Shawn Johnson is so cute...the way she flips over A MOVING BOBSLED

Or so a recent viral attempt from Nestle would have you believe:



OK, OK, so there's no way it's real. Not to say the 17-year old Olympic champion (Gold Medal in the '08 Woman's Balance Beam and Silver in the Woman's All Around) couldn't do what this video apparently shows, but obviously no one would let her risk her career to promote Crunch bars. Except apparently American speed-skating champion Apolo Anton Ohno, who is the male in the video that dares her to do it.

The video is meant to promote the Crunch Challenge, which from my limited research appears to be a facebook application/game meant to get people excited about the Olympics and their natural counterpart, Nestle Crunch bars.


Sure, I'll sign up for it, of course on team Crispies, because:

• Shawn Johnson is the captain of that team. She's cute and I was rooting for her to beat Nastia Liukin all of Summer '08
• I didn't see Apollo hold up his end and skate down the bobsled course
• The Summer Olympics are approximately 50 times more exciting than their Winter counterpart

The idea of a celebrity jumping over something ridiculous to promote a product isn't new, and I'm not even thinking back to the days of MJ. Less than two years ago, Kobe Bryant supposedly used his Nike Hyperdunks to jump over a speeding Aston Martin:



The Black Mamba has also used the shoes to leap past a pool of snakes, rape allegations, and the entire Toronto Raptors team.

Real or embellished, I think the somewhat ambiguous viral video can certainly help your cause, especially when you're using generally well-liked celebrities. They generate a lot of free buzz, and you have to imagine the people are happy to do it, especially people like Apolo Anton Ohno, who was just beside himself because the people at Nestle actually knew who he was.

By the way, a nice after-Christmas gift idea for me, if anyone is looking:


The Shawn Johnson Wall Cling. For some reason, Rachel didn't get this for me.

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RIP: Pepsi Super Bowl Presence

Blame it on the changing advertising landscape, the poor economy, or whatever variable you please, but Pepsi, the second largest Super Bowl advertiser in the last 10 years, will not be advertising its drinks during 2010's game.

The company says it wants to focus the would-be Super Bowl budget on online work and a more "refreshing" campaign.

"In 2010, each of our beverage brands has a strategy and marketing platform that will be less about a singular event and more about a movement," said a Pepsi Co spokeswoman, Nicole Bradley.

This is really a two-fold shame, one because it is a big blow to the world's biggest advertising platform (it has always been thought, "gee, where else can I plan on a guaranteed 40+ Nielsen rating?") and also because Pepsi's spots during the big game are often damn good.

A recent retrospective of some of the best:

2009:


2008:


2007:


2004:


Not to say that online/viral is a bad idea, because it isn't (John is always there to call me on these things). Everyone can benefit from online and new media efforts. My beef is that this is a blow to one of the only platforms where people actively seek out advertising, which is almost a priceless added value (actually not priceless, 30 seconds is going to run about $2.5 million this year).

Is the Super Bowl in trouble? No. They've sold about 90% of available time to this point. They'll sell it out in 2010. It'll be interesting to see how much, if at all, the astronomical cost for these ads drops in coming years because of a waning economy or just because of lack of interest.

My portfolio - Blue Moon

This might be my favorite in my portfolio.

I went with long-copy for a beer advertisement, which is certainly not characteristic of the category, but there is method to my madness.

Blue Moon pretends to be a Colorado microbrew from the "Blue Moon Brewing Company."
Said company does not exist. Blue Moon is an invention of Miller Coors, and not a bad one at that, considering anyone who knows anything about beer might rather drink human bile than Coors or Miller Lite.

The strategy with this full color, full page print spot was to create a personality for Blue Moon (and to perpetuate the legend of the Blue Moon Brewing Company). The thing that stands out about Blue Moon is that, when served on tap, it is usually garnished with an orange slice. I used this as an added bonus for the ad, because if people had seen someone drinking some weird beer with an orange in it, they would now know that it was Blue Moon if they didn't before.

Click image to see it full size

The New Look of Sun-Maid: Sun Mistress?

It's about time the dried fruit category had a sex symbol as a brand mascot.

