My how times haven't changed. Remember that classic Goodyear Polyglass commercial which many have dubbed the most sexist ad of all time? You know the one. The one in which...OMG...you wife has to drive alone!
On one hand, advertising culture has moved beyond portraying women like moronic, bikini-clad bimbos whose sole purpose is to drape themselves across the hood of a car or stand in front of a refrigerator. On the other, we have TrueCar.com which, in a serious headscratcher, thought it smart to imply women are still hapless nitwits who have no idea how to buy a car on their own.
A not-so-recent ad from the used car site features women telling us how the site gave them the necessary confidence to buy a car on their own with one particular woman saying...wait for it..."I don't even need to bring a dude with me."
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We agree with AdWeek's David Gianatasio 100% percent on this one. Which, of course, isn't like us agreeing with Bob Garfield back in the day because, of course, we rarely did. We used to pick stupid little fights with the man over his ad reviews because, well, that's what Adrants was all about; poking holes in the media and advertising establishments.
My how times have changed. Back in the day, Adrants was a single voice of over-sized balls and horse-hung swinging man meat. Today, well, everyone's in on the game of snark. So much so that it really doesn't mean anything anymore. Just take a look at Business Insider headlines or BuzzFeed or headlines from just about any other publication which now scream extremisms to announce the fact an ant has crossed the street. Anything for a pageview.
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There's a simple truth about blogs--readers rarely, if ever, come to one to be marketed to. Advertising runs counter to the raison d'etre of the blogosphere. Ads are an interruption, a betrayal of the natural purpose and flow individuals expect of a well-written, informative blog.
Yet blogging and revenue-generation don't have to be at cross purposes. What many bloggers, online forums, product review sites and other "independent" sources of online content haven't yet embraced, is that the very thing people come for--credibility--is a trait that has economic value.
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The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas is out with the third rendition of its much-lauded, Fallon-created, Gentleman Scholar-produced "Just the right amount of wrong" work that continues to position the luxury property as anything but normal.
Last year's Bohemian Rhapsody redux and 2011's original hinted at all manner of mischievously illicit behavior occurring inside the property and positioned the hotel as an adventure rather than a bed on which to sleep.
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After watching this film touting the 2014 Lexus IS created by LA-based Team One which was made by editing together photos from 200 Instagrammers who shot the vehicle over the course of a day, you might ask why bother?
Or you might marvel at the thinking behind the effort which leveraged the Instagram social community and the power of hashtags to uniquely create an ad in a manner which has never been done before.
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We would never begrudge anyone doing whatever it takes to further their career, especially Israeli ad man Tal Schweiger who's looking to land a gig in the States, but Tal, your "hire me" stunt makes no sense.
Tal wants insure potential recruiters and agencies that he can spell perfectly in English. But when his "Don't Worry About My English" page asks people to enter words -- that he (or, more likely, the linguistics program he is using) CAN CLEARLY SEE -- of course he is going to be able to spell the words perfectly.
Now if he had site visitors SAY the words instead of spell them out for him, that would be another thing. We hope Tal gets the job he wants but this stunt isn't exactly proving anything.
OK this is cool and all but, really? Please! On the other hand, we suppose there are plenty of people out there, as seen in the video, who are more than happy to be wowed by a guy who levitates alongside a London bus crossing the Westminster Bridge.
The stunt, created last month by Arnold KLP for Pepsi Max, involved English magician Dynamo affixing himself to the side of a London bus so that he appears to levitate alongside the bus as it crosses the bridge.
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Recently, a colleague asked me, "What was the most rewarding mistake you ever made in business?"
It's a great question, and I quickly had an answer for him because it was an incredibly painful mistake. However, it proved to be an invaluable lesson that has served me well in the years since. I'm sharing so perhaps you can learn it the easy way.
The lesson: Don't ever stop marketing because you think you've reached the point where you don't need to. And, secondarily, believe the old adage that warns, "Don't put all your eggs into one basket."
There's a story, of course...
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Last week Heineken launched Departure Roulette, a stunt at JFK airport that allowed people to immediately change their flight plans and get on a plane to a random location all at the push of a button. As would be expected, most people are not adventurous, daring or silly enough to make a random travel change at a moment's notice. Some though, much to Heineken's (and our) amusement, are and this video lets us in on the action.
What we'd really love, though, are follow up stories that reveal what happened to these adventurous souls to who Heineken up on their offer. Now that would be fun.
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We can thank Oreo's Dunk the the Dark stunt and the growth of Big Data for the rise in prominence of real-time marketing. Of course, the onslaught of real-time social data that comes with real-time marketing means that, as marketers, we now live in a world of "presentism" where everything is real-time, always-on, pervasive, and constant. We can no longer predict the future because it's already happening right now.
To thrive in this new world, traditional processes and supporting tools have to change. Brands need integrated team structures and streamlined processes that help them get messages to the right audience in real time.
Download this tutorial from Topsy now to insure your brand has what it takes to succeed in a real-time marketing world.
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