Adverganza

Pondering whether the new Adweek will hit its target -- or miss it

2011-04-15T14:02:00.002-05:00

For anyone who worked at Adweek during its glory years (which ended, roughly, about four or five years ago), this week has felt odd, like a much-anticipated birth and an inevitable death are happening at the same time.

That's because, come Monday, the new Adweek will launch. And while there have been many "new" Adweeks over the years, this one is the newest of all, because the people running it now represent the biggest change in management the magazine has ever seen. Unless you've been living in a tunnel, I speak of Michael Wolff, who has been the editorial director since the fall, and Richard Beckman, the CEO, who came in when Adweek, and other publications in what was once Nielsen Business Media, like the Hollywood Reporter and Billboard, were bought by a group of investors in late 2009.

The decision that has already made headlines is the closure of Brandweek and Mediaweek, as Adweek, under the new banner "The Voice of Media," will take on the missions of those two publications. (The new vision -- and Wolff's background -- seems to indicate it will take on the mantle more of the latter than the former.)

Though the sentimental part of me doesn't want to see either go away -- I worked at the Adweek Group for most of two decades -- the issue that's far more concerning is the overall editorial direction of what remains. I've said in this space before that it would have made sense years ago to roll the magazines into one -- partly to save a few trees and money, sure, but also because the lines that separate marketing, media and advertising have been blurring for at least a decade. Today, people who work in those industries need to know each other's business like never before. Additionally, from a practical standpoint, for the last few years, the magazines have shared a lot of content and staff. Publishing one publication, instead of three, is the most practical move imaginable.

The new owners realize this. But here's where, so far, they are showing signs of significantly missing the mark: by trying to make Adweek part of the New York media industrial complex. That complex is an obsessive, gossipy place, where mastheads -- to the extent they still exist -- are closely scrutinized, and winners and losers are as closely watched as Anna Wintour during Fashion Week. But it's also got little to do with what the backroom of the media industrial complex is about -- and that's been the target market for these magazines. Here are a few head-scratching stories I've seen in the magazines, and online, over the last few months:

The Royals 2.0: A March 7 Brandweek cover story (see above) on how Kate Middleton rebrands the monarchy. Does a brand manager at Procter & Gamble really care?
The Rachel Sterne Papers: A February 6 story about whether New York's new chief digital officer really deserves her job. Unless you're doing business with the city of New York -- and most people in the industry are not -- does this mean anything to you?
Virginia Heffernan Gets a New Job at the Times: A March 31 lead story at Adweek.com about her move to the Opinion pages, to which most people -- even those in the industry -- would respond, "Virgina who?"

This is not a criticism of the stories themselves -- rather of whether they really resonate with the people who traditionally have subscribed to these magazines and visited their Web sites. Some of the content we're accustomed to is still there, but it's often buried in favor of news that's perceived to be sexier to the mostly New York-based media intelligentsia.

With which I'll discuss the hole in my logic you could drive a truck through: that if you are intent on reinventing the magazines, connecting with the existing audience doesn't matter.

True. But what we've seen so far in terms of editorial slant -- and that probably won't change a lot when the new Adweek launches on Monday, even if the packaging does -- is something that stands a good chance of abandoning the core audience in an attempt to attract new readers, who could care less about CPMs, rate cards and who just won the Novartis media account. (Yes, I've made this point before.) But there are loads of publications and blogs that serve those people -- ranging from Gawker to The New York Observer's Media Mob to Romenesko. Even with the plethora of ad, media and marketing blogs, the mechanics of the media and advertising business isn't covered quite as closely.

If I'm right, what you're left with is this: an existing group of readers and subscribers who feel the publications have abandoned them (case in point: the ego-fulfilling guest columns from industry figures have gone by the way side, I'm told) -- and another market that is served quite well elsewhere -- because people in media love nothing more than to write about themselves.

Not that I envy the task before Wolff and Beckman. It could be there's no answer here, because it's very likely the real problem with Adweek is that it needs to rejuvenate and relaunch itself during a time that's never been so inhospitable to magazines.

Particularly for the people I know who still work there, I hope I'm wrong. And once the thing launches next week, I promise to analyze how much of what I've said here is right and how much is off the mark. (It's school vacation week, so give me a little time.)

With that, many of my former Adweek, Brandweek and Mediaweek colleagues, will watch, and wait, for Monday morning.

(Full disclosure, for those that don't know me well -- I do a lot of work for Mediapost, an Adweek rival. That has nothing to do with the thoughts expressed here.)

More thoughts on why ad industry coverage has changed

2011-04-05T10:59:00.000-05:00

Advertising Age yesterday ran a story on the decline in newspaper advertising columns, which was pegged to the recent departure of Lewis Lazare from the Chicago Sun-Times. As of now, the only five-day-a-week ad column is Stuart Elliott's column in The New York Times (though, of course, Stuart shares it with other reporter)s.

The writer of the piece, former Wall Street Journal ad columnist Briain Steinberg, points out how smaller newspaper staffs have affected coverage -- and also on how the changing nature of the ad biz itself took what was once a navel-gazing industry into the broader technological world. But, to get more specific, the thing that most stands out to me about how ad coverage has changed is that what constitutes news is entirely different than what it was, say, 20 years ago, during the last few years of what might be considered the "old" industry.

What we ad reporters did back then, primarily, was cover ad mergers and acquisitions, management and new business pitches. News used to be a story about who the four finalists were for a $50 million account (as if billings figures mattered anyway). If I could count the man-hours we spent at Adweek chasing that shit down!

Now, that way of covering the business is practically dead, but it wasn't just lack of resources that caused it -- not that Steinberg thinks it was. But I have my own spin on it. Thinking back, that sort of coverage, which amounted to endlessly chasing the same story, was a sign that we were covering a business that had grown incredibly static. Accounts came and went, as did agency owners, as did creative directors, but, at the end of the day, we were simply covering the movement of the same pieces around the industry chessboard over and over again. We didn't realize it at the time, but that's why the bar for what constituted news was so incredibly low.

Now, the only thing that counts are stories that reflect the seismic changes the industry has been going through. In Steinberg's piece, Joanne Lipman -- the former Conde Nast Portfolio editor, who also launched the Journal's ad column -- notes that now ad news is about companies like Google and Facebook, which are covered by mainstream business reporters. Those two companies, along with all of the other technology plays that surround them -- ranging from streaming video to mobile to the iPad, have transformed the way the industry is covered.

While technological innovation has been part of the industry since its inception, when it comes to reporting, what we're caught in now is the race to define the Next Big Thing, and how it will change the ad industry. Cable, once upon a time, was the next big thing (lowercase purely intended), as was television itself, but their integration into the mainstream was so slow that, relatively speaking, they could be easily digested not only by the industry, but by those covering it. They were also far less technologically complex. Thus, industry news gave way to an endless focus on account reviews and new TV campaigns, as if those types of events really mattered.

The odd part is that most advertising money is still spent in older technologies. But once you've covered the network TV upfront, Super Bowl ads and griped about Nielsen ratings, there isn't all that much to say.

How to improve upon TED's "Ad Worth Spreading"

2011-03-07T13:23:00.000-05:00

As you may have noticed, last week the TED conference named the winners of its "Ads Worth Spreading" contest, a TED-esque spin on that hoary institution, the advertising award. It's an intriguing idea, if for no other reason than this particular contest doesn't seem to have been dreamed up by the advertising industry. It also stands out because, in a world where ad awards are given out for every sub-category imaginable, this competition focuses simply on ads (of no one, specified length) that the judges deemed worth sharing with other people. Nice. Isn't that the bottom line? (A video describing why "Ads Worth Spreading" came about is above.)

But, if you were to assume that this meant the judges would lie outside the industry, you'd be wrong. And that's how TED can improve on this idea, assuming this becomes an annual contest -- "Ads Worth Spreading" simply cries out for judges who aren't in the industry, or at least a roster that includes a healthy dose of people who are noteworthy because they have little insight into the ins and outs of advertising and its sibling businesses like design, and communications.

Don't get me wrong -- some of this year's judges, like Goodby's Barbara Lippert, Socialistic's Colleen DeCourcy and CP+B's Jeff Benjamin -- are among my favorite people in the ad world, but I think we'd all benefit from knowing what other members of the TED-erati think of what the industry creates.

Maybe the results would be the same as what came out this time around. The panel selected truly wonderful work from agencies including Wieden + Kennedy for Chrysler, Nike and Nokia, Mother NY and Legs Media for Target, Venables Bell and Partners for Intel -- you get the drift. Of course, this meant a relative scarcity of winners from the behemoths that run the industry: The only big, New York-based agency that made the top ten was Ogilvy -- for a truly moving ad for The Topsy Foundation from its Johannesburg office. (The full list is here.)

But I always wonder how much of what we decide we like in the industry is pre-determined by what we know. Do we subconsciously like "Born of Fire," the Chrysler spot that won here -- and received critical acclaim after it aired on the Super Bowl -- because the industry (understandably) loves Wieden + Kennedy? Conversely, do we poo-poo work from industry behemoths because they are industry behemoths?

It's hard to say, which is why next year, I'd love to see TED populate its judges list for "Ads Worth Spreading" with TED-ders like Mark Bittman, or John Doerr, or Dave Eggers. God knows, there are dozens to choose from. After all, if ads are to be truly worth spreading, they have to be deemed worth spreading beyond the confines of the insular industry that created them.

Today in stupid: The Grammys

2011-02-15T10:58:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, finding media and advertising companies who do things that aren't in keeping with the times (pun!) is like shooting fish in a barrel. Still, you have to hand it to the Grammys for attaining a level of cluelessness rarely reached even by the dumbest old media company. Sunday night's show was the best-rated in about a decade; the performances are essentially music videos, but as AllThingsD's Peter Kafka points out, you can't get any of the performances online, unless you happen to go on YouTube during the nanosecond before an illegally-loaded clip gets pulled down.

Come to think of it, this isn't the first year where I've tried to find Grammy clips during the morning after. The best I could do today was a 7-second clip on the HuffPo of Christina Aguilera falling down after the show's Aretha Franklin tribute, and a brief look at Gwyneth Paltrow and Cee Lo Green in one of the stranger duets in a show full of them.

The Grammys refusal to post clips of the show is impossible to understand on several levels:

1. There's a huge appetite to see parts of the program the next day, either because you couldn't believe what you saw the first time or because you want to know what you missed.
2. Video clips like those on the Grammys are extremely monetizable. Do you know how easy it should be to sell some pre-roll before a Grammy musical performance? Hell, call Chrysler and get them to buy the pre-roll before Eminem's performance!
3. Once the show is over, the content is more or less worthless, unless, of course, you notice that this thing called the Internet could keep the content paying dividends for quite some time. We're used to the cannibalization arguments that often are the reason content producers are cautious about distributing their shows on the Web. But in this case it just doesn't apply.

According to Kafka, the Grammys are citing some mealy-mouthed stuff about the complications over rights as the reason why these clips aren't in broad, revenue-producing circulation. Whatever. Though I'm not saying much that Kafka didn't say already, I would like to at least take the extra step of giving the show an award: Grammys -- you're the winner of today in stupid!

Should Adverganza come back from the dead?

2011-02-14T09:55:00.002-05:00

So, I'm trying to figure out whether to revive this little thing called Adverganza, which, once upon a time, had a bit of traction in the crowded marketplace for advertising blogs. It went comatose because of my craven need to actually make money blogging, and also, because of time -- or lack thereof. The bottom line -- that's almost a pun -- is that once I was getting paid to blog at BNET, it became pretty hard to justify blogging here. Still, I missed it.
Yes, in the macro-sense, I should have kept blogging here, continuing to build the epic that is My Personal Brand. But reality begged to differ. As a Mom of two kids who tries mainly to work only when they're in school, everything is about the micro -- the crucial act of getting everyone through the day. My work day comes to a hard stop once the kids are out of school, so there's no time to waste on frivolous, non-profit blogging! It's all about getting work done for the people who pay me, to whom I'm eternally grateful because they've allowed me some modicum of balance. I don't know of any woman who has been able to build the career I have while still driving the afternoon soccer practice and doing a little too much volunteer work at the elementary school
But now things have changed, yet again. Friday was my last post for BNET, and yet, as I said in that post, stopping blogging is unthinkable; it's a reflex, like breathing. I've been blogging since 2004, when we started AdFreak over at Adweek, and so typing some thoughts into a little box and hitting "Publish" is like second nature. It's just what I do.
Perhaps the best thing, on a personal level, about blogging on a daily basis (my weekly Social Media Insider column for Mediapost will continue), is that it's a daily discipline of collecting and analyzing the news. Without that, if you're as accustomed to blogging as I am, you begin to feel untethered, like a balloon that has slipped out of someone's hand and has started drifting aimlessly skyward. Blogging grounds me in what I do, which I have come to need -- particularly since I work from home. As anyone who does knows, it's a daily struggle to stay on task when there is not only paying work to do, but laundry to start, a cat to let out, doctors' appointments to make, and so forth. Knowing that somehow I had to push out at least one post every day gives it all a sense of structure.
That said, if I'm to revive Adverganza, it really shouldn't be about me, but about the people who used to read this. If it were to come back, would anyone care? Or have the last two and a half years, in which this blog was pretty much on hiatus, made it not worth the effort? And what if another paying blog gig catches my eye? Will I abandon this again or be able to rethink how I spend my time, and find a way to squeeze Adverganza in? And, is there a way for me to make money at this? (Damn, back to the money again!)
I ask all these questions in public because they've been swirling through my mind for weeks now, with no real answers emerging. If you've got one, let me know.

