Random Acts of Logos.

Ok, another MTLB value add: random acts of logos that harken back to a time when people hearkened. And no, you can’t make the logo bigger by clicking.

Tags: advertising, brands, logos

Weekly What The...?

• Cool illustrations from a Fresno artist – (Via snarkmarket.com/blog.)
• A great Starbucks prank – Why, it’s old, but LOL funny! (Via Bob From Accounting.)
• Woofer – It’s, um, oh never mind. (via Cool Hunting.)
• Woman to build house out of 747 – Yup. Although I bet her DVD collection will suck. (Via Drudge)

Tags: weird, odd news

A day late and a post short.

Yeah, yeah. I blew yesterday off. So let me jump back into things with some quick thoughts:

• Design: This is what happens when you open a design contest up to marketing people. I love Guy, but to quote the design Raven - never more, please.

• Random: Ok, NJ officially has the worst drivers on the planet. (I haven’t been to Rome where I’ve heard it’s a nightmare), but compared to Guadalara, LA, Chicago, NYC, Boston and Miami? NJ drivers are the worst. I hate them.

• Techie: From the still needs fixing depart: TypePad, TypeKey, Type-AB neg and all the blog software freaks really need to do add a “notify by email” feature when you post a comment on any blog. That way, you don’t have to to go back and check a post to see if new comments were added. This would be a HUGE timesaver.
  

Tags: advertising, brands, viral

More than 70 Munch works missing.

From cbc.ca comes word that 70 Munch works are missing. I’m so mad I could Scream. Any creative will remember this Colbain meets canvas from college that put the artist on the map. The rest of us just went, what the hell was he smoking? It’s how most of us felt when we realized we wouldn’t have the project done in time for class. If you happen to start seeing these show up on ebay, chances are, they may just be fake.

On a related note, museum guard Heinrich Von Hess was said to comment that “maybe the thief took them to add a few smiles, which is ok because the damn things always creeped me out during the night shift.”


Tags: advertising, axe, brands, Munch’s The Scream

Greek copy generator.

Go to Lipsum for Greek text* to use in any of your layout work. Punch in the number of paragraphs you want, hit ‘generate’ and you’re good to go. (I’ll also leave a permanent link to the right in my design section.)

*Sure, it’s technically Latin, but everyone refers to it as Greek copy.

Tags: advertising, brands, dummy text

VW 'Safe' Spots - and a rant.

Props to admonkey Mack at adverb. Might have missed this otherwise. At first, I thought he was referring to their VW ‘Safe’ website which showed a test crash scene. Ok, it was pretty cool. However, I didn’t realize he meant the spot on TV which I just saw last night.

To quote Mack: holyfuckingshit.

After downloading and watching them, I have a few nitpicks. It’s going to really come off like I hate them – I don’t. I loved them. All I’m saying is that it’s the weekend, it’s my blog, and I’ve spent the week laying down guest host PR smack over at Media Orchard. I need to vent with a more in-depth look at these, rather than my usual “I like them – I don’t like them” posts.

SEMI-SPOILER ALERT: First off, if you haven’t yet, see the spots before reading on. (Click here or on the image first before reading on.) There are two spots in the series: ‘Like’ and ‘Movie,’ and both show violent footage. (Via links at putfile.com. and adage.com.)

Nit #1: The set-up. Perfect for Movie, not so for Life though. In Movie you are not ready for what happens since the conversation in the car is everyday stuff. In Life, it is as well, but the topic being discussed is about the very thing that they will unknowingly experience soon enough. The spot tipped its hand by doing that. It felt a little predictable to have someone say one thing, and then, that scenario just happens to present itself?

#2: Payoff line at the end. Didn’t need it. The shock of the accident was enough. Putting the emphasis on that takes focus off the shock of what happened two secs prior and undermines the safety message. Unintentional perhaps, but that resulting effect smacks of trying to be cute. It’s like Beavis and Butthead came on and said “Shit! heh, heh. He said shit!” Are we to think hey awesome! They almost swore on TV! Edited like that, I question whether this spot is about swearing or safety.

#3: The placement of the spot. I saw it while watching FX’s Thief. Side rant here, but, if you haven’t yet watched FX’s lineup, it may be the best on TV with The Shield, Thief and Rescue Me. There, I said it. (Although Larry Sanders and The Office (U.K.) version are the two best shows ever made. Ever.)

So in Thief, there was a key scene in an episode involving the exact scenario found in the Movie spot, down to the shot angle and editing. I hope this was accidental on CP+B’s part. Otherwise, we now have ad agencies ripping content from “Today’s Headlines!” and from TV shows. That’s the crap Law & Order does. Having already seen that in the show, the shock of the VW spot was lessoned, and I felt a little ripped off.

#4: Editing. The post also jumped too quickly to post-accident with everyone standing around seemingly unharmed. A by-product of today’s live-action cartoon violence culture where nobody ever really gets hurt when they jump 30 feet from a building. Or perhaps when they hit a boulder in a Capitol One spot or an angel watching a jogger get hit by a dumptruck. Please.

Also, why aren’t these spots available on VW’s Safe site? (VW corporate archive has only older stuff.)

Like I said though, I loved them. Which leads to my final nit relating to viral work or spots like these that eventually end up on social sites:

#5 Proper Credit. The image above has a CP+B sign-off. That’s what it should have at least. Instead, you’ll see an Ad Age logo on it when you look at the real clip in that link. And because of that, this one is for Ad Age, YouTube or anyone else ‘branding’ a viral or video with their logo:

When you spend your life developing spots like these or any other creative, when you spend so much time at an agency that you’re working until 6:00 pm the next night, or you’re on location for days on end filming, forgoing any semblance of a family or social life, putting up with annoying clients and killing yourself to meet a deadline and put the best work out there you can, then you can put your fucking logo on it.

Until then? Credit the agency that did the work with their logo or name, not yours. (Yes it’s an unwritten rule that agencies never brand their work openly, although that barrier will be broken by someone soon.) In this case though, when you circulate someone else’s work without the context of the article it came, the identity of the agency gets lost.

So why not do it? You sure got increased traffic from carrying it. My Pledge of Quality to the now 17 people reading this: you won’t see a MTLB logo on someone else’s stuff I blog about. (And if you ever do, it will be really small.)

