Macy's Buses College Students to Stores in Back-to-School Push


Macy’s is shuttling college students to its stores, as well as hosting a lip dub contest as part of its back-to-school campaign.

The department store’s campus outreach effort includes 15 schools, such as Florida State University, Boston University, Ohio State University and Texas A&M University. About 200 students from each school will be transported from campus to their nearest Macy’s. At the store, students will take part in a “shopping party” with musical performances, makeovers, food and gifts before returning to their campuses.

The push, dubbed the “Macy’s Campus Tour,” is designed to break the barriers that students may face in getting to a Macy’s without cars or access to efficient public transportation. It’s a move other retailers looking to lure the lucrative college crowd — the National Retail Federation predicts millennials will spend $913 million of their own money on school supplies this year — have made as well. Target has been busing students to its stores during back-to-college for 15 years and this year it’s visiting 36 campuses, for example.

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With Five Days Until Independence, Six Measures of Tribune Publishing's Future


It’s do or die time for Chicago Tribune and its sibling newspapers.

On Aug. 4, Tribune Publishing Co. will be on its own, after parent Tribune Media Co. hives off its print properties. While Tribune Media will remain privately held, the new publishing company will start trading the next day on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol TPUB.

Tribune Media is keeping the faster-growing broadcast business, including WGN-TV, and some of its most valuable assets, such as real estate gems like Tribune Tower. Meanwhile, Tribune Publishing, which includes the Los Angeles Times and Baltimore Sun, will be freighted with piles of debt and bleaker prospectsin a declining industry.

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Cheesecake Factory Blasted for Offering Unhealthiest Meal in America


If you want to indulge in Cheesecake Factory’s Bruleed French Toast, you’ll have to spend seven hours swimming laps to burn off its 2,780 calories.

Such a calorie count lands that dish — and two others from Cheesecake Factory — atop the worst meals in America, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest Xtreme Eating awards. In all, Cheesecake Factory has three meals that made the top nine. The french toast meal, which comes with a side of ham or bacon, has almost five days’ worth of saturated fat (93 grams), 2,230 milligrams of sodium (more than a day’s worth), and 24 teaspoons of (mostly) added sugar, according to CSPI, which tallies the worst meals each year. CSPI noted that “to put that load of sugar into context, the American Heart Association recommends a daily limit of nine teaspoons of added sugar for men and six for women.”

The consumer advocacy group this year has put into perspective how much time would need to be spent burning off some of the biggest offenders on the list, including the Cheesecake Factory’s Reese’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake Cheesecake — which has 1,500 calories and would “take four-and-a-half hours of aerobics to burn off.” according to the press release. The third offender from the Cheesecake Factory is the Farfalle with Chicken and Roasted Garlic. According to CSPI, “the pasta’s 2,410 calories and 63 grams of saturated fat (a three-day load) are what you’d get in five single-serve packages of Stouffer’s frozen Classics Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo, each topped with a pat of butter.”

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Shakira's Activia-Sponsored Music Video Vanquishes 'The Force' as Most-Shared Ad


Clicks don’t lie: There’s a new ad that’s become the most-shared of all time.

According to data released today by marketing tech firm Unruly, a music video that is also a commercial for yogurt brand Activia starring Colombian pop singer Shakira has generated 5,375,756 shares across Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere. That trumps Volkswagen’s 2011 Super Bowl spot “The Force” which clocked in with total shares of 5,372,945, according to Unruly.

The Shakira ad was released on May 22, which indicates that it took just over two months for it to surpass Volkswagen’s highly publicized ad. Unruly said that until Shakira’s ad came along, the charming spot featuring a child in Darth Vader costume held the title of most-shared for over three years by a margin of nearly 3,000 shares.

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New Siemens Ad Uses Sound of Wind to Showcase Energy Solutions


Siemens Corp. — the U.S. division of German manufacturing giant Siemens AG — debuted a new ad campaign last week called “Blue Danube,” which harnesses the sound of wind to showcase its wind energy solutions.

The campaign was unveiled at a town anniversary event in Ft. Madison, Iowa, where Siemens has a wind blade manufacturing plant. It includes TV, online videos and print ads, and features real customers and Siemens employees. The budget was undisclosed.

In the TV ad, which was created by Siemens’ agency of record Ogilvy & Mather, New York, in partnership with musician Will Bates, the sounds of wind are captured and transformed into a rendition of Johann Strauss’ “Blue Danube” symphony. The campaign is part of Siemens’ “Answers” campaign, also created by Ogilvy, which launched in 2007.

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Axe's 'Mix, Rake, Spin' Hairstyle Regimen for Guys: It's Yesterday's New Ads


Every weekday, we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new and trending TV commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, a company that catalogs, tags and measures activity around TV ads in real time. The New Releases here ran on TV for the first time yesterday. The Most Engaging ads are showing sustained social heat, ranked by SpotShare scores reflecting the percent of digital activity associated with each one over the past week. See the methodology here.

