Adverganza's Wednesday morning picks, 10.08.08

Day two, my friends, of my picks-every-day experiment. Pray for me. ("My friends" is a hilarious reference to John McCain. Laugh already, would you?)

From Advertising Age:

—Hyundai buys all of the spots General Motors had bought for the Oscars. There's a metaphor here somewhere.
—Crispin wins the Old Navy account. Look for ads starring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld looking for deals on hoodies. Oh, wait, I'm confused.
—"The Sarah Palin Micro Economy." Yes, Tina Fey is a big part of it.
—Google's Tim Armstrong wants to hold a town hall with the Association of National Advertisers to discuss the Google/Yahoo deal. Tom Brokaw would moderate. Ha! I meant Gwen Ifill.
—Three-minute Ad Age: Bad economy got you down? Talk to Reader's Digest Association's Suzanne Grimes.

From Adweek:

—TNS says political ad spending will break a record, at $2.5 billion. The good news? That's way more than the $1.4 billion spent in 2004. The bad news? TNS originally predicted it would be $3 billion.
—The ups and downs, um, of Levi's "Unbutton Your Beast" campaign.

From Brandweek:

—Duracell, Maggie Gyllenhall, campaign to power smiles, etc.
—All about CRM at HP.

From Mediapost:

—Diddy as Frank Sinatra?
—Despite the lousy economy, people apparently still need their gadgets.
—Car dealerships, just like Darwin's theory of evolution.
—Woo-hoo! Internet ad spending up 15.2 percent in the first half of 2008 per the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Boo! Growth flat between first and second quarters.
—Magazines better than TV at ROI, per Marketing Evolution. Strangely, I don't think this study was released at the American Magazine Conference.
—Mediapost introduces Red, White & Blog.

From Mediaweek:

—People actually watching Major League Baseball playoffs. Well, it's a great diversion.
—What Michael Eisner said at the Veoh Forum.
—You can buy stuff on YouTube.
—American Magazine Conference attendees try to "carefully connect" with people who still read paper.

From The New York Post:

—Thanks for playing, Linens 'n' Things!
—Keith Kelly does a roundup of the American Magazine Conference ... and you are there!

From The New York Times:

—Hey teens! The Ad Council says watch your language!

From The Wall Street Journal:

—Honda Fit all over Sony, sites that is. Free.

OK, gang. That's all she blogged.

Adverganza's Tuesday morning picks, 10.07.08

As an experiment, I'm going to try to do the picks every day, partly because I know it won't be quite as hard as doing them on Mondays when there is so much content out there. Is this sustainable? Probably not. Among other things, the kiddies have Thursday off for Yom Kippur. BTW, if I don't include a publication, it's because it had nothing new on it site, or it had something new on its site that was so dull I wouldn't want to bore you with it. Here goes:

From Advertising Age:

—Magazine publishers talking revenue at the American Magazine Conference. And we're not necessarily talking ad pages.
—Yeah, the AdMarket 50's stocks fell like a stone too.
—TNS surrenders.
—It's going to be an ad, ad, ad, ad virtual world in Sims 3.
—Three-minute Ad Age talks to National Geographic about online communities.

From Adweek:

—SMG roadkill, courtesy of General Motors. Agency cuts 5 to 10 percent of staff as dealer business goes to some other shops.

From Brandweek:

—Coke strikes a deal with a Monster.
—Coldwell Banker sets up a 10-day sales event, dropping home prices by as much as 10 percent. If the owners comply, that is, since ultimately it's up to them. (I know these things. I have my real estate license.)
—Will people drink Glenlivet or some kind of rot gut now that the economy is down?
—Mayors all hepped up about a green revolution.
—Pringles unveils a can creator, so you can design your own can. It's for a good cause!

From Mediapost:

—Sign of the times: Toyota offering 0% financing on most of its vehicles. Not the Prius though.
—KFC airing this ad in Nashville, saying it will donate $20,000 to world hunger relief if anyone, a questioner or a candidate, mentions world hunger during the debate tonight.
—Millenials love them causes.
—Hockey star representing haircut chain, but, weirdly, no mention of mullets.
—The first post-financial crisis ad spending prediction is out, but at least the numbers are very modestly up. Trying to maintain that the glass is half full, I am.
—Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg addresses the American Magazine Conference.
—Diane Mermigas thinks that AOL and Yahoo should get together.
—Young men would rather give up TV than the Internet. (Of course, the Internet can be TV if you want it to be, not the other way around.)

From Mediaweek:

—Newsweek hires Hearst's Pamela Raley as chief revenue officer.
—Film at 11! State of magazine publishing "incredibly fragile" says Hearst exec at American Magazine Conference.
—Everything you wanted to know about the new Food Network magazine.

From The New York Post:

—Couldn't have said it better myself. Dealer advertising "is stuck in park."

