Want free stuff? Just complain on Twitter.

This, I like. Brand monitors Twitter for mention—fulfills request. C’mon kids, flood the tweetwaves, tweetstream, tweetosphere—did I leave any out?—with endless requests or complaints about products and watch the merch pile up in your driveway. Two comments from YouTube on whether this is fake or not, and why it doesn’t matter:

“Too bad that it’s fake, but Wheat Thins are still the pwncakes. ” - TheMightyMario

“To all the HATERS. This is not fake! I'm sitting next to my girl, Tabitha [ girl in video ] eating a box of wheat thins right now at school. The other day she brought in a whole case and gave everyone in her class 2-3 boxes. I also went with her the other day to donate a few cases to local churchs....Dont hate, she got lucky with her post and is being very generous.” – ninahuebner

Well, according to one “TheMightyMario” they still *pwn* regardless. So brands, fake away on questionable twitter accounts all you want because we ain’t mad at ya’! JUST AS LONG AS YOU PWN! (Attention Wheat Thins, time to deliver a palette of wheatspank to his ass anyway for doubting.) While I like the guerilla aspect to the promo, my inner Privacy Concern Guy™ says brands BETTER not be stalking my private data to show up at my house.

(Update: Vinny Warren from Escape Pod—the agency behind the promotion—confirms in the comments that this is indeed the real deal.)

AdVerve 37 - David on Demand

Play the show now.

Now that Cannes is over, David Perez aka David on Demand, joins us for a look back at the experiment that was. HE GOT INK FOR YOU PEOPLE. In addition, we get into his role as creative recruiter for Leo Burnett in Chicago and what he looks for in job candidates. From there we hit where the industry is going relative to schools—not just them fancy learning places, but old and new in terms of vibe. Catch him on Twitter too.

Subscribe via iTunes:

Linkage:

• The kids these days.
• Allstate Mayhem campaign.
• Wildfire—The Here & now.

Send questions or comments to advervepodcast [at] gmail [dot] com. You can also leave a review.

How to make YouTube more annoying.

A simple way to introduce the World Cup vuvuzela experience without the jet lag. On most YouTube videos now there’s this little vuvuzela soccer ball icon. CLICK FOR THE PAIN. It’s a little something extra that doesn’t really do anything of value except make what you’re watching unwatchable. I’d keep it there for after the World Cup, maybe even come up with a few alternate sounds. Perfect for most shows on Fox.

Look at your blog—now look at mine.

Watch, that’ll be one soon enough. The first Old Spice was so good that I’m not sure if the formula where you plug different scenarios in is going to get old too fast. Running motor on the bike though is a nice finishing touch.

“I don’t know all the details.”

An answer that should make Wendy’s corporate wince. Sonic taking on competitors like Wendy’s directly? I don’t hate this. Quiznos has taken on Subway, and Burger King has messed with McDonald’s in the past, so why not.

Wonder how it would’ve handled the O.J. trial.

It’s probably five the hell minutes too long, but David Kassan’s finger painting using the iPad and brushes app is impressive regardless. My inner wiseass is saying wouldn’t it just be better to take a pic and add a watercolor effect in Photoshop? EXCEPT THE IPAD HAS NO CAMERA. Still assuming it did, time saved equals, um, almost the entire time it took to draw it. A lot of people commenting that finally, someone found a good use for the iPad. So basically then, this will come in handy with artists in court. Otherwise, it’s a brilliant example of using a forward-thinking tech to execute a traditional task usually done by hand, pencil and paper. Migrate from paper to screens to then mimic pape... YOU GET THE POINT.

(Music: Monoliths by Maserati.)

Trust me.

Play the show now.

Us. I meant us. Good episode covering the issue of trust and brands, and that *maybe* politicians might rank higher than ad people in this category. Then, instead of Facebook, we beat the shit out of Steve Jobs and Apple fanboys for a change. *grabs nose* Apple! Apple! Apple! Fun had by all? Check. Then ad creep hit license plates and school buses, and we were ready.

Guests: Jim Mitchem of Smash Communications (and Obsessed With Conformity), John January, ECD at Sullivan, Higdon and Sink (and American Copywriter), Esteban Contreras, social media manager at Samsung (and Social Nerdia host).

The topics are here. Me or Bob on Twitter: TheBeanCast, mtlb.

Tags: The Beancast

But wait, there’s more...

– Garden beats for mom.
– Pranking Google StreetView.
– Never fails to cringe.
– Conan the musical.
– Brother from another BP.
– Fighting for WWII.
– .xxx marks the spot.
– You can call him Al.
– 7 ballsy pranks that worked.
– The Japanese whiskey.
– Vulcans vs. Apes. (Via.)
– The coolest science class I never had.

There’s no smiling in baseball.

In the same magazine, I also saw this Canali ad with Yankee killer closer Mariano Rivera highlighting his relationship with the Italian fashion brand. Except, killer closers close. They don’t smile. They don’t need to *soften* their image until after their playing days are over. He feels awkward here. And he’s smiling.

Smiling isn’t for closers.

“When a warm breeze blows in from the Gulf, you’ll definitely notice.”

