As soon as I promise not to complain about Cannes any more, two drunk knuckleheads claim to have lost their Lion on the beach after burying it near the MSN beach party and then, three hours later, try to dig it up while filming it and claiming it's not any kind of promotion. Oh but wait. What respectable hipster would be seen anywhere without their digicam. OK, so if any of the rest of you drunks stumbled over a Lion on the beach and stole it to place in your ego case, you had better give these guys a call. Their boss isn't too happy with them. Oh. they're offering $1,000 if you find/return it.
OK. I'm going to shut up about Cannes now. I always call it a pointless boondoggle but I have never been so I have no real right to condemn something I've never experienced. Before Bud Theisen of Alphabet Soup went to Cannes, he asked me if there were any questions I'd like to ask those in attendance. I said sure. With the viewpoint Cannes is just an industry circle jerk, I wanted to know why Cannes mattered. I wanted to hear it from the mouths of those basking in the glory of their company's expense account.
While Bud did ask the question, it seems he asked is the event worth it rather than why it's worth it. Two very different question but I'm not going to complain because the answers he got were great and can be summed up eloquently, "Fuck 'em if they don´t like it. We deserve it".
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- AdFreak says two out of the three Sea-Doo films are pretty good. We'll take thier word for it since, like many bloated sites, it wouldn't load well for us. Then again, that could just be our crappy Internet connection. And if you're wondering what Eric Roberts is doing these days. Here's your answer.
- Jack Morton has published a white paper which finds experiential marketing to be more likely to "increase understanding, lead to action and inspire advocacy."
- Nokia is running a blog-based campaign in Toronto and Vancouver to promote its new 6682 phone. The company has promised to send bloggers the phone for free if they qualify (age, blog size, location, etc.)
- An Iowa construction company which is building the Iowa Speeday is promoting the track by outfitting ten of the company's cement trucks with Iowa Speedway decals.
- Crispin Porter + Bogusky's VW Configurator, which was developed in part by IQ Interactive, took home a Cyber Lions Grand Prix.
- It's in French so we're not sure what it's all about but we do know it's for Coke BlaK. We've also seen the hippy-dippy floral/bubble theme before. Yup, we have and it was for Coke's M5 project.
Cannes is now officially one big advertising industry inside joke. We all want to go but we all know it's an idiotic event and just an excuse to party and drink on the company's tab. Campaign magazine is celebrating this industry debauchery with Cannes Private View, a promotion they teamed with DDB London to create. The promotion calls for delegates at Cannes to send in mobile photos from the festival. Those not fortunate enough to attend the festival can visit the site, look at the images and add captions. People can also register at the site to have Cannes updates sent to their phones three times each day.
Now we know you've all seen the picture of Donny Deutsch in a bikini. That's pretty tame compared to what we know those of you there can dig up for this promotion so don't go anywhere without your cell phone. And don't just send your pictures to Campaign. Send them to us too!
Bob Garfield is over at Cannes having a great time but, at that same time, realizing its days as an industry event are numbered. Of course, no one over there on an all expenses paid trip wants to talk about that. All they want to talk about are cool TV spots. Bob thinks the Guinness Noitulove" ad should win the Grand Prix. That's that ad that follows three guys moving backwards in time from barstools to per-historic water's edge ending with "Good things come to those who wait." We'd agree. It's good. Bob does mention Carlton Draught's Big Ad which we think is just a bit more fun and, perhaps because of its inside joke-filled attitude, more of a favorite for us. Anyway, none of this matters. "Regular" people...you know, those people called "consumers"...don't have a clue what Cannes is nor would they if they knew what it was. It's all just one big self-congratulatory slap on the back. A waste of time. However, we can't wait until the Adrants T&E budget can afford to send us.
Step inside a creative directors brain and hear him ramble about the upcoming Cannes Festival. It's truly amazing how the average creative director thinks.
We'd like to offer an apology to Bob Garfield. In a piece we wrote yesterday about a CoBrandiT video that featured footage of Bob doing an interview with CoBrandiT that included outtakes shot prior to the actual interview, we mis-stated Bob knew he was in on the joke when, in fact, he was not. He had made some comments, in jest, while defining word of mouth prior to the beginning of the actual interview. Bob says CoBrandiT used those comments without his knowledge and he thought those shooting the video worked for WOMMA and not for CoBrandiT. We respectfully apologize. Though, we still think the video was hilarious. Rather than incur further wrath, CoBrandiT has taken the video down and placed an apology in its place. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
To call attention to the upcoming Word of Mouth Marketing event June 20-21 at the Hilton San Fransisco, coBrandiT, independently and without association with the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, has mixed an old interview of Bob Garfield with some new comments he made about word of mouth marketing. The result is a humorous collection of babble. By the way, Bob was in on the joke just so you all don't think we're trashin' here.
UPDATE: The video has been removed. WOMMA was none too pleased. CoBrandit accommodated.
UPDATE II: See our ever so apologetic apology to Bob Garfield here,
- You can catch live coverage of the VCU Adcenter Executive management Training for Creative Directors here.
- Media Magazine has announced its call for entries for its third annual Creative Media Awards.If you're into media, this is your award show.
- Britney Spears has trademarked the name of her baby Sean Preston, apparently for a future line of clothing.
Not very good, but here's a new commercial for a very cool, new product, Slingbox.
- Atlanta's WestWayne created an experiential marketing event for the Southwest Toyota Distributors to promote Scion with a visual arts fest.
- The NBA wants for female fans and has launched an ad campaign directed at them along with a branded line of clothing.
- Hot show Grey's Anatomy has advertisers slathering and one, fashion retailer New York & Co. has signed series stars Elle Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey to appear in their fall campaign.
The self congratulation festival known as Advertising Week is upon us again. New York's Madison Avenue has been festooned with banners featuring famous advertising icons from Tony the Tiger to Juan Valdez to the Geico Gecko. The banners celebrate the brands as favorites voted by the public at last year's Advertising Week. During this year's event, the public will, once again, have a chance to vote for their favorites. We sit on pins and needles awaiting the outcome.
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