From The New York Times:

—Ads try to convince consumers that they really don't need to stick money in their mattress. Stuart Elliott poses the central question of creating ads for Washington Mutual: "How, then, to create a campaign that would project confidence in an institution that will be remembered as having suffered the largest bank failure of its time?"
—Old ads for cigarettes, including a recommendation from doctors that people smoke Lucky Strikes. Those were the days.

From The Wall Street Journal (didn't have time to figure out whether these were subscription required or not. Blame Internet Explorer):

—More on that WPP/TNS deal.
—Ready for the Whopper Bar?

OK, gang, off to exercise class.

Who knew Droga 5 was behind "The Great Schlep"?

Maybe you've seen Sarah Silverman's video "The Great Schlep", above (not necessarily safe for work), which urges Jewish grandchildren to visit their grandparents in Florida and plead with them to vote Obama. (And withhold further visits this year unless that condition is met.) What I didn't know, until I read The New York Times this morning is that Droga5 co-produced it. Among other reasons Silverman thinks everyone should vote for Obama is that, "He's honest and he's kind and quite frankly he's probably our last hope of ending this country's reputation as the assholes of the universe." There's also a semi-serious Web site, that asks people to "Donate to the Schlep" and has some cool schlep swag (schlep schwag?).

McCain says Obama's a dangerous guy

To make this blog fair and balanced, I'll try to keep track of the most viewed YouTube videos on both presidential candidates' channels over the next few weeks. While Obama (see below) had over 134,000 views for a lengthy video about McCain's role in the Keating Five, McCain's most viewed in the last day or so is this commercial painting Obama as a dangerous guy, with 77,000 views. Not that YouTube views are a proxy for who will win the election, but interesting, nonetheless.

Obama amps up McCain and the Keating Five

I haven't exactly jumped into the election campaign on Adverganza, but some interesting stuff is popping up on the YouTube channels for both Barack Obama and John McCain. Above, what is one of the leaders among the video's the Obama campaign posted today: a 13-minute-plus video on McCain's involvement with the Keating Five of the savings and loan crisis. Shows you what a sorry state we're in that more than 135,000 people would watch a video this long, only hours after it had been posted. (There are more than 550,000 views so far for a 35-second teaser. The long form video is also posted on an Obama campaign-backed site, called keatingeconomics.com. Still amazed that Joe Biden didn't mention the Keating Five once in the vice presidential debate since that seems to be the smoking gun, if there is one, on the subject of John McCain and the economy.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 10.06.08

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

From Advertising Age:

—So, 78 percent of us have curtailed spending in the last few weeks. That ain't good.
—The consumer touchpoints of the Tampa Bay (no longer Devil) Rays.
—Cool chart of great deals at major retailers.
—Something about CPG margins, if you're a SKU wonk.
—Here's a PDF to Ad Age's annual A List. But, hey, I'll tell you the ten who made it, in order even: The Economist, Women's Health, Elle, Every Day with Rachel Ray, National Geographic, Fast Company, New York, People Stylewatch, House Beautiful, Conde Nast Traveler.
—Simon Dumenco's first annual American Magazine Vanguard Awards in which magazines, most of which you've never heard of, get props for expanding beyond the printed page.
—What your local ad exec thinks of the government bailout package.
—Wal-Mart is rocking the recession.
—Price of a 30-second spot drops 4.1 percent. In an irrational world, that seems, well, rational.
—Jonah Bloom on Kurt Andersen's "Very Short List." Dump all your feeds and read only one thing a day!
—Bob Garfield gives three stars to drinkability. Guess he was thirsty.
—It's not a water bottle, it's a "personal hydration vessel."

From Adweek:

—Ad industry strangely mum about the bailout bill.
—So, yeah, some ad agencies stand to lose some accounts what with all those bank consolidations.
—A few temperature changes at 72andSunny. OK, that was a dumb metaphor.
—Video beyond the pre-roll.
—Ex-WPP Italy exec Marco Benatti and WPP face off in court today.
—Google and Yahoo search deal isn't soup yet.
—It's gonna suck to have an automotive account in the near term.
—Online resources that help reporters out.
—Just because your religious don't worship at the alter of consumerism.
—Catching up with ex-Wieden creative Jim Riswold, who is still very much alive and making fun of Hitler in his spare time.
—Does Joseph Jaffe have money in his mattress?

From Brandweek:

—Just because nobody supposedly smokes anymore doesn't mean cigarette companies aren't great marketers.
—Should Wendy's be focusing on quality?
—Bailout isn't bad for Botox sales.
—General Mills and Kraft start word-of-mouth networks.
—Shaun White takes over "South Park" to launch his video game.

