Hasta La Creative!

One of the things we rarely see in consumer advertising is a back-and-forth message sparring between 2 brands. That’s why the political season is so fascinating to me. And while I’m not a McCain supporter, this is a pretty sharply written spot:

The ad above–Obama’s first of the general election–starts to air today in 18 states, including usual battlegrounds such as Florida, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and some traditionally Republican states where Obama hopes to make inroads, including Georgia, Montana, North Carolina, and Virginia.

“America is a country of strong families and strong values. My life’s been blessed by both,” he says in the ad. “I was raised by a single mom and my grandparents. We didn’t have much money, but they taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland where they grew up. Accountability and self-reliance. Love of country. Working hard without making excuses. Treating your neighbor as you’d like to be treated.”

Hillary Clinton is known to knock back a cocktail or two. Now with her campaign debts to pay off, Svedka vodka is helping out:

Now that she’s officially dropped out of the race, Svedka Vodka today will run a full-page ad in The New York Times offering a coupon that Clinton can redeem for a personal supply of the brand’s vodka for the remainder of the election season. In memo form, the ad will thank Clinton for making the primary season so exciting, said a Svedka spokeswoman. It’s part of Svedka’s “Join the Party,” marketing campaign, which parodies the traditional election by trying to elect a fembot named “Svedka_Grl” to the White House.

No word on whether Bill Clinton has hit on Svedka_Grl yet.

Are you hoping to see Obama and Clinton run together to beat back the Republican machine? If so, here’s what such a move might look like.

The image is actually an ad for Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, which claims to be a college and university in one. Clearly, they teach Advanced Photoshop there.

[via Copyranter]

Mike Smock has some strong opinions about the Obama campaign. Since the Ohio and Texas returns are coming in, this seems a good time to explore Smock’s thinking.

It’s interesting to see many in the marketing, advertising and creative communities lining up to support Barack Obama’s version of “hope”. Interesting because these are many of the same folks who peddle ‘hope” in the form of predatory loans to low income households “hoping” to own their own home, $200 sneakers to inner city kids “hoping” they will make them the next Michael Jordan, and lottery tickets to single moms “hoping” this ticket holds the key to her personal happiness.

In other words, the creative community likes Obama because he’s a promotable product (the collective) we can hang our dreams on.

What an incredibly cynical point of view.

Barack and his current cast of supporters do not have the skills or the experience to deliver his notion of “hope” any more than NIke sneakers can turn a “hopeful” kid into the next Michael Jordan. But most importantly, for all Americans with really great hopes and dreams for America – whether for strength, faith, prosperity, innovation, or service, Barack’s brand of hope is a cynical manipulation of the folks who need “hope” the most.

Cynical manipulation is tough talk from a cynic. But is it warranted?

I’ve seen Obama as a mainstream candidate from the beginning. A fact which prevents me from believing too deeply in his words. I too am a cynic, it seems.

At the same time, I want to believe. I want to know hope is not lost. I want to see cynicism put in its place. I want millions of smart people to honestly critique our societal ills and find creative ways to fix them. In short, I want to be an idealist again. Not a cynic.

From a purely marketing standpoint, Barack Obama has created the most sophisticated marketing campaign I’ve ever seen.

I think there are some lessons advertising agencies can learn from this. It’s the subject of my new column on Talent Zoo, which you can read right here:

Putting policies and positions aside for this discussion, Barack Obama has created the most sophisticated marketing program I’ve ever seen.

Decades of GM, Coca-Cola, and Proctor & Gamble efforts can’t compare to what this guy’s done in one year.

In the interest of full disclosure, yes, I donated a small amount of money to his campaign. And it gave me a window into a marketing operation that should be a case study in any college marketing textbook or agency account planning handbook.

Click the message above for more consumer-generated political advertising with a sense of humor.

Steve Novick is a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Oregon. He was also born without a left arm. That doesn’t seem to stop him much:

Nice.

According to The Washington Post, the coal industry is fighting for Mr. Peabody, even though his coal train long ago hauled it away.

In Kansas, where a state agency rejected a permit for two proposed coal plants, opinion polls show that roughly two out of three people opposed the plants. That sentiment, plus soaring construction costs and uncertainty about federal climate change legislation, last year prompted U.S. companies to abandon or postpone plans to build dozens of new coal plants.

The coal mining industry is fighting back. It increased the budget of the National Mining Association, the industry’s main lobbying group, by 20 percent this year, to $19.7 million. Last September, the industry also boosted the budget of Americans for Balanced Energy Choices more than fourfold. The roster of backers includes 28 companies and trade associations such as Peabody Energy, Arch Coal, Duke Energy, Southern Co. and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, has spent $1.3 million on billboard, newspaper, television and radio ads in Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina. The group has also deployed teams on the campaign trail; about 50 people, many of them paid, walked around as human billboards and handed out leaflets outside Tuesday’s Democratic debate in Nevada with questions for voters to ask the candidates.

Politics is a word-of-mouth business. Families discuss it over dinner. Colleagues over lunch. And increasingly, we turn to political communities on the interwebs for more “discussion.” Communities like Huck’s Army, a site run by 19-year old twin brothers.

According to Wired, Huck’s Army could turn out to be crucial for Gov. Huckabee’s campaign as it expands its territory; the campaign hasn’t had the finances to build its own official infrastructure throughout the 24 states holding primaries on Feb. 5.

So who are these new king makers? Brett and Alex Harris got started with online organizing in 2005 with Therebelution.com, a burgeoning Christian youth conference, blog and book-selling business. The boys define the term as “a teenage rebellion against low expectations of an ungodly culture.” Their message: Young people should reject the idea that their teen years are meant for goofing off, and instead find challenges to work on. Their book Do Hard Things, which grew out of a blog post on the subject, will be published in April.

Do Hard Things, huh? Is that kind of like, Just Do It?