Hasta La Creative!

LONDON – Gail Amber, one of Campaign’s best known journalists for a decade from the mid-70s, has died aged 62.

LONDON – Britain’s lowest priced DAB radio has gone on sale in Asda stores today (Monday) for £15 – half the price charged by many retailers.

Sally Hogshead writing in Ad Age says “there’s no such things as the idea.”

If you can break out of the mind-set that you have to create that one almighty concept, you can stay more open to client feedback, integrate other media platforms and forage outside of your comfort zone for creative thinking.

This is good advice. Too many times I’ve watched in horror while creative staff impaled themselves on a sword for their precious big idea. It’s not necessary.

What is necessary, is the inner knowledge that ideas are infinite and your ability to create them unparalleled. Get to that place and you’re free.

First email spam, now cell phone spam.

The New York Times has your hook up:

The fees that customers pay to receive messages are a source of profit for the phone companies. It is hard to estimate how much they make. Many consumers pay for a monthly plan that allows them to send and receive large numbers of messages. But for those without a plan, getting as few as 10 unsolicited text messages a month at 20 cents each would cost an extra $24 a year.

Communications companies say they are not interested in spam as a profit center. They want to one day exploit the power of customized advertising on mobile phones, and tawdry spam pitches threaten to make their customers hostile toward all commercial messages. The companies are trying to head off the

That’s just b.s. If they weren’t interested in this spam as profit, they wouldn’t allow it in the first place. Anyone who has had an accidental internet pay-per-use charge can tell you how unsympathetic the cell phone industry is to your plight if you get a message that links to a video of some sort that ends up costing you 400 bucks (he speaks from personal experience).
Plus, since regulators have had a tough time getting rid of email spam, I don’t suppose the vigilance for cell phone spam will be there. Phone companies already sell my information to interested parties, why should I take their word that *NOW* they’re not in it for profit but rather research purposes on the extent of customized advertising.

I love technology but all this meddling is making me want to find a cabin in Montana and start writing my manifesto. Preferably on a typewriter, which is immune to porn spam.

Spam spam sausage spam

Technorati Tags: mobile technology, cell phones, spam, stuff that sucks, Monty Python nerds

LONDON – Cadbury has appointed CMW (formerly Clark McKay and Walpole) with the digital account for Wispa following a three-way pitch.

Advertising Agency: Unitas/RNL, Santiago, Chile
Creative Director / Art Director / Copywriter: Pancho González
Illustrator / Photographer: Josefina Pro
Published: January 2008

When I was told I’d get ringside seats at One Show Interactive Ceremony on Friday night, I didn’t realize they actually meant ringside.

Toyota Prius respects the environment, proven here in billboard from Tiempo BBDO Spain that lets the tree behind it get some more space.

Agency : Tiempo bbdo
Andrés Martínez (Executive Creative Director)
Alberto Jaén (Creative Director)
Ricardo Pastor (Art Director)
Mayte Carabias (Agency Producer)

Media Rights Capitol, a content company backed by WPP, Goldman Sachs and AT&T has purchased the Sunday night slot from ailing CW network, which is jointly owned by CBS Corp. and Time Warner.

The Wall Street Journal says, it’s “unusual” to sell a stake in a block of prime-time programming to an outside entity.

Prime-time viewership on major English-language broadcast networks is down 9.6%, to an average of 8.3 million viewers this season, according to Nielsen Media Research. The CW is having a particularly hard time. The network’s season-to-date viewership is down 22%. It has attracted an average of only 1.1 million prime-time viewers on Sunday nights, according to Nielsen.

By buying into the broadcast-TV business, MRC is betting it can profit in a world where two-thirds of new shows don’t survive. MRC and the CW are planning to book two comedies and two dramas in the Sunday slot but declined to say what they would be. MRC says it plans to shift the CW’s target audience on that night from 18-to-34-year-olds to an 18-to-49 focus.

For more on MRC, see this New York Times article from over a year ago.

Do your research before you buy.

Advertising Agency: The Brand Agency, Perth, Australia
Creative Director: Craig Buchanan
Art Director: Rikki Burns
Copywriter: James Wills
Photographer: Thom Perry
Published: April 2008