Conan gives Groupon the parody ads it deserves

2011-02-10T17:08:00.006-05:00

Granted, the Groupon campaign that launched on the Super Bowl is pretty low-hanging fruit, but you gotta love this series of five spoof ads (so far) produced by the gang at Conan. All manner of human and animal tragedy is exploited: the Hindenburg, SARS, the BP oil spill, Saddam's reign of terror in Iraq. Between that, the hilariously bad puns, and the sheer number of ads, these get successively funnier. It also makes you wonder if, in fact, there is such a thing as bad publicity.

I'm still an ad expert, per USA Today

2011-02-09T10:45:00.001-05:00

Hi all. I know I haven't weighed in here in awhile ... A long while, but as this is Adverganza, thought I should at least share this link from USA Today to what the so-called experts, including me, thought of this year's Super Bowl ads. By and large, though the newspaper didn't ask the question, I thought this year's crop was really disappointing. VW Darth Vader ad? Cute, but ultimately, meh!

Case in point, my favorite spot wasn't actually a spot, but a promo for "House." Below.

I also dug Eminem's spot for Chrysler. Wrote about that over here. OK, back to work for which people pay me.

Sergio Zyman tells "The Daily Show" the ugly truth about Coke's "Mean Joe Greene" commercial

2010-01-06T12:47:00.001-05:00

Had to share this clip of ex-Coke executive Sergio Zyman on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" last night. The context: correspondent John Oliver tries to identify what those simpler times were that keep being looked back on nostalgically by some media talking heads. What follows is something you might not know or remember about the classic "Mean Joe Greene" spot for Coke. Whether Zyman realizes this is a joke or not is something I can't really discern.

The demise of Cliff Freeman and Partners -- and a certain kind of TV ad

2009-11-09T18:09:00.000-05:00

The demise of Cliff Freeman and Partners last week marks the end of an era in many ways. First, it in all likelihood is the end of a certain comedic style — unless Freeman manages to move elsewhere — and it is also another death knell for agencies which rely too much on TV commercials as the default medium for advertising. By some accounts, among the problems the shop faced was that its emphasis on traditional forms of media over digital ones wasn’t in favor with most clients. (The faltering economy certainly didn’t help either.)

Whatever the case, it’s hard to imagine that even commercials the caliber of Freeman’s could capture the pop culture zeitgeist the way that “Where’s the Beef?” did in 1984, or the gerbil being shot out of a cannon did for Cyberian Outpost during the dot-com boom. (Clara Peller, the then-octogenarian who appeared in that famous “Wendy’s” spot, is pictured above.) TV commercials don’t capture the popular imagination the way they once did; it’s another casualty of the era of micro-targeted media..

For the fun of it, below is an overlooked commercial Freeman did for Wendy’s while at Dancer Fitzgerald Sample. Take a look and have a laugh at “Russian Fashion Show”:

My BNET Media posts for the week of November 2, 2009

2009-11-06T16:07:00.001-05:00

This week at BNET Media, I wax on about Conan O'Brien climbing in the trunk of a Ford Taurus, Jay Leno getting real, and "Southland" scaring NBC -- even though Halloween is over. Here in reverse chronological order, is some of the finest content on this side of the Adverganza:

Feel free to follow our feed on Twitter, @bnetmedia.

The Weezer Snuggie: It rocks ... and it's real

2009-11-05T12:53:00.000-05:00

OK, just discovered this over at AdFreak. You can get the Wheezer Snuggie and their new CD for a lo, lo $29.95. I dare you not to watch.

Teaching social media workshop at Art Directors Club, Nov. 9

2009-11-05T12:09:00.000-05:00

Just a quick heads up that I'm going to be teaching a social media workshop at the Art Directors Club of New York on Monday starting at 5, with the help of Greg Christman of Sam & Lori, otherwise known as @reelspit (I don't know why.) Our goal is to help people in advertising build their personal brands via blogging, Twitter and other tools. It's very hands-on -- attendees should really try to bring their own laptop so they can get their fingers dirty -- and will teach all anyone needs to know to be able to walk out of the room a few hours later with their own blog set up and a burgeoning Twitter presence. After that, your nefarious plan to rule the ad blogosphere is out of my hands.

The Social Media Insider looks at the social net-energized portals

2009-11-04T15:46:00.000-05:00

In today's Social Media Insider, I ponder what it means when everyone of the Big Three portals — the latest being MSN — allows users to put their social nets on their home pages. In case you doubted it, the era of the portal is now officially done.

The Social Media Insider gets lost in the social media universe

2009-10-28T22:20:00.000-05:00

Spent a long time today looking for a Social Media Insider column idea and discovered that the real problem was the information overload engine, which had overwhelmed by brain. Read more over at Mediapost. As a bonus, this column also makes reference to dead people on Facebook.

Publicis to stop creating print ads

2009-10-27T13:17:00.001-05:00

At least that's my takeaway from Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Levy's statement during the third-quarter earnings call that the agency holding company plans to become an "all-digital agency." And by the way, they'll be no analog radio or static billboards made at Publicis anymore, so there!

Seriously though, even as a believer in digital, I find proclamations of becoming all digital to be positively cringe-worthy because they have a "hook, line and sinker" quality to them that indicates those doing the proclaiming have had more than their fair share of of Kool-Aid. While it's true that all kinds of media are becoming more digital than less -- including such former stalwarts as TV, there's still a little something to be said for magazines, newspapers and other forms of analog media, isn't there? Isn't there?

Marital infidelity, now appearing on Sprint's Now Network

2009-10-26T10:40:00.002-05:00

For reasons that escape me -- something to do with fatigue, I'm sure -- I ended up watching just a little "Desperate Housewives" last night, and thus, came across this brand integration scheme: the Another Desperate Housewife" series sponsored by Sprint's Now Network. Its connections to the actual show, no pun intended, are many: the mischievous music, perfect houses and great-looking people among them.

But, of course, there's also the philandering, and that's where this little homage gets, to me, very off base. Sprint phones figure prominently — as the means with which to prove that your spouse is cheating. So, next time you feel the urge to check up on them, I highly suggest that you use Sprint's Now Network to see if that text message that just arrived is really from your husband's office. I understand the urge to seamlessly integrate programs with products these days, but do you really want to position your phone as a great way to spy on your spouse? I don't think so.

My BNET Media posts for the week of October 19, 2009

2009-10-23T15:10:00.000-05:00

Let's hear it for blatant self-promotion! This week on BNET Media, I wrestled with Big Ads, NPR's Twitter followers, Balloon Boy and Fox News. Here, in reverse chronological order, are some damn fine posts:

You can follow our posts @bnetmedia if you want. Have a good weekend.

If you look really hard, maybe you'll see Derek Jeter

2009-10-23T11:06:00.000-05:00

Something tells me there's a new series debuting on USA tonight.

So, what is the truth about Tony?

2009-10-22T15:29:00.001-05:00

I've spent way too much time today trying to figure out what the point is of this video, "The Truth About Tony" which is currently on the Burger King site and presumably the work of one Crispin Porter + Bogusky. I get that the Tony in question, Tony Stewart, is a NASCAR guy who has an ongoing relationship with The King -- from an endorsement point of view. What I don't get is why, in this video, Tony undergoes a polygraph test, judging how truthfully he answers questions from viewers, closing with the inevitable BK questions -- about whether he loves the Whopper sandwich. (He does, and he didn't lie about it.)

OK, but at the beginning of this post, I said I couldn't figure out what the point of this was. Here are my questions:

Why would people sit through 15 minutes of this? It's at least that long.
Why can't you pause the version on BK.com, or or embed it?
Why does the page with the video on it not even indicate how long it is?
Why hasn't BK posted this to YouTube? (LiveStream, which provided the streaming for this, posted a blissfully abridged version.)
Did Old Spice and Office Depot, whose logos are prominently featured on Stewart's shirt, sign off on this BK stunt?

Anyone who can answer these questions, lemme know.

The Social Media Insider wonders if real-time search is all it's cracked up to be

2009-10-21T16:45:00.001-05:00

If you did anything, anywhere on a social network today, you probably saw that Microsoft's Bing is starting to offer real-time search of tweets and Facebook status updates. The Social Media Insider asks if we should be quite so excited about this..

Ads that annoy: Volume 1, Windex

2009-10-21T12:39:00.000-05:00

Just saw this Windex ad as a pre-roll to a preview of "The Biggest Loser" at NBC.com. Not that the guy in this ad would qualify for the show, but do you really think, in the real world, he would snare this woman? (OK, maybe if he worked at Goldman Sachs.) This commercial had to have been concocted by men.

Verizon decides it's time to make fun of the iPhone on two fronts

2009-10-20T12:00:00.002-05:00

With Apple still selling iPhones like there's no tomorrow -- it sold 7.4 million of them in the last quarter -- it's not exactly tme to kick the company in the teeth while it's down on its luck. So what's up with the two campaigns out right now from Verizon that make fun of the iPhone specifically, and iCulture in general?

The first is the campaign below for Verizon's new Motorola 'Droid phone; in the nanosecond that the campaign's been out, it's at least managed to gain some notoriety, even though all of those references to "iDon't" makes it sound, well, like a dumbphone unless you're paying attention. The references to iDon't are actually about the iPhone. More than 700,000 YouTube views later, here's the spot, which has led some to speculate that the endless poking of fun at the iPhone may kill any possibility of Verizon becoming an iPhone carrier too. (Damn!)

The second attacks the iPhone in a more obtuse way. In this one, a voiceover intones over and over that, "There's a map for that" instead of the iPhone-esque, "There's an app for that." The maps in question are really ones showing that Verizon's 3G coverage across the U.S. is much stronger than AT&T's — AT&T, of course, being the sole carrier for the aforementioned iPhone, which kind of lives for 3G.

My BNET Media posts for the week of October 12, 2009

2009-10-16T15:14:00.000-05:00

Let's hear it for blatant self-promotion! This week on BNET Media, I wrestled with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Balloon Boy, and clouds. In reverse chronological order, here's what I posted:

Have a good weekend!

Is social media turning us into Whiner Nation?

2009-10-15T09:53:00.000-05:00

In yesterday's edition of the Social Media Insider, which I write for Mediapost, I ponder whether social media is turning us into Whiner Nation. Pissed off at a big company? Make sure to whine about it! Preferably in public!

Some people have called this column "Spot on"; others "insulting" and "patronizing." You be the judge.

American Express learns it's not good to get Joseph Jaffe mad

2009-10-08T19:30:00.001-05:00

Those of us in the marketing business already knew that it's not a good idea to make Joseph Jaffe mad. He's one of those people who has all of the tools at his disposal to spread bad news about a brand (and good news), virally. If you want to see what I mean, check out the video above, which he, of course, posted to YouTube, posted to his Jaffe Juice blog, and has tweeted to his more than 13,000 followers. I'd be surprised if American Express hadn't noticed this by now.

Estee Lauder will beautify your lowly social networking profile pic

2009-10-08T19:19:00.000-05:00

Someone told me recently that the wonderful world of retouching has come to high school graduation pictures, and I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Being retouched to a fare-thee-well is now in reach of everyone! Even your 16-year-old who doesn't need it!

So, in this era of Photoshopping for the masses, it shouldn't be surprising — but is nonetheless a great idea — that Estee Lauder is about to bring a similar thing to the lowly social networking profile picture, while promoting itself to boot. According to Ad Age, the cosmetics company is now offering free makeovers and photo shoots for Web site profile pictures in a select group of department stores, such as Bloomingdale's New York, that carry its brand. The only "cost" for those who do it is having an Estee Lauder logo in the background on the picture, which to me seems like a minimal bother given how expensive it is to hire a makeup artist and photographer all by yourself. The brand is promoting it on its Facebook page, though the pictures themselves can appear wherever women in Estee Lauder's 35 to 55 year old target roam online.

So, will there be retouching? A little. Estee Lauder spokesperson Tara Weisenberg described it as "minor." Damn.

Pssst ... Want to learn how to blog? I'll tell you how

2009-10-07T08:43:00.000-05:00

As I slowly resurrect this little thing called Adverganza, thought I'd post about a course I'm teaching out in Westchester (New York, gang, not Pennsylvania), tomorrow night covering the basics of how to use social media tools such as blogs and Twitter. Is this stuff hard? Nah. But occasionally people think it is, so this course aims to walk people through enough of the ropes to feel comfortable dipping their toe into social media for themselves. Maybe, by the end, everyone will have even sent their first tweet. Here are the details:

When: Oct. 8, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Where: The Bakery at Four Corners, 4668 Boston Post Road, Pelham Manor, NY
Price: $20 (wine will be served, but drunk blogging is strictly prohibited)

To register, go to this link and scroll down to the course titled, "Blogging Boot Camp and Twitter Too ... " or contact Lynda LaMonte Garmong at lynda@thebetterclass.com.

Thanks all. Now back to coverage of advertising.

ANDYs Randy for Crowdsourcing Jury

2009-10-05T21:51:00.001-05:00

So, I'm reading tonight about the decision by ANDY Award co-chairs Ty Montague and Michael Lebowitz (JWT and Big Spaceship, respectively) to crowdsource the jury, actually a kind of obvious step when you think of where things are headed -- to one big crowdsourcing of everything, from advertising ideas to what to have for lunch. So what the hell, go to electthejury.com and cast your votes.

