On Thursday, January 8 at 11 AM, the NAACP and the civil rights law firm of Mehri & Skalet will announce the Madison Avenue Project, an initiative created to address the advertising industry's alleged "long history of widespread racial discrimination."
As the first step in the project, they will release a new study (first announced here prior to its completion) conducted by the research firm Bendick and Egan Economic Consultants that is said to confirm initially released results that "prove racial discrimination" within executive ranks in the ad industry pertaining to pay and advancement.
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While advertising-fueled website page takeovers are nothing new, they don't usually integrate quite so intricately as this one does for the Ford F-150 on the new ESPN site. Check the takeover out here.
I met Julia Roy on Twitter over a year a go. I somehow saw a tweet or two from her and decided she was interesting enough to follow. But that wasn't all that caught my attention. Her Twitter image at the time - in which she is wearing the glasses that, in some respects, have come to define her - was strikingly similar to my own. As a joke, I made a "separated at birth" image of the both of us and posted it to TwitPic for all to see. It was no big thing but Julia noticed and thought it was kind of funny.
 Once that initial novelty wore off, I became interested in Julia's work at Undercurrent, an ad agency with its hand completely immersed in the world of social media. The agency's website is the furthest thing you'd expect from ad ad agency. On their site, a sort of Drudge Report-style collection of relevant news items and thoughts from the twittersphere and blogosphere, it's all about social conversation and little to nothing about ego-stroking portfolio's of work, the common denominator of most agency websites.
Undercurrent had its hand deep inside the Mad Men/AMC/Twitter fan fiction movement that saw upwards of 20 Mad Men characters come to life on Twitter. Initially, AMC went legal and did a cease and desist. But all that did was raise the ire of the show's fans, mostly those who work in the ad industry and created the characters on Twitter out of the love for the show.
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- The New York Times is pushing front page display ads. It's hard times, yo; deal with it.
- Shoot creative briefs and account execs. As in, whoosh-whoosh, bang-bang.
- TBWA dubbed AdWeek's top agency of '08.
- Top 25 fictional sci-fi movie ads. Slurp.
- BREAKING NEWS - Steve Jobs is sick.
- Facebook peaks on Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas, Mark Zuckerberg!
- Israel tweets.
- Planning for your demise? Give your organs to the girl, not the tin jar.
One Chicago-based furniture store is happy to admit it sells more seats than Governor Blagojevich -- and at a better rate, to boot.
High-la-rious. But oh, does it beat Virgin Mobile's technicolor spin on Spitzer?
OK so Tom Dickson has been hyping his Blendtc blender in online videos for some time now. They are, as expected, just as cheesy as old school Ronco and K-tel commercials. To prove blending strength, Tom tosses all sorts of things into the blender; avocados, an iPhone, a rake, sneakers, a Rubik's cube, Mario Kart and plastic sports cars.
It's all pretty stupid. But it's all pretty smart too. Well, if you can equate YouTube views with sales, that is.
For two years, Tom's been tossing all manner of matter into his blender. If one follows the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school of thought, it's a fair fair bet his videos are paying off.
View all of the inanity here.
A new Fallon Minneapolis-created ad for job site The Ladders does a great job distinguishing itself from the rest of the pack. At the same time, it roundly trashes and renders inadequate anyone who makes less that $100,000 per year as if money was the only thing that mattered.
Oh wait. It *is* the only thing that matters. Sorry.
Anyway, enjoy this commercial in which miniature monsters (get it?) can't get the job done ... until an over sized, overpaid, overzealous, overbearing one shows up leaving nightmarish destuction in his path. Sort of like an over sized, overpaid, overzealous, overbearing boss.
Once again, it's time to look back and review 2008, Adrants-style: with the hottest, sexiest and raciest ads of 2008. If you've fallen behind the times, check out our 2007 round-up. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy.
Sometimes an ad comes right out and says what everyone's thinking, a method that can be nearly as refreshing as, oh ... an alcoholic energy drink. At least that's the case with this billboard in Denmark for Cult Shaker. Mincing no words, it asked passersby to fornicate with the naked girl featured at left. Are we off to a good start yet?
Combining the well-documented fact that eyes tend to wander down paths made by pulchritudinous cleavage, and the notion a fast camera is paramount to lending permanence to the moment, Olympus presents us with an ad that perfectly captures this deft eyeball dance.
And what would a cattle call of the year's hottest ads be without the famed Why every guy should buy their girlfriend a Wii Fit video starring Lauren, the gorgeous girlfriend of Tinsley Advertising Director-Marketing Giovanny Gutierrez, who made the video as a spec viral?
With 7,634,988 views, the hypothesis is proved once again: amateurishly shot + hot chick + controversy = viral hit.
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A wee Brooklyn-based shop called Fantasy Trophies ("Hand-made trophies worth bragging about") has launched a YouTube campaign, "Bragging Rites," that consists of nine videos which get progressively more retarded.
