So I just returned from a week-long, back to back conference trip where I re-connected with current friends and made lots of new ones. Personally, I love traveling to conferences. Sure, it puts a huge dent in daily productivity but what you glean from the experience, what you learn while you are there and the new connections you make with people far out weight staying home and going through yet another day of the same old thing no matter how much you love your job.
In Las Vegas at Blogworld, a conference which explores blogging and its role in just about everything, I was lucky enough to have wandered over to the conference a day early where there was a sort of pre-conference occurring. At the conference, Wine Library's Gary Vaynerchuk, who I'd seen once before in Boston, was giving a keynote about how, as a blogger, one can carve out a niche and work their way towards becoming the expert in that niche. It was very motivational talk, filled with Gary's trademark excitement. It was informative and gave me more than a few ideas I could put in motion to improve my own situation.
Wherever I was - at the conference, at the Techset party, at the Affiliate Summit dinner, at the Prive party, at Mirage's Revolution, in the exhibit hall, at a Planet Hollywood dinner, hanging by the Maker's Mark bus during the exhibit hall party or during the insane last night during which 23 of us just sort of moved from one place to another in the MGM Grand - I just kept seeing and meeting more and more people I knew or came to know.
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Encouraged -- but apparently not inspired -- by the success of its talking stain Super Bowl spot, Tide to Go solicited users for their own talking stain ads earlier this year.
YouTube's emceemiko won that contest. His spot -- where a rapping stain mocks an interview candidate -- appeared during the Desperate Housewives premier. The low-budget feel made it instantly recognizable as CGM, but the rap was surprisingly good -- even relatable! -- so I guess sometimes it pays to ask Main Street to do Mad Ave's job.
Part of doing Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years "properly" is reflecting on how they've been done before, a cultural habit that primes everybody for Memory Lane. That's why the holidays are a perfect time to bang out some pop culture nostalgia, wrap a tagline around it and call it an ad.
Under year-old slogan "The Magic of Macy's" (JWT/NY), Macy's cashes in on these sentiments by leveraging its long brand history. Check out this patchwork quilt of "Macy's" mentions in movies and shows like Charlie Brown, Family Guy, Seinfeld, I Love Lucy and Miracle on 34th Street (which I watched every Christmas as a kid!), among others.
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- The McCain campaign was caught proclaiming John McCain's victory in the Presidential debate -- before the debate even happened.
- For down-and-out creatives that need to feel like heroes. V-v-v-via.
- PETA insinuates that fishermen have small penises.
- Sarah Palin needs prayer from advertisers.
- Ogilvy picks up Wachovia. Good fucking luck!
- Ed McMahon does rap vids for FreeCreditReport.com. Guess the waiter was unavailable that weekend.
- Citigroup vs. Citi-Mobile. Here's a thought: why not just buy the bastards?