The other thing that these spots do is raise awareness of accident scenarios that can happen in real life. Over at Ernie Schenck’s blog, there was a column a while back on some controversial PSA work out of New Zealand. It got everyone nuts because of the graphic nature of the work.

(When I asked the creative responsible for it if he may have gone too far in scaring viewers beyond the target audience, he felt shock value was more important to wake people up, regardless of who may have seen it, including the kids it was supposed to protect.)

In this case with VW, I think CP+B did a good job walking the line between shock value and safety awareness – although I doubt legal would have let them get any more violent than they did. Even though the CSI-saturated American public is not quite ready yet, they’re getting a little better at accepting spots like these.

Tags: advertising, brands, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, VW

Weekly What The...?

• Peeps for peeps – That favorite yellow candy all growd up.
• Graffiti trackers – New take on an old art. (Via guerrilla-innovation.)
• Fainting Goats – That’s what I said people – fainting goats. (Via aNYthing.)

Tags: weird

I have An Idea Portfolio Night Review.

Attention all creatives, career changers and juniors:

This may be one of the best things ihaveanidea.org has done to help develop talent. For a $35 entry fee, you can get your work seen by three industry-leading creatives on May 4th at nine different locations in the U.S. (including NYC and Boston) as well as Canada. Considering the hundreds of dollars on whacky self-promo stuff and mini-books we’ve all spent at times, that’s a real bargain. Details can be found at ihaveanidea.org.

A word of caution after reading the fine print for my audience: no interactive, no design work – just advertising, (AD’s and writers only), and work will be screened prior to entry selection to make the cut, so it has to be great. No work in progress. Your online portfolio will be made available to all reviewers from all the locations, but that work has to be posted by May 1st before the main review. My work here is done. Now go forth and kick ass people.



Tags: advertising, brands, I have An Idea, Ignacio Oreamuno

Google Defends Censorship Practices Again.

From Breibart:

We simply don’t have a choice but to follow the law,” chief executive officer Eric Schmidt told reporters at a launch ceremony in Beijing for the US Internet giant's new Chinese name...

Ok, Google heart on sleeve time here, but every time they come out and say that? I will respond: bullshit.

They absolutely have a choice. Everyone does. The position is indefensible. Still, they could make history by refusing to give in to China: simply tell them no. They would be heros in the court of public opinion everywhere. Google stock would go higher.

Otherwise, they’re still condoning censorship no matter how they try and excuse it. It’s the same thing as if they supported burning some books in parts of the U.S., and then rationalized it by saying “hey, at least we’re not burning all of them.”

So some freedom in China is better than none? Little by little, the ‘voice of freedom’ will lead to massive change there, huh. Do they really think the Chinese government will ever allow all constraints to be lifted in the media, entertainment and public discourse?

If so, the Kool-Aid must be tasty.


Tags: advertising, brands, Google censorship

My second job starts today.

Driving the cab for extra cash over at Idea Grove’s Media Orchard. First hour and I already made a rookie mistake. Cool. Hopefully, Scott will have about 11 visitors left–if I’m lucky.

Tags: advertising, brands, PR

Just another blog from a Guy.

Mac guru Guy Kawasaki talks about his first 100 days blogging. Some interesting insights.

Tags: apple, Guy Kawasaki, Mac

Another CEO spot. What a shock.

Add David Neeleman, JetBlue CEO (pictured) to the list of CEOs that just have to appear in the spots for their own company. Jim Koch (Sam Adams), Scott Blum (Half.com) and of course the granddaddy of them all - chicken man. I've met Frank Perdue, and David, you sir, are no Frank Perdue. (Actually, he sort of is with his dry delivery and all, I just had to work that line in somewhere.) The new spots are interesting because while they incorporate a funky illustration style, the spot addresses consumer complaints about airlines in a cool way. It’s not all talking-head David. It’s not the self-serving spots from Charles Schwabb either with actor's as cartoons with their odd copy. (They just broke yesterday so keep an eye out. Once I get a link, I’ll post it, so relax.)

UPDATE: So I feel like a jerk with the 50 typos above, but more importantly finding out the creative on the spots was Robert Rasmussen, who I had for an instructor at adhouse in NY last summer.

Tags: advertising, Jet Blue

Guest hosting.

Listen up bitches. These next two weeks will be crazy for me. In addition to my new gig, I’m filling in and co-hosting over at Idea Grove’s Media Orchard. Also sharing co-hosting duties is Andrea Weckerle of New Millenium PR. Media Orchard is primarily a PR blog, but I plan to bring a creative’s POV to things. And, the good Lord willing as we take it one game at a time, I hope I can keep their page views from declining too much. Well, that’s the goal anyway. So, posts here may be shorter and sweeter than usual, but you can always check out the rants I throw down over the Orchard if you need a fix of whatever it is I do here.

Cool astronomy stuff.

Most creatives look at stuff nobody else does. And ok, I admit it, I like funky phenomena in nature. No, not things like, how did Jessica Simpson even get a SAG card. I mean some things you see every day (or not) and may never have been aware of. The first image is taken from the International Space Station of the recent total eclipse - as it appeared from space. The dark spot is the shadow of the moon on the earth. Courtesy of boingboing.net. In effect, it’s what the earth looks like when not exposed to the sun, but here, the effect is eerie.

And the second cool thing is the so-called “Belt of Venus” seen at sunset. It appears as a bluish-gray haze just below an area of bright pink right after the sun goes below the opposite horizon. That’s actually the earth’s shadow being reflected into the atmosphere.

Tags: astronomy, Belt of Venus, lunar eclipse, phenomena, Jessica Simpson

Weekly What The...?

• New type of art class – Have to give him an A for effort in even trying to pull this one off, even though I never brought singles to my figure drawing class.

• Bottled water for dogs – That’s what I said. (Via trend central.)

• Portable 64 gig USB drive, for only $2,800 – (That’s insane people.)


Tags: art class, axe, pet products, strippers, USB drives

Look At Different Things.

