The Ambiguously Effective Idea that Just Won't Die is back and nebulous as ever. A stock called TMXO leaped 31% on September 5 after somebody sent out a GIF with one of those wildly appealing messages that you discover in your e-mail twenty-six times a day.
Apparently "stock spam" can artificially spike a stock by 4.9-6 for the average spammer. So why did TMXO do almost five times better? *Sigh* Because of subliminal advertising: that seemingly innocent GIF consists of four frames, only one of which is the message you think you see. The other three spout BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY.
more »
Copyranter pokes fun at yesterday's New York Times Magazine Leadership on Diversity advertising section which served as a platform for companies to pontificate about their sensitivity to diversity and the actions they've taken to insure they are fair to all. Copyranter particularly liked the ad from the Department of Homeland Security which featured an image of a Muslim woman. While poking fun, Copyranter also points out a truism in our industry, writing, "Half of the ads lamely crammed the word Diversity right in the headline, as some very junior (and very white) copywriters just outta ad school spent about five pissed off minutes working on this lowly assignment before handing the first two lines that popped into their heads into their creative directors. Whew. That's outta the way. Onto the much more important men's body spray print ad."
Very white indeed which is why Adrants has partnered with Business Development Institute to host the Advertising Industry Diversity Job Fair and Leadership Conference to tackle the currently very hot topic of diversity and what agencies are doing to make sure they are fair in their hiring practices. Now, it's been said other industries offer much higher pay and much better future opportunity than advertising so what minority (or majority for that matter) in their right mind would choose advertising over, say a Wall Street job? Well, that's what the conference hopes to explore - is the industry all white because it is being exclusive or is it because that's the natural order of things in the old boy's network?
Here's a Monday morning eyeopener for you. Having fun with the late night chat line genre, this spot for Epic Cash created by Ken Abraham and Make It Happen Productions is, apparently, supposed to be paradigm shifting. Abraham explains, saing, "For the most part, late-night chat lines and text messaging ads can hardly be considered commercials. That is, of course, if it doesn't pain you to watch worn and weary porn stars fumbling over remedial dialogue like, "Pick up the phone and call me" or "I'm waiting for you." Real art." We not so sure Ken's spot is all that different from late night cheese but we do like the ending.
Crispin Porter + Bogusky AD: "Dude, since everyone's been talking about those crash ads we did for the Jetta, wouldn't it be cool if we made an ad for the Passat where two chicks were talking about the ads while driving together and then...get this....and then...they get in a crash!?" Alex: "Yea, dude. Go with it. That rocks." Oh, and along the lines of spoofing ads, a second one has a bunch of guys riding in a Passat station wagon (as if a bunch of guys would ever be caught dead in that Soccer Mom ride) talking about one of those four hour erection ads before they get in a crash.
