Since when did spelling bees become a major mass media theme and topic of universal inquiry? They’re still boring, right? We had Spellbound, then Bee Season, and now Akeelah and the Bee (and its pimped-out but fundamentally off-kilter Starbucks viral campaign). That’s not my point. What I’d like to discuss is the Frosted Mini Wheats commercial, which, obviously, takes place at the hub of all that is human and real– the spelling bee. So the little girl gets doled the word “aardvark.” She begins: “Aardvark. A— R…” Then the Mini-Wheat-with-Arms-and-Eyes weasels his sugar-coated, fibrous self all up in her grill: “the first word in the dictionary, remember?” You lousy fricking piece of boastful cereal who is not even close to being as cool as Tony or Toucan Sam… and just forget Count Chocula, brotha-man: THAT IS SOOOO CHEATING! And the judges don’t even say “sit down, little bitch,” when she starts the word over. That is not allowed. Once you say a letter, you cannot renege it. We all know that. Note to Kellogg’s: Your audience will not sit in silence as we see you slander the new “it” pastime of our current cultural episteme. Baseball games, apple pie, and antediluvian vivisepulture. Now that’s America.

Great story about how Nestle positioned Kit-Kat as being more than just a candy bar in Japan, by understanding the culture of the Japanese student, and their parents. The Japanese have a saying “Kitto-katsu” which loosely translates into “I hope you succeed!”. According to Alpha-Male, Nestle executed a 4-year rebranding effort in Japan to play off of the similarities between Kit-Kat’s name, and the saying kitto-katsu, to position the candy-bar as a ‘lucky charm’:

Year 1: Hotels in Tokyo began giving complementary KitKat bars to students who came to the city by the thousands to take the fiercely competitive university entrance exams. The KitKat was presented as a little “lucky charm”. Students were surprised and touched. They didn’t know the candy giveaway was sponsored by the manufacturer. Year 2: The advertising agency behind this stealth campaign wangled some news stories (not ads) about the hotels’ candy giveaway. The reason for the stealth: Japanese young people are suspicious and scornful of advertising. Year 3: Some ads began to appear. They didn’t look like ads. They were cute little stories about teachers, mothers, students and the lucky charm. The ads were fiction, but real Japanese moms began packing KitKats for their kids when they left home to take the exams. Year 4: Real people began to appear in the ads that didn’t look like ads. No product was ever shown. Just a subtle little KitKat logo.

As you can see in the comments, some people were upset by Nestle’s tactics here, claiming they were ‘manufacturing’ news, and deceiving their customers. While I can see some people wrinkling their noses at the fact that Nestle didn’t disclose that they were behind the initial giveaway in hotels, I really don’t see it as that big of a deal, after all if these kids can buy a candy-bar and feel better about their chances when taking an important exam, I say it’s a win-win deal for everyone. Of course, maybe this comment says it better:

I’m going to boycott my mom. She used to tell me this story when I was a kid. When I fell down and scraped my knee or bumped an elbow, she would kiss it and said that would make it better. What a liar. That’s what’s wrong with mom’s today. They think kids want to feel better when what they really need is medication.

So is this smart marketing, or deceptive marketing?

Media Orchard’s list of several airline’s policies concerning snakes on their planes gave me an idea. How cool would it be if one of the airlines smarted up and started showing Snakes on a Plane as their in-flight movie when it’s released in August? If they added a banner at the airports that read ‘We’ve got Snakes on this Motherf*cking Plane!!!’, it would be gold! Of course that would lead to some idiots sneaking live snakes on the plane, but hey I can’t think of everything.

I would like to present you with the best testimonial for packaged goods that I have ever, ever seen. A few deeper comments: 1. Really though, how obnoxious is the word sweeties, especially in whatever screamy Baltic language that bratlet is using? I dare you to listen to that bullshit-kid twice through and not have thoughts of slicing a major artery or sticking a pin in your eye. 2. Uh… is that Bon Jovi? 3. Uhh… and, more importantly, is he mute?

Back in February, we blogged about a partnership between Napster and XM Satellite radio that would allow owners of certain portable MP3 players with XM to ‘bookmark’ songs they enjoyed while listening to XM, and then when they get home, dock the player, and it connects to Napster and automatically downloads the songs that the user bookmarked. Sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it? Provides a convienience for the owner, and gives artists a way to make some extra cash off their tunes. Of course it means more money for the record labels themselves. Everyone wins here. So of course that means that here comes the money-grubbing labels to screw it all up. Reuters(via Coolfer) has the story about a new bill being introduced that would require XM and Sirius to PAY for making it easier for users to purchase music legally.