Yeah, I bet. It’ll be the fires from the burning oil. Not to beat the shit out of local tourism efforts in Florida, I’m not. They have a huge challenge to keep the crowds coming this summer. This was going to be more about contextual sadness than anything because I saw this ad while getting the car’s oil changed today. (Ironic ftw.) It follows the theme of their site, and The Dali was interesting too, even though that water looks way too clean for BP’s liking. Anyway, taglines and such are written long before safety procedures and concerns take a backseat to profits, so this unfortunate yet timely ad catches the St. Pete Clearwater crew off-guard with some cringe-worthy wordplay.

“Adding comments has been disabled for this video.”

Stop doing this. It doesn’t really hurt you and besides, comments are the best part of the web.

Thanks!

Robyn who? You know, the one with the cool music video? Oh.

Looking at what won awards at Cannes in terms of online/digital/social work, and the thing that jumps out is that a lot of the work seemed less about some amazing online experience and more about a practical, utilitarian approach to dealing with customers. Feels like where things are headed now is either in that direction, or it’s about eye candy for eye candy’s sake, where the only focus is on doing something amazing that grabs your attention—not helps you with your online reservations.

But that’s okay too. Trying out cool techniques, even when they’re used to promote mediocre product(s), leads to advances in design and advertising that others can take and run with.

Swedish pop star Robyn’s new music video as 3D site definitely does that. The 3D on top of an aggregated real-time twitter stream may be overkill for some, but it works. The song is Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do, and in it, she lists all the things in life that were getting to her after coming off the road. Users are encouraged to update on Twitter just what it is that’s killing them by using the tag #killingme in some way. (Click the image to see.)

This twist on the Pulp Fiction animated type technique takes key words from those updates and displays them large across the screen at a pace that matches the tempo of the music. Last time I really dug a new approach to music video was the Asher Roth site from a few weeks ago. Before then, Radiohead’s mathematical visualization approach on House of Cards was simply stunning. It doesn’t have objects or images, but this whole hand coded experiment is laying the groundwork for people to build on. (Like making the stream clickable as Renaldo is doing with his site.)

Nonetheless, it inadvertently raises an issue for content creators to think about: Does too much interaction with an artistic piece or event while it’s occurring lead to a disconnect between artist and viewer? The dynamic of any art (film, music, et al.) is that you’re usually focused on experiencing and enjoying the actual piece for its own sake and nothing else. You’re only *part* of the piece in as much as you’re a viewer.

(For all the talk of making things interactive for people, well, here ya’ go. Can’t get much more interactive than that, short of making areas clickable.)

This video has people watching so they can spot the one element in it which is them. And I did watch, for almost 20 minutes, not because I was transfixed, but because the load time for the site to update from Twitter took that long. So you may be better off tweeting and com back later.

Because you spend so much time watching for your name to appear though, you almost forget the song itself. The droning microhouse puts you in a spell, and I wondered if this effect could work in a song that had more than just a minimalist beat with sparse lyrics.

Either way, eye candy or not, this piece would not be out of place at Cannes next year.

(Agencies: Blip Boutique/Hollywood with Stopp Web/Stockholm.)

Interventions need an...

Just stop. All of it. Foodventions. Vacaventions. Shoppingventions. Leave yours in the commentsvention.

Brand of the decade, Star Wars?

Or maybe a toss-up between it and Star Trek, but what other brand is now red hot in terms of the influence it wields in pop remix culture? I ASK YOU. Adidas as of late has thrown down some nice mash gauntlets of their own. And now this AT-AT Walker as dog from French Canadian autodidact director Patrick Boivin is just human and full of the Nice™ and daft as they say. Daft I say.

(Music: Bible School by blithe field.)

Does this Geico spot make my ass look too big?

No, the dress does. The GEICO series is branching out into different executions now mixing up celebs with unknown actors. Good ta see. The archival look above with Abe takes it somewhere different too. I think R. Lee Ermey though is a little neutered in his therapist spot. I need me some swears. (One oops: If they’re playing off of him being a Marine, then it would be drill instructor—the Army has drill sergeants.) The last of the latest, features the thunder from down under, Andres Cantor reprising his famous call for a chess match. Can a showdown with Michael Buffer be too far off?

“It’s been done.”

There’s a billboard in Times Square which does something cool. Read about it here for the brand Forever 21 done by Space150. It is very cool. There’s a project from last year in London by designer Chris O’ Shea called Hand From Above. It’s cool too. I won’t cover the backgrounds of each project; that’s why I gave you links. However, it raised another point we brought up on the latest AdVerve about copycats. After seeing this, one side can argue that Forever 21’s takes the idea further while the other might say not far enough. Wherever you come out isn’t the point. What I’m coming to now as my *happy* place is the idea that there are no new ideas, just new executions we haven’t seen yet. Old news, yah? But the 2010 1.0 update to that vibe I would like to see more of is simply a nod to what came before. Especially from brands. It diffuses a lot of bad will and is probably a pretty karmatic thing to do in the long run, no? I mean, it’s hard to be angry at someone who says “I love what you did—check out what we did with it.”

Java 4 ever.

I saw this clip over the weekend but then they made it private. SILLY NET! We have back-ups. Always. Thanks to Steve at AdRants for the save. (One scene NSFW.)

Wait, Linda says wrestling's fake?

