Bi-Weekly What The...?

• Cool Lightening Pics – (Fark)
• Granny loses rocket launcher – So that’s why the kids always want to go to grandma’s. (Buzzpage)
• Camera Mount for Soda Bottles – That’s not a bad idea actually. (Strange New Products)
• Service for Agoraphobics Makes Trees Laugh – That’s more like it. (Gizmodo)
• Paintings executed in the dust on a Mini’s windscreen – Either really cool or WAY too much free time. (boingboing)

Tags: weird, odd news

BOLD MOVES from Ford – or not?

I complained about Ford after the Kermit spot ran during this year’s Super Bowl. I thought that after the company had suffered through so many troubles/layoffs, putting out happy ads with a frog was insulting to those who lost their jobs.

Thought that maybe they should focus on being honest for a change and stop wasting all that money on post. Well, looks like they finally have with their new Bold Moves site which is also supported by TV and print.

Only thing now is ‘Bold Moves’ seems to serve two different masters. On one hand, it’s this “EPISODE ONE: CHANGE OR DIE” ominous warning that the company needs to turn things around. On the other, the TV is a whimsical spot with a woman in a drive-thru drycleaners making a ‘Bold Move’ by paying for the laundry of the guy she sees in the car behind her.

Bipolar much? Maybe if they showed Sonia (pictured) pulling into to get her suit for the interview she has to go on ’cuz she’s out of work, then ok, I get it.

The different executions sends a mixed message though. Which are you: a serious corporation in damage control mode trying to rebuild yourself? Or a fun, whimsical and spontaneous kinda gal without a care in the world?

Both are each valid executions off of the same theme, but not at the same time. Stick with just one direction and I’m sold.

Tags: advertising, Bold Moves, Ford, brands, viral

The Black Keys.

Ok, damn. Where did they come from again? Just heard them today. Cross between a White Stripes, Led Zep and Robert Johnson garage rehearsal. Funky, bluuuuesey, soulful. Just when I was bitching about a lack of any real blues influence in contemporary music, (besides the late great Stevie Ray). Check them out. Some cool photos of the band at Flickr too.

Tags: advertising, Black Keys, brands, viral

Here’s to the 6%’ers.

A survey out today says only six percent of Americans are watching the World Cup, as compared with 35% who watched the Superbowl, (er, the ‘Big Game’ for any NFL lawyers out there). I’d like to see those numbers after the World Cup is over, but it confirms what us 6’ers know: nobody gives a crap about soccer here – yet. And looking at a breakdown of England from this footie animation at Weebl’s Stuff, it confirms what most Americans think soccer is about anyway.

Tags: advertising, World Cup, brands, viral

Random acts of logo.

There’s a lotta badness out there beginning with the letter Z, along with one or two good. Zama ITT seems to be having the most fun though. Once again, check out this place if you need a logo at two in the morning and CVS is closed.

< (Click to enlarge)

Tags: advertising, brands, viral

MacBook Pro heat challenge.

Ok, I love Macs as you know, but see that item to the left? It’s a tile from the shuttle. I suggest next time instead of titanium, iGod Jobs uses them on the bottom of the MacBook Pro for future production runs.

I challenge anyone to keep their hand under this laptop for more than :60 seconds without burning or stinging your hand.

Tags: advertising, Apple computer, brands, viral, MacBook Pro

Attention Nike controversy seekers...

...ok, one more time: see right shoulder with red symbol? See outstretched arms? Celebration, not blasphemy.

We good?

Tags: advertising, Nike, brands, viral, World Cup

(Image via AP.)

Ever receive the Xmas gift from hell? You’re not alone.

Sports ties? Ceramic ashtrays? Not even close at Aunt Mary Nation. This spinoff blog from Freelance Fred addresses the common bond we all share come holiday time. Start with the backgrounder section here and you’ll be up to Xmas gift-from-Hell speed in no time.

Tags: advertising, brands, viral

Good choice for a pet?

I’m tellin ya, after seeing this clip, a goldfish will turn out to be a safer choice.

Happy Birthday Logo Freaks.

This blog is now one year older, but is it wiser? Probably not, but I am. What started out as a way to vent the day-to-day bullshit morphed into some interesting connections that kept me from turning into Jack with an axe.

As evidenced by the blogroll here, I’ve discovered a wide range of blogs and even wider range of viewpoints. Allow me then, in no particular order, to give a shout out to all those I tend to ‘co-blogitate’ with on a regular basis...

