As if going to the dentist weren’t enough of a nightmare, L.A. dentist Patty Ross offers appointments at the witching hour and beyond—at late as 2 a.m. on weekdays. Naturally, Ross has some after-hours spoof-horror advertising to match. See four more executions over at AdVille. Via Neatorama.
—Posted by Tim Nudd
LONDON – Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for the creation of a single food labelling scheme to avoid consumer confusion.
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide is readying a layoff of between 50 and 100 staffers in New York this week, according to executives familiar with the matter.
Like many others, I started out a Twitter skeptic. Why would I want to know when someone’s eating a cheeseburger? But since I started using the micro-blogging service over the summer, I’ve come to realize that it’s actually a useful method of sharing information—and complaining about PR people. I’m not alone. Several ad execs are Twittering away. The usual social-media suspects are there: Joseph Jaffe, Steve Rubel and Greg Verdino. Starcom’s Jeff Marshall and Art Sindlinger are represented. So too is Anomaly’s Johnny Vulkan. Others include EVB CEO Daniel Stein, Critical Mass vp of experience design David Armano, Poke New York creative director Tom Ajello, Naked’s Noah Brier and Carmichael Lynch’s Tim Brunelle. And, of course, the AdFreak Twitter feed’s been up and running for a while now. Who else is Twittering?
—Posted by Brian Morrissey
Before I even begin to discuss this new spot from Ford’s long-time luxury division, Lincoln, let me say that I am all for having corporations and brands create positive images for themselves while making the world and communities better. And, I think this was the impetus for this idea… the execution of which, I’m sorry to report, fell far short.
This :60 spot for Lincoln’s luxury crossover SUV (called the MKX), “HOMETOWN”, puts jazz musician, Harry Connick, Jr. behind the wheel of a Lincoln MKX. He is driving through his hometown of New Orleans reflecting about its devastation from Hurricane Katrina — while driving a $40,000+ automobile! Okay, maybe he is bringing building supplies to the needy neighborhoods, maybe he is donating the vehicle to a needy family or church group helping those displaced, maybe he will announce some great new campaign financed by Lincoln to help build up his hometown… nah!
He is meeting his friends and delivering a couple of buckets of crawfish! As he ruminates on the hope that “good times” can roll again in New Orleans, the announcer claims that this new 2008 Lincoln MKX is, “Designed to inspire, ready to uplift.” What? Did I miss something? Is the car, brand, or corporation doing ANYTHING to inspire and uplift the people and community of New Orleans?
And, why would I run out and buy this luxury crossover SUV over a Lexus RS 350 or Acura MDX? I don’t know… but, then again, maybe I missed something.
Technorati Tags: lincoln mkx, harry connick jr, new orleans, hometown, beyond madison avenue
Yup. we’re ready for it. Ready for everyone to tell us we’re reading way, way too much into this Target billboard that places a certain area of a woman’s body highly targeted by men right in the middle of…
With 2008 in full swing, many of you have made one or several New Year's resolutions. I, too, have made both personal and professional goals for 2008. Top on my list is to continue to lose weight — the weight of apathy that's settled on a weary advertising industry.
Edward Wasserman, professor of journalism ethics at Washington and Lee University, argues in the Miami Herald that journalism ought not be subject to the brutal trappings of online metrics.
Under the new rules, the commercial value of specific editorial offerings is estimated with precision, rewards and punishments doled out accordingly, and coverage cut to fit.
The problem with online Popularity Pay is it that it mistakes journalism for a consumer product, and conflates value with sales volume. Journalists don’t peddle goods, they offer a professional service, a relationship. The news audience renews that relationship to get information and insight on matters it trusts journalists to alert it to, even though the news may be disquieting or hard to grasp.
Gawker Media already operates on the Popularity Pay model. Nick Denton’s goal is to discourage “self indulgent” posts and “mind-numbing frequency” in favor of “linkworthy material.”