Oh, then I’m not voting for her. Not sure how Linda McMahon snuck one by me over the weekend, but via AdFreak comes her latest spot addressing, then downplaying her WWE affiliation. That somehow, she felt the need to address a (manufactured?) perception that being involved with the entertainment juggernaut is making a mockery of the serious business of politics. Not quite. (The buzz on the streets here is that WWE money buys elections.) She maybe takes a little more credit for things considering Vince was the face of the brand, but at least voters won’t have that age-old wrestling issue weighing on them as they head to the polls. Because wrestling is not...

Tecate Light, not for gringos.

Or is it, “Only gringos should drink American light beers?” YEAH, that’s it. For those who want more of Tecate’s “Papas” campaign, they oblige. Up top, a new whi... light family tries to take the place of the long-suffering Tecate Light parents. Or maybe *mumbo jumbo* is your preferred method of stereotype? Or maybe you prefer a more direct approach to your *watered-down* metaphors. A step up from the *Americanized* dialog of the previous ones? Maybe.

Come to Florida—not all our beaches are toxic and will kill all life as we know it.

Too long a title? One of the things that happens after a disaster is the inevitable exploitation. Did I say exploit, I meant, a need to promote so that the tourist season is not completely lost. Like these spots in Florida for the Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau. Filmed live each day, these nine down and dirty spots feature “Dan” trying to capture some of the lost tourism money with a little rapid-fire schtick. (The spots cost $750K to produce and run, and were shot, edited, approved and uploaded each day by noon.) They’re cute and all, but “Still pristine” seems like a risky promise, given hurricane season is now ramping up and might make that point moot soon enough. Much as I am Mr. Humor too, there’s a time and place for it as this whole mess is still unfolding. These might go over in other parts of the country farther away from the spill, but at least acknowledging the situation as Alabama is doing feels more right.

(Agency: bvk.com.)

Hate Ronaldo? Hate Soccer? Hate Portugal?

Good. Here’s the site for you then because the Ronaldo love is flowing fierce there. See, he’s like A-Rod that way—you just have to not like him for some reason. (Maybe it’s the one name thing?)* Click the image though and see how others feel. As for the *digital* integrated experience, while aggregating the streams of social nets is the new (blank), there’s no scrolling forward or backward, and if you miss something, too bad. Ironically, the touch he has with the ball is missing from the Facebook and Twitter links because it’s hit or miss there as you try to click the text, ftf.** Oh, and did someone say MySpace and YouTube? Yep, he’s there. He’s only got over six million followers across all four networks! (Which, will all collectively crash in a massive fail wail of misery when Portugal gets bounced by Spain.)

Did I mention I hate Ronaldo?

(Site design: Lightmaker.)

*Pele. Shit, there goes that theory.
**For the fail.

The new iPhone 4: Taking phone sex to a whole new level.

Now that I’ve come up for air after watching World Cup action, I just saw the new spot for Apple’s iPhone 4 called FaceTime. The choice of AT&T as their network provider aside, soon as you watch you just know Apple is in this groove that the rest of the cell industry can’t seem to find. (The only knock from an art direction perspective for me is that the last two couples in this spot look a little too similar.) Other than that, people waited in long lines, some unfairly, and it all points to a brand you want to get you some.* Numbers and market share are always nice, but they can’t detract from Apple being about the only brand that consistently delivers on pre-launch hysteria as much as it does their actual product. Ironically, one comment highlights just what this phone might end up being known for as Steve Jobs fights the good fight when it comes to porn:

“This is going to take phone-sex to a whole new level ;]”

*Hey, what’s a celeb without friends or bottled water, bitch.

“No boots/UGGS/flipflops/gladiators/Converse/vans/ballerina flats”

Wait, no Chucks? When Chucks are outlawed—only outlaws will wear Chucks. It’s back. The employee handbook on style that you love to hate from American Apparel. Sorry, but pencil moustaches are only *in* in—are they even *in* in adult films?—Godfather sequels.

“People, we’re 80 miles inside our own border here.”

“I’M PUTTING MY LIFE ON THE LINE FOR YOU!” Republican playbook 2010: change the narrative enough and position themselves as the answer to the chaos they’re basking in. All politicians do. But don’t hate the playa, hate the game kids because that’s politics, and being a contrarian is change you can believe in.

Ahead on style points is Arizona governor Jan Brewer, still exploiting your wrost fears of personal safety as an American using the issue of immigration, one that both presidential candidates in 2008 ignored. (The hidden beauty of the approach here is that it implies the only place danger lurks in America is on an Arizona highway, replete with traffickers and automatic weapons.) But the good part is where she flips the script and commands the president to “Do your job!” I say flip because even though there were already immigration laws on the books that nobody seemed concerned about doing their job to enforce, doing anything *quietly* in an election year doesn’t make headlines, so why not throw it back on POTUS. Enter brash new immigration law from your border guardian governor. As the clip shows though, signs and laws are meaningless if the desire to enforce is not there.

U.S. fans, you’re free to resume hating soccer.

Wherein I give another exhausting look at the game I love.

So yeah, ratings aside, I’m sure, everyone rooting for the U.S. against Ghana just LOVES the game. A day after watching that madness, and after watching Germany dismantle my sluggish mates the Brits, I’m off the ledge. Watching the U.S. underscored what I said in my recent rant on why the game has trouble being adopted:

The way we play the game at an international level presents a different set of problems than the problems the sport in general faces in making it more acceptable at a grassroots level.

