The Stark Truth of Wealth Inequality

A must-see myth-shattering video.

Read more on Adbusters.org

Turner’s David Levy ‘Embarrassed’ TV Everywhere Still Has So Far to Go


It’s going on four years since Comcast and Time Warner proposed TV Everywhere, the initiative that calls for TV programming to be available on all kinds of devices — so long as the viewer is a paying subscriber to a video distributor. And since that time cable executives have been hailing it a savior for the industry amid new kinds of competition.

But with 5 million zero-TV households nationally, according to Nielsen numbers, and the threat of Netflix and its ilk only growing, industry executives are now lamenting that the effort still hasn’t taken hold with consumers.

“I’m embarrassed,” said David Levy, president of sales, distribution and sports at Turner Broadcasting System, during a panel about TV at the 4A’s conference in New Orleans. “Turner has been at the forefront of TV Everywhere from the start… and the challenge is this: It’s an awful consumer experience. You have some media companies in — some that are on this panel — some that are not.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Orbit white: Coffee

Don’t take your coffee stains everywhere you go.

Advertising Agency: Gitam BBDO, Tel Aviv, Israel
Executive Creative Directors: Shani Gershi, Danny Yakobowitch
Creative Director: Ida Markowitz Twig
Art Director: Shira Shayevitz
Copywriter: Alon Hadad
Executive Client Manager: Dror Tankus
Client Manager: Keren Bachar Amitai
Planner: Roni Weisfelner
Account Manager: Adi Schechter
Production Manager: Noga Sagi
Producer: Aviv Lahav
Illustrator: Yinon Zinger

Three waves of revolt

Where do we aim our fists to strike a death blow to capitalism’s body?

From Adbusters #106: Mental Breakdown of a Nation


ALBERT IAN / RP

Where do we aim our fists to strike a death blow to capitalism’s body?

Muscles and Heart

The traditional Marxist answer, embraced by insurrectionaries from Bakunin to Occupy, is to hit the processes of production by going on strike. The total worker’s strike is the dream, once hauntingly imagined by socialist novelist Jack London, of the scales overturned: the rich starving in their mansions while the workers sit idle. The strike strikes at the heart and muscles of capitalism by threatening the system with the paralyzing withdrawal of our collective labor. But the transformations wrought by post-industrial capitalism, combined with decades of organizing for a grand defection that never materializes, have tattered the strike’s proud flag. The last generation to pull it off was the heroes of 1968, who instigated the first-ever wildcat general strike before flaring out.

Brains and Mind

A newer answer urges us to end economic bondage by abolishing debt. Debt, this argument goes, is modern day slavery. Unrepayable debts shackle most of us to the manic-depressive cycles of capitalism, while a decreasing number of men grow increasingly rich. Accordingly, two post-Occupy tactics make debt the bullseye. First is the debt-strike tactic, like the student loan debtors who collectively refuse to repay their loans. Second is the movement to strike debt, like the recently launched Rolling Jubilee. This project, conceived by Adbusters in 2009 and pulled off by a maverick affinity group of Zuccottis in 2012, buys distressed debt for pennies on the dollar – and then forgives it. Like the traditional strike, both angles of debt resistance target the system of production, now epitomized by Goldman Sachs rather than Ford. But such tactics also, as Friedrich Nietzsche and more recently David Graeber have argued, undermine the powerful social and moral bonds that enmesh us in the system. Anti-debt activism thus strikes simultaneously at the material and the ideological: at capitalism’s brains as well as its mind.

Lifeblood and Soul

Between old and new, a startling third answer emerges from Silvio Gesell, a rediscovered anarchist economist from the early 20th century. Gesell urges us to aim the death blow at money – at its immaterial, immortal status. In all financial systems since ancient times, money has been granted the magical and exclusive right never to grow old. And when money is deified in this way, it will always result in economic depression. The rich hoard while the poor starve … money grows scarce, people spend less, workers can’t find jobs because possessing immortal money in a bank is always and in every way preferable to possessing material goods in a warehouse. So why not secularize money? Cast it out of heaven, return it to the mortal realm!