So by now, you’re going, what does Shatner, Tattoo and this post have to do with being an art director? It’s just stuff that I notice, stuff that inspires. Do that as well in your work. Look at stuff. Read new things. Watch new movies. You have to, or eventually you don’t improve your visual vocabulary that you use in your work.

So if you’re an AD, (or even if you’re not), see this movie: Hero with Jet Li. (Originally called Ying xiong.) I saw it again on USA or TBS recently, but it was dubbed and they killed it. (Love it when the U.S. changes a name, pans & scans or dubbs a movie.) Watch the original with subtitles on to get the full story – even if you hate them – because the imagery and shots are really just too beautiful to skip. Truly epic. (Yes there are some fight-by-wire sequences, but not as much as Crouching Tiger.)

And, that’s important because there really aren’t any epics being made on the order that they used to. All of our content these days is being compressed to fit onto a cellphone screen or iPod. ‘Epic’ in these formats just looks like, well, ants. And that sucks in one regard: we’re getting tighter, more microscopic and more restrained. We need to expand though, to move beyond limits or format constraints. That’s what creatives do, right?

Tags: advertising, Hero, Jet Li, movies

More Stars Gone Wild.

I don’t make this stuff up. From aNYthing, (who is the new... whatever ‘it’ is) comes a classic that I’ll be adding to my celebrity archive. Hervé Villechaize singing on the old Dinah Shore Show. You may remember Tattoo from Fantasy Island but you might not remember her show. (She was Springer before Springer was Springer – in other words, she could bring it. Whatever ‘it’ was.) Worth the price alone for the blank look on the face of Isaac Hayes at the start.

Tags: Fantasy Island, Isaac Hayes, Tattoo, viral video, Herve Villechaize

Eyeglasses and creatives...

I just started a new gig today. Buried to the ceiling with work, so my pearls of wisdom runneth under this sec, more goodies tonight kiddies. But here's one I noticed today, someone made the comment some time ago, (maybe it was John and Tug at American Copywriter on a podcast), that creatives have really strange eyeglasses. You know the brand: the Buddy Holly thick-as-shit black frame deals. I noticed that today after several meetings with the new 'team', and damn if wasn't true. I guess Buddy was a CD.

Tags: advertising, Buddy Holly, creative director

Branding in Sports - How Far is Too Far?

I’m bringing up a topic I wrote about on my Fox sports blog. Timeout, and also because I’m going to see the revamped Metro, er, Red Bulls next week in a Brand-strava-ganza with Shakira and Wyclef at halftime. You can read my original post to set the stage.

How far should brands really go in sponsoring something they think will connect with consumers? With the 50,000 kid-friendly events they have scheduled for this game, it’ll be interesting to see if any of it has an effect. For the more diehard fans of the game like me, it won’t. Simply because it doesn’t do anything to promote aspects of the game itself. Instead, these events make it more fun to attend a game.

And that’s a two-fold problem for MLS and Red Bull, (and brands in general). For MLS, until they do things to build grassroot interest that get kids playing soocer in the same manner our generation picked up a ball and glove, their efforts will be misguided. For brands, they can’t just throw cool t-shirts at kids and think their work is done.

I’d like Red Bull to sponsor these teams from Sierra Leone, for they are truly dedicated to the sport. That is what true passion for this sport is all about, and brands need to respect that. You don’t need halftime shows.

Tags: advertising, brands, Red Bull, soccer, sports

Oh. My. God.

Ok, props to Idea Grove for this gem. Scott. You just made my year. This is just the kind of quality content you can expect when I guess host next week. (Via tsuredzuregusa.)

Tags: Captain Kirk, funny video, William Shatner, Star Trek

Busiest Pizza Box. Ever.

Whatever happened to “You’ve Tried The Rest, Now Try The Best!”as the only copy on a pizza box? I saw this large pizza box from Pizza Hut^® and I’ll be damned if I can find any white space left on it. They’re running a family promotion-deal and the top is covered with questions to ask each other. Forget pizza, let’s ask questions:

Q: What were your favorite games when you were a kid?

A: One of my favorites was called ‘Who Flinches First?,’ and it involved a train.

Tags: games, Pizza Hut, pizza

Flight 93 movie – Too Soon?

Here’s the trailer. We all know what happened. With this and Oliver Stone’s version coming out in August, is it still too soon?

Tags: 9-11, Flight 93

Ford: Life in DUI?

I’m talking drinking and driving. Generally, it’s been pretty much accepted that you don’t mix drinking and driving imagery. Some might argue that there’s no usage shown here. I’m sure that’s what the brand told itself when they ran it by legal too. Nice try. That glass isn’t exactly topped off though. In case you haven’t seen it, the copy in the ad on the left says “Life” while the copy on the right say “Life In D.” Should be more like Life in DUI. And, the tan line on the ring finger means watch out world, after this last round, I’m taking the Fusion out for a spin. Sweet.

Actually, the reason the guy’s wife left him is because he lost his job at Ford. The napkin under his hand? That’s actually his buyout offer which turns out to be much less than he expected. Explains why he’s in the bar drinking. Alone. But damn if the photography doesn’t look awesome.

Tags: advertising, DUI, Ford

Designers Writing Gooder.

Well-written essay on the value of writing and why designers need to, over at ideas on ideas.

Weekly What the...?

• Liza Minnelli is sick of sex – No really. She is.
• Let go of my Mego – In keeping with the ‘rhymes with Lego’ theme established last week. (Hey, I don’t make this stuff up.)
• iBuzz – I’ve officially seen it all now. (via gizmag.)
Tags: bizarre, iBuzz, Liza Minnelli, odd,weird

Here’s Something You Never See.

Another outdoor from a spirit brand in a lower-income neighborhood. What a shock. Strange, the few times I took the family to Cape Cod on vacation, I never saw any outdoor signs in Hyannis with Ted Kennedy hawking Gordon’s Gin.

Why is that?

I have no problem with using John Leguizamo in any ad. I love his work. You have only to see his HBO specials or movies to know that the dude has skillz. And, advertising to your customer base using someone of the same background or ethnicity is hardly new.

But, how obvious, how easy was it to place this where they did: In this case, a lower-income Hispanic neighborhood. The obvious lack of placement of these outdoor signs anywhere but in urban settings speaks volumes of the brand’s intent: Let’s get them drunk, after all, they’re our best customer, right?