Sometimes you come across a few podcaster American Copywriter-types that share the ad love. Others write so much gooder than you, you’d even read their instructions for changing a tire, such as Mark Fenske, and a guy named Ernie. Others like highjive and Hadji (who knocks the hustle) write about the race issues that nobody in the biz brings up, unless a lawsuit or congressional committee prompts it of course.

If you produce shit ads? Beware the copyranter. And if you produce a shit agency? George Parker will be there to keep you honest with two great locations to serve you better. Of course you have the big boys at adland adrag, adfreak, adpulp and adrants who provided a lot of material from which I riffed and spread viral love. And is there any other kind?

Yes.

The love of diverse PR issues by Andrea on her blog and Scott over at his Media Orchard, done with class. And if there’s a better definition of a Creative Director, someone needs to tell Mack Simpson about it, ’cuz I haven’t seen one.

Of course, after you help this blog take off and clear the treetops, you naturally turn to helping consumers, just like Ben did over at Consumerist.

Don’t forget tunes when you’re chillin’ at 3:00 am and the regular playlist won’t cut it. You wanna point the mouse to radio paradise, radio IO or xtc radio on iTunes. And when you’re up at that hour and trying to come up with some funky NY trolling, you turn to a New York thing of course.

Or when it’s 3:00 pm down under when it’s 3:00 am stateside, Rikki’s up if you want to give her your stuff. And speaking of places down under NJ, Fred’s a guy down south who, like me believes, “no freelance project too small, no invoice too large.”

And if I forget anyone, I’m sure I’ll hear about it. Otherwise, the new crop of recent peeps I’ve come across will be added to next year’s list and blogroll. So thanks for stopping by and as always, thanks for shopping Make the Logo Bigger.

Tags: advertising, brands, viral

(Image linked from acclaim posters.)

The Evil Side of The Business.

Know what your boss is really up to? Yup. Me neither. And I’m here to tell ya’ Mack Simpson over at Adverb has one helluva tale, that sadly, is far from being an isolated case. Read about it here.

Tags: advertising, brands, viral

“I don’t tip.”

“You know what this is? It’s the world’s smallest violin, playing just for the waitresses.” Mr. Pink from Resevoir Dogs, and you know the type. Always has an excuse or philosophy on why they don’t tip, or worse, they skip out after the first round and a plate of nachos. “Oh, I’ll catch ya’ later with that I promise. Meeting. Gotta run.” Can you tell I watched too much World Cup action in the bar this week?

For the record, SOP is that I drop 20% unless the waitstaff gives me reason not to. I also do not count the undue influence of extra !!!!’s after the chatroom shorthand of THNX!!!!, usually signed by a ‘Kristi’ or ‘Julie’ with a heart shape over the ‘i’ instead of a tittle.

So Logo freaks, any tipping horror stories to recount?

Tags: advertising, brands, viral

‘End Times’ Religious Groups Want Apocalypse Soon

Yeah, right. They just want to get out of buying gifts at Christmas.

(Via Drudge.)

Tags: advertising, brands, viral

Next Head Coach - US National Soccer Team.

I nominate Rich Kotite, former NY Jets head coach. Why not. He couldn’t do any worse than Bruce Arena. As a fan, you may tend to put it on the players at times to perform, and I do. But players actually have to be out there on a regular basis, not switched every single game. For what? Just to mix up a line-up to see what happens?

Not to mention the shit game plan to work with they had. One that has them playing with a defensive mindset the whole time. Soccer is a game of creating opportunities. Taking risks. We show none of it. Bruce, how’s it feel knowing you have job security no matter how the team plays? Please do the right thing, step down. The US program needs a change in its basic playing philosophy or it will continue to be regarded as the redheaded step-child of futbol.

Tags: advertising, brands, viral, World Cup

All Hail Majmunce, The Little Monkey.

Whaaaatttt the hell is that you say? Well, you’re staring at it. That little “at” thingy we use about 3,000 times every day in our emails. The Serbs call it, Majmunce. Which loosely translated means: The Little Monkey. (Eerily similar to the Keanu Reeves film, Little Buddha.) Surprisingly in many countries though, the monkey theme is a popular one.

