Chick-fil-A... the Jet Blue of chicken.

A stretch perhaps, since I originally had written ‘Wendy’s new fries are shit,’ I figured why not go positive instead! The original inspiration for this rant was born out the Ohio chain’s latest ad campaign extolling the virtues of their new natural cut, sea salt-bathed fries. Props to being able to throw one by the American public that because it's sea salt, that it’s somehow – wait for it – better for you. Nice work if you can get, innit. The rough-hewn potatoes they claim these come from are the same potatoes all fast casual chains slice, except, we left a little peel on to give it that rustic edge AND BATHED THEM IN SALT. (Did I mention that part already?) How stupid are agencies expecting people to be, seriously.

Why do I care? Why do you care that I care? I’LL TELL YOU WHY.

Dove’s campaign for real power.

Damn Dove, when did you become Aqua Velva. This from the same brand that started a discussion on beauty too.

The Delta blues.

A lot of people died today as a result of the tornadoes that hit the South, so it’s hard for me to complain about having to sleep overnite in an Atlanta airport (on amazingly comfortable blue chairs). But, venting is in order. The weather affected many airlines here, not just the Delta flights I was on earlier or the one I was trying to get on tonight. That shot is the line for rescheduled flights.

Thing is, this was the third major trip on Delta I took in the past month, and disasters aside, they have issues to work out, including how well they’re able to put the Del in delay.

Set that clock back ladies.

Spring forward, fall back? Or something like that. Nice little gem in Savannah International Airport. OB/GYN rejuvenation specialist Dr. Stubbs III will turn back the hands on your marriage clock 20 years... AT LEAST. You choose the setting! You’ll ride bikes more often now (At least three times a week!) You’ll yogasize more too! Husbands, now you really can reclaim your happiness. (Detail after the jump.)

“Making this treatment humorous helps condition us to accepting it.”

Said the lone voice on YouTube speaking out against Big Brother on this Echo chainsaw spot. Not sure what treatment they mean, patdowns or chainsaws in coach? BECAUSE THAT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME. The commenter however does rightfully point out that lately the TSA has seen a little too much action as comedy fodder in commercials. (TSA references will soon replace condoms in student books as inspiration, if they haven’t already.) He *might* be over the 3.4 oz limit with that thing though.

“I’ll take the Marky Mark with a Mt. Dew.”

I go to the drive thru. I see stuff. I go online. I TELL YOU PEOPLE ABOUT IT. I’ve not seen this kind of placement before when ordering. (Pic after the jump.) Basically, Taco Bell will give you a free taco for donating a buck. (What they should really do is give you a free taco for having to watch The Happening. Shhh... you know I’m right.) Here he is with his Graduatetogo.com Funky Bunch for the Taco Bell Foundation. I’m all for education, relax. First time I’ve seen a celeb push it though. HE’S GIVING BACK.

Beer with balls.

Beer advertising with balls. Actually, it’s less a pure beer and more like a spiked wtf: “Jeremiah Weed is a family of authentic, blended bourbon, original sweet tea flavored vodka and premium malt beverages.” Still, if you’re going to go over the top with Manville themes, go there and don’t be cute.

"What if we..."

Older clip on design by committee.

Beancast - The Enhanced Meat-Eating Experience

It’s like two AdVerves in one week! Or, not. Chris Baccus, Angela Natividad and Kelly Eidson throw down. There was swearing... but it shall be gone from final edit me thinks. Other than that? Tune in, turn on. (Show notes here.)

Download the show now or listen through iTunes.

Tags: Beancast

Btw...

- Animalswithcasts.com (Via.)
- Imagine the doorpizes at this event. (Via.)
- The Trump’s hair infographic. (Via.)
- HumancentiPad. (Via.)
- The map of metal. (Via.)

AdVerve 72 - Southern Ad Law on the Skids

Play the show now.

Michael McSunas (@adlawguy) of law firm CBS – the guy we'll call if things go awry – joins us to give perspective from the legal point of view. We cover everything from incest gameshows (they exist! ...don’t they?) to legal precedent in cases involving both source protection and blogger disclosure. Sprinkled in is an uncomfortable discourse about death and whether your online "assets" count as property; if so, who do they go to?

For those following my southern evolution, Mike tosses in a swashbuckling funeral tale. And in case you were wondering how any of this comes together, Angela manages to string it all along with everything she learned at MIPTV, that scary place in Cannes where TV networks sell each other what they'll be selling you, all year long. (And if you're in Japan, yes, you may just get an incest game show.) It’s techno mind tricks & legalese and it’s not for the faint of heart.