At the peak of the first Great Depression, a hard-hit small town in Austria did just that. Modeled on Gesell’s proposal, each bill of Wörgl’s currency lost 1% of its value every month. Now that there was a powerful incentive to spend locally and quickly, the town experienced an economic miracle: within months Wörgl was thriving, unemployment was nonexistent, and major development projects were paid for and completed. When over 200 communities moved to introduce their own Wörgl-style currencies, Austria’s central bank declared the Gesellian currencies illegal and a threat to the authority of the State. Deprived of its magic money, Wörgl fell back into economic depression and unemployment.

Today, more than seventy years after Wörgl’s experiment, Gesell’s idea for a demurrage currency – a money that loses value with time – is coming back into vogue. Influential economist Bernard Lietaer, author of The Future of Money: Beyond Greed and Scarcity, proposes a global demurrage currency called the “terra”. On the web, internet renegades are developing the Gesell-inspired Freicoin, a digital money based on Bitcoin. And in Bavaria, Germany, financial insurrectionaries have launched the chiemgauer, a bill that loses 2% of its value each quarter and has been hailed as the most successful local currency in the world. These bold new initiatives target the circulatory system of capitalism, draining its lifeblood and its very immortal soul.

So shall we strike the muscles, the mind, or the lifeblood of capitalism … or all three at once? Rekindling the wildcat strike, abolishing debt, and dethroning money, the last god of Western civilization – these could be the triple waves of a tsunami that flattens capitalism for good.

Micah White and Chiara Ricciardone

Corona Extra: Drink responsibly

It’s no surprise that blurry vision is a side effect of alcohol. And the fact that cinema isn’t used very often in advertising is also an important factor. How many premiers happen each year, and how many people attend them to view every small detail of their favourite director’s latest work? All of these facts inspired our idea: editing the first minute and a half of a film, so that the clip appears blurry. The tension amongst the viewers is obvious, until everything comes together into one clear message “Drink Responsibly”.

Advertising Agency: JWT Spain
Executive Creative Director: Jaime Chávarri
Creative Directors: Paco García, Pablo Rodríguez-Meyre, Iván De Dios
Art Directors: Alejandro Lobo, Francesco Minopoli
Copywriter: Álvaro Gónzalez
Released: January 2013
Producers: Luciano Firmo, Pablo García / Arklin Producciones
Film Editors: Miguel Donaire, Rebeca Fernández
Corona Extra Account Director: Anja Hoehne
Corona Extra Account Supervisor: Ana Múgica

Kim Weisswange: The Scent of Time Calendar

Advertising Agency: Kolle Rebbe, Germany
Head Perfumer: Kim Weisswange
Managing Director: Björn Schröder
Executive Creative Director: Sascha Hanke
Creative Director: Markus Hammer
Copywriter: Max Wort
Art Director: Dennis Schlüter
Consulting: Maike Recker, Daniel Priess
Production: Martin Lühe

GEOlino: Meltdown

GEOlino, the German science magazine for children, wanted its young readers to experience the effects of global warming. Not with dry-as-dust theory, but in a completely child-oriented way. That’s why we’ve developed MELTDOWN – the first board game that melts. The aim of the game is to take a polar bear family from the permanent ice floes to safety on the mainland. It’s a race against time, as the way leads across real, slowly melting ice floes, which children can make themselves with the accompanying mould, a bit of water and a freezer compartment. The chunks of ice are arranged on a blue polar sea sponge to form a small Arctic. The sponge is used as the game board and absorbs the melted ice at the same time. Now you can start saving polar bears. MELTDOWN makes children experience the effects of global warming in a playful way. Without any wagging finger – just one hand to roll the dice.