The videos follow Brian, a brash, furry office cog, who antagonizes his fantasy football opponents. It's profoundly working-man-tastic; probably only funny for the people involved, and maybe for people that have done crazy shit in the name of fantasy football. If you fall into neither camp, well, tough luck.
See Penis Cake and/or Megan's Strap-On Fantasy. (Megan ultimately gets revenge in the form of a really feeble "email this asshole!" video. Girl, you'll shimmy into a strap-on, but broadcasting dude's email on YouTube was your best take on vengeance? You put bad-ass bitches to shame.)
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It's always a little difficult to gauge the quality of advertising from other countries, but "Don't Disturb the Ones Working" -- an ad for the Norwegian Association of the Blind -- really threw us for one.
In it, a handful of perplexed service workers are interrupted mid-job by clueless passersby, which either pay them infantile compliments ("Aww, what a cutie!") or try getting them to do tricks. For example, one game-faced dad pulls out a round squidgy ball and tries making a bus driver play catch.
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Nothing makes a woman scream more than a well-stocked walk in closet. All those shoes in perfect alignment. All those jewels perfectly displayed. All those clothes perfectly hung.
And if that premise is played out in a Heineken commercial, the guys would be just as excited. Except it would have nothing to do with shoes, jewelry or clothes.
While statistics are easy to play with and manipulate to suit a particular argument, this video from Did You Know 3.0 offers up some stunning stats.
To the tune of Fat Boy Slim's Right Here Right Now, we are told tidbits such as the top ten in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004; by age 28, people will have had 10-14 different jobs; one out of eight couples who married last year met online; if MySpace were a country it'd be the 5th largest; Bermuda has the deepest broadband penetration; the number of text messages sent and received each day exceeds the total population of the planet; the mount of information generated this year will exceed all that was generated of the past 5,000 years; an NTT fiber optic cable is capable of pushing through 2,660 CDs in one second; by 2013 supercomputers will exceed the computational capabilities of the human brain; by 2049, a $1,000 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the entire human species.
Hmm. So maybe by 2013 contextual advertising will finally become "intelligent" enough to stop placing ads for turpentine next to stories about girls who drank the stuff to induce an abortion?
In an all out effort to accost, uh, make the public aware of its new logo and celebrate the "next generation's" apparent positive outlook for the coming year, Pepsi has unleashed itself upon Times Square with a week-long promotional extravaganza.
This past weekend, Pepsi, with street teams and a Times Square billboard takeover, featured its new Refresh Everything message of hope, optimism and a world made perfect through the rose colored glasses of advertising. A new television commercial, Wordplay, also made its debut.
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On Christmas day, One Laptop Per Child brought back the voice (if not the body) of Yoko Ono's beloved John Lennon.
OLPC's mission is to bring cheap, sturdy laptops to the world's poorest children. So paint your sympathetic face on as a freshly conviction-laden (if nasal) Lennon compares giving a child a laptop to the vision he shared through his music. At the end, the Walrus himself appears, piped in from the great beyond through a kid computer with Shrek ears.
Negroponte ought to learn from his profitable peers. Resuscitating a dead guy -- particularly one whose yearning for peace has been used to sell everything from diapers to ice cream -- never works in your favor, no matter how noble the intentions. In fact, it's about as disturbing as watching a demented technophile play puppeteer with a decomposing marionette.
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Were we to honor an advertising agency for creating the best holiday card of 2008, that distinction would go to Cleveland-based agency Brokaw which we once described as a place which "just drips with wit."
In a nod to the toilet bowl in which the advertising industry now swims, Brokaw created a "holiday card" that's reflective of the harsh economic climate but, at the same time, offers up a ray of hope replete with a wink and a smirk.
While three pieces of popcorn aren't going to solve the industry's woes, we applaud Brokaw's positive spirit and "cost-effective" creativity.
Plaid made the holidays extra-special this year by sending a video to clients and friends -- including us -- that claims we were involved in an affair with Mrs. Claus, which has since gone public and may potentially destroy Christmas.
It is a completely insane premise.
You've probably seen this or something like it before, laughed once and never thought about it again. But at least two people out there are so distraught over it, they've had a lawyer send an official cease and desist letter to Plaid, demanding that the material be taken down and that proof of its removal be conveyed to them.
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No ad industry holiday is complete without a lovable mood-setting douchebag. This year Tom Fellow is ours.
The guy had us from "felice navidado" and now we can't stop listening to his Christmas standards and watching him open presents while growling.
Lavish in the Fellow aesthetic or watch with glee while Twitter catches on. Big THANKEE to @pjbfcp.
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With help from production firm Dictionary Films, Leo Burnett launched a TV spot for "Food Shouldn't Be a Luxury," an effort to encourage locals to donate supplies to the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
The ad's put together like a generic perfume ad, with occasional flashes of a boiling pot and some random pasta fondling. We seriously winced when the model sexily purred "Spaghetti" in her fake Kate Moss-for-Eternity voice, but it got the point across: Okay, okay! Food shouldn't be a luxury.