From Mediapost:

—Infiniti goes global. What do ya wanna bet the brand'll scale back its aggressive expansion plans?
—Kodak, via EVB, lets people become superheroes.
—Didn't know that chains like Panera Bread are referred to as the fast casual segment.
—AT&T in 3D!
—Procter & Gamble picks a Hispanic stylist to promote Head & Shoulders to the Hispanic market. Wow, how logical.
—That other Facebook founder leaves Facebook.
—Microsoft launches another search incentive program.
—Two rivals to WebMD merge.
—iPerceptions says advertisers should eschew display for text ads in the downturn.
—Gator is dead for good. Hooray!
—Read this story about Google TV.
—Vice presidential debate pulls in 69.9 million viewers; presidential debates pulls in only 28.6 million viewers.
—New York AG files suit to delay the launch of the Portable People Meter.

From Mediaweek:

—The AdweekMedia Hot List. Here's the list, in order, since you don't want to click through ten pages, do you? Better Homes and Gardens, Elle, Men's Health, Real Simple, Gourmet, Martha Stewart Living, People, InStyle, Entertainment Weekly, Cosmopolitan. For those keeping score between the two top magazine lists, there is only one book that made both lists: Elle. Ad Age named People Stylewatch, and AdweekMedia named People.)
—Feature on Real Simple.
—Screw AG Cuomo. The Portable People Meter goes live in eight markets.
—Advertisers not in panic mode ... yet.
—NBC primetime not the talk of the town.
—On the other hand, people are loving the football.
—The cable upfront was up 9.3 percent.
—Brides.com to do live streaming of bridal fashion shows.

From The New York Post:

—Story about Tina Brown's new thedailybeast.com. Hipsters are supposed to read it. Does anyone refer to themselves as a hipster?

From The New York Times:

—EBay cuts its staff by 10 percent. Says it's not due to the economic downturn. Hmmm.
—More on the opposition to the Google/Yahoo deal.

From The Wall Street Journal:

—Want to invest in an independent movie? Free.
—Is anyone interested in a $25 pack of razor blades? Free.
—Guess what? Saturday Night Live's ratings are up. Free.
—Cookbooks are hot. Free.


Much more to come ...

Will there be an Ad-Media-Brand-Week?

You may have noticed that I haven't posted about Adweek lately. Not much to post. But then one of my industry observers pointed me to this story which ran in Folio yesterday, predicting, among other things, that " a considerable consolidation of editorial staffs" might happen at Nielsen Business Media including, according to what Folio says are "two knowledgeable sources" the possible combining of Adweek, Brandweek and Mediaweek into one news operation. This idea has been bandied about over there for the last few years, but given the way the economy is, I'm wondering if this time it doesn't have the ring of inevitability to it.

Should the bailout be called a rescue?

Lengthy story in Advertising Age this morning about how the positioning of the bailout helped doom it in the House earlier this week. For one, people now seem to think that "rescue" may have been a better term than "bailout" all along. On the one hand, I couldn't agree more; on the other hand, I sense that most Americans won't really believe this is all happening until it hits them squarely in the credit card. The reason the perception that this is a bailing out of Wall Street persists is that the effects of the credit crisis hasn't been felt by most people. If you turned off all news sources and just went about your business these last few weeks, the most you might notice is that the economy isn't quite trucking along the way it was a few years ago. Even hearing about the crisis on the news seems somehow distant, as though we're reading reports of a tsunami in Asia, but meanwhile, back home, the sun is shining and the birds are singing in the trees.

Hard to take the Popeil out of Ronco

Inadvertently funny New York Times story today on the rebirth of Ronco, without Ron Popeil. Seems the new commercials use footage of Popeil (who is still alive), but the investor group that bought the company a few years ago, also has some guy named Mark Solley sorta kinda reprising the Popeil role. It just ain't the same. For fun, I've posted an old Popeil commercial here. It was fun trolling YouTube this morning for old Ronco commercials, reliving the birth of such great advancements as the Battery Tester and the Solid Flavor Injector.

Will Internet spending get squashed too?

The prevailing wisdom, this recession around, is that the Internet will continue to grow, albeit at a slower pace, while every other medium tanks. But you gotta wonder, with sales at some automakers dropping by a third, whether that's really going to be the case. According to TNS Media Intelligence, Internet spending was up 8 percent in the second quarter, which, by the medium's standard is fairly anemic. Throw a whole bunch of freaked out car advertisers into the stew, along with a healthy dash of other ad categories that cut back, and that number starts to drop downward. Fasten your seat belts, people.

