What role did slavery play in the shaping of modern nations, and how is its legacy impacting contemporary thought and policy? These are important questions for Americans, but also for South Africans, and people from scores of nations who have committed crimes against humanity. They’re the kind of questions that might be answered in a […]
The June 16, 1976 Uprising that began in Soweto and spread countrywide profoundly changed the socio-political landscape in South Africa. Forty years later, Soweto’s first craft brewery is paying tribute to the student rebels of ’76 with Soweto Gold ’76, a limited-edition lager that was matured in Jameson Irish Whiskey casks for 76 days, achieving […]
The Syrian Civil War and its aftermath is one of the great humanitarian disasters of our time. Since the beginning of the war, millions of Syrian people have fled their homeland. Their escape route has been as tragic as the war itself. More than 4000 Syrian refugees have died while trying to cross the Mediterranean. […]
The National Park Service turns 100 on August 25, 2016. To encourage a new generation of visitors to the parks, Grey NY created the following “Find Your Park” campaign.
Let’s look at the Always brand Super Bowl spot again. It’s a spot that takes chances by taking a stand, which naturally irks a few people, while working to inspire others. Writing for The Week, Elissa Strauss explores whether or not feminist-inspired advertising is a bad omen for women’s rights. Should we be celebrating the […]
Homelessness is certainly one of the more dramatic issues of our time. When using communications to address the issue, there is no need to complicate the matter or get in the way of the message. Thankfully, none of that artifice is present here. To raise awareness of the 93,000 homeless people all over the United […]
When I grew up, gun violence had yet to rear its ugly head in our schools. Frankly, I can not imagine how scared American kids are to go to school today, to say nothing of the fears of their parents. As the two-year anniversary of the Newtown tragedy on December 14th approaches, Moms Demand Action […]
RPA and Honda have conjured up some terrific animated videos to help promote three worthy causes this holiday season. The videos feature favorite nostalgic toys such as Gumby and Pokey and Skeletor and He-Man singing their renditions of familiar or newly created holiday tunes. Each video has a charity associated with it. The video that […]
Holiday Inn’s new all-digital campaign, “Journey to Extraordinary,” seeks to tell captivating stories that bring the customer journey into focus. Before you say, “Oh great, another customer testimonial,” consider that customers prefer to hear from one another, and that the brand’s job in “building community” today is all about enabling these interactions. Okay, let’s meet […]
Today is Veteran’s Day in The United States. Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans, while Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving.
Sadly, too many of our living veterans are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, alcohol and drug addiction, domestic violence, poverty and homelessness. Veterans like Joe Wolf in Grand Rapids, for example.
Serving 400-500 individuals daily, Dégagé Ministries offers help and hope to homeless and disadvantaged individuals in the Grand Rapids community.
If you’d like to help people like Joe Wolf live a happier and healthier life, consider a donation to Dégagé Ministries. They’ve raised $21,845 of their $30,000 goal at this time. Perhaps a tide of particularly generous AdPulp readers can lift a few more boats.
For the record, I don’t know anyone at Dégagé Ministries. I simply like the testimonial approach and the idea that we’re not really seeing homeless people for who they are, nor who they’re capable of becoming with a little help.
An American icon is vanishing. Thankfully, a Japanese car company with the help of RPA in Santa Monica, is doing something about it.
Starting at 10 a.m. Pacific time today, Honda will use its Twitter page to conduct an auction hosted by celebrity film critic Leonard Maltin. Proceeds from the auction will benefit Project Drive-In, Honda’s community service campaign to help a handful of drive-in movie theaters make the expensive transition to digital projection.
To participate in today’s auction, bidders can Tweet the title of the item, the bid price and apply the hash tag #DriveInAuction. The highest bid at the close of the auction wins. The auction concludes at 2 p.m. PT.
Alicia Jones, Manager of Honda & Acura Social Marketing says the use of Vine and Twitter to showcase the auction items makes sense because, “We want to leverage a medium where people are already talking about #SaveTheDriveIn.”
Here’s the problem: digital projectors can cost $85,000 plus installation, which most of the remaining 368 American drive-ins cannot afford. Sadly, failure to convert to digital will cause most of these drive-ins to cease operations. Which, as American car drivers and movie lovers we know to be wrong.
To contribute to this cause, visit the campaign’s IndieGoGo page. So far, $35,000 has been raised via this channel, which is $65,000 short of the goal.
Digital disruption is more than an annoying ping in your pocket, and it’s not all good. Take the situation facing hundreds of drive-in movie theaters around the nation–if they fail to upgrade their projection equipment to the tune of $75,000 per screen by the end of the year, they will no longer be able to show first-run films.