Warner Music Group chairman and CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. endorsed the legislation in testimony prepared for a hearing on the issue scheduled for Wednesday. “When I see a device that permits consumers to identify the specific tracks they want from a satellite broadcast, record them and library them for future use, I call that device an iPod and I call the satellite service making that device available a download service,”

What you THINK you see is a way to make some extra cash. What you have done is make it HARDER for labels to sell their music. Did you hear that? HARDER. Explain to me again why this is a good idea. This is why music sales are down, because every time a new technology or service comes about to make it EASIER for music to be sold, the labels try to find a way to make MORE money off it. Look at iTunes….digital sales of music go through the roof, so the labels step in and decide that they want Jobs to RAISE prices. Amazing. The labels are in a self-imposed downward spiral. They do everything they can to allienate the community they are supposed to be serving, which leads to lost sales. Their response to make up for the lost sales, is to find ways to milk more cash out of the companies that are trying to raise sales, such as iTunes and XM. So we have a situation where the ‘producer’ is doing everything it can to alleniate its distributors, and its customers. When sales fall off, the producer (labels and RIAA) passes the blame along to the distributors (XM and iTunes), and the customers(all these supposed ‘illegal’ downloaders). I have no problem with the RIAA and the money-grubbing record labels saying ‘You guys are the problem’, I just want them to hold up a mirror before they do.

At first this didn’t bother me as much, but lately I’m realizing that we really need to drop the word ‘consumer’ from our promotional vocabulary. I think most marketers equate ‘consumers’ as being ’statistics’, and we need to get away from thinking of them as numbers, and look at them as what they are, people. In fact the truly enlightened marketers will view them as PARTNERS, but I’ll take what I can get. In fact, I’m dropping the term ‘consumer-generated content’(CGC) from my vocabulary as well. From now on, it’s ‘community-generated content’, which is more accurate anyway. I read something recently that most advertisers were so excited about most of the country getting high-speed internet because it would be a way to shove more ads down the pipe, and they never considered that it might be a way for the community(see I wanted to type ‘consumers’ there, it takes some getting used to) to UPLOAD more stuff, ie CGC. That’s why download speeds went through the roof, but upload speeds were usually only a few times faster than a 56K modem. So marketers, advertisers, listen up: You are no longer selling/promoting your products/selves to consumers, you are targetting THE COMMUNITY. Trust me, the sooner we all stop thinking of the person that we are selling to as a number on a balance sheet that consumes all and provides nothing, the better off EVERYONE will be. And what’s the best way to target the community, by joining them, of course! See how it all starts to fit together?

Today I saw a link to this Knoor frozen dinner ad on The Hidden Persuaders And after watching all that, the first thing that came to mind is that the rumors are true-Advertising is run by a bunch of 15 year old boys telling each other dirty jokes in study hall. The second thing that came to mind was “What the FROZEN were they thinking?” First let’s take a look at the package design, which i’ve uploaded, and it’s pretty blatant symbolic allusion to a, ummm, babymaker. Next let’s reference the t.v. ad, with the “naughty” language and the coy looks darting to and from the young lovers. I don’t think i’m stepping too far out on a limb here to say that Knorr Frozen Dinners wants to remind people of practices involving mouths and babymakers. Now before you all call me a typical puritan anal American, let me say that I am very openminded when it comes to adult situations (not that any of you wanted to know that about me) I just wonder how many people really want to be thinking about mouth/babymaker related practices while they’re eating their shrimp fettuccine alfredo. Or vice versa. What do you all think? Am I crazy, or is Knorr taking their cuisine to a whole new oral dimension?

See you guys THINK I keep linking to Chris cause he’s a great guy, and has a smart marketing mind. Well there IS that, but mainly I want him to remember us ‘unknown’ marketing bloggers when he hits the big-time. Looks like that time is about here, as Chris’ “Seven Secrets to Movie Marketing” has been featured in…..drumroll…..The LA Times! Wow….major props to Chris, but it really isn’t suprising, as I said a few weeks ago, he has the best niche marketing blog I’ve ever read. Congrats to Chris, don’tcha love to see talented bloggers get the due they deserve?

