Comcast may just get to live

Been wondering when Bob Garfield was going to write something about Comcast's efforts to rectify its lousy customer service image, especially since my man, Frank Eliason, now has the distinction of being pictured on the front page of The New York Times. (Below the fold as I recall, but still ... ) Why Garfield? Because when he's not tearing apart ad campaigns, he runs comcastmustdie.com. So, finally noticed this column declaring "Victory!" this morning, in which Garfield says, "Comcast has institutionalized the practice of listening, in live forums around the country but especially on the internet, to resolve individual problems and learn about the (many, gaping) holes in its customer-service operations." Yeah, I lifted the picture from the Ad Age site. It's funny.

Why the sudden Cheetos uproar?

So, I'm amazed at what appears to be a sudden uproar concerning the Cheetos campaign. (If that sentence isn't proof enough that I have no life, than I don't know what else I can tell ya.) It all started on Monday morning, when Bob Garfield's column in Ad Age ran under the headline, "Cheetos Ads That Promote 'Random Acts' Are Irresponsible." Whew! Garfield compares the campaign's premise of encouraging youth to commit random acts to "stick it to the man" as stealing marketing tactics from the drug trade. Don't need to tell you how many stars he gave the campaign, but let's just say that Cheetos' agency, Goodby, Silverstein + Partners, may have never seen this treatment before. Then, yesterday, someone at AOL Living picked up the story, which now has 239 comments. Here's the amazing thing: this campaign has been out for months now, so where was the initial outrage? Seems to me that if a thing can sit around for months without anyone expressing outrage, than it's a trumped up controversy—although, yeah, not the best ad idea ever.

Comcast wallet catches a thief

Of course, Bob Garfield is going to hate this commercial because it's from Comcast, but it's another bit o' funny in the "your wallet will thank you" series promoting the Comcast Triple Play. OK, I have one technical complaint that Garfield and I would probably agree on: the interplay between the wallet and the thief happens so fast it's hard to tell the wallet is beating him up. What about a little slo' mo'? Assume this is from Goodby. Via Funnyplace.org.

Checking in with fake Bob Garfield

I'll know I've made it when someone starts a fake blog pretending to be me. Like that's ever gonna happen. However, you may have noticed that Ad Age's Bob Garfield recently entered that realm at NewsGroper.com, where he started "posting" late last month. His "bio," which is sandwiched on the site next to other "bloggers" named Bob Dylan and Bono, explains, "He may never have worked in advertising, but he can fillet an ad faster than anyone on either side of the Mississippi while at the same time railing against Comcast." Of course, I argue that you don't have to work in advertising to be a critic (aren't we all ad critics?), but some of the bombast (Bob-bast?) is dead on. His first "post," about why you should read his blog, states the following: "I am extremely attentive to every strategic, creative and production detail and if you can’t understand why that is important then you are particularly obtuse." I actually like Bob, but c'mon, it's funny.

Bob Garfield gets 'em talking about Obama

Looks like Bob Garfield has caused quite the dust-up over his Monday column entitled: "Why Even Hardened Racists Will Vote for Barack Obama: In the Electoral Marketplace, He Had to Pass the Halle Berry Test." Not only is it the second most read and fourth most emailed story on Ad Age so far this week, but it's gotten people pretty tied up in their underwear. Check out the comments, such as: "Bob, while your 'logic' is provocative,it has the ring of 'I know what I'm talking about because I'm a racist and I'm using this column to purge my soul'" or "But what do I know? I'm just a black male with 17 years in the 90% white advertising industry that among other things marginalizes black agencies into sub-contractor status simply because they're black, while its Gen market shops hire few if any people of color ... " Before you comment on this blog I ask you to go read Bob's column and ask yourself if he is right in saying the following:

1) Even hardened racists feel the impulse to believe they are no such thing.

2) Hence, they are always in the market for someone "acceptably black."

OK, talk amongst yourselves.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 09.10.07

Wherein I peruse the Monday morning headlines so you don't have to (I'll probably add more links to this later today, but I have a meeting in town today):

From Advertising Age:

—George Parker writes a column dissing motivational research, and, most impressively, uses only one swear word to get his point across. (Although, on second thought, I'd put money on the Ad Age editors having to edit a few more out.)
—Speaking of swear words, why it actually was good that Cramer-Krasselt CEO Peter Krivkovich told careerbuilder.com to fuck off.
—Bob Garfield likes Goodby's teaser campaign from Hyundai, even if it sort of reminds him of "rocks and trees."
—Duh. Original iPhone purchasers pissed off at price decrease. (IMHO, Apple knows it can get away with this shit because of the cult-like devotion people have toward their products. Whatta buncha lemmings.)

From Adweek:

—The annual (and renamed) Digital Hot List. Inexplicably, only the intro is available at this link, but, from what I could gather, the ten on the list, are: Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, TMZ, Veoh, Funny or Die, Digg, People.com, Boston.com, and wsj.com. (OK, now that I've actually seen the list, it's a little bit different than what the intro seemed to infer. Swap out, those last three, and replace them with Disney.com, Discovery.com and iMeem.)
—Is Steve Jobs' mea culpa enough to tame the insanely mad iPhone early adapters?
—Visa tests mobile marketing.
—How engaging with social media is changing old-media publishing models.
—Barbara Lippert talks about Playtex's honest take on boobs. (You can't see the new Playtex campaign at the Adweek site—I'll refrain from commenting about that—but you can see it at playtexfits.com or here.)

From Mediapost:

—Another Yahoo departure: this time its Lyn Bolger, going back to comScore.
—And now a Microsoft departure: Eric Hadley, leaving for Heavy.

From The New York Times:

—Disney, Toys 'R' Us start to test toys that they license or distribute for lead paint, because they don't trust the companies that produced them. Not a good sign for Mattel or other toy manufacturers.
—You don't say? A Quaker brand says it's "all natural."
—Kevin Morris, who negotiated a better Web deal for the creators of "South Park," doesn't plan on stopping there.

From The Wall Street Journal:

—Kimberly-Clark targets a bed-wetting solution to the people who actually bed-wet (free content).