<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/GPZ5fnYFI4Q&hl=en&fs=1″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/GPZ5fnYFI4Q&hl=en&fs=1” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>  Converse has picked up on the New “My Drive-thru” track featuring Santogold, Julian Casablancas and N.E.R.D.  Chucks have been creeping into popular culture recently and I am glad to see that they are embracing the opportunities provided to them. BUIE M-Ad Game & The Purveyor of Cool Author 

Do you know Julia Allison? If you do she is obviously doing her job quite well. What is her occupation well…being famous. Well, attempting to be famous. Julia has been making a name for herself by extending life story to the web. With in the past few years she has gone from an invisible undergrad to a digitally documented celebutant.The three steps outlined in her story of success: Step 1 Get noticed Step 2 Keep them hooked Step 3 Extend your brand   Pretty simple stuff. By now you’re saying “Ok, so what”. The So what is the need for you to get out there and push your brand. Tell you story and make sure the right folks are listening. To learn more check out the full story      BUIE M-Ad Game & The Purveyor of Cool Author 

  The lion share of advertising is centered around the suspension of disbelief. Yes our phone works that well. Yes out steak is that tasty. Yes your banking experience will be exactly like this smiling fellow infrot of you. In reality, it is rarely the case. Agency paint very pretty pictures about what their brands can do but do they really every fully deliver? Enought foreshadowing. I think you can see where I am going  Recently when a meeting intended to gain insight on the progress of minority inclusion within 16 major agencies garnered lackluster attendance. 2 of the 16 agencies that signed a hiring agreement in 2006 showed up. The link below gives a first had account of the meeting. http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1370868150/bctid1657896700 I make no bones about my stance on the industry. It is imperfect, fickle and it eats talented people. But to not have a FAIR, and this is the  key word, opportunity to shine is deplorable. I am both the young man and the senior executive mentioned and hearing the journalist delivering brought some rather raw emotions back to the surface. From client interaction to the resume shuffle the countless interviews which feel more like a  hybrid of a cattle auction and a test shoot. It is a unique experience and one that I don’t think I’d wish on anyone but, it does make you strong. To endure and still have a modicum of success in your field feels like a validation of your intellect. But it is a very painful process at times.

Adweek article

 

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3i2890c34abce40e39bac61e5a718efd40

 

 

Talk about role reversal. An account lead accused of not playing by the rules and by a creative no less. In the grand scheme of things (and this is based only on available reported information) both of these guys were dead wrong. To Mr. Shigeta, act your age. Up skirt shots of celebs? What are you, 12? Not cool. To Mr. Biegel, act your age. You are a grown ass man. If you don’t want to do something or you know its wrong don’t do it. As a SVP CD you stop your feet and fold your arm with the best of them.  

The real news here is the fact that foolishness like this still goes on and while at the entry to mid level ranks women appear to out number men. But in the upper echelons the boys club still rules the roost and the shenanigans are only getting more and more scandalous.

 

Ok, its a little late and a little graphic and sophomoric jocular humor but DAMN IT”S FUNNY! Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert “yeah I did that and her too.” Downey Jr are Hilarious in this paid placement with in the MTV awards.

After being one of the tech hungry masses to fall in love with first iteration of the iPhone TV spots simple delivery. We are now offered up a knock off piece of creative that could very well be cut together from any number of 007 reels from the past 20 years. (Click to see the new work) http://www.apple.com/iphone/gallery/ads/hallway/ Come on Apple, you screwed us on the price, made a bajillion (technical term) dollars on the units and then made them paper weights in less that a year. The least you can do is give me a decent spot. Who’s with me !?! In the mean time, I’ll be at the apple store if anyone needs me on the 11th

So our fine French friends are pulling together the indivial media powerhouses Starcom, Mediavest, Zenith Omnimedia and Digitas to create one hell of a media buying outlet. Lead by a collective braintrust that rivals the any in corporate America this unit is going to hell on wheels. As a Google shareholder lets just say I am very afraid. VivaKi could in their quest for efficiency eliminate the taking names portion of the equation and just kick ass. Wonder what the folks in D.C. have to say about this?

I have to admit. I have been on a car kick for the last couple of days. With the price of gas racing up faster than the Wonka-vator is the era of the balls out performance spot dead? One shining example in my mind is …. 

This spot is pretty dang funny. Take a look and let me know what you think.

In a recent article IGA Worldwide CEO Justin Townsend stated  “Gamers like in game ads when done in a contextually relevant way and there is no arguing that,”  

Gamers “like” in game ad’s. Really? I might not go as far as to use the term like. I would land more in the camp of tolerate. The main issue that I have noticed with in-game ads is that they don’t add context or value. Now, I don’t want to black cloud the entire concept with out offering up a solution. Why aren’t the products keys to  additional content or lives or something on a more consistent basis?

As reported by Allhiphop.com Music lovers may know Curtis Jackson by his rap alias 50 Cent, but the G-Unit leader may adopt another name if he accepts an offer from Taco Bell. To promote its new “Why Pay More” value menu, the fast food chain sent the rapper an offer, asking him to change his name to either 79 Cent, 89 Cent or 99 Cent for one day this summer. Taco Bell Corp. President Greg Creed, who made the proposal in a letter written to 50 Cent’s agent, also wrote that his company would make a $10,000 donation to a charity of the New York native choice, if he accepts the request. As part of the deal, 50 Cent would also have to make an appearance at any Taco Bell location around the country he chooses and rap his order in the drive thru with his new name. 50 Cent didn’t find any humor in Creed’s offer. “When my legal team is finished with them, Taco Bell is going to have a new corporate slogan: ‘We messed with the bull and got the horns,’” 50 Cent said. Now I agree that most all press is good press and 50 picks fights for a living but to do something this low down back handed and sneaky is well….brilliant. The brand gets a celeb endorsement by baiting Hip Hop’s #1 bad guy.  The brand stays “clean” by adding the charity angle and 50 keeps them looking like angles just for the simple fact that he has been portrayed as a bully and loves to shoot his mouth off. As a student of the 48 laws of Power I give Taco Bell a modicum of respect. As a lover of Hip Hop and youth culture I say this. Taco Bell you are lower than low. You’ve basically attempted to Napster credibility and I hope your brand suffers for it. As a company that jacked a viral ad and called it your own and now has stolen an association with an artist I hope the consumer and the masses remain silent. I hope 50 stays quiet and your PR/marketing machine is forced to eat crow which I believe you use in you grilled burrito.