Advertising Agency: Kolle Rebbe, Germany
Executive Creative Director: Sascha Hanke
Creative Directors: Thomas Knüwer, Rolf Leger, Tom Schoeps
Art Direction / Design: Rolf Leger, Thomas Knüwer
Text: Oliver Ramm
Producer: Martin Lühe
Account Manager: Philipp Kukemüller, Katrin Becker

Fox The Walking Dead TV: Shooting Posters

Advertising Agency: Loducca, Brazil
Creative: Alex Adati, Gregory Kickow, Marcelo Rosa, Patrick Matzenbacher, Rafael Beretta, Raphael Franzini
Creative Director: André Faria, Cássio Moron, Fábio Saboya, Sérgio Mugnaini
General Creative Director: Guga Ketzer
Account Executive: Fabiane Veiga, Paula Ventura, Anna Paulino
Creative Executive Producer: Ana Luisa André, Sid Fernandes
TV Producers: Karina Vadasz, Indaiara Pelizario, Filipe Rodrigues
House Producer: Reclame
Illustrator: Gregory Kickow, Rafael Beretta
Client Approval: Carol Scholz de Camargo, Victor Barbieri

Noah’s Ark: Lion Tamer

Nigeria is the first African nation to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Sadly, we are yet to win a Cannes Lion, or put a dot on the map of The Gunn Report. This is the first series of ads in a larger campaign aimed at nudging the West African industry on the need for better global rating.

Advertising Agency: Noah’s Ark, Lagos, Nigeria
Executive Creative Director: Lanre Adisa
Creative Director / Illustrator: Abolaji Alausa
Associate Creative Director: Yemi Arawore
Head of Design: Ariyo Bamidele
Art Director: Solomon Osafile
Copywriters: Seyi Owolawi, Lekan Akinyele
Illustrators: Solomon Osafile, Karo Akpokiere
Published: March 2013

Noah’s Ark: Gunn Report

Nigeria is the first African nation to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Sadly, we are yet to win a Cannes Lion, or put a dot on the map of The Gunn Report. This is the first series of ads in a larger campaign aimed at nudging the West African industry on the need for better global rating.

Advertising Agency: Noah’s Ark, Lagos, Nigeria
Executive Creative Director: Lanre Adisa
Creative Director / Illustrator: Abolaji Alausa
Associate Creative Director: Yemi Arawore
Head of Design: Ariyo Bamidele
Art Director: Solomon Osafile
Copywriters: Seyi Owolawi, Lekan Akinyele
Illustrators: Solomon Osafile, Karo Akpokiere
Published: March 2013

Braincast 54 – Stanley Kubrick

Na semana passada, o dia 7 de março completou mais um ano em que um dos maiores criativos de todos os tempos deixou saudades. Foi nesse dia, em 1999, que o pensamento de qualquer amante e interessado em arte se resumia a “Nunca mais veremos um filme de Stanley Kubrick”.

Na vida era reservado, fugia de publicidade. Nos filmes era extrovertido, pronto a transgredir convenções e se tornar, a cada nova obra, um dos mais brilhantes diretores da história. Nesse Braincast especial, discutimos a vida e obra de Stanley Kubrick, qual foi o seu significado para o cinema, e o quanto ele influenciou (e continua influenciando) toda uma nova geração de contadores de história.

Carlos Merigo, Saulo Mileti, Guga Mafra e Alexandre Maron conversam sobre os clássicos de Kubrick, suas interpretações pessoais e cenas preferidas de cada filme e, também, como podemos usar seu processo criativo como inspiração.

