Career Builder Trades Good for Bad.

in

Alright, one last post on the Super Bowl, and I'm done. Rightfully so, there's been a lot of chatter about the failed Career Builder ads by W+K. But, the failure seems to be as much an issue within the media department as the creative (although the final decision likely rested with CB). The absolute gem of the series, this minute-long masterpiece directed by Mike Mills, sat on the shelf in favor of the two poor-performing 30's. I have no doubt that W+K and CB knew the 30's were the lesser spots, but let them roll separately to satisfy their media needs. Too bad. This would have replaced Tide as my number one for sure, and I'd expect at least a top 5 finish across the other SB ad studies. Probably wouldn't have beaten that damn budweiser dog, but that's middle america for you.

And thus, you have seen an appearance from pretentious paul. Sorry about that. Enjoy...

The Super Bowl in Review

in

This year is mostly depressing, really. We do have a wide range of super bowl spots from overall suck to poorly conceived to poorly executed and at the far end of the spectrum, flat out racist. It's unfortunate that on our industry's most bloated night, we can only come up with 3 or 4 thumbs up ads...

By far the winner of the night for me was Tide. A simple concept, but interestingly executed and still uncomfortably funny. It may have lost points just because I was waiting for the skittles logo to pop in the whole time. But still, by far my favorite of the night.

Coke made a good showing, so I'll give them the second slot. I can't say Carville and Frist had the best chemistry on screen, but it's a good effort. And this year, it frankly doesn't take much to get near the top. On a side note, Carville is married to uber-Republican strategist Mary Matalin. Wouldn't it have been better if the spot had something to do with that? I seriously doubt most the country knew who either one of them were anyway...

Third goes to Fed Ex. At least they got something out of their production dollar. It's a good looking spot that'll probably give them some good use. Still nowhere as good as last year.

Fourth, back to Coke. It's a good spot, but I think I may just be suffering from the high expectations Coke built up last year. When you hit so many home runs, it's that much harder to leg out a triple from a double.

And fifth I'll throw to the boys over at Dallas' Richards Group. Both the Bridgestone spots were funny and entertaining and scored up near the top of every ad tracker.

Honorable mention goes to Audi for the Godfather. It feels like something is missing, but it's an intriguing spot at the very least.

And the big losers, Career Builder sucked it bad. I wonder if they're regretting the decision to ditch Cramer Kressalt this morning. My guess would be yes. Whoever made that decision is a fucking moron. Geico should have let the Cavemen die. It was already ruined by the awful ABC show, and the only way to save it would have been to bring the original Cavemen back. I hate these guys for ruining a funny bit. And, Sales Genie. Hopefully racism does not mean sales and they consider either stopping the non sense or hiring some proper help next year. Under Amour should be mentioned as wasting a fuck ton of money for an overproduced mess. It looked like they cut corners, used an unoriginal idea and tried to say or nothing or too much. I haven't really figured it out yet.

And that's all for this year. Many more like this and these day after write ups will probably stop being written. At least Miller picked up the pieces a bit today.

Dude...

in

Dude...I love these spots. I get bored with Bud's reliance on the idiot male bachelor who can only crack jokes and ogle fake cheerleaders or whatever. Finally, a man in his element, doing as we do, saying everything without really saying much at all. Bud had to eventually make a spot for the Arrested Development viewer, and here it is. Makes me smile and rewind, every time.

And it brings up something that's been on my mind of late. Is the internet an engagement medium? An interactive medium? Or are all mediums that, but the internet just forced us to put up or shut up? I'm not sure that a medium can be any either of those things, but the applications of that medium are what makes it interactive or engaging. The problem with television isn't the fact that it's on tv, it's the people who put the stuff on there who got lazy, greedy and boring. Why blame Sony or shitty Time Warner for that? Trust me, they have enough problems.

Advertising Made Somewhat Interesting

in

Sometimes you can appreciate a company taking an old style and doing something interesting with it. Generally, I hate television advertising because it's impossible to find much more than 5 commercials a year that amount to more than a boring, pandering piece of shit that does little else than waste time. And the car driving down the winding, desert road is the worst offender. So doing a new take on such an old staple actually made me stop and rewind, and that reaction earns an A+ from me more often than not.

Good work, Jeep.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbDmVa_t4nA]

Top 5 British Ad Blogs

in

BritishflagFirst, I must apologize. My posting around here has been too few and too far between. Just like my commenting, and behind the scenes conversations. Trust me, I miss you guys, and I'm still keeping up as much as I can. But, as it happens when the times are good, work is kicking my ass. In a good way, of course. We'll have some good stuff to chat about, I promise.

But, since I don't have time for a more verbose post, I thought I'd point out the amount of brilliance coming from our British friends. Seriously fun, interesting reads all the time. So, with all the top this's and that's based on technical stuff, I thought I'd just give you my top 5 british ad folks I like reading. More art than science, surely, but that's the way it goes...

