My thoughts are all over the place after this. The tragic events in India notwithstanding, right now, a family is planning a funeral over basically a Black Friday early bird special gone wrong—for no reason. This wasn’t even a robbery. (Of course, the death of any employee sucks, but this is just pointless.) Walmart has already come out and said that the health and well-being of their employees is the most important thing, but that just rings false. Does anyone outside PR really believe this?
We’ve all seen this stuff last year, and the year before, and so on. To imply that the potential for this tragic stampede was something taken seriously is disingenuous at best. The industry has played the odds for too long, and yesterday it caught up with them. It doesn’t take working in retail to know that when you have a parking lot full of people as this one location did, combined with a mad dash mindset already stoked by the store, no good was going to follow when the doors were opened.
Since this happened, I’ve scanned different sites and blogs to get an idea of what people are saying about this, and what I’ve read may even be more tragic than the incident itself. Everyone blaming it on race, God, and even George Bush. Forgetting the religious zealots and Bush bashers, race is the first thing many people go to after something like this—but this isn’t about race. Two more people in California were shot and killed at a Toy’s ‘R’ Us. Initial reports were that they were Hispanic. The crowd in a video clip from another Walmart in that image above? Seems pretty white to me. Looks like more than one race to me.
This problem is first and foremost caused by the make a break for it, free-for-all environment created by Black Friday and the desire by people to save money. In fairness to Walmart, (and that’s the last time I use that phrase), this is definitely something happening across the entire retail sector. The industry counts on it because it’s the one weekend for everyone to make their sales numbers for the year.
Another factor is the ‘planned’ shortage of available product which chums the waters. Remember the run on Dell laptops? (One year looking for Xbox accessories at a Walmart near me, the clerk told me they only got 11 Xbox units for their store. Say it with me: 11?)
Couple this with a mob mentality and you start to wonder why this hasn’t happened more. It’s just human nature to try and get something for free or to try and get a bargain. I’ve watched otherwise intelligent adults jump over kids at baseball games to get a free t-shirt.
So is it then any surprise when others dive for a floor display trying to get one of the last remaining Xbox units?
I don’t have all the answers either. On one hand, it’s easy to blame the stores for not doing more. Certainly Walmart needs to address this beyond the brief statement they put out Friday as well. (No spin either please on things like why a temporary worker was assigned to work the front door where he previously claimed he shouldn’t have been.)
On the other hand though, people still have a responsibility to act civilized as well, no? I want to believe they didn’t go there with the intent of hurting anyone. (I have to believe this or otherwise we’re dead as a society.) Looking back at The Who concert nearly 30 years ago where eleven kids were trampled to death in a general admission free-for-all, and you’re reminded once again what’s at work here: The race to get mine.
Having said that, anyone in this particular case identified on camera around the injured people should be arrested and charged. Currently, police are attempting to do just that. I don’t EVEN want to hear that one person in the crowd is suing Walmart for not protecting them. The crowd did this, they should own up to it. I’m not a lawyer, but it seems that the crowd ignored the safety of well, the crowd. (There must be some degree of depraved indifference at work here to charge someone with.)
From a morality POV, continuing to walk past a guy as he fell and subsequently received first aid is beyond words. This disgusts me the most. Just like the people in the image above. Were they raised by wolves? To have their kids dive for stuff like animals? Is this the end of the world and there’s no more food? Please, tell me that’s the case and I might have a little pity. Otherwise...
To the people responsible: You know who you are. You knocked a pregnant woman down and trampled another guy to death to get a deal on a plasma. Enjoy your TV. I’d say turn yourself in, but you won’t because you blame ‘the crowd’—not you. No, not you.
(If you’re wondering why the rant, my daughter works in retail and had to go in at 3:00 in the morning Friday, and to think that this could even happen to her has me insane right now. That someone has to get a phone call later that night from the police is unimaginable.)
But, since I’m not just all about the rant, let’s instead try to stop the madness:
1) Next year, do away with Black Friday. Make it a one-month period if you want where the same discounts are given but spread out over a four week period. (Or shorter or longer, whatever works.) Bottom line is you need to take away the incentive for people to want to stampede through a store and destroy things and each other.
2) Barring that, you need riot control levels of security. If large masses of people at stadiums can be managed safely, (and are likely crowds where alcohol is also present), certainly the major chains can bring in crowd control measures for the day that shift the balance of power from customer to store employees.