Faça o download ou dê o play abaixo:

> 00h02m20 – Comentando os Comentários
> 00h15m50 – Infância e referências
> 00h19m35 – Início da carreira profissional
> 00h24m46 – A Morte Passou por Perto
> 00h28m36 – O Grande Golpe
> 00h30m50 – Glória Feita de Sangue + Spartacus
> 00h42m14 – Lolita
> 00h45m50 – Dr. Strangelove
> 00h53m04 – 2001: Uma Odisséia no Espaço
> 01h03m52 – Laranja Mecânica
> 01h25m30 – Barry Lyndon
> 01h29m20 – O Iluminado
> 01h40m50 – Nascido para Matar
> 01h45m10 – Inteligência Artificial
> 01h48m20 – De Olhos Bem Fechados + Curiosidades + Considerações finais

Links: O ponto de fuga de Stanley Kubrick / No banheiro com Stanley Kubrick

Recadinhos da Paróquia: ÚLTIMA SEMANA para se matricular no workshop9 “Design: origem, funcionalidade e princípios da estética” em Belo Horizonte, clique aqui.

Críticas, elogios, sugestões para braincast@brainstorm9.com.br ou no facebook.com/brainstorm9.
Feed: feeds.feedburner.com/braincastmp3 / Adicione no iTunes

Quer ouvir no seu smartphone via stream? Baixe o app do Soundcloud.

Brainstorm9Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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Trailer for Sims 3 University Life Reenacts Popular Photo Memes

There's nothing new about marketers trying their hand at popular Internet memes. But Electronic Arts takes a pretty clever stab at it in the new trailer for The Sims 3 University Life expansion pack. The video uses in-game footage of college Sims to reenact the Lazy Senior and College Freshman photo memes, along with two that are less college specific—Overly Attached Girlfriend and the classic Ermahgerd. Over on Reddit, where most meme fodder is generated these days, the response to the trailer has been surprisingly positive, considering the level of hate that gaming Redditors typically reserve for all things EA, which most recently bungled the highly anticipated launch of the new Sim City with insufficient servers. But it's always hard to direct a significant level of rage against The Sims, which has been reveling in self-aware cheesiness for more than a decade.

Why All Brands Need to be Real-Time Marketers

oreo_momdelez_sxsw_2013.JPG

In a rousing SXSW Interactive pop-up panel hosted by Expion and moderated by Advertising Age’s David Teicher, the subject of real time marketing was discussed. On the panel were Mondelez VP of Global Media and Consumer Engagement Bonin Bough, Oreo Senior Associate Brand Manager Steve Doan, Expion Chief Innovation Officer Albert Chou, 360i VP of Emerging Media David Berkowitz and Vayner Media Co-Founder Gary Vaynerchuk. Held at Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar on 6th street, the panel shared theories and practical advice for brands navigating the ever-quicker stream of media that now rules our daily lives.

The fact the panel was held at Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar was apropos. To see Bough and Vaynerchuk share a microphone was both comical and practical. Comical because the two couldn’t comment enough on each other’s commentary. Practical because had each had their own microphone, it would have much like, well, a pair of pianos dueling each other.

Doan began by explaining that nine months ago, OREO made a concerted effort to figure out how to communicate with consumers “in a new social space.” The brand realized there was a huge opportunity to engage with millennials instead in addition to the brand’s core audience of moms. And social media was the perfect place to do so. While Oreo certainly did plan to engage during the Super Bowl, much to the chagrin of conspiracy theorists, the brand did not pull the plug at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome

Bough pointed out that brands must have the “willingness to prepare” for events that may present opportunities to engage with customers. Learning how to respond in real time will be an important new skill for brands to master and fear must be left at the doorstep.

To the point that brands must be willing to engage, Berkowitz noted that if everyone involved with a brand marketing team isn’t on top of large live events that may present opportunities to engage, “odds are you aren’t doing your job.” It was also noted the the mentality of the campaign is still far too ingrained in the minds of marketers. There is no beginning, middle and end any longer. While planning will always play a role — Berkowitz shared that his team had several “dry runs” in advance of the Super Bowl — brands have to be nimble and ready to act on a moments notice when an opportunity presents itself.

Vaynerchuk joked he had some real time marketing ideas for the Super Bowl as well but didn’t receive approval until two days after the game. Bureaucracy doesn’t fly in what has become an extremely faced paced practice.

