Zimmerman Advertising: Whores for Sale!
Seriously, it’s the little things that sometimes set me off into an
unapologetic rage against our industry. The whoriest of whores, Zimmerman Advertising today proved how little they care about (a)creative and (b)consumers when they launched pick-n-clickads.com. Because, that’s all we need! More easily available shitty generic creative!
Apparently, Zimmerman has given up and decided to position it self in this manner instead of trying to be or do something actually innovative. Spotrunner offers the same crap creative, but at least they offer local targeting to go along with it. After checking out their client list, I can’t say I’m surprised that Zimmerman would be the ones to try something like this. Anybody responsible for making these god-awful, brain hemorrhaging ads for Six Flags should be drug out and shot already.
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Hey, I’ve been wondering who deserved to be murdered in their sleep for thinking up Mr. Six. Thanks Paul!
What’s even more distressing than the Mr. Six ads is the fact that 6 Flags’ target audience loved him. Makes you want to give up your day job.
Not only is this creativly stupid, but offensive. Hopefully not many companies will fall into this trap of generic (B.S) advertising.
I have the URL Pick-N-Click-Ads.com for sale
Danny- I couldn’t even get through the ad when I found it on youtube. It makes me want to shoot myself, so I think that would be fair in return!Todd- Are you serious? People actually liked this? Ughh. I hate advertising…Ron- I would hope so, but I wouldn’t keep my fingers crossed!Peter- That’s how I actually started with the story! I clicked from the Ad Age article to your website, Modified Advertising, started writing about that, but then got so frustrated by the fact they did it anyway, I just decided to rant instead. Good work, though!
"What’s even more distressing than the Mr. Six ads is the fact that 6 Flags’ target audience loved him."If this is true, we are all doomed – except for the ones who like the spots in the first place. They were doomed a long time ago.I don’t care how much recall they have with shut-ins, the only thing worse than the Six Flags spots is any Ovaltine radio spot.
Paul, I’m pretty sure Doner was the agency that created Mr. Six. Zimmerman just won the account late last year.
Oh shit! Well, my bad. Zimmerman still sucks for the whole generic ad thing anyway.Maybe I need to go to journalism school. :)
“easy to assemble print ads”?!
sounds golden…
Get your facts straight…its embarrassing….First, Zimmerman did not create the Mr. Six creative and actually retired it…Second, they have spearheaded a significant turnaround for the six flag’s organization as well as many other ailing organizations.
As far as not adding anything innovative to the game…..WOW are you wrong…. Zimmerman has introduced an entire advertising agency online….print, radio, television, direct mail, POP, strategy all of it linked directly to every media source in the country….oh yeah….build a high res television spot with custom content in 3 minutes...match that spot runner…or anyonelse for that matter…..blog that……
Hey, smart guy! Read the post yourself, and the comments! Yes, we know Zimmerman didn’t create the spots. But, that doesn’t mean we haven’t stopped seeing them.
And, what IS embarrassing is how LAME the online "advertising agency" as you so flippantly call it, actually is. If, you had actually read the post, you would know how embarrassing it is that any advertising agency would debase the entire industry so much, further infesting our airwaves with generic spots for generic clients. That’s just sad, and even more sad that you are arguing about it like it’s a good thing.
Blog that! And quit being so damned anonymous, that’s sad, too. Can’t stand up for yourself?
Good to see the computer in your garage is working so you could respond so quickly…..after reading you comments as well as the comment from the other four member of your chess club I can see that you wouldn’t know what was good for an industry unless it revolved around star wars.
At this point you should continue your group discussions over pizza, soda and 1980’s movies on your next friday night get together. Enjoy the single life and keep up your innovate insight while raving about "the force"
Paul, you should be embarrased. I mean, to publicly announce how uninformed you are… it’s funny. Obviously you’re not working for an agency and doing any actual business – ad execs expect you to have the right facts to make good decisions. Anyhow, if you were actually aware of facts (like Danny G apparently is), you’d know that Six Flags was seeking another agency because of the Mr. Six campaigns – which is why Zimmerman won the account. And complain all you want – people with much better business sense that you seemed to have made the choice to work with an agency that delivers more results than awards.
Better yet, Pick-n-Click was made by a top-notch CREATIVE team, with a real understanding of patterns in advertising and consumer behaviors. So like it or not, it’s coming. And you’ll probably never notice you saw an ad made by a machine anyway…
Ha! Well, I assume you’re just a disgruntled Zimmerman employee, and afraid to actually stand up for himself.
Good to see how much respect you have for the blogosphere.
I will admit that I should have changed the post to reflect the fact that you guys didn’t do the Mr. Six creative. That’s my bad, but the point was that your online "agency" is ridiculous.
