What's in a Name?

I have one of those names that people want to know about. When I first went to school in Dayton's Bluff - the old German neighborhood in St. Paul, MN, where my family kept Pabst, Inc., a grocery store - kids on the Sacred Heart school playground asked "are you from the store down the block?"

Yeah, that was us.

Of course I knew about Pabst Blue Ribbon, too, since they sponsored the Wednesday and Friday night (boxing) fights on the new medium of TV. Even though we were in no known way connected to those Milwaukee Pabsts.



It occurs to me now that those fight nights on content-hungry black and white early television might have been the first reality shows!

So, when we moved to Arizona I wasn't surprised that the Blue Ribbon connotation lingered on.

As the PBR brand shrunk (it was merged into the Heileman Old Style family in the 90s), store clerks approving my checks would nonetheless remark, "Didn't that used to be a big beer in the Midwest?"

Yeah, it was, if you were middle aged as well as Midwestern. Because in the early 21st century the brand was revived (out of sight) by marketing to 21-somethings who went to clubs catering to local indi-bands, cheap beer and a semi-boho culture.

A brilliant strategy, really: recreate a brand by refusing to acknowledge that it is a brand.

My students in the 1990's, when I began to teach at USF, called me Professor Pabst. By the turn of the 20th century - as email became common - I was GP, my signature on all electronic communications.

Since about 2004, as PBR grew to prominence in the college underground, I became Pabst. (Also Pabst to many of my faculty friends, though this is probably more due to an archaic old-school type camaraderie in which "chums" call each other by our surnames.)

Now, the moniker transmogrifies before my very eyes. For last week in an "ugly dog" contest at California's Marin-Sonoma Fair, the contest was won (or lost, depending how you keep score in such an event) by a boxer-mix with an underbite named Pabst.

It stings a little, but I'll get over it.

It's still an easier name to explain than Hitler. Or Rin-tin-tin.

Storytellers Never Go Hungry

In many ways, "pitching" is at the core of advertising, persuading clients to see things like their customers do, or persuading media outlets and publishers to make their product more flexible in order to reach more customers.* It's a process called rhetoric, and it's all about communicating (called, in the ad world, "selling") ideas.

The cornerstone of the process is in knowing how to communicate in a way that engages your target audience and expresses your ideas in a way that all can understand.

I came across an article last week in which an anthropologist hypothesized that, in the hard times of the Ice Age, humans were threatened with extinction because nothing was as it was before. Due to climate change, animals no longer migrated as before, crops could no longer be counted on to mature in the same places and times. The result was humans had to adapt, to literally change the way their brain operated and one of these adaptations was the development of a more sophisticated language - a modern language, if you will.

And with language comes story telling, one of the most powerful ways we communicate.

Here's a how-to from this morning's businessweek.com called "Let Me Tell You a Story."

If you're a fan of Mad Men, you've seen this kind of pitching, especially the Kodak pitch in the final episode of season one - "The Wheel."

My favorite Mad Men pitch.

* and many, many more

TV's Road to Become Interactive Steers Twitter-ward

Not so long ago, television tried to become a player on Second Life. Anybody here still on 2ndL? Why do I always get the same hands?

And the fantasy world of Second Life wasn't TV's only failure at interactivity. Why?

Andrew Wellenstein, from the Hollywood Reporter appeared on NPR's All Things Considered yesterday afternoon and suggested, "Perhaps there's some fundamental disconnect between the passive experience of watching TV and the interactive nature of the Internet."

Here's where to hear the whole story.

Join LinkedIn or a Frat/Sorority?

This morning's economist.com answers that Social Media "is booming, but they have not supplanted more traditional business networks."

Read this.

Spike Lee on Creativity

Film maker Spike Lee, who launched his own ad agency called "Spike DDB," in 1996, is at the same time a sharp critical analyst of the advertising business.

He was recently interviewed on creativity at the Cannes International Advertising Festival and said - among other things - "they better start hiring some of these young people quick before they start their own agency and put 'em out of business." Here's the video highlights of that interview.

Here's a blog entry, written from Cannes, in which Lee asks the question, "With user-generated content, who needs ad agencies?"

Got an answer?

Marketing Strategy: Get Out of Town!

As the travel industry shrinks - like many other businesses in this economy - marketing strategies are going farther than ever.

Here's a story from today's New York Times that recaps three of the most clever ideas [free registration].

Two Brands, One Message

DDB West has created a set of TV spots that have " the same creative theme, music, look and feel for all," but which support two distinct brands - Wells Fargo or Wachovia. And some are said to trumpet Wells Fargo and Wachovia, which may constitute a third brand.

Here's the story in this morning's MarketingDaily, a MediaPost publication.

Is this the end of the Stagecoach, possibly one of the strongest corporate images in marketing? I doubt it. In the first spot following the acquisition of Wachovia, DDB cast a shadow of the famous Wells Concord Coach on both Eastern and Western landmarks.

Here's that spot:

Who Likes Advertising?

If you're in the 18 to 34 Demographic, research says you do!

Here's the results of a Harris Poll as seen this morning on AdAge online.

Any ideas why?

Creepy King Tough Competitor, But Not Fast Enough

Burger King's advertising - from the almost-always-brilliant Crispin, Porter + Bogusky - gets a lot of attention, but isn't closing in on the category leaders.

Here's the story on this morning's AdAge online.

Why doesn't good advertising always equate to more business?

Alert: Twitter Users

It was bound to happen, Twitter carries a fake invitation that carries a worm.

Details here.

'Interactive TV' Raises Its Head. Again.

I got my first advertising job in 1973, when cable TV was only in rural areas where an on-air signal couldn't reach. "CATV," now recognized as "Cable TV," was actually an acronym for "Community Antenna Television," and wasn't taken too seriously as a main-stream advertising medium.

Nonetheless, there was much speculation that, when cable came to the cities, it would would be a whole new game. The game was a little late in starting, however.

By the 80s, cable channels - especially MTV and CNN - made ad agencies take notice. When broadcasting met the computer age in the 90s, more of the promise of the medium came to life and broadcasters and ad people started to talk about the distant dream of "interactive television."

Now with all TV digitized in the US, interactive TV is, at least technically, a reality. See the story on this morning's MediaPost TV Board.

Student Campaign Identifies "Stupid Drink:" Wins National Competition

I was at the American Advertising Annual Conference two weeks ago - acting as an "official" at the National Student Advertising Competition - and saw the winning campaign.