When Teicher mentioned the lemming-like roundup of “best uses of realtime media at the Oscars, Vaynerchuk jumped in and made note, “This world is predicated on campaigns and f%$king winning awards in France – dumb shit that doesn’t matter.” Vaynerchuk argued that much of the “real time” content brands posted during the Oscars did far better from a sharing standpoint (retweets, etc.) than the average activity those brands see on a daily basis. In his mind, those brands, even though they weren’t Oreo’s Dunk in the Dark, over-performed compared to a brand’s baseline.

Bough agreed with Vaynerchuk saying “number matter, dude” and urged brands to take note of “the cultural moments around which we know conversations are going to happen.” Bough’s point speaks to the controversy surrounding real-time marketing. Purist believe for marketing to be real-time, there should not be preparation. More practical marketers realize a little preparation — even if it comes in the form of Twitter image templates — isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it’s just smart.

On the broader topic of brands creating content akin to the content media companies create, Vaynerchuk argued owned media is a platform every brand should adopt, if not, at least explore, because brands should no longer have to “rent with dollars” space from other media in the form of banners, print ads or TV commercials. As content marketers already know, brands do not need to rely on media companies to spread their content.

Bolstering Vaynerchuk’s point, Bough argued skeptics of so-called “non-working media” (owned, earned) should ask themselves what Oreo-related content they recalled from the Super Bowl, the ad or the Dunk in the Dark real-time ad. By far, the discussion surrounded “non-working media” which all the panelist agreed is a pretty stupid term to describe something that actually works.

In terms of Big Data management, something the panelists acknowledged is extremely important when managing real-time marketing programs, Chao explained the Expion offering. Hey, it was a sponsored panel. You think these things happen for free? Anyway, here are the eight points behind Expion’s Real Time Marketing Technology:

1) Flow – Identify all relevant activity streams
2) Integrate – Connect all streams with common topology
3) Find – Search for topical conversations
4) Influence – Determine the importance of the conversation
5) Relevancy – Is the conversation important to the brand
6) Alert – Notify the right marketer to engage
7) Frame – Provide a snapshot brief of the conversation underway
8) Engage – Brand engages with relevant content at the right moment

So, yes, just months after real-time marketing became a “thing” –although Bough would argue he’s been doing real-time marketing since he worked on Gatorade four years ago — there is a process and technology to make it all happen.

But that’s not the important take away here. The most important issue the real-time marketing trendlet has brought to the forefront — much the same way Twitter and other social media did — is that the campaign is dead. The notion a brand can neatly package an on-brand message with all elements predetermined is flawed thinking in a world where reacting in seconds can make or break a brand’s perception.

It will most certainly not be easy for brands to make the transition to a real-time mentality. It’s just not the nature of things in a corporate world with layers of bureaucracy and endless approval cycles. But in a world where brands don’t control what’s being said about its products, let alone even be able to define it, there really is no choice. Brands have to move at the speed of social conversation. No, they don’t have to join – or even acknowledge every conversation — but they do have top have a clear handle on what’s being said and have a plan in place to act quickly if need be.

That’s all realtime marketing is. Having the ability to think and move faster than ever before. We son’t get there overnight but we will. We have to. The greater public’s already there. There’s really no choice but for brands to get their RTM act together. Yes, I did just say that.

Google and Adidas Unveil a ‘Talking Shoe’ at SXSW


Ready for your shoes to judge your lazy butt? Google has you covered. The company, along with Adidas, unveiled “The Talking Shoe” at SXSW this week. It tracks your speed and performance — and more disconcerting, gives you aural props or smack on how you’re doing, from a microcontroller-connected speaker on the shoe. The sneaks also use Bluetooth to sync up with a smartphone and, in a refreshingly conversational tone, will give you words of encouragement, or advice to slow down and grab a snack.

Of course, you’ll be able to share what your kicks say and what you’re doing on the social web. Google told Engadget that it doesn’t plan to actually sell the sneakers, although it is considering making the technology open source.

