Hasta La Creative!

Who better to market an all metal smartphone than a superhero with a metal smart suit.

Phone manufacturer HTC has signed “Iron Man” actor Robert Downey Jr. for a two-year, $12 million marketing campaign, according to Bloomberg. “Anyone with a penchant for metal should be able to appreciate its appeal,” said a coy Tom Harlin, HTC’s director of public relations.

Mr. Downey’s persona perfectly aligns with the company’s recent attempts to increase its ad spending and embrace an irreverent underdog image in the wake of market share loss. On-screen, Mr. Downey frequently portrays brash, quick-talking characters. Off-screen, he’s had the kind of career resurgence HTC hopes to replicate in the smartphone market.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

The “Hamlet” President.

From Adbusters #108: The Epic Human Journey: Part 2, Summer

JONATHAN ERNST / REUTERS

In this scary historical moment we’re living through, the world cries out for a visionary, transformative leader… someone who has the gumption and guts – like Franklin D. Roosevelt did in the aftermath of the 1929 crash – to shift paradigms, demolish sacred cows and move the nation in bold new directions.

In his election campaign, Barack Obama signaled that he could be that kind of a President, but as soon he entered the White House, the Washington establishment, the military-industrial complex, Big Finance, Big Pharma, AIPAC, the NRA – that whole corrupt money system of lobbyists, patronage and kickbacks, the revolving door that rules Washington – chewed him up and spat him out again.

After that he was never able to summon the courage to take a stand on any of the big issues. He never brought the torturers to justice, never got Netanjahu to blink on the settlements. He hasn’t closed Guantanamo or made Wall Street pay. He was never able to harness the power of the people behind him cheering him on.

He will go down in history as the Hamlet president, the “to be or not to be” pontificator who could never quite make up his mind… never quite seize the moment and act. Too bad for America… and the rest of us.

The NBC show was an ambitious effort to mimic the breadth of “60 Minutes,” but it never generated much of an audience. Friday was its last night.

When everybody knows everything about a subject, except you.

Once in a while, you stumble upon a conversation on a topic you know absolutely nothing. To avoid being left out or seeming ignorant, we introduce the Blah Blah Blah Generator. An app that will get you trough any conversation with fast, shallow, embarrassment-free phrases. We help you to fake it until you make it.

Advertising Agency: Filadélfia, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Creative Director: Dan Zecchinelli
Art Directors: Paulo Filipe Souza, Lucas Queiroz
Copywriter: Deborah Vasques
Illustrator: Paulo Filipe Souza
Project Manager: Hely Lopes
Film Production: Alterosa Cinevídeo

(TrendHunter.com) Photographer Billy Kan’s lovely series ‘In a Zone’ features Geshia girl fashion and serene scenery. This stunning series is set in and around a bamboo cabin in the middle of a lush…

TV chef Paula Deen apologized for using racial slurs in a 46-second video on YouTube Friday afternoon, capping a week that included a skipped “Today Show” appearance and a poorly-recieved explanation about growing up in the South.

“I want to apologize for everybody for the wrong that I’ve done,” Ms. Deen said in the video statement.

“Inappropriate hurtful language is totally, totally unacceptable,” she added.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

David Dinsmore has been promoted to editor of The Sun, succeeding Dominic Mohan who takes a newly created role as strategic advisor across Europe for the new News Corporation.

Hollie Rapello who pens the Why Moms Rule blog took it upon herself to examine female representation on Cannes Lions Juries. Overall, there are just 70 women serving on juries as compared to 248 men, a 22% representation.

Only one jury, Creative Effectiveness, has equal representation with 8 men and 8 woman.

The juries with the least number of women include Mobile with just one women to 12 and both Innovation and Film Craft with just one woman to nine men each.

While women have certainly made inroads in the marketing and advertising space, it would seem this is not fairly represented in jury make up. When upwards of 70% of household spending in controlled by women, according to The Boston Consulting Group, it would seem all that more important to have women included in the judging of work that is developed to reach them.

As a senior editor at Newsweek, Mark Coatney helped build the magazine’s Tumblr page, earning a following with his chatty and often irreverent posts. Early on, for instance, he breezily asked readers not to expose his Tumblr activity to his boss, then-Newsweek editor Jon Meacham.

When he left Newsweek to join Tumblr itself as its media evangelist in 2010, becoming just its 12th employee, Mr. Coatney took on introducing all kinds of companies to the fledgling platform and teaching them how to use it to better connect with their readers. By the time he decided to leave, Mr. Coatney had helped launch 650 Tumblrs for brands — including nearly all of Conde Nast’s Tumblrs — as well as nonprofits, government organizations and individuals (like Beyonce).

This week, Mr. Coatney told readers of his personal Tumblr page that he was leaving, making him the second early employee to depart since Yahoo struck its $1.1 billion deal for the company (Tumblr Creative Director Jacob Bijani announced his resignation less than two weeks after the Yahoo deal in May.)

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Sixteen UK agencies and production houses have bagged 38 Film Craft Lions nominations between them, topping last year’s 30 shortlisted entries from nine agencies.