Citi channels the past… and never sleeps (again)

There was an article in yesterday’s WSJ regarding the new marketing and branding campaign for Citi appearing in the midst of credit-market turmoil and economic uncertainty. The answer to branding problems? Head back to 1978 and dig up a retired slogan. After researching, Citi determined that the best course of action would be to “revitalize” their classic slogan, “The Citi Never Sleeps,” although cleverly dropping “the” off the tag. From the WSJ article:

The ad push comes as the New York company has been on a cost-cutting drive, even slashing its dividend. Citi, which declined to say how much it is spending on the new ads, says it went to great lengths to save money on the campaign. It says it used leftover footage from a previous shoot instead of opting for an expensive new commercial shoot, which often involves extensive travel to far-off places. It also used a piece of music the company owns and has used in commercials before.

So one has to wonder – is Citi “never sleeping” out of a cognizant branding choice? Or rather struggling to find a new voice without the proper means to develop one? Either way, we’ll be seeing more of the Citi that doesn’t sleep in the coming weeks. Will the nostalgia prove comforting or merely confusing?

$170 Junkfood – Burger King Kobe Beefburger

(TrendHunter.com) Fast food is generally also cheap food, that’s what gave chains like McDonalds their appeal… so why would Burger King deviate from that by launching a $166 cheeseburger? Specifically, the £85 Kobe beefburger.

Maybe offering a slab of fancy shmancy Japanese luxury beef topped with foie gras and …

Virgin Media adds 37,000 TV customers

LONDON – Virgin Media has reported 37,000 cable TV customer additions and a net loss of £104m during the first quarter of the year.

Is Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ not quite so real?

Retouch So, Dove reportedly improved the appearance of some of the models in its “Real Beauty” campaign. Pascal Dangin, a retoucher, told The New Yorker: “Do you know how much retouching was on that? But it was great to do, a challenge, to keep everyone’s skin and faces showing the mileage but not looking unattractive.” The focus right now seems to be on Dove’s underwear girls, but was the model in the “Evolution” spot touched up even in the before scenes? Scary. If the allegations are true, how about a grand gesture: Ogilvy gives back all those awards that “Evolution” won. Yeah, right.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

American Idol Obsession – Weird eBay Memorabilia (GALLERY)

(TrendHunter.com) Back in the day I had some truly tasteless New Kids on the Block memorabilia. Today, there isn’t much of a boy band for teenyboppers to flip over, so it would seem they’ve taken a lusty liking for their favorite American Idol contestants. MTV compiled a list of the most ridiculous items targeting th…

Brand Republic scoops best business website award

LONDON – Brand Republic beat strong competition to win the Best Business Website Award (Free Access) at the PPA Magazines 2008 awards ceremony last night.

Dove’s Real Beauty – Not So Real?

This morning, I checked my email as usual and opened up my daily AdAge email. The first thing I read is an article about how Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty might not be so… real. It has come out that renowned photo retoucher, Pascal Dangin, may have had something to do with Annie Liebowitz’s final photos. After Dangin was featured in an article for The New Yorker, the writer, Lauren Collins, found out that Real Beauty was a Dangin job. Of course, there is still doubt out there about the extent, if any, of Dangin’s involvement and if he worked with Liebowitz this time around.

 

So what will this mean for Dove and even Ogilvy? While something like this could definitely cause an uproar, I wonder, from a personal stance, how this will really affect how women will look at Dove products. In my opinion, okay, so they were touched up. But when I look at the photos I still see women who aren’t stick thin, have curves, wrinkles, tattoos and other “imperfections.” I still see real women. I see a woman, that if I walked out of my house right now and started walking down the street, I would run into in my little town.

 

In the same breath, we all remember the award-winning “Evolution” viral video, one that takes a stab at the act of photo-retouching.

 

Hello, hypocrisy. So, as a woman, what am I supposed to think about this? What is Dove trying to tell me? It’s okay to be real but only so real? Maybe I should be okay with not being a size two but not too okay with it? Maybe I should be self-conscious about a blemish but that tattoo I regret is okay? I’m interested to see how this story unfolds but in the meantime, how do you all feel about this coming out? 

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Zipper Clasps – ZipHolder (GALLERY)

(TrendHunter.com) As most guys know, an open zipper can be pretty embarrassing.

Well, worry no more. The ZipHolder makes sure you avoid such embarrassing situations, as it neatly and securely holds the zipper in place. The mechanism is achieved by attaching a small “rope” to the zipper handle which can be hooked to…

Barclays to axe 900 Goldfish telemarketers

LONDON – Barclays plans to close a Goldfish call centre resulting in the loss of 900 jobs.

Offset the evil campaign

This is an anti-violence campaign, that ironically promoting the extremely violent game Condemned 2 on Xbox 360.

Condemned 2 is the second title in the series. In the game you are Ethan Thomas, a disgraced member of the Serial Crimes Unit who is unstable and one drink short of self destruction. The game includes brutal in your face combat including combo attacks and over the top “finishing moves”. The game is most definitely not mainstream, it is for a niche audience of ‘hardcore’ gamers.

The communication challenge: find a fresh and engaging way to connect with the target, who are used to companies just re-skinning a site with game footage, and, think they have seen everything there is to see when it comes to the ‘shoot‘em-up’ genre.

Hardcore Gamers (typically male), 18-30yo. Tend to be cynical, curious by nature, like problem solving and challenges, and spend their life in the online gaming world.

We know that playing Condemned 2 is a brutal, blunt experience and it seems that Sega does too. OffSetTheEvil.com allows you to balance your karma by “offsetting the evil” much like you would with your carbon footprint. Thankfully, offsetting evil doesn’t cost a penny – instead you simply need to explore the sickly sweet saturday-morning cartoon of a website.

