As far as advertising is concerned, getting the message across is one thing but considering the logical intelligence of the viewing market to which it is aimed at penetrating is another. In short, there are some advertisements that really do not care if their ad campaigns make sense or not. A simple word or two is all that matters for endorsing companies, normally terms that associate their brand to the consumer’s mind.

But while imagery is one thing, it is apparent that there are a lot of ads that do not make sense at all. Some call them wasted money and opportunity while others look at simply creating an image towards placing brand awareness for products and services.

With these tactics in mind, many people will agree, is it really for strategic management or plainly for conning people into intellectual proportions on the whole advertising paradigm.

 

We all have our personal advertising bugbears. I am frequently dumbstruck by the portrayal of young men as henpecked morons, perennially outmanoeuvred by their vastly superior girlfriends. And I can’t be the only person bothered by the ambulance-chasing personal injury adverts - the “no win, no fee” propaganda packs of the compensation culture.

(Source) theblog

Technorati Tags: advertising, brand, paradigm, imagery, money, brand awareness, smoking, fish hook

A couple of commercials on rotation currently strike me as incredibly similar. In fact, I know people who didn’t even realize (at first) that the commercials were for two completely different products. Enter the AT&T Go Phone spot with Meatloaf and Tiffany and a handful of Comcast spots, including the “Lady Marmalade” ad. Notably I find them similar since each uses singing as the main means of conversing. Personally, I find AT&T’s spot much more interesting to watch as it is more of a mini-musical - including the song being edited to fit the product. As far as Comcast goes, their spots showcase one of the actors singing the song back as part of conversation, in a weird dubbed-over way, that I find, well, creepy. After much debate, I have found that most prefer the Meatloaf spot to Comcast’s. What are your thoughts? Do you find them similar? Maybe not? 

Technorati Tags: Go Phone, AT&T, Meatloaf, Tiffany, Comcast, Lady Marmalade, Patti LaBelle, tv, commercials, cell phone, singing

Do you see it?

More with the creator of the logo, Lindon Leader, of Leader Creative here

Technorati Tags: FedEx, logos, Lindon Leader, Leader Creative

 Vaune Dillmann, a local California brewer, was ordered by federal alcohol regulators to stop using bottle caps on his beer that read, “Try Legal Weed”.  The agency told Dillmann that the message on the caps were misleading and were a reference to drugs.  As it turns out, Dillmann told the Associatd Press that he’s never done drugs (specifically marijuana) in his life and that the bottle caps were just a reference to the town’s name: Weed, CA.  Dillmann claims that he is not the only one who has used the tradition of exploiting the town’s name.  In fact, he claims that even city officials do it- which, of course, makes it ok.   Federal agency spokesman, Art Resnick told the Associated Press:

We protect consumers of alcohol beverages against misleading advertising and labeling. That’s one of our primary functions. That’s what we do, as well as collect taxes.

I’ll come out of hiding and say it

My name is Jeff and I’m a hockey fan

..and since I’ve been on the negative flow and down on some ads, I thought I’d give a little love to a couple spots from the Verizon Wireless NHL ads that have been running during the Stanley Cup playoffs (which are on a channel deep in your cable box)

Technorati Tags: NHL, hockey, Verizon, vcast

I’ve been intrigued by the new “Haggen-Dazs loves Honey Bees” campaign for a few reasons. Both the spots and the website are both beautiful and cute and well executed. But what’s more fascinating is the concept and message behind it.

The website has a wealth of information on the bee situation. They’ve even created a Haagen Dazs Bee Board to “provide insight on the honey bee issue,” and are proponents of community outreach. They’re promoting planting bee-friendly flora and donating to bee research efforts underway at Penn State and UC Davis. Haagen-Dazs has also released a new flavor, Vanilla Honey Bee, with proceeds going to the research efforts, in addition to other “bee-dependent flavors” being identified.

It’s an interesting idea, and a seemingly well-executed campaign. I’m curious how much of the proceeds actually go to research efforts, and how much effort Haagen-Dazs is actually putting forth. The message is good and I certainly hope Haagen-Dazs truly stands behind it and actually follows through. In a time when green and pro-environment movements are rapidly gaining popularity, it’s easy to come out with messages that are green. Actually being green, and not just greenwashing, is a whole different ballgame.