3) Extremely limited access to stores. Based on what someone in security told me, Walmart was limiting access near me to x-amount of people in the store at one time. Don’t know if that’s what was planned at the LI store but from the footage, it sure looks like there were no limits in place. Why not have a lottery system. You get one hour in the store. Everyone else, go buy a pretzel and come back later.
See, we have this thing called the internet. So why not just raffle stuff off online if you know you will have a shortage of these items. People weren’t rushing in to buy shower curtains. These were high-price items. You win the Xbox—you go in and claim it during normal hours. As for letting a mass of people in? Why not have extra staff escort people in as they walk through to prevent mayhem. You run like an animal through the aisles? See ya. Gone.
If some of this sounds harsh, well, it is. But, so what. A guy died who shouldn’t have. How would you feel if the victims were someone you knew? Family members even. When’s the industry going to wake up and do something about it. After a larger body count?
Back before playlists you Foo Fighting Radiohead Freaks, there was this thing called Motown. James Jamerson and Carol Kaye were but a few of its unsung musical heros who listeners never knew about, but that any band today worth a damn surely would give props to. (The first two clips are from the great doc called Standing in the Shadows of Motown, and the second is from the doc First Lady of Bass.)
.....
Or maybe you just need some guitar heros playing the blues.
.....
Back when Clapton actually played the blues, from The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball. (Note Jeff Beck’s as graceful as windshield wipers in motion rhythm—the precursor to today’s slow sway found in most metal.)
Hadji Williams, author of Knock The Hustle, spent a little time recently with ad mad man Tom Messner recently, covering agency life, corporate life, and... life in general. (If you haven’t yet read KTH, why? Still the best book I’ve read on all the bullshit that goes on. Available here.) Tom’s a frequent commentor on several ad blogs including this one, with insightful takes that always make me rush to Google to recheck my facts. Check it out. Read. Lather. Repeat.
In case you strike out Black Friday, let UPS help you with UPS Regifter. Guaranteed to put a smile on the face of that almost special someone. (Oh, I have you people so beat on all-time gifts that need regifting.) (Site created by T3.)
After seeing the stuff going on in India, I was looking at different sites for info. Drudge was uncharacteristically slow in exploiting the Terror at the Taj™ events. Cruised over to CNN instead and found their take. Of course, no tragedy becomes real for us Americans unless we can connect to it somehow, like, um, Prince’s ex-wife nearly almost not escaping the horror! Wow. 2.4 million people could die in an earthquake in China, and unless Alec Baldwin’s former bodyguard makes it out alive, eh, screw it, doesn’t concern me. Awesome!
“You’re insane–it’s for the Nokia Bruce Lee Edition N96, how is not about the brand?” Chill. I dig it, but while it promotes the product, the brand itself is lost. All I remember is that it’s a cool Bruce Lee viral. That’s okay though. Almost 600,000+ views in less than 10 days means people are connecting with it, and that’s good enough. Except for the iPhone, when’s the last time a viral about a cell phone itself got that many views? (For product placement purists, if they really wanted to work one in, they could’ve had the other guys playing against Lee using N96s. Next time.) Also, for all the talk of micro engagements with consumers and brands who listen and blah, blah, blah... this comes down to someone going “What’s a cool thing we could do with Bruce Lee for this phone.” That only takes one or both of the following: An art director or writer.
(You can view the website for the phone here, but be advised that it’s in China and loads slow as... heck.)
Finally got my samples! Oh. I had to go to the store to get them, sorry. Blah, blah, blah, Pepsi switched agencies, blah, blah, Pepsi redesigned their logo, blah, blah, I complained, blah, blah, you voted, blah, blah. After all that, and after seeing it in the stores, it struck me as one big wall of faceless brand. Forget any connection to people. There is none. It's absolutely perfect for a soulless-techno-anime video game world. But Pepsi should keep going on and paying PR agencies to tell consumers otherwise. It’s also kind of stunning that A) They switched from a nearly 50-year relationship at BBDO to TBWA\C\D and B) That any agency still could keep a client that long. (I love TBWA\C\D’s work, that’s not the point.) Knock them all you want, but I would’ve liked to see what Crispin would’ve done with this brand. If you’re going to change, then really change. Revolution, not evolution. Pepsi’s about taste—not new logos.
