Writing on his weblog, Advertising Ourselves to Death, Todd Copelzitz celebrates the cluelessness of agency execs and media companies when it comes to understanding digital media. Copelvitz takes a look at the Pathfinder debacle - the old on and the new - and the genral cluelessness of elder creatives struggling to understand this thing called new media.
Citing an article written by Aaron Baar called Teaching As Old(er) Creative New Tricks, Copelvitz calls out some gems such as 54 year old Carmichael Lynch Chairman Jack Supple's regular meetings with his web designers (rather than just jumping into the new tech himself) to stay current with new media. From the same article, it appears 54 year old Jeff Goodby at least grasps the concept of jumping in with b oth feet saying, "I used to think you could noodle something out on a pad and have someone else execute it on a computer. But now I believe you have to understand technology just to know what's possible."
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It looks like all those twenty-something hipster agency creatives might have a tough time identifying with their client's target audiences over the next ten years. Remember those people we called Yuppies? Or baby Boomers? Well, that audience, which owned the 80's with their yellow ties and Wall Street aspirations is about to boot advertising's fave demographic, 18-49, to also-ran status.
Results released yesterday from Survey Sampling International review of Census data notes 78 million baby boomers will turn 50 over the next ten years increasing the size of the 50+ demo from 89.3 million in 2006 to 111.3 million in 2016, a 25 percent increase. In contrast, the 18-49 demo, while still larger overall, will see a measly one percent increase in size from 135.1 million in 2006 to 135.9 million in 2016.
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Hearing Joe Jaffe talk about the three C's of consumer created content with Pete Blackshaw and Jackie Huba on his Across the Sound podcast, we were reminded of having once said to a male co-worker in front of a female co-worker in reference to something completely business-related and without regard to the the female co-worker's very curvaceous figure, "three D's are better than one." Needless to say, awkward smirks and giggles followed. Thankfully, that wasn't the case after listening to this week's Across the Sound podcast which discussed the many aspects of consumer created content, consumer generated media, citizen's media or whatever label you want to place on the trend.
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Boozhy points to a new campaign from Brazil for Forum Jeans which is letting its feelings towards the country's government be known in the form of ads that depict models beating the crap out of government officials. We could probably use some of that type advertising in America too. Diesel?
Continuing its "God is Still Speaking" Campaign, the United Church of Christ (congregational) has launched a continuation of its campaign with a spot called Rejected that highlights the church's open acceptance of all lifestyles. This campaign also calls attention to the Church's dissatisfaction with ABC for rejecting its past ads and the network's seeming bias towards right-wing religious leaders such as Jerry Falwell, James Dobson and Pat Robertson and its exclusion of mainline religious voices. The campiagn points to a petition letter that will be sent to ABC asking the network to reconsider its stance on religious content and advertising. And, yes, they are advertising right here on Adrants.
In a deal with Yahoo, CBS will, this fall, make available 60 Minutes video for free, presumably ad-supported. Content will be available on Yahoo's news, sports and entertainment sites as well as a dedicated microsite. CBS says the move is an attempt to bring quality news to younger people.
Following each Sunday broadcast of the news magazine, the microsite will be updated with two news packages. One package will expand on a segment featured that week on the television broadcast of 60 Minutes. The second will be based on a topical news theme for that particular week. Both offerings will include previously un-aired 60 Minutes video footage, as well as interactive elements such as maps, a reporter's notebook, blogs and photo galleries.
Adrants reader John Brock sent us this amusing radio commercial, created as a joke by church member Mike McKenzie, for Birmingham, AL St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. The spot mirrors the tone and style of those monster truck "Suuuundaaaaaaay" commercials replacing the the usual auto-speak with church-speak. While it's not an official commercial for the church, it has been heard by church leadership who may decide to air it. There's also an airline version of the spot.
Church is stuffy. Life used to be stuffy. The two went hand in hand beautifully. Today, life isn't stuffy but church remains so. Just as the United Church of Christ, one of the most liberal mainstream churches, did with its "we accept all" gay-themed spot, the Episcopal Church, Catholic church without the pope and circumstance, could surely use some self-referential humor to attract jaded, modern Americans through the doors on Sunday.
Amid the legal wranglings between Coke and Pepsi over the Powerade/Gatorade calorie thing, life goes on in the form of a new Gatorade commercial featuring Rolando Cantu, a Mexican who some said would never make in in the NFL. Well, he did and he's now playing for the Arizona Cardinals. It's the usual "underdog makes good" story but that's what sports fans like. The work was created by two-time Ad Age Multicultural Agency of the Year Dieste Harmel & Partners in Dallas.
Oh, it's been what, a few days since we lobbed a piece of pointless editorial fluffery at you simply to put an image of a hot girl on the site? We don't want to break our track record so we'll give you this little piece about how nobodies rise from the muck of MySpace to celebrity status. Yes, MySpace member Tila (Nguyen) Tequila, who says she has the world's most popular MySpace page has graduated to the April cover of StuffMySpace Makes magazine. This at the same time Ad Age's Simon Dumenco says obsession with celebrity is dying and Gawker has asked readers to stop sending in C and D list celebs for its Gawker Stalker feature. As long as your hot and you have a camera on you, you are a celebrity.
Following the pop up store trend, Adidas has launched one hidden away in New York City's Chinatown. The premise behind many of these stores is to appear to be special finds that can be spread by word on mouth rather than stores that are promoted with traditional advertising. It's one natural trend as many people become immune to typical hammer to the head advertising tactics.
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