When is it alright to put your logo on roaches? If you’re brand is Zoo York, you can do whatever ever the hell you want. Zoo York is challenging you to spread the word by any means necessary. As long as you don’t break the law or disrespect anyone. They launched the campaign with the help of their roach department to show that you can get as random as you want. Young skaters spray painted the Zoo York logo on some big’ol roaches and they let them loose in New York City. This is one of the more unique viral campaigns I’ve seen recently. Do roaches count as new media?

La Communidad is a great agency. If you’re into really random funny ads, you might like their work. Some of their clients include MTV, Virgin Mobile, and Volkswagen to name a few. La Communidad is has two locations, one in Miami and the other in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Much of their work is seen in Latin America, but they have won awards for work that appeals to all audiences. This clip in particular originally aired in Argentina and if you pay close attention you’ll noticed that it has been dubbed into English. You don’t have to pay close attention to notice actually. The point is that these folks produce good work that is not bound by language. Have a look at on their site to see more work.

One of the things I hate most about this industry is the use of the word consumer. It’s a bad word and it implies that humans do nothing more than consume. What bothers me about the word consumer is that it objectifies people and neglects natural cycles. I usually replace the word with people or audience whenever possible. But, by doing so I avoid thinking about the negative side of consumption. Like most of you, I am not a “green” freak, but I am a logic freak. We can’t consume forever without some natural corrective cycle. I came across a neat little site, which tells a great story in a way that is easy and logical to follow. It tells The Story of Stuff. It brings to life human production and consumption patterns. It’s a must see for two reasons. It’s deals directly with an issue that many of us (or maybe just me) haven’t looked at beyond a surface level. The story of stuff is also a good example of digital and mixed media being used to engage, entertain and enlighten without losing sight of simplicity.

After a few weeks of teasers and trailers, Nike finally released the 2-minute full version of the “Take it to the Next Level” spot after it aired on broadcast via ITV at the beginning of today’s Manchester United game.

The spot is directed by Guy Ritchie of Lock Stock & Snatch fame, who is no stranger to branded films. Several years back, he directed the 10-min. short, “The Hire: Star” featuring Madonna & Clive Owen for the BMW films series.

As anticipated, this spot is pretty impressive. Definitely falls in line with the overall Nike image of late. I’m curious to see of there’s any further integration of the spot into any of Nike’s advertising, beyond being featured (in high quality) on the Nike Football Homepage. Either way, it’s okay — the Guy Ritchie fanboy in me is satisfied.

Have you ever tried to spend on an advertising campaign without even mentioning the brand of the product or service even once? It seems like a poor way to advertise and spend tons of dollars for promotional practices but apparently LG Electronics has a lot of things in mind.

Scarlet, an advertising campaign launched by LG Electronics features Malthe as the sexed-up, butt-kicking, red-eyed heroine “Scarlet.” There’s no mention of LG _ or even a prominent image of the TV itself _ in the advertising materials or commercials.

Now if that is something that seems like poor advertising then I don’t know what is. But fooling people and getting their attention in a different manner is perhaps the initiative. So what gives?

“To be honest, the most difficult thing for me on this campaign was to convince myself and my bosses to really own this idea,” says Lee. “To spend money without letting people know about our brand is really, really risky, right? But that’s the idea of this. We need a breakthrough idea to change the rules of the game.”

 

(Source) The Washington Post

 

Technorati Tags: scarlet, advertising, lg electronics, branding, marketing

According to Bud Light’s (from DDB Chicago) newest commercials, one word says it all - Dude. While the spots themselves are hysterical and can pretty much guarantee a laugh out of anyone, it’s the new website that really brings it all together – dudemadness.com. Here you can not only test your “dudeness” by clicking on the poster your prefer, dude, but you can also send coded dude messages to your friends (which will be decoded via text message). And in case anyone out there was wondering, I happen to be 68% Righteous Dude, 17% Game-On Dude and 15% Redneck Dude (where did THAT come from?!?).

Technorati Tags: Bud, Bud Light, dude, tv, commercials, beer, Las Vegas, drinks, DDB, websites, viral

I find most companies asking for user generated content want one of two things:

1)Other people to do their work for them on the cheap and/or
2)Don’t want to pay an advertising agency

Sometimes it works (Doritos and the Super Bowl) and rubs advertising creatives the wrong way and we all get in a tizzy and think of ways to criticize the work as “unprofessional” when really we’re thinking “we should have thought of that.”