A good concept, a great presention and a solid execution from the Syracuse University team put them on top.

This morning's MediaDailyNews has the wrap-up story.

MySpace Sheds 30% of Workers

Last week, I had lunch with a former student of mine who has worked with a subsidiary of MySpace for a couple of years. She told me that rumors were flying that big cutbacks were on the way.

She was right, the News Corp. owned division will - as Gavin O'Malley of Online Media Daily wrote today - drop the axe on 30% of its workers.

When I know, I'll let you know if my student is one of them.

Ad People Pull Together in Tough Times

When I was in New York in late March, I attended two advertising events that strained in different directions as if they were Dr. Doolittles pushmepullyous.

The first was held at a beautiful glassed-in meeting room at the New York Times that honored the 2009 inductees to American Advertising Association's Hall of Fame. This first event was a reception in a beautiful setting (the sun was setting slowly over Manhattan in winter and the renzo Piano glass box that is the NYT headquarters never looked better). I got nice wine and canapes plus a chance to meet and talk with some of 2009's - as well as past HoF - honorees.

These are all people who've been good for advertising and who advertising has been extremely good to (read $).

After 90 minutes among the elite I hailed a cab and went further downtown for an event in an Irish-themed bar on 3rd Avenue sponsored by AdAge "honoring" ad people who had been laid off in the current economic downturn. It was called "This Sucks... Let's Play." The bar was not quite as photogenic as NYT, nor was the event as festive.

These are all people who've been good to Advertising but who advertising has NOT been extremely good to, but had provided a good living, until recently.

I talked to several people who'd been let go before for economic reasons and many of them expressed a desire to finally leave the business and get into something "more stable." A bottom-line loss to the business of advertising.

I knew I'd blog about this sooner or later but didn't really know how to resolve my own conflicts with the two events.

Then, this morning I saw - or rather heard - a resolution. NPR's Morning Edition featured a segment titled "Ad Agency Finds 2 for 1 Deal in Downturn."

As the story states, "Ariel Horn, who runs The Horn Corp., a Manhattan ad agency, has found both a way to help the numerous unemployed ad workers in New York, and a new business model."

Yes, I believe this is what I was looking for.

This may be the business model advertising needs now!

Comments appreciated!

Raising Temperatures With Viral Marketing

Here's a pretty good example of the much-talked-about but misunderstood genre of "viral marketing."

One time Oakland A's batboy Stanley Burrell, known professionally as MC Hammer, was red hot from the late 80s to mid-90s. Since then, his career has gone cold enough to run a Popsicle plant for a week.

Recently Hammer has bathed in the warmth of both a blog and, the hottest thing online, Twitter, the combination of which was just enough to raise some heat at A&E.

Last night the cable network launched a "docu-drama" series called Hammertime, "which," says Online Media Daily, "chronicles the present-day life of '90s mega celebrity and current celebritwit,* MC Hammer."

Here's the story, gold parachute pants and all.

Don't miss the video.



*This is a new word for me. At first reading it seemed pejorative, reminiscent of the classic Monty Python sketch, "Upper Class Twit of the Year."

Twitter: on the other hand (Tevya said)

I just opened my latest edition of TIME Magazine (June 15, 2008) and found an article starting on page 32 titled How Twitter Will Change The Way We Live (in 140 characters or less).

So much for shark jumping.

Here's my checkered record on prognostication, so far:

- I said nobody will ever drink light beer.

After completely blowing that one, and several more like it, I hid behind a Dichotomy Strategy,

- I said I didn't know which way the internet would go (ca. 1997), it might be CB Radio or it might be TV. (Looks more like a form of TV every day)

Twitter, seems to me, will be either baseball cards on cigarette packages or a new form of the telegraph. I've written myself a note to find this post in the Internet Archive "Wayback Machine" in 2019. I hope I don't embarrass myself, too much.

Colorful, but Messy.

Today's AdRants has a pretty good review of a video for Ray Ban sunglasses.

Watch the Ray Ban video, read the review, then come back here to see the Sony Bravia spot that Steve Hall is talking about.

What do YOU think?

More Evidence of Shark Jumping

Yesterday I pondered the question: has Twitter jumped the shark?

This morning ReadWriteWeb asks: Are Trolls Ruining Social Media? Pretty much the same question.

Evidence is that celebrities are bailing out of the Big T because it's no longer fun to "hang out with people online," due to celeb-haters, says Twilight author Stephanie Meyer.

Get the story here.

While Commercial Radio Shrinks...

... more American ears tune in NPR.

Here's the story on this morning's Mashable.

Fun facts:
- NPR's daily audience is 11 times the size of USA Today's circulation.
- Almost all news NPR broadcasts is available via an "open scource" policy.

One More Twitter Thing...

Pepsi UK is about to print its Twitter URL on millions of cans of cola.

"Twitter has officially reached mainstream" writes Stan Schroeder on Mashable - though he also speculates that it may turn out that Twitter has jumped the shark.

What do you think?

Gone with the windy...

Here's a brand new viral spot for Breyers Ice Cream. Trite, but you can't help but have a love/hate thing for Jane Krakowsky.


Find more videos like this on AdGabber

I'm biased in that I hated the movie - tried to watch it several times and never went the distance.

Twitter is here...

... but I don't care what you're doing now.

"Creating cold fusion in a mayonnaise jar?" Nope.

"Casting a curse on my Ex while making a sandwich?" Not interested.

"Reading Homer in the original Greek?" Not even close.

But the potential of the technology is pretty impressive. Here's a couple of people who are making the tweeters sing:

- Nestle is inviting Moms to play along with the home vrsion of the game. They can post tweets within JuicyJuice ad units that can appear anywhere on the net.

- And this one is all about how and why Twitter works. Carri Bugbee is a PR practitioner in Portland, Oregon and she's founding a Twitter Advertising Agency. She believes that the medium works because it quickly connects people with similar interests. (AdAge video)

As Spock* says, "Fascinating!"

(*I saw the new movie. It's great.)

Ads, ads everywhere

If you watched "Lost" last week you may have seen the Starship Enterprise come zooming out of the "O" in the opening sequence - a plug for the new Star Movie about to hit a screen near you.

This article in AdAge online reports on a whole lot of new places ads have appeared recently and it looks to be a broadening trend.

Another "How to" today

How Chris Hughes Helped Launch Facebook and the Barack Obama Campaign.