I won’t rehash the latter save for the mention of the bandwagon fans who will always get behind the U.S. against (insert country of choosing) in (insert sport of choosing). I believe the sport can actually withstand their temporary support every four years. Even if by chance we made it through to the finals and won? They would’ve cheered while the world wrote it off as a fluke, with hardcore fans cautious in their optimism, knowing that the U.S. game will have truly arrived when they can win at that level consistently every four years.

I was on Twitter joking after the game that I didn’t want to hear any soccer mom slash conciliatory speak that parents throw out to kids after a loss. Stuff like “That’s okay, you did your best—let’s go get ice cream.” I wasn’t trying to be harsh, rather, my point is that one of the ways you know a sport has arrived and been widely accepted among fans is the ability to level criticism at your team.

Pick a sport and any team in it, and its fans second-guess coaching decisions, draft picks and player salaries. We need to do that with soccer. If you think I’m off here, compare the *love* the U.K. is showing their boys with the apathy of U.S. media.

In other words, tough love, you sumbitches. So here’s mine:

We need to drastically change our style of play. I questioned if how we play the game as children is affecting our style all the way up to the national team. Not in terms of individual ability or footwork, but overall game strategy. I really think our approach is being affected by the mentality of the other sports America plays. Huh?

Shhh. Lemme explain.

Soccer is a not just a game of possession, but a game of creativity. You hear it often but what it really is a game of is choice and options which leads to creativity. While teams start from fixed formations like a 4-4-2 or 5-2-3, the combinations and player alignments that can develop out of those are insane, and often change by the second depending on the scenario a player finds himself in. E.g., if a forward has a teammate on either side of him, he has options. If he’s facing the goalie on a breakaway himself, the options become more about shot selection and location. And so on.

The rest of our sports though rely on repetition and consistency in their formations to work. It’s what teams drill on over and over and...

The pulling guard on a running play in the other football doesn’t suddenly decide he’s going to cut up field on his own. Baseball has a set of formations for dealing with different hitting scenarios. It’s the basis for the game: A single to right or double to left and the infield all know where they’re supposed to go, and so on. Creativity is not an option in these scenarios.

(Where I’ll grant that creativity comes in however, is with the role of the coach or manager and the various game decision scenarios they face. Bottom of the ninth, one man on, two out, lefty at the plate, etc., and who do I pitch, my money closer on three days rest or the guy who owns lefties with only one.)

Watch the game at the pro level versus any other sport and see how it’s very much a player’s game because the coach is almost silent. It’s in the players’ hands on the field because they know what they need to do and there’s nothing more he can do for them. Win-loss record aside, that’s the main thing I look at with coaches: How much they do or don’t yell.

Young multi-sport players are not used to nor are they encouraged to think for themselves because of the structure ingrained in them from other sports. This is in no small part due to coaches who don’t teach a creative or fluid approach to the game—because they themselves don’t think this way, either at the youth level or high school. I’ve often seen less progressive programs where the football or basketball coach is charged with coaching the soccer team.

The result? Unfortunately the same as what you still see at the rec, AYSO or travel level: fastest kids up front, big and slow back on D, with healthy dose of yelling at players to *stay* in their position.

Fail.

All of that was the setup to what happened against Ghana. (I’m not saying we have the fattest kid back on D. These are all professionals in top condition at the height of their game. But if youth soccer is our farm team, our minor league for growing future talent so to speak, it’s relevant to the discussion.) As such, we came out in the first half with a predictable style of play. In the second half though?

Night and day as the team arguably played its best half of soccer in the tournament.

They were attacking in smaller formations with more players, and playing what I call small ball the way other teams do. (Short, clever through passes in small spaces to keep teams on their heels.) The first half was typical U.S. though: three players wide trying to pass the ball with precision from too far away. That’s fine when you’re Brazil and can handle the ball equally well in the air or on the ground.* But ya better control the ball. When precision’s out the door and you’re not on your game, three against six is futile.

To that point of doing the little things, the key to Donovan’s follow-up goal the game before wasn’t his speed—although it helped—it was goalie Tim Howard quickly reading the situation and throwing the ball wide to him. Big kicks by goalies look impressive on TV and in youth soccer, but the little stuff that alters the dynamic like catching a defense napping is often more effective. (Punting often results in loss of position on 50-50 balls between two players on the receiving end, and if you turn the ball over to a team that knows how to control it, you’re beating yourself.)

I liken our love for the big play in soccer to a baseball team always trying to win games with a home run each time up rather than winning by doing the little things like just getting hits. Early in the second half, we gave ourselves more of those *smaller* chances, but later on, fell back into old habits.

We need to play together more consistently. We can’t keep switching lineups every few months, let alone in games to *try and shake things up*. Ugh. We have no unity when we have no consistency, and you won’t get that treating the national team as an afterthought when player commitments to Major league Soccer or club play overseas takes precedent. This is a problem for a league and U.S. Soccer who, in their mind, see a greater good in MLS promoting the game here. I say define your greater good: Success at the international level, or growth among soccer moms.