Linksopolis:

- Official trailer for Tiffany Shlain's "Connected: An Autoblogography about Life, Death and Technology." Her keynote talk here.
- Piracy: a path to innovation? Matt Mason's full 30-minute talk at MIPTV.
- Cmp.ly: the new short-linky way of disclosing.
- Baroness Greenfield talks about how the brain is changing as a function of technology use.

Escape the usual traffic and come to Hilton Head.

Welcome all you Heritage fans as you escape the usual traffic to add to ours here in SUNNY, BALLS-HOT Hilton Head! (They also left off the part on my brochure about gators and rattlesnakes before I moved down here.) As for turtle boy, there’s something about the voice that’s interesting. Yes, I’ve already had to break for a turtle in the road and no, I haven’t been to the pristine beach side of the island yet, but I’m working on it.

Btw...

- Men in kilts window washing.
- Idiot Repellant does not come in roll-on.
- It’s okay, go ahead, punch the screen – I’ll wait.
- It still all comes down to “Where’s the restroom?”
- Multi-flushers smell like shame.

They say people don’t read long copy anymore... or is it people don’t write long copy. ENNYway, here you go. More long copy after the jump.

The way they were.

Look at that snappy design from 1997. BACK WHEN THEY WERE OPEN 24/7. Ha.

Btw...

- Beware the guy version. IF THERE WAS ONE. (Via dcgott.com.)
- Enjoy the sun while we can. #2012
- Keep kids drug free or she comes to your house.
- Ikea is every day! (Via.)

Some people would think this is a demeaning job.

(Via.)

So if a phone rings in the forest...

And you thought only American agencies blew money on stunts. HA! Japanese mobile carrier Docomo’s Touchwood is pretty impressive, though.

Because Coachella is all about dead people.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I owe you people some content. HERE YOU GO: So as you drive through Bob Hope’s Lost American Golftopia, aka, The Palm Springs™,  you discover what may be the best outdoor sign to grace this blog... and Coachella. Why burden your loved ones after you’re gone? PRE-PAY THAT SHIT! Anyway, it was a fun hot mess: 97° > copy & paste x three days, kids. A little more photage action after the jump...

This is why the world ends in 2012.

We... WE did this. The Slobstopper? (Via.)

Pleasure hunting.

She jumps, and then you do something with her. Sorry, that’s all I got. I’m off to Coachella for a different kind of pleasure hunting.

Let the winning begin.

HA! See what I wrote there? See what Empire City wrote too. Little tame compared to their horse love past, but, ride the MaSheen wave while you can I guess. (Via, via.)

Live Your Life As If Every Blog Post’s Gon Be Your Last.

Visualization of the social space continues, 2.0 style with Advice From A Rapper.

(Via.)

Btw...

- Name a better movie title.
- Bacon cologne.
- War in the queue.
- Twighlight as extensionalist stick figures.
- Videoage for your bad self.

Jumping on a Bandwagon.

Now that my conversion to good ol’ boy is underway – more and more I’m talking in country music lyrics – I’m taking a few minutes out to promote an event down Savannah way called Bandwagon, April 15-17. Billed as “a three-day celebration of the fine art of music + event poster design, with exhibitions, panels, workshops, film screenings, live music and a chance to meet and learn from more than 40 of the industry’s most inspiring artists.” Aka, insane national/regional design talent hanging sharing poster love. It’s run by my new digs BFG, and highlights what agencies need to do more of in by creating/owning something of their own outside regular client work.

The other event BFG sponsors is Geekend, now in its second year and hitting Savannah and Boston this fall, with openings still available for speakers and presenters, so hit us up.

(If you feel like liking you some too, we won’t say no: Bandwagon & Geekend on Facebook.)

Overheard internet...

Yep, they wrote it...


“Flash mobs are the advertising equivalent of exposing your genitals in a public park.”
– Hacks


“UAW, all lazy fat uneducated overpaid morons that sit around all day drinking beer and popping viagra that the rest of us pay for with their cadillac insurance plan!!! ”
– wendy


“This road can lead only to an increase in the presence of penises in MMS messages.”
– eoghan

Sure, why not joust.

So, it’s actually possible to do a creative lottery ad without a giant fucking red Powerball. Who knew.

(Via.)

Btw...

- Chicks with Steve Buscemi eyes.
- BK’s back to the future is back to the drawing board.
- Redbox don’t break.
- Star Trexels.
- “Hey, Beer Tweet!”

AdVerve 71: Autobahnned

*













Play the show now.

Where we get AT&T’s Director of Social Media Chris Baccus to join us for among other things, gas station taco talk, organic food, and why Detroit does deserve a second chance. So yeah, pretty much what you’d expect from a guy who works for a telecom. It is nothing short of pure aural delight the likes of which you haven’t heard... since the last episode. Yes, we even get him to work in an f-bomb and as we also discuss the general online disdain for mobile carriers.

