I’ve poked at Starbucks a bit here and there in the past, so I thought I’d eat crow and share this story (now that it’s been resolved)…

May 5th was a beautiful Sunday afternoon here in NYC.  I had nothing to do, so I decided that I’d get outside and do nothing while enjoying the moment of spring.  I went across the street to Starbucks (there is one on every corner you know) which has outdoor tables that I could enjoy for the price of a cup of coffee without having to worry about being shoo-ed away after an hour.  I set my coffee on an empty table and sat down to pull out my computer, which I then also set on the table. 

The next thing I knew I had very warm and wet feet and a large brown surface in front of my eyes.  It took me a moment to realize exactly what was going on:  the table turned out to be of the folding variety, and the tabletop had flipped to a vertical position.  This, unfortunately, dumped my computer onto the ground and the full cup of coffee onto my computer.  Which was running at the time.

After trying to clean up my computer, I went in to discuss the situation with the store manager.  He promptly denied liability and offered, generously, to replace my cup of coffee.  Unwilling to settle for this resolution, I went home and called Starbucks customer service (which, to my surprise, was actually open and staffed on a Sunday afternoon).  To my further surprise, they were willing to discuss the situation and didn’t immediately send me packing. 

To cut to the chase of a rather long story, I demanded a replacement computer from Starbucks or the monetary value there-of, and I expected a rather drawn out battle to get them to agree.  I was shocked and thrilled to receive a phone call from one of their claims specialists informing me that they were issuing a check for the full amount that I requested and that I should receive it in ten days.  And ten days later, there it was. 

Was the process painless?  Not entirely.  I’d have been more than happy if the table hadn’t collapsed in the first place.  And the manager wasn’t exactly friendly when I brought it to his attention.  But all in all, the situation was resolved reasonably quickly (20 days, start to finish) and without a ton of back-and-forth. 

So cheers to you Starbucks!  Thanks for owning up to your mistake and handling the situation professionally. 

Technorati Tags: beyond madison avenue, starbucks, customer service

This commercial for MTV is one of the best I have seen. It’s so gross, so funny, so fricking awesome, if you don’t like it I will strike you down with my trident. Correction, I will strike you down by a trident and then taunt you by snickering and pointing- how humiliating.

The work is by Young & Rubicam, Buenos Aires. If you like the first one, which I have already stated you would, take a peek at the spot below.

Admit it, I just made your day.

Technorati Tags: Beyond Madison Avenue, MTV, Young and Rubicam, Toupee, False Teeth, Funny Commercial

And while I’m at it… Black shoes or camel?  The ones with the big buckles?
And do I even like pickles?  What about ham?

According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, this is where Google is headed.  Well, sorta. 

And I quote:
“We are very early in the total information we have within Google. The algorithms will get better and we will get better at personalisation… The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as ‘What shall I do tomorrow?’ and ‘What job shall I take?’ ”

Personalized search, iGoogle… and then, well, deciding what I should eat for lunch.
Sounds like a fair progression. Right?
Uh… right?

[Thanks to Nick Carr for bringing the FT article to my attention.]

Technorati Tags: beyond madison avenue, advertising, google, eric schmidt, nick carr

We’re back!  Sorry about the pause.  We ran into a little logistical trouble with the bar, Glass, that we were previously holding the event at.  BUT, we’re all set up at a new place with better specials and a MUCH better location for the NYC crowd!

Beginning this THURSDAY evening, May 24th, PAUSE will be taking place at Pizza Bar, on the NE corner of 14th st. and 9th ave. (just a block from the L train, which is an easy hop from any uptown/downtown train).   Specials include $6 pizza and a beer or $10 pizza with a martini until 8pm and $4 beers until 10pm.  Music will be good as will the crowd, so take a pause from your workweek or kick off your weekend a little early!

Technorati Tags: beyond madison avenue, pause, pause happy hour, new york

Okay, so this isn’t quite as big as the GooTube newsbreak, but GoogForce (as I’ve ooooh-so-cleverly chosen to brand it) seems primed to stir a bit of fear in a humble lil’ corporation called "Microsoft."

Pete Cashmore said it… and so I believe it.

I have to say, if I could have my salesforce tasks filtered directly into my google calendar, and my google homepage pulling up salesforce reports without volleying between Firefox tabs, that would be pretty sweet.

Wow, yea… I really do need to get out more.

Technorati Tags: beyond madison avenue, advertising, salesforce, google, googforce, mashable, pete cashmore

I spent last week at the Digital Signage Expo in Chicago, and while -no- I didn’t cram down a deep dish at every meal (though tempting), I did get a rigorous course in an industry that’s changing shape faster than a Peep in the microwave.

