According to The New York Times, Unilever, which makes the margarine spread I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, has been running Spraychel Webisodes since 2005. Unilever’s digital media agency, Story Worldwide, created the Spraychel campaign.
David Griner, writing on Adfreak (despite the fact that he now works for an agency in Alabama), points to some nice work from Mercedes’ agency Abbott Mead Vickers in London. Josh Brolin stars in the spot above.
There’s something very Cadillac–and theatrical–about this new campaign.
According to Ad Age, Converse commissioned reclusive Strokes’ frontman, Julian Casablancas, to help celebrate the brand’s 100th birthday.
The home of Chuck Taylor is hoping a new song, “My Drive Thru,” featuring Mr. Casablancas, Pharrell Williams and white-hot indie songstress Santogold, can renew the century-old shoe brand’s status as the indie music scene’s footwear of choice.
Geoff Cottrill, chief marketing officer for Converse, said “My Drive Thru” ties in comfortably with Converse’s heritage of aligning with the independent minded. “We call them optimistic rebels,” he said. “They’re the core of what our brand stands for — being an advocate and catalyst for creativity. … We wanted these guys to come together, create a piece of music and share it with anyone who wanted it.”
Added Mike Byrne, executive creative director for Anomaly, Converse’s creative agency of record, “I think by having Pharrell produce the track, we knew we would get something that wasn’t hip-hop or pop or rock. This year is the Converse century, and we’re definitely celebrating our heritage of challenging the status quo in art, sports and fashion. It was a nice ode to all the people who helped build this brand.”
Unfortunately, I can’t locate the song on the Converse site. However, Stereogum is taking care of business.
The New York Times points to the downside of celebrity endorsement.
Christian Dior, the French fashion brand, has become the latest global company to learn a hard lesson about the danger of offending Chinese pride.
Facing the possibility of a boycott of its products, the luxury company said on Thursday that it had dropped the American actress Sharon Stone from its advertising in China after she suggested last week that the recent earthquakes in Sichuan Province were karmic retribution for Beijing’s treatment of Tibet.
Ms. Stone said last week during the Cannes Film Festival: “I’m not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else. And then the earthquake and all this stuff happened, and then I thought, is that karma?
If Stone knew what she was talking about, then I’d say we all better get under the table and brace ourselves, for very few humans are truly kind.
Back in the day, I used to find myself at Denny’s late night, after a Dead show. So, when I learned that Denny’s is supporting emerging bands with it’s new All Night Diner campaign, I took note, for seldom do promotions fit the brand this well.
The program called “Adopt-a-Band” provides free meals, promotional support, and concert after-parties (at Denny’s locations) to adopted bands on tour across the U.S.
Michael Polydoroff, Denny’s director of sales promotion and licensing, told Billboard:
“In value driven times, we know that bands obviously need to eat. We felt good about being able to offer support and have people out there drumming up support. We looked at a myriad of bands, posted on Sonicbids.com back in March and worked with Filter to narrow down the list. We were looking for great brands who have a huge online following and who will work hard for us.”
There are six adopted bands at present. They are: EndeverafteR (Razor and Tie), Forever The Sickest Kids (Universal Motown Records), Foxy Shazam (New Weathermen/Ferret Music), Saving Abel (Virgin Records), Switches (Interscope) and Take The Crown (Rise Records).
Every two months six new bands will be “adopted” and added to the site.
See Denny’s All Night Diner MySpace page for more.
[via BFG Blog]
Coolspotters is a new site that caters to the celebrity and brand obsessed. Pepsi is running ads under an exclusive argreement. Tech Crunch is saying nice things. And the firm’s CEO is blogging.
Coolspotters is new. The launch is beta. Features will come and go, parts of the site will change – all of which will be the result of feedback and ideas that we receive directly from you. Things on the site might even occasionally break. The point of all of this is: we will be working constantly to improve your experience.
Brier Dudley from the Seattle Times says, Coolspotters is “an outrageously materialistic online shopping/celebrity/social networking venture that could make a bundle for its Seattle investors.” He adds, “It’s like a reality TV show that leaves you wondering if the producers are being ironic.”
Might you look good in Reece’s hair? According to Media Week millions of women are answering that question, and others like it, at InStyle.
The magainze’s “Hollywood Hair Application” has caught on. Users have uploaded 1.7 million of their personal photos to the application, which let’s them see what they might look like with popular celebrity hairstyles – such as Katie Holmes’ much-discussed bob.
To date, users have conducted 40 million “try-ons†with the application – which last month became available on Facebook as well. That application has already been installed on over 200,000 Facebook profiles.
InStyle is also planning to launch a weekly, celebrity-related video series sometime in the fourth quarter, after the recent success of a content initiative which drove readers to InStyle.com to view original video material.
Since Steve Hall is busy attending panels and such at South By, I thought I’d offer up a post in his honor.
In PETA’s latest bid to arouse interest in the many sexy alternatives to leather, adult film icon Jenna Jameson — donning a black wig and pleather bikini — evokes screen siren Bettie Page in a sin-tastic and pro-synthetic new PETA ad called “Pleather Yourself: Discover the Pleasure of Pleather.” Jameson recently unveiled the new campaign — shot by top celebrity photographer Gavin Bond — as part of Los Angeles Fashion Week.
“I’ve worn a lot of pleather in my life,” says Jameson. “Anybody who knows me knows that I’ve kind of lived half my life in it. I love the idea of having choices outside of leather. The outfit that I’m wearing in the ad is so sexy that I suggest if people want to have a better time in the bedroom — then please explore the pleather side.”
According to The Wall Street Journal, celebs, like agencies, are looking for a cut of the action these days.
Rather than a straight annual endorsement fee for doing a TV spot or slapping their picture on a magazine ad, some celebrities and athletes look for deals that offer a bigger piece of the action.
Rapper 50 Cent recently received a windfall when Coca-Cola Co. bought Energy Brands Inc., the maker of the Glacéau line of waters, including Vitaminwater. The hip-hop star, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, had bought a stake in Energy Brands and personally endorsed a drink called Formula 50 that the company named after him.
The article also looks at Ellen DeGeneres. A pet fanatic and the owner of two dogs and three cats, Ms. DeGeneres bought an estimated 15% stake in Halo, a high end pet food line owned by Pegasus Capital Advisors LLP, a Greenwich, Conn.-based private-equity firm. DeGeneres will also appear in the brand’s advertising.
Ukranian tennis star, Alona Bondarenko, appears suggestively in the new K-Swiss ad campaign.
So what’s with the headline? It’s almost as if the brand is saying, “Hey, this is a tennis star, not a sex object.” Except they’re not.
Toth Brand Imaging is behind the work.
One may purchase this image on a t-shirt thanks to the good people at Wire & Twine.
[via Merlin Mann’s Tumblr page]
Soul singer, Joss Stone, is working with Cadbury’s Flake brand to reinvent a classic campaign from the 60s and 70s. In the new adverts — which will be available on Cadbury’s site — Stone will be in a recording studio singing to herself the chocolate bar’s iconic strap line, “only the crumbliest flakiest chocolate.”
[via Ad Age]
Kings of Leon have coughed up their song “Red Morning Light” to Ford Motor Company, which is using it to sell the Ford Focus–a car I can’t see the Tennessee rockers driving.
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.