Among other things, what the duo is hoping for is: "a more accurate, fair snapshot of what has been done in the past year," according to Montague. I'm not sure about that. I stuffed my ballot box with AKQA's Rei Inamoto, because he has such a cool name; John Jay to fill the Wieden + Kennedy requirement; Simon Waterfall, because he just left his agency and doesn't have much to do; Ogilvy's Lars Bastholm because he's Lars Bastholm; and Jimmy Wales because if he ever sat for an advertising awards show I'd plotz.

The story about all this in Adweek of course led some advertising types to speculate about creative directors at big agencies getting their minions to vote early and often, thus skewing the jury, and ultimately, of course, the awards. Ah the cynicism.C'mon, I checked the site out and you can only vote once ... per day.

It occurred to me that what Montague and Lebowitz really ought to do is eliminate the jury entirely and just crowdsource the entire show. You know, cut out the middleman.

Lee Garfinkel strikes back, defends mustache

2009-02-12T09:01:00.003-05:00

Woke up this morning thinking I should post some more thoughts in the Lee Garfinkel-gets-canned-for-Eric-Silver saga, because what struck me was how, when the swap out was eventually confirmed, the commenters had turned a bit more positive by my subjective estimation. The detractors were still there, of course, but you could see the hatefest slowly playing itself out. The whole incident makes me think we all should have a commenter SWAT team, at the ready, for whenever our reputation is being impugned online. Rally those Facebook friends and Twitter followers!

Anyway, this morning @bmorrissey pointed out that now Lee, back from Antarctica (yes, he was in Antarctica during this whole thing), has stricken back with a 825-word story at Adweek.com in which he mostly defends the trashing of his ... mustache.

He also claims to have started a blog, blogaboutlee.com in which people can continue to comment about him, but he hasn't, really; it's just a parked GoDaddy page, owned by Adweek.

The Times' Weekender ads finally get the spoof they deserve

2009-02-10T22:00:00.004-05:00

Thank God someone finally made fun of those ads for "The Weekender" package from The New York Times. Whenever I see one, it actually makes me reverse policy and think that maybe it going away wouldn't be such a bad thing after all.

BBDO's Eric Silver going to DDB is only part of the story

2009-02-06T09:12:00.003-05:00

You may have seen the story at Adweek.com yesterday saying that BBDO executive cd Eric Silver had departed, supposedly heading to sister shop DDB in "the top creative post" at the New York office. The office's chairman/chief creative officer is the (depending on who you ask) legendary Lee Garfinkel. But what looks like a fairly run-of-the-mill story about creative director musical chairs is actually a demonstration of the advertising industry coming unhinged. Since going up some time yesterday, the story has garnered some 145 comments, including name-calling not only on the individuals involved in the story, but on the ad industry itself. Some choice excerpts (I'm not vouching for accuracy of any of these, but only reprinting as an example of what you'll find if you go there):

From agencywonk:
About time they called Garfinkel what he is: a woefully underachieving CCO who hasn't produced anything noteworthy since his BBDO days

From an anonymous poster:
This is not a good fit. Eric is a nice guy and extremely talented, but he is a man-child. He will not be able to run an agency creatively. He doesn't have the patience for it. He has not made a career out of getting good work out of tough clients. He has made a name for himself by doing exceptional work for good clients. There is a world of difference between the two.

From Baffled Three:

Just when you thought Big Dumb Agencies couldn't get any bigger or any dumber... There just isn't much call anymore for agencies whose sole focus is the :30 second TV spot. Oh well, makes it that much easier for the rest of us.

From Disappointed:
...that people in our industry can stoop so low as to the comments made here. I am disappointed and embarrassed. How can we get paid for our talent or command respect when clients see garbage like what's been written here today. I hope one of you doesn't fall victim to the same scrutiny one day."

Thanks to Alan Wolk for tweeting this and bringing it to my attention, and for noticing that many of the commenters are referring to the comment thread as a blog. Weird.

Charlie Rose talks to MySpace founders

2009-02-05T08:41:00.004-05:00

Since my Social Media Insider column doesn't permit the embedding of video, thought I'd embed video here of the half-hour Charlie Rose interview on Tuesday night featuring Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson of MySpace (or as Charlie Rose pronounces it Mah-Space). If you want to read my column, click here; if you want to stream the video, see below.

For advertisers, it's not the Super Bowl, it's the Desperation Bowl

2009-02-02T08:31:00.004-05:00

As you may have noticed, Adverganza has assiduously avoided doing anything about Super Bowl advertising (and posting, for that matter). In both cases, it has to do with having too much work right now and not enough time, a situation I'll take, especially with the economy continuing to tank. But it yielded a surprise benefit: a completely fresh eye last night on Super Bowl commercials in the context in which they were meant to be seen, with pretty much no early look at what the ad-fest had in store. As it was as much of an outsider's perspective as I've had in 25 years, this is what I came away with: the strain employed to make Americans laugh is painful to watch. It's never been so clear to me how desperate the subtext of nearly every ad is, which is a pleading, "Please, pppllleeeeaaasssse, puh-leeze laugh." As an armchair ad-watcher this year, it also made me wonder what the hell the ad industry is up to during the rest of the year, when it's not busy trying to win the USA Today Ad Meter. Is everyone just phoning it in during the other 11 months?

Given that the commercials seem to carry a similar, over-the-top tone, the net effect for those of us who've been able to avoid the pre-game hype is that it's one big blur of (attempts at) over-the-top comedy, which sucks everyone and everything into its vortex. I cringed at Conan O'Brien for Bud Light, and winced at the "I'm good" commercial for Pepsi Max. A former Adweek colleague, who was hosting the party I attended, couldn't believe that Pepsi Max has actually gone and forthrightly declared it is a diet drink for men. Are men going to order that now because Pepsi told them to? The cars.com commerical started off well, but the payoff didn't work at all. It's not that such commercials are supposed to be plausible, exactly, but a guy who performs open heart surgery with a ballpoint pen can't buy a car on his own? C'mon.

It's somewhat amusing to read that the winner of the USA Today Ad Meter (which itself, like individual commercials, has gotten lost in the hype), was a consumer-created ad for Doritos, but don't jump to the conclusion that this means consumers make better ads. It just means that they've gotten really good at copying BBDO.

Have you checked out @bmorrissey yet?

2009-01-15T10:36:00.002-05:00

Getting around to letting you guys know that there's a new blog in town containing "thoughts on branding and advertising" from my former Adweek colleague Brian Morrissey. How Brian is finding the time for this, I don't know, but since he started the thing on December 31st, he's managed to post ten times. More importantly, his posts, like his tweets, tend to be heavy on the insight. In a post yesterday on what Brian calls "Advertising's (over) consumption problem," he sees the layoffs currently going on in the ad industry as being not just a byproduct of the lousy economy, but something much, much deeper. "While layoffs get the headlines, the real story is advertising itself is in uncharted territory," he observes. Keep up the good work, Brian, until your hands seize up from too much keyboarding.

Honda ads: Making Bernie Madoff's investors feel better

2009-01-14T10:29:00.003-05:00

OK, I'm checking out this 8-minute Honda "Failure: The Secret of Success" video and know that there's no way in hell I would watch the thing if it weren't for that I have an advertising blog. Or maybe, I'd find inspiration in it if I'd, like, invested with Bernie Madoff and was feeling as though investing with him was the worst thing I ever did. I guess other people are feeling the same way, as, despite being featured in The New York Times the other day, the video has only 980 views on YouTube. Yeah, call me a curmudgeon. What the hell.

Apple threw "MacWorld Expo Under the Bus"

2009-01-13T09:05:00.004-05:00

As you know, I'm a bit obsessed with Apple's mishandling of everything on and around Steve Jobs' health issues. Loved this interview by Simon Dumenco of Ad Age with Jason Snell, editorial director of Macworld. Lots of good sound bites, but this one, about why Apple made that weird announcement about Jobs' non-participation in Macworld Expo, really stands out:

"My personal opinion is that for whatever reason it was decided that Jobs couldn't or wouldn't give the keynote, and given the recent speculation about his health, a simple announcement that Jobs wouldn't be giving the keynote would lead to massive speculation that he was very sick. By changing the story to be about Apple throwing Macworld Expo under the bus, Apple deflected attention from Jobs' absence. It worked for a couple of days, but in the end the speculation machine left Expo and turned back to Jobs' health, which led to the health statement he released."

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 01.12.09

2009-01-12T09:15:00.007-05:00

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

From Advertising Age:

—Things that will be hot in '09. The list includes online video and, of course, beer.
—Raising $50 million for a campaign to promote the U.S. auto industry is just as hard as it looks.
—New product pipeline slows down.
—Obama-mania, round 2.
—NBC taps into its girl power, featuring Meredith Vieira, Tori Spelling and Shelly Lazarus.
—Will the Army billing scandal at Burnett hamper the agency's new business efforts.
—Microsoft and Intel will invest more in the downturn. Woo-hoo!
—January: it's a time for diets, and this year, a time for discounts on diet plans.
—Nat Ives' guide to dead magazines.
—Unreality TV: The networks refuse to give advertisers price concessions.
—Will Oprah blaming her weight on the blue chips hurt sales of the blue chips?
—3-Minute Ad Age: Jonah Bloom thinks that the paid model for content is coming back.

From Adweek:

—How the recession may change spending habits for years to come.
—Anthony Viceroy named president, global operations and CFO at Porter Novelli.
—So-called "echo boomers" have rosy future financial outlook. Easy, when your retirement is at least three decades off.
—Having spent 73 pages criticizing agency diversity, the NAACP and law firm Mehri & Skalet will now pressure advertisers to pressure agencies to change their hiring practices.
—Mike Wehrs is new head of Mobile Marketing Association.
—Guess what!? You can market to the Hispanic market on the Web! (Facetiousness completely intended.)
—Barbara Lippert critiques Alex Bogusky's new diet book, asking: "If a diet isn't presented as a diet, is it still a diet?"
—Advertisers contracting with bloggers to cover their products. Yes, I'm available.
—Checking in with Universal McCann CEO Matt Seiler.
—Just as much new business in 2008, if you don't look at the dollar amounts.
—Greg Stuart asks if people in advertising hate advertising on their cell phones, how will mobile advertising grow?
—As agency personnel get laid off, Joseph Jaffe asks whether the ad industry is having a watershed moment.
—In a new Adweek feature, Freak Week looks at the strange occurrences that go on over at AdFreak.

From Brandweek:

—More advertisers whine to the National Advertising Division about comparative ads.
—Olay's Professional Pro-X goes after women who used to buy department store skincare brands.
—Q&A with Kimberley Gardiner, national marketing and communications manager for Scion.
—You're not doing enough with bleach.
—Humans acting like geckos for Geico.

From Mediapost:

—OfficeMax wants your cubicle to look better. I do, too ... I just can't launch a bunch of new products to help you.
—Cars.com's best and worst Super Bowl ads of all time. Guess where the Celine Dion/Chrysler commercial came out?
—The all new world of the Air Jordan.
—Hollywood comes to the rescue of Super Bowl advertising.
—You should be feelin' the luv for Philadelphia.
—Computer gaming organization says its members really aren't computer potatoes. Sure.
—Yelp defamation lawsuit gets settled out of court.
—Arbitron CEO Stephen Morris steps down. New CEO is Michael Skarzynski.
—Radio revenue drops 8 percent in Emmis' fiscal Q3.

From Mediaweek:

—Football still beats the Golden Globes and Jack Bauer.
—Digital buyers suspicious of Microsoft's ad mathemeticians.
—Elle partners with CAA to extend its brand.
—It doesn't look like anyone wants the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Has anyone knocked on Bill Gates' door yet?
—Yeah, single copy magazine sales are down too. Maybe what the business really needs is for Britney Spears to have another meltdown.
—Alan Frutkin talks with "24" executive producer Howard Gordon.

From The New York Post:

—Kathie Black gets three-year contract extension at Hearst, even though the company has "no digital strategy."
—CBS about to sign retrans deal with Verizon FIOS.
—Hollywood finding that 3-D isn't all its cracked up to be. For one, those glasses are still freakin' goofy looking.
—CBS looking to turn TV.com into a Hulu competitor.
—You think you never go to any AOL sites, but you probably do.
—Honda launches Webisodes from RPA this week.
—David Carr would love to see the launch of iNews.

From The Wall Street Journal:

—In case you were watching football, who won at the Golden Globes. Free.
—Spend money on software and save money, says Microsoft. Subscription required.

That's all for today.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 01.05.09

2009-01-05T08:38:00.007-05:00

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

From Advertising Age:

--Guess what? In 2009, auto ad budgets will continue to suck wind.
--Marketing execs more interested in trade deficits than your silly Web 2.0 marketing idea.
--Social media valuations might not be what you think.
--Boy Scouts invest in new brand, GPS.
--David Berkowitz looking to kill the word "viral." Here, here!
--Outgoing NBC guy tells CBS and ABC their video search sucks.
--While you were on vacation, CMO Mark Jarvis left Dell.
--Below, Bob Garfield's 11th annual Bobbys.

From Adweek:

--U.S. agency of the year: Crispin, Porter + Bogusky. (You knew that, didn't you?)
--Global agency of the year: TBWA.
--Media agencies' 2009 mantra: ROI.
--Barbara Lippert thinks the Pepsi spot below, from TBWA/Chiat/Day, got watered down.

--2009 is gonna hurt.
--Dag Soderberg puts Bono in the bible.

From Brandweek:

--From the editors of Brandweek, a new blog, BrandFreak.
--Nielsen CEO John Burbank on why Web advertising isn't memorable.
--All about the digital transition.
--We'll learn a lot about the power of brands this year.