Watch ad economy instead of Wachovia

Hard for the ad biz to seem very relevant these days what with the economic meltdown and all, so looks like everyone has latched onto the story of Ogilvy losing Wachovia before it ever had it, along with other musings about what's going to happen to the agencies for other down-and-out and assimilated banks, like Washington Mutual. Would far rather see column inches be spent on what the economic crisis means for ad spending, and fortunately, a few stories about that are starting to trickle in, as depressing as they are to read. This morning Mediapost's Diane Mermigas has a column this morning telling readers not to "get too comfortable" with the already downbeat ad expenditure forecasts, and couldn't agree more. (Yeah, I, too, write a column for Mediapost.) Even the reports released in the last few days, if you read the fine print, were compiled well before the events of the last few weeks. Little did those who wrote them, or us who read them, know that we hadn't seen nothin' yet.

Hard to avoid DeGeneres/Cover Girl hype

So, this Ellen DeGeneres commercial for Cover Girl better be good. Procter & Gamble has actually bought search ads for it, which must've popped up in by Gmail because of all of the Google Alerts I've set up that are keyed to advertising. If you click on the search ad, you're sent to a landing page in which you can input your email address to get a sneak preview of the commercial, and give Cover Girl your mobile number, for some reason that escapes a curmudgeon like me.

Did Michael Phelps really learn Chinese?

I know this commercial isn't exactly brand spanking new, but don't you find it weird that this entire commercial is about Michael Phelps learning Chinese using Rosetta Stone but he never speaks even a syllable of Chinese?

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 09.29.08

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

From Advertising Age:

—Why Wieden and Starbucks parted ways, if it matters.
—Who knew car dealers were into viral video?
—Media companies grew a paltry 4.6 percent in 2007, with best performance by digital, according to Ad Age's 100 Leading Media Companies. One guess as to which medium did the worst. Hint: You're not reading from it right now.
—The holidays are gonna suck.
—How the Wall Street crisis is affecting you: credit crunch means that McDonald's can't roll out its coffee bars as fast as possible, making you really tired due to lack of caffeine. OK, I tried.
—Guess who the biggest bank advertiser now is? Sorry Ogilvy, it ain't Wachovia.
—Second-quarter ad spending plunges. You knew that already, didn't you?
—Q&A with Jerry Yang about Yahoo's life-transforming new ad platform.
—How the credit crisis is affecting marketers.
—Bob Garfield eats the egg on his face over his initial critique of the Travelocity Gnome.

From Adweek:

—Can you Canoe? David Verklin explains his new addressable advertising gizmo. Here's video of Verklin getting all excited about it.
—Agencies still investing in training. Up with people!
—TBWA will probably buy Beattie McGuinness Bungay Jump. I meant Beattie McGuinness Bungay.
—Third time's a charm? WPP gives third deadline to disinterested TNS.
—Visa looking for new digital, interactive resources.
—Barbara Lippert says that bald men look like walking fetuses.
—Ad spending predictions move further downward.
—Mini's delicate introduction of the Clubman.
—Mediabrands chief Nick Brien makes bold predictions about 2009.
—Rich Siegel applies for job as CEO of Morgan Stanley.
—Brian Morrissey on the perplexing popularity of faxing.
—Tide to Go's new "Stain Rap" commercial.

From Brandweek:

—Big retailers promoting their store brands.
—Zach Braff is the voice of water.
—Down with new cars, up with the certified, pre-owned vehicle.

From Mediapost:

—xBox: it's not a game system, it's an entertainment brain.
—The new Ford Mustang, as envisioned by members of filmaka.com.
—Jim Trebilcock (where do they get these last names from anyway?), becomes CMO of the new Dr Pepper Snapple combine. BTW, Dr Pepper is the official soft drink of Ben Bernanke.
—People value service over price in their pharmacy decisions, survey says. Wonder how low my least favorite pharmacy, CVS, did.
—Marketers want risk.
—People flocking to health sites. But will marketers continue to?
—Glam Media goes through layoffs, launches male network called CodeBlue.
—Someone sues over limits on ability to reproduce Spore.
—Proof gamers occasionally leave the house: they influence each other when it comes to car purchase decisions.
—NBC local stations have a hard year, despite the Olympics.
—Voters use online channels to follow the election, but don't necessarily trust them, per Mediavest.

From Mediaweek:

—My former boss, Sid Holt, named head of American Society of Magazine Editors.
—One thing that isn't sucking: the beginning of the fall TV season.
—"Raising the Bar" sees the bar lowered on viewers.
—No one gives a sh*t about Fridays.
—ESPN is all about live.
—Telemundo to air Mexican soccer.
—Some say Yahoo's new ad platform isn't so Apt.

From The New York Times:

—Loved this piece from the Sunday Magazine about how the Web sites of financial titans haven't exactly reflected the market's turmoil.
—Stuart Elliott summarizes Advertising Week in less than 1,000 words.

From The Wall Street Journal:

—Food marketers pitch value message. Powdered Kool-Aid anyone? Subscription required.
—French activist group puts graffiti on billboards to protest their existence. Those French, tres creative, non?

