If You're Going to Outside Lands, You Should Know...

... it's an experiment.

Sanjaya Sqeezes Out :30 More Seconds of Fame

See and hear the story here, on an AdAge 3 Minute Video.

Aussie TV Show Explains Advertising's Workings vs. Ad Glamour

OK, we have Mad Men and Donny Deutsch on the tube, but the Australian version of Public (no commercials) TV has a series devoted to the question "What makes advertising work?"

Advertising Age's Brian Steinberg writes today about the show called "The Gruen Transfer," during which a panel of advertising professionals dissect ad campaigns and try to identify why they succeeded or failed.

Nice touch, that!

My big question is "When does this this series come out on commercial DVD?"

Internet Is Big Deal for Presidential Campaigns

Internet ads to promote McCain and Obama? You bet! Under the radar? In some cases.

Here's an interview with a major player in each camp on their Media Strategy recorded for this morning's NPR program Weekend Edition Sunday: "Subtle Internet Ads Send Targeted Political Messages."

And McCain says he can't send an e-mail... hmmm.

Jaffe Juice says "swim in it"

How could fishlanguage not take a directive like that?

Especially since Jaffe promises "an unshackled, uncensored and uninhibited dialogue on the subjects of new marketing, advertising and creativity."

So take a half hour to put on your Olympic Speedo (or cut to the chase) and take a swim.

To see Joe Jaffe in action, plop yourself down right here.

AdRANTs Hates Bad Advertising

This morning, AdRANTs critic Steve Hall writes about a new Wrangler campaign that's apparently attracting brickbats in Europe.

I agree, and invoke my right not to make cheap fun of the French.

NBC On-track to Gross $120 Million on Olympics

NBC says it will sell $1.001 billion in advertising on the Beijing Olympics - $1 million more than planned - due to strong ratings, especially among young men. Subtract the $890 million in rights fees and gross revenue tops somewhere in the neighborhood of $120 million.

This post by Wayne Frieman on MediaDailyNews says 100 different companies bought ads on traditional broadcast, online, cable and mobile. Both Presidential campaigns were among the advertisers.

Speedo Gentrifies the Pool

Remember when Speedo swim suits were skimpy little things that were the ultimate "less is more" in sports clothing. Well now Speedo is outfitting Olympic athletes in swim competion overalls - apparently it takes as much at 30-minutes to get the damn thing on.

But it seems to help win races. As of today 24 out of 25 gold medal Olympic winners were wearing the Speedo as a second skin.

Here's a story from AdAge about Michael Phelps, US Olympic Team hero and Speedo suit wearing champion.

Magic Johnson, Smart Business Man

Here's a 3-minute video on AdAge featuring the former basketball superstarstar who's now, he says, a brand.

Social Media Catching Fire Worldwide

Last April, Facebook passed MySpace to become the largest of its ilk in the US. But the race is still on and its happening globally according to to a piece on this morning's MediaPost.

The article states "Facebook has ... benefited from launching an effort at the start of the year to allow users to translate the site into different languages. Last month, the company said it would also begin to allow developers to translate their applications into multiple languages."

I can't see any of the players in Social Media making much money on the phenomenon. Where will it grow from here?

Jonathan Winters, Philosopher

I once, many years ago, was watching the great Jonathan Winters sitting on the Tonight Show couch riffing on something I don't remember when he stopped in mid-sentence, turned to Johnny Carson and said, "This's scary, I'm startin' to believe m'own stuff."

Winters, one of my comedy heroes, startled me with that heavy chunk of wisdom - and I've recalled it many a time when I started to believe my own stuff. I've also related this story to friends, family (and students) who I suspected were ramping up to believe theirs, too.

Bottom line (literally): if I knew somebody at Modernista, I'd make a call this morning and tell them all about Jonathan Winters and how he helped keep me in the realm of the real all these years.

Good Question!

Is Google a media company? Really good question.

Well, if it sounds like a duck, walks like a duck and smells like a duck - it probably is a duck.

Over the last couple of years it's started to walk, look and smell like a probable ad agency. They've been hiring hot shot creative and media sales people and have been brokering newspaper space and radio time.