Among the new releases, an intergalactic space robot bent on global destruction makes a cameo appearance in Bud Light’s latest Whatever, USA spot, while Nascar driver and GoDaddy spokesperson Danica Patrick promotes the domain registrar’s Website Builder product (Kate Maddox previewed the spot and reported on GoDaddy’s continuing brand transformation yesterday). And Miller serves up a fresh 15-second cut of its “Most Wonderful Time of the Year” spot celebrating summer (it repurposes the classic Andy Williams Christmas song) that debuted on YouTube in May; a 30-second version has been running since June 23.

As always, you can find out more about the making of the best commercials on TV at Ad Age’s Creativity.

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Ask Media Guy Anything. Seriously, Anything


Editor’s Note: Ad Age’s “Media Guy” columnist, Simon Dumenco, is taking your questions — and giving out media swag — as part of the new Media Guy Mailbag series.

Each week he responds to reader feedback and is at the ready to answer your questions about media, marketing, pop culture, kittens, kitchen remodeling on a budget — anything, really.

So far he’s answered reader queries about the war between Amazon vs. Hachette, the Netflix available-all-at-once content-release model, his favorite thing in media right now and lots more.

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Adweek asked "what's the strangest thing in your office", got hilarious replies.

Adweek asked : “Agency folks, what’s your weirdest / most interesting piece of office decor?” and all of the adgeeks on twitter rushed to respond. I showed off the Smokey Sams.

TBWA Explores ‘Gas Station’ Fears for Nissan Sentra

TBWA Toronto has a new spot for Nissan Sentra that explores fears of filling up, horror movie style.

The 60-second “Gas Station” opens on a man arriving at a creepy, dimly-lit gas station. Soon the station comes to life, as the man is relentlessly attacked by the gas pumps, which also do a number on his car. Eventually, another man, driving a Nissan Sentra, comes to the rescue, beckoning him to hop in. This is followed by the message, “Don’t Fear Filling Up,” and boast of the Sentra’s “Better combined fuel economy than Civic.” In a spot that spends so much time on a ridiculous fuel-fearing message, you’d think they’d focus a little more than a quick flash of text on the Sentra’s fuel economy, but instead most of the 60 seconds are spent on building up unconvincing horror atmosphere. Stick around for credits after the jump. (more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Advil "construction worker" (20140 :15 (USA)

Advil takes care of the day’s pain even when it’s night and you’re asleep. Camera work shows our dude in question is a construction worker. Just once I wish it would be something other than a construction worker. They own all the pain commercials and truck commercials.

Country: 

Commercials: 

FITCH Promotes Alasdair Lennox to ECD

This morning brings news of several promotions within the creative department of London-based FITCH–most significantly, the agency promoted Alasdair Lennox, creative director and frequent conference speaker, to the role of ECD.

In his new role, Lennox will direct creative direction for four studios and a team of international creative and design directors.

Lennox first joined the agency as a designer way back in 1998, advancing to the position of design director before ascending to his most recent role as CD for Europe and Russia.

According to the release, he has “solved complex commercial and strategic challenges” for clients including Adidas and Apple.

The agency also announced the promotion of design directors Phil Heys and John Regan to CD roles in the London office; they will report directly to Lennox.

FITCH’s most recent campaign of note was a promotion for Adidas’ World Cup Identity.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Sketches for an Earth Computer

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Over the past few years, Martin Howse has been investigating the possibility to build a computational device that would not only be constructed solely from the earth but would also be embedded within the earth as a critical monument to human technology continue

You Won't Believe What Happens to These…Oh Who Are We Kidding…Watch These Apartment Renters Get Scared Sh*tless In Prankvertising Stunt

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Borrowing heavily from the Paranormal Activity and Saw movie franchises, Danish apartment rental company Lejebolig is out with a video which aims to reming people to use their common sense when renting.

Apparently, there are a lot of fake landlords ripping people off and that’s what this prank film aims to bring to light.

In the video, unsuspecting renters are taken to an apartment previously occupied by the now dead father of the landlord. Once the landlord leaves to let the potential renters check the place out, we get pictures that move by themselves, Billy the Puppet from Saw rising his tricycle, swaying lamps, a radio that turns on by itself and all kinds of other haunted house events.

Leo Burnett Tugs on Heartstrings for Ronald McDonald House

Leo Burnett gets emotional for Ronald McDonald House Charities with their new spot, “Dad’s Voice.”

The 60-second ad highlights the emotional impact of the charity providing home-to-home accommodation for families with a child in the hospital. “It’s only a voice, everyone has one,” a narrator intones at the opening of the spot. “But this, this is dad’s voice. Dad’s voice is, well, dad’s.” Going on to list some of the voice’s idiosyncrasies, the spot concludes, “Dad’s voice is the sound of home, even when they’re not at home.”