Major players like Nike, Bank of America, Google, and Target were milling about, and the exhibition hall was a crazy maze of gigantic screens and canny digital solutions.

One sleek technology to keep your eye on, for brands and agencies alike: 3M’s Vikuiti, which allows for rear screen projection in any size and shape.  Ridiculously cool stuff.

The days of stand-alone rectangular screens with simple streaming content?  Long (long, long, long) gone.

Technorati Tags: beyond madison avenue, advertising, digital signage expo, chicago, 3m, vikuiti

Good advice from LifeClever:

What’s an easy way to improve your design portfolio?

Make your work look real.

Did you design a killer poster? Show it hanging on wall or on a billboard. If it’s a magazine, take a picture of someone reading it. A web page? Put it in a browser and show it on a monitor. In other words, don’t just show the design work, give it a context.

In many cases, you won’t be able to physically place it in a real-world setting. For example, most of us can’t afford to rent a billboard to post design work just to take a picture of it. Thanks to the miracle of Photoshop and digital cameras, you can easily fake your way to looking real.

Just go outside, take a picture of the real billboard, and use Photoshop to composite your design work with the picture you took.

It’s that time of year.  Ad schools are finishing up.  Books are being sent out in mass quantities in hopes of scoring the dream job.  I’ve been looking at a few myself, and this advice should be shared far and wide.  So many students pay fierce attention to their work, but then let themselves down in the presentation.  It all counts.  

Technorati Tags: beyond madison avenue, tips from the bottom, portfolio, portfolio school, ad school, life clever

Microsoft calls out their own clients, the advertisers. Hey guys, you’re a bunch of ego-driven, pretentious assholes!

Fortunately, plenty of us in the industry feel that sort of self-loathing.

Great find from the brilliant David Armano.

Michel Gondry stars in some brand new stuff from G.S. & P. for HP.  Kind of adds a whole new dimension to the Apple VS PC debate.

Technorati Tags: Beyond Madison Avenue, Michel Gondry, Advertising, HP, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Commercials, Apple, PC

Shameless cop-out/copy post, but well worth it in the end.  American Copywriter has a list of rules that everyone (yes, everyone) should read.  Like this one:

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: Creatives are very literal people. If we can’t use blue or have to use the word “Crisp Crumb Coating” just tell us. We’re professionals, we’ll deal with it. What we hate a lot more is when we’re not told that orange and blue are out because one client hates the Florida Gators (true story) or that another one hates the word “administrate” because it reminds her of the word “menstruate” (Again, and sadly, true.) When we can, let’s move this stuff from the creative review to the kickoff meeting.

Read the rest here.

Technorati Tags: beyond madison avenue, american copywriter, advertising

Is this "advertising" really? I’m not sure we can call it that when the ad becomes the show itself, as this brilliant pre-movie promotion, created by David over at Brand Experience Lab, obviously did. And you’ve got to give big props to the MSNBC for having the guts to get out there and try something new with this communal interactive game, called Newsbreaker.

Watch the video here, or read about it here.

Does anyone else find the "new" Adobe branding a flashback to chemistry and the periodic table that we all so dreaded memorizing?

Well, Eli over at Forgery League stumbled across a brand of Adobe Fettucini. Or so it appears.

Oy.

Check out this pretty cool start-up called 10ton. They are an online video production company that does online commercials, viral marketing, shorts, and a bunch of other internet related stuff. The concept is really cool and I am going to venture out and say it is only going to be a matter of time until agencies like this are a norm in the industry. I can’t wait to see their work in the future.

They have a great video to emphasize this new field and how viewers will be amused and attracted to the work instead of feeling like it’s all, "in your face."

Technorati Tags: Beyond Madison Avenue, 10ton, Online Advertising, Get Engaged Quickly

TBWA/Chiat/Day is walking into a cave full of hungry bears. Their new Ballpark commercials are God-awful and, like walking into a cave full of hungry bears, a terrible idea. I can only take so much ridiculousness and this has went on too far. TBWA/Chiat/Day, please stop now before you ruin everything I love about the Skittles and Starbursts work. Especially the Little Lad Dance. I know you guys think you are all cool because you create weird and absurd work, but you need to differentiate your clients from each other because, otherwise, we end up with the rejected ideas from the Skittles/Starbursts account.

Technorati Tags: Beyond Madison Avenue, Skittles, Starbursts, Ballpark, Hunger, TBWA/Chiat/Day

Since my high school career officially ends tomorrow, it’s time to think about the future and the difficult choices I will have to make in college. For example, do I loft the beds in my dorm? Do I partake in underage drinking and risk getting drunk or worse- waking up half naked under a tree 30 miles from campus with a pair of briefs on my head, five dollars worth of coins in one pocket, and a half eaten bean burrito in the other? Or, quite possibly the most tempting, do I oil myself up like a grease monkey and set up a slip-n-slide in the dorm hallway which will then be video taped and sent straight to College Humor for all my fellow coeds to enjoy? Sure, all these questions are important and will need to be addressed, however, right now the real question remains: Apple or PC?

