The fight to make St. Paddy's a holiday

You may have noticed this campaign from Guinness, which asks Guinness drinkers to sign a petition, which will be presented to Congress, requesting that St. Patrick's Day be declared a national holiday. (The site for the promo is proposition317.com and print ads to drive traffic to the site have been running as well.) When Guinness gets to one million signatures, which it's obviously not close to, it'll make the trip to Washington, DC. Great idea, but as a campaign it's kind of a one-off. Don't think Guinness can pull this stunt every year.

Dentsu's Wikipedia entry: just facts, no sex

It's been awhile since I continued my series on agency Wikipedia entries, so—it being what appears to be a slow news day—here's a look at the one from Dentsu. (Last one was Crispin ... I'm going in more-or-less alphabetical order). In short, it manages to turn the world's largest agency (actually it calls it "one of the largest agency brands in the world" which is a bit of an understatement) sound really boring. Except for the 48-floor Dentsu building in Tokyo, which, the Wikipedia entry explains, "is the eleventh-tallest building in Tokyo ... designed by Jean Nouvel, the French architect." But if you're looking for who Dentsu's clients are, or whether any one at the company has been to a Czech brothel, don't look here.

Why it's important to read Page Six

Because then you'd know stuff like this, which was buried in the "Sightings" item yesterday: "HULK Hogan dining on salmon and salad at Del Frisco with maverick ad man and BBDO boss John Osborn and signing autographs for fans ... "

An interview with Bryan Buckley

Over at Adweek, the featured video interview this week is with Bryan Buckley, who, in addition to directing ads, has been running a Web video channel, Hungry Man TV. If you're into irony, you'll find it a-plenty. One segment of the interview is about "Undercover Cheerleaders," one of Hungry Man's shows. Buckley says that he's just finished shooting a pilot for it at the behest of one of the networks. See? It's still all about TV.

And now, Martin Scorsese for AT&T

Came across this PSA, which I think is meant to remind people to turn off their cell phones at the movies. Features the increasingly ubiquitous Martin Scorsese, who does a great rendition of himself.

Orville Redenbacher still not dead

I suppose this spot for Orville Redenbacher popcorn is better than the infamous one from Crispin that resurrected Orville last year, but it's still pretty creepy. It uses a Dr. Phil spoof to sell popcorn and then gives Orville a cameo at the end. Ugh. Looks like this is the work of Venables, Bell & Partners. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: let Orville rest in peace.

Is this Toyota ad an homage or a rip-off?

Is it intentional that this Toyota Corolla ad is a ripoff of a commercial from the 1970s in which someone cut a diamond in the back of a car to prove how smooth the ride was? I want to say it was for a Ford or a Chrysler. What was more memorable was a "Saturday Night Live" spoof of the original ad featuring Dan Ackroyd and Gilda Radner in which a newborn was circumcised by a rabbi in the back seat of the "Royal Deluxe II."

And the YouTube-a-bowl's bottom five

I promise this is my final Super Bowl 2008 post, but wanted to point out which commercials have gotten the least YouTube streams. (The least-streamed spot is embedded above.) Note to self: if I'm ever a movie marketing exec might wanna pass on a Super Bowl buy. The bottom five, in descending-to-the-very-bottom order, are:

Fifth worst: Jack in the Box "Make a Jack Sandwich." (wondering if this one only ran in spot). 37,240 streams.
4. AMP Energy drink spot featuring Dale Earnhart and a camel. 35,075 streams.
3. Trailer for "88 Minutes." 13,728 streams.
2. Trailer for "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins." 17,340 streams.
1. Trailer for "Vantage Point." 13,033 streams.

Another ridiculous, great Old Spice ad

Was looking for the new Old Spice spot starring Will Ferrell as Jackie Moon. Instead I tripped across this new Old Spice commercial. If "Slide" is a 9 on a scale of one to 10, this is a 12. Via Wieden + Kennedy.

Live blogging CNBC's Nike documentary because I just happen to be in front of the TV

So I'm watching the CNBC documentary "Swoosh: Inside Nike," which hasn't told me anything I didn't know already, but sure beats watching Donny Deutsch's show, which it's pre-empting. The focus on Wieden+Kennedy starts about 20 minutes in, with an interview with Dan. They're showing all the stuff you'd expect, perhaps overplaying the whole suit by the Beatles about using the song "Revolution," but providing a decent flashback to "Bo Knows", the creation of the "Just Do It' theme line, and the power of the Michael Jordan/Spike Lee collaboration. Oh wait, here's Charles Barkley calling the greatest thing he's ever done in his career the Nike ad in which he declared "I am not a role model." Tiger Woods isn't saying he feels the same way about that ad where he bounces the golf ball off his golf club. Nor is LeBron James saying it about his contribution to the Nike oeuvre. No mention about Crispin, Porter + Bogusky edging in on Wieden's turf recently. Makes sense. That's the kind of thing that only ad nerds care about. OK, now the show is moving on to Nike's overseas labor problems. Even though you could argue that the story of Nike is the story of advertising, the focus on the ads got about ten minutes of time.