Sun-maid must have recently just started running ads like the one below with the new-look Sun-Maiden, because the Internet is abuzz all of a sudden, despite the fact that the new look (and the spot below, by McCann Erickson) has been around since 2007.



I assume you're familiar with the Sun-Maid girl's original identity: originally a little homely looking thing, kneeling and wearing a bonnet. The new version clearly panders to the evolving (read: degenerating) tastes of the American consuming public. But to the raisin-consuming public? I was under the impression that most people who eat raisins are between the ages of 2 and 8, or 65+.

Below is a progression of the brand identity of Sun-Maid, starting with an image of Lorraine Collett Petersen, who is the original inspiration for the logo, according to raisin industry lore.



Somehow, Sun-Maid is attempting to tie their product to healthy living by increasing their mascot's cup size. The disheveled looking raisin girl could not have possibly represented a healthy lifestyle (although if you look at the above image from 1923, you may agree with that last statement. She looks like the love child of Hester Prynne and Sasquatch.)


Regardless, I'm not willing to call this a bad move by any means. Many purists and ad history buffs are probably spewing about how inappropriate it is for Sun-Maid to inflate their mascot's bosom. Realize there's only so much you can get from the toddler and octogenarian markets before you need to expand your target and reinvent your brand, and that's clearly what Sun-Maid is trying to do. They're just living by the old axiom, when life gives you grapes, turn them into grapefruits.

Just kidding. I made that axiom up.

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My portfolio - 5 gum

I've decided to post the work I've done for my portfolio on the blog. I'll take feedback, constructive criticism, or plain old gushing affection.

The first client is 5 Gum, a hip, new-ish chewing gum brand from Wrigley.

Ad specs: Print, Full Page (8.5 x 11), 4 Color
Things to note: it's sugar free, it comes in 7 ambiguously-named flavors, the package is shaped so that the sticks are arranged in a 3 x 5 box.

I chose to take an attitudinal positioning because, quite frankly, there are very few distinct product benefits for various brands of gum.

Special thanks to all my friends who posed for the ads:

Execution 1:


Execution 2:


Click either image to see it full size.

The Bastardization of Claymation Christmas Specials

A Christmas themed spot from my favorite campaign currently on TV came out recently. Perhaps you've seen it:



This just-plain-adorable spot places the iPhone on the Island of Misfit Toys, which you may recall from the classic 1965 claymation, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The phone is a misfit because, according to Verizon and the cute screwed up toys in the ad, the iPhones cool features are countered by the poor 3G coverage of AT&T.

It seemed so clever to me until I realized that this wasn't the first time a Rankin/Bass animation had been morphed into an ad. Please recall this spot from Christmas 2007:



The Aflac Duck, created by Kaplan Thaler Group and voiced by the incomparable Gilbert Gottfried, substitutes as the lead for Santa's sleigh in the stead of an incapacitated Rudolph.

A little disappointing that Verizon didn't do their homework on this one (or they didn't take into account that both commercials would appear during the same Thanksgiving Day Parade, as they did today). The spot is just so well done that I may forgive them on this one. At least it isn't Luke Wilson throwing postcards all over a map.

Regardless, hope you all enjoyed your turkey day. Gilbert wishes you all a Happy Black Friday:

I took my shirt off in public for the sake of advertising...

...or something like that.

Last week The NewHouse, the student ad agency I am a part of, took to the Quad to start a flash mob, that is, a spontaneous gathering of people in public used to garner attention from passers by for a cause.

The cause was to call attention to Hopenhagen, aka COP15, the United Nations Climate Change Conference which will convene in Denmark on December 7. We've since followed up with a connection to the online petition.

Several members of the agency (myself included, as evidenced in the horrifically pale image above) gathered on the Quad at 12:07 pm on Wednesday and removed our weather-appropriate attire for clothes (or lack thereof) more suited for the beach. We hope the message was clear: if we don't do something about climate change, the seasons as we know them could disappear.

Our work with this global client comes through Ogilvy and Mather, who I assume found out about TNH after our 2009 National Championship.

The flash mob was an experiment in a lot of non-traditional methods, including viral (we used facebook to the point of over-hyping the event) and guerrilla marketing. Our event drew reporters from several campus publications and the campus TV station, increasing impressions exponentially at no cost to us.