Here's how it starts:
"The untold story of how Chris Hughes, today only 25 years old, helped create two of the most successful startups in modern history, Facebook and the Barack Obama campaign."

Read it in Fast Company (thanks for the link to SmartBrief for Social Media).

Guerilla Gorilla

This morning's post is a "how to" on launching a successful viral video. The case studied is the much seen Gorilla Drummer for Cadbury.

Here's the link to the critique.

And if you haven't seen it - or would like to see it again, I know I did - here's the video:

Skin? Is It In? Beach Volleyball Says 'Yes'

As many often overlooked sports stuggle for attention, Beach Volleyball - which made its mark on the recent Olympics - seems to have taken the "ball by the horns."

This from Stuart Elliott's column today in the New York Times (free registration) on an advertising campaign for the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP).

What do you think? Does this degrade the sport? Or raise it to a higher level of awareness? Or somewhere in between?

Let me know!

Now You Can Bathe in Disney Culture 24/7

It's probably a sign that the much awaited apocalypse is finally near. (No, I'm not a fan of The Mouse, et al. Could you tell?)

But if you are, count $74.99 out your penny jar and you can join the club and live and breathe Disney to the ultimate.

Your membership gets you, among other goodies, a quarterly ad-free magazine, Disney twenty-three, which is described as "a hybrid entertainment and lifestyle magazine." Yikes! The plague is spreading.

My advice: see if one of Amazon's used book partners has a copy of Carl Hiaasen's screed-as-book, Team Rat. 'Nuf said.

Here's the story in this morning's MediaDailyNews.

HULU May Have An Auto-immune Problem

Hulu.com, my source for the best of Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock and more, has an apparently unwelcome partner in software developer Boxee - who recently figured out how to feed Hulu content to hi-def TVs.

But the folks at Hulu HQ (NBC, Universal Studios and FOX) didn't like it one bit.

Here's the latest story on MacUser by Dan Moren.

(Thanks for the heads-up to Phil Kann!)

Will We All Pay to Watch Commercials?

No, that headline's no fish-hook, it's a real question.

There's a lot of ways we get content to our various screens. See the New York Times Magazine issue on "Screens." (Come back for the link tomorrow.)

It probably started with YouTube - whose videos grow longer and more professional as time goes by. And last September, Amazon joined Hulu, iTunes and Netflix in streaming significant media.

But today's MediaPost OnlineVideoInsider takes on the topic of your ISP charging you for watching content online if you go over a monthly "limit" of bandwidth. And what if that content carries ads? Will consumers revolt? After all, we watch commercials before movies. And cable TV has ads, even though we pay for the extra channels on our TV service. And, accually, we already pay a fee to our ISP to have Hulu deliver an episode of 30 Rock. Should they charge you more for delivering more, or should you be rewarded for being a loyal customer?

AdRants Scoops Up a Mound of Super Bowl Ad Critiques

With tweets from AdFreak, AgencySpy and Adland, AdRants separated the wheat from the chaff.

Doritos still finishes strong.

Best Super Bowl Spot: "Doritos" Says USA Today

Super Bowl Sunday has become the ad business' 4th of July - "let's kick back, eat, drink and salute the the culture that is advertising!"

And USA Today's "Ad Meter" announced this morning that Doritos won the sack race. Watch the top 11 and vote your favorite.

Chris Rock Provides Inspiration to Business Guru

And in the pages of Harvard Business, yet. This morning Peter Sims described as "an author and strategic adviser specializing in leadership and innovation" wrote that "In an eerie way, Chris Rock innovates like Amazon does."

Here's the whole story.

What Medium Delivered You The Inauguration?

This morning Eric Franchi, senior vp of business development at Undertone Networks, takes a glance backwards and notes that much of the technology used by people attending or watching the Obama Inauguration either didn't exist at the time of the last inauguration - or was in it's infancy.

Here's the story on MediaPost's Online Video Insider.

If You Were Going To Feature Real Products in a TV Show...

... what would that TV show be about and what products could it spotlight?

Let's see, The Sopranos could feature big, black SUVs and, oh, maybe bullets. NCIS... maybe products used in autopsies like sponges and scalpels and rubber aprons. Law & Order? How about some of those lawyers (already on late night TV) who promise to get you money if you've "been in an accident?" Actually, that'd work for Sopranos, too.

Wait, there's one scenario that opens the door to almost any product - a show about an ad agency!

TNT's new Trust Me (premiering next Monday night at 10 pm) is that show. If you're a fan of Mad Men (as am I) we'll be watching just to see if it measures up. Remember, this is the show that springs from the experiences and imaginations of a couple of ad vets from Chicago.

I can't wait.

In the meantime, TNT, Unilever and - we assume - media planners everywhere are watching to see if "branded entertainment" - which will be practiced freely and unashamedly on Trust Me - breaks through in a way that 30-second commercials don't. Here's the story in this morning's New York Times (free access with registration).

Dunkin' Donuts Coffee Jumps on the "Optimism" Bandwagon

But Dunkin' does it better than most campaigns - like Pepsi (whose controversial new logo has been seen as possibly an egregious "borrow" of the Obama '88 graphic) or especially the heavy handed Coke "Open Happiness" campaign.

The DD Coffee campaign is themed "You 'kin do it."

A New York Times column (free registration) by Stuart Elliott quotes Boston agency Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos - senior vice president and group creative director, Tom Cawley:

“If you need a treat because you’re so hard-working, you can do it,” Mr. Cawley says, summarizing what the theme is supposed to convey. “It’s a message of positivity without pandering.”

In developing the theme, everyone sought to avoid making it “come across as rah-rah or in a frivolous way,” he adds, because “that would have felt off.”

Similarly, the agency and Dunkin’ Donuts realize the economy is “a bad situation,” Mr. Cawley says, and do not want to appear as if they are trying “to capitalize on it.”

He poked fun at that kind of ad by offering a make-believe example: “‘Times are tough. That’s why we’re your cooking spray.’”

The article also has a link to the initial "anthem" TV spot.

I like the strategy and the execution except that any caffeine beverage might be substituted DDC if it didn't brand "'kin."

Aside: Dunkin' Donuts have claimed over and over that their coffee beats Starbucks for both taste and value:

Dunkin' Donuts Beat Starbucks National Taste Test - video powered by Metacafe

How Media Is Embracing Something Medium-rare: Cooperation With Its Competition

In this morning's MediaPost TV Board, Mitch Oscar writes about "co-opetition," in which several unlikely media bedmates - including the RIAA, the bad cop in music-sharing who are now working with with the Internet Service Providers who have been the "enablers" of free downloading, but may now become the good cops.