OK, that's it. Still in mourning over the Mets. Life is tough.

What Budweiser and brides have in common

Apropos of nothing, you have to check out this commercial for Budweiser, I think for the Chinese market. Bride walks out of beer bottle ... need I say more?

Those were the good ol' days of flying

Draper not in character at Yahoo! conference

Since I've opted out of Advertising Week this year missed a thing or two I would liked to have seen, including yesterday's appearance by Jon Hamm (aka Don Draper), as emcee of Yahoo's press conference announcing Amp. So far have only been able to find this picture of it, and find it a bit odd that they didn't have Draper come in character. Oh, so Yahoo was holding a press conference to announce the platform that used to be called Apex, and then was called Amp, and now is called Apt, aimed at networking ad inventory across Yahoo and other sites and making sure that the whole process is smoother and doesn't involve faxing (faxing? how 1992!). Apparently, Hamm/Draper said stuff like this: “If Don Draper were standing before you today, he would still be smoking and drinking. But he’d recognize that what my friend Jerry Yang is about to share with you will rock the media world in the way that radio and TV did." Yecch. As for the platform, online advertising does need to streamline its processes, and pooling inventory and letting advertisers focus more on who they want to target instead of dealing with individual properties isn't a bad one. But Yahoo's real hope in making this work is to get all of the non mega-sites on board. My guess is that, unless there were financial dealings between the two, no other major property would want to get on Apt. Instead, they'd want to use their own version. To that point, CEO Jerry Yang wouldn't comment directly yesterday about a rumor which appeared in the Financial Times (subscription required to read all of article) that Yahoo might buy AOL. To get Apt off the ground, wouldn't be the worst idea.

More Cablevision, Verizon and me

When we last left our protagonist (i.e. me), I was arguing against switching from Verizon to Cablevision. As you might recall, among other problems, my wireless connection stopped working the second we signed up with Cablevision, and Cablevision, after pretty much stalking me to get my business, now doesn't give a rat's ass about the fact that I had to pay $70 for a new router to get everything working again (and it still isn't as good as it used to be). So, twice in the past week, I've called them up and made the point that I should get a $70 credit on my bill and the people on the other end dutifully say they'll pass it up the food chain. I'm happy to provide the receipt. Needless to say, I haven't heard back. Here I am, giving them my business, and they are turning their back on me like this? For now, I'm refusing to pay my cable bill and emailing them the links to all of the posts I've done on this. I feel betrayed. UPDATE: So, just got a call from them. They are only willing to reimburse me for one month's online service, which still leaves me $40 in the hole (not counting, of course, all of the time I've spent on resolving my issues). Their point-of-view: they don't handle routers. My point-of-view: I acted in good faith by giving them my business, and deserve that they act in good faith and give me a $70 discount on my bill. When I asked the person I just talked to whether I could talk to a supervisor, she responded, "I am a supervisor." "Do you report to someone?" I said. "I want to talk to that person." Awaiting their reply.

Not only eco-friendly, it's politically correct

This is either a great marketing idea or too politically-correct by half, but did you know Lexus has an entire Hybrid Living initiative which promotes allegedly eco-friendly products? Found this out via a 450-word press release about some eco-conscious candle and bracelet being sold as part of this whole marketing push at Barneys New York. The bracelet is made out of leather from soon-to-be euthanized Lexuses! OK, maybe this whole thing is just weird.

Will this spot make me want Macy's? Nah.

Find this new Macy's ad, which is a montage of moments where Macy's has been mentioned or seen in movies, kind of curious. It seems more appropriate as a rallying cry for Macy's employees than a reason for the rest of us to shop there. I mean it's great and all, that Macy's has been a part of the fabric of America for decades, but is shopping there going to do anything special for me, like get me some good deals? Especially now, that's about all I care about. Last I knew, JWT handled Macy's, so probably its handiwork, but not absolutely positive.

Hey, Starbucks! Here's where to look for ideas

So how obvious was it that Wieden + Kennedy and Starbucks were going to part ways? The only surprise for me is that apparently they've had a relationship with one another for four years, and with the brand asking Wieden and other agencies for ideas to move the brand forward, I can see it being time for Wieden to start walking in the other direction. The beginning of the end for me came last year, when Wieden started to actually do TV advertising for Starbucks, which, not at all coincidentally, is when TV advertising for Starbucks jumped the shark. It's not that the ads were bad (check out one above); it's just that they were completely superfluous. Starbucks is so well-established in the national psyche as a brand, and more importantly, as an experience, that it's impossible to impose an image-driven campaign upon the brand. A much better idea is MyStarbucksIdea.com where the Starbucks universe can share, discuss and vote on ideas to improve the company--and Starbucks actually implements some of them. Let's hope Starbucks continues to plough its resources into that instead of advertising. If Starbucks is really looking for ideas to move the brand forward, that's where they are.

