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.