Lots more examples are also cited.

Creativity Top 5

See this week's five best ads as chosen by Creativity Magazine.

NY Agency Has a Big Idea. Detroit Big 3 Hasn't a Clue.

Ad execs from Madison Avenue agency Kelmenson, Davis & Associates have been trying for a year to put together a nonprofit domestic auto-industry forum that would make Americans aware of Detroit's importance to our nation's economy and culture.

KD&A think $50 million would do the trick in turning US auto buyers around (full disclosure, my wife and I bought a Ford Escape Hybrid last September - we love it!).

But the corporate jet boys from Motor City don't seem to get it and would rather claw each other to death. Have you seen the Chevy truck spots with Howie Long making fun of the dopey features of competitive vehicles? Yow! These guys may be doomed.

Move Over "Mad Men," TNT's Got A Big Idea

The critical acclaim for the ad-industry soap Mad Men on TMC has not been overlooked elsewhere in CableTVland.

TNT is about to debut an advertising drama called Trust Me on January 26th. This one - unlike Mad Men - is written and produced by a pair of actual ad veterans.

Here's today's story on AdAge's Madison+Vine.

Expect a critical appraisal here on January 27th, shortly after my 8:30 am class. And let me know what you think.

A Product Demo That Changed The World

But almost no one heard of these devices for 15 years and it took another 5 for people to notice. Now 40 years later these things are taken for granted.

Here's the story - and a video of parts of that presentation - as told by Scott Berkun, author of The Myths of Innovation. On todays' Harvard Business Weekly.

Don't Read This!

MediaPost's MediaDailyNews reports this morning that Fact Or Fiction, Americans Blame Media For Economic Friction in a study by Opinion Research Corporation.

It's the MEDIA, don't read it. It'll scare you shitless. I mean it! It'll make you think things that you don't want to think. And stuff like that...

The Vagaries of Research - and the Language It Uses

If you're a current or recent student, and if you're interested in advertising or marketing as a career, demographers have a name for you. Actually more than one.

You're probably post-Generation X (those born, it's pretty much agreed, between 1974 and 1980) so you'd be GenY or Ygen or Millennials or iGen or more. Here's a good overview about this confusion - from Wikipedia.

But that's not today's topic. Here are three studies published yesterday or today that deal with your attitudes about the economy that seem to disagree.

First, a Research Brief of a study done under the aegis of Pepsico, in concert with Lipton Tea and Starbucks, is headlined by the Center for Media Research Millennials Anxious Now, Optimistic About Future - and which uses the "born 1980 to 1990" to define "Millennials."
Note well that this research was conducted for the Pepsi Optimism Project by Strategy One, a subsidiary of Edelman Public Relations Worldwide.

Contrast it with these two studies, Fiscal Crises Shape Gen Y's Views Of Marketing and Economy Sours Gen Y On Marketing, both conducted by Media Logic.

I suspect that there is a difference in methodology between Strategy One and Media Logic. Or is it simply how they present the data?

What do you think it would be? How would you confirm this suspicion?

Coca-Cola Red Turns Green

Many marketers who've jumped on the "Green" Wagon have regarded it as a fad - something to be followed until the public drifted elsewhere (see "greenwashing").

Coka-Cola Enterprises chairman and CEO John Brock seems to be saying that Big Red has a Green Soul, and means every word of it. Read on (free registration) in this interview of Brock by Knowlege@Wharton (School of Business, University of Pennsylvania). There's also an audio link at the top of the article.

And when you get done there, see this about Coke's commitment to green advertising.

From this morning's American Advertising Federation SmartBrief.

What's The Future of Video?

Well, it's probably all about:
1) quality content
2) availability on demand.

While that may or may not spell "The End" of TV as we know it, here's the Big Kahuna of Hulu.com to explain it to us.

Is it just me, or does this guy seem to be a little too earnest? I keep waiting for him to talk about the fun of connecting with the Hulu brand, but instead we get a combination of a business plan backed by his impressive resumé. Almost sounds like a bad press release.

What do you think?

(From this morning's MediaPostNews Online Media Daily.)

Is It a TV Spot Or a Video Game?

It's a spot for Veuve Amiot, and Ad Grabber says it's an "Ad So Weird It Comes With A Quiz."

I agree.

First, the quiz:
(My orientation question)
From who's point of view is the spot shot?
(The rest from Steve Hall/AdGabber)
What's for dinner?
What's the woman in the mirror doing?
What's that liquid in the metal tub?
What creature is on the body builder's shoulder?

Then, the TV spot produced by Amsterdam ad agency THEY:



Answers?

Why is it always the same hands?

Look here for more video from THEY...

Purina, Marley and Media!

My household is between dogs right now. While all of our canines "belonged" to my wife, the late, great, Grace chose... me.

Which was way cool.

Me, I had my own dog! For the first time, ever. Drop by my office to see a picture.

She died last spring and I'm still not ready to replace her. My wife asks me monthly if "it's time yet." Not yet.

Marley and Me is a book that's becoming a movie about a man and a bad dog that became a good dog - his dog.

I don't think I'm ready to either read or watch it, but Purina is all over it!

Here's the story on today's adage.com

Opinion: Back to Basics

Pete Blackshaw, EVP of Nielsen Online Digital Strategic Services writes in this morning's adage.com that 2009 is a good time for the ad industry to review our options.

Copywriting Tip: use less words

Susan Gunelius, who's written advertising and marketing copy for 15 years "for some of the worlds biggest companies," has words of advice for you, beginning copywriter.

Also works for non beginners. From this morning's MSNBC/Entrepreneur.com

San Francisco's Levi's Hires Nike's Agency for Creative Work

Wieden + Kennedy, longtime agency for the Nike brand has been hired by the once-great Levi's brand for creative work in the US, as seen in today's ADWEEK.
Undoubtedly, Levi's would like to regain some of its greatness and W+K has done incredible work for Nike over the past 20 years or so, building the brand into "the one to beat" in the product category.

Sure You Share Music On-line. Soon It Might Be Legal.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has the latest in preventing YOU from being the target of a lawsuit.

Tell your mother she can stop worrying.

University Will Launch Progam To Study Emerging Media

Indiana's Ball State University - famously the Alma Mater of David Letterman - has raised $17.7 million to fund a center intended to serve as "an area of academic excellence for the media industry."