What everyone is saying about "I'm a PC"

Now that I've gotten the whole Jerry Seinfeld/Bill Gates thing out of my system, time to move onto Microsoft's "I'm a PC" commercial, which has picked up on the buzz-o-meter where Bill Gates doing the robot left off. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which cares intensely about these things, has a roundup piece culling commentary from TechCrunch, AdRants and others. Most, not surprisingly, think the "I'm a PC" effort is a failure. Says Jason Kottke: "If MS had created the 'I'm a PC' message on their own, the ads would be great, but these copy-and-paste ads lack soul and are merely 'eh'." OK, you didn't ask, but what do I think? I think it's great that Microsoft finally, several years into the Apple campaign, got direct about the ad campaign that's done so much to undermine its image. It's surprising, actually, that it took Microsoft so long to hit the Mac campaign right between the eyes; the only part I would lose is at the opening. There's really no need for the John Hodgman doppelganger at the beginning to say "I've been made into a stereotype." The rest of the commercial gets that message across quite clearly, without the sour-grapes declaration of it. I suspect that the people who say the campaign is a failure are the same people who deride those of us who use PCs. As much as I love the "I'm a Mac" ads, portraying me as a dumb PC user has always grated on me. And before I start to get comments from all of you Mac lovers out there, there's certain software I need to use from time to time that doesn't run well on Macs, so, hey, call me a loser, but I'm staying where I am. It's interesting to ponder how Microsoft and Crispin, Porter + Bogusky could simultaneously have been producing one campaign that was anything but on point (i.e. the Seinfeld/Gates ads), and another that hits its problem right where it lives. I suspect they both knew how out there the Seinfeld campaign might appear, and had the "I'm a PC" ad in the can, ready to go, if the other one flopped, which, of course, it did.

No need to email Dan at Sprint

Sprint Nextel came out last week with the second black-and-white commercial featuring (relatively) new CEO Dan Hesse. The only thing I know about the first spot was that a bunch of bloggers, rightfully, got down on Sprint for printing Hesse's email--dan@sprint.com--at the end, as though the guy was actually going to enter into an email relationship with his customers. Instead, as I recall, people who emailed their pal Dan got a form email. Bad form. In this commercial (it contains a pre-roll for Cisco), Sprint and Hesse make no such promises and direct you to a URL: sprint.com/readynow.

Bring Gates and Seinfeld back ... as a sitcom

Wondering if this whole imbroglio over the Microsoft campaign briefly starring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates will be looked back on as the moment we all learned that buzz, in and of itself, isn't enough. (Yes, we should know that by now, but something tells me ... ) Was just checking out Y'Tube to get the html for the long version of the spot in which they live with an "average" family, and it seems to occupy a pretty high spot in the consumer zeitgeist right now. Lots of uploads, video responses and views. Here's what I think it means: even though the point of these pointless ads was to humanize Windows, there's something voyeuristically enjoyable about what they actually do, which is humanize Bill Gates. Ahhh the suspense of seeing how Gates fares after being run through the Jerry Seinfeld/Alex Bogusky test labs. Will he really do the robot? Will he really get pissed off at that teenage girl? Will he really tell the delivery boy he has no money? Yes, yes and YESSSS! Now, that's entertainment! I dunno. Maybe Seinfeld and Gates can succeed where the sitcom that spun off of Geico's cavemen didn't. Every week Seinfeld could try to further humanize Bill Gates, with all proceeds going to the Gates Foundation. Hey, there have been dumber ideas. I think.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 09.22.08

OK all. Hoping the worst is over with my childcare woes and my connectivity issues. With that, I re-commence the Monday morning picks:

From Advertising Age:

Massive Wall Street meltdown package. Some highlights:

—Consumers had lost all of their confidence before last week.
—What your favorite holding company CEO thinks of the market turmoil.
—Here's what to do if you're a financial services brand.
—Jonah Bloom, pissed off at the media.
—Bring on the Ramen Noodles!
—AIG's tag line was "The Strength to Be There." Ha! Take a look.

—What digital production costs.
—New pubic hair fun at shaveeverywhere.com.
—Bob Garfield doesn't get all that excited about flatulence.

From Adweek:

—Networks do away with integration fees and make agencies, advertisers, somewhat more happy. Or less grumpy. Take your pick.
—Can Madison Avenue and Silicon Valley every get along?
—Inside what Scion is looking for from prospective agencies.
—The allegedly amicable parting of ways between Goodby and Hyundai so that Hyundai can go to some agency that no one has ever heard of.
—Brand Finance says the major global brands are taking a hit.
—Pols try out idea generation software.
—Is Activia really that good for you?
—How live streaming of sports events is changing the game.
—Barbara Lippert on a good, strategically on-target Microsoft commercial.
—Mark Wnek admits he's bad about choosing.
—Bradley Kay buys an old house and says that digital and video production aren't the same thing.