Make a donation or volunteer time at Every1Can.org. Unlike the prints (see first link), the spot doesn't invite users to text donations over. Not sure if that means the texting thing didn't pan out, or if Leo Burnett just doesn't think people keep phones nearby while watching TV.
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Last year JWT sent us a holiday card featuring Albert, an animated tool whose tongue's been attached to the same pole for a year, I guess.
Albert's back. Try to free him without overtaxing his pain threshold. Pulling him back and letting go has proven somewhat amusing. Also, JWT promises there's a way to detach him this time. (But why would you?)
- URLesque has compiled a list of the top ten spec ads of 2008. Our fave, the JCPenney Speed Dressing ad is on the list.
- Just once I'd like to be able to tell someone like her to put her laptop on vibrate and stick it where the sun don't shine."
- Fuel Industries' Sean McPhedran tells us, "Rather than the cute holiday mini-game I think everyone would expect, we gathered around the sound studio and put together an old fashioned radio play this year, complete with bad acting!"
- Zugara sends us all over YouTube with a Santa-themed annotation adventure.
- New York Festivals has announced it 2008 Global Awards.
Australian hip-hop artist Al Bino (um, right) is out with a video entitled It's A Beautiful Day for Cancer. It's sexy. It's weird. It's gross. It's funny.
Produced by Lyrics Born, the video, according to the Lyrics Born website, was created for an "Australian skin cancer benefit project."
It appears the video has been successfully seeded across sites such as YouTube, Break, AOL, Current, Dailymotion, Buzznet and several others. On YouTube, the video, which was posted December 11, has seen 22, 798 views. Views on other seeded sites don't add up to much.
Under the slogan "Your holiday spirit," Lamb's pushes a triage of billboards that speak directly to scruffy dudes exhausted by the spendy and energetic gyrations of others.
Each board appears to be wood-paneled and (festively?) duct-taped. Perched by a swig-worthy neck of Lamb's are the following messages:
o "Yeah, we're into free-range turkey. It's called hunting."
o "You can buy a $75 tree. Or a $10 axe." (At left.)
o "Holiday shopping should be a one-day event."
Amusing work, even if it speaks to the parts of men that have attempted to fix our cars, build us coffee tables and otherwise sprinkle havoc (and sawdust, and transmission fluid) on our tidy store-bought worlds. Given the lines we're all having to brave just to visit the bank or buy groceries, the ads'll probably draw more lips to the bottle than those of the target market. (Frankly, we're halfway there.)
The work builds on Lamb's "It beats fancy" campaign, orchestrated by John St.
This holiday, Brew Creative decided to forego that "we're donating to charity!" crap that other agencies are doing and cut right to the good stuff. Here's a mash-up of all the depressing political soundbytes we were all subjected to this year.
If nothing else, let this knowledge fill your heart: our government makes so many warped promises that our interests are bound to be met at least some of the time, so keep right on coasting along and eating bacon.
Probably the best thing about this effort is the ability to sift through a broad array of disconnected soundbytes and make your own "message of hope." Politico quotables are divided between "Phrases" and "Connecting words." Good times.
Mashup features provided with help from Sevnthsin.
- Top 10 virals of '08, courtesy of the guys that brought you this.
- Digitas Health donates to charity for the holidays, as does RAZ PR (which told us via paper card). Meanwhile, comScore pledges trees.
- "Unprecedented economic waters" (nice euphemism!) means no FedEx retardation during '09's Super Bowl. One less thing to look forward to. Honestly, anything involving Burt Reynolds makes us happier people.
- Remember that crazy/beautiful, semi-schizophrenic media orgy titled Game, Game, Game and Again Game? The sequel is called I Made This. You Play This. We Are Enemies. Creator Jason Nelson promises "More strange hand drawn creatures, with screen shot anchored levels and all the poetic bits known." And then we kissed him.
- Crowdsourcing horror.
- Beancasting Steve and Bill. Among other things, they talk online video marketing, Pepsi suicide ads and diversity (lack of?) in the industry.
- Learn to shred with CP+B. "But yeah, the biggest thing people will go after is Alex giving lessons on how to play Extreme's More Than Words." Sounds like a winner to me.
As many wait around for what' become an interminably long time for Twitter to come up with (or at least adopt one of the thousands of ideas suggested) a revenue model, Dell, and several others, have come up with their own method of extracting money from Tweets. AdPulp points to an article on internetnews.com which reports Dell, over the past year and a half, has seen $1 million in revenue directly from its presence on Twitter.
Dell has no less than thirty task-specific accounts on Twitter but the one that returned that million dollars was its Dell Outlet account which hypes discounts available at the company's Home Outlet Store.
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