EBay has embarked on a global agency pitch for a rebranding effort, Ad Age has learned.
While eBay isn’t looking for an agency of record, it’s on the hunt for shops to support a global brand project, according to people familiar with the matter. Media is part of the scope, but creative is center stage, they said.
The company has already made a round of cuts and a handful of large global agencies are competing for the business, the people said. EBay did not respond to a request for comment.
Following the recent launch of a New York Metropolitan Transit Authority campaign for a Queens-based plastic surgeon, Howard Glaser, aide to New York Governor Cuomo issued a stern letter to the MTA urging the authority to revisit its advertising standards.
In the letter, Glaser wrote,”Tens of thousands of children ride the transit system every day to go to school. The MTA is a public conveyance, subsidized by $190 million annually in the state budget, plus over $5 billion in dedicated taxes. The public has a right to expect that the MTA will strive for a family-friendly environment.”
The MTA initially defended the ads then back peddled. On Tuesday, MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg said,”The MTA understands the concerns that Governor Cuomo and other parents have raised about this advertisement and about maintaining a family-friendly environment on our trains and buses. We will revisit our standards for advertisements and our process for reviewing them.”
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with boob jobs or cleavage but Glaser does have a point. Do children really need to be subjected to the sort of suggestion that they are somehow inferior if they don’t have bulging cleavage like the woman in these ads? Kids have enough to deal with. There’s no need to add to the pile.
Já pensou poder mandar os blocos se movimentarem para construir uma determinada estrutura, fazer uma ponte ou até mesmo levantar paredes? Não é feitiçaria, é tecnologia! 🙂 Os M-Blocks, criados por cientistas do Laboratório de Inteligência Artificial e Ciências da Computação, no MIT, são cubos robóticos, controlados remotamente, que possuem bordas magnéticas e um ‘volante’ interno, que gira para fazer com que as peças possam ‘voar’ e se encaixar (magneticamente) em outras.
Esse volante, tecnicamente chamado de ‘roda de reação’ (reaction wheel) pode girar em até 20 mil RPM, e quando para de supetão, faz o bloquinho se encaixar em outro bloco mais próximo. Quanto mais rápido essa roda girar, mais o bloquinho consegue ‘pular’ para a direção correta, como no GIF acima. Se o giro for mais lento, a mudança de local é mais sutil, como na imagem abaixo.
De acordo com John Romanishin, cientista responsável pelos M-Blocks (de ‘Momentum blocks’), a intenção é desenvolver ainda mais esta tecnologia, fazendo com que cada bloco possa ter ciência do outro ao seu redor e da ‘peça’ da qual ele faz parte. Com isso, não seria impossível colocar um punhado de blocos no chão e programa-los para que se transformassem em um determinado objeto ou arquitetura.
Por dentro dos M-Blocks
Entre as propostas desses ‘bloquinhos transformers’ está melhorar a velocidade da construção civil. Eles poderiam ser programados para rapidamente se transformarem em uma ponte ou um abrigo, o que poderia ser muito útil em áreas devastadas por desastres naturais.
Pensando no nosso cotidiano, a mesma tecnologia poderia ser implantada na mobília das casas, e montar um móvel seria algo como desempacotar as peças e apenas aguardar que elas se ‘auto-montassem’. Praticamente um Lego automático.
Que atire a primeira pedra quem nunca gastou alguns preciosos minutos de seu dia assistindo a algum vídeo no YouTube protagonizado por bichinhos fofos. A boa notícia é que, graças aos criativos da MARS, Colenso BBDO e Finch, agora é possível assistir e compartilhar uma sequência inteira de filhotinhos adoráveis e, de quebra, ainda poder usar a desculpa que é por uma boa causa: ajudar o Pedigree Adoption Centre.
Em meio às imagens de cãezinhos de diferentes raças e tamanhos, o narrador avisa que só de assistir ao vídeo, o público já está ajudando a levantar fundos para cães necessitados. A explicação vem a seguir: se um vídeo torna-se viral, seus criadores recebem do YouTube parte dos lucros dos anúncios.