From Brandweek:

—Boring as hell, but more of us are bringing lunch to work.
—More companies are listening to customer complaints on Twitter and elsewhere. If only one of them were Cablevision.
—Gallo ads featuring Allman Brothers soundtrack, but not for Boone's Farm.
—No lotion on your tissues? Man, are you out of it.

From Mediapost:

—How not fun it is to market the Ford F-150.
—Gift cards going on an unwanted diet.
—Huggies targeting Hispanic market by giving out free diapers, collecting mothering techniques.
—Online retailers relatively optimistic about holiday season. Offline retailers, not so much.
—Companies, are you listening? How microblogging can work for you.
—The Interactive Advertising Bureau wants a self-regulatory online ad organization, with no IAB affiliation.
—This Friday's presidential debate will be the most-watched ever.
—Media stocks ride last week's roller coaster well.
—Newspaper ad revenue down 17.2 percent for the month of August. No silver lining that I can see.
—Film at 11! Younger dads actually buy things for their kids!

From Mediaweek:

—The second annual Mediaweek 50. David Levy, president, advertising sales, Turner Sports is no. 1.
—"Mad Men" and "30 Rock" pick up lotsa Emmys. Hmmm. Two shows about the media business win awards. Who'da thunk?
—Is it content? Is it advertising? Who cares?
—NewMediaMetrics unveils an uber database.
—A closer look at the circulation figures for Conde Nast's Portfolio.

From The New York Times:

—Reporters and editors show restraint in using words like "crash", "free fall", "Armageddon" etc.
—More jawing on from marketing types about the financial crisis.

As for The Wall Street Journal, did it get rid of the "Media & Marketing" link? Can't find it in the redesign, and don't have time to comb through the headlines myself. For shame, Rupert!

Connectiviy issues + babysitter woes = no blogging

Hi guys, just wanted to say that sorry to be so remiss on the blogging front this week. Had double trouble with my ongoing connectivity problems and then facing a sudden childcare gap. Hopefully in the next week or two it will all be better.

Even speechless, still love Mac ads

I couldn't even get the sound to work and yet I'm still a sucker for Mac vs. PC ads. Interesting that The New York Times would let anything resembling editorial that's actually an ad to appear on its home page. Then again, that PC is so cute, and inept! Irresistible!

Yahoo hiring Bradford: a good thing

I have to admit to deriving some pleasure from Yahoo's hiring of ex-Microsoft ad sales chief Joanne Bradford to replace that search guy. It hardly means that Yahoo is now in the clear, but no matter how much emphasis Yahoo has tried to put on search in its quixotic quest to be a true rival to Google, having someone from the search ad business replace Wenda Harris Millard seemed like a non-starter from the get-go. Bradford, like Millard, understands the mainstream advertiser mindset, and since their embrace of online advertising, and search in particular, is still a work in progress, much better to have someone in the top job who gets where the people they are selling to are coming from. Good luck, Joanne, and as for the people at Yahoo, I hope this is the first sign that you're moving in a new, right direction.

Whoa! Cool! Electronic paper

Been wondering for awhile what the hell electronic paper is, and thanks to 3-minute Ad Age, I finally know. It's gracing the front cover of the 75th anniversary edition of Esquire, and required what looks to be a whole bunch of Elmer's Glue, some refrigerated trucks and an advertiser--in this case Ford--which has a literally flashy inside cover ad for the Ford Flex. The guy Ad Age interviewed from Structural Graphics, Michael Maguire, envisions a day when this will be commonplace. We'll see. When you see the footage of workers physically pasting pieces together, one-by-one, makes you wonder how this would ever scale. BTW, Good to see that Abbey Klaasen, an actual Ad Age reportetr, is doing anchor duties on 3-minute Ad Age. Nothing really bad about the guys who usually do it, but they're mere headline-readers, who wouldn't know Lee Garfinkel from Art Garfunkel. Ha!

Slow on the search for Palin

Woke up this morning and saw what I didn't see yesterday: search ads bought off the keyword "Sarah Palin." Doesn't that seem incredibly slow on the uptake to you? By my precise calculations, it's been about 10 days since she was nominated for VP. Can't say how quickly or slowly sponsored links showed up next to Joe Biden's name after his nomination, because I never checked. But as the candidates themselves would probably say, it's not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison. I think a few people had heard of Joe Biden before his nomination.

Where are the Monday morning picks?

Hi all. I'm on a deadline today for people who actually pay me, so sorry there's no picks to be had. I'll get to 'em when I get to 'em.

Digital has better ROI! Film at 11!

