On Wednesday night, the second night of the ad:tech San Francisco 2007 conference, the party schedule was packed. I'll tell you right now, we didn't make it to all the events but we'll give you a taste of the ones we did. After weighing in on the best exhibit hall schwag, Angela and I found ourselves at the ad:tech Awards Show, an event held in one of the very large Moscone North rooms near the exhibit hall. The event was well attended with open bar for three hours, cozy couches on which to site and a healthy supply of food. We particularly liked the mini burgers - perfect chow after hours of exhibit hall shenanigans.
 Cirque du Soliel was the centerpiece of the event with two spectacular performances surrounding the presentation of the actual awards by ad:tech Chair Emeritus Susan Bratton, eMarketer Co-Founder and CEO Geoff Ramsey introduced by ad:tech VP Don Knox. Following the first performance of Cirque du Soliel, which the audience loved, Knox took the stage and suffered dead mic syndrome for a minute or two. Making light of the situation, Knox called out to the techies in the background who, for some reason, couldn't find the "on" switch for Knox's mic. No matter, Knox exuberantly mastered the stage as he reviewed ad:tech's recent accomplishments and activities and then turned the stage over to Bratton and Ramsey.
 Now here's where we have suggestions for future ad:tech Awards events. The presentation - more a collection of quickly-paced announcements - flew by which, perhaps, had to be the case due to time constraints. Angela and I, having seen many other ad-related awards presentations, would suggest the finalist's creative, rather than just the campaign name and agency, be shown. Some creative was, indeed, shown but not for all categories. Secondly, and we're well aware this would lengthen the show tremendously and perhaps too much so for the purposes of the event, we'd suggest the winners of each category take the stage as they do at many other creative award shows so as to bask in the glory of their accomplishment and receive the adoration of their industry peers. After all, everyone in advertising needs their ego stroked from time to time.
more »
When a press release finds its way into our inbox which proclaims short shorts, the rage in the late 70's and co-opted by Nair in their famed Who Wears Short Shorts campaign, are back in fashion, we have mixed feelings. See. There's this little problem America has - the expanding waist and butt line - that wasn't such a big issue back in the day. When you couple that little problem with the apparent obliviousness of some as to amount of bulging flesh that billows outward between their low rise jeans and short belly shirt, the return of short shorts sounds like nothing short of the worst fashion disaster since the leisure suit.
Oh sure, the models in Nair's new, updated version of its Who Wears Short Shorts campaign are bootyliciousness perfected but we're not looking forward to watching the explosively bulging ass cheeks of those not in the bootyliciousness perfected category but think they are.
Parents. They feed you. They clothe you. They love you. They educate you. They prepare you for life. This Thailand boy received years and years of encouragement and training which prepared him for a life that's, well, likely very different from your own. While there's nothing wrong with parentally infused cleanliness, Sparkle wine coolers thinks the desire to make things sparkle can have uses other than the obsessive desire to clean. This Thailand spot for SPY sparkling wine is most assuredly nothing like the Bartles and James commercials of yesteryear. It's a year old but it's worth watching for its pure oddity
Ana from Spare Room describes this tuna ad from Thailand as "very, very strange and creepy." We're not going to debate the issue. She's completely right. After all, how often do you get to see a stomach with so much gumption? Perfect for Nicole Richie.
"Hello, Thoroughbred Owners of California? This is Vegas calling. We want our tagline back!"
"Vegas, this is Thoroughbred Owners of California calling. We didn't steal your tagline, we just had fun with it. Come on. Can't you take a joke?"
"Thoroughbred Owners of California, we're casinos. We never joke. Besides, every one knows 'what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.' You can't tell people 'sometimes things don't stay in Vegas.' It's just not right."
"Vegas, what - are you some sort Bermuda Triangle where things enter and never leave?"
"Well, yes, Thoroughbred Owners of California. We do have a lot of dead bodies buried in the desert here but since corporate America bought everything, the body count seems to have dropped. Besides, our only claim to fame now is NBC's Las Vegas and that damn tagline you're fucking with!"
"OK, fine, Vegas. After we let the commercials run a few times so RPA creatives, with help from Tool, can enter them into 2,387 award shows, we'll pull the spots. Fair?"
"Agreed, horse lovers. Otherwise James Caan will be knocking on your door."
- The Junior Committee, a group of young planners at Mediaedge:cia, have convinced a bunch of media outlets including USA Today, Fox News, CNN Money, CBS, New York Magazine, TV Guide, Reader's Digest and others, to donate close to 18 million impressions on behalf of the New York City-based charity, Safe Space.
- MLB and XM Radio make phone calls.
- Atlanta-based agency Fletcher Martin says Our Industry is Broken and offers up a quiz to test whether you realize it or not.
- Nokia's got a fun game of memory to play while waiting for the bus in London.
Cynopsis reports, "ABC Family will launch a new social networking site on May 14 to support its newest original series Greek, a dramedy about fraternity/sorority life. Virtualrush.com is a Facebook-like platform centered around the fictional Cyprus-Rhodes University Greek system, allowing users to create personal profiles, upload content, and virtually "rush" a fraternity or sorority of the character they most resemble on the show."
- The One Club has launched One Show TV, a "showcase that offers the public the unique opportunity to vote for their favorite television advertising of the year."
On April 25th, the second day of the ad:tech Conference in San Francisco at 9:00 AM, demonstrators from the No More Landing Pages revolution will be gathered in front of the Moscone Center to protest the senseless creation of generic, dead-end landing pages. We are so down with that!
- Oh, if only gasoline fumes smelled as nice as these candy-coated BP ads look. Meet the trippy A Little Better campaign, the result of possibly too much inhalation.
- MySpace doesn't work for everybody's agenda, and apparently the people you're trying to reach may judge your business by your personal social network. Who'd've guessed. Well, life on MySpace (if you can call it that) is still going swimmingly if you're Obama.
- A Bucharest-based Sicilian started a website service called Babalucio. Sound fishy? Wait until you find out what it's for. We hate to be spoilers but we can't help it: they sell alibis.
- Germany's Getty Images brings us to where ideas go to die. We're not sure what the idea cemetery is selling, but the dedicated website has a handy function for picking grave markers, selecting an idea to bury (photo upload included! YES) and then e-mailing it out and about.
We thought of shooting some over to an agency or two but it's too close to ad:tech to do that safely.
Where tech toys are concerned, it's generally granted that thinner is better. Consider the flat screen and the Razr. Bowing to this convention, this print ad demonstrates the Olympus Mju 700 is so slim you can't even see it in profile.
Now would be a good time to toss in a Nicole Ritchie joke but we don't feel sufficiently motivated. We'd hate to belittle the seriousness of appliance anorexia.
Tourism campaigns are all over the map. While W. Virginia is busy hustling humans out, New Mexico's literally ushering aliens in. This is part of New Mexico, Earth, a campaign meant to position the state as the best place in the universe. Guess that's better than trying to get by on a winning personality.
The spot brings Geico's caveman to mind. Both efforts take characters from outside our range of realism and bestow upon them a swingy white-collar vibe, coupled with a good healthy dose of middle class ennui.
One alien even seems to be verging on a caveman-esque nervous breakdown. Hey, great spin-off opportunity.
|
|