I did a similar post last night on The Viral Garden listing the Top 25 Marketing Blogs, according to Alexa’s stats. That post has already gotten a good reaction on the blog and via email, so I decided why not, I’ll do a similar post for advertising blogs here. Here’s the disclaimers: The rankings are based on your Alexa traffic rankings. And whereas the marketing blogs excluded any that focused primarily on marketing news (such as Marketing Vox), the advertising blogs will include them. Also, at least half your content has to be advertising (yes this will sometimes be a judgement call), and if your blog is best known as being a marketing (GapingVoid), or PR (Micro Persuasion) blog, then I won’t list it here. And yes, I listed BMA on both of them. I think that’s fair, since about half our content is advertising, and about half is marketing. And yes, it is entirely possible that I will totally miss your blog that should have made the list, in fact it will probably happen. Send me a link and I’ll be happy to give it a look and may include it in the next poll. From now on the new polls will be published every Monday. So here’s the first list: 1 - AdRants - 9233 2 - ad-rag - 19589 3 - Werbeblogger - 19756 4 - Media Buyer/Planner - 25645 5 - Adverblog - 26711 6 - AdFreak - 28979 7 - Advertising/Design Goodness - 30054 8 - AdJab - 38901 9 - Wooster Collective - 50068 10 - AdverBox - 67462 11 - AdPulp - 93280 12 - Beyond Madison Avenue - 147519 13 - Designers who blog - 149948 14 - ….HOW ADVERTISING SPOILED ME…. - 168180 15 - Ad Blather - 220520 16 - Advertising for Peanuts - 220848 17 - Ad Hunt - 341517 18 - American Copywriter - 500545 19 - Ernie Schenck Calls this Advertising? - 557852 20 - Room 116 - 569026 21 - Copyranter - 669454 22 - Ads That Suck - 721214 23 - AdScam - 790667 24 - Brandflakes for Breakfast - 859331 25 - Advertising Ourselves to Death - 1076373 Again, this is completely unscientific, and mostly based on Alexa rankings, and my judgment. I’ll start doing this every Monday.

Hey hey hey, who feels like puking? You– you in the back? Yea? Consider it done. You bet your bottom dollarmenu, el guapos, McDonald’s is rollin’ out a 40% larger Big Mac (big fat hat tip to AdRants). Okay, perhaps I’m forever swayed because I ruined a perfectly good tank top when I lost my cookies during Supersize Me; but, without sounding like a total sissy… um… gross. And I, like, like meat. Morgan Spurlock is soooo on the phone right now.

The other day I heard an account executive (not someone i work with) say “There’s really no way to prove that advertising works. The hope is that if the consumer sees your message enough times, they’ll buy it or at least visit your website for more information.” Now to be fair, this person may have just been venting, but if i were a client and i heard that, I would take my marketing dollars from that agency and run away as fast as I possibly can. There are plenty of people way smarter than me who can talk about concepts like ROI and brand awareness and actually sound like they know what they’re talking about, so i’m not going to do that. The way i explain it is that effective advertising uses a compelling message to create belief in a product’s or a service’s attributes. These include rational attributes like “Volvo’s cars will keep my family safe” and non-rational attributes like “Guys who wear Axe deodorant are shockingly attractive to women.” Maybe my outlook is naive, but i hope it’s more persuasive than what that person said, i.e. “just be repetitive enough to browbeat the consumer into buying the product.” What do you say to people who ask “how does advertising work?”

http://www.google.com/calendar My gLife is now complete. Thank you Google.

“Twix: Two for me. None for you.” “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” “Go Dark.” What do these statement have in common? They are slightly evil. They are very funny. They sell. Plus, they prove that as Billy Joel said, “I’d rather laugh with the sinner, than cry with the saints. The sinners are much more fun!” Over and over again we hear it, “Make the product the HERO!” As creatives we generally recognize that this means the product is be the motive force of the ad. It’s the product that makes the events or improvements possible. Unfortunately, for some clients and account executives “product is hero” has come to mean the that product is always to be shown as the best thing to mankind since the invention of fire and that the product is, of course, enjoyed by a saintly target market who live in a world of perfectly sinless grace with no foibles to be made light of, because they might be offended. Guess what, consumers are human and you’re never going to be able to please everyone. However, if you hit your target market with a message that makes them laugh and makes a point generally good things will happen…Those good things being sales. True, not everything can be sold with humor, however it’s amazing how when you’re laughing your arms get moving and pretty soon you’re even reaching for you wallet.