From Mediapost:

--Agency of the year: Mediavest.
--Retail marketer of the year: WalMart.
--Food marketer of the year: Campbell Soup.
--Automotive marketer of the year: Subaru.
--Financial services marketer of the year: ING.
--Technology marketer of the year: HP.
--American Pie's Seann William Scott to MC a sports show on Heavy.
--Where the VC money might go this year.
--Google diggs for mobile product ideas.
--Q&A with Television Bureau of Advertising president Chris Rohrs. He's not all that upbeat.
--Aegis Group looking for those so-called "strategic alternatives."
--Viacom apologizes for those "Why Is Dora Crying?" ads.

From Mediaweek, lotsa depressing forecasts:

--2009 might hurt less if you're in digital, but it's still gonna hurt.
--You don't want to be in network TV right now.
--Good news! Cable might not experience the "concussive trauma" this year of some other media sectors.
--Independent magazine entities are headed for a lot of pain.
--Local TV and radio looks to diversify.
--Advertisers still liking out-of-home in '09.
--TV production is going to be awful in 2009.
--The ups and downs of Knight Rider.

From The New York Post:

--Steve Jobs says he has "hormonal imbalance."
--Which retailer will fold next?

From The New York Times:

--Superheroes came to the rescue of Hollywood in 2008.
--You knew things were going to go a cropper with Kathy Griffin on CNN.
--The surprising strength of theWB.com.
--In magazines, being down in ad pages by single digits is the new up.
--Book publishing business so bad that conferences are being held via Webcam. Boo-hoo!
--More people get their news on the Web than newspapers. Duh.

From The Wall Street Journal:

--Ads to be less "lavish and glamorous" this year. Duh. Subscription required.
--Are TV and the Internet finally getting hitched? Free.
--New York Times sells ads on its front page. The horror! Free.

Glad that's over. Very depressing. Uh, happy new year?

Can we just quit with the ad spending predictions?

2008-12-19T09:00:00.002-05:00

Awoke this morning to closed schools and a prediction by Barclays that ad spending would be down by 10 percent next year, a revision downward from a prediction a mere two months ago of a 5.5 percent decline. At this point, having read so many of these spending predictions, I feel like we're all trapped in a game in which the winner is the advertising analyst who can predict the most doom-and-gloom. Maybe next week, ZenithOptimedia or someone will come out saying ad spending will be down 11 percent next year. Do I hear 12? Who's gonna predict 12?

The problem with these predictions of ad spending declines, of course, is that they're self-fulfilling. That has always been the case, but this time it's worse. Predicting that ad spending will be down by 10 percent seems to cause many to cut ad spending by 10 percent, like there's some unwritten rule they must follow along. I'm not saying things aren't bad out there: they are. But this is getting ridiculous. Thus, I hereby declare a moratorium on all ad spending predictions for 2009. We can pick up the topic again about a year from now.

Happy Christmas from AKQA

2008-12-15T09:36:00.002-05:00

Enjoy. And heat up some soup while you're at it.

Sorry not to be posting so much!

2008-12-15T08:46:00.003-05:00

Hi, loyal readers. You may wonder why Adverganza has been oddly quiet of late. The answer is that I've had a tsunami of work, which (all together now) especially in these troubles times, is taking priority. That doesn't mean I'm not posting at all, but that it's certainly more intermittent than I'd like.

Rothenberg says, "c'mon everybody let's simplify"

2008-12-09T10:03:00.006-05:00

While I could have been at the Interactive Advertising Bureau audience measurement conference, or at the UBS Global Media Conference watching the world crumble around me, I've been sitting at home these last few days. Actually, maybe that's not such a bad thing. However, had I gone to the IAB meeting, I could've heard IAB chief Randall Rothenberg decry the increasing complexity of online measurement. Sounding an alarming note, Rothenberg said: "What if [medical research] got so complex that doctors didn't know how to do operations? ... that's kind of where we're heading in interactive media and interactive media research." Citing a McKinsey & Co. study in which 80 percent of marketers admitted that much of their media decision-making was either guesswork or based on the previous year's numbers, Rothenberg said that there are only three conclusions which can be drawn from that fact. No. 1 was "All marketers are stupid," No. 2 was "All marketers are lazy." To see what no. 3 was, watch the clip above from 3 Minute Ad Age. You can guess which one Rothenberg chose.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 12.08.08

2008-12-08T09:08:00.009-05:00

Wherein I scan the Monday morning headlines as quickly as humanly possible because I've got a lot to do today.

From Advertising Age:

--You can read this Ad Age white paper on how to make it through the recession, but it's gonna cost ya.
--Even Nascar is facing a slowdown.
--30,000 fewer of us are now working in media.
--The connection between Walmart's strong sales and lower gas prices.
--Media owners getting run over by Detroit.
--Microsoft's new online services prez, Qi Lu, isn't just another pin-headed engineer. Really.
--What media companies are worth buying.
--Four Olympics sponsors no longer Olympics sponsors.
--Not the greatest of times at JWT Chicago.
--Will NBC have to lower the price of a Super Bowl ad?
--Crispin and BK want a Whopper Virgin backlash.
--True fact: L'Oreal spends more in advertising than General Motors.

From Adweek:

--Predicting ad spending declines is all the rage. Most depressing estimate so far: ZenithOptimedia's 5.7 percent drop.
--Hmmm. New Geico commercials featuring "Kash." Commendable use of Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me", but don't know if they've got the execution quite right yet. Take a look:

--What we really think about our healthcare.
--Looks like we're suffering from apps-athy.
--Barbara Lippert feels sorry for the Whopper Virgins. If you've missed this latest Crispin marketing stunt, one of the spots is below.

--Mark Wnek loves data.
--Chuck Brymer lobbies for the chief community officer.
--Clients continue to consolidate with one holding company.
--Auto ad spending prepares to suck even further.
--Diet Coke mixes sponsorship and digital distribution; hopes to produce fizz.
--New in-store ad network launches, giving consumers customized ads.

From Brandweek:

--Here's to guerrilla marketers, and, no, I'm not talking about Cadbury.
--Q&A with Del Monte CMO Bill Pearce.
--Heinz mashed potatoes are hot.
--Saving money more important than buying organic.
--Lions Brewery gets its 15 minutes of fame on "The Office."

From Mediapost:

--Jameson Whiskey ad actually stalks you!
--Faith Hill, the fragrance.
--Bristol-Myers launches campaign in Mandarin to tell Chinese-Americans about hepatitis B.
--You, yes, you can be a hostess at Talbot's.
--CMOs blame their own companies for their inability to reach some customers.
--Major media agencies still predicting that online ad spending will be up in '09.
--Times exec Denise Warren gets GM post at nytimes.com.
--Brightcove forms the Brightcove Alliance among those that use its services.
--C3 ratings don't decline as much as live program ratings.
--ESPN.com wants feedback on beta version of its new site.
--A dozen let go from The Hollywood Reporter.
--Newsday cuts 100 jobs.

From Mediaweek:

--More bad news about the media economy.
--It's a buyer's market in the magazine industry.
--So much for innovation in online marketing from the car companies.
--Ex-Newsweek president Greg Osberg goes mobile.
--Mike Shields on the firestorm that followed his "death of display" story about online display ads. (Sorry. Can't find the original story.)

From The New York Post:

--If you work at an ad agency, don't be surprised if the new year greets you with a pink slip.
--Will Walmart be offering a $99 iPhone?
--Bob Pittman part of $1.5 million investment in Wowowow.

From The New York Times:

--The new "Meet the Press."
--All those media channels are making us feel really bad.
--Christie Hefner to step down from Playboy.
--More on why what sucks for Detroit sucks for the ad biz.
--If you care about the future of TV Guide, read this.
--The New York Times Co. plans to borrow against its building. Now there's a home equity line for ya.
--Is McClatchy looking to sell the Miami Herald?

From The Wall Street Journal:

--Ouch. Tribune Co. might file for bankruptcy. Free.

That's it for today. Depressing, huh?

Axl Rose says Dr Pepper violated his rights. Sure.

2008-12-02T09:11:00.005-05:00

So, how hilarious is it that now Axl Rose is asking Dr Pepper to apologize for hijacking the Guns n' Roses brand in the name of free soda? If you've been living in a dumpster, maybe you don't know that Dr Pepper years ago said it would offer everyone in the U.S. a can of free soda if the band ever released another album, which it did last week, 17 years after the last one.

Now, according to Ad Age, lead singer/procrastinator extraordinaire Rose had his lawyer send Dr Pepper a letter which " ... stated that Dr Pepper's campaign had exploited the singer's reputation and the 'eagerly awaited' album, and stated that payment would be sought for the unauthorized use of the Guns N' Roses brand." Sheesh. Axl, I got some news for ya: you exploited your own reputation by setting a new world's record for length of time between albums. The soda didn't make you do it.

Apparently the letter goes to great lengths to portray the Dr Pepper promotion as a failure because it was actually hard to get the free can of soda. True. But I still think the lovely loopiness of the promotional idea outweighs the frustration on the part of some consumers. It was sheer genius, marred by an executional hiccup. From what I've read, the album, "Chinese Democracy," doesn't rise to the same standard.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 12.01.08

2008-11-30T22:39:00.006-05:00

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

From Advertising Age:

--Yes, you are seeing the same ads over and over and over again.
--Bob Garfield asks: "Whatsa matter with widgets?"
--Time more popular with college students than People, allegedly.
--Don't expect Tiger Woods to do another car endorsement deal soon.
--Unilever moves to producing less colors for its packaging. If that's not a sign of an economic downturn, I don't know what is.
--Even life at the Google-plex isn't as fun as it used to be. The search giant cuts back, a little bit anyway.
--First came Black Friday; then Cyber Monday. But what about Mobile Tuesday?
--Q&A with American Airlines' VP-corporate communications and advertising, Roger Frizzell.
--Japanese way into the crowd-sourcing.
--What your response to logos has to do with your nucleus accumbens.
--Down with the economy, up with smartphones.
--This holiday season, you may find that Jameson really, really speaks to you.
--What brands will die in a GM bailout.
--Regis Philbin upset with Commerce Bank merger with TD.

--Hispanic market feeling the economic crisis blues.

From Adweek:

--Still not many people of color and other ethnicities in the ad business. Not that you should be falling over with shock.
--Adweek asks if marketers can be the savior of the holidays.
--CEO Robert Lerwill leaves Aegis.
--Deutsch lives to work again with Sports Authority, winning the media planning and buying biz.
--The return of barter to buy ads.
--Barbara Lippert finds that Macy's endorsers aren't exactly dripping in Christmas cheer. See what she means.

--Q&A with Robert Rasmussen, executive cd of innovation at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, New York. (Question: Shouldn't all cds be on top of the innovation thing?)
--Benjamin Palmer asks if impressions are really just views.
--Ad of a Couple of Days Ago: American Express embraces Dave Matthews, Gwyneth Paltrow, Brian Grazer and Tina Turner (who even make a side reference to that Ike guy).
--WPP's Team Detroit gets an assignment that isn't Ford, which is a good thing.
--Online ad spending stable, with direct response ads leading the way.
--More evidence that ad guys will never lose their movie-mogul aspirations.

From Brandweek:

--What really happens to the advertising and marketing business during a recession. Good news for ad agencies; more bad news for CMOs.
--Procter & Gamble uses "What Not to Wear"'s Stacy London to change its strategy for Pantene again.
--Food companies associate themselves with a rodent, an animated one.
--P&G launches brandSaver Live!, a coupon event, at 57th and Sixth.
--Recession means marketers won't go mobile next year.

From Mediapost:

--Holiday shoppers say screw the economic crisis!
--People liking the car-buying process. Maybe because it's full of deals, deals, deals!
--7-Eleven launches its own packaged-goods line.
--Banks find a new use for direct mail: resurrecting their lousy image.
--Digitas Sweden opens.
--AOL opens gamesavvy.com, which helps us dumb parents figure out what the hell we're buying for our kids. I'm heading over there now.
--Will the recession make people even more likely to watch free content? You betcha!

From Mediaweek:

--HBO thinks consumers will pay $54.95 for Saturday's Oscar De La Hoya-Manny Pacquiao fight, but is giving out coupons which offer discounts too.
--Out-of-home says it will fully recover in 2010 after a tough 2009.
--More of us watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade this year. Was it the performance by Rick Astley? No, that was a surprise.
--Why aren't publishers using more widgets?

From The New York Post:

--Lenny Dykstra discovers publishing a magazine is harder than it looks.
--Ad sales for the Super Bowl are described as "sluggish."

From The New York Times:

--CNN nudges in on the AP's turf.
--Turns out U.S. media companies didn't enhance the country's international image in the post-9/11 world.
--Pity the aging local news anchor.
--Stuart Elliott asks 20 questions, including: "Will Citibank have to change its slogan, 'Citi never sleeps,' because it now suggests that anxious executives, worried about solvency, are staying up all night?" Good one.
--Time publishes high-end Time Style & Design magazine. A company spokesperson says it put the issue together in October, when things were just lousy instead of super lousy.
--David Carr says the news media is partly to blame for the death of that Wal-Mart worker.

From The Wall Street Journal:

--Axe men's haircare products launch. Subscription required. Because I know you're dying to see it, here's one of the ads (though in the pantheon of great Axe commercials, it's a little disappointing):

-"Four Christmases" does well at the box office, while no one cares about "Australia." Free.
--Cable: panacea for a recession-plagued populace. Subscription required.

That's it. Oy, that first Monday back from Thanksgiving is rough.

Adverganza's Tuesday morning picks, 11.25.08

2008-11-25T08:40:00.007-05:00

Wherein I scan the Tuesday morning headlines so you don't have to.

