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.

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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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