Check out the rest of the names here. Either way, no matter what animal or object name you assign it, it’s an interesting history of something we both use, and overlook. (Courtesy of giussani.com.) And you Swedes. Crazy.

Tags: advertising, brands, viral, email

Chill out people.

I thought it would die down by now, but with all the uproar over this ad from W+K, I gotta say, chill out. To anyone protesting this: do you really believe this is a mock crucifixion of Rooney? IT’S A FLAG. IT’S HIS CELEBRATION AFTER SCORING. (Becks does the same thing with Posh, or so I’ve heard.)

Uh, don’t you think, if they really wanted to ‘just do it right,’ they would have had him without white makeup, head hung low with hands loose, and four red paint marks; one for each hand and one on his lower right and upper left torso? You people need to stop looking for stigmata in cups of Dannon^® yogurt.

Tags: advertising, Nike, brands, World Cup, Rooney

¡Adios Lego!

Lego announced plans today to move operations to Mexico and lay off 300 workers in CT and 900 in Denmark. Guess we know what the US-Mexico fence will now be made of.

Lego toys - building border walls American workers don’t want to.

Tags: advertising, Lego, brands, viral

Digital camera blocking technology created.

I’ve had my version in development for years. It’s called a freakin’ hand people.

(Via Drudge.)

Tags: advertising, brands, viral

Photos, copyrights and skeevy magazines, oh my.

Continuing the photog theme this morning, interesting interview over at Media Orchard with Scott and photographer Michael Yon. He shot an Iraq war image and basically had it used by Shock magazine on their cover without his permission. You may recall the image, which you can see here at his website. Judging by the overwhelming response on his blog, Shock, you done did it now.

Tags: advertising, brands, viral

Random photogness.

Some cool photos from photographer David J. Nightingale to look at on a hot, humid East Coast representin’ Tuesday morning. Click each to advance to the next. (Thanks Ayash.)

Tags: advertising, brands, viral

Teen, mom sue MySpace.com for $30 million

Hate to say I told you so, but I knew it was only a matter of time. First the hot coffee’s too hot at McDonald’s so let’s sue them. Now, the predators are too predatory on Myspace. What a shock. Never saw that one coming. You know what? Arrest the dude and sue him, that’s a given of course. I’m sorry the girl was assaulted, but someone slap the mother for letting her 14-year old hook up with the guy. Then sue her for stupidity. (Via Drudge.)

Tags: advertising, brands, viral

Nestle to buy Jenny Craig.

Guess Kirstie was getting too thin. Talk about brand irony. Well, at least now the meetings will have better treats. (Via Drudge.)

Tags: advertising, brands, Jenny Craig, Nestle

Topless Texas Teacher Terminated.

C’mon Austin. Only thing she’s guilty of is having a flickr account with Getty image rejects on it. It’s not like she’s a history teacher, she teaches art. What did you expect? Just ask her to remove the topless images and nobody notices, but don’t railroad her with some bs about performance issues.

(Click to enlarge.)

Tags: advertising, World Cup, brands, viral

Adventures in tamper resistant packaging - (or who put the hell in clamshell?)

Now, I know shoplifting is a serious problem for retail to deal with, but have you tried to open a package for oh, pretty much anything lately? You either need a pack of wild ferrets or Arnold’s knife from Commando just to make a dent. This is ridiculous. How does making a package tamper-resistant on store shelves make things any better when it also turns out to be ‘opening-resistant’ to customers who purchase it? Or maybe it’s designed to frustrate shoplifters so much they’ll return the thing?

This seems like two-steps forward, one step back for the industry. Most stores already have metal detectors and $4 an hour rent-a-cops at the exits, is anyone really getting out of the store with this stuff anymore? Only value-add I see is a raise in Johnson & Johnson’s stock price, seeing how as I’ve tripled my Band-Aids^® purchases for all the cuts I got in trying to open these damn things.

(DISCLAIMER: No fingers were cut in the opening of this package. Tools used to open: Fiskers^® and one beat-to-shit Sears Craftsman^® flathead screwdriver.)

Tags: advertising, brands, viral, clamshell packaging

Red, White & Blue, 1-1.

Now you’re awake fellas. That’s leaving it on the field with only nine players. Tip of the cap on a job well done despite The Ref From Hell. Keep attacking the middle with Donovan and good things will happen. Ghana? You bitches are next.

Tags: advertising, World Cup, brands, viral

Inspiration, futbol and blogging.

