If you're tired of those drug that dedicate 75 percent of their time to the ridiculous disclaimers that must legally be attached to ads that promote drug products, you can now wallow in the lush beauty of drug brand advertising. That's right. You remember branding. It's those emotional, feel good campaigns that say nothing, sell nothing, yet seem to have this ability to allow marketing managers to look at post buy analysis and say, importantly, "We moved the needle."
Merck will spend $20 million to convince us it's people the company cares about, not the billions it makes off drug sales. Ogilvy & Mather created the campaign which includes television, print and online.
Joe Jaffe, rightly, condemns the recent request by Hilton Hotels that agencies give up their rights to all material created for the hotel's $45 million agency review. Calling the request bullshit, Jaffe calls the requirement "highway robbery and the worst possible insult to every last bit of integrity left in the ad business to have ideas from losing contenders implemented down the line."
While many in the industry will do whatever it takes to win new business, Jaffe commends BBDO and Goody for refusing to comply with the ridiculous request and suggest the collective industry reply to a client request such is this should be a resounding "fuck you!"
Interspot has announced the beta launch of their SMS service which provides users free text messaging. The text messages are appended with ads which can be geo-targted. Mobile coupons will be offered as part of the service too.
Making it clear Monster, unsurprisingly, was already speaking to other agencies prior to its dumping Deutsch, the job site has, two weeks after dropping Deutsch, launched a new campaign created by Boston-based Brand Content which had, earlier, done project work for Monster. The campaign will consist of television commercials, and new website features.
Brand Content was formed by Doug Gladstone who previously worked with Monster while at other agencies. Like PictureTel (now part of Polycom), Monster's one of those Boston-based accounts that, if you've worked at an area agency, you've worked on Monster. We did our stint on the account too.
ANIMAL Magazine publisher Bucky Turco tells us he's heard from an industry insider legendary graffiti artist COPE2 has been hired by Time Magazine to bomb a billboard on Houston and Wooster in New York. We're told Fallon arranged the deal which calls for COPE2 to bomb the billboard with tags over a four week period culminating with the application of the Time logo and promotional copy. In a world where Paris Hilton sells hamburgers, the source comments, we shouldn't really be all that surprised staid Time, Inc. might do something like this. Full sized images here, here and here.
Because navel gazing isn't just for men, we thought we'd let you know trashy novel publisher Harlequin has tapped Oxygen Network Mr. Romance winner Randy Ritchwood and Viewer's Choice winner Andrew Larson to grace the covers of the company's new novel covers. All this to promote books.
Gathering recent research the Association of National Advertiser's Dan Jaffe makes a compelling argument which debunks the myth advertising is at the heart of childhood obesity. Citing fat kids in countries with no food advertising and a 13 percent decline in kid-directed food advertising over the past ten years, Jaffe makes a convincing statement. Perhaps we should stop blaming McDonald's and start looking to other causes such as the sedentary lifestyle of too much television and gaming, the decline of gym class in schools or th fact no one cooks well rounded meals anymore. Think about it.
MediaPost's Out to Launch covers the debut of a viral campaign for the MTV Movie Awards which contains cutting room floor footage of auditions and award category clips that didn't make the final edit such as "Best Almost Topless Scene," "Best Man-Dog High Five" and Best Man In A Pirate Hat." The guys behind Two Headed Dog, NightAgency, crafted this one. There's also an MTVeatmovies.com viral that poses as a casting agency, Sunrise Casting Studios, which contains horrific faux audition clips for Troy, Ray and Spiderman.
Other wonders that pass for ad campaigns this week include an iTunes MSN Music campaign, Maxim's Mantropy which we covered here earlier, an online campaign for HBO's Entourage, a Mountain Dew billboard campaign that somehow gets pictures of passersby on the boards, a Spanish language campaign for GMC that focuses on community heroes and a Scott's Fertilizer STEP program-like campaign for local California home improvement chain Orchard Supply Hardware.
The Pennsylvania Tourism Office is hoping the link-friendly nature of weblogs will help get the word out about the area's tourist attractions. The Office gathered together a group of people to take day trips in the area and then asked them to post their experiences to blogs hosted at VisitPA.com. The site, called Real People/Real Roadtrips gathers together various people from different walks of life including a "thrill seeking family," a history buff, two female "culture vultures," a biker, "Hipster Roadtrippers" and an outdoor adventurer. The blogs, which have already been written, will be promoted alongside a larger, traditional campaign consisting of print, regional cable and online. Aptly named Ripple Effects Interactive is behind the campaign.
In a direct approach to getting the attention of GM CEO Rick Wagoner, Kidz Magazine has placed a billboard in Detroit with the headline, "Mr. Wagoner, why isn't GM talking to the people who make 60% Of The Family Car Buying DECISION? Go To http://MrWagoner.SincerelyScott.com for an Epiphany. Sincerely Scott." Scot is Scott Smith, publisher of Kidz Magazine, a magazine "written by kids for kids." While Scott cites GM itself will be able to confirm the figure, it's unclear what, exactly, that 60 percent represents. Some would say this is as an odd way to ask an advertiser for money, but we all know kids were born to beg and do hold great influence over their parents.
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