Hasta La Creative!

Contract disputes can be a pain especially for chosen endorsers and in this case, actress Uma Thurman sued Lancome regarding an advertising dispute. Apparently, the French cosmetic giant has made quite a profit from using her name and likeness despite the lapse of the contract between the two.

Many people would care less if such a boom would be evident. But in this case, Lancome continues its advertising ways despite the end of the contract with Thurman which the latter resented. In the world of showbiz, you have to honor your contract. If not, expect heads to roll. Such is a familiar face in the world of advertising and promotions.

The “Kill Bill” star said in her lawsuit that Lancome Parfums et Beaute & Cie boosted its worldwide sales and enhanced its “prestige, stature and bargaining power” by helping retailers and others use her name and likeness in advertising and promotions after her contract expired.

The suit seeks $15 million in damages.

(Source) The Associated Press

Technorati Tags: uma thurman, advertising, promotions, lancome, cosmetics

For those of you who are not sports fans, you may not know the awesomeness of one Charles Barkley. As a player in the NBA he played above his capabilities to be a dominant power forward in a small forward’s body. As a commentator on TNT, he is honest and forthright without any niceties.

As a pitchman for T-Mobile his commercials with Dwayne Wade are funny and bring out his personality.

Technorati Tags: T-Mobile, NBA, National Basketball Association, Turner Network Television, TNT, Dwayne Wade, Charles Barkley, Live Television, I’m Ron Burgundy?

In a nutshell, advertising doesn’t have to be sophisticated. There is a belief in some companies that the more high-tech your advertising campaign is, the more attention you will get. This may be true but not all people are appreciative of sophisticated display advertising.

Remember that advertising aims to attract the masses towards your product or service. It doesn’t matter if it is basic or simple. What remains is the fact that most people today have varying tastes towards taking notice of advertising campaigns set loose today in the various mediums.

Simple advertising works to the advantage of people but in the end, it still depends on how you can make your product or service become a need towards people in their daily needs.

“In order to really move into large masses of advertisers, display advertising has to be easier and simpler,” said Ajay Agarwal, managing director of Bain Capital Ventures. “Google did this with search advertising. We think the same thing has to happen with display.”

(Source) Wall Street Journal

Technorati Tags: http://www.beyondmadisonavenue.com/

I’ve never been a die-hard fan of much of the Axe creative – some is pretty stellar, and others just don’t quite hit me right. But this newest spot/website for Axe Canada is stellar, and just a bit different than much of the past Axe work.

Simple, not over the top (over the top for Axe, that is), a simple website, and a contest to win a trip to the Axe Cottage. What more could a guy want? Be sure to check out the website for more video clips and to enter the contest.

As far as advertising is concerned, we all know that before the Internet came into the picture, television advertising was the premier advertising tool that most companies turned to. Today, the same trend continues but thanks to the aggressive change in online advertising, we see some companies now thinking twice on which medium to invest on.

Many are saying that Internet advertising is now killing the usual TV advertising. Some would disagree since there are still some groups who do not rely that much on web investments. The Internet is indeed powerful and more saturated but what is holding back companies right now is determining how much of their target market are glued to the web and how many watch actual television these days.

In the aftermath of the writer’s strike – and with ever-increasing competition from the Internet, cable channels and digital video recorders – primetime network television isn’t the all-powerful medium it used to be.

That erosion of power will be in evidence over the next several weeks when the networks host their annual “upfronts” – gatherings where TV executives attempt to persuade advertisers to buy ad time by showing off previews of the upcoming fall season.

(Source) CNN Money Fortune

Some people say it’s all about the packaging and presentation. Sometimes it’s true. To promote their causes, the Surfrider Foundation & Saatchi LA gathered trash at local beaches, packaged it, labeled it, and placed it at local farmers markets. A fairly powerful message from a simple juxtaposition. Sure, the concept isn’t exactly brand spankin’ new, but it’s done effectively, reaching a different (and untapped) demographic, raising interest, and sparking discussion.

Creativity Online has a really nice video showing the process and the market booths along with peoples reactions.

Check out all of the pieces at Osocio.

As far as advertising is concerned, getting the message across is one thing but considering the logical intelligence of the viewing market to which it is aimed at penetrating is another. In short, there are some advertisements that really do not care if their ad campaigns make sense or not. A simple word or two is all that matters for endorsing companies, normally terms that associate their brand to the consumer’s mind.

But while imagery is one thing, it is apparent that there are a lot of ads that do not make sense at all. Some call them wasted money and opportunity while others look at simply creating an image towards placing brand awareness for products and services.

With these tactics in mind, many people will agree, is it really for strategic management or plainly for conning people into intellectual proportions on the whole advertising paradigm.

We all have our personal advertising bugbears. I am frequently dumbstruck by the portrayal of young men as henpecked morons, perennially outmanoeuvred by their vastly superior girlfriends. And I can’t be the only person bothered by the ambulance-chasing personal injury adverts – the “no win, no fee” propaganda packs of the compensation culture.

(Source) theblog

Technorati Tags: advertising, brand, paradigm, imagery, money, brand awareness, smoking, fish hook

I’ve been intrigued by the new “Haggen-Dazs loves Honey Bees” campaign for a few reasons. Both the spots and the website are both beautiful and cute and well executed. But what’s more fascinating is the concept and message behind it.

The website has a wealth of information on the bee situation. They’ve even created a Haagen Dazs Bee Board to “provide insight on the honey bee issue,” and are proponents of community outreach. They’re promoting planting bee-friendly flora and donating to bee research efforts underway at Penn State and UC Davis. Haagen-Dazs has also released a new flavor, Vanilla Honey Bee, with proceeds going to the research efforts, in addition to other “bee-dependent flavors” being identified.

It’s an interesting idea, and a seemingly well-executed campaign. I’m curious how much of the proceeds actually go to research efforts, and how much effort Haagen-Dazs is actually putting forth. The message is good and I certainly hope Haagen-Dazs truly stands behind it and actually follows through. In a time when green and pro-environment movements are rapidly gaining popularity, it’s easy to come out with messages that are green. Actually being green, and not just greenwashing, is a whole different ballgame.

According to Bud Light’s (from DDB Chicago) newest commercials, one word says it all – Dude. While the spots themselves are hysterical and can pretty much guarantee a laugh out of anyone, it’s the new website that really brings it all together – dudemadness.com. Here you can not only test your “dudeness” by clicking on the poster your prefer, dude, but you can also send coded dude messages to your friends (which will be decoded via text message). And in case anyone out there was wondering, I happen to be 68% Righteous Dude, 17% Game-On Dude and 15% Redneck Dude (where did THAT come from?!?).

Technorati Tags: Bud, Bud Light, dude, tv, commercials, beer, Las Vegas, drinks, DDB, websites, viral

As far as advertising is concerned, you would be surprised at the things that most companies would come up with to get attention and this one is really something that is similar to them. This new print-ad gimmick is for readers to take camera phone pictures of icons and ads and send them to a certain number. They will in turn get more information from the advertiser concerned.

If you think of it, it is quite a long shot and seeing people wasting their time taking pictures and then getting information of these products does seem strange at this point.

Wait a second. Haven’t we seen something like this before?

Ah yes, the CueCat, a handheld device that scanned special barcodes to save you the trouble of typing in a web address, which was introduced in the year 2000, pretty much failed that same year, and are now as hacked as Roombas.

(Source) Jossip

Technorati Tags: advertising, cuecat, print-ad gimmick, camer phones