Sometimes? No clue what to post. Really. Take tonight.

As I started to blah-blah-blog, I thought maybe it should be about what creatives do for inspiration, a theme I’ve done before, but then futbol/footbal/soccer popped into my head, followed by movies.

Now I was left figuring out how to make them all play nice in one post. Go figure.

See, what we do isn’t always about layouts and meetings. Or meetings about layouts. You have to see things outside of work. Go out. Live a little, (or a lot). Be influenced by new things outside of your comfort zone even. BASE jump, read a book on the Amish or stalk someone.*

You know, expand your horizons.

Other times, if you’re into it like I am, you look for cool occurrances in nature. Influences can be visual like that, or they can be in the form of a new CD. Whatever. The thing is, be open to experiencing it.

Because a lot of times, those things we come across in life, even on the way to work, end up in our work. At least in mine they try to. The more you new things you add now, the more you have to draw on later.

So where does futbol come in? Well, I arrived at said theme when I came across a Newsweek article on Fernando Meirelles. Who you might ask? Oh, you ad bitches, you’re killing me. He’s the director of City of God and The Constant Gardener. And now I discover, director of some really cool futbol docs over at Nike’s soccer site. See his films.

More on futbol in a sec...

But when I first saw the DVD cover for Gardener in Hollywood Video, I thought Ralph Fiennes – chick flick meets Merchant Ivory, right? Normally, I’d say yes and that box is slammed back faster than a toothless biker on a police cruiser’s hood from an episode of COPS. But, I’d heard an interview with the director on The Treatment with Elvis Mitchell, and was interested in seeing it.

(The Treatment is a podcast and is a perfect example of a serendipitous find: hands-down the best interviews on film around that get to the heart of why directors, screenwriters and actors do what they do.)

Was it worth the $4.29 rental? Yep. Shot beautifully with nice plot turns, while revealing other cultures you won’t always see portrayed in movies, not to mention, the evil side of pharma.

And as for his futbol docs? Amazing and inspiring. I watch the dedication and fun the players show and start to wonder how will the US beat Italy tomorrow. I am a homer for the US, no doubt. Our team is good. Not worthy of the FIFA ranking bestowed on them entering the Cup, but better than they were four years ago.

And yet, watching those little films, it’s so clear why we have a long way to go: we don’t ‘play.’

The kids in the films, and in other countries play the way we did when we picked up a ball and glove as kids. We would stay outside until mom yelled for us to come inside because it was too dark.

Not anymore.

A friend who played club ball in Brasil mentioned something to me some time ago that I think is the reason for this, but it didn’t really hit home until I saw these spots. He said there the kids play without formal lessons. There are no clinics. No practices. No skills coaches. They get that later when they sign on with club teams as apprentices.

Kids just show up and play.

And I believe it’s this lack of rules and rigid control that fosters the ‘free play’ and ‘creativity’ you see later in the adult game. Nobody there when they were young to coach the spirit out of them. Which gets me thinking of how many kids these days quit sports because they say it’s just not fun anymore.

(If we appplied this to the biz, more agencies would do well to let their creatives just play, instead of regurgitate what the account team said the client wanted.)

But until we have the mindset in this country that Fernando captured, one that shows kids playing futbol, barefoot, on payment, (episode one), or teens playing with one leg on crutches, (episode five), we won’t really compete with the world’s best.

And if you hate futbol or can’t stand Ralph? Then sorry. You’ll just have to look at some funky jets and sprites and enjoy a few cold ones this weekend.

I’m out.

*My lawyer says I’m only kidding.

Tags: advertising, brands, viral, World Cup, jets and sprites, Fernando Meirelles

Stump The Dude, aka more time-killing stupidity.

Hey, just what is it you think creatives do during halftime of the UK/Trinidad and Tobago match in a bar anyway? Come up with stupid questions like these. Besides me, questions three and four actually stumped everyone who I asked later in the day.

So if you can, ad bitches, name:

1) The first three movies you saw.

2) The first three records you owned.

3) The first three CDs you bought.

4) The first three DVDs you bought.

(And you don’t have to name them here if you want. I realize the shock of seeing Police Academy 6 is outweighed only by admitting it on a blog. Like I just did. I’m just curious if you can or have I just been standing next to the microwave too long?)

Tags: advertising, The Dude, The Big Lebowski brands, viral, World Cup

Beef Jerkey - for kids.

