Copywriters Brian Pierce and Nik Bristow of Fitzgerald+CO/Atlanta are embarking on a wince-worthy mission: following the route of the Cannonball Run, they'll drive across the nation without a single stop. Not for fuel ... not even to pee. (Although I'm sure at some point they'll gracefully pause in order to switch seats.)
All this to promote Willie Nelson's brand of biodiesel, aptly named BioWillie. The mission's been dubbed WillieRun and you can follow the hijinks (of which I'm sure there'll be many) from their blog.
Seriously though, no pee break? I refuse to believe it. You guys have gotta be carrying empty Gatorade bottles or somethin'.
Find out for yourself at their kick-off party, which takes place Sept. 22nd at the XR Bar. More details at the blog link above. And big-ups to Brian Thompson for passing this news along.
Cheesiest email-based PR pitch ever: "Let's hope your tequila comes with a sunrise in Miami, cause now ALL of their public bus shelter advertising is illuminated by solar panels. Check out the pics I attached."
Apparently Fuel/Miami "donated" 600 solar-powered bus shelters to the city of Miami in exchange for an exclusive 20-year advertising contract on those shelters. Hear the plops? Those are three dead birds, shot down by one stone: Fuel contributes to the community, demonstrates its commitment to the environment and scores insanely pervasive ad space FOR 20 YEARS.
More chummy PR chatter: "For real though, I guess if I have to have a Spanish Heineken ad in my face while waiting for the bus at night, it might as well be solar powered." Ha. Ha. Smarmy, yo. Smarmy.
More pics here and here.
- The Effie Awards has open its call for entries. The entity that "honors marketing communication ideas that work" asks that entries be submitted by October 15.
- TBWA has won the $600 million Visa global creative account. Bested were BBDO, Grey and Leo Burnett.
- Yes. Is is insane but there are still companies out there willing to drop $3 million on a single ad to appear on the Super Bowl.
- Here's the ad Barak Obama would run if presidential candidates didn't have to act all polished and buttoned up.
Just as the proverbial Mr. Smith went to Washington to clean things up, it seems top civil rights lawyer Mr. Cyrus Mehri is on his way to Madison Avenue to clean up the ad industry's diversity mess. A top civil rights lawyer, Mehri conducted a study of diversity in advertising agencies and found it woefully out of whack when compared to diversity in other business sectors.
While the study is still underway, it seems Mehri may already be setting his sights on an industry he says has only paid lip service to the issue with hearing, conferences and hiring efforts. He claims the problem isn't lack of interest in advertising among minorities as some have surmised, rather the seeming unwillingness of agency management which he sees as a closed country club filled with white men who just don't want to address the problem.
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- Strawberry Frog's Scott Goodson looks back upon the agency's move to New York and why it was the right thing to do.
- Are you a Hot Mom? If so, send your Facebook profile over to Yianna Garcia who's created a Facebook group and will highlight your hotness on the group.
- Wanna flirt with the hottie at the end of the bar? Ecast and LocaModa can help with its interactive network.
- Buddy Media's BuddyBrain is the social control system responsible for managing campaign intelligence and app-vertisement behavior in a social world. The BuddyBrain is split into four essential lobes: Project Center, Intelligence Center, Social Wire and Reference Tools. Um, whoa.
- Fallon London remixes the Cadburry Gorilla commercial to the tune of Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart.
- And, yes. It's the new iPod Nano commercial. Apple's calling it the Nano Chromatic now.
Anyone who thinks the wording of the erroneously sent Carat documents about impending layoffs was, in any way, different from other agencies' documents on the same topic is an idiot. It's always about saving face. It's always about making the agency look good in front of the client. It's all about positioning to protect the business. There isn't an agency out there that hasn't thought of or written the same thing Carat did in those documents.
But here's the thing. The words in any agencies' documents are almost always set aside when two human beings - the one doing the firing an the firee - sit down face to face in the same room to address the dirty reality of layoffs. They are inevitable and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
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- Amalgamated clears air over "Virtual Drinking Buddy" rip. In addition to starting a dialogue with Robbie Wenger, Amalgamated founder Charles Rosen told Adrants, "in no way are we above stealing ideas around here - but it wasn't the case this time. we really didn't know about robbie's virtual drinking buddy until he emailed us about it after our mike's spot ran." That's serious grace under pressure, and we were completely charmed.
- Smart way to promote sober driving.
- Tribal DDB scores Wrigley account, must now work out how to adhere gum to 'net users. Shouldn't be too hard. Just chew a little and avoid this kinda crap.
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In an internal letter obtained by TechCrunch, SVP Bill Veghte tries to explain WTF Microsoft was getting at with its Seinfeld campaign, which kicked off with this really weird ad.
Excerpt from Veghte's letter:
Today, we are kicking off a highly visible advertising campaign. The first phase of this campaign is designed to engage consumers and spark a new conversation about Windows - a conversation that will evolve as the campaign progresses, but will always be marked by humor and humanity. The first in this series [...] aims to re-ignite consumer excitement about the broader value of Windows.
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In the first ad released by Crispin Porter+Bogusky for Microsoft, Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld meet serendipitously at Shoe Circus, a Payless ShoeSource-type store. Seinfeld helps him pick out shoes. Made of pleather. Significant glances are exchanged, immigrants gawk, and churros are shared.
Thus ingratiated with one of the world's richest (and thriftiest?) men, Seinfeld poses the question we'd all ask, given the chance (and a serious case of munchies): "Are they ever gonna come up with something that'll make our computers moist and chewy like cake so we can eat 'em while we're working?"
Gates gives Seinfeld a subtle but sassy little ass-shake to denote "yes."
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Writing on AdPulp and in his TalentZoo column, Dan Goldeier makes, correctly, the argument most campaigns are no longer given the time they need to build momentum and to enter the psyche of the consumer long enough to mean anything. He asks the question, "are ad campaigns given enough time to work these days?"
The answer is a resounding no and that, shortsightedly, been the case for a very long time. No one wants to, or is afraid to, invest the long periods of time it takes for a campaign to truly build. Everyone in marketing is too fickle and they are more concerned with advancing their own careers than advancing the success of the brands on which they work.
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