Linkage:

- Chris on Twitter
- His Auto Marketing blog.
- Him on Dallas Food Nerd.
- The brilliantly named GAS STATION TACOS.
- Barfblog.com

*OF COURSE ADVERVE & CHRIS DO NOT SUPPORT DRIVING AND TALKING ON CELL PHONE TOUCHTRONIC DEVICES.
(Image.)

The end of the world is coming... again.

As if on cue after the Jon Favreau post on visionaries promoting films, along comes a website for Terrence Malik’s latest film Tree of Life with Brad Pitt and Malik vet Sean Penn. (Trailer after the jump.) If you’ve watched any of his previous movies, you know he deals with not only man’s place but purpose in the world. Based on the clips at the site twowaysthroughlife.com, looks like he’s exploring those themes via a sci-fi slash supernatural lens. (As far as sci-fi and deep meanings behind man’s purpose goes, watch Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey from 1968 if you’ve never seen it. Like Malik, Kubrik is/was a slow build.)

As Favreau said though, it may be less likely these days, if not impossible, to find that visionary who knows how to promote a film from a place of confidence, but maybe it’s that there are less visionary filmmakers making visionary films. Making something worth shouting about that transcends the noise around it speaks louder than any ad campaign.

In the future, all pancakes will be made from latex balloons.

There’s a lot going on in this 1969 IHOP commercial. Was there a better spot for the times? I THINK NOT! Not that I was, but if you weren’t experimenting with drugs listening to your longhair pinko commie hippie music, you were exploring new worlds made popular by Star Trek and 2001. Far out... man.

How do you market cowboys and aliens?

Very carefully.

“The days of a bold visionary having a gut feeling and going with their gut, regardless of what feedback they’re getting, those days are over, I think.”

That’s director Jon Favreau talking about his latest film Cowboys & Aliens and how he sees visionary people behind the marketing of movies as almost extinct now. When I saw the trailer at the movies, it was like, well, here’s about the only two genres left that nobody bothered to mix before now... sci-fi and westerns, and can they make it work? (Least not in this medium. Comics have always played with different themes and time and place.) I had a different take on the vision part as far as marketing goes though.

There may be less of the visionary personality to drive a film, but movies and movie promotions themselves can still break out. They need to, especially when they don’t feature an A-lister to help boost opening weekend.

Btw...

- Woz back at Apple?
- When chairs get thrown, can omelettes be too far behind? (Via.)
- Gap out to change its brand... again.
- That is a damn skippy beer ad/poster/sign, innit.
- Yep: Ideas are chemical reaction.
- Movin’ on up — to Anchorage.

F*ck You. Pay Me.

A double-double! Two post titles that include a bleeped f-bomb in a row! And they say I don’t bring the value. Or, it’s just coincidence that I’m in find a good story reblog it mode. (Wait, that’s what half the internet does.) Anyway, check out Mule Design co-founder Mike Monteiro’s take on getting paid, among other things. If you’ve been in the business for just a few years time, you’ve likely heard the client excuses he mentions.

(Via.)

“Who the f*ck is Wayne Gretzky?”

This is where I used to have time to get deep on weekends with posts, but not no more (lately) thanks to an insane work schedule. One of the recent clips I saw though is not only one hockey fan(atics) will dig, but any fan with a spouse who don’t share a passion for sports. It’s from Kevin Smith’s Too Fat For 40, a live-concert film including takes on things like his Southwest Airlines fiasco and filming with Bruce Willis. One of the segments also covers his love for hockey and Wayne Gretzky. Setting the stage for the clip above, he’s talking about hearing what the grosses were for Zack and Miri Make a Porno which leads him into hockey rant territory. Normally, whenever you watch Smith, you notice that the dude knows how to tell a story, but this one is especially poignant, funny and sad. Appropriately, fittingly, etc.ingly, he’s also got a new movie coming out about hockey called Hit Somebody with John Goodman as a sage slash coach. (Supposedly, the film will be Smith’s last.) Enjoy this clip though or stream the whole thing on Netflix.

Yankees and Red Sox can both suck it.

I’m not a baseball guy, sorry.

(Via.)

Cue mud bombs.

It’s loud and brash and over the top but so lush you don’t care. Iron by Woodkid.

(Via.)

“We are an insatiable oasis of Gullivers in a shrinking, Lilliputian world of technology.”

It’s a doc from 1976 hosted by William Shatner, but it’s more like Stardate: Awesome.

(Via C-Monster.)

