Here's a new approach to teen substance abuse: blame the parents. A new campaign from Energy BBDO for the Partnership at DrugFree.org called Emotional Drugs features two spots, Denial and Enabling, that center on the things parents don't (and, of course, should) do when their children are on - or at risk of using - drugs.
In Denial, a mother wonders why so many prescription pills are missing from her medicine bottle. Later, as she gets ready to leave the house, she opens her son's bedroom door to witness him and his friend acting suspiciously. Instead of connecting both activities, she denies that her son could possibly be responsible for her missing medicine. Enabling depicts a mother hosting an underage party at her home and later turning a blind eye to teens engaging in drug and alcohol use.
The message, of course, is that parents must be vigilant and take a determined and caring interest in their children's lives. They can start by reading more information about teenage addiction at ProjectKnow.com and other similar sites that deal with drug addiction issues.
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This is big. A new forecast from eMarketer states online spend will pass print for first time in 2012. US online advertising spending, which grew 23% to $32.03 billion in 2011, is expected to grow an additional 23.3% to $39.5 billion this year pushing it ahead of total spending on print newspapers and magazines, according to the report. Print advertising spending is expected to fall to $33.8 billion in 2012 from $36 billion in 2011.
eMarketer's previous US online advertising forecast from July 2011 forecasted 20.2% growth to $31.1 billion in 2011. Stronger than expected results from major industry players and the IAB/PwC benchmark through the first three quarters of 2011 contributed to the upward revision.
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After 14 years, Pricline has decided it's time for a new direction and in a spot that will debut Monday, Shatner's Negotiator character will plunge to his death in a bus after telling a couple to "save yourselves...some money!" Shatner, in the bus, then tumbles off a cliff and dies an explosive death. Shatner's Captain Kirk character died in the 1994 film Star Trek: Generations.
Of the decision, Shatner said, "I'm in grief mode. It's not the first time I've had an iconic character die off. It was a great run. If the management says this is the end, this is the end." Better to go out on top then be seen as a hanger on.
The move is part of a planned new direction for Priceline which will have less to do with the site's well known price negotiation feature and more to do with its newer fixed price, discount-booking focused approach. There may even be a spot in this year's Super Bowl.
Shatner will be missed but things change, companies change and that means their ad campaigns have to as well. Can we get a ceremonial "Khaaaaaaaaan!" ?
The Barbarian Group has created an infographic that summarizes the milestones that occurred in the world of social media during 2011 across such platforms as YouTube, Twitter, Google, Instagram, Facebook and Foursquare. Such milestones include YouTube's launch of movie rentals, Twitter's acquisition of Tweetdeck, announcement of Facebook's planned IPO, Twitter reaching 100 million users, Foursquare reaching one billion check ins, Facebook's launch of Timeline and the launch of Google Plus brand pages. Check it all out here.
Ah yes. This year, Volkswagen must find a way to reprise the greatness of The Force which it debuted during last year's Super Bowl. It'll be a hard act to follow but VW wants us all to know their trying really really hard not to let us down.
This Deutsch LA-created teaser, while not indicative of the actual content planned for this year's Super Bowl, is called The Bark Side and hopes to peak interest in what the automotive manufacturer has in store. Here's hoping they don't fall flat.
The teaser points to a microsite on which a full-blown, Star Wars-themed invite urges people to invite all their friends to a virtual Big Game party to be held January 27.
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We've seen some pretty interesting work from the publishing industry over the past few years but this recent video from author Simon Spurrier whose novel, A Serpent Uncoiled, didn't sell to well when it first cam out is quite unique. It's an onslaught of ingeniously made up swear words to illustrate his anger over his book launch falling flat and to shamelessly call attention to the release of the paperback version. Great stuff! Give it a watch.
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A new outdoor campaign in Albany New York from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine uses images of fat people to argue cheese is unhealthy to eat. Jezebel writes, "The first and most obvious problem is that these ads look crappy and play on the weak and tired premise that fat people are disgusting."
We couldn't agree more. We'd venture to guess there are just as many skinny people who love and eat cheese as well. The PCRM claims the fact that cheese consists of 70 percent fat, mostly saturated, which they say, can lead to heart desease and diabetes.
Countering the campaign, Honest Weight Food Co-Op Manager Tom MacGregor counters that claim and the campaign saying it is "insane" and, "I think there are much bigger things to worry about than people eating cheese."
Of course eating pounds of cheese a week can't be good. But an anti-cheese campaign doesn't have be so terribly cheesy.
IBM is out with a new set of Smarter Planet commercials which focus on the company's smarter analytics. The spots touch upon predictive analytics, demand planning and cloud computing. The spots were created by Ogilvy & Mather and the production was handled by Psyop/Smuggler. After watching these ads it seems as if there's nothing IBM can't do.
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Kelly Brook, whom we've seen previously getting naked for PETA, pimping perfume and writhing with sexual desire, has lent her delicious curves to New Look which is launching a new campaign to tout a line of under things.
In the campaign, Kelly can be seen cradling her assets while sporting hot red lingerie and stockings, lounging on a couch in blue retro-wear and smiling coyly while looking pretty in pink.
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So Doritos has selected its top five contenders for its Crash the Super Bowl contest. Here's one from Joby Harris called Bird of Prey. Joby won $25,000 and a trip to the Super Bowl for his efforts. If you ask us, his work is right in line with what Super Bowl viewers love to see: cute girls, office antics and people smashing into things because they think they can fly.
Nice job on the multiracial inclusion thing too, Joby. So what do you think? Should Joby's entry take the top spot and air during the Super Bowl? You can check out all the finalists here. We're partial to the cleavage-laden Hot Wild Girls but that's been done a million times before. Sling Baby? Funny but it'll get complaints like the HomeAway ad did. Man's Best Friend? Yawn. Dog Park? Nah. Yea, we're going with Bird of Prey.
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