Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban says the future of television advertising is in its past. He says bring back the live commercial so the viewer (nor the advertiser) will know what to expect until it happens. Calling them Reality Commercials, Cuban claims implementing such a thing would not be a technical challeng or a creatyive one but it would entail a whole lot more work. He cites a couple of examples which does get the mind thinking. After all, a commercial riffing unexpectedly off what the viewer just watched would be far more interesting and integrated than a canned spot. And, oh, the potential for screw ups....that alone would keep a fair amount of people watching.
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This video promoting a text messaging service is extremely stupid not to mention it making viewers wait way, way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long for the punchline which, itself, is also very stupid. Yea, yea, we know it's a riff on that Beautiful Agony site but it's a bad one. Whatever. It's from the UK. They like this stuff.
The Lowe leaked email saga continues with yet another leaked email George Parker has acquired and published over at AdScam. With his usual seen-it-all wit, Parker craps on the ridiculousness of the Lowe Suggestion Box. From important items like Splenda being added to the kitchens uber-health conscious agency folk to increasing the dinner allowance for those who work late to giving employees their birthdays off to offering chair massages to beer nights to bagel breakfasts to coffee tastings to added vending machines, it just makes one want to scream, " Quit your spoiled, whiny bitching and do your fucking job!" It's a job, not a five star hotel.
Our friends over at Chrysler whose ad featuring a fairy turning everything into fairy-like things for the company's wise ass little shit Dodge caliber have told Detroit-based Triangle, a gay rights group to give it a rest. The group has complained about a scene in the ad where the fairy turns a drably dressed guy into a colorfully dressed guy. Chrysler doesn't understand what all the fuss is about and says, "We're kind of surprised that people are making a conclusion about someone's sexual orientation based on the clothes they're wearing." Touche.
There's a lot of different ways to promote a TV show but bloody fighting Samurai cats isn't one we think we've seen before. COG1 has created Samurai Kittens to promote IFC's anime show Samuri 7. Give it a whirl but not if you are the type that gets all weepy when a kitty is faced with certain death by decapitation or severed limb.
Wieden + Kennedy's 12, the program that gives people the chance to break into advertising, have created a promotional spot for Wordstock, a Portland area book festival. We like it.
Subway has has signed a deal with USC running back Reggie Bush who is featured in the chain's recent commercial which just launched today. The commercial, which we like very much but aren't really sure why, promotes a...wait for it....yes, a blog called SubwayFreshBuzz. The blog launches April 8 and will feature 2-3 daily posts from Reggie (or someone writing for him but let's hope not) offering us his thoughts as he enters his rookie year. There's also chat, videos and other good stuff about Reggie and, of course, promotion of healthy eating habits via Subway's healthy menu. You can view the ad here.
Created by JWT and produced by Tool of North America, White Castle has launched a new, six spot television ad campaign. Just like those who love the establishment, the commercials are obsessive about the food and all the goes with it. Two spots have been released. The first, called Slyder Casserole has a oddly accented woman cooking a Slyder casserole in her oven for the biys down at the fire department. The second, called Crave Case Collection features a dweeb who uses the chains 30-burger crave case to store all kinds of things like his socks, tapes and his light bulbs.
Taking the whole ads-in-a-game theme to the next seemingly logical step, publishers of the game Project Entropia are making it possible for players to create their own ads within the game. Because of the game's focus on a virtual economy, the bying and selling of billboards seems to be a natural addition. Current player-created ads are promoting events and actions players have created in the game. Project Entropia is also part of Massive Inc.'s gaming ad network and will serve real ads purchased withing the network.
Last night, we received this from the folks over at M80: "I think you may be of some help to me. I'm reaching out to you on behalf of Comcast and M80 regarding the Slowskys TV commercials. Since you are a fan of The Slowskys, I thought that you might enjoy and/or be interested in posting a video of the Slowskys. In addition to the original Slowskys commercial, we have a special outtakes video exclusively for those who are willing to help us out. You can check it out here.
I feel special. Whatever. Well, the rest of you don't have to be "willing to help us out" because you can just link to the site from here. But, be warned. Either it's a sick joke playing off the so-called slowness of DSL or it's a really lame promotional effort because the site is slower than an army or turtles stuck in a pool of molasses.
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