If I had a better shot, you’d see the rest of the street and some pretty beat-down buildings. Not to mention what appeared to be a temporary carwash leaning so far to the left I swear it was going to fall on my car. What an excellent media buy by the agency. Just excellent!

Also worth noting is the 12-point disclaimer on the lower left. The one about drinking responsibly that you would never see driving by at even 20 mph. Hey Hennessey - how about placing responsibly?

Charles Barkley once said he wasn’t a role-model, and that he wasn’t here to raise my kids. Ok, fair enough. But don’t celebrities still have a responsibility to know where their image will be used, and the stereotype it reinforces when it’s this blatant?

I was going to post this some time back, but copyranter put up an article on race in advertising the same day and I didn’t want this treading on that. It’s still a topic that needs discussing–not ignoring. Hadji Williams, a Chicago creative, also writes about this in his book which I’m tearing through now, Knock the Hustle.

I’ve worked in a few of these so-called specialty/multi-cultural/ethnic agencies a few years back. But few brands, if any, will acknowledge what’s really at play here. The “specialty” agency will do this kind of work because, while a brand wants to get all the market share it can, it really doesn’t want to be associated with, you know, a “certain type of people.” Brands will say “That’s what our partner agency is for.”

You mean the partner you don’t even think enough of to have in the same building with you?

Tags: advertising, brands

Wah, Nobody Reads My Blog, Wahhhh.

How many of us have thought that when we first started out? Well, Dr. Dennis Leary is here to help with increasing your blog traffic, whining blog freaks. Go from zero to hero in like, eight months with a few tricks. I’m huge in Budapest now thanks to them. Several people have given good advice, such as B.L. Ochman’s column. I first learned from Ben Popken, editor of Consumerist.com. If you’re using Blogger, go here too.

This advice is mostly for the newbie trying to increase views once you have your blog set up and have a unique ‘voice’ for what your blog is all about. I can’t help you there, that part’s up to you. So, if you have a well-known name with a built-in audience already, or you pulled a stunt to help launch a blog, you probably don’t need my advice on traffic. Otherwise, the average blogger will find it takes a fair amount of time to build site traffic.

1) Blog Self-promotion. Start treating the whole process of promoting your blog like any other thing you do to promote yourself, (especially if you’re a freelancer.) Blogs need love too. Remember kids, 32.1 million blogs and counting. Poor grammar here but, you won’t get noticed doing nothing amongst numbers like that. For any of these tips, it really comes down to out of sight, out of mind. What are you doing to make sure people see your blog?

2) Start posting at other blogs too. Not just comments for comment’s sake either. Post only on those blogs that match what your blog is all about. Make sure you put your blog’s URL in the username section.

3) Then, link to others. In addition to sites I really like, my blogroll to the right includes names of blogs who have either linked to me, or who are popular. Reference any article you find with a trackback link if you can. People on other blogs will see your blog links to what they’re reading, and just may visit you. A lot of sites like technorati will also display who links to who. (And follow up with blogs who link to yours, like a new one I discovered today linking back to me, Adverb, run by Mack Simpson: Adman of Action. Thanks Mack, the check is in the mail, just don’t cash it right away.)

4) Get a sitemeter account. Or any FREE site-monitoring tool to show you who is viewing your blog from where. Once you see where people are viewing from, you can show up at their blog and leave a post, which might spur them to stop lurking at yours and post.

5) Register with blog directories. Look at my “HELPING SPREAD BLOG LOVE” list. All those are FREE directories I registered my blog name at. Go to each one and fill out a directory listing for your blog. Add relevant tags for each that accurately describe your blog.

6) Ping your blog. (Keep it clean.) Right after this is posted, I will go to my bookmarked page, and it will automatically ping all the servers I selected when I registered with Blogflux.com. This refreshes your blog listing and lets their servers know new content has been added to your blog.

7) Use Tags. When someone goes to technorati to type in “Barbie,” or some other term, and you have “Barbie” as a tag, your blog shows up in their search results. Make your tags relevant to the topic at hand though.

8) RSS feeds. Make sure there are both RSS and email subscription links for your blog displayed at or near the top of your page. I use feedblitz.com for email subscriptions. Don’t make readers work too hard to get in touch with you or link. Keep all other contact info like a regular email address above the fold, (for the rooks - that term means keep stuff on the top half of a web page, like a newspaper, hence 'fold.')

With so many blogs out there, you have to make it easy for people to access yours. This stuff will help.

Tags: blogging, promoting blogs, site traffic, tags

Search by Color at Retrievr.

From the more cool art director stuff department...

So the other day I’m thinking why hasn’t anyone invented a search engine based on the use of visual images? Too late. Retrievr uses colors. Select a color or even a tint of one from the palette on the left, and images with those hues start appearing. Bizzare? Useful? Not sure. But it’s cool. Via Copyranter, which lead me to They Call Me Concha, which led me to Nobody Reads This. And by now you’re probably going, why all the links chief? Well, I tell ya’ sport, sometimes, chasing links can lead to some cool stuff. Why not spend a few minutes and see where things lead from time to time? Not to mention, you have to give props to the people or site where you find stuff.

Tags: advertising, art director, image search, Retrievr

My Treehouse Never Looked Like This.

Now, I know I’m pretty good with a router and circular saw, but I doubt I’ll be making anything that looks like this in the near future. Via aNYthing comes these Free Spirit Spheres from British Columbia.

Tags: woodworking

Cool Sidewalk Art.

Don’t worry, I bring the AD stuff when I feel like it yo. Via Compfused.com is this series of very cool trompe l'oeil illustrations on the street. And if any creative out there even has to ask about that term, I have one of these ready for you. Thanks jOjO.

Tags: drawings, illustrations, trompe l'oeil

Brand Lag

Brand lag: That period of time where brands try and catch up to what its consumers are currently doing. (Ok, I’m a Wiki protologism whore, sue me.) There’s a few relevant discussions going on at Micro Persuasion and Church of the Customer about social sites like YouTube, Myspace and Flickr acting as a brand’s focus group for what’s being said about them. Sometimes, brands and brand managers just take forever to catch up and listen to what their consumers want.