This generation’s sea horses I suppose. Order from turtlesale.com now to get them in time for Christmas! I just wonder how many tech support questions there are that they needed a forum. Recipes? Tricks? It’s. A. Turtle. Kinda set it and forget it, maybe what, throw some lettuce in there once a month?
Not just because I’m going to be on a future podcast, but Bob Knorpp just put out an episode of his Beancast on the current efforts by Detroit to turn things around. The show features Ford’s Scott Monty and GM’s Christopher Barger, both responsible for working on changing the misinformation out there regarding this current mess. (GM put out an Obama-like myth-dispelling site.) Having given both GM and Ford crap in the past for running ads that to me were disconnected from reality, I’d have to give them props for at least trying to address all that now.
A few things about cars and loyalty though. First, I complained previously about Pepsi changing a logo and ad agencies when all I care about is the taste. (Basically, I hate Coke. I love Pepsi.) Second, like TV networks, notice how you could always tell one channel apart just by the look of each. An ABC sitcom just looked different than one on NBC. IT’S the same with cars: Ford, GM and Chrysler and the imports.
Each had and has their own look and feel to them, and people always seemed to connect with them that way.
I was a ‘Chevy guy’ for a long time. Friends of mine only drive Ford. Still others, they love Toyota. Cars are more than extra cupholders and MPG. People will always want better gas mileage, but that’s not the only thing. There still has to be a basic connection back to what the brand means and what the car feels like.
I can concede that they are different rides now. I drive a lot of different cars for business trips and rent everything new that comes out, so yeah, I’ve driven a Ford, a GM, A Dodge, etc. ‘lately.’ (VW, Honda and Mitsubishi too.) In three decades, I’ve also owned a Ford, GM, Chrysler, VW, Toyota, Kia and Hyundai in addition to the several automotive brands I’ve worked on. Which means what you ask. Okay, I’ll tell you: It all comes back to someone being loyal to the car they love being... the car they love.
But I wouldn’t say no to extra cup holders either.
By building cars and trucks people want? Maybe. Could also be a little more simple than that. Doesn’t hurt to stealappropriate liberate the blue collar vibe of your competition in order to create confusion in consumers’ minds.
Cool, honest or sad—you decide: ___________________
“this is retarded. I don't know if dogs feel humiliation, but they sure do look like it.”–ragnaroek234 ___________________
“man the real question is how can u guys type coz ur obviously blind coz his arms r in hhis top” – Razasonic ___________________
“This is what happens when Man decides to take God out of everything. Our society has terminal cancer and it's only a matter of time before we go the way of the dinasours. It is in our nature to destroy ourselves. It's not "if" but "when" at this point. God help us all.– Dave ___________________ ““this is probably a mistake that the voter tried to eradicate” Congrats, phh. That’s the dumbest thing I’ve seen on the internet today.”– Hugh Jass ___________________
“Batman? -- Stopping trolls? I have an idea. Have a large robot sit behind everyone when they use the internet. If you're a troll, you die. Darwinism for the win...”– Hugh Jass ___________________
“Aww man, I sure don’t miss the days when the internet was made out of wood. That shit was called a pencil. Wikipedia it, youngins.”– Ande ___________________ “Sell outs! Plain and simple. Take your profits, shut down your website, be strong and stay true to your message. Obviously catering to the homosexual agenda was more important and lucrative. Despicable examples of fighting the ill that’s invaded our country’s being. That flushing sound is the political left and pseudo-Christians/Conservatives swirling this country down the crapper. Get ready for the end, folks. The fat lady is warming up and Obama and all of his koolaid-guzzling, lefty lemmings are shouting with glee! God, please show mercy on those that still respect and love YOU and this country….” – chuck sierra ___________________ “Damn, and they had to go and dumb everything up with spider costumes and robot arms? THIS is your movie, right here! Dude gets super powers, he doesn't use them for good or evil, he uses them to get chicks. Because with great power comes great clothes.”– steveasat2
So Sunday, I happen to catch a little of C-SPAN’s coverage of Detroit’s loan application process from this past Tuesday, aka, senators pitching the softballs CEOs love. Bailout. Loan. Corporate welfare. Whatever you want to call it, public perception is that here we go again: Company has financial trouble, then goes looking for the government to write a check.
