Although it says it's not in reaction to recent accusations of over aggressive recruitment methods used by its recruiters, the Army will suspend recruitment on May 20 to have a nationwide training day, teaching recruiters the right and wrong ways to convince people to enlist. With recruitment shortfalls and not-so-attractive Iraq war, the Army has stepped up efforts and will launch an ad campaign this Summer in hopes recruitment efforts improve.
Yesterday, CareerBuilder.com announced its intent to advertise during the 2006 Super Bowl. It is the first company to make such an announcement. CareerBuilder.com's reports its 2006 marketing strategy will include national outreach and grass roots promotions in local markets. It will include primetime network and cable television, local radio, print, interactive and stadium ads. The campaign will be complemented with advertising support from the more than 130 newspapers, 48 television stations and Web sites of owners Tribune Company, Gannett and Knight Ridder.
And, yes, those chimpanzees will be back.
Joining the Popeye "I Am What I Am" campaign are...oh...that would be the Reebok "I Am What I Am" campaign...sorry...we just can't get those childhood images of the spinach man out of our head...are Christina Ricci and John Leguizamo. The campaign, which launched last month, also features 50 Cent in that controversial gunshot countdown commercial. No doubt, Ricci and Leguizamo will lighten the campaign up a bit.
Today, GE will launch a new corporate campaign, called "ecomagination," touting its eco-friendly approach. A multimedia effort will kick-off with eight-page newspaper inserts in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Financial Times. Thereafter, print, television and online ads will appear.
For print, there are two pools of work: one modeled after the look of the famous Audubon prints; and another that uses reflection and shadows. Both are intended to show how GE products co-exist in harmony with nature. Television commercials speak to GE's technology that claims to do the job with greater fuel efficiency, lower emissions and less noise. But, the really fun (and controversial) element of this campaign is the spot called Model Miners in which perfect bodied male and females toil, to the tune of Merle Travis' Sixteen Tons, in the depths of a coal mine while glancing seductively into the camera.
A teaser spot with a dancing elephant called "Singing in the Rain" broke last week. Additional commercials will break this week. There is also an interactive online component that was created by Atmosphere BBDO.
A new campaign for British Airways launched today in the New York area with outdoor ads containing British words such as Chuff, Cheers, Kip, Queue, Readies and others, each of which contains a URL that link to a word-specific microsite allowing the visitor to test their knowledge of British slang. All this is to clue in Americans before they hop on a British Airways flight to England for a vacation.
The New York City-area outdoor campaign - the airline's largest - ever in North America - features over 60 different words that will be strategically placed near the object or idea the word defines. All the ads are done in British Airways blue and topped by the line "Go With Those Who Know," first introduced in a British Airways leisure TV campaign in September 2004. In addition to wallscapes, phone kiosks and deli bags, the outdoor and out-of-home work will be found on highway billboards, postcards, bar coasters, menu boards, window posters and outdoor café umbrellas, again with fitting British words that "match" the occasion or the setting. Even London-style taxis will be wrapped with the creative work focusing on the legendary chattiness and service of the London cabbie. Images from the campaign can be viewed here.
 That's My Dress, Bitch! All women know the most horrific experience one could ever find themselves in is to show up at a party or an event wearing the same clothing as another women. In one spot, called Times Two, for Bacardi Silver, created by davidandgoliath and highlighting social situations saved by the Bacardi Silver Manual," two women, upon seeing each has the same dress on, consult the manual and get creative with their clothing. A few rips and a tear later, the two women, pleased with their new creations, toast each other with Bacardi Silver.
Another spot features a guy stumped at the "I do" part of his wedding ceremony only to be helped out by his friends, who consult the Bacardi Silver manual, asking their friend, "Do you like nachos?" to which he replies, "I do."
Debuting tonight and featuring Melania Trump, is the 22nd Aflac Duck commercial. The new spot is the third installment in a new series of Aflac television ads created to educate consumers on the specific benefits of Aflac insurance. Developed by the Kaplan Thaler Group, "Experiment" joins two ads from earlier this year, "The Broken Leg" and "Pet Shop," in showcasing the duck outside its typical one-word role.
"Following five years of saying only 'Aflac,' we believe viewers will enjoy seeing the Aflac Duck talk," said Dan Amos, chairman and CEO of Aflac. "The commercial gives the duck a voice in a very clever and entertaining way. We were pleased that Melania Trump was available to help the duck talk about the benefits of Aflac with glamorous appeal."
We are breathless with anticipation.
In the face of all those high profile, overpriced, try oh-so-hard to be oh-so-cool consumer television campaigns, business to business print campaigns usually get about as much attention as an agency traffic manager. We're doing our part to change that by highlighting a recent print campaign for Tekelec, a telecommunications solutions, network performance management technology and value-added applications company. Oh yes, there's only a few in the world who even know or care what that means but without this type of company, there'd be no functioning networks over which to have that elicit online affair or, on a more more utilitarian note, check email.
With the tagline, "Tools For What's Next," the Tekelec print ads speak to the fast changing world of networking and the company's nimble approach to helping companies react to and plan for fast approaching technologies such as GPRS, 3G, VoIP, IPTV, SIP, LNP, CALEA and IMS. Don't stretch your brain muscle too much, we worked in tech advertising a long time and we still don't know what some of those terms mean. The point of the campaign is that Tekelec does and they're riding the technology wave right along with you. Work was done by Hanft Raboy & Partners. You can see the full sized ads here, here and here. (They're PDF's)
An Orlando law firm has taken an unusual approach with its advertising campaign and has, instead of the usual legal imagery, used images of ice cream in its ads. The print ad contains the image of five single scoop ice cream cones following by a cone with three scoops and the tagline, "Expect more from your law firm." It's not your normal, staid, scales of justice ad campaign. The campaign was created by Orlando-based Graceful Designs. The ad has yet to be passed through the strict guidelines of the Florida Bar Association.
 Still hip, kinda AdJab points to what seems like a test effort to bring back the old Kentucky Fried Chicken branding after years of hiding the "fried" in the moniker KFC. One could easily wonder whether worrying about the impact of health concerns on the Kentucky Fried Chicken brand should be a priority when the founder-cum-spokes cartoon is an old guy dressed up in a white suit going by the name of Colonel. In all fairness, the real "colonel" didn't get his rank fighting to maintain the institution of slavery, but rather was awarded the honorary by the finger licking governor of Kentucky in 1935. Still, that's a fairly esoteric explanation to get across to urban fast food customers for whom southern gentlemen get-ups remind them most of Boss Hogg, if not the men who worked carefully to undo the social policies of Reconstruction. KFC owner Yum! Brands has to date neutralized this seeming brand albatross by caricaturing the founder in cartoon and having him - I have difficulty bringing myself to type it - rap.
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