There's a lot of potential in events like these and we may begin seeing them on a larger scale. Ray Lapena, a friend and contemporary at Syracuse, organized a similar event (although his involved more clothes and more dancing) to build hype for his campus organization, First Year Players.

It's only a matter of time before these advertising messages will be appearing more often as advertisers attempt to get around people's ever-developing filter towards traditional marketing.

It helped that it wasn't freezing, like we expected. It was a mild 50 degrees, which may represent the start of global warming in Syracuse. I'm used to snow at this time.

50th post: Best ad on TV 11/10/09 - Captain Morgan

The reaction has to be mixed for this one. Some are amazed by the ability to pour 40 shots from one container of booze. Some probably find the spot and/or the campaign amusing if not hysterical. And others are just freaked out by the reverse ventriloquist.

While it may indeed be a great example of a "random act of creativity," the ad in general is great because the branding is pretty clear (plus "Calling All Captains" at the end, which has been a campaign going for most of 2009) and the USP is made known in the first 2 seconds of the ad.

Besides Captain Big Shot, there are also Captain Improv, Captain Keymaster, and for Halloween Captains Monster Party and Extra Mile:



The spots are all the work of Grey Worldwide

Boobs! ... Reebok to its roots

Sometimes I forget about Reebok, and I feel bad about it. The little brother brand in the athletic footwear category seems like it's always playing third fiddle to Nike and adidas. They've been unsuccessful as of late in divergent brand efforts that have just clouded their own image.

Ads like this one are what Reebok should have always been about, political correctness be damned. Reebok started as a running shoe company (Reebok is an African term for Gazelle) and in the 50s began focusing on women's fitness, a category which they dominated while they stuck to it. This should be a remarkably large category, given that most women at least try to make an effort to exercise, and that most also have a thing for shoes. It would seem (and I'm basing this on anecdotal evidence) that women embrace traditional exercise (aerobics, running, etc) more than men, who would rather participate in competitive sports for their fitness.

This is why Reebok was foolish to ever diverge from this market in the first place. In the 21st century, Reebok has made deals with the NFL, NBA, and NHL to make exclusive apparel including jerseys. Reebok also created the "Rbk" brand, which they called a
"street" inspired brand which would feature signature shoes for Jay-Z and 50 Cent. Don't get me started on the Rbk Hockey brand, because I don't understand how Ice Hockey and Jay-Z are related (except that the management of the NHL has 99 problems, wah wah wah).

Reebok was purchased by adidas in 2005 and started to get back on track, primarily because big brother's first goal was to eliminate competition with itself. This left the Hockey brands, which included a total redesign of the NHL's uniforms:



It also left the original focus of Reebok, women's fitness and running shoes designed for those people not striving to be elite athletes. This explains the recent Run Easy campaign, which used the tag "stay fit as you see fit." It was an excellent idea, although as a runner I was somewhat insulted that running could be called easy. Many more people would probably take up running (and, therefore, buy Reebok) if running were positioned as being easy.

So this brings us back to the woman's talking boobs. This is certainly the first effort I've seen by a shoe advertisement to say "they'll give you a better butt" outright. People will certainly complain that it's degrading to women, it's taking advantage of women's bodies, blah blah blah, except that the ad is designed for women. This isn't something for men to slobber over (although I admit I did stop and look when it was on TV).

Overall, I just think it's a cool concept and it's good to see Reebok focusing it's message on what I perceive to be the correct target. Now here's another one to gawk at:

Time to change majors...

...at least according to Livingston Miller in AdAge this week.

Miller claims that students aspiring to pursue a career in advertising would be better served by a major and subsequent bachelor's degree in any of the the "precious" subjects of science, history, art, literature, language and math. These are the degrees that will develop my brain, Miller says, whereas advertising is wasting my time.

Personally, I was upset upon finding out that I couldn't take more classes in advertising and have them count for credit. I am genuinely interested in this industry, and plan to enter this workforce right after I graduate from undergrad study. It is an insult and an outrage to have Mr. Miller say that he would assume someone with a Russian History major that was competing with me for a job would be "significantly brighter" than I am.