1. Adiliterate
2. Talent Imitates, Genious Steals
3. Northern Planner
4. Scamp
5. Russell Davies - and you get five because you've backed away so much. Come back, man.

Chantix Advertises at the Emmys

in

I guess the Emmys is as good of a time as any to launch a new ad campaign for Pfizer drug "Chantix." If you're a regular reader, you know about the death in Dallas rumored to be caused by the anti-smoking drug. So, with only preliminary testing done and obvious quirks (likChantixmicrositee horrifying murderous dreams and suicidal tendencies) left to be worked out, why not plow full-steam ahead with the McCann Humancare created $75 million campaign.

Looks as though McCann at least did us a favor by sending out its B-team on this one. The ad basically encouraged viewers to go to followthefable.com where there would be some announcement on September 24. I really hate that pompous bullshit. Oh my god! Drop everything! It's coming September 24! I can feel the excitement! So fucking stupid. And no, nowhere on the site does it actually say Chantix, only that it's a pfizer anti-smoking drug.

This conclusion to the post is coming....

Wait for it...

It's coming!!!

Okay, first rule, don't build up excitement for things people don't give a shit about. It's a fucked up brain that thinks drugs should be treated the same as entertainment, as if it's okay to market this in the same league as X-Men or a fucking IPod.

Second rule, grow a bag of pride in yourself and don't shill for these people. There are skeletons in the closet of just about any ad agency, but I don't really see the difference between working on Chantix at McCann, or working on Marlboro at Burnett. Sometimes you should probably cry yourself to sleep at night knowing that the better you do in your job, the more people die. I'd continue that rant, but I feel a bit of restless leg syndrome coming on.

Third, don't make your website look like shit. And don't advertise on the Emmys if you obviously don't have the bandwith to handle that kind of traffic (yeah, the 60 second wait to get on was awesome).

Anyway, that's all. 

art versus science, the ad debate

in

Fearhomogenization. repitition. processes and systems.
guru-ism.
grunt work. boredom. loneliness.
sheep, and probably donkeys, too.
sameness.
And above all, doing things that way just because that's the way they're done.

these are the things ad math is intended to accomplish. (plus some resultants)

Ok, that all sounds like total bullshit, I know. If I were you, I'd be rolling my eyes right about now, too. So don't feel bad.

I've been toying with the looming art vs. science battle for online media supremacy.  ROI, ROI, ROI, process, process, process. It all makes too much sense, but I fear all the process removes the focus from the one place it should be. The people. And what CRM, customer tracking and all the rest can't tell me is why I just smiled, why I told my friend, why I chose pink over blue. On some level it can tell me what I'm more likely to buy, but that information is mostly generalized and reactionary. It's hypothetical and ultimately inefficient.

So, the only choice that remains is to expect a consumer to raise their hands. But, fuck, I'm unlikely to raise my hand for more than a few products. The market can only take so many apples, so many fiskars, so many whatevers. Somewhere fanatical support just runs out, and reach still remains the issue. And there, math wins.

It's easy to say it's a balance of both, even if it's true (and it is). Unfortunately, it may not be possible to create a culture that embraces algorithms as much as it does creativity. If I had to choose one, it'd have to be art, mainly because if science was the only king, we probably would be even more overwhelmed with spammy direct mail.

If you had to pick one, which would it be?

The Nike + Reebok debate

in

Run like you've never run before.

or

Run at the speed of chat.

It's usually not made so easy to recognize the juxta-positioning (so to speak), but these spots for Nike and Reebok give us a pretty good indication of how slight differences still hold big meaning. Even if it is on a television spot.

The final ad by Wieden and Kennedy for Nike Running is striking and unique. It's wonderfully shot, smart, and perfectly told. The Edward Norton voice-over gives it that nice Fight Club flavor, with easy connections between the eccentricities of the movie and the obsessiveness of the runner in the spot. This guy fuckin' loves to run, but he's also got about a 50/50 shot at being a serial killer, too. So there's that.

But, side by side with the Reebok ad, it becomes a little clearer why WK no longer holds the Nike reigns. The basics are still the same, a runner and a street, but the Reebok spot (by mcgarrybowen) actually gives the runner a friend and a personality. It even pokes a little fun at the super-aggressive type in the nike ads.

The obsessive runners and thoughtless meatheads are out there, surely, but I think the normal ones among us think, "what a douchebag," when we cross paths with them at the gym. Reebok made running normal and likable again.

I'll be curious to see how CP+B changes the scope for Nike. We can only hope it has nothing to do with a subservient shoe.

________________________

 

I am annoyed with Reebok's site straight ripping off the Nike site, but that's a subject for another post.

(here's ernie shenck's take on the nike spot)