No clever headline, just an arresting image of an installation in Bogota, Columbia to promote the International Day of Landmine Awareness.

BK introduces the Every Meat Known to Mankind burger.

BEEF, CHICKEN & PORK? It’s a damn Meatpocalypse! Just what Japan needs more of in times like these. (Via.)

Mini lust.

It’s got a pan flute, so what’s not to love?

Move over Wii.

Kevin Butler and PlayStation Move now playing in the Wii sandbox.

The way they were.

Oh, that’s some office supply fun, circa 1996.

Overheard internet...

Yep, they wrote it...


“It has been rumored hby those in the know that a nuclear plant in the US was built on a fault (cheapest land). To solve the *stability* issue, construction teams dumped I-beams and so forth into the fault as a lattice and then poured concrete. The same sort of remedy may work in Japan.”
– NoPrisoners 


“Perhaps this is an allusion to "I am Legend", with Will Smith and his German shephard in the bathtub? The gun is suggestive.”
– Aman


“That $300m is really $150m.  And after fed. taxes and NY taxes it's $82m. Split 7 ways it's about $12m a piece. Not a fortune and you can easily spend it if you're just a dopey gov't office worker who knows nothing about business. People with the worker mentality never understand money. And let's hope none of them agree to a press conference because these things are just free advertising to induce people to waste money on lotto tickets.”
– Miss Wanker

Car chases DO make movies better.

Probably the second best movie-brand tie-in commercial. Hell yeah Dodge Charger.

Btw...

- Target gets Klipped.
- Yoga kittens.
- We must be running out of tennis courts.
- Blockbattle.
- Text align centaur. (Via.)
- The Japanese love Jaco.

Cue the music... or not.

The Dove Men Care series running during March Madness has some nice genuine stories, but the music is killing me with how it undermines the narrative. Theme from the Lone Ranger? The HELL?

Always. Be. Charging.

Put down that standee... standees are for chargers. Alec Baldwin adding a different voice to the ongoing “What’s in your wallet” campaign from Capitol One. A Daniel cameo woulda been nice too.

Beware the touchtronic device.

Aka, why iStuff was invented.

“It’s basically an album you can hang out in.”

"...an unlikely mix of Zelda and art house cinema. The game is equal parts Robert E. Howard, Shigeru Miyamoto, Tim Schaefer, with some David Lynch thrown in for good measure — but there is more to S&S than these inspirations."

I don’t know what the full game experience is going to be like yet, but based on quotes like that and the trailer, this looks awesome. Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcer (S:S&S EP) bills this nearly completed iPhone/iPad game as a “21st century interpretation of the archetypical old school videogame adventure, designed exclusively for Apple’s touchtronic machinery.” Looks like someone into vector got tired of the MOH FPS aesthetic and decided to rewrite some rules by turning it on its head.

(Via.)

Truckvertising.

More like fuelvertising as Denver’s Great Divide Brewing Co. has their trucks take longer delivery routes, which means you get to spend more quality time with big-ass copy. Not a bad approach. Think off all the brands you identify with by their trucks. (Bigfoot Yeti version after the jump).

Jeremy danced in class today.

We don’t need no... dance routines. Lot going on in here for tUnE-yArDs’ Bizness.

(Director: Mimi Cave.)

Castration, aisle 12.

Move over Progressive Insurance, the collective dumbing down and further wimpification of guys in advertising has reached new depths. Congrats.

BeanCast 146: $4.88 Plastic

It’s what Walmart is all about, no matter what ad campaign they throw out there. Look, just admit it and admit you shop there. We’ll remain friends, really. Pepsi? Yeah, they get theirs too. Joining in with more strategic strategery was Mitch Joel, President, Twist Image,  Tim Nudd, blogs editor, Adweek and Leah Zagha, freelance copywriter (IdeaThinkerUpper.com).

Download the show now or listen through iTunes.

Tags: Beancast

Continue rocking, rock stars.

Rock stars need excellent teeth, and you can help! (Ask about tuition assistance.)

(Tip.)

The few, the proud.

I’ve always loved this spot. Cool thing still about advertising is that even though it’s a small industry, you can end up working with someone who came up with spots like this and never know it. Long car rides to presentations tend to reveal things like that. In this case, the spot was a departure for the Marines in a post-911 world where maybe the appeal of a serve your country message was fading while the cost of college became real for people, not to mention you’re always selling death as a potential by-product of what it is you do. No easy task. Even though there was always this special vibe around them, they needed something bigger to reinforce the heritage of what they were and are, about.

Let’s pass.

I see Let’s Dance and I expect Bowie. Nice execution though, but I hate the track.

(Via.)