 This Ain't My Graf Street art site Wooster Collective summarizes (then alters the story for accuracy here) recent happenings in the world of corporate graffiti. Recently Time Magazine paid CopeII to create a graffiti billboard in New York. Earlier this week a graffiti artist was arrested in Chicago for buffing - covering up with black paint - another graffiti artist's work, commissioned by Critical Massive, for Axe Deodorant. This has caused a battle within the graffiti community. Graffiti wants to be art. Not commerce. But even natural graffiti artists need to make a living. Not to mention ad agencies which can't leave a single inch of potential media space untapped.
Chase has just launched a website supporting the launch of their new consumer credit card with blink, a Mobil SpeedPass-like credit card feature. The site lets users learn more about blink and interact with this innovative card first-hand, showcasing its purchasing speed and convenience through a concise demonstration. The site is part of the blink summer market-by-market roll out and will continue to evolve as awareness and acceptance of blink increases. By evolve, Chase means more and more brand names that accept blink will be added to the site. The site was developed by T3 Labs, in partnership with mcgarrybowen, JPMorgan Chase’s agency of record for branding and advertising. T3 Labs is a new division of T3 (The Think Tank).
With Deutsch losing clients faster than Lindsay Lohan's losing cup size, it may be time to stop making fun of the debacle and simply feel sorry for Donny and crew. Just as it's shameful to humiliate poor Lindsey by making a spectacle of her declining breast size with the flawed logic all actresses should be flat, causing her to turn into Calista Flockhart with a nervous breakdown, so is it shameful to post pictures of Donny in a Speedo and rip Deutsch to shreds with rude, snarky commentary. Oh, who are we kidding, we love throwing the final sucker punch at a cripple who's just fallen out of his wheel chair.
The latest blow comes courtesy of Old Navy which announced the account would leave agency of record Deutsch LA and be divvied up among several agencies for project work. Deutsch will continue to work on the company's teen segmented and interactive programs while StrawberryFrog will take over TV and print for back to school.
Yesterday, it was sex in advertising that came in a pair. Today, it's transportation announcement advertising. We'll call it ad-nouncevertising. Following Alaska Airlines forcing a captive plane load of passengers to listen to flight attendant-read Bank of America Visa ads, commuters passing through Penn station this morning were subjected to promotional announcements for the Belmont Stakes. Is there no peace, I ask? Is there no f'ing peace? Not that bleary eyed Penn station commuters are would even hear such announcements before they had their morning shoot up of Starbucks.
With the recent likelihood New York City will not be chosen as host for the 2012 Olympics, some have pointed out the countdown clock is now an unfortunate, gigantic reminder of the city's failure.
Adrants reader Bucky Turco, spotter of all things advertising, points out the odd juxtaposition two advertisers can find themselves in when the medium they use does not naturally provide exclusivity. Turco explains, "I was walking on east 14th St. and 3rd Ave. when I happened upon this bus stop. On both sides of the same stop were vodka ads, one for Absolut, one for Stoli. Not only were both vodka ads, but both we're for their new lines of Peach vodka. And another interesting twist was that both ads had polar-opposite creative: Absolut pushed for a tropical and bright feel, and Stoli for an arctic and monotone feel."
Stay Free examines the, in hindsight, cult-like advertising McDonald's did over the year. From McDonaldland to the Evil Grimace to Shamrock Shakes to Happy Face to Mayor McCheese to talking wastebaskets to Double Dutch to the Hamburgler, Stay Free writes, "Here's a mind-blower for hungry third-world countries: in America, where the soil yields healthy food in abundance, we teach our kids to fantasize about over-processed crap with the nutritional value of the inside of a York Peppermint Patty growing in the wild." Revel in the history of McDonald's television fantasy land. After viewing the commercials, you can understand why intelligent life forms visiting this planet don't stay for long.
Just short of being force fed advertising while doing a stint in prison, Alaska Airlines has decided it's OK to require passengers to endure promotions read over the intercom by flight attendant. This time, passengers were encouraged to sign up for a Bank of America Visa card. With cell phone usage and Internet access soon to be the norm inflight, it's enough to make pulling the emergency door handle and jumping out a better travel option.
This week at Apple Computer's annual worldwide developers conference, Steve Jobs raved about podcasting and announced a new iTunes podcasting feature which will allow users to subscribe to podcasts and provide podcast creators the ability to register their podcasts on iTunes.
After leaving Saatchi, famously, as the Saatchi 17, Ad Age reports four of the 17, all of whom are currently employed at Interpublic, won, in an awkward and final snub to their former employer, Effies for work done while at Saatchi. If that wasn't enough drama for the evening, Leo Burnett Chief Creative Officer Cheryl Berman, during her opening speech, wondered why creative giants Lee Clow, Dan Wieden and Jeff Goodby were not in attendance citing the second class value placed on the Effies, which measure performance over beauty, by many in the industry. Perhaps if the Effies were held at a location a bit more exotic than the New York Marriott Marquis, us shallow ad folk might be a bit more willing to whip out our bling and attend. Then again, we're all about the flash and the glamor, right? Beauty over brains. Art over commerce. Kick ass creative over steroidal sales increases. What fun are sales increases when you can play Hollywood wannabe in Cannes?
Oh, lest we forget what's important here, TBWA/Chiat/Day's iPod Silhouette campaign took top Effie honors.
|
|
