Gawker comments on a Smoking Gun report stating Vogue Editor and favorite media bitch has defaulted on payments totaling $140,000 owed New York State's Worker's Compensation Board to cover an injured employee's medical bills in December of 1997. Gawker's research points out this is the same month PETA splattered blood all over her Manhattan home. We pity the poor house servant that had to mop up that disaster and can see why there might have been injuries in the process. Why is it rich people are so cheap?
In this spoof of a feminine care product, two women walk down the sidewalk and one asks the other, "What's that sound?" Well, you can guess the answer and the very wet ending. Courtesy of The Viral Chart.
"The Odd Couple" Emmy Winner Tony Randall died Monday evening at NYU Medical Center because of "complications from a prolonged illness" a statement said. He was 84.
Apparently pissed off at his wife, a U.K. man has decided to sell his wife's used underwear on eBay - except it's not really eBay but a page designed to look like eBay. Nothing new here - PayPal spoofs, eBay spoofs. Aren't we tired of this yet?
Former TBWAChiatDay and OMD USA Interactive Media Director, and highly regarded online industry thought leader, Joseph Jaffe, has launched jaffe, L.L.C., a new marketing consulting practice.
Mr. Jaffe, 33, says that a new approach to marketing is necessary because, "old marketing is in dire need of a new coat of paint. It seems that every week the dailies and trades are commenting on the failing broadcast model, the death of the 30-second commercial, the increasing pressure on Madison Avenue for more accountability and the importance being placed on delivering true? integration."
Current clients include MSN, CNET Networks, Google, Reuters, iMedia Communications, the 4A's and the OPA.
MediaWeek's Marc Berman gives a detailed analysis of the fall scheduling plans of NBC and ABC.
We've all known advertising to be a form of mind control. Now a group of Australian doctors from The Royal Australasian College of Physicians has gone a step further saying at a conference in Canberra, it poses health risks and can make children believe junk food, alcohol and drugs are good for them. Well, if advertising made people think these things were bad for them, the industry as a whole would be pointless and commerce would collapse upon itself at a rate faster than the increasing bra size of Lindsay Lohen.
That's not to say the purpose of advertising is to perpetuate societal ills at all costs. A bit of responsible self control must factor into life's choices. A wise mother once said, "Everything in moderation." The problem with that statement is moderation becomes increasingly impossible in the face of the constant "Buy me! Buy me! You must have this now! Buy me! You're a loser if you don't buy me! Buy me now!" cacophony that gets louder every day. Consumers need a thick skin to filter advertising's onslaught and at some point the skin just isn't thick enough and cultural and peer pressure takes control.
Years ago, kids, and everyone for that matter, didn't have the media choices they do today. Without media, there was far less advertising to sift through. Of course, there was far less connection to world events. Today, media is everywhere. Much of it is a welcome connection to world events and community. But with advertisings current sole purpose of placing marketing messages in front of as many eyeballs as possible, all of these new media are now flooded with commercialism.
There's nothing inherently wrong with a marketer's desire to get their message in front of a potential customer. The problem is the cumulative effect of so many marketers with so many products placing their message across so many media that consumer simply give up and give in. Of course it's faster and simpler to just go to McDonald's than it is to go to the grocery store and cook your own meal. Of course it's cooler to drink Kettle One than it is to drink Gordon's. Who wouldn't want dinner to be fast and simple and to be perceived as cool?
In the broadest sense, capitalism could be faulted for this entire scenario. This model basically says do whatever you can do to make capital. To make capital, you have to sell stuff. To sell stuff, people have to buy stuff. For people to buy stuff, they have to be encouraged to buy. To encourage people to buy, they have to advertised to. It's a vicious circle with no clear end.
Clearly, that's a jaded and moribund viewpoint. While there's truth to it, there's also truth to the many joys of capitalistically driven advertising. Without this, we wouldn't have Beyonce using her booty to sell Pepsi. Or the Coors Twins to sell beer. Or David Beckham selling Vodaphone. Or Brad Pitt selling all kinds of stuff in Japan.
"Van Helsing" beauty Kate Beckinsale, adorned in an alluring bikini, opens a Diet Coke while displaying her curves to ogling guys poolside. The Diet Coke can releases bubbles, apparently containing some sort of sexual pheromone, that float through the air and over the bodies of awe-struck guys causing them to tumble into the pool.
Also this week in Ad Age's TV Spots of the Week is a guy who becomes a fire breather after eating Dairy Queens spicy burger, five Chicklets spewing dirty words, a really mundane Energy Star commercial, a cereal whodunit from Kellog, a woman tears her clothes off in an elevator for SCA Hygiene Products and a bunch of grown sports professionals want to go out and play for Gatorade.
Adidas has launched a global football advertising campaign produced for UEFA EURO 2004, dubbed the "European Cup" of football. The campaign, called "Road to Lisbon," was created by independent 180 Amsterdam, as part of the 180/TBWA alliance. The campaign includes TV, Cinema, Print and Outdoor and kicked off in the UK this past Saturday. A global roll-out will follow in a few weeks.
The campaign centers on a 2-minute film, entitled "Road to Lisbon," and is shot in the genre of a classic road movie. Thirteen of the world's best football players are caught on camera as they travel on customized scooters from their respective home countries to Lisbon for the UEFA EURO 2004 championships. Along the way they meet up for kick-a-rounds in forests, lay-bys and anything remotely resembling a game. Eventually they even take on a whole Portuguese town before we see the huge squad reach Rossio, the main square of Lisbon. The commercial is set to the tunes of Quincy Jones's "It's Caper Time"? from the soundtrack of the epic 1969 motion picture "The Italian Job."
If you're into scooters and the whole euro-soccer thing, you'll love this campaign. Adrants is clueless about soccer (footbal to the rest of the world) but there sure is some fancy foot work in this campaign.
Following the Clear Channel/Howard Stern debacle, Clear Channel has slowly been filling the gaps left by the banning of Howard Stern on six of its radio stations. San Diego's KIOZ is the third Clear Channel station to announce a replacement for Stern's morning slot. This time it's Mike (Mickey) Esparza whose been in the San Diego market for a while and has had his own set of problems having been fired, targeted and smoked Marijuana on air. Mickey will debut on June 1.
