savepolaroid.com

Seems like a genuine consumer outcry to save a brand.

Interesting.

Probably the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Now, I know it's in everyone's nature to gush about cute babies in their family, but c'mon. You gotta give it to this one.

I like working in advertising

because you get email solicitations that look like this and it's called work:

Art Everywhere

Dana Coleman is

engaged.


Who's comin to India?

You can find inspiration in anything.

60

I opened 60 magazine* the other day, and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a naked Slate. No tiny reindeer. (But I wouldn't have been surprised or any less turned on.)

*For those who don't know, 60 is an annual produced by the second year students at VCU BrandCenter. To request a copy, head to the link over there in the sidebar re: what is vcubrandcenter?

you can also link directly to Slate's blog, a talented young Art Director fresh out of VCU.

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

Dance, Dance, RevoRobot.

This, in some small way, makes me feel less guilty about devoting my life to selling people things they didn't know they wanted.

Sony taught some robots to dance.

Nobody applauds. Poor, creepy guys.

Someecards

Once again, I must stress the importance of wasting at least .50 hours a day browsing someecards.com.

Ultimate Integration

Weezer takes YouTube stars and makes them real stars.

What makes this video great is they actually recruited these characters to perform. They didn't just take clips from their actual videos and try to match them to the song's lyrics. That wouldn't have been cool.

This, however, is.

And of course, like any good reunion, they got all of them in the same room at once.

Simple idea turned awesome. Probably a bitch to produce though.

Smart.

Ok. Seriously.
How long did you expect me not to post something about advertising?

I held out as long as I could.

I like this:

My, My, My

Niece. Rapidly approaching the big 2, I take a look back on how crazy-fast she grew.

SEPTEMBER 2006
NOVEMBER 2006
APRIL 2007
JULY 2007
APRIL 2008

Coke Zero

Amsterdam style.

Someone on Adcritic said this:


I say Yes.

To this one. Maybe not the others in the series.

On great work.

A creative director at my agency said of great work:

"I look at those ads with equal parts infatuation and rage."

The litmus test for putting together a great book? Perhaps.

Mixed Media

The great thing about spec work is

it doesn't have to be approved.

Like this campaign for Clue board games. Found this on trendhunter.com and while it didn't state if this was produced or not, I'm going to guess NOT.

From Trendhunter:

Created by Jenny Luong and Jared Friedberg at Humber College in Toronto, Canada the campaign places special liquid soap dispensers that contain blood-red colored soap in public washrooms. When you try to wash your hands, the soap creates the realistic illusion of you washing the blood off your hands.

Pretty cool idea, but I'm not sure how the average consumer would react to inadvertently dousing their hands in blood-like soap, courtesy of a board game.

I also think it would hear a resounding chorus of crickets if they presented it to the suits and ties at Hasbro.

But, it never hurts to keep thinking. Always.

The VCU AdCenter of directing:

SpotLab

Do it again

So, would this be non-traditional media for music videos?
Or just cool?

Stories

Where would I be

without audio-visual aid? I guess I'd be a writer. But that's scary. People are too ADD for writing alone.

500 pages? No pictures? Are you kidding me? Have you even made it this far?

Doesn't matter if it's 5 paragraphs. The attention span of the modernized public at large is dwindling by the second. How am I supposed to retain it with words? Words? We talkin' about words?

Forget it.

Yet more proof

that advertisers, corporate America, and their lawyers think the general public is a collective mass of blathering idiots.

Yea, that's right. The fine print? DON'T EAT A F********* FIVE DOLLAR BILL.

Oh, and as a side note, peanuts are processed on machines that may have come in contact with peanuts.

I'm just sayin'.

Arm, Arm, Boob, Boob, Strap

Not sure just yet. But I think I like it.

Featured on Youtube's home page (with disabled embedded code, so click on the image to get hijacked):

Yeeeeessss.

For lack of a better post,

So, my schedule has been pretty crazy over the last three weeks. As tribute, here's something equally crazy. (But definitely more entertaining.)

Findings

A couple of cool ideas in Dallas, one from LA, and one from LAX.




(Not a huge fan of the above. Kind of feels condescending)

This is what I like about advertising

You get to go to LA, work with cool colleagues, awesome directors, and meet famous people.

Enjoying some down time with an AD partner and producer on Thursday evening in our hotel lobby, along hobbles this guy on crutches:




He wasn't on crutches for anything animal-related. But still, it was Jack Hannah and no big deal. It's just LA.

Visual Search Engines

Scary.