The shoe is another piece of wearable tech from the makers of Google Glass, and is part of Google’s “Art, Copy & Code” initiative, which reimagines advertising. The initiative has already resulted in “Smileage,” a mobile app from Volkswagen that makes driving social (below.)

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Harley-Davidson mostra como um homem de verdade começa seu dia

Você pode assistir o comercial e pensar que é assim que se começa o dia feito macho ou “like a boss”, mas a Harley-Davidson optou pelo oximoro “Parfaitement trop” para representar a intensidade que o dono de uma moto da marca sente. Uma expressão que pode ser traduzida livremente como “perfeição em excesso”.

A criação é da agência canadense Cart1er.

Harley-Davidson

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Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade: ‘I’m a Role Model’


Dwyane Wade may not be playing in the upcoming March Madness tournament, but he’ll sure be visible in it. The Miami Heat player stars in new commercials for Unilever’s Dove Men+Care that break tomorrow and run throughout the series. The games bring back memories of former glories for Mr. Wade, whose triple double (one of only four in NCAA Tournament history) propelled Marquette past Kentucky into the Final Four.

But in an interview with Advertising Age, Mr. Wade said the most important thing to him is his family, a point he’s glad to make in Dove’s ads and in his book “A Father First: How My Life Became Bigger than Basketball,” published last year. It recounts his well-publicized custody battle for his sons.

He does see himself as a role model. And, yes, he said he really does use Dove Men+Care — a lot.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Street Marketing Alive And Well At SXSW

TaskRabbit-Car.jpg

With SXSW getting bigger and bigger each year, it’s interesting to see which marketers will stand out from the crowd. Often times, it’s the little things that seem to capture attention best. At least in our opinion.

Last year, mobile parking app ParkMe placed fake paper boots on the wheels of cars all over the city of Austin to call attention to its app. It got a lot of buzz and the app is quite successful one year later.

This year, task app TaskRabbit has tricked out a vehicle to make it look like, well, a furry rabbit. With so many people out and about in the city traversing the city to attend panels which have now grown well beyond the confines of the Austin Convention Center, the streets are prime space for marketers to hype their offerings.

We’re quite sure we’ll see more examples of this as the week progresses.

Photo Credit: Mashable

Lucky Charms Enters Augmented Reality


Forget tornadoes. Try chasing hearts, stars, horseshoes, clovers, hourglasses, blue moons, rainbows and tasty red balloons.

In its latest push to lure adult consumers, Lucky Charms cereal is putting its own twist on storm chasing with an augmented-reality app that allows users to pursue virtual marshmallow treats at the end of Lucky the Leprechaun’s rainbow.

The General Mills brand is teasing the game with this video below that will launch Wednesday on YouTube’s gamer-focused Machinima channel.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Telegraph’s chief executive Murdoch MacLennan outlines restructure

Murdoch MacLennan, chief executive of Telegraph Media Group, yesterday informed staff about the company’s restructure, in a letter and later on the company’s intranet system, which included details about the loss of 80 “mostly print-based” editorial jobs, and an £8 million investment in “digital’. The letter is reproduced in full below.

Melbourne International Comedy Festival: You’re Not Funny

Advertising Agency: Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, Australia
Executive Creative Director: Ant Keogh
Art Director: Ant Phillips
Copywriter: Richard Williams
Agency Producer: Sevda Cemo
Strategic Planner: Matt Pearce
Managing Partner: Paul McMillan
Account Director: Tim Clark
Senior Account Manager: Kelly McBride
Director: Brian Aldrich
DOP / Cinematographer: Germain McMicking
Editors: Jack Hutchings, Michael Lutman / The Butchery
Flame Artists: Daniel Benjamin / Method Studios
Production Companies: Furlined, Finch Company
Post Production Companies: The Butchery, Method Studios
Sound Engineer: Paul Le Couteur
Sound House: Flagstaff Studios