From Advertising Age:

--Looks like we won't see any obnoxious ads with huge bows on cars this year. Silver lining to economic crisis!
--In case you hadn't heard, GM decided it wasn't worth paying Tiger Woods all that endorsement money.
--"Redemption" doesn't totally redeem Sunday night.
--At least GM is no. 1 in something: it's got the lead spot on the Parents Television Council list of worst advertisers.
--3 Minute Ad Age: Macy's Christmas windows still draw a crowd, but, c'mon, they're free.

From Adweek:

--IDC is up with social media traffic; down with its ad revenue.
--BBDO wins Starbucks, thus advertisiing new caffeine infusion device.
--Mediacom makes some senior appointments.
--Ad of the Day: xBox 360 from T.A.G. and starring Burt Reynolds. It's below.

From Brandweek:

--Adidas to launch commercial for Adidas Originals starring David Beckham, DMC, Method Man. T'ain't on YouTube yet so I can't stream it for you.

From Mediapost:

--Buy a Subaru, have the company send a charity a $250 donation. Awwww.
--83 percent of retailers doing a holiday price promotion.
--The talking tub is back for Parkay margarine.
--Times Square goes down the toilet with Charmin.
--Apple sues a wiki. Not that wiki.
--We're watching even more TV.

From Mediaweek:

--American Association of Hispanic Agencies is not pleased with Arbitron.
--Time Inc.-ers! You have one week left to take that buyout offer.
--Is anyone watching new shows from Sony's Crackle.com?
--USA Today looking for 20 volunteers to walk the plank.

From The New York Times:

--Will Sumner Redstone sell off his movie theaters?
--Fox gets rid of Saturday morning cartoons.
--Advertisers starting to give away cold, hard cash.

From The Wall Street Journal:

--First Bailey's campaign from JWT. Subscription required, but a stream of the ad is below.

That's it. The Thanksgiving news slowdown is upon us.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 11.24.08

2008-11-24T08:07:00.010-05:00

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

From Advertising Age (couldn't find the cover online, which I know is a massive disappointment):

--A guide to deceased magazines. Personally, I think we can still go on to lead productive, happy lives without Luxury Spa Finder.
--We're still lured by in-store displays.
--Wal-Mart, unlike Motrin, woos the Mommy bloggers.
--This year, your gift card could also be a camera.
--Film at 11! Big Three automakers may cause Madison Avenue to make cuts!
--How Michael Phelps, avowed McDonald's lover, wound up pitching Subway.
--Bob Garfield is pissed at Pepsi for dumping BBDO.
--Chinese ad auction global financial crisis-proof.
--Ben Silverman, good for a lot of things, but not NBC's ratings.
--DraftFCB gets an assignment that lives up to part of its name.
--Watch out for Henry Waxman.
--Yet more dissection of l'affaire Motrin.
--3 Minute Ad Age: See that massive Walgreen's Times Square billboard.

From Adweek:

--DraftFCB, Initiative, Kinetic win MillerCoors media.
--Angela Steele leaves Publicis for The Hyperfactory.
--This Christmas, even the kids are getting scrooged.
--Q&A with new JWT creative chairman for Latin America and Continental Europe, Fernando Vega Olmos.
--Nielsen creeping onto Arbitron's turf.
--Ad of the Day: Awww. It's a down-homey commercial for Musselman's applesauce.

From Brandweek:

--V8 courtin' the old folks. Decided it would be in poor taste to make a joke about this being a dying market, even though it is.
--New spot for T-Mobile's Fave5 featuring Yao Ming. Funny. See below:

--BestBuy getting warm and fuzzy this holiday season, too.

From Mediapost:

--Zero percent financing is back in a big way. Somehow not surprising that Toyota was the only one smart enough to license "Saved by Zero."
--Now, via JC Penney, you can put your s.o. in the doghouse for giving lousy gifts. Not that warm and fuzzy, eh? The doghouse site is here, created by Razorfish.
--The third phase of Sharp's Aquos campaign. Does anyone have the patience for a three-phase campaign anymore.
--What the world needs now is another performance-based ad network.
--Actually, what the world needs now is a public education campaign from Consumer Reports about the perils of debt. And we've got one!
--The AP, Newspaper Guild, plan to cut their staffs.
--ESPN.com asks users to pay up.
--Change.org and MySpace team up to keep the electorate engaged.
--Radio ad revenue down 9 percent last quarter.
--Vijay Ravindran named Washington Post Co.'s chief digital officer.
--Here's a new way to close a magazine, courtesy of SI Latino: say it's on hiatus.

From Mediaweek:

--Will the recession kill the online display ad?
--IGN.com launches a video channel. Guess you can watch when your thumbs get tired.
--NBC's "Crusoe" moves from Fridays to Saturdays, which sounds like the blueprint for a death spiral to me.
--Long-term Wall Street is bullish about the entertainment industry. Personally, I think we will all need some escape from this.
--At least Infiniti is spending; it upped its sponsorship deal with "The Colbert Report."
--Mr. TV discusses really horrible TV shows.
--Video: Marc Berman interviews Gene Simmons. Turns out he's a cock-eyed optimist. Seriously.

--There are also interviews with this year's Mediaweek All-Stars here.

From The New York Post:

--Delta Air Lines can't commit; signs deals with both Mets and Yankees.

From The New York Times:

--Late link: totally forgot to put this in. "Multiscreen Mad Men" interview, in which R/GA's Robert Rasmussen, AKQA's Lars Bastholm and Barbarian Group's Benjamin Palmer give Katie Couric a makeover.
--This year, hold back on the candelabras on the heads.
--All about Mary Berner's Reader's Digest.
--We've already spent about $200 million on "Obamabilia."
--The Kaiser Family Foundation gets into the journalism business.
--Typepad introduces The Typepad Journalist Bailout Program. The name of the program is in upper-lowercase, so it must be real.

From The Wall Street Journal:

--"Twilight" scores more than $70 million in ticket sales. Free.
--Monster, CareerBuilder in Super Bowl ad matchup. Subscription required.
--NFL! In 3D! Yeah, but you will you have to sit in your living room wearing those dopey glasses? Free.

Woo-hoo! Done by 10:15. Have a good day.

Adverganza's Friday morning picks, 11.21.08

2008-11-20T22:45:00.007-05:00

Wherein I scan the Friday morning headlines so you can prepare for the weekend.

From Advertising Age:

--Michael Phelps pitches Subway, but Jared, he's not.
--Vhat to do about "Valkyrie."
--No, really, this economy is an opportunity.
--The relationship between Linda Kaplan Thaler and her assistant is much longer than many marriages. I don't wanna know but it's via Forbes.com.
--The growth curve in interactive advertising stops being so much of a curve.
--Management changes at Anheuser-Busch, now, depressingly, a unit of InBev.
--3 Minute Ad Age: Will the alternatively-powered Chevy Volt give new power to GM?

From Adweek:

--Hey, news media junkie, here's your fix: breakingnews.com.
--Wanna pitch Wedgwood?
--Good god no! Crispin sponsors Mr. Internet. See below:

--Check out this guy's faux-hawk. Then ponder that he's moving from R/GA to BBH.
--Ad of the Day: Commercial for Gold's Gyms from McKinney. I could care less since my exercise comes strictly through Pelham Rec.

From Brandweek:

--Kmart the latest store to get cozy again with the layaway.
--The NFL wants you to vote on its Super Bowl ad.
--Buy a video game at 7-Eleven.

From Mediapost:

--Motrin's pain already going away.
--Film at 11! The Organic Trade Association promoting cause of organic food.
--Which book retailer saw its sales drop 4.4 percent in the third quarter?
--Everyone's lovin' the Blackberry Storm.
--400,000 people download the MySpace Blackberry app, a new record.
--T-Mobile gives a thumbs-up to Yahoo mobile search.
--Renegade gets out from under Dentsu.
--In a shocking development, the head of the Versus network doesn't think the NHL would be better off being with ESPN, the much bigger, more powerful network.

From Mediaweek:

--Up with interactive advertising, according to Q3 numbers released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
--NBC News tests your iCue on Facebook.
--Go to the gas pump, see if you're ready for digital TV.
--Two Wall Street analysts downgrade Arbitron stock.
--The AP could lose 10 percent of its staff next year.
--McClatchy numbers suck.

From The New York Post:

--Memo from a disgruntled ex-Time Inc. employee.

From The New York Times:

--The Times cuts its dividend.
--Whatever happened to the Beijing ad bounce?

From The Wall Street Journal:

--Disney duels pirates, but not the ones off the coast of Africa. Free.
--Life & Style, In Touch lower audience promise to advertisers. Subscription required.

Au revoir until next week.

Adverganza's Thursday morning picks, 11.20.08

2008-11-20T08:40:00.009-05:00

Wherein I finally get around to scanning the Thursday morning headlines because I went to bed early last night for once.

From Advertising Age:

--Ballmer says he doesn't want Microsoft to marry Google, but he would be willing to fool around with it, in search.
--Logic alert: NIH says "Banning Fast Foods Ads Will Make Kids Less Fat."
--Ad Age's AdMarket 50 stock index hits is as low as it's been since 2000 launch. Intuitively, we knew that, didn't we?
--3 Minute Ad Age: Cable TV industry: there's a lesson in Scion.

From Adweek:

--HP's Technology Solutions Group pitch down to Havas, Omnicom and WPP. In other words, Publicis and Interpublic are out.
--Alphabet soup: OMD wins CBS's media planning and buying.
--Out with Jeff McClelland as CEO of Cliff Freeman; in with Clayton Ruebensaal III.
--Ad of the Day: Welch's Grape Juice gets all academic about polyphenols and stuff. Was above my head except that I guess it's good for you, though I prefer my grapes in wine flavor.

From Brandweek:

--Everything you wanted to know about YouTube Live from its CMO Chris Di Cesare.
--Del Monte fruit strips down in its new campaign. I guess sex sells, even if you're a pineapple.
--Jeffrey Hayzlett named CMO of Eastman Kodak.
--Ziibii, a new social media app for the iPhone.

From Mediapost:

--Despite continued popularity of Barbie, looks like a Nintendo and Disney Christmas to me.
--Speaking of which, Nintendo's Wii Fit the most memorable product of the year.
--Big sale at CVS! And I need to go there this afternoon. Woo-hoo!
--Walgreen's, recent killer of the beloved Thruway Diner in New Rochelle, not to mention the Clam Shell in Littleton, New Hampshire, takes over Times Square with gazillion stories high billboard. Are you happy now? (Outrage partly manufactured.)
--Once again I'm not inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame.
--Your favorite brands, now featured in Facebook's public search listings.
--Make your computer spurt blood.
--Meredith makes minority investment in social site Real Girls Network.
--MRM Worldwide jumps on the offshore production bandwagon.
--Next Yahoo CEO should be into the mobile thing.
--eHarmony opens to gays and lesbians.
--No March boondoggle to Las Vegas for Nielsen clients.
--Nielsen Monitor-Plus says auto ad spending dropped 10 percent in the first half of 2008, and that's before things really went in the shitter.
--Thanks for playing, PC Magazine.

From Mediaweek:

--The Daytime Emmys on cable?
--Another one of those sponsorship deals that's too complicated for me to suss out. Something to do with The Killers, Fuse and the Guitar Hero World Tour.
--Monthly uniques up, time spent on sites down, for newspaper Web sites.
--Arbitron says shift of Clear Channel and Cumulus to Nielsen's new radio research product will cost $10 million in revenue in first year.

From The New York Post:

--Thought they'd done this before, but anyway, Lifetime sues NBC about that "Project Runway" show.

From The New York Times:

--More on that humongoid Walgreen's billboard in Times Square. Guess they'll be a Walgreen's store at the bottom, which, at least, passes the logic test.
--Lengthy discourse on the demise of the print version of PC Magazine.
--The "Twilight" phenomenon. Why do we love vampires so much?

From The Wall Street Journal:

--At least advertising in China is supposed to be up. Subscription required.

Woo. I work faster when I've had a decent amount of sleep. I know that's shocking. Have a good day, which may be possible only by not repeatedly checking the Dow.

More to come ...

Adverganza's Wednesday morning picks, 11.19.08

2008-11-18T21:22:00.007-05:00

Wherein I scan the Wednesday morning headlines so you don't have to.

From Advertising Age:

--Do U want ur turkey 2 txt U?
--No one gives a sh*t about "Australia".
--Private equity guy Shaun Holliday joins MPG as CEO; Charlie Rutman will become senior adviser to agency in January.
--Jose Cabaco, chief creative officer of Euro RSCG N.A. for an entire seven months, leaves.
--3 Minute Ad Age: If you're into public body scanning and thermal underwear, on the other hand it's from the Uniqlock people so maybe we should all check it out.

From Adweek:

--OfficeMax tells "Elf Yourself" shops Toy New York and EVB to go f*ck themselves for Christmas this year. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) Hire JibJab to do this year's version.
--Crispin breaks its campaign for Microsoft's Zune. You can see the spot below. It ain't bad, but it ain't no iPod killer, either.

--New media. Good or bad for TV? Discuss.
--Ad of the Day: Disembodied lips sing A-ha's "Take On Me."

From Brandweek:

--New Sony "Green Glove" service installs new TV, recycles old one.
--Speaking of which, Q&A with Jonathan Dodd, exec vp/director of strategy of G2 on green.
--More green. Q&A with Danny Seo, who spearheads J.C. Penney's "light green" program.