Clearly, this is a problem in need of a solution and I for one, am pleased to see a progressive-minded brand step-up with an innovative solution.
Project Drive-In, a newly launched national effort sponsored by Honda to save as many drive-ins as possible, is raising community awareness across the nation, and will supply at least five drive-ins with digital projectors.
“Cars and drive-in theaters go hand-in-hand, and it’s our mission to save this decades-old slice of Americana that holds such nostalgia for so many of us,” said Alicia Jones, Manager of Honda & Acura Social Marketing at American Honda Motor Co.
I’m marveling at the perfect fit here. This is precisely what a car company ought to do and Honda is doing it, with help from RPA in Santa Monica.
As part of Honda’s fundraising efforts, there will be an online auction that features tickets to the Los Angeles premiere of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 as well as additional film-related merchandise.
Honda will also launch pop-up drive-ins at Honda dealerships across the country to help raise awareness and build a groundswell of support, featuring a free screening of the first Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs film.
Lord knows I’ve had things to say about awards shows and their questionable judging, but this time I truly believe The One Show got it right.
Congratulations to McCann in Melbourne for their effort on behalf of safety on Metro Trains called Dumb Ways To Die. It was awarded Best Of Show at The One Show awards, held earlier this evening.
It’s been six months and I still can’t get this song out of my head. Nor do I want to. This is one of those “Damn, I wish I did that” campaigns, and I rarely say that these days.
Last week, I posted some contrarian views on Dove’s “Real Beauty Sketches” idea. Writing in Forbes CMO Network, Will Burns leaps to the defense of Dove and smacks down the criticism of the video, calling the criticism “ugly” and “absurd.”
Burns is off the mark here with his characterizations. There’s nothing ugly or absurd about the reaction to Dove’s advertising idea. When people feel a personal, visceral reaction to an advertising idea and express that opinion, it’s terrific. Even if someone misinterprets an idea or projects their own feelings onto it, it’s still valid, as advertising is a subjective art. It means we as advertising people have touched a nerve, and hopefully it leads to productive discussion. There aren’t any mass boycotts, protests in the street, or violence related to this Dove campaign. That would be “ugly” and “absurd.”
Encouraging discussion, positive and negative, is something more brands should aspire to.
It’s no surprise that brands which have emphasized a belief system or aspirational messages — Dove, Nike, Apple, Tom’s Shoes, Chick-fil-A, Whole Foods, and many others — have found themselves the object of criticism. Any business practice or customer experience that seems to be contradictory to the ideals professed in the advertising or marketing gets a closer look.
As consumers, and as marketing people, we criticize because we love. We criticize because we care. We want brands and companies to live up to the values they preach.
Hunger in America. These are words that ought to be incomprehensible to us, but sadly they’re not. For 1 in 6 people in the United States, hunger is a reality.
In a nation that grows as much food as we do, this rate of hunger is a crime. Yet, we have no Hunger Police to round up the perps. So, we’re left to do what we can through direct service, charitable organizations and corporate concerns.
Care of Colle+McVoy in Minneapolis, Land O’Lakes new “Pin a Meal, Give a Meal” promotion encourages people to share recipes on Pinterest. For every Land O’Lakes meal pinned, the company will donate $1 to Feeding America. Miraculously, this one dollar provides eight meals to those in need.
a href=”http://www.americaspower.org/”The coal industry/a has a new spokesman–America’s next President, Barack Obama.
Without a doubt he said we can find a way to make it work. However, I doubt he knew he’d become a centerpiece in an ad campaign that’s bound to infuriate a href=”http://thisisreality.org/”the environmentalists/a who voted for him.
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According to The Wall Street Journal, Groove Armada signed a comprehensive one-year deal with spirit company Bacardi.
The two DJs will be the main act at Bacardi-sponsored concerts in six venues from Miami to Athens. Andy Cato and Tom Findlay also will produce records that Bacardi can use as background music for its global television-ad campaigns.
As well as making and performing music at Bacardi’s “B-Live” concerts, Groove Armada will take part in a yearlong fly-on-the-wall television documentary and produce six radio shows — all about the life and travels of Messrs. Cato and Findlay.
Their goal? Convince Americans that high-fructose corn-syrup isn’t the evil it has been made out to be.
The group is running full-page ads in more than a dozen major newspapers around the country saying its product is no worse for you than sugar. And what an argument that is. I’m sure they’ll go far with that pearl.
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.