This morning's MediaPost News Online Media Daily has the story.

Ball State, also famous for its "BALL U" t-shirts, is named for the Ball brothers who made their fortune manufacturing Ball Mason glass jars used in home canning of fruit and vegetables. Mason jars can still be seen today in supermarkets used as packaging, for example, Classico Pasta Sauce (though these jars are manufactured by the Atlas Glass company).

NYTimes Spoof Creates Laughs... and At Least One Howl

Web site joker.com - which is in the domain name registration business - recently launched a parody of a New York Times online edition (dateline "Saturday, July 4, 2009") that includes plenty of lefty new utopian "news" and "ads."

An American Apparel ad, for example, features the usual scantily clad woman (with breasts tastefully covered) in an ad that says "We've been very, very Naughty. But now we're unionizing our employees." At which point the model suddenly has a picket sign in hand that cries "I have a Voice, too!" And an ad for a Manhattan dermatologist says "for the price of the best tattoo removal in NYC, you can now rebuild a classroom in Iraq."

Well, not all of the satire is appreciated, apparently. DeBeers, those wonderful folks who bring us diamonds from (some think) African trouble spots, seems to have little sense of humor. MediaPost has the whole story on the DeBeers cease and desist order.

Meanwhile, Electronic Frontier Foundation (full disclosure, I'm a member) has it's lawyers on the job arguing against censorship and for free speech.

Why Advertising People Will Never Get Elected. But why do lawyers?

This morning's MediaPost Over the Line: a lighthearted look at advertising features an article Madmen = Badmen.

According to a recent (November 7 to 9, 2008) Gallup Poll, advertising practitioners are among the least well rated for honesty and ethics. The MediaPost article speculates that the over-the-top booze, butts and babes hijinks paraded on the AMC TV series Mad Men might have down-skewed the numbers for us ad folks. If the 'truth in advertising' bit in the article amuses you, you might want to rent the movie Crazy People.

As for the poll, I remember previous editions usually had us in the cellar, too. Once again we're nestled right in there with some of our clients, including business execs, car dealers, stock brokers (even Sam Waterston can't change that image) and, as always, lawyers.

Surprisingly, bankers are still in the middle range - sandwiched between journalists and building contractors (aren't those the guys that start the job and then don't show up for days?) - even in light of current events. I'm wondering if shadowy mortgage conspirators are seen by most people as having little or nothing to do with their friendly and rock-steady local ATM.

Top o' the heap: nurses, druggists, high school teachers, MDs, cops, clergy - in that order.

(Yeah, cops over fire fighters and ad people. Go figure.)

Tivo to Deliver Almost Immediate Gratification

Let's say, you're watching sports on TV. A commercial for Domino's Pizza spot reminds you that you're hungry. Used to be you'd have to dial the phone and wait to put in your order.
More recently, if you're a "heavy user" you might have the number in your cell phonebook and think that's innovation.
Got a Tivo? Soon all you'll do is punch a few keys and your favorite peperoni-topped favorite is on its way. Here's how.
Thanks to MediPost for the article.

Young Film-maker Says "Wassup!" for Obama

Charles Stone III made a short film in the late 90's titled True, in which he and a few old friends greeted each other with a hearty, and goofy, "Wassup!" Ever so True in that guys who are friends do things like this.

The film caught the attention of Anheiser-Busch agency DDB/Chicago who licensed the concept for a well remembered Budweiser TV spot directed by Stone, who still owns the intellectual property that is the film, the TV spot concept and the use of "Wassup!" as depicted therein.

Stone and friends are now shouting "Wassup!" in an online video for Obama that is still True, but with a far less goofy edge:



For your reference, here's the original Bud spot that caught America's eye in Super Bowl 2000.



Here's the whole story from the Wall Street Journal Online.

First There Was Speed-dating, Now it's gone Mass Media

I just got back from Washington DC to find this.

A former ad agency professional is looking for a mate, and is collecting donations to buy a Super Bowl ad, in order to snag one.

A little creepy? Yes. Bound to get attention? You bet! Note the "charity" aspect of this campaign - and she's already appeared on NBC's Today Show.

Looks more like PR than advertising to me.

From this morning's LA Times.

How Nike Launched a Shoe Made of Trash

Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns took the court in this year's All Star Game in a pair of shoes made from assembly-line scraps from one of its Asia suppliers.

Here's a 3 minute video from AdAge.com in which shoe designer Kasey Jarvis tells the tale and shows the shoe.

Obama's Team Voted Better Than Steve Jobs' or Phil Knight's

At the Association of National Advertisers annual meeting marketing and advertising heavyweights named Barak Obama Ad Age's marketer of the year for 2008.

Yes, that Obama! That one!

And While We're Talking Politics and Advertising Today...

Here's the latest from ad agency, Granite Pass...
(As seen on AdRANTs Daily)

YouTube Won't Give McCain Camp Express Lane

The McCain Campaign wanted the video giant to review footage before taking it down.

Obama Campaign Seeks Young Male Voters Via Video Games

Or, as Jon Steele once (fairly famously) wrote, "Go fishing where the fish are."

Vote On a Spot That ABC Declined

Was this spot banned by ABC (Disney owned) because of politics?
How would you vote?
You may need to upgrade to Flash 10 (I did) to view.

When Good Ideas Go Bad

Contests that truly engage customers can build product interest and, if the contesting concepts are really strong, can also enhance the brand.

In the early introduction of Saturn the then-new GM division was trying to distance itself from all the cliches of the car business, including pushy salesmen, cold and barn-like showrooms and, especially, having to negotiate (AKA haggle) a final price.

The Saturn brand, on the other hand, was approachable, friendly, human. The showrooms they built looked - and functioned - more like living rooms than car dealerships, and the price on the sticker was the price you paid. No haggling allowed.

Ad agency Hal Riney & Partners called Saturn "A New Kind of Car Company. A New Kind of Car. " And meant it.

In order to get potential customers into showrooms - and prove that they meant it - they devised a contest that supported the promise while delivering another "brand touch point."

Drivers were invited to visit a nearby Saturn dealership (which they insisted on calling a "retailer") to register to win one of the new cars - and you would fly to the Saturn factory in Tennessee and help build your car. Yes, you would stand with workers and watch - and help - them build the car you won.

It was a huge success ten of thousands visited Saturn "retailers," got to look at the cars "up close and personal" and also register for the contest. A wonderful way of using a contest to both increase store traffic as well as underscore a key selling proposition.

