As Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Linsay Lohan, Amanda Bynes, and Hillary Duff shift from tween/teen queens to adults with flaws, marketers are now clamoring for the next new fresh face and they may find it in a younger, less tarnished version of Britney Spears: her sister Jamie Lynn Spears. Spears just debuted her new Nickelodeon show, Zoey 101, in which she plays a student at a California boarding school. Yahoo searches for the show are up 1,733 percent this week.
Soon, no doubt, the sponsorship requests will pour in as marketers shed themselves of Olsen drug scandals, Lohan breast obsession and Duff stuff overdose. Yet, dampening hopes the younger Spears will cast off the baggage of her elder stars to display much needed refreshing intelligence and cultural insight, she said, in a USA Today interview, "I want to get a new Louis Vuitton purse. I've had that one (a Murakami) for a while. I need something a little bigger." Yes. A brain.
From interactivity to humanising a company to their viral nature, Yellowfin Direct Marketing Senior Creative Dirtector Bob Cargill, writing in Digital Bulletin, offers ten reasons why advertising, marketing and public relations professionals should blog.
In the movie, Pulp Fiction, there's a scene in which the John Travolta character asks the Samuel L. Jackson character, "You know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?" In this Israeli ad for McDonald's, two actors, who are dead ringers for Travolta and Jackson, re-enact the same scene talking about McDonald's new Pita bread turkey sandwich, the McShwarma. The spot ends with a bit of Israeli cultural humor (not known for their politeness) with the Jackson character asking, "So a guy just walks into a McDonalds and says, "Can I have a McShwarma please"? To which the Travolta character replies, "Yeah, except they don't say 'please' in Israel."
The script of the commercial is here. Quite funny.
In another stunning waste of time, money and resources to prove the obvious, a recent study conducted by Naviguage for Clear Channel found, shockingly, listeners don't like long commercial breaks on radio and switch stations as breaks get longer. During a commercial break, the study found 80 percent stay tuned after the second spot, 70 percent after the third and less than half remain after six or more spots. That, pretty much, makes a spot in the last half of a Howard Stern commercial break a complete waste of money.
Now for the self serving part of the study, it was found :30 spots keep more listeners than :60's. This supports Clear Channel's recent pushing of advertisers from :60's to :30's. While we jest, commercial radio breaks of three spots or less, clearly, work better than longer breaks.
The dilemma, as Clear Channel is discovering, is getting the prices for individual spots back up to a point that allows for reducing spot load without harming revenue goals.
While other groups have already complained, a group calling themselves Generation Green, yesterday, asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate what it calls false claims made by Johnson & Johnson's McNeil Nutritionals LLC in its ad campaign for the sweetener Splenda.
The group claims Splenda is being portrayed as natural because of the use of the word "sugar" in the product's advertising whose slogan is "made from sugar so it tastes like sugar." In a letter to the FTC, the group wrote, "Any substance whose listed ingredients include 4-chloro-4-deoxy-alpha-D- galactopyranosyl-1 cannot be considered natural."
All this food fabrication makes one pine for the days when the proper approach to a diet was simply, "everything in moderation."
Adrants reader Steve Portigal points to a print teaser campaign consisting of small space ads, placed in the front section of newspapers, that speak obliquely about the arrival of someone called Charlie. Portigal surmises it's a campaign leading up to the January 28 release of the John Polson Film Hide And Seek which features an imaginary friend, Charlie.
Finally reaching the level of idiotic insanity, forehead advertising and stupid eBay ads have come together. This eBay ad promotes a device, called The Forehead Ad Blocker which is nothing more than a retrofitted pair of completely out of style eye glasses, that is said to have the ability to block forehead ads. Oh sure it's a joke but maybe Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Mary Baglivo is right afterall.
UPDATE: Even more.
To see how the English language has devolved into something that sounds like a cross between a retard and a rap artist, one only need read the forum rantings of Ashlee Simpson fans, hopelessly in support of her failing career. Thankfully, Google, who seems to be blessed with the ability to do everything right, has come to the rescue. Google's AdWords group uses a style guide and insists on proper use of the English language in its text-based ads. Of course, proper grammar has never been advertising's strong suit and, often times, grammatical license is taken. But Google doesn't want its search product, of which ads are an integral part, to be misunderstood by people looking for information. There's a line between well-formed grammatical license and plain stupidity. Google is drawing it.
Following it's Oprah car give away, GM will, beginning February 1, give away 20 2005 Pontiac Montana SV6 minivans on Walt Disney Co,'s Beuena Vista syndicated show Live With Regis and Kelly. Late last year GM partnered with Oprah to give away 276 Pontiac G6's to every member of her studio audience in a scream-fest rivaling that of 1970's game show contestants winning "a neeeew toaster oven!" as if that was something to get excited about.
Writing on his weblog, A Fine Kettle of Fish, Bob Cargill gives us a humorous take on World Champion Red Sox Manager Terry Francona recent advertising spokesman deal with laxative maker Metamucil. Cargill also ranked the many post-game congratulatory ads and named Metamucil's, which had the tagline, "Way to go! Congratulations Boston on your World Championship.
Let's hope it becomes a regular thing," the best.
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