Another anonymous, MD! That’s the point! I won’t notice the ad at all!
OK, so you’ve admitted the error and made the correction. Appreciated.
For the record, though, you’re assumption regarding the Pick-n-Click system is also in error. It’s not about pre-fabricated creative. It’s about finding consistent patterns in your creative, and exploiting the modularity of the ads for maxmim effect. Why spend the money to produce 50 tv spots, when you can produce 3-5 with hundreds of combinations?
noticed that you can type with a darth vador suit…..impressive….move on….but don’t forget…."the force is with you"
[...] After some vicious comments on my Zimmerman post by the lovingly anonymous “Concerned Citizen” and “MD”, I’m an ass and did forget to update the post to reflect the fact that Zimmerman didn’t actually create the aneurysm-inducing Mr. Six ad for Six Flags. Good for them. [...]
LOL.. you cannot even match the right campaign to the right agency. Thanks for the crack info there..HAHAHA Makes me question the rest of your assessment Your just mad you did not come up with it first… Sour Grapes man.. Sour Grapes. You know nothing about this, they should revoke your posting privileges.
These guys are the worst kind of preditors. They preach "we are family" while degrading demeang and intimidating people. The expected work rate destroys the ability for a person to have a healthy family life. Just seach the divorce rate af the leaders of this workshop. WHEN THEY FIRE A PERSON it is disgusting.ONE MIGHT IMAGINE, THE FEELINGS EVOKED during victorian times with child labor. The HR department threatens demeans and degrades the concept of HR. Perhaps if jordan himself had exit intrviews with people he once told were Family he might act, but then again he would have truly care about a fellow human being, you present well jordan but can you discover your true authentisity
If you look at what template ads really cost including their inflated air time costs, and compare it with Cheap-TV-Spots.com which is the most award-winning discount TV ad agency in the world, you will find that the Cheap TV Spots ad costs less because they do not inflate the network air time rate like the template companies do. Cheap-TV-Spots has over 60 international awards for their custom-made all-original flat rate TV ads. The Cheap TV Spots service is very fast and very exacting, and they do not encumber clients with long term contracts like the brand-diluting template ad companies. Cheap-TV-Spots.com can create a very high quality custom-made ad and air it on national TV for an entire month for as little as $3K (production and air time included). Also, their sister services produce custom TV ads in as little as 24 hours for the motion picture, automotive and real estate industries - with no stinky templates!
I also heard Zimmerman Advertising, the Fort Lauderdale, Florida branch particularly, pays their employees poorly. Also, it’s next to impossible to get a promotion moneywise or career-wise over there. I guess that’s why they have a low employee retention rate.
I also heard from many Zimmerman employees, that when hiring people, they usually place them in positions lower than the experience the person actually has.
For instance, if you’re a copywriter with 5 years of copywriting experience and you apply at Zimmerman Advertising, be prepared to be hired as a junior copywriter or something lowly. Maybe even a traffic coordinator (sorry to anybody who is a traffic coordinator now - no offense).
I completely agree with you about how stupid the PICK AND CHICK idea is. Unfortunately, though, I have to admit that I use to work for them and was forced to work in several of those non sense, thoughtless spots. I still feel like through up when I think of this experience. It is one experience that I don’t wish on my worst enemy.
Zimmerman is a mess. They are also feeling the effect of the economy. So far over 150 employees in 1 month have been laid off. The advertising is GENERIC, and the creative team are as creative as a 3$ bill. Do not believe the hype, because Zimmerman is just a hype machine that is ready to self destruct. It is funny that the Traffic dept. makes the least money, gets treated the worst, and gets let go bc of finger pointing…shame shame shame Ever heard of Karma??
Our company knows first hand just how bad this agency is…..what a joke!!! Poor account service. Poor creative leadership. Absolutely no senior management leadership in the retail division —-just excuses. We wasted valuable time doing business with them. Not surprised that this is doing them in.
Just came across this blog and I will keep my comment straight to the point. NEVER EVER work at Zimmerman unless you want to leave or be thrown out with an awful experience. The management there reminds me of Office Space. Ever seen that movie? If you have, you’ll understand why this is not the place to work. Salary paid there is an embarassment and basically they expect you to be 200% dedicated to the company. Yeah, no time to have a life other than Zimmerman. And….HR is really REALLY lacking HR management skills!!!!!! Do not trust that department. They are not there to help the employees but to cover up all the supervisors, directors and VPs who make the working environment there totally and utterly disgusting. In other words, work there if you want to get abused, frustrated and leave worse off than you came!
Sincerely,
Karma