Nieman-Marcus video: fragmented, yet celestial

OK, so here's that Nieman Marcus video that's been playing on the home page of YouTube all day, and now has a fairly decent 219.000 views. Really, the whole thing, in addition to being rather self-congratulatory, seems a bit fragmented. I just want to know who the guy is in the round specs with the mustache, who says, but you really have to hear him say it: "Everything was celestial." Uh, right.

Read a Q&A with Sarah Fay if you want

This Q&A with Carat's Sarah Fay seems like it got somewhat lost in the shuffle last week—it appeared on Thursday, and was one of the first Fay has done since getting the big promo, which now means she runs the on- and off-line sides of Carat USA. There are two insights worth noting here: that Fay asserts that merging other on- and off-line media agencies is being "widely talked about" and that when asked what she thinks is "one of the biggest challenges facing the media industry right now," she says, "The disaggregation of creative and media. " You may not agree with Sarah, but the interview is certainly worth a look.

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).

Why is retailing sometimes so off-target?

Yesterday's retail adventure was at Target, where I had an epiphany that was, frankly, so slow in coming that it probably doesn't rate as one. Let's set the stage: I was buying something large for my husband's birthday today, but, when I got to the cash register, the UPC code on the item was missing. My mind immediately went into "prepare for massive delay" because, of course, someone was going to have to find the item, figure out what the UPC code was and get the price. And, then, as I waited there, I thought, "Why, in this day and age, does finding the right price and UPC code have to involve someone physically finding the product?" Shouldn't the cashier be able to type the product name into her keyboard, and get the price and SKU? (And shouldn't all of that information be completely cross-referenceable?) Of course, what unfolded was the usual. Some worker was commandeered to walk to the aisle 50 yards away, find the item, and then come back to the cashier. She was carrying a calculator-like device in which she'd input the UPC code, and then, she held it next to the cashier, who typed it into her keyboard. We all go through this routine all the time, but, hey, what year is this? 1985?

David Armano's 10 questions for agency execs

File this under posts I wish I'd thought of first. Critical Mass vp of experience design David Armano, whose blog is Logic+Emotion, ran the following list of ten questions for agency execs the other day:

1. Do you read blogs. Which ones?
2. Do you have a personal blog? What's it about?
3. Do you participate in at least one social network? Which one?
4. Have you ever uploaded a video online? What did you use to do it?
5. What's your favorite search engine. Why?
6. Have you ever used an online classified service like craigslist?
7. Besides making phone calls—how else do you use your mobile phone?
8. Have you ever registered a domain name?
9. Do you use social bookmarks or tagging?
10. Do you use a feed reader of some sort? Which one? Why?

The purpose, if it isn't painfully obvious, is to discover how digitally savvy they really are. To get the full effect, and the conversation it spawned, you really need to go to David's site. All I'll add is that, as I've been running lists of people's Facebook friends, I've only hit pay dirt about half the time when I think of an executive whose Facebook friends I'd like to list. Scary.

So, who are Catharine P. Taylor's Facebook friends?

Occurred to me that if I'm going to have the temerity to run lists of other people's Facebook friends on this blog, I should, by way of full disclosure, say who my Facebook friends are. So, let's get this out of the way and move onto posts full of meaning: Stewart Alsop (he wanted to friend me after my post about Julie Roehm's Facebook friends—I don't know why. He's an FOJ, BTW), AKQA's Tom Bedecarre and Molly Parsley, AdPulp's David Burn, Kipp Cheng of the 4As, a college friend, Avi Dan, Mediapost's Nick Friese, fellow Pelhamite and Nielsen BuzzMetrics exec Max Kalehoff and his lovely wife, Laura, former and current Adweekers Marla Kittler, Brian Morrissey, Tim Nudd, Manuela Oprea, Kathy Sampey, Carly Tushingham, New York magazine guy Jay Wilkins and Nancee Martin (not just because she works at TBWA—we went to high school together). Not impressed with my voluminous list of contacts? You shouldn't be. I've been too busy to work all that hard at my social networking; I mostly passively accept people as friends who hunt me down. That would seem to imply that if I just worked at it I'd have an endless universe of friends, but what if I found out I didn't?

George Lois, Tommy Hilfiger, an unlikely couple

When I first read this post in Gawker yesterday, I thought they couldn't possibly mean that George Lois. I mean, does the George we know really hang out with Tommy Hilfiger, let alone write books with him, and have a party with him during Fashion Week? Well, maybe I underestimate the guy, but apparently, yeah. Tommy and George (well, on the cover it says Tommy Hilfiger with George Lois) celebrated the publishing of their book, "Iconic America: A Roller-Coaster Ride through the Eye-Popping Panorama of American Pop Culture." Oh, wait. Looking at the cover I discovered that they do have a lot in common even if George Lois was never known as a fashion plate—both have a flair for self-promotion. Look closely (in fact, you don't even need to look all that closely), and you'll see that the Hilfiger logo is there in the upper right hand corner. And, although it's a more obscure reference, that picture of Muhammad Ali as Saint Sebastian in the bottom right is from one of George's classic Esquire covers of the 1960s.