From Mediapost:

--We're talking about Kraft, Folgers and Olay.
--UPS is hiring! Via mobile phone.
--Southern Comfort brings you "A Colbert Christmas."
--A full Thanksgiving dinner, with wine, for only $35. It must include Boone's Farm, or buying a bunch of grapes and stomping on them in the tub.
--Nuggnuts.com, an online community, opens to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the McNugget. I'm going there right now!
--Optimists, pessimists converge on the topic of online ad spending.
--But in this study, the optimists win.

From Mediaweek:

--Westwood One will no longer be traded on the NYSE.
--Cooking Light publisher Chris Allen leaves the building.
--Which Spanish language media company had a $3.5 billion loss in the third quarter?
--As expected, ESPN gets the Bowl Championships.
--Life, now on its umpteenth life, launches Life Photo Search with Google.
--Marc Berman's Programming Insider: Looks like CBS will win the week, in part thanks to Barack.

From The New York Post:

--Keith Kelly, grim reaper: 250 to get shown the door at Time Inc. today, magazine group also closes up Cottage Living.

From The New York Times:

--So what becomes of Yahoo now?
--Dr Pepper hires first, um, sports endorser, guy who plays Halo 3. I hear he's got super-strong thumb muscles, on both hands.
--Oops. The AARP has to launch investigation of how its own health plans are marketed.
--Will "Project Runway" ever see a catwalk again?

From The Wall Street Journal:

--Even more speculation on what's to become of Yahoo. Subscription required.
--Google, Procter & Gamble employees temporarily swap jobs. Subscription required, but get a copy of it if you don't have one.
--Publicis buy Tribal. (It's a digital agency, but it's not Tribal DDB). Subscription required.
--Another talking stain ads from Tide. The video is below.

Ok gang. See ya later.

Adverganza's Tuesday morning picks, 11.18.08

2008-11-17T21:37:00.005-05:00

Wherein I scan as many of the Tuesday morning headlines as I can before having to fulfill other commitments.

From Advertising Age:

--Pepsi, well, cans BBDO giving the business to sister shops TBWA/Chiat/Day and Arnell. Andrew Robertson may be crying in his cola, but not John Wren.
--Procter & Gamble's Ted McConnell says about advertising in social media: ""What in heaven's name made you think you could monetize the real estate in which somebody is breaking up with their girlfriend?"
--Surprisingly detailed analysis of the Motrin baby-wearing ad controversy, given that Ad Age did this in less than a day.
--Anheuser-Busch's vp/global media and sports marketing, Tony Ponturo, retires.
--3 Minute Ad Age: Nestle Waters CEO is pissed off at the demonization of bottled water.

From Adweek:

--Adweek's take on the shift of Pepsi out of BBDO.
--Didya hear that Jerry Yang is no longer CEO at Yahoo?
--George Hayes, IPG settle age discrimination lawsuit.
--Since I gave rather short shrift to the Adweek 30th issue yesterday, here are a few more links.
--Who is influential now.
--Barbara Lippert's three greatest campaigns of the last 30 years. You'll have to click here to find out.
--How technology has changed brand story-telling.
--Mark Dolliver on the "cultural Botox" that has left pop culture about where it was 30 years ago.

From Brandweek:

--Perception of private-label brands catching up to so-called "name" brands since, like, uh, they're cheaper, and cheap is in!
--Order Domino's Pizza via TiVo. Heaven.

From Mediapost:

--Black Friday, Cyber Monday, will be no big deal say CMOs. We knew that already, didn't we?
--Lowe's, Target, also feel the pain.
--Pentax tries to lure new camera enthusiasts.
--DeBeers says it will double U.S. ad spending. God knows why.
--New Levi's women's jean, called Ultimate Lift. Sounds like a bra.
--Online ad market sucking to a greater extent than we thought says Citi analyst. Maybe they're just all feeling a little bit glass empty over there these days.
--Things really smell over at AOL.
--Enfatico hires former imc (squared) exec David Shulman as chief digital officer.

From Mediaweek:

--Forbes cans 43 people in integrating its print and online sales and marketing staffs.
--Fox opts out of bidding on the Bowl Championship games. It's all yours ESPN!
--Zenith Optimedia radio guru Matt Feinberg leaves as part of new layoff round.
--Obama interview gives "60 Minutes" its highest ratings in years. Maybe he can save the economy just by showing up on TV.
--Yahoo Telemundo site shuts down.

From The New York Post:

--More, more, more Jerry Yang.
--Keith Kelly, bearer of bad news: in addition to Forbes, layoffs at TV Guide, and Play, the Times' sports magazine goes the way of the stegosaurus.
--Maybe DeBeers isn't nuts: high-end jewelers opening up on Madison Avenue.

From The New York Times:

--The definitive story about the BBDO/Pepsi split, featuring picture of Britney Spears on a surfboard.
--Nielsen starts to listen to radio.
--Oh, right, Jerry Yang is out as CEO at Yahoo.

From The Wall Street Journal:

--Another Pepsi/BBDO story. This time featuring picture of Cindy Crawford. Subscription required, but you know the story.
--More on that pesky Motrin ad. Subscription required.
--Did you hear about Jerry Yang? Free.

Gotta run! I'm late for exercise class!

Anatomy of Motrin's PR disaster

2008-11-17T21:06:00.007-05:00

OK, let's get today's Motrin controversy out of the way. (Well, I guess it started this weekend, but I wasn't wearing my baby, who now weighs just under 45 pounds; we were cleaning the house.) Although there are about 400 links one could choose from to outline the controversy, I'll do it for you here in three simple visuals. One, the ad about "baby-wearing" that got a lot of mothers tied up in their Baby Bjorns:

The offending ad, probably not conceived (forgive the pun) by a mother, was from Taxi NYC. Now, here's one of the many YouTube responses about the ad, a nine-minute montage, mainly consisting of tweets expressing outrage about the ad, to the strains of, inexplicably, "Ol' Danny Boy." (Watch about 45 seconds, and I assure you, you'll get the point.)

Finally, the letter that was posted sometime today on the Motrin Web site:

I'll admit I don't really know what to make of all this since this silly little ad isn't the kind of thing that gets me all excited, even as the mother of the two greatest children in the world. Someone poisoning the Tylenol? Now that's a problem. Was the Motrin ad snarky? Hell, yeah. But the angry response to it seems out of line with what it represented. Had it not rained all weekend--at least on the east coast--would the outcry have been more muted because more of us Moms would have been at the playground instead of hanging out on Twitter? Maybe what Motrin is learning here, and what other marketers will as well, is just what can happen when you put production and distribution tools in the hands of everybody. When everybody gets mad, they don't know when to stop.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 11.17.08

2008-11-16T22:37:00.009-05:00

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

From Advertising Age:

--How, precisely, the collapse of Detroit would suck for agencies and media companies.
--Old Spice vs. Axe, if grooming products aimed at male teenagers is your gig.
--BBH branches out into vegetarian meals and personal alarms.
--You should still care about Yahoo.
--All about addressable advertising. Pipe dream or a way to use pipes to fulfill a dream? Whoa, calm down, Adverganza.
--Reckitt Benckiser rocks.
--The Association of Magazine Editors tries to honor the advertising/edit divide, while one unidentified editor says, "I could give a fuck about ASME." Ouch.
--Retailers get ready for a lousy little Christmas.
--Even if you're not yet out of the magazine business, maybe it's time to get out of the magazine business.
--Awww. We still no how to give.
--We're eating more cereal. Don't think that's a good thing.
--Film at 11! We're going to drink less bubbly this holiday season!
--Bob Garfield gives Honeyshed one pitiful star.

From Adweek:

--Adweek's 30th anniversary package. Who's been influential, best ads of the last 30 years, and so forth.
--Video to celebrate Adweek's 30th, featuring interviews with WPP CEO Martin Sorrell, TBWA Chiat/Day's Lee Clow, Cliff Freeman, more.
--What you don't know about your target's media consumption habits.
--Six finalists in Levi's creative review, if you care.
--Donovan Data Systems and Interpublic renew their deal.
--Buzzmaker Crispin gets the assignment for Microsoft's Zune, which could be, well, intriguing, as the Zune has just about no buzz.
--BMW of North America dealers to Grey West.
--Gap's Christmas campaign .... Dixie Chicks plus Sandra Bernhard ... other weird celebrity juxtapositions ... see below or ... click here ... via Laird & Partners.

From Brandweek:

--It's a bird, it's a plane, it's superfruit.
--New Tic Tac packaging. Thrilling.
--Mercedes gets ready to start a new online community.
--Target gets bloggers to go mobile for Christina Aguilera CD launch.

From Mediapost:

--SunTrust's "Live Solid. Bank Solid" tag is a sign of the times.
--Consumerism is dead. Long live causism.
--Speaking of which, a new online magazine for "people who want to live well and do good deeds."
--Interview with About.com chief Cella Irvine.
--Thanks for playing, ForbesAutos.com.
--AT&T a backer of a new privacy thinktank: the Future of Privacy Forum.
--Citadel, Emmis and Clear Channel sign up for radio audience measurement in real-time.
--Despite their combative ad campaigns, telcos, cable companies and satellite companies are starting to actually selling ads together.
--Call for a six-month moratorium on new billboards in L.A.
--

From Mediaweek:

--Scatter for sports in Q4 kind of lacking in that demand thing.
--Which two publishing companies laid off staff late last week?
--The online video shakeout is upon us.
--Cable advertising is still happenin' as NCC does $1 billion in sales.
--The TVB wants live-plus-three.
--Former Rolling Stone publisher Ray Chelstowski to run new luxury magazine. In this economy, good luck.

From The New York Post:

--Yeah, TV development budgets are down too.

From The New York Times:

--If you read my blog, you know this already: Michelle Obama wears J. Crew.
--The National Review discovers that online discourse can get nasty.
--Say "Au Revoir" to "TRL."
--Epoch Films sprouts Dandelion to tell stories about brands. You mean, like, "Once upon a time there was a brand ... "?
--Despite ad cutbacks, there will be no shortage of people walking around wearing logos.

From The Wall Street Journal:

--Will the economic downturn finally kill off the yellow pages? Subscription required.
--James Bond flick takes in over $70 million this weekend. Free.
--Pirates are ripping off Blu-Ray. Subscription required.
--Home Depot launches Spanish version of its Web site. Subscription required.
--Reed Elsevier CEO Gerard van de Aast to leave company. Subscription required.

That's it for today.

Adverganza's Friday morning picks, 11.14.08

2008-11-14T08:45:00.006-05:00

Wherein I scan the Friday morning headlines so you don't have to.

From Advertising Age:

--Mainardo de Nardis named CEO of OMD Worldwide, replacing Joe Uva, who left in about the 1970s, I think.
--First the VW Routan made fun of pregant women; now it's making fun of soccer moms, see the results below. Actually, I think these are funnier than the ads featuring Brooke Shields. Major League Soccer players drinking juice boxes! Funny.

--Retailers embrace movie ads.
--WPP on how to get through a recession. (Pssst! Digital).
--Which two magazines starting with "E" both laid off a total of 30 people?
--Throwing doubt on the popularity of those Nike/Kimbo Slice viral videos. For your viewing pleasure, I've posted one below.

--3 Minute Ad Age: Verizon learns the hard way.

From Adweek:

--Which Paris-based agency holding company posted organic growth of only 1.5 percent in Q3?

From Mediapost:

--Wal-Mart: safe harbor in an earnings storm.
--This year, make it a Dunkin' Donuts Christmas. Why? Because it's cheap.
--Alpo has a restaurant on Newbury Street in Boston. For dogs. Really.
--People hate renting cars at airports.
--Gartner guy says the pressure is on for social sites to make money. Uh-oh.
--Digitalsmiths gets second round of financing. Much bigger deal than it would've been, say, two months ago.
--Publicis' VivaKi does a deal with a company called Mobile Discovery. It's all about "holistic, end-to-end solutions." Blah.
--Magazine layoff roundup!
--Initiative na mes Michael Hayes evp, managing director, digital, and Amy Auerbach to senior vp, director, digital.

From Mediaweek:

--Everyone's watching CBS.
--More readers are making more money.
--Phil Boyce becomes president of Talk Radio Network.
--Bye, bye "Lipstick Jungle" and "My Own Worst Enemy." At least Brooke Shields has those Routan ads to fall back on.
--ESPN gets the British Open, as expected.
--Gannett stock is in the tank, but it's buying a social media company, Ripple6.

From The New York Post:

--Time Inc. cancels its holiday party.

From The New York Times:

--GM can't even get lucky in product placement. Two of its cars were featured on "My Own Worst Enemy," canceled after four episodes and a zillion promos on the Major League Baseball.
--NBC, Fox stations in Philadelphia to pool news video.

From The Wall Stree t Journal:

--Here's your recession silver lining: luxury goods are getting marked down. Free.
--Snapple redesigns its label. Subscription required, but here's what it looks like:

That's it. Have a good weekend.

AT&T aids celebrity stalkers

2008-11-13T10:57:00.005-05:00

Haven't been able to figure out what the deal is with the ShareATT channel on YouTube. It's completely random. This latest video, "How to Handle a Celebrity Sighting" works in Gawker Stalker and a cell phone, for obvious reasons--oh, and a Paris Hilton look-a-like. Given the way obsessive fandom goes these days, the timing isn't great.

