Oh this is priceless. So we're trying to check the Wieden + Kennedy site to see if they have a particular client and we get lost in a bunch of Flashturbation in the agency's "work we've done" section (thanks for making it so easy to find a client by name, guys) so we bail and check into the html site figuring we'd leave all the puffery behind but no, we get this egoistic blather:
"You will need to install a couple of plug-ins to fully experience our site. That is not because this is another one of those mindlessly flashy Web sites that give you a headache and make you wonder how you could ever sit through a meeting with those people; it's just that there are a couple of cool things we'd like to share with you, and you won't be able to enjoy them without having Flash and QuickTime on your computer. No big deal. Click here to get Flash. Click here to get QuickTime. And if you know you already have them, then click here to enter. Have a nice visit."
What a load of pompous bullshit. If you are going to provide separate Flash and HTML sites then make each fully functional on their own. So yes, W + K, we do wonder why you have a "mindlessly flashy Web site that gives you a headache and makes you wonder how you could ever sit through a meeting with those people."
Sanj send us pictures of a unique for Sun Computer which places its computer server on a velvet couch in front of a roaring fire reminiscent of your typical Playboy centerfold spread. The ad even includes the Playboy like interview with statements such as, "I Love - naughty ROI talk, multiple platforms, dimly lit data centers." We like it. After all, how excited can you get about a server?
While riding to work this morning on a train in Chicago, CTA Tattler reader, Robin, saw a man, with his face painted blue and a cell phone to his ear, get on the train and blather on annoyingly so all could hear. Robin noticed the man's hoodie had a logo on the front but couldn't quite make it out. After a bit, he moves closer to her, turns around and reveals the back of is hoodie which read, "Talk Until You're Blue in the Face with U.S. Cellular." Once the man had the attention of Robin and a few others, he began to tell whomever he was on the phone with "Naw, don't worry about it, brah, I've got free incoming calls with this thing. Yeah, and they gave me a sweet phone, too. Yeah, we could walkie-talkie. Even takes pictures." Now there's some nasty ass guerrilla marketing.
Robin didn't take kindly to the stunt and said, because of the stunt, she'd never spend money with U.S. Cellular and would tell all her friends and family not to as well. Not quite the reaction U.S. Cellular was hoping for. Robin also mentions the Chicago Transit Authority's daily announcements, "Solicitation on CTA trains is prohibited; violators will be arrested," and wonders whether this man, and U.S Cellular, were breaking the law or whether the Transit Authority was breaking its own rule by taking money from U.S. Cellular and allowing this stunt. Gotta love guerrilla marketing.
BBDO has created and outstanding campaign for eBay called What is it. The campaign tells the story of two guys who invent "it" and how it became the world's most famous, hippest thing to own. Of course, the message in all of this is that "what ever it is, you can get it on ebay." Really brilliant. Really. Check it out.
Blender magazine and Cadillac will hosting an event, October 27th at a private Hollywood Hills mansion to celebrate Blender's inaugural "Rock & Roll Hollywood" November issue. Sponsored by Cadillac, Aldo, Absolut Vodka and St. Pauli Girl Beer, Blender's "Rock & Roll Hollywood" bash will combine entertainment's two most decadent lifestyles, music and film, into one memorable event.
Reportedly, 500 actors, musicians, entertainment insiders and tastemakers will attend to frolic in luxury suites, drink specialty cocktails, enjoy deluxe gift scwag bags and listen to a soundtrack provided by DJs Samantha Ronson and Brent Bolthouse. Live music will be supplied by The Shins, who, as the Rock & Roll Hollywood cover star Natalie Portman observed in Garden State will "change your life." We'll see. Also performing will be LA three-piece, The Like, recently covered in Blender's Almost Famous" feature.
Cadillac will have on hand its latest models including the Escalade ESV which will take guests from Sunset Boulevard to the secret party location, as well as be displayed outside whoever's fancy mansion the party is at. Guests will also be swarmed with advertising campaigns displayed by Absolut and Aldo while lowly St. Pauli Girl beer is served. Someone please invite us!
Little Red Riding Hood is nowhere to be found in this spot for Halls but some dudes dressed up like pigs are worried a dude dressed like a wolf is going to huff and puff and blow their house down. It's a fairly amusing spot, especially since the guy playing the wolf looks like he can't stop cracking up while acting his part.
We are so late to this but it's just so much fun, we can't leave it alone. On Wednesday, Anheuser-Busch said it would end its Bud Pong promotion, a beer pong game that is supposed to be played with water, because people are playing the game with, shockingly, beer. What doofus at AB thought beer pong would ever be played with water? Doesn't matter. The person is probably fired by now. Or at least force to write "People Drink Beer" 500 times on the whiteboard.
Reacting to a column UnderScore Marketing's Tom Hespos wrote about marketer's fear and laziness to engage in meaningful conversations with consumers, I wrote a piece calling for the creation of a "Conversation Department," a department whose sole responsibility would be to listen to what is being said about a given brand in blog posts, discussion boards, forums and other methods of group conversation, join the ongoing conversations about the brand and make sure the company properly reacts to conversational opinion by addressing concerns immediately. Today, Tom goes a bit further with this and proposes a structure for a conversation department and how it might be staffed.
The more we talk about listening, joining and learning from conversations, while everyone in a company should be doing this, it makes more and more sense for companies and agencies to created a dedicated conversation department.
To explain the benefits of participating in the agency's 401K plan, Neimen Group dispensed with the usual, boring, overly wordy memo and created a video to get agency employees to attend an informational meeting. With a five dollar bill, some glue, a mini-cam and some humor, the agency illustrated the free money aspect of the agency's employer-contributed 401K plan. Anything to rid the inbox of those lame email memos!
ad:tech is embarking on something new this year which it will kick off at the New York show in November. Called ad:tech Connect LIVE, the event, held Monday, November 7 from 12:45PM to 3PM in the East Ballroom of the Hilton New York is, in a way, a physical manifestation of ad:tech's recently launched online networking community ad:tech Connect. Billed as an experiential event, the East Ballroom will take on the look and feel of a music-filled, engagingly fun three-ring circus environment complete with costumed hosts, Ringmaster and plenty of snacks.
Ad:tech Connect LIVE, open to all attendees, will posses both educational and experiential elements. In the center of the Ballroom will be the main event - The Hotseat. Twenty-five people will sit in a circle surrounding one individual who, in the Hotseat will be asked, by the Ringmaster, ad:tech Chair and Radio Show Host, Susan Bratton, questions designed to cut though the preponderance of industry fluff, exaggerated research findings and over-used industry platitudes. When answering, the person on the Hotseat will be given the chance to lie, tell the truth, or pass. Of course, all the questions won't be industry-related and may delve into areas designed to help attendees better understand themselves and those people with whom they work day in and day out, year after year, The game is intended to help dispel pre-conceived notions, game faces and long-held misconceptions. If this sounds a little "come to Jesus/Allah/Buddha/Abraham/Confucius," perhaps it is. But the hope is to build community, open lines of communication, eliminate fluff, reduce puffery, cut through outlandish claims, get the heart of the industry's focus and inspire growth.
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