Now, says the NY Times, it's launched Knol, which might be one degree from creating content.

Sniff around. Do you smell a duck?

Meanwhile, does getting into the duck business shore up the Big G's "organic growth?"

Reality TV Turns Up Tired

In the past, TV shows produced for summer viewing were sometimes able to make audience waves big enough to surf right into the fall line-up. And reality shows often led the way.

So far no summer of '08 reality offering has attracted much attention. The Olympics, probably the greatest reality show on earth, are roaring into town tonight, but that show is a one-off pageant and over by the 24th - not intended or designed for the fall season.

Here's the report card so far as graded by John Rash, senior VP-director of media analysis for Campbell Mithun, Minneapolis. For more, see rashreport.com.

Video from AdAge

Marketing to a Demographic That Hates You America's Middle East Business Quandary

VIDEO

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Marketing products to a demographic that hates you is not a particularly effective business strategy. But that's what many U.S. marketers face in an increasingly unfriendly world. And the situation is only likely to get worse unless something dramatic happens to change it. In this second part of our report on the issue, Keith Reinhard, president of Business for Diplomatic Action, details the scope of the problem and what U.S. companies can do to help.

PLAY

Top 10 Weirdest Social Marketing Websites

From an advertising point of view this is the ultimate targeted audience. If you love your mustache, your hamster or think you might like to meet a zombie (or maybe you are one) there's a website just for you.

Log in to today's weirdness at Fast Company. It's a slide show and a little annoying but hit pause and read the commentary.

Do you have a favorite oddball website? Mine is this one, strange because it's useful only one day a year. Or maybe this one, silliness from MIT.

Media Competition Sometimes Means "Outspend Your Competitor"

The Obama campaign made a commitment two weeks ago to buy $5 Million in TV time on the Olympics broadcasts on NBC.

This just (8:06 am) hit my inbox:

Going for Gold? McCain Makes $6 Million Olympic Buy

Tops Obama Buy by $1 Million

Aug. 5, 2008

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) -- Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign is buying into NBC Universal's Olympics coverage. The McCain campaign made a last-minute $6 million ad buy, which tops the $5 million Sen. Barack Obama's campaign had previously announced. Read more on this breaking story at http://adage.com/campaigntrail/post?article_id=130119 -- Ira Teinowitz

All Is Not What It Seems

Friday's Today Show featured a discussion of viral videos. You know, those funny little films that we e-mail to each other and which usually end up exposed as fakes on YouTube. Are they ads, or what?

Lydia Loizides checks in on v.v. via MediaPost's TV Board.
Don't miss the video with very glib adman, Donny Deutsch.

What happens when you consume these special-effects-laden little eye snacks which turn out to be empty calories? A funny fart or serious indigestion?

"Mad Men" 2.1 Now Available on Hulu

I was looking for some background noise while I did some work this evening and discovered that Hulu's latest post is Mad Men Season 2, Episode 1.

Yow! Bonus. (as my Art Director/Partner, Charlie Oldham, used to say when good things came unexpectedly his way).

Cruise over to Hulu, and watch again, for the very first time Season 2, Episode 1, For Those Who Think Young, on the the very screen you're squinting at now!

Let me repeat: Yow! Bonus.

Verizon Ad Considered Offensive - Pulled Off Air

A recent trend continues. Small but well-meaning (I hope) groups are insisting marketers pull TV spots off the air because they're deemed offensive.

Here's the latest. First, watch it on YouTube.

Next, read the story on this morning's AdAge online.

1) Did you find the spot amusing/funny/striking/different?

2) Did you find the spot offensive on first viewing?

3) Did you judge the spot offensive after reading PETA's complaint?

Your comment encouraged.

The Romans had a saying, "De gustibus non disputandum est." Pardon the spelling, my Latin is more than a little rusty. "It's better not to dispute in matters of taste."

More tomorrow...

194 Coeds Say Skinny Women Make Them Want To Buy

In a study - that still needs to be followed up - college women "found that despite the negative effect on their body image, women preferred ads showing thin models and said they were more likely to buy products featured in those ads than in ones showing "regular-size models," said Jeremy Kees, a business professor at Villanova."

In this morning's AdAge...

I need some college women to reply here.