I responded to Miller's article in the only way I know how, with two heaping scoops of sarcasm:

Dr. Livingston, I presume? Or should I say, deckhand-turned-ad man Livingston, I presume.

Allow me to thank you for helping me to make up my mind and switch my major to Russian History! I had been looking for a really compelling reason to stimulate my mind with the lives of Lenin, Dostoevsky, and Gorbachev.

Of course I want to work in the advertising industry, but why bother learning things related to that? I have a whole career to bumble around at no name agencies like Seiter and Miller and learn those silly details. I'll be so much more valuable to an employer with my understanding of Marxism than any candidates who learned lame things like media planning!

After all, advertising schools certainly don't teach any of the key skills that help "Media people...know when the best deal is on the table" or that help "Creative people who ignite consumer interest with the right phrase or image." These things can't be learned...except this begs me to ask why you include Math and Art/Design in your ideal curriculum for aspiring ad people, since these are the skills they would also glean from an advertising major.

You forgot the best point of all: with a Bachelors' or Masters' in Advertising, I'll only be qualified to get an interview at almost any agency, and my carefully honed skills can help me get a job. A Russian History major, on the other hand, also has the backup plan of working as a tour guide in St. Peter's Square.

I encourage you if you are a part of this industry or just support my cause, to read Miller's article and give him a piece of your mind as well. If anything, it'll show future readers that Miller's is not the agency they want to work for and it may also show Miller that perhaps he should consider something other than the mastery of the life of Ivan the Terrible when evaluating possible new hires.

Best ad on TV 10/22: Mac vs Windows 7

Thursday night prime time is always a great time to debut commercials, in my opinion. I'm not a big TV viewer and yet I can sit down and watch straight through for more than two hours (this week, if you're curious, was Flash Forward, the Office, 30 Rock, and It's Always Sunny. It helps to have a roommate who's a TV nerd).

Combine this time slot with a lot of young viewers, and you'll usually see some good ads. Throw in the launch of a new Windows OS and it's war.



Despite my last two posts endorsing anti-Mac ads, I have to find some way to appear non-biased. As far as the commercials go, Mac won on Thursday night. It may not really be prudent to buy a Mac instead of just upgrading your OS, but it becomes an inticing alternative for people entering the new computer market, especially if they've had a negative experience with a Windows upgrade or with a computer that started with Vista.

That's exactly what this one touches on. John Hodgman is always great as "PC," but he takes it to a new level in this one. I don't know what I like more, the 1995 flipping aviators or the creepy "trust me" smile.

It's tough to go against a 90% market share behemoth in any category, but TBWA time after time does a wonderful job playing David to Microsoft's Goliath.

"iDon't" ads pit Droid against iPhone: Tonight, we dine in hell

Two posts about Verizon/Apple in a row? This must be an advertising blog...



The iPhone's dominance in the trendy smart phone category is finally going to be challenged by Verizon. The Verizon Droid, slated to come out this November, claims to be everything iPhone is not. Their clever :30 spot which came out this week lists every common qualm people have had with the iPhone and does so by cleverly spoofing every Apple ad you've ever seen, with black-on-white text and an indie sountrack. After listing all the things iPhone doesn't so ("iDon't..."), it cuts to some wild sci-fi scene with the words "Droid Does"

If Droid does do all these things, it should challenge Apple rather quickly. Despite the iPhone's dominance in the market, this ad has pinned down every reason people would have to switch, or to not choose iPhone in the first place if they're shopping for their first smart phone. A lot of them aren't really a big deal ("iDon't take pictures in the dark; iDon't run simultaneous apps"), but the biggies are things like "iDon't have a real keyboard," "iDon't allow open development," and of course, the lack of "The Network," Verizon's primary leg up on the competition.

A visit to the official website, DroidDoes, offers little information except that seen in the ads: all the things Droid does, most of which iPhone does not. You can sign up to receive email updates, and there is a strange countdown in some alien language that Christopher Daggett at TechCrunch has apparently decoded to mean a countdown to October 30 at 1:00:00 AM.

