Hasta La Creative!

South Carolina gets most of its visitors in the summer months. The South Carolina tourism office with the help of Greenville shop, The Bounce Agency wants to change that with a new campaign that specifically targets Chicagoans.

The Palmetto State’s “Time to Thaw” messaging doesn’t do much for David Gianatasio at Adfreak though.

The effort includes: 360-degree elevator wraps “that literally put passengers inside South Carolina locations”; phone kiosks in which the handsets have been refitted with conch shells; and a wall of hand dryers in the Grant Park North lobby that read, “Press button for warm South Carolina breezes.” There’s actually more, but why go on? It’s already too awful for words.

Newspapers and record companies are experiencing the awesome power of disruptive technology, but not like Polaroid.

image courtesy of Look Closer

According to The Boston Globe, Polaroid plans to make only enough film to last into next year before shuttering its factories.

Polaroid chief operating officer Tom Beaudoin said the company is interested in licensing its technology to an outside firm that could manufacture film for faithful Polaroid customers. If that doesn’t happen, Polaroid users would have to find an alternative photo technology.

Polaroid has already quietly halted production of instant cameras. “We stopped making commercial-type cameras about 18 to 24 months ago, and we stopped making consumer cameras about a year ago,” said Beaudoin.

Man, it’s deja vu all over again.

From Adweek:

L.L. Bean has placed creative chores on its ad account into review, a company representative confirmed.

Consulting firm Select Resources International, Santa Monica, Calif., will help conduct the search for the Maine-based retailer, sources said.

Our friend Dean Gemmell at BlackLabFive had some interesting things to say a few years ago about why a iconic brand like L.L. Bean would possibly need an ad agency in talking with the previous consultants:

If L.L. Bean motors through two above average agencies, would it not be wise for a review consultant to suggest a different approach? The agency model is quite effective for many marketers, but old L.L. may not be among them. I’m quite sure their marketing department could handle working with several shops on different projects to reach their many different — hikers, skiers, canoeists, suburban Moms who go for walks — demographic groups. What’s more, they’re a catalog company that sends me a big, multi-page ad called the L.L. Bean catalog at least once a month. Will another series of ads from another ad agency be the solution? Sweet Nadira even mentioned that an invited agency would need direct mail capabilities. Please, lead me to the agency that will show America’s venerable catalog retailer how to do direct mail.

The iconic VW van is 60 years old this year. DDB Paris is celebrating the fact with a poignant series of throwback ads.

[via Adland]

Today, Calvin Klein announced actress Eva Mendes will be comes the spokesperson for Calvin Klein Fragrances and will make her debut in the company’s 2008 Fall campaign. We like.

Get ready for an explosion of cute. Yes, GAP has announced the winners of its casting call contest which selected four kids from a pool of 20 finalists which were selected from a pool of 800,000.

According to The New York Times, Subway is inexplicably (as in pending lawsuit) pissed at Quizno’s because of some “derogatory” user-generated videos that depict Subway unfavorably. Must see to believe (scroll down to view the big offender).

Tyson Foods, Inc. has been touting its line of antibiotic-free chicken as part of a $70 million advertising campaign. But, competitive poultry producers are upset that the Arkansas-based company has been making false claims about its product.

Calling themselves the Truthful Labeling Coalition, Perdue Farms, Sanderson Farms Inc., Gold’n Plump Poultry Inc. and Foster Poultry Farms accused Tyson of displaying misleading advertising claims in violation of federal and state law and sent a letter to Tyson asking the company to pull its ads.

At issue is Tyson’s use of an animal medication called ionophores, commonly added to poultry feed to help prevent an intestinal parasite that can lead to lower body weight or death in poultry, causing economic loss to producers.

Last month, Tyson agreed to stop using a version of its antibiotic-free labels on its chicken products after the U.S. Department of Agriculture concluded it had awarded the label mistakenly, because the company was still using medication that it characterized as antibiotics. Tyson has also agreed to amend its advertising.

[via The Wall Street Journal]

Kansas City Star takes a look at Lee Jeans, a firm that ended its 18-year relationship with Minneapolis-based Fallon. The account is now at Arnold in Boston.

Lee is centered on a pull, not a push, strategy. In other words, the consumer dictates needs and Lee fulfills them.

Lee president Joe Dzialo said the company has undertaken extensive research to understand its customer, research that includes large-scale quantitative analysis and one-on-one interaction, including asking consumers about purchasing intents before and after trying on its jeans.

What Lee came away with is that its customer demands mostly middle-of-the road clothes with a bit of style that are reliable but that most importantly resolve a litany of fit issues confronting its customers’ ever-changing — and often challenging — body shapes.

For instance, many women the company queried complained of jeans “gapping” at the back. So Lee now has a line of jeans that have a wide yet discreet elasticized band in the back. There’s also a line that includes a panel in front that provides a slight pull-in effect.

For both men and women, Lee and other brands have added a “stretch” element to their jeans that “give” at key points, although Lee marketing vice president Liz Cahill said men’s products are positioned as being “flexible.”

“You can’t say ‘stretch’ to men,” Cahill said.

I’m taking note of this story, primarily because we often read about and talk about how companies need to improve their product and that better marketing flows from there. Lee could be a case study for this idea.

You gotta love a CEO that falls in love with his own product to the exclusion of all else. In a NYT interview Steve Jobs calls the Macbook Air the most elegant of Apple’s computer designs, lavishing affection even…