De certa maneira, os criativos souberam aproveitar bem o sofativismo, aproveitando o desejo que algumas pessoas têm de ajudar, mas que nem sempre chega às vias de fato. Pelo menos um clique no botão “compartilhar” está ao alcance dos dedos.
Have you heard how millennials have forsaken all manner of verbal communication in favor of texts and tweets? And that the best way to market to them is through cat pictures and ironic memes? So have I. And I don’t buy it.
The stereotype is that this generation is lazy and entitled. They’ve lost the art of eye contact and a firm handshake. But I say it is marketers who are lazy, for this prized demographic of 25-to-34-year-olds doesn’t respond just to digital campaigns or social-media exchanges: they also care deeply about authentic human connection.
Studies show that millennials are the most likely of any age group to make a research-and-purchase decision the old-fashioned way — by talking to someone. They are most likely to call a business from a digital advertisement.
(TrendHunter.com) Taking on the ultimate flower girl persona from the hippie 60s, Suki Waterhouse stars in the airy and vibrant L’Officiel Singapore April 2014 fashion editorial.
This week, Toby Gunton, head of innovation at OMD, develops “ideas beyond media”, competes with Idris Elba and concedes that media lunches are the best in adland.
Team One runs through a list sins encouraged by the Lexus F performance line in their new spot, “Temptation.”
According to the 60-second spot, the Lexus F, “Provokes lust, unleashes wrath, incites envy, and elicits pride.” Absent are two of my personal favorites, sloth and gluttony, which Team One decided (understandably) don’t really do much to sell luxury performance vehicles. Greed is skipped over because they’re trying to get people to shell out a lot of money for a car here.
The spot, slickly produced by RSA, does a better job of tying the vehicle to certain sins than others. Lust is embodied by a couple making out in the rain, after which the Lexus F happens to exit a garage, not doing much to show how it “provokes lust.” Oh wait, it’s because the guy stops making out for a second to check out the Lexus F. Ugh. The rest of the sins are dealt with a bit better, with “unleashes wrath” tied not to actual anger but the car’s power, and envy and pride dealt with in more obvious ways. Perhaps most importantly, “Temptation” makes the Lexus F look good, even if its concluding line, “Temptation comes in many heart-pounding forms, but only one letter” is a bit weak. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…
Netflix should probably start checking the rear-view mirror. Amazon has grown from a non-player in video to a significant one as more users adopt its Prime Instant Video subscription streaming service.
Amazon’s online video service actually overtook Apple months ago. Now the company has leapfrogged Hulu to become the number-three streaming video service in the U.S., according to a measure of online video consumption performed by Qwilt, a firm that helps Internet providers deliver online video to consumers.
Amazon remains a long way behind leaders Netflix and Google’s YouTube, which retain 57.5% and 16.9% respectively. While Amazon accounted for 3% of online video consumption in March, but that’s up from just 0.6% a year ago. And with a recently unveiled connected-TV device and increasingly aggressive TV-and-movie acquisition strategy, the e-commerce giant is on an upward trajectory.
In perhaps the most entertaining talk given during Advertising Week Europe (or any conference for that matter), Bob Hoffman, legendary ad man and author of the Ad Contrarian ad blog, said marketers are bullshit artists who can’t be trusted. He claims they have been wrong about almost everything that has happened in the last ten years.
In his talk, entitled The Golden Age of Bullshit, he debunks the whole “advertising is dead” thing with these things called facts, things that seem to simply annoy and distract pundits, prognosticators and gurus regarding what’s really happening out there.
Best insight: “Every square inch of the fucking planet is covered in advertising and these schmucks are telling us it’s dead.”
But the net of his talk is very positive. Advertising is a live and well. Even TV which continues to grow despite those who said the DVR would kill it.
Another great quote: “The theory that people want to engage with brands online and share their enthusiasm with their friends and that their friends will share their enthusiasm with other friends through social media channels has turned out to be an infantile fantasy.”
With fact after fact after fact, Hoffman debunks ten years of bullshit that marketing prognosticators have barfed up and marketers have quickly ingested as if all that puke were the most delicious Kool Aid ever created.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