We need a different coach. That’s less harsh than I mean it, because it almost goes hand in hand with the first idea up top, in that we need to change how we attack. I’m willing to watch Bob Bradley continue on as coach, if there can be more of what we saw in the second half Saturday. But the rest of the games though looked like Bruce Arena 2.0. Play it back, switch fields, lay off the attack, kill momentum, drive a deep ball in with nobody there to receive. Sound familiar?

As I went on ad nauseum about creativity, here’s where I wonder if an international coach wouldn’t be a different way to go to shake off some of those American sports cobwebs. Before you go no way, look at how many countries have foreign nationals from other countries coaching their teams. A lot.

Agree, disagree? Let me know. This is just one fan’s opinion.

Time to enjoy the rest of the World Cup free of American late-game desperation as I stick pins in my Maradona doll. As for Landon and the rest of the fellas, let’s go get ice cream and we’ll get those bitches in 2014, okay?

(Image.)

*Teams from countries that play on uneven or rocky, dry pitches are better able to handle errant passes or bounces because they’re used to them already from a young age. #Anecdotal factoid from Mr. Brazilian coach.

Wheaties owns you. But then, so do most brands.

Wheaties is America.

Fine, upstanding athletes embodying this country’s best traditions of hard work and sacrifice. So it’s understandable they’d want to maintain that aura throughout all their communications. Except, the disclaimer on their Facebook feels like the last thing it does is promote open discussion. Sure, you want to bounce troublemakers, but there’s also such a thing as being too uptight.

Most social media *war room* strategies now include ”What if” scenarios for dealing with them, but legal needs to take a step back from sounding so heavy-handed. (As for fun in communities, I know of no online community that you could ever consider fun.) Does anyone have fun on Twitter? I have fun with it maybe.

One part though highlights the current state of affairs relative to the ownership of ideas:

“...we (Wheaties, General Mills and its affiliates) own everything you post and can do whatever we want with it.”

This bugs me the most; always has. This idea that they can make money off someone without compensation. Problem is, consumers and people in general have this sense of empowerment now when it comes to how they express their feelings for brands. Consumer-generated content has definitely helped enable them in this regard, and you only have to type in •contest* at the Wild West of YouTube to see, or even check my past rants here.

If social media was all about *conversations* between brands and their audience, the next front in the war is going to be over the control of ideas between content creators and their audience. Why should any brand own everything you do just because you shared it with them, let alone profit from it?

Doesn’t this parallel what people are complaining about now with having to cede access to their personal information on sites like Facebook? That because I sign up, the site has a right to do with my info what they will?

Industry publications and conferences love to focus on coming up with ever-changing proprietary vocabularies describing the conversation process online. Others argue over who owns what discipline in an agency, and still others debate what the agency of the future might look like.

What’s overlooked from what I can tell though is this monopoly by agencies and brands on just who controls ideas and who has access to them.

Think a brand would ever take a spot their agency produced and run it in other media channels without first working out the rights? Not a chance. So why then do they have the right to screw the general public?

I *get* the idea of unsolicited material opening up a brand or agency to a potential lawsuit, but this isn’t about that. I also know how this cuts off the nose to spite the face, as agencies depend on being able to shut other shops out of the running for work.

But if brand rhetoric about conversation and consumers as *partners* who help shape the experience is to really mean something, then most *partners* don’t try and cheat the other out of fair compensation. Much as I give them crap, I call it both ways because Pepsi in effect is rewriting this concept with their Refresh project.

Agencies might also say that *regular* folk could never come up with the campaigns they say a brand really needs, and that an agency was behind Pepsi’s effort here. Maybe, but if things don’t change, how will they know?

Enjoy the run gang because things are changing.

(The entire disclaimer below for your reading pleasure. Typo, theirs.)

“The Wheaties Facebook page is a fun community where fans of sports and the Breakfast of Champions can interact with each other.

The Wheaties team is excited by this opportunity to interact with fans who are as intense about their passions as we are. That being said, it is important to note that the Wheaties fan postings to the Wheaties Facebook page are not representative of the opinions of Wheaties or General Mills. Furthermore, we do not confirm their accuracy.

Wheaties expects that fans will not post content that falls into the following categories and reserves the right to remove postings that are:

• Abusive, defamatory, or obscene.
• Fraudulent, deceptive or misleading.
• In violation of any intellectual property right of another.
• In violation of any law or regulation.
otherwise inappropriate.

We can choose to not allow (or remove) any posting at any time. Please let us know if you feel some posting ought to be removed. By all means, read at your own risk and do not rely on any information or advice in any of these postings.

Recognize that we (Wheaties, General Mills and its affiliates) own everything you post and can do whatever we want with it, including copying or modifying it for use elsewhere in any manner whatsoever, forever, worldwide, and without compensation. Any ideas you submit (including about products or advertising) become our property.”

Your weekend oil update.

Boston.com with yet more stunning photography of this mess. What I’m seeing in the comments there and on other websites though is a sentiment about the spill that is puzzling. Those speaking out more and more against deep sea drilling are blaming liberalism for it? Double hmmm. As BP’s PR effort that I first mentioned here now gets a disgusting “kudos” from some, we should be hating the game (oil) and not the playa so much.

