Screw Andrew Fisher and CI Host. Homer Simpson's taking all the fame now. In a recent episode of The Simpsons in which Homer, faced with losing his cherished blue trousers because the factory that makes them is going out of business, applies "Buy Blue Pants" to his head to create demand. In the episode when asked by Marge to define headvertising, Homer replies, "Headvetising, it provides brand awareness without relying on traditional media." During the episode Homer also applies brand logos to his chest and arms. Thanks to the ever vigilant Bucky Turco for spotting this one.
It's All Advertising caught a glimpse of the gigantic foosball table Adidas erected at Venice beach in association with a World Cup promotion. The game is actually playable with giant steering wheels at the end of each rod. The table accompanied an event at which junior soccer games were played on small fields. Not a bad way to grab attention.
If you can't get publicity with a great product, create a crappy one and get lots of publicity. This has been Jones Soda's tactic for quite some time. Bt creating flavors such as Brussel Sprout, Broccoli Casserole and Turkey soda, Jones Soda found itself featured on Good Morning America and Jay Leno. Jones Soda Founder Peter Van Stolk thinks he has the key to publicity saying, "I've been in business 10 years and launched 80 flavors, and none of the great-tasting ones ever got on Jay Leno." While it may be stunt marketing, it's paid off handsomely with revenue jumping 18 percent to $24.7 million in the first nine months of 2005. Perhaps Hanes should sell underwear with celebrity skid marks. That's get them on Stern and the likes of Fark in no time.
We think there's a great point behind this new Truth campaign commercial in which the notion of changing a corporate name to avoid negative connotations is debunked but the execution just seems, well, not so compelling. Maybe it's just us. Maybe we're stuck one of the campaign's earlier spots in which the "Marlboro Man" rides a farting cow. Who knows. The spot is a follow up to orange arrow-themed campaign launched last year which was created by Arnold Worldwide of Boston and Crispin Porter + Bogusky of Miami. See the spot here.
Dallas-based Moroch Partners has launched a bilingual, interactive gaming site, called Shark Bait, for McDonald's centering on the Filet-O-Fish and Double Filet-O-Fish sandwiches. In the first level of the game, the player has to keep the sandwich away from attacking sharks and the walls of the tank. There are two additional levels for which unlock codes can be obtained by forwarding the game to a friend viral-bribe style.
The effort aligns well with the rise in online gaming and players who interact with a fish sandwich for a while just might succumb to the power of suggestion and go buy a deep fat fried slab of fish between a bun slathered with some kind of special sauce. Mmm. I'm lovin' it!
While this site called Lance Face featuring Lance Armstrong's head popping onto the heads of other does deliver some important financial messages from American Century Investments, one has to wonder what the connection is between Lance and this effort. If there is one, it's definitely a mystery. Oh wait, American Century Investments Founder Jim Stowers, Jr. had cancer too. That's it. Makes perfect sense. Before all you survivors get pissy about this assessment, I've been where Lance has so I'm allowed to make cancer jokes.
Like the emotion felt while watching the UK Department of Transport cell phone ad, these ads, which have been floating around since late 2005, from DDB Canada for the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia's long-running CounterAttack don't-drink-and-drive campaign fill one with dread. Following the same sudden-shock approach the UK DOT ad used, two of the three commercial feature kids in a car driven by a drunk and a third features a guy talking about the negative aspects of drunk driving. All three ads have endings that while somewhat predictable, still shock. The ads are said to begin airing this summer. See all three here.
Adland points to a promotion filled with bouncing breasts that actually serves a purpose rather than to simply titillate. U.K. sport bra company Shock Absorber has created a site where woman can choose her cup size, a level of activity and then see the "activity" her breasts undergo in three side-by-side scenarios: nude, regular bra and sports bra. It's certainly a convincing argument for buying a sport bra unless you're the sort of woman that enjoys neck to stomach bouncing action.
Capturing a bit of last week's Future Marketing Summit in New York, coBRANDit's Owen Mack conducted a few video interviews with the likes of PSFK's Piers Fawkes, CP + B's Alex Bogusky, Barbarian Group's Benjamin Palmer, Amalgamated's Charles Rosen and Naked's Paul Woolmington. Each comment of where the future of marketing and advertising is headed.
Just so we're clear "hip" New York companies aren't the only ones giving away iPods, New Holland, PA-based farm equipment company New Holland will load up an iPod with pictures, audio and video from the corn and soybean convention, Commodity Classic, held this week in Anaheim, CA. Also loaded on the iPod will be the new CD from country singer Michael Peterson currently available only on the iPod and at New Holland dealerships. Not that's a seriously country-focused promotion. You can enter to win your country-powered iPod at New Holland's booth at the show or at the company's website.
OK so maybe this campaign grabs attention visually but does anyone playing/winning the Minnesota State Lottery want to look like a stupid, buck toothed gopher? Oh wait, that's pretty accurate. See more idiots here.
Culture Critic Bucky Turco points us to an article on Sucka Pants in which the author decries a Brooklyn store's use of "bike culture" in its store front windows and discusses the vandalism the store received by doing so. Call us jaded by years in the "we'll co-op anything for a buck" advertising industry but one does have to wonder why "bike culture" fanatics feel their culture is the only one that shouldn't get a commercial nod. The only reason a store, or any other retailer or brand for that matter, mimics a particular culture or trend is to make their offering relevant to the public. If no brand did that, every brand would still be stuck in the fifties imitating American Graffiti culture. No one wants their sacred culture commercialized but in a capitalist society, there's little chance a culture with any cred won't sooner or later be bitten by a brand desperate for commercial success. Oh, and by the way, roads were built for cars.
To promote its movie Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, a film sure to be laden with heavy-handed, left-wing global warming sentiment, Twentieth Century Fox has launch a little online game called Bling My Sid in which visitors are invited to makeover the film's Sid The Sloth, dressing him in a variety of wardrobes. From Punk to Player, Lounge Lizard to Rhinestone Cowboy, there are nine wardrobes to choose from. Players can save their creations to print, produce AIM/Buddy Icons and submit their Sid to the gallery for public vote. A Send to a Friend function and translation into ten languages has, apparently, led Twentieth Century to believe this little ditty will magically spread itself around the globe. UK agency Substance created the campaign.
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