Portfolio Night 6

So, I never heard about this when I was there. But apparently they're taking an active interest in Portfolio Night this year at Brandcenter.

Portfolio Night is the largest, global review of portfolios for the field of advertising in one night. Crazy fun.

I couldn't get a video to post, so you'll have to click the image and it'll hijack you to their site. Watch it there. It's worth it.

(To avoid ruining the joke, I'll continue my post in the comments section. But watch the video first.)

Use your tax rebate wisely

New definition of Air Guitar.

Thanks.

Some people try to cure cancer

Others try to wear as many shirts as they can at one time.

Priorities.

Hey - I know her!

Nina DiSesa (the one who took over our creative thinking class at VCU brandcenter last year) gives her shpeal on the current state of the industry.

I got it from AgencySpy who had this to say:

McCann is trying to make their brand be hear. This time, they’ve used New York office head Nina DiSesa, who is also bumping up her profile these days, with a video talking about their recent Mastercard campaign. She goes on to speak about effective advertising and how important the brand is in the consumer’s life. She also dabbles in the metrics, as well as why creatives are needed in this business and why user generated video won’t take over from agency created content. Actually, she has a ton to say about creativity. Hmm… to bad McCann ain’t so creative.

Subjectivity

That's what advertising is all about. An ad that pleases one person can disgust the next.

But when your research is downgraded to a "lie" one day and then awarded for its greatness the next, I'm not so sure.

Recently NAD said that The Martin Agency's new ad-campaign for the retail giant Wal-Mart was wrong in claiming that the average consumer saves $2,500 a year by shopping at their stores.

Well, that's all right and good until you take a page from Hyundai's book and think about it: They could just as easily save $2,500 by NOT shopping at their stores.


And since the low-price wielding Goliath tends to force other retailers within 50 miles of its stores to also lower their prices, one could argue that $2,500 could be saved by simply shopping at their competitors.

"Save money. Live better." is a nice line. And I appreciate the anti-floating-smiling-happy-face-creature approach in favor of a more real, more personable approach. But it's pretty lofty to hang your hat on a slogan of saving people $2,500 a year. That's big Christmas bonus.

You save money by putting it in the bank.

And I don't think that's subjective.

Quasi Super Bowl spot

In October last year, there was an agency-wide call for creatives. All were asked to work on a client who they may not ordinarily work for day-to-day. But it was an opportunity and the agency wanted to pool together the best of the best. To let everyone contribute. To let every creative have a shot at creating a Super Bowl spot.

3 spots were chosen. Only 2 :30 slots were bought.

Guess which one had a movie-theater premier instead of The Big Game?



The other two that aired:

Don't readjust your TV sets

Always Open has gone purple. More eggplant, really.

Underwars

You can win $25k if you shake it right in your tighties. Fun concept. But flagged as objectionable content in my mind.

Makes me wonder who their target reeeeaallly is with this. Ain't me. Although I enjoyed this:

Sleeve Face

They're doing a pretty neat thing over at SleeveFace.com

Again, that dumb advertising brain of mine asks...

A typographical look at typography. Awesome.

Because you never know when you'll need a fishing rod,

there's the fish pen.

Behind the scenes of a Lowes spot

I saw this spot on TV last night and for reasons uknown (ahem), I looked it up online to see if anyone had posted it so I could share it with some colleagues.

Lo and behold, a whole "behind the scenes" of the spot came up.

Thought this might be interesting to a few of you. (The spot starts at 4:26)

What do you think about: 1. The spot, and 2. posting behind the scenes footage of commercials to youtube.

Today I watched this

And it was called work.

Advertising is great. (sometimes)

To each his own

Advertising Agencies? In Dallas? Get Out.

Yes, kiddies. There are several.

As I perused the North Park mall yesterday, I was greeted by a slew of them. AAAA made an 'agency-installation' of sorts in the mall. A bunch of boards displaying the various works of select agencies in Dallas were lined in row. You may be surprised that there are quite a few. Here's a sampling:






So as you start your job search, brandcentarians, be sure to check this city off your list. I need some familiar faces down here in the lone star.

AAAA.com

File this under crazy town.

There's a city in New Mexico called "Truth or Consequences."

It's a spa city in Sierra County, NM and is commonly known as "T or C". Although you might know it as "Hot Springs." Apparently, it was renamed after a popular 1950's radio show when Truth or Consequences host Ralph Edwards announced that he would do the program from the first town to rename itself after the show.

Or so I found out this morning when I noticed CNN was posting the weather for TorC on its homepage.

Crazy.

Sometimes my ideas feel like this.