These days though, that can negatively affect a brand more than it ever has because bad word-of-mouse can make or break you sooner, rather than later, while good wom can put you on the map. Worth noting is a manifesto at Cluetrain I discovered a while back and linked to, but still is very relevant to the issue of consumers rising up.


Tags: brands, consumer, marketing

Voice Blah-Blah-Blogging

First, if you read this blog regularly, you know I’ve given shit to Google for their political sellout in both this country as well in China. Their position is indefensible as far as I am concerned, no matter how many Google bloogers who work on Blogger talk about the Power of Google. (Jim Jones talked about the power of Kool-Aid if I’m not mistaken too. For the newbies, swap out Jim for David Koresh at Waco.) I’d be a hypocrite for at least not acknowledging the sugar-daddy connection, since after all, this blog is run by Blogger under Google.

Ok, disclaimer out of the way. A friend tipped me off to a few sites that offer free voice blogging services. One of them is Blogger’s version called Audioblogger.com. It offers you the chance to call in and post a 5-minute recorded message converted to an audio file that you save on your blog. More time is available, but for a quick podcast, it’s pretty damn cool. Is this the end of the 30 minute podcast? Doubtful, but worth a try.

Tags: audio blogging, podcast, voiceblog

The Day We All Got Replaced.

Mark it down: March 27th, 2006. That’s so when you look back 50 years from now as you’re on the run from large machines with guns, you’ll wonder exactly when was the precise date that Terminator and Hal got their start. Via Drudge comes word that scientists have fused brain cells with a computer chip. This is isn’t simply six million dollar man stuff. This will be the basis for cognitive thought in computers.

Ok, so we land a guy on the moon, then we invent this computer brain, but still can’t invent something that makes a decent creative brief?

Tags: computers, HAL, terminator

She Blinded Me With... Blogs.

Since I mentioned Hammer’s blog, I have to mention Thomas Dolby’s. (The Dolby of She Blinded Me With Science fame for the new-school out there.) I’ll bring the old school when I think you kids are nodding off. He’s back on tour and hitting NYC among other places in May, although I’m seeing one of the shows in PA.

My work here is done.

Tags: Thomas Dolby

New IBM spot. Shades of Life of Brian.

Just caught the new spot from IBM and the fluttering butterfly-thing-type objects flying around. Here’s what gets me. Not the funky effects - it’s the masses repeating a single mantra of individuality like robots. Life of Brian flashback: Brian implores his followers to get a life by asking “Repeat after me – I am an individual!” And of course they all repeat “I am an individual!”

IBM just doesn’t get it.

Tags: IBM, Life of Brian

NEW FEATURE: What the...?

Because I’m all about added value here, I want to reward the 23 readers out there. A lot of blogs have weekly summaries covering the best of that week. Not me. I plan on covering the oddest. It could be stuff that is off-topic, bizarre or cool that might not normally warrant regular inclusion, but otherwise deserving of a brief mention. And so, without further delay:

• The Brick Testament The Lego Parables of Jesus.

• BorgBlog (Not a sci-fi thing, but Jim Borgman, an editorial cartoonist whose work you’ll instantly recognize. Cool look at how a cartoonist refines an idea.)

Tags: bizarre, Jim Borgman, odd, weird

Congrats! You’re Our 100 Millionth Blog!

According to technorati, they were monitoring 29 million blogs not less than three weeks ago. Today it’s up around 31.2 million. At that rate, they will exceed 100 million blogs in about 16 months. That’s almost 1 million blogs a week. (One for every voice in my head.) But seriously, I have three blogs, so I’m sure blogamists like me skew the numbers. (Blogamist and blogamy both being new protologisms I coined today at Wiki referrring to people who have more than one blog at a time.) Either way, that blog growth rate is insane if it holds up. And the way things in the computer world tend to grow exponentially, I think we could see that mark sooner rather than later. Watch, it’ll be reached by some guy named Bob, in like, Wyoming with a flyfishing blog.

Ah, so many Bob blogs, so little time...

Tags: blogs, trends

Dieter thanks you. I thank you.

Ok monkey bitches. Thanks to your votes, a lot of them, my homies The Zambonis, (America’s only real Rock ’n Roll Hockey band), won for Best Monkey Song over at Blender. What does that mean exactly? Well, no cash for me or anyone reading this. Just knowing you helped put a boot in The Beastie Boys’ ass though, should be reward enough.

Tags: bands, Dieter, hockey, sprockets, zamboni, The Zambonis

Co-branding Run Amok?

Co-branding hell. I know it’s generally a good idea: get brands to cross promote each other. A tried and true tactic of even your’s truly. .MAKE THE LOGO BIGGER ...But this 6-page menage-a-brand spread currently running seems really forced. Details, Puma and NBC’s The Office, all together. A virtual logo orgy in print.

The disclaimers listed throughout are as tacky as the subject matter usually is: golf fashion. This could have been a really cool idea had Puma not talked down to its audience and broken the fourth wall. Is the message that they don’t know if they want this to be satire, ...MAKE THE LOGO BIGGER... or something so real you’ll confuse it with the magazine? Are we that stupid that we can’t tell the difference? The line that kills me though is “No celebrity endorsment implied.” Like Walken said to Hopper in True Romance: “Come again?”

Both Puma and Details are doing just that by using the popularity of the actual show to endorse their products! Maybe it’s fitting in a way that this whole layout is executed in a less-than-deft manner, considering most golf clothes suck and the fact that the US version of The Office went over the brilliant edge established by the UK version.

All I can think is that Diet Pepsi was too busy in the recording studio to take part.

*Click image to enlarge sample page, because you’re so stupid, you wouldn’t have figured this out on your own.

**Diet Pepsi, Puma, Details Magazines and NBC’s The Office in no way have endorsed this post. I can’t even confirm if they’ve read it. No animals were hurt in the making of this post. Furthermore, no animals were paid to be in this post, including a monkey. Reader makes no implied warranty comparison as seen by a doctor for erections lasting longer than a :30 second spot.