It’s a pretty straightforward approach, but it makes a real emotional impact, delivering on a relevant insight for the charity. It helps that the approach is tender without being cloying, choosing not to oversell the drama of the situation but rather sticking to what viewers can relate to. Stick around for credits after the jump. (more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The Tornado diverting machine

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The Tornado Diverter is a device built by artists Bigert & Bergström to intercept and stop a tornado. The sculptural machine radiates 100,000 negative volts and has the power to repel the positive charge of the tornado that causes twisters to touch down continue

Without Admitting Its Products Were Ever Bad, Johnson's Touts Reformulated Baby Products

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Without admitting the ingredients formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane, present in 100 of its baby products, Johnson’s Baby, which earlier this year began introducing reformulated products, is out with a delightfully fuzzy, feel good campaign touting the removal of those ingredients.

In essence, the brand caved to consumer pressure and reacted “solely to ease moms peace of mind” so says the press release.

Created by Light of Day Productions, a new two-minute video has Johnson & Johnson parents and their kids making 1,000 origami cranes filled with promises which are then hung from the ceiling.

While the ad acknowledges the fact ingredients were removed, it doesn’t really tell us that other chemicals replaced those that were removed. We’re no scientist and we’re not saying these new chemicals are bad…we’re just saying.

Check Out These Three Can't Miss Events During Affiliate Summit

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard of Clickbooth and their epic parties during ad:tech and Affiliate Summit. While continuing the tradition of the Affiliate Nation Mega Party, they are also thinking smaller with two limited capacity events during Affiliate Summit, held at the New York Marriott Marquis August 10-12. Here are the details on what they have planned for Affiliate Summit:

The cb:Black Event
What? Most exclusive Affiliates Only event in Affiliate Summit history
Who? Only 100 VIP Affiliates admitted. No Networks, No advertisers, No Newbies
Where & When?
Monday 8-11-14, from 6pm – 9pm
in the Jay Z Suite at New York’s hottest 40/40 Club
6 West 25th Street. New York, NY 10010.
11 minutes from Convention
Additional Sponsors: Voluum & RevContent
For more info and to request an invite: http://events.clickbooth.com/theblackevent

The Clickbooth & Limelight Event
What? Two of the largest powerhouses in the advertising world could come together to create a small yet powerful event.
Who? This is an event for the BIGGEST advertisers in the industry. Capacity is extremely limited.
Where & When?
Monday, August 11th 2014, from 6pm – 9pm
at Bagatelle – “NYC’s hottest lounge”
One Little West 12th Street, New York, NY 10014
18 minutes from Convention

For more info and to request an invite
: https://www.limelightcrm.com/events/bagatelle/

The Affiliate Nation Mega Party
What? THE Industry party. Twista is performing and we’re treating you to open bar all night!
Who? All conference attendees are invited. Be sure to RSVP and arrive early this event always hits capacity and has a line out the door.
Where & When?
Monday 8-11-14, from 10-2am
LQ Nightclub
511 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10017
6 minutes from Convention
For more info and to RSVP: http://www.affiliatenation.com/newyork2014/

The New Yorker Hires SS+K as AOR for Its 90th Anniversary

Few magazines have the staying power of The New Yorker. The Conde Nast publication is aiming to skew younger by creating a new website (seen above), and doing away with that dreaded paywall for a limited time. It has also hired SS+K as its AOR just in time for its 90th anniversary. Agency co-founder Rob Shepardson writes:

“There are few brands that we’d be more excited to work with than The New Yorker. For decades, it has occupied a unique spot in American culture as the gold standard for writing, whether reporting, commentary, or criticism.”

Following a review, The New Yorker determined after 90 years it was time to partner with an AOR; the classic rag joins the SS+K fold along with the likes of Wells Fargo, Starbucks, HBO & E*TRADE.

The New Yorker spent $22.7 million on measured media in 2012 and $19.5 million in 2013 according to Kantar Media. The magazine spent $2.7 million on measured media in the first quarter of 2014.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Not all documents are records

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The main theoretical question underpinning the project is: “Can photography be the site where the history of an exhibition is produced and still retain its independent artistic autonomy, thus overcoming pure documentation?” continue

W+K Portland Declares Kevin Durant ‘The Baddest’ for Nike

“I don’t want to talk about who’s the best. I want to talk about who’s the baddest,” says Dick Gregory, while chilling at a basketball court at the beginning of W+K Portland’s new spot for Nike, “The Baddest.”

After listing some historical candidates for “the baddest,” such as Connie Hawkins, Artis Gilmore, George Gervin, Spencer Haywood, and David Thompson, the spot goes on to make a case for Kevin Durant as “the baddest” right now, through video footage and a variety of testimonials. The well-edited 60-second spot also spends some time explaining what the title of “the baddest” means, with comparisons including “bad like a good Thanksgiving meal,” “bad like money” and “bad like black coffee.” It all makes for a fun, very watchable spot, regardless of whether or not you agree with Nike and W+K’s  choice for the title of “the baddest.” Stick around for credits after the jump. (more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.