It positively kills me to see headlines like this one in Ad Age: "Kellogg: Digital ROI Surpasses That of TV," followed by quotes like this one from Kellogg's CMO: "It's still relatively early in our learning. But analysis of the Special K initiative of the last 18 months showed digital media exceeding that of broadcast ROI." In 2008, the ROI of TV--particularly when you consider the size of those investments--vs. digital is still worthy of discussion? Sheesh.

Need help understanding Seinfeld Microsoft spot

Man, I totally don't get this Jerry Seinfeld/Bill Gates Microsoft commercial. Please, someone, somewhere, explain to me why the action takes place in a fictitious shoe store! Explain to me what this is meant to do to improve my relationship with Microsoft! Best for me to move on. UPDATE: Here's Brian Morrissey's story at Adweek.com about the commercial, which provides this explanation: "This is the tech giant's first work from MDC's Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Miami, and it marks the kickoff to a wide-ranging $300 million campaign designed to alert consumers to innovations made possible through Microsoft's Windows operating system." Forgive me for thinking the commercial was about shoes.

Can we please ban the word "right-sizing"?

Maybe I'm not known for my empathy on this blog, but I feel so sorry for chief people officer Rose Zory at Carat, who apparently hit the uber-send key yesterday and sent documents outlining the communications plan for layoffs there to the whole company instead of just the management people who were supposed to get it. The memos and PowerPoint, in all of their awkward attempts to communicate the painful truth, were posted at Advertising Age, and reading them made me cringe, on a number of levels.
For one, it was like a bad acid flashback. My last act while at Organic in late 2000 was to manage the internal communications, and some of the external, for a layoff of 25 percent of the staff. Twenty-five percent! (Lucky me, I wasn't part of the "reduction in force", but had been hired by Ad Age anyway, and was leaving the company in a couple of weeks.) Just writing the talking points for those who would deliver the news to both the saved and the unsaved was enough to make one want to run for the nearest psychiatrist, and I had the good fortune not to send the entire communications plan to the whole company beforehand. Can you imagine what it must have felt like for Zory at the excruciating moment when she discovered she had sent the email to the whole company? And the further horror of having it posted on adage.com? This is the stuff of which nightmares are made, people.
Another thing that made reading these documents so cringe-worthy has nothing to do with the fact they leaked; it was their use of corporate jargon to explain an extremely unfortunate human event. Like most reporters, I have a disdain for jargon, and have always found the word "right-sizing" particularly offensive. True, companies sometimes have to readjust staffing to get it in line with reduced revenue, but to describe this as "right-sizing"? That's a term designed to distance whomever is saying it from the cruel realities involved. It's not "right" for employees who lose their jobs in a touch economy, nor is it "right" for the lucky people who keep their jobs, but are probably saddened by the departures of some good people and working harder than ever. Carat isn't the first company to deploy this term instead of the more accurate "down-sizing," but if I had my way, Carat would be the last to use it. Ever.

American Express touts its Members Project

American Express just posted this commercial to its "Members Project" channel on YouTube. It's basically a retrospective of clips from spots, using a lot of editing creativity, by AmEx commercial endorsers, including some footage from a spokesperson gig that Jim Henson did back in the day. It ties back into the "Members Project"—in which AmEx cardmembers suggest, and vote on, worthy initiatives to get $2.5 million in funding from American Express. Via Ogilvy.

Wish Matt Damon would speak with one voice

I'm a member of the ONE campaign—and you outta join too—but that doesn't mean I have to like this commercial, which is airing heavily during the Republican National Convention. Its intent is to show that many different voices have come together to fight global poverty, but the effect of having all of those voices coming from Matt Damon is just distracting. The first time or two I saw this ad I spent the whole time wondering why different voices were coming out of his mouth instead of fixing on what the voices were saying. Maybe they did this because the other stars involved in the campaign weren't available for a shoot.

Geico spot cemented Don LaFontaine's fame

Would any of us even have known Don LaFontaine's name had it not been for GEICO? Rest in peace, Don.

Forget "Mad Men", now Bernbach is on Twitter

At the risk of declaring that Twitter has jumped the shark, now I've gotten an invitation to follow Bill Bernbach on Twitter, in a move probably inspired by the "Mad Men" twitterers. Bernbach seems confused by Google's new browser, Chrome, and is trying out the Avis "We try harder" slogan on anyone who will listen. Seeing Bernbach on board gave me the idea that maybe I should start impersonating David Ogilvy, but somebody already thought of that, and the Twitter D.O. even claims to be having dinner with Betty and Don Draper on Thursday night. Maybe I'll be Mary Wells. Anyway, this whole Twitter impersonating thing probably has jumped the shark. While I was putting together this post, I got an invitation to follow Dr. Benjamin Spock, who is following more than 700 people but hasn't posted a damn thing.