Sure, I’ll admit it now… what I’m about to write about is completely belated. The campaign debuted early last Fall, but let’s all try to forget that for a moment… you will need your entire attention span to humor me. Or, if you’re British, to humour me. Let’s a play a game. If I were to hold up a bullfrog in front of you right now, what would you say? Most common responses: “Gross, girlfriend!” “Look at the frog!” “OH!” And from the guy who thinks he’s all hip-pop-cultural but is actually lame: “Jeremiah, Jeremiah, you’ve come home!” ***Rationale: Frogs are not exciting, markedly not fluffy nor soft, and, frankly, an all-around disappointment to the life cycle. Okay, next one. I’m holding up a guinea pig. Beige and white. Medium. Most common responses: “Hi Guinea Pig.” “It looks thirsty.” “I’m bored.” ***Rationale: Guinea pigs are a waste of fur, alfalfa pellets, and bandwidth on the time-space continuum. Last one. I’m holding a small yellow lab puppy. Most common responses: “I looooove him!” “I want to make the world a better place for everyone, even assholes, starting right now!” “Cool! Gimme.” ***Rationale: Dogs Rule. Alright, I gave it away. The Pedigree campaign, a brilliant unleashing of splendor by TBWAChiatDay out of LA, keeps getting better and better. You can check out the spots here. I have laughed at these spots. I have cried real tears. I look forward to seeing them nearly as much as I look forward to Tuesday nights, 8pm EST. Seriously though, miniature dogs with perfect round eyes, little doggie Mona Lisa smiles, and delicate, sprightly yelps… showcased in a shelter… Gosh. I’m nearly ready to just give Pedigree my wallet— here, here, here, just… jus’, jus’ take it— but mainly because my heart has melted all over it and there’re veins and crap all in the credit card slots. Fine- that was a roundabout way to say “Bravo!” but, no joke: Bravo.

Though I think “concepting” sounds a little pretentious I’m sick of it always coming up as a misspelled word. Plus, it’s fun to think I could help change the dictionary. Click here for more. http://verb4concept.blogspot.com/

I may be about to lose some coolness points here, but I never really got into Family Guy. Talking dogs, toddlers that were the smartest members of the family, I tell ya it just aint natural. I like my cartoons to be more believable, like Looney Tunes. Still, both Family Guy and American Dad are pretty popular series for Fox. So playing off that popularity, Ryan let’s us know about a fun new Street-Fighter type game that Fuel Industries has created for Fox Home Video to help promote the release of American Dad Season 1 on DVD this week. You get to play as members of both series, with the payoff being that if you can beat all the regular characters in arcade mode, your reward is getting to play Ryu from the original Street Fighter series. Good mindless fun and a great diversion from such serious matters as blogs, A-Listers, and Alexa rankings. And Ryan is right, I can’t get that song “Kung-Fu Fighting” out of my head!

“While the advertising guys were brainstorming, their souls just hung out.” Found on The Designer’s Lunchbox. The comic is called “Wulffmorgenthaler’s Daily”.

Wooster Collective (via Houtlust) pointed out this awesome outdoor campaign. It was done by Colenso BBDO in Auckland, New Zealand.

…aka jayniek. Jayne Karolow is one of the smartest, wittiest, and most fashionable blond chicks in Boston, if not the world. Because of her Master’s Degree in New Media, she watches a crapload of really bad TV, which she considers “scholarly research.” She is a really fast runner and a crazy-talented jump-roper. In addition, she tries her darndest to incorporate whipped cream or cool whip into every meal, even it is just a can and a spoon. Or just a can. She attributes her keen media and advertising insight to hard work, dedication, and Sunday afternoon reruns of Laguna Beach. During the day, she does cool business development projects for a fabulous company where she doesn’t get nearly enough sun.

Both Chris and Joe have found problems with the Akeelah and the Bee promotion currently running at Starbucks. When the news of the promotion broke, and how the baristas at Starbucks would be given trailers for the film and ‘encouraged’ to discuss the movie with customers, many, including Chris and myself, voiced concerns that this could easily be a disaster waiting to happen. Giving screeners of the film to employees is a great idea, as it means they can intelligently discuss the film with customers. But the problem that I feared would be baristas that were trying to force the conversation and push the movie on customers that weren’t interested. Instead, as Chris and Joe found out from visiting local Starbucks, the problem appears to be that the baristas are being given little or no training on the film. Both guys said they tried to talk with Baristas about the film, and the baristas really weren’t familiar with it. Chris says “I went to a Starbucks last night and asked the girl behind the counter how much training or information she had been given about the movie she kind of looked embarrassed and avoided the question.”. I wonder if she was embarrassed because she hadn’t been given any information, or hadn’t studied the information she had been given? BTW Chris is up to something.