Seeing auto execs explain why they need their share of the current Loanapoolza reminded me of big tobacco a decade ago. Although no CEO in this case tried to say that 11 mpg was excellent, (the big tobacco testilying equivalent of saying nicotine wasn’t addictive), it was clear they’re pinning a lot of their hopes for the industry on, well, hope.
I’ve found that while going in to apply for a loan, it’s okay to have it, it’s just really not such a good idea to use the word out loud.
Watching the proceedings though, two things jumped out: A) Nobody really answers questions directly, and B) The $25 billion being requested doesn’t at all seem close enough to what they’ll need ultimately. Even though I was a career C+ math student, the collective quarterly debt projected through next year plus what they need to break even will be at least three times the initial figure asked for.
Looking specifically at Ford’s efforts and a very in-depth breakdown of the current situation from Ford’s social media director Scott Monty, seems like they’re on the right track. (I worked on the Jaguar and Land Rover brands when Ford owned them, and it was good to see those two finally sold off. Jaguar and Land Rover definitely got the better part of the initial deal—their reliability improved thanks to improvements from Ford’s production capabilities. For its part, Ford got the benefit of losing focus on their core brands because they were spread too thin.)
Thing is, is it too late to see a lot of these efforts come to fruition. Especially when you can question why the electric car now heralded as one possible savior to the industry was killed well over a decade ago. Then you hear about production costs, which, according to all, may now be more in line with Toyota. Buyouts for early retirements of workers is another issue, something Toyota doesn’t have to deal with.
Factoring all that in, seems like there are really only two issues at work: Should automakers get a loan, and if so, from who?
Before you say “Screw Detroit!,” consider that you don’t just take three million jobs and all the sectors supporting that entire industry out of the equation without significantly hurting the country, especially now.
(Forget the CEOs. They’ll land somewhere because they always do. And forget ad pukes like us who can work on different categories whenever we want to. Auto. Pharma. Food. Whatever. We’ll adapt. The workers are the ones who will take the brunt of this, which in turn affects local communities and their economies. For them, transitioning to new careers isn’t so easy after 20+ years at one job.)
If you agree that yes, they should get money to keep them going, then it becomes a question of where do you get it from? It’s not like the government has spare cash laying around. Maybe last year, not now. Wall Street got there first. (Well, actually, Iraq got there first).
Soooo... why not just have Big Oil™ step in and front the cash? They sure do seem to have the profits each quarter—Drudge tells me so in screen-size headlines.
Before you say why would oil companies help fund their own demise by helping to build alternative energy vehicles? They shouldn’t. But, they too have to recognize that eventually, the increasing popularity of hybrid and alternative fuels will reduce their role in this thing. Why not do more now, lest they become as useful as travel agents. (Look people, dinosaurs aren’t going to be around forever. We need to explore Jurassic Park technology now so that one day millions of years in the future, there will still be something left. Do it... for the kids.)
Besides, the talk anyway in most oil companies centers around alternative fuels and the wonderful work they’re doing to help the environment, so why not partner with the one industry that depends on them the most and make their own edition? How many automakers already partner with other global car companies to make different vehicle components?
For starters, Mobile dumps $20 billion into Ford’s bank account. Then, just swap out a badge on any vehicle. (See awesome pic.) Done. If Ford can do an Eddie Bauer edition, why not team up with Mobil or Shell? People wouldn’t buy a hybrid Exxon if it meant Mobil bailed out the industry and saved taxpayers money? We already ‘fund’ oil companies every single time we fill up. This is just the next logical step, no?
Or is Detroit already headed the way of those dinosaurs?
WHAT TIME IS IT? 9 O’ GLOCK. THAT’S RIGHT. BODY COUNT TIME. JUST LIKE RIDING A BIKE. (I KNOW, I USE AN HK, BUT 9 O’HK DOESN’T HAVE QUITE THE SAME RING TO IT.) YOU LIKE HOW I WORKED IN THE ISSUE OF CHILDREN BEING RECRUITED AS SOLDIERS AROUND THE WORLD? SNEAKY, BUT IT’S AN IMPORTANT ISSUE. (CHECK OUT MORE INFO HERE.) NOTICE THE JACKET? THEY WANTED TO PUT THOSE COLONEL STEVE AUSTIN SHOULDER STRAPS ON IT. MY RESPONSE? LOOK CLOSER. YOU DON’T SEE ANY, DO YOU? CHECK OUT HOW I EVEN WORKED IN A BANK OF AMERICA SPOT TOO. KINDA BREAKS FROM MY CHARACTER, BUT LOOK, WITH A POTENTIAL SAG STRIKE LOOMING, I NEED TO BANK AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE WHILE I CAN, SO DO NOT GIVE ME ANY STATIC ABOUT IT.
