By now, you've all seen those witty images and videos of the Burger King frolicking with the lovely Brooke Burke. Courtesy of The Superficial, we have a couple more images which further the story. It now seems the King and Burke are engaged, if not married in this odd but very cool web saga created by Crispin Porter + Bogusky. While the two did get frisky on the beach with Burke revealing tantalizing hints of her upper body curvaceousness, something tell us, or at least we hope, we won't be seeing the two getting it on in the honeymoon suite.
With baby boomers not really babies any longer and quickly becoming a predominant and "old" audience for marketers to reckon with, both agencies and marketers are wrestling with the notion that it ain't all about the 18-34 year old any more and have begun spouting misleading terms such as "over 35" when they really mean "over 50." But, "over 50" is so uncool and just doesn't gracefully roll off the tongue of the typical 20-something, 30-something agency/marketer type.
Companies have tried to re-brand their older-focused companies towards younger audiences and have alienated existing, older customers. Companies have re-branded upward but have focused to a 35 year old when their audience is really 55. And some say the whole age-focused thing is just the wrong way to target and it should be more about psycho graphics. There's a lively discussion in the Adrants discussion group right now. Are we marketers handling the age thing the right way or the wrong way?
Our friends over at the Creative Liberation Intelligence Organization are at it again with a promotional music video to, one assumes, drum up more entries for this year's Clio's. Back in early December 2005, the group launched a very spy-like website using all manner of spy metaphor to create awareness of the Clio's. Take a look and let us know what you think.
The NFL has announced it will place all Super Bowl ads airing this weekend on its video on demand NFL Network, on NFL.com and on Sprint phones. Budweiser will optimize its five minutes worth of ads for the iPod and make them downloadable from Budweiser.com. GoDaddy, of course, has been pushing its ads online for years. Pepsi will have BrownandBubbly.com. Burger King will have the Whopperettes. Who needs an actual television anymore?
In the works since last year, tire maker Pirelli will, in March. release The Call, a 10-minute video, created by Leo Burnett and set in the Vatican, starring John Malkovich who plays a priest and Naomi Campbell who plays the devil. Using the power stuggle between good and evil, Pirelli claims the film, directed by Antoine Fuqua, will be a metaphor for the company's "power is nothing without control" tagline. The film will be released exclusively online and receive promotion through online, print and television.
This is Hollywood-style, celebrity-powered ad is sure to give Russell Crowe plenty of ammunition to further castigate celebrities for selling out. That said, if we, as an industry want better ads, we have to tap better talent. Big names bring a sea of eyeballs and getting noticed in today's media environment is becoming an impossible task. Granted, Malkovick, though a superb actor, isn't A-list in terms of popularity and Campbell, while very popular, is no Malkovich in the acting department but together, they just might bring some notoriety and sales to Pirelli and its sleepy, commodity-like category of automotive tires.
MIT Advertising Lab points out a unique use of the ubiquitous nightclub hand stamp. In the U.K., to promote the Franz Ferdinand CD, the usually forgetful stamps became ads for the CD reminding party goers as they woke up the next day to check out the free DC offer in that day's The Guardian newspaper. The effort is up for an epica award.
Kuwaiti Art Director and Ad Blogger Tata Botata (or whatever his real name is) pointed us to this Kuwaiti IKEA ad on the back of a local dining guide that shows Filipinos, apparently the predominant wait staff in the country, portrayed Swedish maids. While Botata tells us its very common to see Filipino wait staff in Kuwait, he took issue with IKEA dressing them up in stereotypical Swedish garb and headlining the ad with, "Enjoy the Swedish hospitality at IKEA store."
We don't pretend to understand all the cultural ramifications of this but we prefer our Swedish maids blond, buxom and holding beer St. Pauli Girl-style. Then again, that's got its own nasty, sexist, stereotypical baggage.
Courtesy of our roving New York photographer, Bucky Turco, we're blessed with this new outdoor board for Howard Stern mimicking the black power movement and promoting his new Sirius radio show. With the headline, "Let Freedom Ring. And Let it be Rung in by A Striper," the Howard Stern brand is clearly delivered.
George Parker, who writes the Adscam and AdHurl advertising blogs will appear on NBC's Today Show tomorrow, Tuesday, sometime between 7A and 10A. Parker will discuss the impact of the Internet and other newer forms of advertising have affected newspaper advertising effectiveness and revenues. Parker should know what he's talking about as he's been in the business for over 30 years, worked for many agencies and is currently writing a book entitled, "Entrepreneurial Advertising."
To encourage use of its new version of Messenger, MSN has launched a promotion, created by Fallon, called ESP Billy, a microsite with episodic videos featuring ESP Billy, a white trash online psychic played by Ricky Jay who communicates with his clients through MSN Messenger video chat. There's a pilot episode that introduces the characters, and then three interactive episodes where the user can decode the fate of the main character, Travis, but choosing an ending based on ESP Billy's predictions of the future. The catch to the promotion - and the entire point of the promotion - is the three videos can only be viewed using MSN Messenger for which a convenient download botton is provided. The pilot episode, which, itself, is quite good, can be viewed in a browser. The online element will be supported by print and online media beginning in a couple of weeks
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