If there's any segment of advertising that's boring and droll but intensely more challenging than other segments, it would be B to B high tech advertising. We did a stint in the segment back in the dot com days. We learned more than we'd ever care to know about business intelligence, Ethernet switching, network management, IT outsourcing, knowledge management, ecommerce, message management, document management, wireless integration and countless other overly buzzword-filled non-sense.
Thankfully, all high tech marketers aren't so boring as indicated by this Vertical Response video sent to us by Adrants reader Rick Bruner. In the video, Furious ALF & 2Fein rap about "the app thang." All kinds of snide comments can be made about rappers but in this case it just seems to work. Maybe it's because we have a close affiliation with particular area of advertising. Maybe this thing is actually that good. You decide.
Continuing its campaign to boycott American Eagle, Unite Here, which claims American Eagle Outfitters fails to enforce its Code of Conduct at one of its Canadian shipping Warehouses has launched a Counter Marketing Contest as part of its American Vulture cause. The contest seeks video submissions from people which comment on, parody or satirize the retailer's current marketing efforts.
It began it's quest in New York's Union Square back in July with rally outside one of the chain's stores with its version of the American Eagle, the American Vulture.
Every once in a while, some agency creates a piece of work that causes one to react with equal parts "WTF?" and "Damn, that was good!" This :90 from Fallon and A Glass and a Half Full Productions for Cadbury Dairy Milk is one such piece of work. With a gorilla, a drum set and Phil Collins' In the Air Tonight, an intriguingly pensive and and anticipatory mood is set as the gorilla waits for his moment to shine. The work comes from Juan Cabral who worked on Sony's Paint and Balls.
UPDATE: Check out the eerily similar commercial Adland found for the ABC comedy Carpoolers.
Perhaps one of the most unsexy bra brands is doing exactly what an unsexy bra brand should do. It's talking about the mundane, utilitarian purpose of a bra. While Victoria's Secret goes on and on about it's intimate apparel, Playtex, along with brands like Bravissimo, is has left the coy, playful, tantalizing, metaphor-ridden approach behind and has focused on what a a bra actually does: comfortably supports the part of a woman's body that needs supporting.
Granted, this no-nonsense approach isn't new even for the company that pioneered bra advertising on TV way back in 1954 but the company has updated, modernized and uniquely positioned its brand to...oh, who are we kidding? We just wanted to write about bras again. OK, who else has got a recently launched bra campaign we can use to fill our daily salaciousness quota here at Adrants?
Adrants reader Will sent us footage of this guerrilla promotion that Alaska Airlines conducted in Portland for its non-stop to Boston service. The statue to the right of the Paul Revere guy is also an actor, though it's unclear what he's there to do besides freak people out.
We're trying to work out how you would gauge how well this converted on a survey. What would you ask people?
How Did You Hear About the Boston Non-Stop Flights?
- Via email
- Through a friend or Alaska Airlines employee
- Internet surfing (enter website)
- Via man dressed like Paul Revere/painted statue guy in Portland square (circle one)
Some people, like LotR aficionados, have waited most of their adult lives for their epic to hit the big screen. Others, notably Harry Potter and Narnia fans, haven't really had to suffer the bittersweet agony of waiting for some director to do justice to their literary childhood fantasia.
Our time has finally come. And it's either going to be really crappy, in which case it takes New Line Cinema down along with it, or it's going to blow our fucking minds.
The epic we're referring to is The Golden Compass, part one of a trilogy we've read at least six times. Watch the Comic Con preview for the fullest effect.
While we doubt Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman would ever let us down, we realize how stupid it is to pin all our broken dreams on an adaptation, so we are holding our emotions at arm's length.
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- More on Diesel's Fuel for Life. It all started with a guerilla campaign called No Legalization, in which the fabled Society Against Legalization fought tooth and nail to forbid public consumption of the perfume.
- Pingdom gets more people to divorce IE for Team: Firefox. We didn't realize the browser wars were so ... personal.
- NBC and News Corp execs name their nameless collaboration site Hulu "because it sounded fun and rhymed with itself," says MarketingVox.
- Yet one more reason to jump the Goodship MySpace for Facebook: Spacelift! Now you can turn your MySpace into Facebook! Holy shit! (Sorry - it just seemed like it had to be said.)
- For "Gone Running," Nike puts together a very hard-to-read do-not-disturb-type sign that vibes like a nervous breakdown (but with a light at the end of the tunnel!).
- Google and CNN become bosom buddies. That's ... sweet.
The Czech Republic's BOOKS has launched a well-rendered ad campaign to raise literacy among the masses. Watch while Catwoman sifts through the pages of "All About Doggie and Pussycat" by Josef Lada. And here, Spiderman reads "Beetles," written by Jan Karafiat.
The campaign was put together by Publicis, Prague. Text reads, "No Inspiration. No Future." It could also read, "It is never too late to scour the children's section for cues on why your life took this odd turn." But that was probably too long.
We'd have thought there were only a handful of ways you could manipulate a high school yearbook photo (color? grayscale? mustache?), but Classmates.com is remarkably good at coming up with new ones.
First it tickled our love of schoolyard gossip by replacing its bespectacled standby with a Farrah look-alike, then it gave us a puzzle to play with, and now you can mess around with the actual features of the photos.
Word on the street is Classmates.com is headed toward an IPO soon. What took so long? At this point the company's business model is about as vintage as its ads. Doesn't Facebook fully satisfy our compulsive need to gawk at, and shit-talk about, our former peers?
For those seeking another reason (besides Facebook) to screw around at work, just ask for a Mac.
The Art of Office brings Mac users back to Apple's roots as a graphic design darling. Here, artists can upload stuff they've created on the Mac Office suite (Word, Powerpoint, Excel) for creative critique in the vocal cult of Mac elitists.
Some (well, most) seem promising but are kind of a letdown. Like this. We expected an all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza, but all we got were a bunch of gigantic eyes staring at us.
Then again, we didn't think Office allowed for much creativity along this vein, so it's impressive even while it disappoints.
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