Sorry, this new campaign from Century 21 doesn’t sell me on wanting to create a wacky video of me doing wacky things for “exposure”

I’m personally of the opinion that payoff doesn’t match the efforts, but then again, closing costs are a pain

Being that I hang out with people who do these things, I’m sure I’m going to get a lot of emails asking for my vote…but that teaser ad. Yikes

Technorati Tags: Century 21, user generated content, marketing, things that rub me wrong

According to a recent news story, approximately 100,000 children and teenagers receive cosmetic surgery each year which has led to deputies from Germany demanding a ban on allowing children and teenagers to get these “unnecessary” procedures.  In the same report, it even stated that 10-year old are getting tattoos and piercings [gasp!].  Meanwhile, back here in America, we are embracing our beloved cosmetic procedures with books such as My Beautiful Mommy, which aims to explain to children why their mothers don’t want to be ugly.  Don’t you think that if a child sees their parent(s) getting a nose job that they’ll want one too? Who do we blame now for kids wanting to go under the knife?

As far as advertising is concerned, you would be surprised at the things that most companies would come up with to get attention and this one is really something that is similar to them. This new print-ad gimmick is for readers to take camera phone pictures of icons and ads and send them to a certain number. They will in turn get more information from the advertiser concerned.

If you think of it, it is quite a long shot and seeing people wasting their time taking pictures and then getting information of these products does seem strange at this point.

Wait a second. Haven’t we seen something like this before?

Ah yes, the CueCat, a handheld device that scanned special barcodes to save you the trouble of typing in a web address, which was introduced in the year 2000, pretty much failed that same year, and are now as hacked as Roombas.

(Source) Jossip

Technorati Tags: advertising, cuecat, print-ad gimmick, camer phones

Audi has been creating (or rather constructing) some fascinating spots lately, like the “strings” spot I wrote about a few months back.

This most recent spot from BBH London continues along the deconstruction & construction path, stylizing the internal workings of the Audi RS6 via Hugarian Gymnasts. Certainly not the first thing I would think of, but the suspension of reality and the acceptance of the gymnasts loosely representing the internals of an RS6 engine does something fairly powerful, and certainly creates an interesting spot.

So the ultimate question: do gymnastics, string figures, and automotive orchestras work to sell cars and change brand awareness? Or does it simply yield commercials that are interesting to watch?

From The Canadian Press

MONTREAL — Historic Quebec City hopes to take down a modern roadside decoration - the ubiquitous billboard.

The 400-year-old city is proposing a bylaw to wipe out large ad panels across much of the Quebec capital region in the next five years.

Serge Viau, the city’s assistant director general, says billboards mask Quebec City’s European architecture and stunning views.

“With the goal of cleaning up the urban landscape in mind, we decided to make the signs disappear,” Viau said of proposed changes to the city’s urban plan.

I defy the Quebecers to say this view is not stunning


People move to the city for the urban landscape, next thing you know, Quebec City will be getting rid of their strip clubs.

Also remember, if you’re going to have a billboard, the French part must be predominant if you’re also going to have your signs in English…silly separatists

Technorati Tags: billboards, Quebec, civil action

There are just some ads that will never get old because they’re fun to watch, like this ad for Renault. Finally- a commercial that successfully incorporates the use of the high jump into the auto industry! At first, you don’t know what the heck this guy is doing- perhaps contemplating suicide by running out into the middle of traffic (it’s a wonder he didn’t get hit by a car), but then he gracefully jumps into his vehicle. I didn’t notice a “do not try this at home” disclaimer, but I still wouldn’t attempt it.

We are all aware that most companies would do anything to advertise on top rates shows such as the Iron Chef. But in this case, only the observant people can depict the actual subliminal advertising that is being talked about today.

In fact, you have to be monitoring it closely. Not all people will be aware of it and surely it is a form of advertising that will surely be worthless.

But guess again. Thanks to one person, it has ballooned into a full-blown issue for both the show and the company concerned, that of which is McDonalds. Was it intentional or accidental? You be the judge.

Technorati Tags: advertising, mcdonalds, iron chef, subliminal advertising

We all know that the key towards making advertising work is to find ways to get attention. Apparently, this has been in the mind of people who have let out their creative artistry towards various means such as goods and transport media images that can really draw attention.

For some, this may seem funny, but the thing is, you are getting the attention which is important in any advertising and promotional gimmick. Laugh at it or like it, the fact remains that the key here is baring the ideas of modern advertising the people will use for larger market awareness and penetration needed by businesses today.

Technorati Tags: advertising, transport media, promotional gimmick, market awareness