From the you gotta be kidding department comes jerky for kids, jerky. Forget oranges at halftime. Bet it’s also made from little cows too.

Tags: advertising, brands, viral

Soccer, sneakers and hybrands.

What? Hybrands. Brand + hybrid = hybrand. Ok, it’s just another odd term I came up with to refer to a brand that splits into two companies at some point in its history, (or even morphs into another). And since it’s World Cup time, I came across an article (thanks, ayash) on how Puma and adidas, two of the largest purveyors of football gear, were at one time a single company run by founder Adolph Dassler. Adolph’s brother left to start his own gig, and the rest is Puma history. Another hybrand that comes to mind is Panera, formed after the CEO of Au Bon Pain sold that company and basically transferred the Au Bon urban model to the suburbs instead.

Tags: advertising, adidas, brands, Puma, viral, World Cup

Should-not-be-head-coach-of-US-soccer.

Tags: advertising, US Soccer, brands, viral, World Cup

Back-up your blog.

Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, etc. whatever you use. Now’s a good time to make a copy of the code of your main page template and email it to yourself. Like I had to. Just now. After deleting half my link section to the right yesterday, but not discovering it until today. Luckily, I was covered. For those using Blogger, just go to your dashboard, click the ‘template’ tab, then select all the copy in the window that appears, copy and paste in an email or any word-processing application. If you email it, just put something really eye-catching in the subject line like “Emergency idiot code for people like me stupid enough to delete my blog code, but thankfully, I have this back-up.”

Or something like that.

Tags: advertising, brands, viral

NOTE TO OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE:

PLEASE STOP SINGING WITH AN AUSTRALIAN ACCENT IN YOUR RADIO AND TV SPOTS. IT’S ANNOYING. LIKE ALL-CAPS ANNOYING.

Tags: advertising, Outback Steakhouse, brands, viral

Messin’ with sasquatch.

You know me. I love bigfoot stuff. New campaign for Jack Link’s Beef Jerkey. TV and web looks pretty good. Although bigfoot has a case of Yeti-head more than Sasquatch-head. But I digress.

Tags: advertising, brands, viral, Jack Link’s

Is it any wonder the world’s fucked up?

More soccer talk tomorrow, but for now, this fun story:

“This is war against all people who show films that promote pornography, drug dealing and all forms of evil,” Omar told AFP.

“We shall not even allow the showing of the World Cup because they corrupt the morals of our children whom we endeavour to teach the Islamic way of life,” he added.”

So football, futbol, footy and soccer corrupts. Funny. And I thought it was absolute power. Like that of the ruling army who kept everyone from watching coverage courtesy of an AK-47.

(Image courtesy of Mike Brown.)

Tags: advertising, brands, viral, World Cup

Contest answers - and some fonts.

Looks like my ferret collection is safe since nobody got all the answers correct in the title contest, although sharondot made it close. Wasn’t really worried too much either way, I would’ve sent the little bastard FedEx Priority overnight. Poke a few holes in the box, and bam, good-to-go. Thanks to the masses who left it all on the field in this heated contest.

Anyway, I got the contest idea after discovering these font sites when looking for a TV show for a project. They have pretty much any font from movies or TV shows now for free download. Check out Famous Fonts, Acid Fonts and Type Now. I don’t want to know how they do it, but they have useful stuff. Not intended for resale unless you pay for them, so use them for, cough, ahem, comp purposes only.

(Click image for a closer look.)

Tags: advertising, brands, viral

Help for a friend.

I got this today. Maybe you guys can help? Sorry to be begging but, whatever you can do. Thanks.

“FROM:VIVIANI_KWUAM

COUNTRY: ABIDJAN, IVORYCOAST (viviani kwuame1000@yahoo.co.in) DEAR,

I GOT YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION THROUGH THIS SITE. AND I DECIDED TO CONTACT YOU,HOPING THAT BY ALMIGHTY GOD GRACE YOU WILL SUCCESSFULLY ASSIST ME OUT FROM MY SITUATION AFTER MY SEVEN GOOD DAYS PRAYERS AND FASTING OVER SEEKING FOR AN OVERSEES GUARDANCE .