Before the election, a lot of the rhetoric was focused on ending dependence on foreign oil. If they really meant it, what I thought it should’ve always been though was ending a dependence on oil in general. Did this spill have to happen for that change in the message to occur? It’s a moot point though if there isn’t a bigger effort to convert to alternative forms of energy after this. Coming up with safer ways to continue using the ones we have only prolongs that.

A little perspective though on deep sea drilling and why hating the game should be the focus. Thanks to BP, the second largest oil spill in American history is now the Exxon Valdez.

It ran aground on a reef.

AdVerve 36 - Copycats

Play the show now.

Don’t pretend like you don’t know. ADS THAT HAVE BEEN DONE BEFORE. Like, the exact same ones before. Joe La Pompe from joelapompe.net joins us for a discussion on twin ads: copycats or coincidences? This unfortunate yet inherent aspect of the advertising world is alive and well, trust. As if that weren’t enough, Åsk Wäppling, editor and publisher of Adland.tv (Dabitch on Twitter), joins us for un petite Wrap of Cannes. This all occurs amidst hotel lobby slash cafe madness. Madness which includes topics like anonymous bloggers (and why we’re not), Facebook and that smarty smart Mark fella, and life in Cannes come ad time.

Joe can be found on Twitter and also has a new book out called Nouveau? (Only available on Amazon in France at this time. American pubs, give him a shout.)

UPDATE: We asked friend of the show Michael McSunas (AdLawGuy on Twitter), to confirm a point we made regarding the posting of ads on blogs. He says:

“Ads are not in the public domain once they run - that is why ad agencies technically need the consent of the advertisers to put those ads on their websites. There is a fair use exception to copyright infringement which permits the use of copyrighted works for purposes of criticism, comment, news, scholarship and teaching BUT fair use is limited to showing/reproducing only as much as necessary to accomplish your purpose. There is basically no bright line rule - unfortunately.”

Basically, we’re both technically right and wrong in posting ads.


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Linkage:

• Ogilvy Mexico snafu.
• Nokia phone film flap.
• The idea counts, not the execution, right?

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Women, exercise your Veto power.

That’s about the only wordplay/pun not included in the copy here. Gratuitous use of exclamation points? Check! Spoon-worthy armpits? Check!

(Image.)

Well then mister, if you don’t know, I guess that makes you a commie.

And not *just* a commie, but a commie bastard.

(Image.)

Here we don’t—Bud Light refused naming rights for amphitheater.

With Alex’s call for a responsibility award, I might have to nominate North Carolina’s State Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission. Not that I dig more government regulation, but finally, someone actually cited protection of youth as a reason not to approve a potentially lucrative deal involving a major brand. The mayor of Raleigh says they’re a 21st century city and that a beer name for a stadium is acceptable. The problem becomes though, what about pro stadiums like Coors Field where the Rockies play? Are Colorado kids *less* important than Raleigh kids? If you’re going to get into issues of protecting kids from exposure to beer or spirits-related advertising, then you can’t just do it locally in one place and not in another.

Look at the nation’s legal drinking age. (The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 set it at 21.) With rare exception, it covers every state. So in terms of stadium names and the idea of protection on a national level, what happened in Raleigh could scale to include the banning of any pro sport from associating with a beer or spirit, no? Relax, I’m not saying ban beer; you’ll still get to drink the overpriced mediocrity posing as suds in all your favorite ballparks.

Just consider that maybe every place doesn’t have to have a beer name on it.

Filmed in Retro-Deluxe-Color-O-Matic 3D Vision.

Works without 3D too! Awolnation is two self-promotional films from The Uprising Creative with The Nova Project. Retro is in. (Wait, it’s always in.) But the use of slo-mo 3D? Genius! Deep Danger also has a funny bit about the sea below being in color. Learn more in top secret films that *they* don’t want you to know about.

What’s the going rate for a species.

What’s a few lousy turtles. Do disasters now just seem worse because we have so many ways to get the word out about what’s happening? Probably. I have to think collateral damage has always occurred in manmade or natural disasters; we just weren’t as aware. It’s the kind of thing the Drill Baby Drill crowd dismisses as the price we have to pay if we want to keep on producing as a nation, yah? I haven’t heard BP’s side of this though, but just hearing the word “endangered” reminds you how sinister it all is. (The turtle described is the Kemp’s Ridley, the most endangered of all turtles.)

Fail whale FIFA.

But wait, there’s more...

– “The apparel category can be about posing.”
– Your viral is showing, still a heh! (Via.)
– Ginger savers.
– Write place, nighttime.
– Little bit o’Arizona freedom comes to Manhattan.
– Shell game.
– Can you relay me out now?
– Twitter, circa 1930.
– Must he be, a man with a Facebook.

Overheard internet.

Internet comments: Cool, honest or sad. In an unedited B-roll, straight to your monitor kinda way...


“Let me tell you what’s JUNK. Some fucker from USA soccer just missed an empty net from 5 feet away. You get killed for that shit in Columbia. ”
– Tomlinson's Pain Tolerance


“Dog seems likes the kind of guy that would call his wife “brother.”
– acridsheep


“It won’t be the privacy issues that stop people, it will be parents & grandparents joining Facebook.”
– Paul_Is_Drunk


“US soccer fans, yeah right. Why on ESPN are there soooooooo many empty seats when it’s a US team vs. a US team ? Because smart people don’t waste ther day watching or going to soccer games.”