I was reminded this morning how bad a contest can go.

Leading Hotels of the World wanted to draw attention to the fact that the innkeeper was 80 years old, founded in 1928, and it was time for a celebration. So they decided to field an online sweepstakes offering potential customers a chance to win two nights in one of the luxury hotels all over the world paying just $19.28 a night - and each hotel would have a winner.

Sounds like a contest that would generate some interest and it did. But for all the wrong reasons.

Suddenly Everybody Wants To Dance the HULU

The video serving website, hulu.com, came out of nowhere last spring to become a major player. What hulu offers is de facto video on demand for TV content from NBCU and Fox.

A few days ago I wrote "It looks like hulu.com (one of the parters in which is NBC), et al, are leaving their mark on main stream Television."

Maybe it's the future of main stream TV - from this morning's AdAge Mediaworks.

Dissembling: it's truthiness lite.

AdAge columnist, blogger and critic, Bob Garfield, has long pointed out that the only kind of advertising that isn't legally required to prove the truth of its claims is political advertising. And that's the water we're all swimming in today.

Here's Garfield's latest complaint.

Why Your New-Favorite TV Show May Not Be On TV At All

NBC is out thumping the drums among advertisers and the noise is all about full length digital programming produced to be shown exclusively on the internet.

Madison+Vine is an AdAge.com feature that that covers the intersection of advertising and traditionally Hollywood-type businesses. And, while this idea has been batted about now and again, this is the first time I've heard it proposed as a real opportunity for advertisers.

It looks like hulu.com (one of the parters in which is NBC), et al, are leaving their mark on main stream Television.

Makes MacTV look like not such a dumb idea after all.

Noun, Verb, Maverick

This today from Creativity magazine online:

"Spoofing for Obama

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners teams up with director Craig Gillespie for some political ad satire.

By: Jeff Beer Published: Oct 6, 2008

As the U.S. presidential campaign enters its final four weeks, the fight for political turf and key voters will reach a fever pitch and one key ingredient in that frenzied rush will be the role campaign ads play.

Ad folks have often applied their brand of persuasion to the political process, such as Hal Riney's award-winning "Morning In America" effort for Ronald Reagan's 1984 campaign. Goodby, Silverstein & Partners creative director Jamie Barrett recently teamed up with MJZ director Craig Gillespie (Lars and The Real Girl) for a series of "behind the scenes" spoofs aimed to question Republican campaign strategy with a smirk. For now the spots are primarily available on a YouTube channel, but Barrett hopes that's just the beginning.

Obama: Maverick | Full View »

Creativity spoke to Barrett about the effort, how it started, if we'll be seeing their efforts on TV before November 4th and more.

How did this come about?
The way it started is that Jeff Goodby, Rich Silverstein, a few more people from here and I have been pretty proactive for the last while in looking for opportunities to do something for the Obama campaign. Jeff and Rich have done some things for the Democratic Party in the past, but we're not an official party agency or anything. We just have energy for it and wanted to contribute to the conversation some how.

When did Craig Gillespie get involved?
This specific idea came from Craig. I've know him over the years and I think he got wind I was working on some Obama things and the agency was somewhat galvanized behind that so he reached out to me about three or four weeks ago. He was in the middle of shooting a TV pilot but said he'd love to do a behind the scenes Republican version of The War Room, that doc with George Stephanopoulos and James Carville from the Clinton campaign. He said he had all the ingredients – the set and actors, etc. – if we could come up with some scripts. So we came up with a dozen or so scripts and he ended up shooting five of them, amazingly, in about an hour and a half. They just shot them before a day of real shooting for the project Craig was working on at the time.

Will these be running on TV?
We're hoping so. They've been sent to various people within the Democratic National Committee who have some role in the campaign and, so far, we've got some good response. The political situation changes so quickly, it's almost asking, what's the theme of the day? We're hoping that one or more of these will feel particularly right to them. In the meantime we're pushing it online and just trying to engage as many people as possible.

Which spot best fits the climate right now?
I think the "Maverick" spot is clearly the one most of the moment, post-SNL, post-debate, so we're hoping something will happen. McCain has been throwing that word around for a while but I think with the debates and everything, it's sort of reached critical mass. So I think if this one was on the air right now it would tie in great. It just seems in the moment right now.

Is this the first time you've applied your skills to a political purpose?
I've dabbled a bit in the past but I think, like a lot of people who've been excited by Obama, I've been swept up in his campaign and thought there might just be a way to have a small voice through this advertising thing we do."

Rube Goldberg Lives!

I was reviewing some TV spots for showing in class next week and came upon a couple that reminded me of San Francisco-born cartoonist, Rube Goldberg.

Goldberg was a graduate of SF's Lowell High School, earned a BS in engineering at UC Berkeley and, for a time, worked as an engineer for the City and County of San Francisco. But his interest in drawing comics led him to a job at the Chronicle as a Sports Cartoonist.

He moved to New York in 1907 and, while he won a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1948, he best known for his "invention" cartoons, like this one: Rube Goldberg's Cure for Oversleeping

I'm certain that these two very watchable TV spots were inspired by Rube Goldberg.


Guinness Domino Effect


The Most Expensive Advertisement U Have Ever Seen

TV spots from MetaCafe.com

Swedish Bikini Team Takes A Back Seat - Waaaaaay Back

A Guinness ad, just released in Jamaica, makes beer advertising respectable again.

Remember the Budweiser Clydesdale horses? How about "Tastes Great" vs. "Less Filling?" No? You're probably not old enough to have seen those.

How about "Wazzup?" Also Bud. Also remarkable.

Well Guinness, who taught us how to spell EVOLUTION backwards, is back with a thinking person's beer ad. Let me know what you think!!!


Find more videos like this on AdGabber


Guiness takes time, we all know that. And Guinness takes time to think about that.

Road To White House Goes Through Dave, McCain Misses Bus.

CBS usually demands that YouTube take down "pirated" video, but the clips of David Letterman griping about John McCain canceling his show in order to go back to Washington - and then going to an interview upstairs with Katie Couric instead - are being left alone by the network,

The edited video, uploaded by YouTube user 1970oaktree, have garnered more than 6.5 million hits in five days, and the silence from CBS is deafening.

Click below and help make it 7 million!

R-U-N-N O-F-T

In the movie O Brother Where Art Thou? a character exclaims "Boys, my wife done..." and then he spells "r-u-n-n o-f-t," thereby "protecting" a nearby child from the embarrassing truth that his marriage has failed and his wife has left.