Verizon Droid by Motorola (photos courtesy Boy Genius Report)

You have to think that Verizon is finally getting it right, going for the jugular in their war with AT&T. It all boils down to a pretty simple message, "Our network is better than yours, and our stuff is as cool as yours, nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah." By all accounts, the next large battle will commence with the next shot heard round the world, sometime around October 30.

Verizon: Don't you forget about me

With all the buzz building around Apple's iPhone, it's about time the guys at VW retaliated.

There's a Map For That:


They could have gone the parody route, saying "there's an ap for" various ridiculous things, but the way they did this I think is awesome. Verizon has been using the "map," that is, the one of their 3G coverage, for a while. Finally they hammer home with consumers the basic advantage they have: if you buy an iPhone and go to AT&T, you'll lose 80% of the 3G coverage you could have with Verizon.

Excuse me as an aspiring ad practitioner for not bowing to the mighty Apple, but finally someone is swinging back at their snarky, indie spots they've been running for years.

It's good to see Windows taking a shot too, with the "I'm a PC, and I'm..." campaign. In the spots, they give people cash if they can find a computer within their budget, and it's always a PC because Macs are too expensive. Another clever way to take a shot at the ad giant's chinks in the armor.



Then again, if everything was about cost and functionality, this industry wouldn't exist. Thanks, Mr. Jobs.

Best ad on TV 10/8: Tabasco

As much as the faces on the pepperonis might freak you out, this is just an all around great ad. Despite never seeing an ad for Tabasco brand hot sauce before, we all know what it is or at least that it exists.

They identify the product in the first 2 seconds of the ad, have the humorous value of singing pepperoni as well as a memorable jingle (which can go horribly wrong sometimes), and they bring it all together with the tag line "So Much More Than Hot." That line makes me get it; as a heavy user of the hot sauce category, I can tell you that a lot of times you are just trying to mask the actual flavor of something by dousing it in Frank's, for example. The idea that Tabasco sauce enhances the flavors rather than covers them is an awesome, unique one.

I may indeed try Tabasco on my pizza real soooooooon. Great, now that's in my head. Damn signing toppings.

The FTC won't let me be

Last week I had the chance to attend a seminar entitled "Is This Ad Legal?" given by Lesley Fair, an attorney for the Federal Trade Commission. The gist of her message was, "if you see me again, you're probably in trouble," meaning we'd have screwed up by producing an ad deemed to be "unfair."

It would seem like someone like Fair (a most apros pos name, given her position) would be the enemy, but alas, she doesn't need to be. There is beauty in truth when it comes to advertising. In an industry consistently ranked near the bottom in the perceived honesty of its practitioners, there is indeed value in the truth. If I'm trying to create a successful long term campaign for anything, there is no advantage to being dishonest, I'll only feel the wrath of my customers and my competitors. As long as it's a fair game, I'm convinced I'm going to win.

Fair seemed to be all over a bunch of famous or formerly famous brands which had stretched the truth or otherwise did it injustice through omission. Why then, are there so many unfair advertisements in the media? Pretty much any ad on the web comes to mind, but how about the case of US fidelis:



This auto insurance claims to be better than the warranty on your car, and it is if by better they mean a much much bigger rip off. I looked into this after seeing the commercial featuring Rusty Wallace on ESPN over the summer. It disgusts me that any celebrity sponsor can jump onto an illegitimate company like this one (then again, you already know how I feel about celebrity endorsement in general).

Another more famous example of ads that shouldn't be allowed to exist:



A lot of people say they like these ads. The video even has a 5 rating and more than 500,000 views on YouTube. The ads are, however, misleading. Of course the site is not free. Unless an ad is clearly a public service announcement, you can probably expect that it is trying to solicit money from you. Not only is it not free, but most "customers" don't know this until their credit card is billed monthly for the chance to receive their "free" credit reports. The ad is even dishonest in it's portrayal of the characters: the lead singer of the freecreditreport.com band is Eric Violette, a French-Canadian actor who does not speak English. That bears repeating. This guy only speaks French. He doesn't even sing the super catchy songs.

Ms. Fair showed us the FTC's rendition of these commercials, theirs for AnnualCreditReport.com, the site that actually allows you to see your credit reports three times per year for free:



Beauty in truth? Yes. Good use of taxpayer money? Maybe.