Can't the NAA think up a new campaign

2008-11-13T10:32:00.005-05:00

If you've been perusing the ad trade sites lately, which I have, you may have seen that the Newspaper Association of America is running its ad campaign again, touting newspaper as "the multi-medium" and linking to this site, full of facts and figures that, we can only assume, assure the reader that newspapers, in fact, rock. The good news is that the campaign considers a newspaper to be not just the paper it's printed on, but the entire product, including digital. The bad news is that with newspaper armageddon all around, it would be reasonable to launch a campaign that everyone hadn't already seen before, and this campaign is at least a year old. My first response to seeing it was, "Oh, that campaign again" and then I realized that the newspaper has to find something new to say. I assume the data you get at the click-through is updated from last time the NAA ran this campaign, but most of us don't have the time or inclination to find out.

Adverganza's Thursday morning picks, 11.13.08

2008-11-13T08:36:00.005-05:00

Wherein I scan the Thursday morning headlines so you don't have to.

From Advertising Age:

--Another HP review, this time for the media business at ZenithOptimedia.
--Decline in DTC spending for second year in a row means less blather about side effects. Yeah!
--Droga5 runs with Puma.
--Smart phones will be a big new market for video games. Duh.
--3 Minute Ad Age: Antonio Neves is growing a beard. Oh, and social media continues to rock despite the nasty economy.

From Adweek:

--Google to put video ads tied to search results on YouTube.
--Cannes adds PR Lions. Get your nominations in for best press release.
--If you care, here are the five finalists in the BMW media review.
--Cadbury Adams hands the media goodies over to Horizon, Cossette.
--Razorfish's Shiv Singh says that social media is going to mean you ad types are going to have to get cozy with academia.

From Brandweek:

--Citizens Bank is expanding its Green$ense program, where it gives you a dime for every electronic transaction you make. ATM, with paper receipts, not included.
--MTV sending young people to the Philippines. Sort of.
--How nice. NBCU and the NFL are holding "Green Week" and it has nothing to do with "Mean Joe" Greene.

From Mediapost:

--That cheeky Gen "Y" makes its own investment decisions says Scottrade. But after the last six weeks, do you think they still will?
--Which department store currently celebrating its 150th anniversary just posted a $44 milion loss for Q3?
--We're starting to love our Vespas.
--Which electronics retailer saw its same-store sales decrease by 7.6 percent last month? Hint: it's not Circuit City.
--Don't read this if the windows in your office actually open: Nick Denton says ad spending could be down by as much as 40 percent. The full post from his blog is here.
--Someone actually suing Classmates.com because of those emails which say you're going to connect with your former classmates. Has he never seen an ad before?
--Here are the most socially responsible corporations. Surprisingly, no oil companies make the list.
--TV nets all over the Consumer Electronics Show.
--As of asset swap with WPP, Nielsen says it now provides 75 percent of the TV measurement in the world, and probably the universe. Unless Martians watch NBC.
--Katz moves to pick up some Interep assets.

From Mediaweek:

--Well, at least Outcast is booming.
--The Arbitron portable people meter now includes Internet radio ratings. New Yorkers listen the most.
--Turner Sports decides it doesn't need the British Open.
--Film at 11! Online shopping is mainstream!

From The New York Post:

--Conde Nast cancels its holiday party.
--Which well-regarded British magazine is cutting 5 percent of its U.S. staff?
--Dell spokesperson says, "There's no correlation between Casey Jones' departure and our commitment to Enfatico." Let's revisit this comment in a few months.

From The New York Times:

--Cheer up! "Elf Yourself" is back!
--The Times maintains straight face over fake Times. C'mon guys, lighten up.

From The Wall Street Journal:

--Hedge fund Quadrangle closes its media fund. I wonder why. Subscription required.
--Bottled water producer Nestle warns people against drinking soda. No self-interest there. At all. Subscription required.
--This year's J.C. Penney holiday campaign is all about price. Here it is, but it's nothing compared to last year's spot, which is, like, the best commercial ever. Free.

That's all for today.

Alright, already, I get that you're a PC

2008-11-12T15:11:00.005-05:00

If the WindowsVideo channel on YouTube is any indication, looks like Microsoft is splicing and dicing the "I'm a PC" footage they're getting, sixteen ways to Sunday, but no matter how you slice it, the idea gets old after awhile. Don't you like the way I can stick with a metaphor?

Obama still supplying his YouTube channel

2008-11-12T08:08:00.003-05:00

Much has been said over the last week about how Barack Obama might use all of the social media channels he opened during his campaign in the service of his presidency. One inkling of his commitment to continuing to use them is on YouTube, where the president-elect has posted his trip to the White House and his acceptance speech. (I know he's there late at night with his laptop, hitting the "Upload" button. Sure.) There's much more he could do with it. I'll keep watching.

Adverganza's Wednesday morning picks, 11.12.08

2008-11-11T21:17:00.005-05:00

Wherein I scan the Wednesday morning headlines so you don't have to.

From Advertising Age:

--Dentsu snaps up McGarry Bowen.
--Hilarity ensues as Casey Jones, Dell's vp/global marketing and overseer of Dell-only shop Enfatico leaves the company!
--Will consumers be leery of plugging into bankrupt Circuit City over the holidays?
--Don't look for cable to start Hulu-ing.
--Television Bureau of Advertising now predicting national spot to be down 11.5 percent in 2009.
--3 Minute Ad Age: Cable shouldn't just be about content, but about context.

From Adweek:

--DDB is latest agency to name a diversity chief. The name's Minerva Garcia.
--Asset swap between WPP and Nielsen. If you can follow it, you're a better woman than I.
--Citi Investment Research predicts a 3.6 percent ad spending decline next year.
--Because they couldn't think of what else to name it, ANDY Awards calls its new category "Category Next."

From Mediapost:

--Burst launches network of people who intend to buy cars, which is pretty easy, since no one is intending to buy a car.
--Jarvis Mak to head research at Havas Digital.
--Clear Channel says Obama outspent McCain in radio 5-to-1.
--First, we stop eating at restaurants.
--And this study showed that nearly half of those surveyed have cut back on fast-food restaurants.
--Sarah Palin's favorite consignment shop has to change its name.

From Mediaweek:

--Which digital arm of a major private publishing company just laid off staff?
--Vivian Schiller, senior vp/general manager at nytimes.com, joins National Public Radio as president/CEO.
--Rodale says its revenue declined five percent compared to last year's third quarter.

From The New York Post:

--GM pulls out of the LA Auto Show. That's how bad it is.

From The New York Times:

--Low-budget ad campaigns for itty-bitty banks.

That's it. Lost a few items this morning somehow that I coulda sworn I added, but got to move on.

Adverganza's Tuesday morning picks, 11.11.08

2008-11-11T09:17:00.009-05:00

Wherein I synopsize as many headlines as I can before the off-from-school kids take over.

From Advertising Age:

--Starbucks profit down 97 percent, but CEO Howard Schultz thinks the worst is over.
--Maybe Crestor does do some good.
--30 percent of online retailers say they are cutting their marketing budgets.
--Now is the time for real innovation. At least this guy thinks so.
--3 Minute Ad Age: Charles Schwab CEO loves her commercials from Euro RSCG.

From Adweek:

--If you're turned off by the regular show or have no time, watch the "Heroes" microseries! Oh, yeah, sponsored by Sprint and worked on by Mindshare.
--Adweek's take on Bob Isherwood's exiting stage left at Saatchi.
--Omnicom CEO John Wren and ESPN sales and marketing prez Ed Erhardt to receive Reisenbach Award.
--Here's Adweek's story on Agency.com's suit against iCrossing and its ex-CEO Don Scales, who is now, of course, the CEO of iCrossing. More importantly, here's the complaint. Read on the Twitter yesterday that it cites stories written by Adweek's Brian Morrissey.
--Marketers target the obese, and not with Doritos.

--From Brandweek:

--Pull your TV commercials and embrace the power of swag.
--Feature on Starbucks' "Wake Up Call."
--Ads with a one-man target: president-elect Obama.
--Order online from Pizza Hut and receive 75 eMusic downloads? That rules!

From Mediapost:

--Liberty Mutual debuts ad in its "Responsibility Project", even though its earnings suck.
--Click here if you want to know what Kid-Adult Fusion is.
--According to this show, sponsored by Ocean Spray, it's going to be a "Cranberry Christmas."
--Land Rover is sponsor of KBB Mobile.
--Not as good as the Pizza Hut free downloads, but you can get four free downloads at this Tic Tac site.
--Mindshare signs social network ad deal with Lotame.
--Users sue NebuAd.
--iPhone now most popular mobile in the U.S.
--Now Conde Nast is all over Brightcove.
--Wired executive editor Bob Cohn to head Web site for The Atlantic.
--Here's how much it cost Publicis to buy Performics from Google.
--Invidi gets more traction as an addressable advertising solution.
--Which newspapers just laid off a total of almost 500 people?
--Charlie Collier named president of AMC.
--Which newspaper company saw third quarter revenue decline by 10 percent?
--Susan Whiting named vice chairperson of Nielsen, as part of the office of the CEO.

From Mediaweek:
--Which radio company saw its Q3 net revenue decline by 10.9 percent?
--Which major magazine publisher is asking for at least 83 buyout volunteers?
--Which radio and outdoor company had a basically flat Q3?
--CNET launches show called "The Apple Byte" for you Steve Jobs cultists.
--Marc Berman's Programming Insider: Broadcast nets are down compared to last year.
--Lifetime acquires something called Roiworld from Korea.

From The New York Times:

--Hmmm. Webcasts from Iraq will sell people on the Army? I guess.
--Film at 11! Book industry nervous about the holiday season. They must have been reading the headlines or something.

From The Wall Street Journal:

--Advertisers are reconsidering their Super Bowl ad buys. Certainly, this is the sign we've been waiting for to prove that the economy is in tatters. Free.
--Close-up on the rollout of Facebook's engagement ads. Free.
--As an experiment, Ticketmaster drops the so-called convenience charges. Convenient for who, I ask? Subscription required.
--Which satellite radio company posted a $4.88 billion loss in Q3? If you can't get this one right without clicking, you're hopeless. Subscription required.

That's all she wrote. Yesterday the headlines weren't so miserable, but not today!

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 11.10.08

2008-11-09T17:30:00.011-05:00

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

From Advertising Age:

--Worldwide CD Bob Isherwood leaves Saatchi.
--Levi's asks agencies in review to unzip more of their fly than they should.
--What will Obama do with his three-million people database?
--Looking at Blackberry's Election Day launch.
--Las Vegas hotels spending, even as tourism slips.
--The audacious Barack Obama.
--Obama and the relaunch of Brand America.
--Simon Dumenco thinks McCain's brand suicide was all about Sarah Palin.
--Except post-Election Day, Obama hasn't helped Chicago newspaper circulation at all.
--Meet Team Obama.
--Bob Garfield gives the McCain campaign one star. Maybe he was feeling generous.
--Fast food giants get into text, Facebook orders.

From Adweek:

--Mediacom gets its arms around reorganization, "value reengineering" whatever that is.
--Tod Seisser, Steve Landsberg, start creative consultancy, Grok.
--Finalists in Home Depot review to present this week, if you care.
--Vanguard calling a review. Hey, get on the stick!
--Finally, someone takes a closer look at Honeyshed.
--"Just Asking: What Impact Did Ads Have on the Election?"
--A car company that's advertising! Cars.com will start $200 million campaign on Super Bowl.
--Former head of ad sales at Fox Interactive Media, Michael Barrett, joins startup AdMeld as CEO.
--Profile of Cameron Death, vp of NBC Universal Digital Studio. (BTW, it's pronounced "Deeth".)
--Barbara Lippert on why "traditional political ads have never seemed so irrelevant."
--Joseph Jaffe gives you 10 reasons why you should start a blog. (As long as it doesn't compete with Adverganaa--but what could?--it's OK with me.)
--StrawberryFrog's Scott Goodson and Chip Walker think it's a time of opportunity, and appear to have been stone cold sober when they wrote this column.
--Ad of the Day: Mark Dolliver likes this Hyatt commercial about its exceptional service except for that part at the end where it uses the word "humbly" which " ... does introduce a bowing-and-scraping note that the spot has otherwise avoided."

From Brandweek:

--Are the changes Obama is promising bad for the marketing community?
--Interview with Church & Dwight vp/marketing James Daniels about that Trojan campaign, below, in which men actually are pigs. (I admit I never saw it before.)

--Yet another Simpsons/Burger King promo.
--Cold remedy makers tout their latest innovations, i.e. the ones private-label makers haven't ripped off yet.
--Hennessey continues its partnership with Habitat for Humanity.
--Todd Wasserman interviews Steinski, the 57-year-old Jewish hip-hop legend who works in advertising. Yes, you read that right.

From Mediapost:

--Your chance to read more depressing things about GM.
--Credit card promotions apparently continue, if this new music-themed one from Citi is any indication.
--When it comes down to saving money vs. buying organic, saving money wins.
--Compaony touts an alternative to pre-roll and overlay video ads.
--Search advertising still immune to economic slowdown.

From Mediaweek:

--Integration? Schmintegration! Magazines cut back on those integrated packages.
--ABC News wins the election.
--Elvis Costello, Sundance get sponsors.
--Which media company just laid off its recently-promoted chief innovation officer?
--A report from CNN's Election Night shindig.
--Which cable net saw its revenue increase in Q3?
--Now that Googlehoo is dead, is it time to reinstate Microhoo, or Yasoft, or whatever?
--Do other newsweeklies want to be The Economist?
--Obligatory political ad spend wrap-up.
--So much for Nielsen's out-of-home report.
--Richard Beaven of Initiative is Mediaweek's Media Exec of the Year. The rest of the list is here.
--Marc Berman's Programming Insider: It was a good weekend for ABC and CBS.