Once there you can make yourself feel less wicked by playing a ridiculous flash game involving helping horse across a river. Don’t worry if they fall in, though. They still love you! If that’s not for you then explore the Forest of Fairy Flowers, with hidden links to sites which will teach you to dance or show videos of the Teletubbies. There’s plenty more content to reduce your sin footprint included on the site. If you can handle it, that is.

The creative execution is made up of 3 x virals ‘Pony Heart Quest’, ‘Clown Flower Time’ and ‘Lollipop Gift Parade’. These virals drive you to the website www.offsettheevil.com. Once on the website you can play 3 x games based on the virals.

Online banners are also going to be run on IGN.com and Gamespot. One of the banners (300 x 600) is going to be a game in itself called Panda Rainbow Delight.

It remind me a little of “Happy Tree Friends” but the purpose is different.

Many thanks to Giorgi Ciot for sending these creative materials.

AGENCY TEAM:
Creative Team – Michael Dawson, Chris Berents
Executive CD: Richard Maddocks, Associate CD: Guy Rooke
Account Service – AM: Adam Levee, GAD: Rob Nichol
Digital Designer – Brett Bimson, Kevin Phillips
Designer – Gustavo Vampre
TV producer – Denise McKeon
Digital Producer – Harley Tesoriero
Editor – Joe Morris
Sound Design – Andrew Stevenson
PRODUCTION HOUSE:
Yukfoo Animation, Auckland
Director – Julian Stokoe
Producer – Glen Real

MUSIC:
Liquid Studios, Auckland
Creative Director – Peter Van Der Fluit
Composer – Max Scott
Engineer – Matt Scott
Producer – Dee Taylor

Weird Inventions – Bruce Brodie’s Creations From The Attic (GALLERY)

(TrendHunter.com) Finding the notes of an artist who likes to “think up crazy stuff” would always be exciting, but when the notes come with detailed building instructions, things can get a little bit crazy!

Some of the artist Bruce Brodie’s crazy inventions include an indoor sundial, wedge-proof underwear, an anti-s…

Wetsuits for Pod Speakers – The Egg Speakers & Case (GALLERY)

(TrendHunter.com) Designer Nathan Gabriele conceived this latest design of speakers for MP3’s. The Egg speakers have a curious oval shape. The “shell” can be opened into two pieces with the outer shell becoming the sub woofers while the base acts as an MP3 dock. Pretty cute.

The Egg recharges via induction and it c…

WWF: Pawprint

WWF: Pawprint

Help to save wild animals endangered by extinction.

Advertising Agency: Euro RSCG Warsaw, Poland
Creative Director: Jacek Szulecki
Art Director / Photographer: Dariusz Małkiński
Copywriter: Piotr Barański
Published: March 2006

Spring-Inspired Buildings – Graz Music Theater (GALLERY)

(TrendHunter.com) The new Graz Theater (also known as Mumuth Theatre) at the University of Graz, in Austria is a fusion of music, architecture and futuristic vision.

Designed by Ben Van Borkel and Caroline Bos, the theater has two entrances, one for the performers and one for the patrons. It’s all about springs tho…

$14,000 Ceiling Insects – Bee Wall Sconce (GALLERY)

(TrendHunter.com) This bee wall sconce is beautiful, but do you know anyone that would really pay $14,000 to stick a sparkling insect on their ceiling? Granted people pay more than that for luxurious Italian light fixtures, but then it tends to be from a well known Milan designer of platinum and diamonds.

The bees …

Stride Gum hates Uwe Boll. Or does it?

Uweboll
With a few notable exceptions, like Leni Riefenstahl and D.W. Griffith, it’s hard to think of a filmmaker who’s been more roundly despised than Uwe Boll. With retina-shredding game-to-movie adaptations like BloodRayne and House of the Dead, Boll has approached video games the way Girls Gone Wild approaches female empowerment. Now, Stride Gum has joined the fray as the first corporate sponsor of the StopUweBoll.org effort. If 1 million people sign a petition in an attempt to end Boll’s career, Stride says it will give each signer a free pack of gum. Cinematical wisely notes that Stride’s deadline is May 23—opening day for Boll’s latest atrocity, Postal. That seems to imply that Stride is actually helping to boost publicity for the new release. So, what’s a Boll hater to do? Well, how about we all stop watching his movies? There’s a start.

—Posted by David Griner

Mazda: Man

Mazda: Man

When you have to run, drive a Mazda RX-8.

Advertising Agency: JWT Brussels, Belgium
Creative Directors: Sabine Botta, Christopher Gelder
Art Director / Illustrator: Sebastien Verliefde
Copywriter: Jurgen Verbiest
Published: April 2008

Mazda: Oops

Mazda: Oops

When you have to run, drive a Mazda RX-8.

Advertising Agency: JWT Brussels, Belgium
Creative Directors: Sabine Botta, Christopher Gelder
Art Director / Illustrator: Sebastien Verliefde
Copywriter: Jurgen Verbiest
Published: April 2008

Mazda: Pregnant

Mazda: Pregnant

When you have to run, drive a Mazda RX-8.

Advertising Agency: JWT Brussels, Belgium
Creative Directors: Sabine Botta, Christopher Gelder
Art Director / Illustrator: Sebastien Verliefde
Copywriter: Jurgen Verbiest
Published: April 2008

Mazda: Fat

Mazda: Fat

When you have to run, drive a Mazda RX-8.

Advertising Agency: JWT Brussels, Belgium
Creative Directors: Sabine Botta, Christopher Gelder
Art Director / Illustrator: Sebastien Verliefde
Copywriter: Jurgen Verbiest
Published: April 2008