Who really won the YouTube-a-bowl

OK, I know the post below is supposed to be the answer to the question, "What was the most popular Super Bowl commercial on YouTube?" But, I asked myself this morning because I have no life, "Wouldn't the best Super Bowl spot according to YouTube be the one that has gotten the most streams?" (And isn't voting on YouTube a little bit redundant? Don't you vote by clicking the 'play' button?) If number of streams is your metric, the clear winner is the SoBe LifeWater "Thrillicious" commercial (above), which has been streamed almost a million times so far. (This, as with all the numbers in this post, are using the versions of the commercials available at this link on YouTube.) Here's the rest of the top 10 Super Bowl spots so far, as ordered by number of streams.

2. E*Trade Trading Baby (well, I prefer to call this "Barfing Baby," but I suppose that would detract from the selling proposition). 847,707 streams.
3. Derek Jeter and G2. 762,489 streams.
4. E*Trade Banking Baby. 717,936 streams.
5. Bridgestone Scream. 643,287 streams.
6. CareerBuilder Queen of Hearts. 493,915 streams.
7. Bud Light Jackie Moon. 480,997 streams.
8. Tide to Go Interview (which got the most YouTube votes. Go figure.) 442,923 streams.
9. CareerBuilder Firefly. 440,297 streams.
10. Victoria's Secret . 431,699 streams.

Tide Wins YouTube-a-Bowl

YouTube this morning unveiled the winner of its poll to determine the best Super Bowl ad of all, and the winner is "Talking Stain" from Tide. There are now a gazillion polls of Super Bowl ads out there, of course, but interesting to see how the spot did now as opposed to how it did in the USA Today AdMeter. In that poll, it tied for tenth with the Sobe LifeWater spot featuring the serial cellphone thrower dancing with a bunch of Geico Geckos.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 02.11.08

Wherein I scan the Monday morning headlines so you don't have to:

From Advertising Age:

—How will a recession affect ad spending? You can read this, but you still won't know the answer.
—You might want to find out who Michael Copps is.
—An interview with Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi about why it would be good for everyone—except maybe Google—if it bought Yahoo. (Interview was before Yahoo rejected its bid.)
—Why Naked entered into the warm embrace of Photon.
—Are you ready for big, big magazines?
—Having your brain-scanned while watching Super Bowl ads.
—Rance Crain wants to kill Sears.

From Adweek:

—This headline is really from Friday, but Jay-Z, Interpublic and a guy from Interscope are opening an ad agency.
—Also from Friday: Marian Salzman heading to Porter Novelli from JWT.
—Dave Morgan plans to leave AOL.
—CNN to launch a user-generated news site.
—Publicis and Hal Riney launch a new campaign for Hungry Man dinners.
—Debut campaign from Eleven Inc. for Virgin America Airlines.

When I clicked on the "In Print" link this morning, it was all content from last week, so I'm assuming this is part of the new biweekly schedule. On the other hand, not sure I got a print edition last week. If you got one, report back.

From Brandweek:

—In a tough economy, free-standing inserts are in!
—Tostitos focuses on the Food Network's Ingrid Hoffman in its new campaign.
—And now, the social network for Las Vegas-bound travelers.
—NASCAR puts marketing into fifth.
—Procter & Gamble makes the Times Square Shuttle smell better.

From Mediapost:

—General Motors launches a wiki at GMNext.com.
—Landor says iconic brands will suffer in an economic slump.
—Revenue Science creates the Behavorial Targeting Standards Consortium.
—Not surprisingly, the writers' strike spurred more traffic in online video.
—Fast Company launches a user-generated content site.

What we're hearing from The Delaney Report:

—Is BBDO vulnerable on Chrysler?
—Walt Disney is looking for agencies for movie marketing and advertising.

From The New York Times:

Over in the U.K., they're having a hard time coming up with a fat logo.

Nothing of interest in The Wall Street Journal, so that's it for today. Have a good one.