This holiday, Brew Creative decided to forego that "we're donating to charity!" crap that other agencies are doing and cut right to the good stuff. Here's a mash-up of all the depressing political soundbytes we were all subjected to this year.
If nothing else, let this knowledge fill your heart: our government makes so many warped promises that our interests are bound to be met at least some of the time, so keep right on coasting along and eating bacon.
Probably the best thing about this effort is the ability to sift through a broad array of disconnected soundbytes and make your own "message of hope." Politico quotables are divided between "Phrases" and "Connecting words." Good times.
Mashup features provided with help from Sevnthsin.
Straight out of advertising's Book of Awkward Moments comes this Thanksgiving-themed commercial for Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss who, after giving thanks and offering prayer for President Bush, President-Elect Obama and the troops, gives his granddaughter a very creepy chest grope.
Creepy as that move might be, it's made even creepier by the two grand kids who utter "...and vote for my big daddy." With the commercial just dripping with overtones of family value, the ending is a bit shocking. Even more shocking is the fact no one noticed Chambliss' awkward hand movement before the commercial hit the airwaves.
Under its classic slogan "There is always a clever mind behind it," German paper The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung is running a campaign depicting various "clever minds." At left is UN Chief Inspector Mohamed ElBaradei in a state of exceptional transparency.
Hmm. What he needs is a red nose. Then we'd really have a party.
See variants for Billy Wilder, Helmut Kohl and Vitali Klitschko. All smart stuff, comparable to some of the better work we've seen for The Economist and BusinessWeek.
Photos by Nick Veasey. Curiouser still? See making-of and interview with ElBaradei.
- Transport for London spoofs Clue for cyclist awareness.
- Obama does fireside chat thing via YouTube.
- The churches are sorry. (But a billboard with italic print may not be enough for some.)
- Guerrilla naughty.
- Will businesses have to pay per tweet?
- Rallying for Starbucks. (TBH, I'm running out of faith.)
- The Matrix Runs on Windows. George Parker says CP+B should listen up.
- Snazzy new Vespa site. Includes big green section on Vespanomics. Um, yay...?
It merits saying that there are plenty of countries where people don't get as nuts as we do when ads zero in on race. But I still felt an "arrrg" rise to my throat when I saw these pieces for ChromaWhite TRX Skin Brightener, Dermalogica India.
The text at left reads "America's future looks bright, thanks to a black." Above the caption is the bust of a suspiciously white-washed Obama.
Thanks for the unsolicited commentary on our election, but what the fuck, guys? How does news of the States blackwashing the White House promote your skin whitening product?
Variant: "There are times when black can go to white." Okay, I'm not even touching that one.
Put together by the politically earnest cats at IBD Brands, India.
UPDATE: After this article had been live for a few hours, the guy who sent us this work apologized for any cultural misunderstanding and claimed the creative was just spec. And having sent us the material in the first place, he even tried insisting his agency didn't do it. (The creative credits appeared right below the work in the original email.) In separate IMs, he went on to say he doesn't work for the agency at all, and a mystery person from IBD sent it to him.
Dear IBD Brands Dude: We're typically really nice about this kind of thing, but you've done this more than once. If this was an honest mistake, here's a tip: don't get cocky and send us material your client hasn't approved.
If you simply can't take flak for doing a sub-par job, get the hell out of this business.
- Be a GAMER. Made of steel. Video game school will show you how.
- The US Army is using webcasts by overseas soldiers to bait new recruits. The series is called -- wait for it! -- "Straight from Iraq." Soldiers are ready to take your questions.
- Keep up with Advergirl's social manifesto on how companies are using social media. It's illustrated!
- To remind us all how with-it and un-stodgy it is, Microsoft (I guess?) sends rats skydiving. Sick 'em, PETA.
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by Angela Natividad
Nov-11-08
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Campaigns, Cause, Guerilla, Online, Opinion, Political, Promotions, Research, Strange
- You know you wanna browse through Barack Obama's flickr.
- Make the Logo Bigger taps his own top 25 influential bloggers to spit knowledge on Pepsi's blogger outreach effort.
- GOP taps social media to rekindle its fire.
- Levi's to agencies: want our business? We want your internal invoices.
- PomX break room sheep go "What the fu-uuuck?" for "maximum wakey-wakedness!" Via.
- CEOs in ads = company death rattle.
- Rate your hate for "Saved by Zero."
While it's said attendance was down slightly from past conferences, the New York ad:tech conference was, by all counts, alive and well despite 24/7 news reports reports of doom and gloom. It's true the economy is not doing too well right now nor is it expected to improve over the course of the next year. But, thankfully, the online and interactive market space is one of the few bright spots amongst the graying economic skyline.
In his keynote address Tuesday morning eMarketer Co-Founder and CEO Geoff Ramsey said he expects to see a 14.5 percent growth rate in U.S. online ad spending in 2009, not bad for an economy that's supposed to be tanking. Many other sources have proclaimed such health as well for the space which bodes well for those of us making our living in online marketing.
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From Another Limited Rebellion comes the story of how 7-Eleven's cup promotion has now accurately reflected the outcomes of the last three U.S. presidential elections, even reflecting the margins of victory. Consumer promotion as election metric, who knew? Looking ahead to 2012, maybe 7-Eleven can start printing one half of those cups now for Jeb Bush and Sarah Palin, doncha' know!
Via Twitter, I came across a breakdown of social media and search trends by both candidates which shows how much Obama dominated in all areas. While not an official study, and while methodology is always important, this one wasn't even close. It covers general trends instead of breaking down specific demos the way more targeted exit polling does. Because of that, you can draw any conclusion: On one hand, you can say Obama's numbers reflect more participation by youth. On the other, you could also say McCain's base relies on more traditional media like TV and radio, so his online numbers might be lower.) Because of how Obama changed organizing online, future campaigns have something to measure themselves against.
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