The creative business isn’t completely dominated by Apples as it once was, look at Digital Domain who run their platforms off Windows. Most creatives say Apple is the way to go, but I want to hear what you have to say. Do I stick with the creative powerhouse, Apple or make the traditional, safe choice with the PC? For your reference, I am going to attend Michigan State’s College of Communication Arts and Sciences. Their website says the creative industry recognizes MAC as the best choice, yet a PC would be fine too. Now you tell me…

Technorati Tags: Beyond Madison Avenue, Laptop, Mac, PC, Apple, Windows, Michigan State, Advertising, Digital Domain

Well, we made it through the first event unscathed.  We’d like to thank everyone who joined us.  We definitely had a great time, and we hope everyone else enjoyed themselves as well.  

We’ll be taking a pause from PAUSE this week due to a previously scheduled event on the calendar at Glass, but we’ll be up and running again shortly.  Stay tuned for details! 

Welp, here’s the next big viral sensation, it seems. This viral for Ray-Ban was posted to youtube just yesterday, and it’s already nearing 4k views, which means a meteoric rise is likely on the way.

It was created by Cutwater, the newly launched omnicom darlings (who apparently don’t think websites are important), with feeding and marketing by Josh Warner’s Feed Company.

Here’s what Chuck McBride, ecd of Cutwater had to say:

“It can’t be a fashion brand, but it is fashionable,
so what is it? People like them at the comfort level. They’re what they
wear when they are most themselves. That’s how we came up with “Never
Hide.” These glasses don’t mask who you are, they’re a window to who
you are. For the short while, [”Never Hide”] is one of the best
branding ideas I’ve had. Everyone gets the double entendre; it’s just
right strategically for the audience and the client, and it is evoking
a truth. And it’s a big idea that a lot of cool executions can live
under. We went out to find the biggest truth out in a marketplace that
is going label-driven and fashion. It is a nice, disruptive thought.”

Never did I think I’d see an AdAge subheader like this:

Theyz In Ur Ad Budjit, Steelin Ur Dolarz.

Don’t know what a Lolcat is?  Well, go sully your pristine grammar and take a raging piss right on dear old William Strunk.  Then combine that with a picture of a cat wearing a wig and stuck in a cookie jar, and you’re nearly an expert.

What started as a meme on the niche site ICanHasCheezburger has now grabbed mentions in Gawker, Shake Well Before Use, AdAge, Laughing Squid (which terms it a "macro meme explosion"). 

In honor of this viral hotbed of slangy kitties, please enjoy and contribute your texts to the LolCat-O-Matic Wiffiti… Just press the hot pink arrow to activate instructions.

Petco? Meow Mix? Nine Lives?  Who’s gonna jump into the Lolcat dance first?

*Friday Update* The Head Cheezburger over at ICHC has started his own Wiffiti-based contest to vote for the best Lolcat. Go cast your vote.

Technorati Tags: Beyond Madison Avenue, Advertising, Lolcats, AdAge, Gawker, ICanHasCheezburger

Here’s the deal, Beyond Madison Avenue has four tickets to the Future of Online Advertising Conference. We were thinking, we could sell them and be thousandaires but we decided we would let our loyal readers have a shot at getting them. Seeing as each ticket is worth $895, there is a lot at stake.

Therefore, to win a ticket, you need to find the best, kick-ass online advertising on the web. Any type of online advertising will do, whether it is a viral video, pop-up, campaign or random stuff, if it’s made for the web, it’s made for the contest.

How To: Submit a link to the work with about a 100 word response as to why you think this ad is the best out there. Send your submission by adding a comment to this post.

BMA’s highly trained judges (below) will choose the winners in about a week or two, so get the submissions in. Remember, this conference is going to have all the online advertising guru’s and big wigs so check out the link and good luck in the contest.

Technorati Tags: Beyond Madison Avenue, Ticket Giveaway, Advertising, Future of Online Advertising Contest, Best Only Advertising, Viral Videos

Well, I hope that everyone is pulling the usual ad industry "we don’t decide what we’re doing tonight until five minutes before tonight" trick.  Don’t forget folks, PAUSE starts tonight.  We’ve invited creative type people from all walks of life, and we’re hoping for a great turnout!  Stop on by, enjoy drink specials and an outdoor patio (the rain is supposed to clear by this afternoon)!

Technorati Tags: beyond madison avenue, pause, pause happy hour, happy hour, creative, new york, nyc