If you are anything close to a music fan these days you can appreciate how hard the traditional industry has been hit. CD sales have been down consistently since itunes changed the game. The dinosaurs at the helm of most of these companies got caught with their pants down. The artists however, have reverted to a very basic marketing tactics. For the Hip Hop artist it has been trial. Mixtapes and guest features allow an artist complete freedom to try new styles of work in new genres. To Lil’ Waynes credit over the course of 2 years he worked with little know artist like Corey Guns to Erique Iglasias, toured constantly, kept his digital/social networking presence strong, granted hundreds of interviews and only had limited print ads in support of the album. The power of the interaction is what has been impressive. Now don’t get me wrong all this work would have resulted in a dud if Wayne had no talent but the skillful navigation of guerilla/grassroots and experiential marketing produced success. As of June 18^th his will have sold 1,005,545 copies (Nielsen SoundScan) in one week. Pretty good ROI

This is what happens when you leave the account team alone after hours. 

I was at the Kanye West concert last night (if you have not seen this show make it a point to check it out) and it was amazing to look at the opportunity missed. Absolute vodka had two displays that were featured during intermission but that was the extent. If you were an event marketing company it would seem like an easy sell. “You have the opportunity to touch 30,000 people in 40 cities.” Sounds like good numbers and yet only a Liquor brand with no sampling opportunities decided to talk to the crowd?  Is Kanye that scarry? In my mind and in the mind of mass media his mouth is a great weapon. Why not bring it to bear for your brand? It could be said that the screaming fans were not just waiting for the message delivered by Lupe, N.E.R.D. Rhianna and Kanye. They wanted even more. Give it to them. The amount of live blogging and FB pictures (you know, when folks turn a digital camera or camera phone on themselves) was out of control. Oh the missed impressions. The creative space to be played with….just a shame.  

Theodore MacManus did what every writer wants to do. Pen an add that last well beyond its prescribed useful life. “The Penalty of Leadership” ad ran in as a response to a Packard ad. This simple black and white as has been republished and even mailed out to Cadillac owners. If you are not familiar give it a read.  “In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. Wheter the leadership be vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work. In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and the punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and detraction. When a man’s work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few. If his work be mediocre, he will be left severly alone - if he achieves a masterpiece, it will set a million tongues a -wagging. Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a commonplace painting. Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play, or sing, or build, no one will strive to surpass or to slander you unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius. Long, long after a great work or a good work has been done, those who are disappointed or envious, continue to cry out that it cannot be done. Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our own Whistler as a mountback, long after the big would had acclaimed him its greatest artistic genius. Multitudes flocked to Bayreuth to worship at the musical shrine of Wagner, while the little group of those whom he had dethroned and displaced argued angrily that he was no musician at all. The little world continued to protest that Fulton could never build a steamboat, while the big world flocked to the river banks to see his boat steam by. The leader is assailed because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal or to excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy - but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant. There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as human passions - envy, fear, greeed, ambition, and the desire to surpass. And it all avails nothing. If the leader truly leads, he remains - the leader. Master-poet, master-painter, master-workman, each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages. That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial. That which deserves to live–lives.” 

If you have not had a chance to see this spot head to http://www.walkofnoshame.com/. The insight on this was pretty interesting. I must admit I have had moments where I could directly relate.The real fun comes from the stories that are being added to Amp’s facebook page. Kudos to the the guys who developed this campaign.  

As well all try to bring hot ideas to our clients sometime we go too far and get a little thirsty and compromise authenticity for instant content.  

This is a question that I’ve have had rolling around in my head for a minute. Where are the personalities? The creative class has always been full of interesting personalities (No, bi-polar does not count as interesting) but recently the creative personality cold war has produced a bunch of carbon copies. On the other side of the house the charismatic face man/woman has been horse whipped out of existence. Have the account folks been reduced to waiters and note takers. Can any out there name some folks with some real swagger you know “That guy”? People who are appreciated for being smart not slick?

I am not one to rain on another man/woman’s parade but do you wish that all your media folks worked as hard on your plans as they did on getting tickets to concerts and the like? I mean, if the effort and energy put in to calling multiple reps and vetting seats boxes, open bars and previous gifting was directed into creating unique and interesting programs…wow the thought of it. (And here’s the disclaimer) I know a lot of hard working media folks and I know that they bust their asses but there are a couple of folks in every agency with hands like cups. Not cool man, not cool.

Has this happened to you? You’ve come up with a kick ass idea sold it to the account team and the client only to get to your production meeting and hear “and we’ve got the great set up for you” and see friggin’ lower grand. For the un-initiated it is the street in LA that has the crappy overhead florescent lighting and cut outs in the upper level. For some reason this combination is like catnip to production companies and auto advertisers alike. This is why I propose a ban on lower grand or at least a two year moratorium. Last time I checked there were over 5.5 million miles of paved road in the US.  Find a new location already.  - Buie