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The Super CriticsThis column is being posted less than 3 weeks before Super Bowl XL. Just think how appropriate the Roman numerals seem to be this year. Because in the ad industry, the Super Bowl is always an extra-large sized serving of hype, hope, craft and crap. Scrubbing Bubbles and Flubbing CeosWhen William Perez was unceremoniously dumped at the CEO of Nike after only a year on the job, speculation was rampant that he didn’t fit in with the Nike culture.
But as was mentioned in BusinessWeek, Perez committed a greater sin: He didn’t get the ads. Living in the Echo ChamberOver the past few weeks, quite a number of ad people and press people have turned their attention to the new Volkswagen campaigns being put out by Crispin, Porter & Bogusky. Since expectations are so high, it’s quite a hot spotlight for any agency or campaign to be in. **this Column is not Valid in Indiana"The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away." -- Tom Waits
Someone recently asked me what the official rules are for legal marks and disclaimers.
“Is it OK to put an dagger right next to an asterisk? Because if you have 2 separate disclaimers, you can’t just put 2 asterisks side by side because it would be confusing, right?” 7-layer AdsI once worked on a boutique hotel account. Every month or so we’d send a PDF of a few different ads to the general manager that he could choose from. Then, we’d get him on a conference call to present and explain the ads.
He’d usually like our work, but invariably, during the call, he’d put us on hold. To go show the ads to the concierge. He trusted the concierge’s opinion. One time, he took a poll of the entire front desk staff. Safe, Shit, and Everything Else That HappensIt’s amazing that, in this age of warp speed pop culture and instant blogosphere controversies, media events of nearly 4 weeks ago are almost forgotten. But two of them popped up concurrently that are still on my mind.
I’m talking about the movie “United 93” and the Volkwagen Jetta “Safe Happens” campaign made by Those Dudes In Miami. The movie and the ad campaign have quite a bit in common, I think. This Column Brought to You by People for StuffToday, I plan to ask the oil companies what I can do help them. Yep, it’s on my to-do list, because right now there’s a commercial airing, full of ordinary citizens looking to oil companies for guidance and thought leadership during this period of energy instability. I guess I wouldn’t be a good American if I didn’t comply. This Land Was Hand-crafted for You and MeAs this column is being posted close to July 4th, it occurred to me that if there’s anything as American as baseball and apple pie, it’s advertising.
Oh, I’m sure the Egyptians may have thrown a coupon in with all their hieroglyphics. And the ancient Greeks probably had some sort of corporate sponsors for their comedies and tragedies. We Americans, however, have made self-promotion a national institution. The Interactive GhettoI recently ran across a classified ad from an ad agency that’s so highly regarded they rarely have to advertise to find people.
The ad was odd. Here’s a snippet: “We are not looking for someone who thinks ads are the end all be all. Or who are really just trying to get their foot in the door of the (DELETED) advertising creative department. What we are looking for is a writer's writer…They must be wildly creative. In other words, a bright, articulate visionary.” Headon--and Production Values OffBy now, you’ve no doubt seen the commercial for a headache remedy called “HeadOn.” To most advertising creatives, it’s the epitome of a bad spot. It defies everything we’ve ever believed goes into a great ad. It’s monotonous, repetitive, and poorly filmed and edited. And after you’ve finished watching the spot, you’re still not exactly sure what the product is, or what it does. Hardback Books and Hard TruthsIf you look on the web at advertising agency websites, you’ll notice that every agency has its own manifesto.
Some take it a step further: their manifestos are printed in hardback and available at Borders. The Consumer is not a Moron. or Am I?After nearly 150,000 miles, my car is finally starting to act like a decrepit senior citizen. Time to start thinking about a replacement. With no particular car I really want, I’ve become an impressionable customer, open to looking around.
So here I am now, playing Mr. Target Audience. But am I too jaded to pay attention to car ads? When you work in advertising, can you ever really turn off the work valve and act like a true consumer? Does advertising work on you? The Tale of RetailRetail-wise, it’s been an interesting month in my city. Trader Joe’s in. Tower Records out.
Since quite a lot of transplants live in my city, Trader Joe’s has been a long time in coming. It’s not the biggest grocery store, nor it is the cheapest... Be Borat or be BoringI once had a client who made exurban starter houses. Our audience was first-time homebuyers, people who’ve saved and budgeted and are ready to make an investment. When an ad I wrote referenced the term “401(k),” our client said, “A lot of our customers are truck drivers and schoolteachers. Schoolteachers don’t know what a 401(k) is.” Coming from a family of teachers who’ve built up some nice pensions, I most assuredly knew our client was mistaken about the savvy of her customers... Righting the WritingI once had a client who e-mailed me some copy—not for any specific ad, just some would-be headlines and paragraphs to stick in somewhere. Looking at the e-mail header closely, I realized she forwarded me something her college-aged son had written.
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