I've exposed my Twitter addiction

This week in the Social Media Insider, I have let it be known that I am a Twitter addict. Stop me before I tweet again!!! Best part is that the comments that are up so far read like an invitation to a 12-step meeting. Not that I would know about such things, but the way things are going, perhaps I soon will.

Axe spot is misogynist masterpiece

I know you couldn't objectify women to a greater extent than is found in this spot for Axe Detailer, some newfangled thing that gets the dirt and slime off of teen males. Still, I'm laughing my head off. Assume this is from Bartle Bogle Hegarty.

Without Clay Felker, there'd be no Bob Garfield

Barbara Lippert has a wonderful piece about Clay Felker on Adweek.com today, and you really should go read it if you want to remember an era gone by, and perhaps even if you don't. The crux of Barbara's piece is how Felker led her into the world of advertising criticism, a specialty that didn't exist at the time. Says Lippert: "My first review was of a Ralph Lauren print series during the winter. ("You want to wear your best $300 sweater while walking your husky," I said, trying to sound like I knew what I was doing.) ... Clay gave it a whole page--the inside cover. I heard that the competition was literally laughing at giving an ad review so much space in the magazine. ... But before we knew it, our chief competitor had hired a writer to do the same thing." And so it goes. Now, as Lippert points out, everyone, including me, fancies themselves a critic.

The story of Clay Felker and 'Adweek'

You may have seen the obituary of Clay Felker, best known as the editor behind New York magazine. I'm writing about him here because he was also, at what was an admittedly a lesser point in his career, the editor of Adweek. Much of the publication's early 1980s reputation as the cheeky upstart going up against staid Advertising Age, was due to him and his long-time professional partner-in-crime, the graphic designer Milton Glaser. I'm working to get more of a recollection from someone who was there at the time. Will update when and if I can. UPDATE: Here are a few thoughts from Ken Fadner, the current head of Mediapost who was one of the founders of Adweek: "Clay gave me my big break in publishing at New York Magazine. And, much of what was ADWEEK was inspired by him or invented by him. We all owe him a great deal -- but I do, especially." There's a reminiscence from an anonymous poster below, who also talks about Walter Bernard's role in creating Adweek.

Did Dentsu and Steve Biegel settle?

Just got a tip that Dentsu and Steve Biegel may have settled the lawsuit, in which former Dentsu creative director Biegel made allegations of sexual harassment against a Dentsu executive Toyo Shigeta. (As though I need to actually recount any of this stuff for you.) I'm checking out the veracity of the report now, but given how quiet it's been on this front, wouldn't be surprising if it was because the two sides were trying to hammer out a deal. I'll update as soon as I know what's going on. UPDATE: There's nothing about a settlement listed in an online copy of the court docket. That doesn't necessarily mean they haven't settled, but obviously the proof isn't there yet.

Energizer ad reminds me of Cliff Freeman

I've no idea how old/new this commercial is, but more than a little reminiscent of an old campaign that Cliff Freeman did for Philips light bulbs back in the day. In the Freeman spot, note the homage to the Chrysler Building elevators. That's because at the time Cliff was a creative director at Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, which was located in that building. Don't ask me how I know these things—if you know why I know than you know why I know.

Not those Svedka gal-bots again

Please do me a favor and don't ever download the Svedka widget. Thanks.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 06.30.08

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

From Advertising Age: (they don't seem to have put their print issue content up yet, so more to come later, I guess).

—Is a burger from Burger King worth $190?
—How Florida is fighting the possibility of another ad tax.
—Now people can't afford to lose weight.
—Unilever CMO Simon Clift calls P&G's Jim Stengel "a bigger media whore than Madonna." He also says other stuff in this story.
—Discover's media account is in review.

From Adweek:

—Digital shops are sick and tired of not getting credit.
—In case you haven't read enough about the J.C. Penney/Epoch kerfuffle over that "Speed Dressing" ad.
—Building agency cultures that respect both traditional and digital staffers ain't easy.
—Attik's Will Travis is turning Japanese. I really think so.
—Rob Moorman will try to get us to care about Merkley + Partners.
—Interactive polling coming soon to a theater near you.
—The inside scoop on T-Mobile's CGM campaign starring Charles Barkley and Dwyane Wade.
—Steve Lambert is replacing online ads with contemporary art. Check out his Add Art project here.
—Benjamin Palmer on why the Internet is finally here to stay.
—Barbara Lippert plays around with 42 Entertainment's "Year Zero" game for Nine Inch Nails.
—Only four out of 56 agencies who filled out Report Card questionnaires do paid search on their own names.
—Digitas becomes a third Publicis global media brand.


From Brandweek:

—Trying to put a value on word-of-mouth marketing.
—Ford Flex uses novellas to reach Hispanic consumers.
—MTV adds metrics like awareness and purchase intent to the good ol' CPM.

From Mediapost:

—Fourth of July celebrations may be recession-proof.
—Why Virgin Mobile bought Helio.
—Cartier enters MySpace.
—Shocker! Edmunds.com revises its annual car sales estimate downward.
—EMI way into the copyright infringement lawsuits.
—Here's one guy who will be going on a road trip this summer.
—The FCC mulls whether product placement deals should be disclosed. As I know my opinion matters, I think they should be.
—Zenith Optimedia ups its forecast for global and online spending for 2008, downgrades North American spending.
—Anheuser-Busch will slash costs, but not marketing spending. Ad industry, drink up!
—WPP doesn't want to mess with Robert Mugabe.
—The FTC is happy with the alcohol industry.

From Mediaweek:

—Fast-food, packaged goods gorge on cable ad deals.
—Metrics, schmetrics. Digital ad buyers aren't all hot and bothered about Google's new Web metrics.
—Fewer people want to drive to the newsstand to buy a magazine.
—VH1's "Love Money" wants to superpoke you.
—Gas Station TV tells advertisers to switch to 15-second spots.

From The New York Post:

—MTV finally decides to compete with iTunes.

From The New York Times:

—Lots of people are whining about spilled milk.
—Google to distribute Web-only content from "The Family Guy" guy.
—Yahoo says that Carl Icahn "misrepresents the manner in which we negotiated with Microsoft."

From The Wall Street Journal:

—Despite the unfunny economy, Sealy finds humor in selling mattresses. Free.
—Everybody went to see "Wall-E" this weekend (except for me ... I saw "Kung Fu Panda.") Subscription required.

Since Ad Age still doesn't seem to have posted its full June 30 print issue content, I might go back and update its section later. Or maybe not. I got things to do, people.