a compilation of his interesting interviews with interesting people over the course of 10 years. Or, as the spine of the book says: "A decade of curious people and dangerous ideas."

I enjoy his style of writing, and while I'll assume it's not for everyone, it's at least worth a skim next time you're at Barnes & Noble.

Currently, I'm reading an interview he had with Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant. And while most of what streams from Plant is incoherent and narrow-minded, there was one line that was strikingly clear. I can only assume I couldn't comprehend most of what he was saying because I'm not that into music. But, perhaps because I'm in advertising, I understood when he said this:

"I don't make my living by making my living. My time is so important that I can't compromise my taste - or my idea of what's right - simply to match someone else's view of what's a good, calculated move."

Of course, that was then followed by "It would have been quite sluttish to come back firing like a bunch of hard rockers." But I suppose that rings a bell too...

Back and Interactive.

After a long and much needed break from life, I've returned. And waiting for me was a new job with interactive agency, Click Here in Dallas. And so, the learning has begun.

There are vendors out there who actually spend their 9-5 coming up with interesting, stimulatingly clever "page-loading" concepts. Yes. The 15-30 seconds you wait for a page to load was brought to you by somebody's work day.

There's a pre-loader museum curated by Space Ship. It's called Pretty Loaded. If you go to their site, a random montage of different concepts streams.

I never thought I'd enjoy spending more than a nanosecond waiting for something to load. And here, there's no promise of anything ever actually loading.