I AM :VIVIANI KWUAME (22 YEARS OLD) THE ONLY DAUGHTER OF LATE CHIEF JOSEPH KWUAME WHO WAS A FAMOUS AND WEALTHY COCOA MERCHANT BASED IN ABIDJAN,THE ECONOMIC CAPITAL OF IVORYCOAST. I AM SEEKING FOR YOUR URGENT ATTENTION TO HELP ME TRANSFER THE SUM OF (US$10,500,000.00 )TEN MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATE OF AMERICAN DOLLARS INTO YOUR NOMINATED BANK ACCOUNT OVERSEAS FOR AN INVESTMENTS PURPOSES,SUCH AS REAL ESTATES MANAGEMENTS AND STOCK MARKERTS. THE FUND WAS DEPOSITED IN FIXED SUSPENCE ACCOUNT

PLEASE , I AM WILLING TO OFFER YOU 20% OUT OF THIS MY TOTAL FUND AS YOUR COMMISSION FOR YOUR URGENT ASSISTANCE TO ME.PLEASE KINDLY WRITE IMMEDIATELY FOR MORE IMPORTANT DETAILS CONCERNING THIS MY MUTUAL TRANSACTION.

YOURS FAITHFULLY,
VIVIANI KWUAME

NOTE: I HAVE ALL THE NECESSARY DOCUMENTS IN RELATION TO THIS MY FUND DEPOSITED BY MY LATE FATHER IN THE BANK. AND ALSO KINDLY REPLY ME ON THIS MY PRIVATE EMAIL (viviani_kwuame1000@yahoo.co.in) FOR CONFIDENTIAL AND SECURITY REASONS OK THANKS.

(Sucka).

But it sounds so real. And wait a sec, look at that image. How the hell does a homeless guy have a website?

Tags: advertising, brands, viral

Idea Freeze.

Usually when I brainstorm on stuff, I take about a half hour to purge all the first thoughts out of my head, then get into the flow. I hit my stride around the hour mark and usually produce acceptable crap. Ever have those times though that no matter what you try, the ideas just don’t come to you? Nothing. Nada. Nunca. I call it Idea Freeze, not as painful as Brain Freeze, but damn close.

At that point, the only thing that ever works for me is stepping away and doing something completely different. And damn if the idea I was looking for the previous hour doesn’t pop into my brain. It’s the act of doing one thing while the brain subconciously works on the original problem. Doctors now have a name for it. They call it: Indirectional Cognitive Reasoning While Doing Something Else And Then The Idea Hits Me, or ICRWDEATTIHM^™ for short.

You ever have that?

Tags: advertising, brands, viral

Contest up until Thursday-ish.

Ok, it’s obvious my contests suck. But to gain Max-Suckitude^®, I’m leaving this one it up until Thursday-ish this week so more people can guess. Hint(s): One of the shows starred Mr. T. and one of the movies starred Quentin Tarantino.

Tags: advertising, brands, viral

Brin says Google compromised principles.

It’s a start I suppose. A few of the now 27 readers here know that I gave them shit for agreeing to China’s initial censorship demands. Now they Google founders admit they compromised. Will they change their minds though and say Just Say No to Mao for good, that’s the thing.

Apparently, they’re waiting to see what China does. Don’t need the Magic eight to tell me what I already know. Mainly, if China hasn’t changed it’s iron fist policies in how many centuries now, what makes Serge think he can make them?

Tags: advertising, Google China, brands, viral

Great product placement.

From the pages of middle America comes this innovative use of product placement. Seems Cory didn’t like mom’s take on American Idol. So, he introduced her to Mr. West Coast Chopper - keychain edition. Normally with a story like this, the quote from Cory’s mom alone would be worth the price of admission: “... her son did not intend to hurt her, but rather that he meant to ‘mess’ her hair.”

But, upon further review, there’s something better here. Cory may have stumbled onto a HUGE opportunity for consumer generated product placement in a new channel: the abuse market. (And that’s CGPP for acronym freaks out there). Beat yer mom, then, if you’re lucky, the DA displays the weapon of choice for the world to see. Provided you thought to talk to a few marketing directors of major brands ahead of time, and maybe even cut a deal, they get free PR while you get a little scratch. Priceless. Sales of WCC keychains are probably through the roof by now.

But, lest anyone repeat the mistake of the Tahoe CGC debacle, make sure you use a branded product when you bring the pain, otherwise, it’s a wasted opportunity. Why grab a stick when a can of Mobil® 5w-30 would be higher profile?

