Hasta La Creative!

So, people have long been suggesting that Adland should switch over to be fully advertising supported. Suggesting might not be the right word, more like demanding in some cases. I get it. I really do, it would be easier for all of us if this upgrade business wasn’t around. Even if I think it’s quite tasty ironic to not ad-support a site about ads. I have this irrational hatred for bad banner ads that I really can’t explain – except perhaps by showing y’all. Sometime I feel like I’m the only straight female to ever wander out on teh intarwebs. I was reading up on British Airways advertising while a bikini-clad lady on the left (click image for larger view) exclaimed “blue and yellow has never been this hot!” I was checking out an ad with udders just to get more booby-babes shoved in my face at another site. I have all my browsers, but one, blocking all banners ads just so that I don’t have to feel like I’m the only female left on earth who doesn’t wear a bikini all day. (even though, quite frankly it is hot enough around here right now to warrant that fashion statement)

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Adfreak has a story on BBH’s keywords being bought up by an SEO firm (which reminds me, just a little of Asa Baileys OgilvyHijack a few years back) – they explain:

Bartle Bogle Hegarty chairman Steve Harty dismissed the usefulness of paid search for an agency like BBH, saying, “We have a more targeted strategy than, ‘We’re open for business.’ Search is kind of indiscriminate in a way.” Reprise Media doesn’t agree, and it’s out to prove a point. It has purchased the Google keywords “BBH” and “Steve Harty,” which bring up ads that direct to a Reprise blog post laying out how dumb it is for agencies to downplay search. Copy for the BBH ad reads: “Looking for an Agency? Not Buying Their Own Branded Terms! Can You Trust Them to Manage Yours?”

While googling BBH I do find BBH on the top spot there – but no text ads? – and if you search for BBH here at Adland, you’ll find that nearly every post mentioning BBH has a link to BBH in it. (How’s that for poisoning the well? BBH should pay me for that google-juice!). If you search google for Steve Harty, you’ll find the search marketing post explaining that they bought those keywords in the coveted top spot (right now that is) instead. No word yet on what the real Steve Harty thinks of this little stunt riding on his name.

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Dear NatWest bank, I was never your customer.

Spam pretending to be from Natwest bank, rambling on with mindnumbing phrases like: “security and confidentiality are at the heart of Natwest Bankline. Your data (and your money) is protected by a number of technologies, including Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption.” then asking me to:”Please login to Natwest online banking using the link below and follow the instructions on the screen.” ensures that I will never be your customer, even if I did move back to the UK.

These spams are really beginning to piss me off. Last week alone, I received exactly 467 of these stupid Natwest spams. And it hit me. Phishing spams kill brands. I could never trust a bank that allow their name to be abused in such a way.

So where is the IT-brand-brigade, whose job it is to ensure that the brand isn’t sullied by internet bullies? To busy commenting on blogs and youtube I assume – I’ve seen so many “brand managing” tactics go that route. Stopping spam like these should be part of the online brand managing gig as well. Heck, get together with a bunch of other large banks, and form a taskforce that works on stopping all forms of phishing attempts and use that in your brand communication and I might even begin to trust banks again.

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We’ve seen the BK veg city tray liners that depict tomatoes checking out pickles in the red light district, onions being searched at the airport and other onions being the target of assasinations, and now we’ve seen the commercial – but BK “veg city” isn’t done until the flash website sings. Now the site is almost finished, and there’s sniper games, wallpapers, ringtones and other oddness at vegcity.de

For example, when you’re done sniping random pickles, you can go to the airport and check luggage for items that are not allowed. There are a few more games marked “coming soon” so the site is till under construction but 50% of it is done now.

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EHEALTHforum Partners with Glam Media Network, the No. 1 in reach for women online, for exclusive advertising deal

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Lowe Roche, Toronto has added some new interactive elements to http://www.talkingpets.ca for Purina in spirit of Valentines day for all dog lovers : learn how to speak dog. The idea is very subservient chicken a la: “type in “hungry” & the dog eats. Type in “cold” and the dog has a sweater on. “Angry” made me laugh (vicious growl on that dog!)…so did “bad”..check out “bad”.” as the release explains.

However, trying it out I asked how to translate “I’m in puppylove” and the pooch simply went to get a sweater. Ho-kay. I’m not a dog lover though, and neither are my 36 cats and single turtle.

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Philips recently launched Aurea; a new advanced TV that uses light to enhance the action on screen. They say that the result is a more immersive and emotional television viewing experience – I’ve never had the chance to see one of these flashy tellies in action though. Philips and Tribal DDB set out to create a site that demonstrated the ‘Aurea effect’ for people like me – and they wanted to make sure it worked as well as the TV, so they pulled out all the stops and created an original film by Won Kar-Wai, used sexy photography by Vincent Peters, and an original score by key members of the London Symphony Orchestra. Inside you can watch a three minute viedo on the making of all this pretty.

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