"Nothing surprises me these days," said New York Mets manager Art Howe on Spiderman 2's Major League Baseball sponsorship. "As long as it doesn't affect the play on the field, I don't have a problem with it. It's just a sign of the times." That sums up many an attitude on the inevitable proliferation of advertising these days.
McCann Erikson has put a deal together with its clients Major League Baseball and Spiderman 2 distributor Columbia Pictures. The deal calls for the Spiderman 2 logo to be plastered all over most Major League Baseball fields as well as the actual bases over the weekend on June 11 through 13.
While this is a fantastic advertising tactic by McCann Erikson, it's also cause for concern over the sanctity of the sport. Former baseball commissioner and former Columbia Pictures president Fay Vincent said, "I guess it's inevitable, but it's sad. I'm old-fashioned. I'm a romanticist. I think the bases should be protected from this."
Baseball's SVP for Marketing and Advertising Jacqueline Parkes dissed the old fart saying, "We are trying to reach people 6 to 18. He is past that category in all respects."
This new Coors commercial for the Hispanic audience touches on the whole Budweiser "Whassup" thing but uses the word "guey" instead which means dude. So instead of yelling "whassup" to each other, we have a bunch of guys are yelling "guay" to each other. Naturally, there are some hot babes to leer at while the dudes "guay" each other.
Ad Age goes on to talk about the bilingual and Hispanic aspects of marketing but that went right over Adrant's head once we clicked "Play Video."
Cunning Communications is at it again with one of their "stunt" product launches. The free tabloid METRO will launch Wednesday morning in New York City and "News Liberation Front" protestors are expected to appear at the city's major daily newspapers. The group, carrying banners that proclaim "News for Nada," "Keep News Free" and "Free News Now" will picket the New York Times, New York Post and the Daily News claiming news should be free. It all starts at 7AM in front of the New York Times.
Thursday morning the METRO ForeheADs (forehead advertising) will bring the message to commuters and students in Washington Square.
This is a big deal about nothing. Newspapers don't expect to get rich off subscription costs but off advertising dollars. It's not about preventing news from being free by charging subscription costs. It's about creating and "agreement" between publisher and readers. A commitment of sorts on the part of the reader. Advertisers like to know that readers have, among other things, an interest, expressed financially in most cases, before the dump millions into a newspaper. of course, while Cunning already knows this, they also know that this will be a successful, publicity generating stunt for their client.
Nick Denton's at it again. This time, he's launched Defamer, an LA-based weblog designed to skewer Hollywood just like Wonkette has skewered Washington D.C. politicos and Gawker has skewered the media elite of New York City. Already slamming Jack Valenti for his senility and Rosie O'Donnell for being a retard, the new weblog will obsess over "celebrity agent-swapping, aborted pilots, producer bully tactics, aggrieved production assistants, ridiculous script deals, the newest technology in breast implants, and, above all, sweet, sweet box office."
Finally, a weblog that won't fawn over Anna Wintour and the oh-so-hipness of New York City but rather the more important saline-enhanced life of LA's Celebu-wood. If Defamer comes even a bit close to the snarkiness of Gawker, there's going to be a lot of celebrities calling their agents and lawyers asking them to send out un-enforceble cease and desist letters.
As part of the new "Impossible is Nothing" Adidas campaign, a television spot was created that pits Muhammad Ali against his daughter Laila. The spot was then placed online for viewership on Yahoo and MSN's homepages for a day each and on ESPN's home page for two days. Those placements, along with other ESPN inside pages for two weeks, generated 5 million views of the spot. Additionally, it boosted brand association by 75 percent and ad recall by 24 percent according to research firm Dynamic Logic. There was also an average 125 percent increase in the usage of the search term "Adidas" on Yahoo the day the ad was placed with most of that increase coming in the 13 to 17 year old demo.
These results directly contradict pundits who have said television creative can not simply be "ported over" to the Internet. This does not mean that every television spot will be a success online. This Adidas commercial had several things going for it. First, it's Muhammad Ali, a well known sports figure. Second, it's Adidas, a well known brand among all age groups. Third, it's Laila Ali, a good looking woman bouncing around in the ring - an activity any 13-17 year old boy would find interesting. And last, to the heightened recall numbers, it was actively requested by the viewer and not hoisted upon the viewer in the middle of a television commercial break.
So bad it's hilarious. NBC's "10.5" is without doubt the worst television movie ever made. Horrible writing. Cheesy acting. Terrible camera work. Cheap effects. Yet, 20 million Americans watched it. Did I mention terrible camera work? Zoom in. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom in. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom in. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom in. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom in. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom in. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom in. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom in. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out.
"God Help Us Now."
In Touch Weekly publisher Bauer Publishing has announced the November launch of its "Life & Style Weekly" celebrty lifestyle magazine. The magazine will join the already crowded category which includes Time Inc.'s People, American Media's Star, Wenner Media's Us Weekly and Bauer's own In Touch.
Writing in his Ad Age column, Rance Crain writes about the newfound feistiness of ad agency executives as they crawl out of their recession shells. Seems every ad execs has something to crap about these days from incoming AAAA's Chairman Ron Berger complaining about ad exec television appearances a la Donny Deutsch on "The Apprentice" to Berger's claim a recent Yanklovich study stating people hate advertising really means they hate telemarketing and spam and not the finely crafted product of Madison Avenue to Havas' Kevin Roberts dissing his boss Maurice Levy for over use of blather-speak such as "holistic marketing" and "touch points."
As Crain says, just as the advertising economy returns, so has industry bitching and pontification. It's not all bad, though. At least those multi-million dollar executive bonuses granted while agency earnings tanked now seem almost warranted.
Alright, so KFC is really promoting their bucket of wings and there are no breasts in this ad campaign unless you count the ones under the t shirt in this ad. The franchise will launch its "Chicken Capital USA" campaign next week which will feature people expressing their love for chicken through t shirt slogans, bumper stickers and license plates along with a Trace Adkins country jingle.
Art Director Fernando Bernus wants to work at U.K. based ad agency Mother. This video shows just how much he wants to get an inside track. Via Adland.
|