From time to time, I need to have this little chat.
Now, you may have had disagreements over who made the better Captain Kirk, but you never kicked your friend out of the office for good because of it.
You may be the hero of the hour for getting the hot account exec’s email working again, but she still isn’t going home with you.
You’re troubleshooting/coding/management of the entire company infrastructure may be your best work to date, but it’s not winning any Grammy.
You may have worked two weeks straight trying to install faster servers, living on nothing but Red Bull and Fritos, but that will never qualify you for rehab.
Why?
Because this is a rock star. Idolized? Not here. Not now. Not ever.
Nice article in the New York Times on the current advertising mindset by four of the best digitalinteractivetraditional WHATEVER we’re calling shops these days. It explains where agencies need to get their heads at relative to what advertising has evolved into. It's also interesting to see some of the fixes they come up with for Katie Couric and the evening news.
Or should for this weak ass spot. At least this one started to have the edge their print has. But even as airport screener ads go, it still isn’t this one.
Recently, Morgans Hotel Group planned to run some ads with F-bomb as hero. When nobody would touch them, (naturally), they came back with alternates. Okay, alluding to or using my favorite four-letter word is always an easy way to get attention and sure, maybe it’s juvenile, but it works. People talked. But to cave and run stuff like UP YOURS is weak. Instead, just come back play up the ‘controversy’ by going with an even more tried and true approach: The censorship angle. Run the ads in the same spaces you were going to: SEE THE ADS THEY DIDN’T WANT YOU TO SEE AT (insert clever censorship angle name here).com.
Like you need me to tell you kids use the internet. But if you have anything remotely to do with the online space, either as a creative, account exec, planner, Thought Leader™ guru wannabe or PR/Social Media Maven on Twitter, it’s worth your time to check out a few things.
My homeboy usually be on his Sidekick, like somebody usually be on a Sidekick or somebody has a PSP or something like always are texting or something on AIM. A lot of people that I be with usually on AIM on their cell phones on their Nextels, on their Boost, on AIM or usually on their phone like he kept getting called, always getting called.
First, that’s one quote from a just-completed study for the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Youth Project, which took a long look at how kids and teens hang out online. Download the almost 60 pages of fun here. Two major things from it are A) Learning is a critical area of teens’ lives but is not being addressed as well as it could be, and B) Teens are in a perpetual state of always being on, connected via IM or cell texting.
Speaking of 60+ pages, there’s the soundbyte tone of Razorfish’s recent online study FEED. While it covers the youth segment, it mostly gives an overview of where trends are at for consumers in general.
Lastly, check out the milennial forum from ad:tech NYC via Angela and Adrants, an open forum covering the ways the internet is used and abused by marketers.
Read and watch for yourself, then make up your own mind. Or continue living in the dark when it comes to what the kids are up to.
If you put it front of me, well, critique happens. Now comes My Mall. More like a traditional mall, the main drawback of this virtual world from what I saw is that it just takes too long to start. If it’s a mall, then start me right off inside walking around. Exploring each store is hit or miss due to what I thought was a slow interface. The ‘just browsing’ thing you do in the real world felt sluggish and unintuitive.
Had enough?
Course not. While the store fronts lead you to websites of the actual brands featured, you feel like you wanted more. Like, annoying questionnaire people asking for a moment of your time more. (Real world tip: To avoid being snagged by one of these clipboard toting freaks, a “No thanks” as you walk faster works, sure, but rocking back and forth mumbling to yourself chewing a pretzel while staring at the floor works much better.)
There are also plans for this to have a community component built into it and some e-commerce features in a year, but damn, a year is an eternity online. Besides, Honeyshed already has that with their consumer shopping experience branded entertainment thing.
+ Well, the other way to look at it is, she has goals. So where does this end up... hmmm. Okay... (*puts thinking cap on*) I think I got it. The parents, upset that their kid was unfairly punished, will sue the school district for suspending her. They might even spin it that she was only fooling around because, you know, “She’s just a kid.” After she comes back to school, she ends up transferring to another school because now parents are freaked out their kids have a psycho with them in class. So she bounces around to a series different cities and/or therapists, stays under the radar. That is until bloggers 10 years later write about what a tragedy the next school shooting is. And to think I only drew the Enterprise during class at that age.
