Oscar-winning actor and PETA supporter Charlize Theron will appear, as part of the organization's Fur is Dead campaign, in a new anti-fur billboard debuting on Sunset Strip this winter. The Monster star poses with her dog, Tucker, beneath the slogan "If you wouldn't wear your dog, please don't wear any fur." The campaign and the ad are the result of a PETA investigation on a farm farm in Midland Michigan where PETA claims chinchillas were being electrocuted, causing painful seizures to the animals' hearts, and having their necks broken while fully conscious.
Greedy Girl, a viral marketing copywriter, offers six tips to think about when creating a viral ad campaign. From seeking out inane items to religiously tracking buzz indexes, Greedy Girl says it takes a bit of obsession to succeed.
As marketers dig deeper and deeper into the bottom of the marketing barrel, pop-up retail has been adopted as the marketing trend du-jour.
From Crown Royal to Levis to Target, marketers are launching here today, gone tomorrow, fully branded retail stores. Located at 199 Lafayette at Cleveland Place in the Soho/Nolita district of lower Manhattan, Crown Royal, on October 15, launched The Crown Royal Barbershop. The location will offer free haircuts for a one month period and then close up shop for good. Open seven days a week, the Crown Royal Barbershop will feature local barbers, three chairs and a social area. The nearly 1,000 square feet of retail space is decorated in purple and gold, Crown Royals signature colors, and is open to consumers 21 years and older on a first come, first serve basis. On select evenings, the space will host private parties complete with cocktails and entertainment.
The Crown Royal Barbershop is the first creation for Location NYC, Inc., who provides the space for 30 day limited engagements to companies seeking to offer a special brand environment. Location is a new exciting media experience combining a street level billboard, interactive brand gallery, brand events, sampling and marketing opportunities.
Crown Royal is not alone in this trend towards engulfing the consumer with a brand experience. Many are in New York City, logically, because of its high population concentration and foot traffic. Recently, Levis partnered with alife, a hipster store in the Lower East Side, to create a location that sold brightly colored special edition Levis at $165 a pair. The store was open one month. Imitation of Christ, a cutting-edge fashion house, has created a portable, Plexiglas retail venue that sells just one item each day. According to visitors, one day it was a pair of antique glass eyeballs the next it was a $7,000 couture dress.
A pet food manufacturer, Wiskas, currently has a short-run store on Fifth and 41st. Target, a pop up retail veteran whose pop ups are called The Bullseye Inn, recently highlighted Cynthia Rowley and Ilene Rosenzweig's Swell designs (dishes, linens and bedding), Sean Conway's Garden Style and Rachel Ashwell's Simply Shabby Chic home goods. In May, J.C. Penny opened a 2,500 square foot retail space in Rockefeller Center which unveiled designer Chris Madden's home, bath and kitchen lines. And finally, Delta Air Lines' Song, last fall, opened a pop in Boston and in a Soho site in New York that had 50,000 visitors to the 2,700-square-foot store in six weeks.
One positive of this trend, for both consumer and marketer, is the trend's "choice" and "control" attributes, something more consumers are demanding and more marketers are capitalizing upon.
Having your brand spoofed is par for the course when you have a brand that stands for something as odd as Barney. In this dub of a Barney dance, we are treated to what the kids would really be singing if they and Barney were a little bit older. If your boss doesn't like uncensored hip-hop emanating from your cube, you might want to turn the volume down on this one. Thanks to Lucian James for the tip on this.
In a clever use of letter-play, this spot for Politics.com by Riester-Robb places those who don't vote squarely in the category of idiot.
Ingenious.
Young & Rubicam' Greg Christiansens's client-rejected radio script "Testing" was chosen from 1,000 entries and has been awarded a Gold by Oink Ink Radio Inc.'s "Dead Radio Contest." The spot was to introduce the new Miller Fridge Pack. As a winner, Christiansen get his spot produced by Oink Ink Radio Oink Ink Radio Inc. (www.oinkradio.com), a national radio-advertising agency with offices in New York City and Los Angeles, is pleased to announce Greg Christiansens Testing for Miller Brewing Company is the Gold Award winner of its seventh annual Dead Radio Contest. Hailing from Young & Rubicams Chicago, IL office, Christiansens script was selected from more than 1,000 entries nationwide. Testing, which was rejected by the client, is a :60 spot introducing the convenience of the Miller Fridge Pack.
Oink Ink Radios annual Dead Radio Contest invites advertising agency copywriters across America to submit their best radio scripts that suffered heart-wrenching deaths on clients conference room tables.
"When I first got the call from Oink telling me that I won, I was really surprised and very excited," said Christiansen. "I immediately told my creative director, who high-fived me, my partner, and a few others in the office. Its really great to be recognized for good work, even if the client doesnt use it."
We can see why the spot might not have been client-friendly. It centers around various types of people such as a cement-footed mafia informant overcoming odds to reach the Miller Fridge Pack. We can just hear the client getting all PC, "But we can't actually make it seem like people would go that far out of their way to get a beer. That would them sound like alcoholics and us sound like drug pushers." Exactly.
Just one month into the new television season and there are already hints television executives are up to their old tricks cloning successful television series. Not quite understanding that people really do want variety, not warmed over versions of current hits, network execs can't help themselves and have begun searching for "quirky female dramas and big-concept thrillers." Next year, we can expect train wrecks like Lost in Suburbia.
After you've seen the first five seconds of this multi-minute video for Buell American Motorcycles set to Psykohed's 'Do It Again,' you've seen the whole thing. Over and over, it's the same visuals of bikes, boobs and babes. Of course, if you like that sort of thing, there's not much to complain about. Other spots from this week's Ad Age TV Spots of the Week include a spot promoting the Suzuki 2005 Reno which features an MP3 player, bathroom humor for Foxwoods, floral cultural confusion for HSBC Local Banking, more babes, beer and office flirting for Michelob Ultra, Mom does "Incredible" stretched for P & G, Emiral Lagasse goes bang for Crest and Acura beats the traffic.
Australian Chinese woman Helen Zou has spent $5,000 to buy a billboard in Randwick for a month advertising for a husband.
With the headline, Husband Wanted," the copy lists her requirements for the ideal husband. Requirements include "good sense of humor, solid financial background, unencumbered and of Caucasian appearance and up to age 45." Zou has never been married and says her past attempts at romance have been unsuccessful. She is quite nonchalant about the whole thing, "I'm surprised a lot of people think this is special or unusual," she said. "It's Australia. There's a lot of freedom here. If you can put up a sign advertising Coca-Cola or whatever, why not write one about a husband.
A Chinese toy company, Fufeng, has registered the words "Happy Birthday" as its trademark in 25 countries including the U.S., Japan and the European Union. Accordingly, marketers may now face legal difficulties when tying their brand to the words "Happy Birthday." One hopes the company won't be too hard on little girls who are planning birthday parties for their Barbie dolls.