But of course, the kid knew all along. Turns out he was better at spelling, too.

In advertising, such divorces also happen and usually the reasons for parting are just as poached in obfuscation. Case in point, when agency Wieden & Kennedy (renowned for their work on Nike) split with client Starbucks last week, agency founder Dan Wieden was quoted "There are times when it just makes sense to part ways with a client. In this case, this seems to be the best decision for both parties."

Then, via this morning's Ad Age Online, The Real Reason Why Wieden Quit Starbucks.

Some clients, like some spouses, are harder than others to work with. Gallo Winery used to be the client that always topped (bottomed?) the list of Worst Clients for their habit of changing agencies like most of us change socks. Which made it very difficult to please Ernest Gallo and make a profit at the same time. Scroll down to the bottom of Real Reason Why... story and see some other examples.

Sometimes it comes down to "Boys, my agency done r-u-n-n o-f-t!" And we kids already knew why.

No Turn Unstoned: Does Dove fall from the penthouse to the, well, you know

Dove has had much deserved success with their Campaign For Real Beauty. The latest instalation is called Onslaught, and as a slap at the beauty business, it's pretty interesting:



But Greenpeace says there's a dark side to all this sweetness and light:



Sure, it looks like Dove is cleaning up its act, but authentic marketing guru, Joseph Jaffe of Jaffe Juice has his concerns about Dove brand damage:

"It's a far cry from Slob Evolution, which was a playful and irreverent spoof of the ground-breaking Evolution video, which seemingly ushered in a new era of thoughtful and purpose-based brands that put authenticity, transparency and social responsibility before corporate greed, profits and acquisition.

Until now...

On one hand, this sends out the clearest of messages to faker brands looking to "get in on the conversation" by sending out a stern warning: you gotta walk your talk if you want to join the conversation. Think like an advertiser and attempt to cut corners and you will be found out and duly punished.

Put differently, if you want to commit to community, dialogue and partnership, you need to have your entire house in order first.

Now that said....I would be remiss by dumping on Unilever if I didn't point out this timely update from Greenpeace itself:

'UPDATE: Thanks to the staggering public support for our international Dove campaign in April 2008, Unilever has now agreed to play their part in saving the Paradise Forests of South East Asia. As the biggest single buyer of palm oil in the world, Unilever has a special responsibility to help clean up the industry that's behind so much forest destruction.

They have agreed to support the call by Greenpeace for an immediate moratorium on deforestation for palm oil plantations. They have also agreed to urgently contact other major companies calling on them to support the moratorium.

This is the first success in a broader campaign to secure real change on the ground in South East Asia -- to stop the palm oil industry from destroying the Paradise Forests. Greenpeace campaigners will work with Unilever for th next six months (starting May 2008) to bring together a major coalition of companies to make the moratorium a reality. We will see at the end of this period how things are progressing and if we need to change our campaign approach.'

The update is both in the information box on the YouTube video post, as well as in the comment thread. It certainly alludes to the fact that Unilever is listening and although being taken to task, is prepared to change or at least take steps in the right direction.

That said, I wonder how many people will notice this "fyi" and in the process, how much brand reputation damage will occur?"

Face it, brand damage doesn't just kill product sales, it can make stock prices plummet and seriuosly endanger the brand's credibility among consumers. Not something Unilever likes to think about, it sounds like to me.

If you were a PR person at Unilever, what would you do?

Wanted: Writers Who Write Well

I'm in New York this week, the Mecca of the ad biz, and, coincidentally over the past few weeks I've come across a number of Creative Directors (San Francisco and Bend, OR - AAF Western Region Meeting - as well as NY) who've all expressed the same opinion: many young copywriters have no clue as to what their job comprises and how to do it professionally.

Part of the problem is that so many of you don't read much (we found that out on last Tuesday evening) and, I'm convinced, reading helps you to be a better writer.

Let me suggest that reading advertising is easy. It's everywhere. Can you concept better headlines than the ones you see every day? I hope so. Most are lame and many ads go without a damn headline - confusing or under-delivering your message to your target audience.

If you're interested in a job in advertising writing ads, here's a link to a website that tests writers about headlines. Including how to create ad effectiveness via a great freaking headline.

Scroll down the page if you dare. Survivors may have talent AND the skills to do the job.

Ad writers, read it and learn.
Non-writers, ditto.

Not a bad headline, if I say so myself. Find an ad with a sloppy headline, write a better one and send them to me along with the name of the product, via Comment below!

I'll post the best one or two here so you might bask in the adulation of your peers.

Would You Respect a Medium Who Let You Walk All Over It?

What advice would you give these people? Hit "comments" below and express your opinion...
GP

Look There, On the Floor -- College Bookstore Campaign A 'Downer'
By Amy Corr , Monday, September 22, 2008

LevelVision's College Bookstore Network is bringing its latest ad medium to more than 300 college campus bookstores this year. If you don't see it, look down -- for chances are, you'll be standing on it.

Video screens that are less than 1" thick will be placed on bookstore floors, running a combination of infotainment and ads.

Among the colleges participating in this program are: Ball State, Michigan State University, Northeastern Illinois University, Purdue University, University of Michigan, and University of Minnesota.

The floor displays are made with heavy-duty glass and are coated with an anti-slip finish.

Programming segments, which can be altered in real-time, will range from "Top Five Ways to Go Green" to "Cooking Segments" to current weather forecasts.

While I'm all for the idea of coming up with new ways to grab the attention of college students and their visiting family and friends, I can't imagine someone willingly watching infotainment that's on the ground. And with all those feet stepping on the displays, I imagine they'll need to be cleaned numerous times a day. I'm eager to hear about student feedback. There's something good in this concept, but it needs to be tweaked... at the very least, placed at a more eye-level locale.

First a Flash of Light, Then the Rumble of Thunder

Every once in a while I come across something to cause little lightning storms inside my head. On the subject of history is was a 1970s book and TV series called Connections by James Burke. In the 80s, while I was president of an ad agency, it was Tom Peters' treatise on management, In Search of Excellence. And when I was in grad school in history in the late 90s, I was thunderstruck by the new ideas in William Cronon's Changes in the Land : Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England - the book that launched the practice of environmental history - and It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own by Richard White that helped form my view of American Western history. Let me not leave out Lawrence Olivier's King Lear, Kenneth Branaugh's Henry V and RM Koster's obscure, but no less electric, The Dissertation.

