The Human Rights Commission has subpoenaed 16 executives at New York agencies to probe their supposedly poor history of hiring black people at public hearings during Advertising Week September 25 through September 29. A nifty strategy by the Human Rights Commission but one question that doesn't seem to have been addressed publicly surrounding this issue is how many black people actually want to work for an ad agency. Currently, in the 16 agencies the Commission is looking into, nine percent of employees are black. In New York, blacks represent 25 percent of the population. It's the gap between Nine and 25 that have critics steamed.
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While the stunt has been known for some time, many videos of people dropping Mentos into bottles of Diet Coke are flooding social networks and one of the marketers is loving the publicity. Commenting on the 800 or so videos online, estimated to be worth $10 million in marketing value, Mentos VP of Marketing Pete Healy said, "We're tickled pink any it." On the other hand, old-fashioned marketer Coca-Cola really doesn't get it. In a statement that sounds like it's out of a 1950's marketing text book, Coke Spokeswoman Susan McDermott said, "It's an entertaining phenomenon. We would hope people want to drink more than try experiments with it." OK, first, who cares if the crap gets consumed. People have to buy the stuff to do this stunt. It's money in the bank for Coke no matter what. Second, there's this thing called free publicity. Maybe Coke hasn't heard of it but many marketers think it's a really good thing when people talk about and use their products a lot.
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Well, it's happened. A couple years ago, we said the proliferation of advertising would, one day, reach the point where people's house would be painted with a brand's logo as part of an ad campaign or promotion. To promote the Simple Life on E, an Atlanta house was decorated with the E and The Simple Life logos and the shrubs in front have been trimmed (likely pre-shaped fake bushes) to spell "Sundays". Oh sure, the whole house is just one big purchased promotion and, likely, it's not the first but it's the first we've seen. It's actually done quite well. Particularly nice job on the "broken" window. We wonder what the neighbors think though. A second photo can be seen here.
With World Cup mania taking over the world, Adidas has taken over the ceiling of a train station in Cologne, Germany and painted a beautiful fresco-style painting. This is the sort of advertising-as-art creative dream about every night.
It's seldom you see a really nice piece of witty copy anymore but this Kenneth Cole billboard does the trick. The copy reads, "If Gas Prices Continue to Rise Why Not Switch Pumps." But, as Animal points out, a pair of $196 pumps doesn't exactly help save money.
 It looks like a New York agency's cultural sensibilities didn't match those of Eagle, Idaho residents. In this video, a local news reports Eagle's Mayor is threatening to cancel Eagle Fun Days this weekend, part of which is the local fire department's Rocky Mountain Oyster Fest. With the festival based on bull's testicle, the fire department thought it would be a good idea to promote the event bay asking a New York agency to help ouot. They did with some spots that might be considered humorous to some but Eagle mayor Nancy Merrill told the fire fighters to pull the spots or she'd cancel the event. The fire department complied, pulled them off the website and canceled their TV schedule. Radio ads did air but Merrill has called a meeting and is still threatening to cancel the event. While the agency told the television station they meant no harm, the station is apparently, keeping the agency's name confidential. Come on guys. Step forward. Take credit. The campaign's great. Just not for Idaho.
UPDATE: FCB did the campaign and CEO Steve Centrillo sets the record straight in the Comment section stating they are fully aware of Eagle culture since one of FCB's creative directors comes from Eagle. He also states Mayor Nancy Merrill is overstepping her bounds, advancing her personal agenda and using her position as a bully pulpit.
UPDATE II: You can see all the work here.
Crew Creative helped CSI in its bid for Emmy consideration with a street stunt in Los Angeles. The stunt involved a team of "coroners" along with a branded van, body bags and stretchers, all with the message "For your Emmy consideration. See two other photos here and here.
The Philadelphia Tourism Office will launch a new Broadway-style commercial this Sunday, June 11, during the Tony Awards on CBS. It's an appropriate placement for sure. There's a guy in pajamas, a teddy bear, stunt bears professional dancers and the mayor. We're not into Broadway syle entirtainment so the whole thing looks horrifically cheesy to us but, that's just us. The rets of you might like it. The :30 is here. The :60 is here.
With the tagline, "Philly's More Fun When You Sleep Over," the spot promotes the city's amenities including the Philly Overnight Hotel Package. Beyond the Tony, the ad will continue to air until July 2. The overall campaign will include radio in New York, Boston and Harrisburg; billboards in New York's Theater District and in Atlantic City; Cinema advertising in New York and Boston area theaters; multiple newspapers and online on such site as DailyCandy, CitySearch, Philly.com and NYpost.com.
- You can catch live coverage of the VCU Adcenter Executive management Training for Creative Directors here.
- Media Magazine has announced its call for entries for its third annual Creative Media Awards.If you're into media, this is your award show.
- Britney Spears has trademarked the name of her baby Sean Preston, apparently for a future line of clothing.
Not very good, but here's a new commercial for a very cool, new product, Slingbox.
- Atlanta's WestWayne created an experiential marketing event for the Southwest Toyota Distributors to promote Scion with a visual arts fest.
- The NBA wants for female fans and has launched an ad campaign directed at them along with a branded line of clothing.
- Hot show Grey's Anatomy has advertisers slathering and one, fashion retailer New York & Co. has signed series stars Elle Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey to appear in their fall campaign.
Tugging at our heartstrings, this commercial, created by Mullen, for online video game service GameTap urges us to feel for game character who don't see enough game time. We are urged to have a caring heart, pick up our game controllers, visit gametap.com and play on.
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