Hasta La Creative!

LONDON – The Department of Health is launching a hard-hitting £2.2m ad campaign aimed at deterring the use of cannabis.

LONDON – What did the public make of Fallon’s latest ad for Cheestrings?

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 Week 8

Country, City:

Ireland, Dublin

[…]

After Go Daddy's execrable ad efforts around this year's Super Bowl, I found that I just couldn't stomach contributing anything to this organization any longer. I'm transferring my domains and my insignificant little piece of business elsewhere.

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) — Agency fees are the latest casualty in Anheuser-Busch InBev's quest to trim $1.5 billion in costs out of the world's largest brewer.

YORK, Pa. (AdAge.com) — By his own account, Brad Jakeman isn't much of a video gamer. So you might not guess that he was recently appointed to oversee all marketing for video-game giant Activision Publishing. But in fact, Mr. Jakeman said the newly created role of chief creative officer is right up his alley.

YORK, Pa. (AdAge.com) — This promises to be a year of contradictions in the toy industry. Even as video games and high-tech electronics permeate almost every aisle in the toy store, back-to-basics categories such as board games and building sets are seeing solid growth. It will be a year of playing to kids' demand for digital, even as their parents stage a retreat, both in budget spending and in a nostalgic bid for less-technological days gone by.

YORK, Pa. (AdAge.com) — Years ago, a video game's success was almost certainly sealed by a great gamer-magazine review and an enthusiastic audience of basement-dwelling 16-year-old boys. Ad buys? A smattering of print in the top video-game reads and, if it felt like a real blockbuster, maybe a screen-shot-laden cable TV commercial.

We chatted up with Kaushik Mitra, Senior Creative Director at Bates 141, on the recession and advertising creative…

As a Creative, what does recession mean to you?
I think the first thing it means to all of us is, ‘no raise’. It also means less spend on proactive initiatives which are done keeping an eye on the award festivals. But I’m hoping it will mean more time to mself.

Do you think the recession will force clients to think more innovative? (can you give examples?)
To be able to understand what clients might do in recessionary times, you have to first understand the recession itself.

Look, from whatever I have gathered from the media, this recession is serious. Much more serious than any of the slow downs we have experienced in our professional lives atleast.

In the west, it started off with too much credit being given to too many people. As a result many Americans have had to return their new flats, cars, and other expensive purchases. But this recession doesn’t just hurt the techie or the banker. It hurts the banks, many of whom have already gone in the red. It hurts the industry. Imagine, car makers trying to sell in conditions where car owners are actually returning their luxury cars or SUVs. It’s tough. Very, very tough, specially when you consider a huge number of families in India who are dependent on their children now settled in the US and UK.

Therefore, old people will suffer. They may still have enough to pay their essential medical bills, but they will not have money left over for a foreign holiday. Or a new car with driver to run errands for them.

I think the other set of people in India likely to be affected is the huge (some say, 300 million strong) middle-class. A lot of the young ones have made their bucks from the IT, tourism or the service sector revolution, which as industries are interconnected to the global economy. This set of new-age worker is unlikely to be buying premium cars and fancy HD televisions immediately. In fact, a few of them might even default on their home loans or car loans. Reports of farmer suicides are already getting overtaken by reports of techie suicides.

So in conditions like this, I see the car industry launching fewer cars, though there will be some desperate attempts to clear inventories. Tourism is already affected, and things may not improve. Definitely sectors like household electronics or anything else that’s remotely conspicuous will be affected first, as people generally try to postpone their high ticket purchases.

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Brand positioning is what this new contest launched by Quaker State is all about. Titled “The Worst Commute”, motorists log onto www.QuakerState.com and submit at 30- to 60-second video highlighting why they think they have the “world’s worst commute”, whether it be a route riddled with car-sized potholes or a trip that takes them through continuous construction.

Videos will be subjected first to peer voting; then, the most popular videos will be viewed by a panel of judges from Quaker State management and the Hendrick Motorsports staff, including Johnson himself.

The winner of the video-submission contest will receive a once in a lifetime ride to work with a very special chauffeur: Jimmie Johnson, only the second driver in NASCAR history to win three consecutive Sprint Cup Series championships.

“Not everyone’s idea of everyday driving is as severe as mine,” said Johnson. “The Hendrick Motorsports team has been relying on Quaker State technology for the past 12 years. Season after season we are provided durable racing motor oils needed to protect our engines, helping us to garner an astounding 126 race victories, and an even more impressive seven Cup championships.”

(Source) Press