Tags: Details magazine, Puma sneakers, The Office

“I” vs. “We”

My Pledge of Quality to you, my loyal audience from Bejing to Ohio: I will never use the word “We” when reviewing an ad, viral or anything remotely related to marketing. After all, if you’re just one individual running a blog, “We here at...” doesn’t really sound right.

Simple Photoshop & PowerPoint tricks.

Yes, I actually talk about stuff relating to art direction and offer Stupid Art Director tips from time to time, imagine that. There are two simple things I just picked up, and I thought I knew it all. One for Photoshop and the other for Powerpoint.

In Photoshop, to select any color on your screen, including windows in the background, do this: open any doc > click on the eye dropper tool > click, hold and drag the eye dropper across the entire screen to select a foreground color. To get a background swatch color, hold down the “option” key then click, hold and drag across the screen. (Useful when you want to sample a color of a stock photo without downloading then opening it.) This may not work on all Photoshop versions and operating systems. Tip courtesy of Lifehacker.

As for PowerPoint, it can be annoying to have to hit the ‘down arrow’ key to advance to page 600 in a 642-page deck during a presentation. Not any more kids. To view a master list of all the slides in your presentation at once, make sure you’re in Slide Show mode, and simply right click your mouse – the list pops up.

Tags: Photoshop tips, PowerPoint tips

PR Makeovers

This one’s for all the peeps coming over from Idea Grove, where Scott Baradell has been kind enough to ask me to help out doing a guest co-host stint on his blog in April. So for those visitors, what I normally riff on here is anything related to marketing, design and advertising, in both serious and not so serious ways. Most of the Idea Grove material will capture that and hopefully bring a different POV to the PR profession. Or it will ruin blogging as we know it.

In honor of that, I thought I’d throw out a quick topic on something that people like myself who are in the non-PR world assume happens all the time: You get a call late at night from a manager of a celebrity or athlete who was caught with a quart of (insert favorite alcoholic beverage here) and (insert name of favorite other celebrity or athlete you love to hate here) in the back of (insert closed quarter space here). The fallout from that one event haunts them and you for years while you’re left picking up the pieces. Or, if skillfully manipulated, a series of these mishaps could actually make a career. Mike Rourke, or was that Mickey Tyson, comes to mind.

So here are a few potential clients seemingly in need of a PR makeover this year:

1) Mr. Britney Spears. (Really, ’nuff said. Just hope Kev teaches the baby that the H on the faucett doesn’t stand for Hookah.)

2) Terrell Owens. (His agent Drew says he’s a changed person, so you know I believe him. Just like he was in Philly, and S.F. before that.)

3) The Axis of Evil. (I mean, you collectively threaten a few countries and a few million people, and you’re labeled. SO unfair.)

4) Canada. (They didn’t do anything. That’s the problem. They just kinda sit there.)

5) The Amish. (Same deal. Maybe they can attack Canada. Give themselves a little street cred.)

And your choices?

Tags: Idea Grove, PR

Consumer Generated Make The Logo Bigger

Ok, with all the talk of CGM and CGC lately, I thought I’d give you bitches a shot at generating your own consumer versions of Make The Logo Bigger. Use a Post-it and a Sharpie. Use an Etch-O-Sketch. (Bonus for guessing the original name for it too.) Use anything you want. Scan it. Email it. I’ll post it.

Tags: cgc, cgm, Etch-O-Sketch, logo, Post-it note, sharpie

Job Opening: Spam Copywriter

Who doesn’t want to add 10 inches to their PhD when they invest in overseas real estate? Hey, I don’t mind spam, as long as it’s written well. Most spam isn’t however. Almost every subject line I see looks like someone dropped a kickball on a keyboard and went with the first combination of letters that came up. Can’t we get some copywriters to help out? The following spam I received shows the depth of the problem.

(Oh, and if you were kind enough to send me any of it, I would be remiss if I didn’t share your name and email with the world, seeing that you felt it important enough to share your valuable ‘once-in-a-lifetime offer’ with me.) [My comments in brackets]

Gibbs Golden says: She was doing well after the surgery...
[Glad to hear it. Thought it was touch and go for a while.]

Susanna Gage tells me there’s a: New Breed of Equity Trader
[Susanna Gage - UFC Stock Champion!]

YSavannahDeczkyi5@hawk.igs.net from K-PAX says: it's Gaultiero recriminatory
[Ok, timeout. What the fuck does that even mean?]

Andra-fStoneg6@exis.net: Siegfried Bottoms elmer
[see above]

Bhtxsn@ambassadordivers.com wants me to know: it cough so clinic uncompromising
[Yes it does, doesn’t it.]

Pennington_Brockv@esbe.co.uk warns: apostrophe policemen suntanning
[Apparently, the UK has a few bobbies possessive about their SPF.]

WeKarlenTw@imailbox.net warns: it's calcium Georgianna
[That's why you keep breaking your hip - you don’t take enough.]

BwShellysheldonVz@ghg.net lites it up when he says: Cameron, in cannabis chemistry
[Duuuuuuuuuude!]

I think after reading, you’ll agree: if we all act fast, we can improve spam for all of us. Won’t you please help? After all, a 10" PhD is a terrible thing to waste.

Tags: spam

This House Fire Brought to You by Kingsford Charcoal.

As creatives, we always look for new avenues where we can try and promote brands. Apparently, that now includes your local newscast at dinnertime. (If anyone is home to actually eat dinner or watch TV at that time.) Not exactly a new concept, placement, excuse me, ‘integrated commercial content’ on morning news shows has been around since before Hank Kingsley, er, Willard Scott pushed Smucker’s jam on the Today show. ABC, NBC and CBS all say they allow no production integration on their morning shows. Hmmm, GMA broadcasting segments from a Norwegian Cruise Line doesn’t count I guess. Newsflash to the big three: if a product is in your show, whether the brand paid for it or not? It’s still placement.

Scarier though, is the threat of placement directly into real news stories. All so stations can be competitive and save on production costs. (That’s the justification by stations in the article at least.) Still looks though like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic that is network TV. When’s the last time my loyal audience got their news at 6:00 pm via TV anyway? On the other hand, this might work if more sponsors sign on. In addition to the Kingsford Daily House Fire report, what about a 60-second Shooting Round-up sponsored by Smith & Wesson? Or, an online investment firm for the story on the corrupt city councilman?

