I am not a smoker. I never have been, either. It’s just one of those things that I naturally don’t have a taste for which means that I am not militantly anti-smoking either. Sure, it’s not great for a person, but neither are lots of behaviors that ordinary people partake in that don’t have governments all around the world advertising against.
And, it’s important to remember, the death rate will always remain at 100% no matter what we do.
That said, were I a smoker, this ad from Saatchi & Saatchi in Romania would positively scare me straight:
With its Medieval/Black Plague style look, the ad definitely breaks through. And the wretched humans at the end of the cigarette scrambling not get ashed into the ash tray is reminiscent of any number of paintings that show humans desperately trying to escape from hell. And, when you think about it, dying of lung cancer or other smoking-related diseases certainly does sound like hell.
This ad communicates that message well. Even though it will now haunt my dreams.
Schick is launching (yawn) another one of the consumer generated contests where they are asking people to upload videos of themselves, the brand, blah, blah, blah. Just as predictable as the concept is the fact that they are not supporting it, at least at this point, with any awareness-building vehicles.
I base this on the press release, which listed no additional support, and the fact that, as of my checking it this evening, the initial video to announce the promotion, which has been posted for a week, has a mere 38,000 views. For all of the money they surely spent on this site, one expects that they had planned for wider reach.
Someone, somewhere, is sitting in a cube wondering why the promotion hasn’t taken off virally the way that they expected it to. And a blogger, here at the Daily (Ad) Biz or maybe over at the Toad Stool, is telling them again that they really out to allocate some space in their budget for more traditional advertising tactics that could be used, say, to tell consumers about the contest, tell them why they should check it out and direct them to the site.
At any rate, Schick’s press release to AdPulp announcing the program was filled with legalese and typed (r)’s meant to represent the registered trademark symbol – a simply fabulous piece of corporate communication. Upon receipt of the press release, AdPulp announced their own consumer generated contest: the first agency to find a way to take the mickey out of Schick (r) and their legalese and get adpulp.com worked into a video would get fifteen minutes of fame and a link on AdPulp.
Norwalk, CT agency Circle One rose to the challenge:
The video is certainly rough around the edges, but it was done in only thirty minutes and, having worked on a shaving account earlier in my career, I appreciated the focus on confidence and mojo and close shave – the talking points of any brand and any razor.
Xerox is out with a promotion to support its color printers…called Incredible Inc, the very punny promotion and website has all of the little things that agency people laugh about – the four superheroes represent the four printer cartridge colors, the promotion name is a pun and so is everything on the site that borders on funny, and funny names for the characters – but leaves me completely cold.
And it is because it is trying so hard. The program website has all of the bells and whistles from fantastic web design and animations to video comic book-style stories. There is a game that consumers can play, a sweepstakes to enter, bios to read and an e-mail to a friend button. There is everything except a strong business reason why.
This whole program sounds an awful lot like the vanity projects, those projects that would look cool in a book but don’t actually make sense from a strategic or business perspective, that certain Creative Directors that I may or may now know always try to sell in to a client.
The market for color printers is, obviously, split between the consumer market and the business market. Based on the setting of these so-called adventures, I can only assume that Xerox is targeting the business market. The business market, as well all know, has only a few buyers – usually one per company – and it is hard to imagine that they would spend a lot of time poking around this site when considering their purchase decision. Why? Because there is no information on it.
I may have missed it, an indictment of the site in itself, but I cannot find any information, except for tangental references in the comic book vignettes, on Xerox printers, why their color is better or a compelling reason to buy. The entire site seems to be these boring characters and their not-funny, pun-driven adventures. It is a mystifying decision for Xerox to go forward with something like this because it doesn’t sell, doesn’t talk about a product and the branding is weak.
Some bloggers type up posts and save them as drafts for times when they may be traveling, snowed under at work or just plan uncreative. The Daily (Ad) Biz does not do this, preferring to utilize a blog to the limit of its ability to post and publish work immediately without rounds of revisions and changes and rethinking. I get enough of that sort of thing at work.
The one downfall of this approach is that I actually have to be near a computer with time on my hands to post – I have nothing in reserve.
That is my mea culpa of sorts for disappearing yesterday in the midst of big news about the Microsoft account and the other fascinating developments, gossip and campaigns going on in the industry. It also sets the stage to marvel at the ability of Scott Goodson, founder of StrawberryFrog, to write quality posts for his blog every day. I am fairly certain that he is busier than I.
(Full disclosure: a very good friend of mine is applying there…but since you don’t know who I am or she is, it doesn’t really matter! Still, they should hire her. She is excellent.)
Goodson utilizes the site to publicize job openings at the agency (get those resumes ready strategic planners for there are openings), to talk about the state of the industry and all that, and even to talk about why they resigned a piece of business. While staying firmly grounded in advertising, it is a wide-ranging blog that is interesting in its own right – I would read it no matter who the author was – but is of particular interest because Goodson founded StrawberryFrog.