Giving it away is the new... If Paul McCartney and Guns N’ Roses released new music online and nobody was there to hear it, did it really happen? Yeah, probably. McCartney previewing it for free on NPR, while Chinese Democracy has been waiting 17 years to see the light of streaming day. Will Guns’ nearly 500,000 friends pre-order? Are either still relevant? How is Slash not in this band? Can I ask more questions?
No more real fake chocolate. From now on, Hershey’s is going to use 100% Real Fake™ chocolate to save money and keep the FDA happy. So when does saving money as a brand backfire? Or is this the perfect Old Coke/New Coke set-up?
iGod misses the mark in India as the iPhone fails to catch on. In one of the largest cell phone markets in the world that sells 10 million phones a month—they’ve sold 12,000. Go figure. Guess a phone that costs as much as the monthly salary of an IT engineer makes wasn’t such a good idea. Or maybe Steve plans on making up the difference when they start appearing in Walmart in December.
(NSFW—maybe.) Unless Crispin snuck one out early, this clip is supposedly not officially connected to Zune. I, um, well, the first thing I wanna say, hmmm, yeah, you know what? Just watch and be enthralled at the level of disgust you find yourself feeling guilty over for having watched. Or something. (Via Ectoplasmosis!)
Aw yeah, look at me having literary rootage. I was shooting for Tolstoy, but Oscar works. Ofaust.com tells you what famous writer your words resemble most closely. Just paste one or two paragraphs of anything you’ve written and see where you stand relative to those ‘other’ writers. (Breadcrumbs via thegirlriot.)
Recently, someone sent me a story about how the winner of a Nike marathon was disqualified over a very minor technicality. Competitor Reebok stepped in to award her their own version of an award, complete with prizes for the school she taught at. By the time Nike turned around to correct things days later, too late. Damage done.
By doing this, Reebok had jumped in and exploited the PR gap created by the snafu, in effect, exploiting the ‘negative space’ created by Nike. This too me was always what true guerilla advertising was about: Move fast, exploit your opponent, strike quick, then get out. Be prepared to do things outside your normal planned ad budget that take advantage of current events or miscues by competitors which arise. Things which, if handled right, could gain a brand a nice amount of increased buzz for basically little or no outlay at the expense of the other guy.
So here’s how Advil should and could still capitalize on Motrin’s recent snafu in this regard:
Offer any traumatized Mommy Blogger a free sample box of Advil supported by some kind of understanding message on YouTube. (Or, a downloadable one-time coupon good for free in-store product.) That’s it. It’s really no more complicated than that because it’s a simple PR move exploiting the gap left by Motrin. Now, you may not get a large amount of converts, but that’s incidental and not the main goal here initially. What you’re doing is getting the Advil name in the minds of Motrin users.
Good Morning Bill As a blogger, I'm sure you have a language all laid out for your blog posts. You don't think twice about words like "blogroll" or "blogosphere", and you can easily incorporate the phrase "bloggerati" into your everyday life.
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It’s not often you get to see good any Kilroy graf anymore. This homage was snapped on one of NJ Transit’s finest this morning. +
(pause)
Ok, sigh, Kilroy was this iconic symbol that was everywhere starting circa WWII. Outdoor billboards, posters, wherever. That saying was always accompanied by a little drawing similar to that what peering guy looks like. So it was natural it filter down to the next gen. Kilroy being one of three things that tend to stick with post-early-late-neo Boomers in advertising. (Look at me coining terms—again). The other two? The ability to draw from memory a near-almost perfect illustration of the original Enterprise from Star Trek, (also the original, see pic drawn quickly just now), and the damn McDonald’s jingle:
“Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles onions on a sesame seed bun.”
Mastering those three things was our ‘Nam. While drawing a starship didn’t necessarily guarantee chicks—it did solidify your geek cred: I was there man. I saw the original show. The fake boulders. The Mugato, that one-horned white guerilla creature that scared the SHIT out of me as a kid? Deep Space Nine pales by comparison.
When in doubt, throw out an F-bomb. If the New York Times won’t run it, I will. An ad for Morgans Hotel Group was rejected by them because of the use of the word fuck. Morgans also plans on running light projections on buildings this weekend. Recession? What fucking recession.