(Via Drudge.)

Tags: news, placement

Vote For Monkey! Touch the Monkey!

You know I like monkeys. Especially songs about them. So twisting the words of both Christopher Walken and Dieter, I implore you to go down this road and vote for Monkey! A friend of mine, Mat O., copywriter and drummer for the hockey band The Zambonis, needs people to vote for their song on Blender.com as best monkey song. The title is Hockey Monkey, and is edging out some fierce competition from Beastie Boys and Foo Fighters. Once there, scroll down below the Dave Chapelle pic on the right. And remember bitches: vote early – and often.

Tags: bands, Dieter, hockey, sprockets, zamboni, Zambonis

FREE STARBUCKS COFFEE

Sorry for the cheap trick, but who doesn’t want free? Check out this simple, yet cool Starbucks promo using a simple two-frame animated banner. (Good tomorrow, 3/15/06 between 10 am - 12 noon.) Now, the subtle We ‘Heart’ You using a cup for the heart is stretching the visual metaphor a little, but it’s little stuff like this ad that gets attention. Shows you don’t need a huge marketing effort to run something like this either.

Online banner ad drives traffic to store and also to a mobile phone for a reminder, (text “STARBUCKS” to “94637” billed at regular mobile rates). Seems integrated to me. Naysayers might go, yeah, it’s a no-brainer when you give your product away. Well, ok, but they’re not giving all their product away. You have a set time to take part in the offer at your closest Starbuck’s. Joe Jaffe is nodding as we speak.


Tags: brand, coffee, mobile phone, Starbuck’s, viral

Can’t Blog This!

That’s right kids. Much love to the Hammer. The internet saves yet another former star from Fox Reality Show Hell. However, I’m still looking for the blogs of Vanilla Ice and Tone Loc, who are both apparently now on tour. Be afraid.

Be very afraid.


Tags: Hammer Time, MC hammer, Vanilla Ice

My 15 nanoseconds of fame.

In case you missed it, I made it to the big time. Listen for yourself, courtesy of NPR. (Real Player required.) In case you’re coming over from NPR or the Consumerist Worst Company competition, welcome to Make The Logo Bigger. Yet another blog on advertising, marketing and whatever else it is an art director does.

Tags: bracket, consumer, Enron, Halliburton, March Madness, npr

Do people hate a company because of its logo?

Lest I get sued for implying Wonder bread is the official choice of the Nazi party while they Google facts about Enron, I’m not. During my NPR Market Watch interview segment about the Consumerist Worst Company debate, (airing this Monday, time TBD), an interesting question came up from reporter Ian Chillag which I hope makes it in:

Do people hate a company because of its logo?

After thinking of 22 responses in 3,000 words, I basically said no. My answer now is the one I wish I had given then: Don’t kill the messenger. The negative or positive feeling you have for a company or a brand is influenced by the quality of its product, and how it conducts business. Nothing more – nothing less.

A great logo won’t help a company that people despise. (Great pr might, but that’s another topic.) And likewise, a symbol that’s been around minding its own business can have negative associations attributed to it after the fact. The obvious example is the symbol of the swastika originally found in Hindu culture, later adopted by Native Americans and later, the Nazi party.

The high-profile logos above were chosen to represent various industries, from consumer products to a political movement. Some bad, some good. Again, as with any logo, how you react to it is based on how you feel about the brand. You can even test the theory without a logo if you prefer:

Coke. Halliburton. Sprint. Wal-Mart.

You probably reacted the same way, simply based on the emotion and experiences you have invested with those names. In all cases, your reactions transcend the vessel chosen to manifest the particular corporate image. In other words:

Don’t kill the messenger.

Tags: Enron, Google, logos, pr, swastika


The "Google" logo is a trademark of Google. The Wonder logo is a registered trademark of Interstate Bakeries Corporation.

Honda Element and animals use cutting-edge technology.

On the way into Manhattan tonight via the West Side Highway, I passed an outdoor for the Honda Element and its Animal campaign. As you might already know, the regular quarter-page print ads are a series of pithy comments between the Element and various animals. (That’s right, I said pithy.) The outdoor though poses a question and asks the driver whizzing by in two nano seconds to find the answer by using that most advanced of technologies – am radio. I then tune to 1630 am. (I did even though it was out of range after a mile or so.) However, considering the length of copy on the outdoor, it grabbed attention quite well. Once you tune into the radio station, the audio from the website spot plays. Great use of one media drving you to another, and great repurposing of existing content as a little editing turns a :30 TV spot into a radio spot.

Tags: advertising, am radio, Honda Element, viral

Make the logo bigger on NPR’s Market Watch

Ok, I’m a media whore. I admit it. Later today I’ll be interviewed on a segment for Market Watch on NPR related to the Consumerist Worst Company debate. Air time and date to be announced. I promise I won’t forget the little people on my way to the middle.

Tags: advertising, blogs, brands, npr

Do companies only use 10% of their brands?

Over at Ernie Schenck’s blog, there’s a debate on brands not utilizing non-traditional methods of marketing as much as we thought they might by now. It’s said we only use 10% of our brains. Well, can’t the same be said of agencies and companies using only 10% of their brand?

Instead of simply being waitstaff taking orders from the client, (say to make the logo bigger on the latest brochure), don’t both agency and client have a responsibility as partners to help develop the brand together in new ways that reflect the changes we’re seeing today?
(Continued here.)
I thought about this a little more after several recent pitches I was involved with. In both cases, there was only a narrow focus given to just one aspect of the brand, and almost no thought given to non-traditional techniques. With so many other avenues besides print available, it’s frustrating to watch agencies cling to what they’ve always done in past situations, just because it’s in their comfort zone. Evolve or die.

The old model says that spec is a four-letter word. Forget about showing new ideas without being paid for it! Well, I have to think that since more brands like Sprint will offer demos of their product to customers to have at it and give feedback, agencies might have to start doing that with their creative and their clients more and more. In my experience, I’ve watched a few clients take their brands elsewhere because they weren’t being shown new thinking by their existing agencies.

