With the NHL season all but washed up due to labor strikes, advertisers are wondering what to do with all that extra money and how to get those damn hockey players back on the ice. Nike isn't sitting around and waiting. It's launched a TV campaign in Canada with images of an empty hockey rink, ice melting and a short tagline, "Bring it back" which, when translated, really means, "Get back here you fuckin' hockey players. You've stolen our damn target audience!" Thanks to Adrants reader Jody Matheson for the tip. View the commercial here.
Urinal advertising is one of the latest advertising assault on the senses and there's a unique use of the medium going on in new Zealand pubs. Heat activated ads have been placed in urinals which will speak when...well...warmed. These ads, which catch you during the frequent activity resulting from the consumption of many beers, say, "If you drink then don't drive you're a bloody legend" (with a picture of a taxi) or: "If you drink then drive you're a bloody idiot" (with a picture of a wrecked car).
With the usual British wit, the ads sign off with the tagline, "Which car will you piss off in tonight?" The ads aim to catch men during that 60 seconds of mindless pondering that goes on during the main drain.
Thanks to Adrants reader Charley Brough for the tip.
It's too bad that pretty much every kid is plugged into an electronic gadget these days and not actually using their mind creatively. Oh sure, there's a few games out there that don't involve killing and have redeeming qualities but not many. LEGOs used to be the cool toy. No longer and the company, which lost $200 million last year, is not doing so well.
LEGO has put their U.S. and European media business in review.
The U.S. business, currently handled by Starcom, is said to be worth $30 million and the European piece, currently handled by Starcom Motive, is estimated at $35 million.
Author Mark Hughes is writing a marketing book and is battling with his publisher over naming the book. He describes the book as "A marketing book about the phenomenon of buzz, brands that get buzz, why, and the six secrets of buzz marketing for brands and celebrities alike" and wants people to vote for a title. You can check out the choices and vote here.
- Perhaps still reeling from the biggest brand disaster of all time (New Coke), Coke is looking at three agencies to help better leverage its Coke Classic brand.
- More trouble with Coke: Coke's new Chairman CEO Neville Isdell has coke marketers quaking in there shoes after Neville trashed the company's recent marketing efforts.
- The Wall Street Journal is resurrecting is Saturday edition, not published since 1953 and will hire an additional 150 staffers.
- FOX and the NFL kicked off a combined 13.4 rating and 28 share for last Sunday's opening day.
- MediaLife thinks ABC's Lost could be a ratings winner.
- The popular Abercrombie & Fitch model Albert Reed was discovered by accident.
- The WB's Jack & Bobby was downloaded from AOL 700,000 times over an eight day period besting the last AOL promotion for the WB's Everwwood hit 150,000 downloads.
A giant, 40-foot robot has been spotted in Times Square by Jason Kottke and reported by Gothamist. It's a promotion for the upcoming Paramount movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
The movie, about disappearing scientists and an evil plot to destroy the world, stars Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie and was shot entirely on green screen with all visuals added by computer.
London based television production company Zig Zag Productions is making a television program for a UK terrestrial channel called Best Ads Never Seen and is looking for ads that were made but for some reason never got a chance to air. So here's a chance for all you ad agencies, production companies and directors to have work broadcast which either got killed by the client or were banned because of complaints by a fringe conservative group. Send your submissions to daniela@zigzag.uk.com.
It is well known that consumers have had it with the incessant delivery of irrelevant ad message. Two new technologies hope to put the consumer in control and offer greater relevance. Really Simple Shopping is based on RSS technology and provides the opportunity to sign up for and receive specific messages from specific marketers to a desktop newsreader program. It's similar to email but, to date, is spam free.
Dotomi lets consumers opt-in to receive specific banner advertising on partner sites. In exchange for providing personal information, the consumer, when visiting a participating website, is delivered a banner based on their personal information rather than the standard banner otherwise delivered.
While both companies are heading in the direction of eliminating ad clutter and providing more value for the consumer, it'll be a while before everyone gets over the "big brother" connotations that go along with this sort of "all knowing" advertising.
Following its Anna Wintour promotional stunt, city newspaper METRO New York is at it again. Henry Scott, the Managing Director for Metro New York, sent a drag queen impersonating Anna Nicole Smith to Richard Johnson at the New York Post today in response to today's comment that read "there was a whole squad of Wintour look-alikes outside the Bryant Park tents the other day handing out copies of Metro, the cheesy daily freebie."
So the Ann Nicole Smith look-a-like took a bag full of Velveeta cheese and a note from Henry Scott over to the Post that read "Loved the article this morning. We at Metro are the brie type. I think that you will find the enclosed more the New York Post's sensibilities." Tit for tat in the newspaper publishing biz.
In perhaps the most callous disregard for significance of that day and for the pain it caused the world, Spanish newspaper publisher PRISA has sent out an email ad showing the New York City skyline before and after the fateful attacks of September 11, 2001. The headline reads, "You can do a lot in one single day; just imagine what can happen in three months." (See comments for clarification on this translation) And PRISA is doing this all to promote the online version of its newspaper, El Pais.
Is Spain culturally clueless or is there some convoluted explanation for this insensitive use of imagery? PRISA the same newspaper group that ran the headline, "The world, awaiting expectantly for Bush's reaction," on September 12, 2001.
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