New site called The End Of Vodka for Veev vodka from Maverick Digital lets you buy virtual female bots a drink. It’s almost like a bad date because she won’t shut up. They also do the, wait for it, social media thing on Twitter, Facebook page and MySpace. Well-populated collection of recipes and stuff, just needs the presence of real followers which I’m not seeing, and I’m not really sure how much longer people will put up with the bot thing on places like Twitter either.
A recent campaign and website for a South Jersey church basically apologizes for everything that’s made you crazy about the church lately. It’s an attempt to appeal to a younger crowd, ages 16-30. Even though it did get more people to come out, not everyone apparently liked the campaign. (As evidenced by the attempts to tear it down shown in the image.) Must be that whole apology for hating homosexuals thing that ruffled feathers. Now, if they can only apologize for the billboards at the opposite end of the state near me.
Recent UK campaign to get people to buckle their seatbelts from AMV BBDO is about as graphic as CSI, maybe less so. I was expecting narsty, but didn’t really get it. Spot still does a good job of explaining the effects of the second collision that occurs inside a car during an accident. Just do what we do here, no? Make it against the law to not wear your seatbelt.
Live action violence where nobody gets hurt is alive and well in this quick-cut spot from Timberland and their Earthkeepers line. Although, kinda hard to take that positioning seriously when you look at the carbon footprint of the production crew and their equipment in the behind the scenes.
Saw another in the Coors Light NFL series with Jim Mora. Can’t find it online yet. Doesn’t matter. They’re all the same. Unreal, just, um... (*shakes head in disbelief*).
One spot out for Chunky soup is edited down from this 2-minute version and looked so nice it coulda been a Nike spot. Didn’t feel like soup. (It’s in the second sequence where LaDainian Tomlinson is just skying over everyone in slo-mo. Logo comes in at end.) Really awesome from Y&R.
I know it’s sad for me to keep saying “This is the strangest thing I will ever write on this blog,” so how about instead, THIS IS THE STRANGEST THING YOU WILL EVER READ ON THIS BLOG. AT 1:19 AM. OR ANYTIME. Wine? Dogs? Michael Vick’s? Yep. (Or is that yelp?) The dogs they rescued from his home are now more famous than you. Or me. $672 for a set of 24 or $40 a bottle. Sadder yet, was the fact that this nugget eclipsed the main part of another story where Vick expects to play again. Shock. Awwww. Of course he does and of course some team will take a chance. Why? They always do. It’s the NFL. Right now, some coach somewhere is reviewing game tape of his shitty QB while downing—ironically—a glass of Pitbull Noit and thinking how he has the answer to fixing Vick.
Who shot Kennedy and what’s really in Spam. These are the questions I need answered. Of all the companies having troubles these days in times like this and at no time before, SPAM is the last one you might expect would be doing well. According to an article in the New York TImes, they are. Makes sense actually. It doesn’t cost a lot to eat poorly in America, and what better way to do that than with Spam. People will settle for something resembling meat if faced with the real thing at four times the price. (Growing up, we were one of the more well off families, having both Spam and Hamburger Helper. That’s why all the neighborhood kids played at our house.) It’s also probably why McDonald’s and the rest of the fast casual* industry are holding their own as well. Thank God for max carbs and value meals, something growing teens need. Just wonder where this nets out in 10, 15 years. SPAM. The stints of tomorrow—today!
Maybe if as a company you A) Save money by not running ridiculous spots and B) Spend more time watching your investments, you wouldn’t have to go asking for handouts. But, if you have to, consider adding custom backgrounds. Everyone’s doing it! Maybe something with a more contemporary look and feel? Clowns are SO last year.
Okay, you say that maybe the Excel spreadsheet demo ain’t exactly hip, but AC/DC releasing their latest video ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Train’ inside a file is an interesting concept. Sure makes Excel a lot more interesting by exploiting an app that most cubicle rockers likely already have.
My thoughts are all over the place after this. The tragic events in India notwithstanding, right now, a family is planning a funeral over basically a Black Friday early bird special gone wrong—for no reason. This wasn’t even a robbery. (Of course, the death of any employee sucks, but this is just pointless.) Walmart has already come out and said that the health and well-being of their employees is the most important thing, but that just rings false. Does anyone outside PR really believe this?