As the founder, one would expect that he sets the tone for the agency. And he sets it well.
And unfortunately so is the little bird who gave me the scoop that Fallon was a leg up on Crispin in the race for the Microsoft account. Perhaps there was a little bit of wishful thinking wrapped up in those rumors.
While Crispin walking off with the Microsoft account is a crushing blow for Fallon – a big win on an account of the size and profile like Microsoft would have done wonders for morale, new business and the balance sheet – perhaps it isn’t as crushing as it seems at first.
With an inferior product offering, Vista, a cash cow in Office that is being threatened by free software peddled by companies like Google, and products like the Zune aren’t even in the same league as products like the iPod, Microsoft is likely a poisoned chalice. It is especially poisoned for Crispin, an agency that has done a great job with charger brands like Mini and Burger King but has struggled when faced with brands that are in more of a leadership position.
Crispin is a great agency with a track record of great creative so I am not counting them out, but it is going to be an uphill task…an uphill task that, unless Microsoft can improve their products, advertising may not fix.
As much as I love you dear readers, and I do love you, this blogging thing is going to be on hold this morning as I am just about to get into my car to the airport and zip off into the unknown for a creative presentation at a very valued client. Of course, yours truly is primarily interested in the nightlife in the city to which I am headed because I hear it is all time and I have never been.
Las Vegas certainly knows its target audience. From the racy “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” campaign that I had to awkwardly explain to my grandmother after she saw one of the outdoor boards in downtown Minneapolis, to their current promotion, it’s not classy…but neither is Vegas:
I am not even going to try to explain the strategy or break this thing down creatively (well, okay, maybe a little: hilariously on-target ad that makes me sad for the future of America and also somehow also incorporated every word in the Brand Manager’s PowerPoint deck as well as the last smidgen of legal feedback all on the same page)…instead I am going to send you to a site that has absolutely nothing to do with advertising.
I was poking around on Creative Hotlist yesterday because we are in need of another art director and I thought that I would educate myself and see who was out there. In the course of doing that, I stumbled upon the work and resume of an art director who currently works at the House of Biz.
I would never call this out to the powers that be.
I am neither political enough nor mean enough to call out a co-worker like this. But I do think that I should have a quiet word…even though I don’t know what I would say.
After all, there is nothing wrong with putting your stuff out there and being open to other opportunities. Not only is everyone doing it, but having your work up is an opportunity to get feedback and comments and other suggestions that may make you better. It’s just that people usually do that through their website and not a jobs board.
Plus, I know that this art director has been considering leaving for a while.
Having an undercurrent of “that person is going to leave” surrounding anyone is completely unhelpful from a career perspective. It’s hard to support someone for promotion if they might leave. It’s hard to even put someone on that next big campaign if they might leave because then you’re stuck scrambling midway through, explaining to clients and spinning wheels. From a personal perspective, it’s tough to rally around someone – and we all need to be rallied around at times when ideas are hard to come by and the deadline is fast approaching – when you know that they are sort of checked out.
That is why I think that I am going to have to bring it up to the art director in question…better to hear it from me, someone who sort of saw this coming and is pretty easygoing about this sort of thing, than to hear it from, say, our ECD or Bozo the Clown. If I found it this easily, they will too. And I am willing to bet that they will be considerably more upset than I if they do.
I’m just not really sure what to say to the art director in question to sort this thing out…
One of my very best friends in the whole world ever even though he has only called me back once since getting married in June is a Brand Manager for a packaged goods company. In that one call that we have had since he settled in to some marital bliss, he talked about the primacy of packaging and packaging innovation in driving sales of CPG products.
It seems, though, that the key advantage of packaging innovation is its short-term ability to boost sales and, critically for companies that rely on display activity to sell, to get retailer support. Which is probably why Pepsi, after redoing its packaging last year, is coming out with a limited-edition can:
[REMOVED PURSUANT TO LEGAL THREAT BY BBDO]
Commissioned by BBDO and designed by JKaczmarek for an ad campaign, the smart money is on Pepsi releasing this can to market during a short promotional period (though, if I may, I would suggest that they add another logo there as it can currently be merchandised without any branding being visible)…and who knows, maybe it will an annual thing.
Just recently I stumbled upon a blog by Dan Balser of The Creative Circus called the Headline-A-Day Page. It is exactly what it says it is.
The headline that I liked the most was the Brevity is Underrated. I would love it if I had a succinct and powerful reason why, but this is going to take some explanation. And anyway, what’s the point of a blog if you can’t get a little wordy, right? I’m sick of word count limits imposed by things like OOH boards and banner ads. I wanna get expansive!
In advertising, brevity is underrated a lot of times, especially in meetings. I don’t know how often colleagues, clients and even yours truly has started off on a powerfully insightful explanation of whatever is being presented only to attempt to hit on every aspect and just get lost in a muddle of information. This also happens at internal planning meetings. And it is the modus operandi of our weekly creative status.
Unfortunately, brevity is very highly valued when it comes to briefs.
