While YouTube wanted to partner all along, NBC saw the existence of its content on YouTube as some sort of horrific abuse of copyright law and forced the video site to remove various NBC clips such as the famed "Lazy Sunday." Now, the net has reversed its line of thinking, realizing that keeping content off YouTube is similar to telling a 13 year old she can't use MySpace. In a deal between the two, NBC will have a branded area on YouTube where various network programming clips will be uploaded on a weekly basis insuring far better reach and distribution than the net using just its own site. NBC will also promote the partnership on-air including a contest which calls for people to submit their own promotional spots for The Office. The winner will get their submission aired in August during the show.
Not that any animal in their right mind would actually want to live in a zoo if they had the choice but these commercials for the Toronto Zoo would have us believe so. OK, so that statement was tinged with tree-hugging liberalism but would you want to live in a cage if you didn't have to? Anyway, there's three spots and they're sort of funny. There's also a website at which you can here other animals plea for a life in the zoo. They were created by Lowe Roche.
Here's an amazing commercial from MTV that captures all the humorous elements of a boyfriend coming over to his girlfriend's house to pick her up and facing the wrath and annoyance of her family as well as his girlfriend's embarrassment over the confrontation. It ends in the usual way with the girl grabbing the guy and running out of the house as the family continues to berate. But, there's a twist to this ad. The boyfriend is black, the family white and they, not the black guy, speak "beatbox" which, in a stereotypical twist, the black guy can't understand. The ad ends simply with "Speak." It's a powerful message in many ways. It encourages communication on many levels. Parent to child. Child to parent. Family member to family member. Family to boyfriend. Girlfriend to boyfriend. Without one understandable word, the ad communicates better than most ads that carry understandable words.
Once again, we bow graciously at the feet of all who voted for and deemed Adrants worthy of being named the Best Blog on Advertising in MarketingSherpa' annual survey of Top Blogs and Podcasts. As MarketingSherpa writes, despite research that proves otherwise, "Does sex sell? We've seen data that it can depress ad campaign results. However, obviously it doesn't hurt you as a blogger in the world of advertising. Steve Hall, known for witty commentary combined with ad photos of scantily clad young women, has obviously captured the hearts of advertising execs."
And, pray tell, some of you dare to complain we post too many racy pictures. Either you haven't worked in the ad industry long enough or you're a really nice person who thinks we're mentally ill and should retire to a monastery to wash away the sins years of toiling in the ad business have left upon us. But, as we've said before, namely in yet another bikinied cleavage ad, "We don't shoot the commercials, we just share them with you."
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We're thinking the CSX headline for a college student focused railroad track safety campaign "Girls Don't Like Flat Guys" would have worked much better as "Guys Don't Like Flat Girls." But, then again, we wouldn't want to be sexist or break any political correctness rules now would we? Nope. Let's just twist that headline around from what we know was originally conceived to be the "Flat Girls" version and we'll be all good with the client and bitchy cause groups that can't take a joke.
Along with that unfortunately manipulated headline are drink coasters which read "If you're thinking about walking on the tracks, don't" accompanied by the image of - oh, the horror! - a squashed fly. There's also a card with the image of a CSX freight train on the front and the statement "Trains don't make a asound when they come up behind you" on the back. That is if you're deaf. One of those Exit agencies did the work.
When you travel a lot and sometimes find yourself peering out that tiny little fish eye hole in your hotel room door, you don't usually expect to see the Papa Johns pizza delivery man staring you back in the face. It's a little off putting especially if you don't expect it but that's exactly what Saatchi & Saatchi dod for Papa Johns and they got an awards for in at Cannes. Nice work.
Inc.com has launched a new outdoor campaign in New York City which will run through August 20th. The company tells us the campaign is intended to target business owners and C-level executives at privately held companies. The ads will appear on 20 public telephone kiosks located throughout the midtown Manhattan business district and will feature copy and artwork explaining what's available on Inc.com. Let's
If we were writing a press release for our client Amp'd Mobile and we were talking about how the company was the official sponsor of the Professional Bull Riders and the client would be simalcasting events to Amp'd Mobile customers, we probobly wouldn't refer to the Professional Bull Riders Association as PBR unless the sponsorship also involved the actual PBR - Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. Even if the client insisted. Just a thought.
You know a company is adhering to those unwritten, politically correct rules which state "one must represent all ethnic groups in commercials" when the spots feature white people with a voice over read by a black. OK, that was crass but let's be blunt. It all sounds very forced sometimes. Maybe it's just that these spots from Pizza Hut aren't very good and that's making us get all uppity about all this PC stuff. Pardon our digression. We'll be back with regularly schedule advertising oddities in a moment.
Following last year's launch of the Super Recruiter action figure, HotJobs has introduced Captain Candidate, a fully-flexible, multitasking machine at the 2006 Society of Human Resource Management conference. Somehow this is all supposed top help employers and recruiters find candidates for jobs. It's all cartoony and action figurish which, according to recent research which finds 95 percent of people think it's OK to have toys in the office, is a good thing.
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