Known for its guerilla marketing magic, the hard-hitting Truth recently got a clue about blogs and started their own on Xanga.com. This is in contrast to the many sites who prefer to blog exclusively on their own servers or homepages, a good move in our opinion because of Xanga's sizeable built-in audience.
The campaign's been around a couple of months and is advertised heavily on Xanga's front page, visible to a serious chunk of the Truth demo as Xanga sits in the top 15 most-visited websites for the American teen demographic (per their own research). Entries range from scandalous calls to action to news on concurrent campaigns like their back hair effort.
We dig the idea but the blog could do with a better writer as the content's a bit dry and hardly does dignity to Truth's razor-edge persona.
Volvo's Free Will campaign is a collage of consumer opinion about its C30 hatchback. While this concept isn't new, airing negative views as adstuff (er, kind of) is.
The campaign also includes video shorts that viewers can rate upon seeing. One features an audience throwing tomatoes and heckling as a burlesque woman unveils the C30 on a theatre stage.
The campaign's gone strong in the UK for a year. Ford global ad director Tim Ellis says the effort aims to get the up-and-coming 25-35 demo to do some thinking about the C30 and develop a relationship with Volvo based more on honesty than is typical in brand relationships. "In research, we learned that people feel as if we are really talking directly to them, so they consume [campaign offerings] and engage [them] differently than other typical advertisements," he explained.
Cheers to Volvo for their bravery. We look forward to seeing how it turns out even if we don't find the C30 that cute. (See? Works on marketers too.)
Since no one's at the top of their game on January 2, including us, we're going to bring you this bit of irrelevant, innocuous news to ease you into the New Year. Ready? OK. Telephone poles across the nation are suffering from a new disease caused by the hundreds of staples people use to affix fliers to the poles. It's expected tree huggers everywhere will amass the streets of America with staple removers to combat this disease. Oh wait, telephone poles are dead trees. See. We told you this was a non-news item. Move along. There's nothing to see here.
Saatchi and Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts reveals that Lovemarks, allegedly written by him and out for three years running, is not actually a book but a "new-business development tool" according to AdAge in a video interview. Indeed, what appears to be text on sheets between bound paper to all who encounter it is actually the elaborate first phase of a 10-year scheme to refurbish the ethos and image of the Publicis Groupe agency, according to Roberts.
The confession comes just in time for phase two of the zany scheme which also appears in chimerical book form: The Lovemarks Effect: Winning the Consumer Revolution. This too is part of the effort to change S and S "from an ad agency to an ideas company to become the Lovemarks company," explains Roberts.
Ironic how much changes from high school, when the last thing you want is to be known for your lovemarks. Clearly Saatchi and Saatchi is onto something we aren't.
We Matter decided to start the year off right with print ads on BART featuring a girl cutting her wrists for lack of attention.
"How the hell can they wish us a happy 2007 with images like that?" snarled the teenage BART passenger who was forced to stare at it for the whole ride.
Hey, at least we know people look at ads and even take them a little personally. Maybe next year We Matter will glam up the campaign by putting one of those "HAPPY 2007!" party hats on its not-so-optimistic New Year poster children.
Read the copy here. We dig wake-up call ads, especially since cutting is a topic in suburbia that's not much addressed (and should be). That revelers came across the campaign over the threshold of 2007 was just awkward timing.
Over at our social network, AdGabber, a discussion which aims to identify the industry's creative greats has begun. From Phil Dusenbury to Jay Chiat to David Ogilvy to Lee Clow to more current creatives such as Alex Bogusky and David Droga are being debated. Who do you think are the industry's luminaries and why? Join the discussion here.
Here's what we think (er, hope?) is our last holiday card of '07. T3 The Think Tank sent us a game in which you pose as an elf and tip penguins.
Far from the benign polar friends we met in Happy Feet, the birds talk trash and also emit holiday wishes from T3 employees when you knock them over. (We located T3 founder Gay Gaddis' wish. It's for nice penguin shoes.)
Great incentive for a little digital abuse. The game is simple but strangely addictive.
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