The common experience was that each provided me with a way to sharpen my curiosity about (or appreciation of) a difficult topic and gave me the impetus to better structure my notions regarding each. When I met Tom Peters at the National Association of Broadcasters meeting in 2001, I told him that reading his book led me into lots of trouble in the business world. He replied with what he and I already knew, "That was the point!"

Well, I saw something Friday in Bend, Oregon, that caused another cranial storm.

Yesterday, those of us attending the American Advertising Federation Western Region Meeting saw a presentation - crackling with ideas, insight and humor - by author Scott Bedbury founder of Brandstream, Inc., that represented a semester-long course in branding - miraculously shrunk to about 120 brain-buzzing minutes.

Bedbury is Northwest-born (University of Oregon School of Journalism) guy who cut his teeth at ad agency Cole & Weber and who subsequently drove the marketing machines at both Nike and Starbucks.

I bought his business book A New Brand World, some time ago, but haven't yet opened it. Shame on me for the delay. I've moved it to "next" in my to-read stack.

Here's Bedbury, on a more formal occasion, introducing his theory of motivating staff using Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.



It was a great afternoon, a high voltage current of ideas about the mystery we call "branding." I'm glad I was there to savor it.

I'm in Central Oregon for an AAF Meeting

If anything dramatic happens, I'll let you know.
GP
Seventh Mountain Resort, Bend, OR

Meanwhile, this for your consideration:
Most valued brands and brand values*. Please, why is it always the same hands that go up?

*We're doing our part to support one US icon; we just bought a Ford.
GP&KP

Having Fun With Stuff

Eepybird is the name of the duo who brought us the fountains of Diet Coke powered by Mentos.

Well, they're back, and this time it's Post-it Notes that are sent center stage.



Sidenote: Coca Cola wanted nothing to do with the Coke/Mentos "experiment," ("outside the brand" said a stentorian voice in an Atlanta accent) but now they seem to embrace the bird. I guess the brand has loosened up.

Gates/Seinfeld Saga Continues

Yes, installment 2 is on the tube.

Jerry and Bill are somewhere in suburbia, raising their mutual lamp to find "real people." Instead they find four minutes and thirty seconds of semi-weiredness.

Still no product (or punchline) in sight. Here's what ADWEEK has to say.

Fox, NBC have Hulu; CBS To Stream on Social Sites

We've known for a long time that people (maybe you, certainly me) use a PC while watching TV. Now the two activites have made another step toward convergence.

Last spring Fox and NBCU formed a partnership to stream selected programming via the internet with a service called Hulu - and I, for one, love the convenience of on-demand television on my laptop.

CBS will soon begin streaming programs on Facebook, MySpace and iGoogle, among others.

Want To Make Some Ads (and win some cash?)

The National Yellow Pages Association does this yearly.

Interested?

Garfield Fires a Volley at New Microsoft Ad

Bob Garfield has seen the new Seinfeld/Gates TV spot for Microsoft and he gives it only two stars.

The always readable critic for AdAge writes today, "Have you seen the new Microsoft spot from Crispin Porter & Bogusky, the one with Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates? It's got its funny moments, in a goofy Seinfeldian way, but otherwise constitutes one of the weirder chapters in advertising history."

While I agree that Apple is largely responsible for this, Crispin's sass answer to the brilliant PC vs. Mac campaign, I don't agree that it's all that confusing and, if you watch it a couple of times, there are hints as to how the new OS might be marketed. And it's pretty damn funny, too.

Here's the rest of the story.

Twitter a Brand Builder?

Apparently so, says Business Week.

I wonder, do the Branders follow you if you misspell their name? Hmm.

Sometimes Advertising Makes Me Proud

Legendary adman Leo Burnett (his eponymous Agency survives him) once wrote, "Let's gear our advertising to sell goods, but let's recognize also that advertising has a broad social responsibility."

That responsibility usually manifests itself with organized community service activities like the Ad Council and it's many nationwide pro bono campaigns. But sometimes it broadens further into something more improvised, like the following via a collision ("meeting" would be too weak a term) of Ariana Huffington and Rich Silverstein at an event at Google last year.

This, from the Huffington Post, November 15, 2007:
"Silverstein, who as co-chairman of Goodby, Silverstein, and Partners was behind the famous "Got Milk?" ad campaign and the Budweiser frogs, had such a grasp of what makes for effective communication in radio, movies, TV, and online, that I thought he might have some ideas on how to help the Democrats, who continue to struggle with framing an election where they are holding all the cards. He did. When I suggested that he blog about his ideas, he said that since he usually expresses himself best in visual terms, he wanted to see if he could 'blog visually.'

The result is three powerful posters that simply but graphically capture the lunacy of the modern GOP. "Here is my thinking," Silverstein told me, "What if we could TiVo the last six-plus years and play them back - without comment -- for the American people, and let them connect the dots? It's not a pretty picture." Silverstein's take away message is uncluttered and direct: 'Haven't we had enough? Democrats '08.' "

Here's what Silverstein did with that message.

Fast forward to this week: three versions ot that poster showed up in bus shelters in the Twin Cities, "all up in the faces" of Republicans local and remote - and Ariana and Rich (see the video) were on hand to make certain that the work got noticed.

In the late nineties I had a classmate in grad school (I'm a late bloomer) who'd taught high school American history in Wyoming. When asked to describe the curriculum by a local acquaintance, he waxed poetic (he thought) about new ideas of bottom-up history, about the inclusion of marginalized populations, etc. To which the inquirer responded, "That's not history, that's Social Science. History's about facts, not theories."

That's the true brilliance of Rich Silverstein's posters. They're factual. Eloquent. Arguably unarguable.

Yes, as we read down the page we all should agree - 306 million strong - we've had enough.

I'm often proud of people in advertising and the work they do. Today I'm extra proud.

Bill Gates Can Be Funny? Yes!

True story. Watch this:




Then take a look at what AdAge has to say.
Don't miss the "inside baseball" article - kind of a AdAge gossip piece.

Good Design Goes Better WIth Coke

Design is everywhere - and some of it is really original and, often, beautiful.

The very interesting website ted.com is dedicated to "technology, entertainment and design.

So when gianormous Coca-Cola, with 450 different brands, assigned David Butler to "do more with design," he knew it wouldn't be easy. One way he made things move faster: "avoid the word 'design' as much as possible" and by "identifying basic problems that design can solve."

San Francisco's Turner-Duckworth are central to the Coke re-design project.

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