Tags: advertising, brands, viral

Contest: Guess the Titles.

Ok, just because I felt like it, here’s a little something to see if you’re paying attention, since oh, 1960. Actually, it’s also to show that people can remember words and titles without seeing the actual name. There’s a show and movie, (and in one case a group). For each decade that you see listed, you have to guess the title of the show, movie or group the font is from. All of the answers will be well-known. Don’t cheat, or at least don’t tell me about it, nudge, nudge. Any winner who guesses all of them correctly will get something. Not sure what yet.

(Click image for a closer look.)


Tags: advertising, brands, viral

Art director pet peeve time.

While the use of a plain apostrophe ' is one of my AD peeves, (and Mack Simpson’s as well), I have another that gets me more nutzer. It’s reflected light and shadows in images that are mismatched or shot at different times, as you can see with the plane and vehicle in this shot. (Click the image to enlarge.) It’s for the new LR3 from Land Rover which I first saw on an outdoor in NYC this week.

I used to do heavy print collateral for them, and as an AD, one of the things I did was major retouching on all their images. Shot comes over from the UK with driver on the wrong side? No problem. Flop him and the steering wheel he rode in on. Running lights the wrong color or a roof rack missing? No problem there either. Wheels don’t spin? Give me 11 minutes and they will. Rig on the front of the car? Hell, that’s cake.

Photoshop is my friend – Wacom my harbinger of retouching death.

[And for those that don’t already know, all cars in running shots for ads or brochures like you see above have a rig attached to the front of the car, underneath the front bumper. Camera and car don’t move in relation to each other and voila - motion becomes visible only in the background when shot. Yes, Photoshop can mimic a lot of that blurred motion later if you have to, but there’s still something about that authentic camera effect, and adding motion blur to a static shot can be a real pain in the ass depending on the background you have to work with.]

But I digress.

So why the love on my part? Because I thought LR used to have standards that wouldn’t allow stuff like that to slip by. The plane in the background is shot at a different time of day than the LR3 is. The surface on top of the plane’s cockpit indicates the sun is beating down on it at around mid-morning, say 10:00 am or mid-afternoon, 2:00 pm. It’s just stuff you notice after doing it for so long.

The LR3’s reflections though indicate overcast skies late in the afternoon as the sun is going down. Look at the reflections of the mountains in the side of the car also. They don’t match the mountains in the background, because if they did, those mountains in the distance would be glowing with at least some cast light near their peaks.

So why do I care? Why should anyone? Why does this shit get me crazy? Because it’s about getting it right, especially on a brand like Land Rover. This shows a lack of attention to detail. Little by little, you allow that to go on and the work you do becomes compromised.

I need a drink.

Tags: advertising, brands, viral

Interesting branding and sales idea.

Saw this on Marketallica. Cool way to freshen up the idea of using an affiliate program. And, a great blog name too. But not as good as my name for an all art director Metallica cover band I call simply: Italica.

Tags: advertising, Flckr, brands, viral

It’s new-term Thursday: sonification & rhodopsin.

Lest people get the idea that all I do is rip on ads, it’s time to once again learn you people something what’s good fer ya.

First off, I picked up a cool term from Mr. Dolby at his show a while back. It’s called sonification. Basically, it’s the process of using sound to represent data. The way he used it though was to take NASA recordings of the sun and convert it to a sound clip, which he then mixed into the same key of one of his song intros, Windpower. Very cool use of solar winds as it were.

Then there’s rhodopsin. No, he didn’t fight Godzilla or Mothra either. (See, eventually you knew I was going to tie the photo in somehow.) Also known as ‘visual purple,’ rhodopsin is the pigment sensitive to red light that’s in our eyes. The effect is one most creatives may have unknowingly experienced at one point or another, especially if you spent any time in a dark room.

It’s not affected by the red light of a dark room. What happens is that we adapt to the dark after 30 minutes or so, the rhodopsin having reached its full effect, which then results in a feeling of calm. Shadows reveal themselves as eyes adjust to the reduced light.

But the effect is over the instant any regular light is introduced onto the scene. The rhodopsin is then immediately bleached from the system as rods and cones go nuts reacting to the normal light as you then cover your eyes.

So there. And don’t worry, my next post will tear someone a new one. Land Rover, beware.

Tags: advertising, brands, viral, Thomas Dolby, sonification, rhodopsin