From The New York Post:

--Those Time, Newsweek Obama covers are selling out.
--Circuit City cozies up to Chapter 11.
--Will the lousy economy cause agencies to rethink their business model?

From The New York Times:

--"Goodbye Seduction, Hello Coupons." The headline says it all.
--Finally figuring out who the hell Nate Silver is.
--YouTube snares MGM deal.
--Book publishers get into that digital thang.
--Rescuing "Heroes."
--Guy titles his book, “A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win”. Oops.
--New MSNBC tag: "Experience the Power of Change." Are they taking credit or something?
--Video gamers not sure about this Obama guy.

From The Wall Street Journal (long story, having to do with how much Internet Explorer sucks, but you'll have to find out yourself whether this content is free; for the record, I'm devoted to Firefox):

--You probably don't want to be in the radio business right now.
--Agency.com sues iCrossing, accusing its former CEO Don Sciales with "raiding" the agency.
--Shari Redstone walks away from Midway Games.
--Cable results good, broadcast bad.

That's it kiddos. The news isn't as depressing as usual, but the week's still young.

Adverganza's Friday morning picks, 11.07.08

2008-11-06T21:39:00.010-05:00

So where the hell was I on Thursday? On a field trip with my 10-year-old. Tried to do a post to that effect from my Treo but it didn't quite post, obviously. So, I'm back doing Friday headlines now, and hope a day off didn't ruin everything.

From Advertising Age:

--Microsoft hires ex-Time Inc. exec Robin Domeniconi as head of U.S. ad sales.
--If your brand is in "Slumdog Millionaire" you might want to rethink that.
--Watch out for Henry Waxman and regulation on DTC advertising.
--Can Burger King mandate that its franchisees stay open longer?
--Carat's Adam Cahill tells Barack Obama how "to extend the social-media foundation he built as a candidate and transform it into something even more powerful."
--3 Minute Ad Age: Getting all hyped up about the Corn Refiners Association new ad campaign about high fructose corn syrup.

From Adweek:

--Disney sets a record for its revenue, but sees dark clouds on the horizon.
--Obama win sets Election Night records: 71 million of us watched.
--Which Detroit ad agency just laid off 22 percent of its staff?
--Borrell Associates predicts local interactive advertising to grow--much less quickly.
--Do you have your Obama keepsake yet?
--News Corp. blames the ad business for its woes, which is actually accurate.
--Film at 11! DVR impact on TV viewing outpaces impact of VCRs.
--If you care, Lowe wins Outback Steakhouse.
--Ad of the Day: Havas' Arnold puts a huge pinata in Philadelphia for Carnival Cruise Lines. Don't know why, but man! The buzz!

From Brandweek:

--Blu-ray is going to spend $25 million to tell us all what the hell it is.

From Mediapost:

--October retail sales are lowest since 1969. Even Costco got hurt although, Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and B.J.'s did not.
--GM to announce third quarter results today. They won't be good.
--Sears launches "Grant a Wish" campaign, as in "Don't just give a gift, grant a wish." Here's the 60-second version of the spot, via Young & Rubicam.

--Timberland admits that Mother Nature can suck. Here's a commercial from this new campaign, via Leagas Delaney.

--Time-shifted viewing of primetime this year is at 16 percent in the 18-49 demo, per Magna.
--Stephen Friedman named general manager of MTV.
--Ten percent of voters admit that "SNL" political skits influenced their voting, with six percent saying it made them pick Obama, and four percent saying it made them pick McCain. Don't know as I'd ever admit to that.
--Havas Digital's Stuart Epperson unveils ad trading system that will operate, eventually anyway, like the Wall Street futures marketplace.
--Craigslist to put limits on prostitution ads. Sorry to ruin your weekend.
--Is Facebook looking to Dubai?
--Here is Fox's Q1 2009 prime-time line-up.
--Marc Berman's Programming Insider: "Dancing with the Stars" rules.

From Mediaweek:

--Brian Lawlor named chief of E.W. Scripps' TV division.
--Adult Swim throws life preserver to "King of the Hill."

From The New York Times:

--Agency layoff round-up story. Read it if you dare.
--Money magazine managing editor Eric Schurenberg leaves as part of overall Time Inc. shakeup.

From The Wall Street Journal:

--Moscow confronting billboard pollution. Subscription required.

That's all. Have a good weekend.

More to come ...

Get ready for Michele Obama, fashion icon

2008-11-05T11:41:00.005-05:00

Just got served up an ad in my Gmail, saying I could " Get the Look Michelle Obama Wore on 'The Tonight Show.'" A picture of her walking onstage last week in said outfit is at left. It links to this page at the J. Crew site.

Adverganza's Wednesday morning picks, 11.05.08

2008-11-04T20:46:00.009-05:00

Wherein I scan the post-Election Day headlines because you're too busy looking at political news.

From Advertising Age:

--Yes, marketers, you can learn something from Obama's win.
--With Obama's win, here come the regulations.
--The Obama campaign's grasp of "time shifting and consumer control."
--Media outlets about to have a post-election hangover.
--Some think Obama-mania will turn Kenya into a tourism hotspot.
--OK, so Mediavest did a study predicting at what time each state would be called. Does that strike you as at all, say anal?
--Revamped Google/Yahoo search deal hasn't exactly erased all concerns.
--Booz & Co.'s Chris Vollmer on media companies gaining on the ad industry in data ownership.

From Adweek:

--Goodby's Mike McKay moves to Saatchi & Saatchi LA as ecd.
--Supreme Court hears starts to hear case on indecency over the airwaves.
--Film at 11! Gen X immune to traditional advertising!

From Brandweek:

--Thinking it's not enough to launch one campaign, Qwest launches two.
--Hard to argue with this tagline: "Five bucks and change" for CiCi's pizza. Here's a commercial, posted to YouTube by my buds from AdFreak:

--From where I sit at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, looks like a good idea that Greenpeace used some JFK footage in its new campaign. Here's the spot:

From Mediapost:

--Supposedly, people will spend more on holiday shopping now that Obama has w on, and Goldman Sachs is one of the entities behind this particular survey.
--You can buy a new car for $9,900.
--Those "white spaces" get approved. FCC chief Kevin Martin calls this the beginning of "WiFi on steroids."
--Film at 11! "LinkedIn Users Have Higher Incomes!"
--AT&T puts a limit on consumer downloads. Something tells me this isn't going to sit well with everybody.
--Twitter looking for new executives.
--Media stocks up on Election Day.
--Obama regulation watch: expect him to regulate DTC ads.
--San Diego, Austin, Dallas and Orlando lead the country in DVR penetration, with almost 40 percent of San Diego residents having one.
--Jack Feuer on why this year's presidential nominees were great at the marketing thing.

From Mediaweek:

--Former Yahoo exec Sean Lyden joins digital out-of-home company Outcast as vp/product strategy.
--At least Americans are getting ready for something: the onset of digital TV.
--Maybe broadcast TV will do better once this damn election is over. Sounds plausible.
--Pet-lover site zootoo.com signs advertisers.
--Something or other about Starburst and a content distribution deal of a series which appeared yesterday in home page space on YouTube. Anyway, here's the show:

--More management shifts at Westwood One, following last month's ouster of the CEO.

From The New York Post:

--No one is buying scatter.
--People, US Weekly, rush to get Obama on the cover.

From The New York Times:

--Google drops Yahoo search partnership in its entirety. Jerry Yang calling Steve Ballmer as we speak.
--Slate names Obama winner at 9:27 p.m.; networks wait until 11.
--Time Warner beats its forecasts, but sees some gloom ahead.
--Great. Now layoffs are being blogged, and not just by the, um, lay-ees.
--Which newsweekly turned news bi-weekly is becoming a monthly?
--The new Westfield London mall has 100 digital billboards from CBS Outdoor. Just imagine the electric bill!

From The Wall Street Journal:

--U.S. TV market got you down? Hooray for Bollywood! Free.
--The Journal's take on Google backing out of the Yahoo deal. Subscription required.
--Online retailers expect sales to slow this holiday season, but because they are such a happy group they still expect them to be up. Just less up. Free.

Au revoir.

CNN wants you on its live page

2008-11-04T13:03:00.002-05:00

Found this ad linking to CNN's live stream of election coverage at The New York Post's site, of all places. Now, that's bi-partisan.

Qantas ad overloads on the Muzak

2008-11-04T11:30:00.007-05:00

File this commercial among those that really, really bug me. It's for Qantas Airways, touting it as "The World's Most Experienced Airline." It's not that line that bothers me, it's the wretched, Muzac-style version of Men at Work's "Down Under." Was it the finest song of the 1980s? No. But the way the song is arranged here sounds like just the sort of schlock you'd here in an elevator, or on a plane while the passengers are boarding, come to think of it.

Fear-mongering 'til the bitter end

2008-11-04T09:41:00.003-05:00

So, my television consumption last night was pretty much a toggle between the "SNL" election eve show and the cable news channels. Saw a version of this ad from the National Republican Trust repeatedly, no matter what I watched. The Rev. Wright fracas wasn't Obama's finest hour, but enough already.

Adverganza's Tuesday morning picks, 11.04.08

2008-11-03T21:20:00.012-05:00

Wherein I scan the Election Day headlines so you have time to vote. (Don't worry ... I'll get to it too.)

From Advertising Age:

--Interpublic and WPP win lots of biz from Johnson & Johnson.
--Guess which carmaker's sales were down 45 percent last month? 32 percent? 23 percent?
--Guess which media company's revenue was down 37 percent in the third quarter?
--Party down! OMD wins $1 billion Renault-Nissan media biz.
--Ah, it all comes clear now. Former Heavy and Microsoft exec Eric Hadley moves t o Yahoo as vp/U.S. field marketing where he'll no doubt work closely with former Microsoft exec Joanne Bradford. Also, Yahoo media honcho Scott Moore has left for parts unknown.
--3 Minute Ad Age: About the Hanger Network, which creeps me out. Do you really want ads hanging in your closet?

From Adweek:

--NBC Universal digital honcho George Kliavkoff says he's leaving at year's end. No word on where he's going.
--Hill, Holliday gets more Dunkin' Donuts business. Pass the java.
--In case we need one, a social network just for artists, called SohoMuse. Blah.
--McCann-Erickson wins Sirius XM business, where it will "to promote the use of Sirius XM Radio to owners of new and certified used GM vehicles." If there are any, that is.

From Mediapost:

--Automakers hope the worst is over. Hope springs eternal, I guess.
--Are you ready for "The Meow Mix Think Like A Cat Game Show"? Neither am I.
--CEO of Corebrand thinks the Dow will get back to 13,000 by the end of 2009.
--Hyatt really wants you to stay there.
--True, you can get free coffee at Starbucks today, but it's now also possible to follow Dunkin' Donuts on Twitter. Here's where you can sign yourself up.
--Still trying to stir up some excitement about this white spaces issue. Anyway, if you've been able to the FCC is probably going to vote on it today, because there's not enough voting to do today.
--More allegedly seamless digital ad planning and buying integration, this time courtesy of Comcast-owned Strata Marketing and Microsoft's Atlas.
--Full-length movies now available on Break.
--Wink and Reunion merge to create some kinda search/social networking mashup.
--Toby Gabriner moves to Tribal Fusion as CEO.
--Young viewers watching more commercials, even though they have DVRs!
--All those new measurement techniques in traditional media aren't all they were cracked up to be.
--Guess which radio company laid off 4 percent of its staff?
--Guess which aquatically-themed digital ad agency let go 40 employees?

From Mediaweek:

--Guess which Pennsylvania-based publishing company is laying off 10 percent of staff?
--Cox president Andy Fisher to retire.
--The Fockers meet primetime.
--Oh great, another reality show, this time pitting neighbors against neighbors.
--Fuse wins right to air Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame telecast, ensuring no one will watch it.
--Guess which Chicago-based newspaper company is planning drastic cutbacks in its Washington bureau?
--Guess which Pacific Northwestern newspaper is cutting 10 percent of its workforce?
--Marc Berman's Programming Insider: So far in November, everyone's in the game.

From The New York Post:

--Guess which major electronics retailer plans to close 155 stores?
--American Media's president and COO, John Miller, leaves the company.

From The New York Times:

--Everyone's favorite quadrennial controversy is back! Some networks may call the election before all the votes are in.
--Negative campaigning comes to brands.

From The Wall Street Journal:

--Those "people familiar with the matter" says Google and Yahoo sent a letter to the DOJ revising their proposed search deal, so that Yahoo can have no more than 25 percent of its search revenue come from Google. The deal would also only last for two years rather than as many as ten. Subscription required, but that's the skinny.
--Advertisers go for the warm and fuzzy in hard times. Subscription required, but if you don't have one, you can still watch this Pillsbury commercial with apologies to Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz."

Go vote, people.

McCain and Obama: the final YouTube posts

2008-11-03T13:53:00.004-05:00

Thought on this final day before the election, I should stop by John McCain and Barack Obama's channels on YouTube to see what they most recently posted. On Obama's channel, you get Bruce Springsteen doing an acoustic version of "The Rising" at a rally where he introduced Obama yesterday in Cleveland.

On McCain's channel you get comments from a gun owner's convention in Minnesota.

'nough said.

Starbucks giving coffee to voters tomorrow

2008-11-03T10:09:00.003-05:00

Nice idea by Starbucks to give free coffee to voters tomorrow. The company bought the home page of The New York Times, and probably a lot else too to promote the give away. The 1-minute YouTube video is above. BTW, you just have to say you voted to get the coffee—you don't have to bring in a hanging chad or anything. But don't lie. Go vote!