Apparently, there's this really popular restaurant in the South called Krystal. Who knew? We sure didn't and we also didn't know the chain's website has a very attractive spokesperson named Krystal to guide visitors around the company's website. Aside from that, Krystal has this thing called Krystal Lovers Hall of Fame, an area that features Krystal lovers from around the restaurant's six state area.
Their big thing is the Krystal Hamburger box or the Cheese Krystal box, boxes full of small, square burgers. Hmm, sounds a lot like White Castle. That's because, as a commenter points out, it's the southern cousin of White Castle. Krystal will now feature its Hall of Famers on these boxes as a promotion.
Following in the boundary-pushing footsteps of the Schering baby-in-a-dumpster ad comes this Thialand ad for the Nikon Cool Pix S4 which uses military gun site imagery to convey the effectiveness of Nikon technology. Surely and ad that would never run in America but, apparently, the rest of the world has dispensed with this thing called political correctness.
Unilever's Sure Sport is getting Football (soccer) fans all worked up with a new video clip featuring all manner of wild animals and site that has anything and everything a football fan cold possibly wish for. Spend some time with it.
Advertising Age has a very cool new design. It feels much more contemporary and easier to dive into. It's taken on a wider width as many recent relaunches have. The headlines are easier to read. The redesigned email newsletters look great too. The contents of the print edition will be available to subscribers Sunday night. It's all a welcome change.
A tipster who wishes to remain anonymous traveled to the AAAA's Conference last week and tells us about an interesting observation. We'll let them tell it in their own words. "I was flying to the 4A's conference and something struck me as funny. There were 3 4A's staff (senior level) heading out to the conference all in first class. There were about 6 agency execs (one being a c-level) all in coach. Per the presentation at the meeting over 70% of the 4A's revenues comes from dues paid by the agencies. Unbelievable that they [the AAAA's execs] chose to spend it less responsibly than the agencies that give it to them in the first place. Lower spending = Lower dues." Right on. Ah, but how ad wags love their perks.
OK, that's it for all you teen-loving 30/40-something men. With the launch of a new stalker awareness campaign, News Corp. hopes to make MySpace teens completely aware of your shenanigans and boot you back to women your own age. Created by the Ad Council in 2005, the campaign will blanket Fox properties MySpace, Fox network, FX, National Geographic and Fuel TV. With the ever-imaginative tagline, "Don't believe the type," the ads point people to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's center website which then links to a page specific to the campaign. On that page are links to the PSAa, a game that aims to teach kids about the sketchiness on online profiles and an area with information for parents.
Mariah Carey has signed a global licensing and marketing deal with Elizabeth Arden to create and promote a fragrance line using the pop star's name. The line will be introduced Spring 2007 and it's reported Carey will be involved start through finish from product development to marketing promotion. Carey joins Britney Spears who already has a fragrance line with Elizabeth Arden.
You can just hear the model on the right in this United Bennetton ad screaming to the model on the left during the photo shoot, "Back off bitch! My boobs need more space than your sorry little boy chest!" Or at least that's what we hear in our sick, twisted mind.
We're not sure if the sexual innuendo was intended here but it sure seems blatant enough to us. These ads for Ella Blache Paris claim to help make "Skin good enough to eat" and feature naked women, with appropriate parts covered, draped over eating and food preparation implements. See additional versions of the ad here and here.
Blogs, podcasts, video, online photo albums, social networks, do-it-yourself ad campaigns. Increasingly people are creating more content than "mainstream media" companies. Consumers are creating ads, editing existing ones and proliferating them over YouTube and other sharing services. People are gaining more control over content and even how a company's brand is perceived. Is this a good thing? Is it a fad? Can is be managed? Should it be managed? Should brands allow consumers to "co-op" their brand? Should everything be a "conversation"? Should we completely say goodbye to traditional, top-down brand management? Are brands jumping on the social/conversational bandwagon because they believe in it, it's the latest fad or they are just trying to appear cool? There's a lively forum discussion about this topic in our forum section. Check out the discussion there or give us your thoughts in comments.
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