– playmaker8

“There is of course jamesh the intelligent humans out there that can see there is no such thing as god and pretty much all of the bible has been disproven by quite simple science (adam and eve...heeeelllo inbreeding...etc etc.) Its good that people have faith and the church has a strong place in society, but as soon as someone says gods not real, well they are struck down by god himself. Sorry for the pun :)”
– croz01


“Remember, Glenn Beck has said that WE ARE NOT WATCHING SOCCER. So Twitter must have melted down for some other un-American reason.”
– Gregoire

“Why a PAIN ray? How about one that gives unlimited orgasms? A win-win for both sides!”
– nzfilmprof

Free—get you some.

Free running amok is the theme today in two different pieces I saw.

First, C-Monster is a blog that publishes amazing art finds, to put it simply. I saw something different though from writer-publisher Carolina A. Miranda on the state of freelance writing worth checking out. It’s a different take on the state of publishing in general and how free writing and the need to market yourself are ruining the industry. She hits on something affecting anyone really: this idea of being paid in the form of exposure. I’m paraphrasing the general vibe around the word but it’s this notion if you simply work for free, the exposure you get is compensation enough.

This however, only feeds the current crowdsource mindset setting in among many brands because once you lower the price, they just expect more of the same next time. Two times free equals what again? Yep, free. You tend to hear mostly from publishers whining about lost ad revenue, or from reporters who feel forced out, but it’s nice to hear a different view from someone else in the equation.

By coincidence, I’d also come across something on Twitter today about the state of publishing. Writer Jane Devlin started a project called Finding My America that has her going across the country and documenting it. Nothing new there as many people do this with many different executions. (See below for shameless plug.)

But in the context of the theme and hearing the refrain of how industry pressures result in this quick-hit, sound-bite style of journalism, it’s nice to read things from a personal perspective that dig deeper. Her writing reminds you that compelling content draws you in. That you have to put yourself out there like this on your own time (and often, dime), seems unfortunate on one hand. But, exposure for the project plays a part here too.

So is free now just the cost of business? Or has it always been. To that point, Humongo is set to launch the fourth iteration of its national tour which again has sponsorship by major brands like Ford and Sprint. But year one? Zero.

Three weeks on the road wasn’t cheap and a big risk for a small agency with almost no budget for something that big. The payoff though was new business and a social media presence that eventually gets you in Ad Age and on the radar to be acquired.

In this case, free worked out, but you don’t know any of that ahead of time, and you can’t, because the biggest part of free is also faith. Faith that it will work out and lead to something bigger.

Or more free.

The rebranding of Joe the Plumber.

Hey why not, if most of Pepsi’s fine family of products can. Samuel Wurzelbacher, the face of America who was in the face of Obama, and who is no longer on board with the GOP, has been a Tea Party fav for some time now... and I bet ya didn’t even know! They need to get the word out more because he’s been with them for well over a year. Okay, so maybe you knew but didn’t even care. That’s part of their problem now, defining the mixed messages being put out as well as just who is Tea Part—and who isn’t. Depending on what point of view you read, there’s no clear-cut definition of purpose with the movement because one viewpoint contradicts the next, all the while claiming they’re misunderstood by mainstream media. (Forget the article, just read the comments in this piece from the New York Times if you doubt the lack of identity at work.) Although Joe is more of a name than Palin the character, he helps put a face to the brand. And politics, like sports, needs its characters. For now, they can use all the names they can get though.

Sam the Carpenter though is pretty American-sounding too.

Burberry Winter 2010—Because you need to know now what to wear then.

“This campaign protects our authentic and timeless heritage and evolves the modern way in which we communicate that. The Burberry campaigns have always been characterized by the dynamic British cast and I wanted to express the individuality and the energy behind each of their different creative expressions. Burberry was founded on innovation and outerwear and I want anyone who sees the campaign not just to see images, but to feel a part of what we have created; connecting people through technology, music, the collections, the attitude, and the emotion captured.”

Burberry, that fashion-forward iconic brand you know and love—maybe—sent me their new digitially interactive campaign slash Burberry Brand System as they call it. As opposed to a non-digital interactive campaign. Fashion though lives in its own little bubble and this season’s look is considered an ad campaign. Go. Load. Click. Hold. Drag. But that’s it though. To *play* it, you have to play drag it. Neo-post-modalyptic themes aside—smashing jackets, those—I need more there, there. Since this isn’t a fashion blog however, you came for the PR release part. In addition to the opening puffery, my favorite stuff is usually the boilerplate:

PUBLISHING RESTRICTIONS
As usual, please note the following publishing restrictions from the advertising campaign:
1. Publication is credited "© Copyright Burberry/Testino"
2. Only one publication is permitted. Further permission must be sought for any additional usage.
3. The image(s) cannot be cropped or have text overlayed
4. If the image appears on the internet, it must be protected, and the image is used at no more than 72dpi and displayed at an on-screen size of no more than 300x300 pixels.
5. The image cannot be used on the cover of a magazine

Uh, no to all of that. If they didn’t have a YouTube clip, trust, I’d be running their shot in all it’s hi-res glory any way I wanted. Now, going back to something CCO Christopher Bailey says of the work in the video and recreating that live experience. I see the Matrix effect and all, but the quality—let’s face it—undermines the imagery elsewhere, not to mention the heritage of the brand. I’ve followed their story since they rebranded a few years ago, and liked where things evolved to now, but this site’s been done far better in other places.

