In the U.K., Quaker has booted Olympic runner Paula Radcliffe from an upcoming ad campaign for its Oatso Simple following her poor Olympic performance and claiming she no longer lives up to the company's tagline, "It helps you go the distance." Radcliffe had said the product was a favorite pre-race staple and her agent, Sian Masterson, tries to deflect the issue by saying the deal broke not because of her Olympic record but because Quaker could not get script approval from the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Center.
I'm Richer Than You Bitch
Who knew that former Seinfeld star Julie Louis-Dreyfus is heiress to a $2.9 billion dynasty? Compare that to our favorite celebutante of the minute, Paris Hilton, who is heiress to a "paltry" $550 Million dynasty. That's right, Louis-Dreyfus is the daughter of Gerard Louis-Dreyfus who runs Louis-Dreyfus Group, a mega-corp in shipping, energy, real estate, manufacturing and communications.
Noting Louis-Dreyfus actually works and makes money on her own as compared to Hilton's "famous for nothing" lifestyle, Gorillamask's Ryan Perry has examined the two women and published a comparison of their childhoods, lifestyles, work ethics, accomplishments, television careers and achievements. Perry finishes the comparison with a summary of the two.
For Louis-Dreyfus, it's "Responsible, tireless actress who worked her way to the top of the entertainment industry, independently earning a lifetime of financial freedom for her and her family.
For Hilton, it's "Dipshit socialite who wrecklessly rode her family's wealth and ex-boyfriend's dick to the top of the American disgrace that is the reality television food chain." Draw your own conclusions.
From barcodes embedded in songs to product links in DVD's to holographic commercial projections, G-Man Music & Radical Radio President Scott G tells artists who try to fend off advertising encroaching upon their creations to stop complaining. Everything is about promotion. The hit songs on the radio are just promotions (paid in many cases) for album sale as are the lyrics within the songs themselves promotion for other products.
It's all heading toward what we'll call blended advertising.
Advertising that will no longer stand alone but become an integrated portion of content itself. In many cases, we already have that with product integration and adver-movies to name just two, but the ad and the content are, for the most part, still separate entities. We are moving towards a possible future where advertising is no longer a stand-alone effort but a seamlessly integrated component of content. In essence, there will be no more ad agencies but rather, content agencies.
UPDATE: And here's a New York Times piece confirming this notion of "brand wrangler."
Cities, and the interested parties behind them, are turning to the Times Square model in efforts to revitalize and rezone city districts and large electronic signage is playing a starring role. Those in favor of this move cite point to New York's success in turning Times Square from porn central to the electrified ad capital it is today. Critics claim this move will simply make every city look alike and therefore remove any special character the city might once have had.
Another point to consider in all of this is what vision of itself a city wants to project to the rest of the country and to the world.
During the dawn of the millennium, visuals of the world's cities flashed across the television screen as news operations covered each time zone's birth of a new millennium. Among all of the planet's cities, New York's Times Square stood out as the most commercial, most gaudy and most unbecoming city of the bunch. Those who involve themselves in the making of a city's landscape would do well to think long and hard before making parts of their cities one gigantic billboard. We already have a Times Square. We don't need hundreds more.