It seems like an obvious thing to try, but how many agencies actually do it? Would it be such a bad thing? Creatives and account group might actually get to break out of their routine and flex a little. Showing some far out ideas once in a while might just keep the client interested longer.

And for brands, those new ideas can come from anywhere, even though the vast number of agencies working on a brand don’t believe in this practice. Heaven forbid the sales promo agency comes up with a tagline the ad agency didn’t think of.

Check out a great book – Life After The 30-Second Spot from Joe Jaffe – a must-read for brands and agencies afraid or unsure of just how to take the journey into the modern age. I found myself nodding in agreement at the same mistakes agencies and brands make time after time.

I’ve always felt it’s not just one aspect of your marketing efforts (like print) that will promote or sell your brand – it’s all the things working together. You have to integrate everything, from the promotion, to the display, to the online component and beyond. This doesn’t mean either that you have to be a Crispin or W+K working on Coke or VW to apply this to your day-to-day brands.

Tags: brands, einstein, marketing, viral

Good-bye anonymous comments, we hardly knew yee?

My immortal beloved transplanted state NJ, is proposing a ban on all anonymous posts in internet forums. It’s intended to prevent potential defamatory remarks about someone that may damage a person’s image or reputation. Thing is, anonymous comments are what make the internet great. Like Alan Smithee at the end of a bad movie when the director wants to disassociate themselves from it, what better way to save your career from further damage?

In this case, write a bad post? No problem. Anonymous has you covered. Write a good post? No problem there either. Anonymous did it. And if it’s a great post, it may even go down in quote history: “When in Rome... .” Yeah, he wrote that. Anonymous can also be plural. Anonymous persons. In fact, Seinfeld rode to fame on the back of anonymous. “Who are these people?” Why, they’re anonymous Jerry.

(Continued here.)

While the intention may be good, this just smacks of a kneejerk reaction to an isolated case where someone got their feelings hurt online, and now they want a little internet justice. Another example of a scenario least likely to happen dictating policy for everyone. Great going NJ, but I got you beat before this is even signed into law:

1) More people will just sign up for even more fake yahoo usernames like ‘Ilovedisco1976’ and post comments through a series of proxy sites OR,

2) It will force them to become lawyers who smoke, and start including editorial disclaimers along with the words, ‘allegedly.’ Not to mention, chalking the post up to being nothing more than one’s own ‘opinion.’ You only need look at talk radio and all the comments made under the guise of ‘commentary’ to see how much shit they get away with.

Yo, NJ, there’s really an easier way. Just have the webmasters turn off the anonymous comments feature found in most forums. Works like a charm. Besides, anonymous comments are the training wheels of internet forum lurkers everywhere while they get their courage up to use a real user name like, makethelogobigger.

Yeah, no fake name there.



Tags: forums, law, New Jersey

Crispin podcast.

No, not Crispin Glover. Although THAT would be cool as hell. CP&B kids. I’m surprised more of the large agencies don’t have them. Check it out here, The Hook, with Katie Kempner. Big thanks to Tom at It’s All Advertising for the tip. It’s on webmasterfmradio.com, another online radio station. Listen deep to the cognitive anthropologists at work. The cast with Jeff Benjamin, their interactive CD is worth a listen, covering subservient chicken and a whole bunch of stuff.

Two words: sound quality. A cell phone to record the show? If you could afford to give everyone video iPods for x-mas, can’t you afford an iTalk mic on top of the iPod to record the show at least, or a $29 Logitech USB Mic?

Tags: CP&B, crispin, podcast, internet radio

It’s official: smokers more hated than lawyers.

Based on the seven people that actually visit here, smoking wins hands down as the one industry people wouldn’t work for in the recent poll. Which means lawyers actually win a popularity contest for once. Unless you’re a smoking lawyer, then it’s back to hell for you. (And in Australia, if you’re a smoking lawyer driving your BMW, watch out.)

Nintendo: Real fake viral?

By way of Tom who runs It’s All Advertising blog, comes this series of Nintendo virals. Whether created by the brand or consumers, it’s hard to tell. But, it seems like the way a true brand spot of the future could be. (Well, in advertising time, that word future usually means two weeks.) The people on stage recreating a scene from Super Mario is brilliant. Ok, that may be a bit much. A cure for cancer is brilliant. But, when you see these regular people doing cool things with your product, hats off. I have to agree with Tom: Nintendo, if you’re listening, this is how you get consumers to support a brand.



Tags: advertising, blogs, brands, Nintendo,

New AXE brandfotainment.

Brand. Informercial. Game show. Entertainment. Ad.

Brandfotainment? Where will this eventually end up. New AXE spots breaking this weekend tie-in with a 30-minute Spike TV special on Exposing The Order of The Serpentine. First, Druids for Emerald, now Serpentines. (Next up – Warlocks?) The reason for the campaign is to make guys shed their shame of the questionable hook up. Website is standard on this model naturally. What better way than through a serpentine wrapped in the style of a late-night local-access style spot. Funky on the order of the recent Slim Jim Fairy Snapmother spots. Definitely a departure from the more subtle “How Dirty Boys Get Clean” campaign.



Tags: advertising, axe, brands, viral

What type of client would you not work for?

I was thinking of this after reading the critique of Kobe’s new ad in several blogs. It got me thinking what would I do, if I was at WK and had a chance to work on that spot. (I wouldn’t have as much time to blog for one), but I would say to Kobe, be 100% honest or don’t do it at all.

Charles Barkley wants to tell me he’s not a role model for my kids. Fine I could deal, because that's his disclaimer which basically says “After I go out and drop 87 on the Clippers tonight, I’m hitting the town.” At least you know where you stand, and that with Charles, anything’s possible later that evening.

But, it also shows that we don’t have as much say in who our agencies take work from unless you’re high up in the food chain. Do we have a choice? Yes. Always. We can be the hero with principles and quit, or shut-up and take the check. (And I’ve refused a few checks and taken others over the years depending.)

Having said that, which industries would you rather not take on work from? Either due to moral priniciple or because it’s a creative black hole:

	Tobacco
	Gaming
	Alcohol
	Pharmaceutical
	Legal/Law
	Celebrity/Athlete with questionable past
Free polls from Pollhost.com