Fashion is about the best photographers and talent, and the YouTube video actually displays the effect better. Minor thing, but the 180° revolve? Automotive and tech brands figured out the 360° revolve a long time ago. Compared to other digital experiences, certainly the ones at Cannes right now, I learn nothing new here. I see nothing new. But I want something new. Why not make this an augmented experience with codes unlocking net-only shots. Or hover effects with details about each piece? Why do I have to figure this stuff out for brands? WHY.*

*I’m in a good mood actually, after yesterday’s U.S. victory. But if they do that one more time... SO pissed.

Intel: We don't make art, we make it better.

Anyway, if you haven’t seen it, the focus of the Intel and the right proper Vibe sponsored The Creators Project is exhibits and installations from artists while using their website as the conduit for it all. Events will start in New York, then hit London, Sao Paulo, Seoul, and Beijing by September. A live stream will take place starting June 26 at the site, and you can follow the project on Twitter of course. There’s something ironic about one short with U.K. producer/musician/DJ Mark Ronson. He talks about going old school and using keyboards from the 70s and 80s found on eBay for recording his latest work, given the advances in microprocessors now with Intel. Okay, well, I thought it mildly ironic. What was worth checking out here though is Ronson’s take on where distribution and compensation of musicians is headed. I’m hearing free, maybe it’s me. There are a bunch of other profiles including a nice one with Spike Jonze.

Help Steven Seagal help you help the planet... or else.

I dumpster dive the net for you people. While the organization Cleanup.org in this spot has a new url, one with more urgency, nice to see Steven’s acting hasn’t changed. Relax oil changing dude, Steven’s in a better place free from ass kickage.

I’ll take two.

All I know is that it’s 10, or even 15% less than what I’m paying now, and that I probably want one.*

*Google Translate currently pegs this as a Russian commercial property developer, which, based on the fact that Google has almost completed its HAL9000-like transformation, I am prepared to accept as fact. And besides, that tune is damn skippy.

Cleveland acting like that clingy friend again.

Look, kids, it’s cute and all, but Scores beckons. Say goodbye to LeBron and hello Adam Morrison as the player to be named later. Thing is, I woulda believed another flashmob more if it was the real audience: the kids’ dads who want him to stay. Bunch of balding overweight dudes in their 40's riding around the floor in La-Z-Boys? Yeah, I could some twisted synchronized action happening around the food court.

Dane Cook grateful to Boston.

Which is ironic, given what he owes Los Angeles. A group of stars took out a full-page ad in the Boston Globe thanking the Celtics for being their champions. Trust me, I wish that was Celtic’s real title right now, anything to wipe the hugs away from über flopper Gasol. I suppose when Dane Cook thanks you for inspiring him, nowhere else to go next year but up.

Smirnoff’s lawyers are better than your lawyers.

While male undergrads everywhere await the fate of Brosicingbros.com, a nonprofit legal group called New Media Rights weighs in. (They offer free legal advice to content creators getting beat up by what they call copyright bullies.) Basically, they feel that while Smirnoff has a right to protect how its actual trademark is used, they went too far in this case. As for the use of the logo:

Q: Did Smirnoff have any trademarks that were infringed?

A: The Smirnoff name: Generally, trademark law protects words, phrases, and symbols when they’re attached to products or services and used for commercial purposes. The names “Smirnoff” as well as the names of their brands like “Smirnoff Ice” and their logos are all protected by trademark law.

You can read the rest of the breakdown here, which just shows much is open to interpretation in cases like this beyond the misuse of a logo. In other words, if you plan on doing a site like this, one of your bros from college better have landed a real sweet gig with a firm that handles trademark infringement .

But wait, there’s more...

- Now there’s a little of the Brangelina crazy we been missing!
- “Fruit baskets would not be out of line.”
- What did I say.
- Effects of oil on the shore.
- Know your memes.
- This is why I'll never be an adult.

Now THAT’S a poker face.

Aka, DDB pens another gem. This time from France. Gee, I hope it wins at Cannes! This series of spreads for Live Poker magazine gets the point across that you’ll end up being good enough to fool anyone as the king of bluff. One has a burglar apparently turning the tables on granny the homeowner and in another, hairy chest and awkward pose wins out at a beauty pageant. Best > last: As the mayor of the HELL is goin’ on here, let me just ask why though would you talk your way into a Klan meeting if you were black? (No, he is. Look.) Since I don’t see guns and torches, I’m assuming he wasn’t talking his way out of something else.

At first I was like, holy shit, another misguided attempt to push a button here by a subsidiary of an American agency that apparently forgot last year’s fun? (And if it’s not 9/11, let’s throw a [insert minority] into the mix and piss off Americans.) Least that’s what I would’ve thought until I saw a story about how Bollywood plans to make a new film called Dear Friend Hitler. It’s intended to be a decidedly more positive look at his life relative to Indian independence. So I just have to assume then that DDB France just doesn’t get why this type of imagery resonates here the way it does, or worse, they do and don’t care. (Even if the latter is true, the ad is off for the reason I mentioned before.) Can’t wait for the explanation on this one.

(Via.)