ABC news reports that the model seen moaning in the Szul.com jewlery ad has filed a lawsuit, and in it she claims that she did not “consent to or authorize the use of her likeness, picture, image or name to simulate a female having an orgasm or otherwise experiencing sexual pleasure.” The lawsuit also says that model Jane Doe “has worked hard to project a wholesome image and has been extremely careful to avoid doing any work in the industry that would cheapen or tarnish her reputation”. Did not consent? There was no model release form signed? Oh, speaking of those don’t you just hate when they ask you to sign one and won’t let you make a copy?
The woman is asking for $2.5 million in compensatory damages and $2.5 million in punitive damages. That’s $5 million for a “cheap” internet viral.
Adfreak weighs in: “she only got $200 for the gig. She’s suing for $5 million. The appropriate price tag is probably somewhere in between. ”
Jonah Bloom of Ad Age sees falling debris on the MyFaceSpace horizon.
Facebook and MySpace will have the longest lines of advertisers looking to get into their clubs in 2008. Of course, as those advertisers pay their admission fees and filter in, there’ll be more Beacon-backlash-type tales and plenty of grumbling from the natives. Gated communities, with subscription or premium-service business models, will pop up offering better online living without the nasty ad riff-raff. Still, the leading social networks already have the scale to record rapid ad revenue growth this year. The question is whether they’ll grow fast enough to persuade all the VCs to stand by the thousands of Web 2.0 businesses that are also seeking ads as their major source of income. They can’t all be winners — marketing money moves more slowly than venture capital, if it moves at all — and there’ll be a host of implosions.
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Conde Nast Publications is making sweeping changes for the new year, turning over the leadership at two important magazines, The New Yorker and Lucky.
LONDON – Sky has made an agreement with Land Securities to become the exclusive retailer of entertainment and communication services on the concourses of all its flagship shopping centres.
Yeah, I took the headline right out of the mouth of the Finacial Times as it sounds so doomsdayie*. When I think of stealth marketing, I recall actors asking people at the empire state building to take their picture with a phone, and actors chatting about new drinks at bars. At the finacial times they’re talking about product placement, which is a whole ‘nother can of worms.
Product placement – in which items with visible brand names are integrated into television programmes – looks set to become legal on British screens within 18 months. But the process must be treated with care if it is to boost revenues, according to some of the UK’s leading broadcast executives.
Following an European Union directive on broadcasting issued last month, member states have been given the option of permitting product placement in most genres of commercial television, but not news, current affairs, sport and children’s programming.
* new word!
Sometimes an innocent instance of “sticking it to the man” is not just sticking it to the man. It might be sticking it to women. Literally. Blood and all. Words & Pictures takes a closer look at the activities…
LONDON – ‘Top Gear’ presenter Jeremy Clarkson has revealed that his bank details have been used fraudulently after he claimed that the government’s recent loss of data was a ‘storm in a teacup’.
LONDON – Furniture brand DFS is to sponsor ITV’s third series of Dancing on Ice for the second year running.
This Round Table ad by WONGDOODY has a stripping knight in it. It’s not as exciting as it sounds, but it’s probably funny as hell when you’re high. (Then again, so is this.) The ad is for Big Vinnie,…
Digital marketing agency Chunk has launched a new campaign for Morrison Bowmore, targeting Whisky lovers and collectors Worldwide who have been waiting with anticipation for the release of Bowmore’s oldest ever expression the now legendary Black Bowmore. In conjunction with its release one lucky winner will be drawn at random to win one of these limited edition bottles worth £2000.
Each of the 827 bottles have come from a single cask filled on the 5th of November 1964 and are individually hand numbered and come with a wooden presentation case.
The chief creative officer of Euro RSCG, Chicago gets gushy about five-letter words as part of a promotional campaign for Effen Vodka. Got a lot of time on your hands? Download the campaign PDF. Never mind the “naughty” aspect;…
– George Parker is sick of Facebook, it’s plethora of stupid applications and the insanity of a “24 year old billionaire wanker” gets rich using people’s information without asking their permission. – Legendary ad man George Lois makes an…
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