'Mediapost' shows product placement in situ

Just noticed this new (?) feature on the Mediapost Web site: a detailed look at weekly product placement, on TV. Compiled by iTVX, the video snippets currently on the site show placements for Visa (shown at right in a scene from "The Dead Zone"), Windex, Bud Light, Cadillac and Breyer's Ice Cream. As the video plays, it tallies up how long the product was on screen, and rates the quality of its screen time at that moment. The only problem—which I hope they work on—is that the interface is way too complicated (anyone care to guess what a dK Factor is?), and not every data point seems to be delivered, like the promise that it will tally the dollar value of the placement as though it were a commercial. Still, it's worth it for the clips alone, particularly if product placement is your gig.

Will Mac need to choose Drew over PC?

Not that I normally trade in tawdry Hollywood gossip, but I just heard the news that Drew Barrymore has been dating Justin Long (aka Mac). And this is according to that most reliable of gossip sources, People. Apparently they are co-starring in He's Just Not That Into You, along with this obscure actress named Jennifer Aniston and "seemed really into one another over Labor Day in Vegas." If that's not confirmation, I don't know what is. If Mac keeps on hanging out with babes like this, it's only so long before he gives PC the old heave-ho, I guess.

Is this "Lost Weekend" or "Clueless Weekend"?

Thank Tim Nudd over at AdFreak for noticing the unfortunate connection between this Hennessy ad touting a 90-second online film called "The Lost Weekend," and that other "Lost Weekend"—the Oscar-winning 1945 film directed by Billy Wilder featuring the harrowing drinking binge of a-nowhere-near-recovering alcoholic. Didn't anyone at the client or agency notice? Or did they notice, and not care? (The fine print on this poster reveals that Berlin Cameron United is the agency, Ewen Cameron the writer.) As a commenter to AdFreak's post said, "Why not do a heartwarming story about adoption and call it 'Rosemary's Baby' while you're at it?"

What would Mrs. Drysdale have said?

Just to ensure we cover everything Geico, here's the other new spot--the one featuring an investigation of how the Clampetts really got all that money. Hint: It wasn't bubblin' crude.

Wells Rich Greene part of 4th grade curriculum

Rather than regale you all with stories of our hellish trip to Staples this evening to buy book covers for our fourth grader's textbooks (summary: that was hard), I'll tell you what I found in one of those textbooks. Right there, in New York: Adventures in Time and Place, on page 300, is the sheet music to "I Love New York" words and music by Steve Karmen. Of course, the textbook doesn't actually mention Wells Rich Greene, but ad agencies are used to that, and there is at least somewhat of a good reason that a jingle is in the middle of the textbook: Then governor Hugh Carey named it the official state song in 1980.

'Business 2.0' dies; we get on with our lives

Well, social networking ain't everything. Or at least it wasn't enough to save Business 2.0, which received its death notice last night and will publish one more issue before officially becoming a dot-bomb. It went out in a way that befits Web 2.0—the first report came last night on Brad Stone's New York Times blog. They're sitting shiva right now over at the "I Read Business 2.0 —and I Want to Keep Reading" Facebook group, but even it seems to indicate that the loyal supporters who garnered headlines when the group first got started had thrown in the towel by the time the publication was officially closed. The group stood at 2000 members as of July 29th, after about two weeks, but only gained another 325 or so over the course of August. (I know it's vacation time, but a magazine's life was hanging in the balance!) Not that anyone is asking, but the idea of a magazine built around the new economy seems like an anachronism to me. My husband happened to bring the current issue home from the office last night, and—as it has before—the issue seemed oh so 1999. The new economy is simply the economy now.

Gangrene ad giving my kid nightmares!

So this anti-smoking ad, which originally aired in Australia from what I can gather, is probably giving my son nightmares as we speak. It's been airing a lot in New York lately, and opened up a lovely discussion tonight with my 9-year-old son on the perils of gangrene. The good news is, based on this and other strong evidence, he swears he'll never smoke. The bad news is school starts tomorrow and I'm afraid he's still trying to figure out why gangrene makes your toes turn black. Sweet dreams.

Traditional ad industry discovers interactive!

OK, so the headline is an overstatement. But it probably shows what a cruel person I am that I actually find it laughable that many traditional agencies still haven't managed to build a decent digital capability. Yeah, I've been in this game since G.M. O'Connell was putting the final touches on the original Zima.com, but how could an entire industry—that I hope no longer prides itself on being cutting-edge—be so out of it? But the industry's attempts to catch up, a mere 13 years after zima.com, are all the news these days. So add to the hiring of Colleen DeCourcy by TBWA, yesterday's news that Mullen hired Ross Dobson, a former Digitas exec who had most recently been working for an agency in Little Rock, as its fourth managing partner—to oversee direct and digital. Keep those hires coming, folks.

Is there any end to these bogus Google suits?

You may have read that Google dodged yet another of the trademark suits lobbed against it by companies claiming that it's illegal for other companies to "buy" their names as a keyword term. This time around, the loser was American Blinds and Wallpaper Factory--which dropped its suit after four years--but no matter who is doing the suing, these plaintiffs have always seemed fundamentally out of it. Though I noticed that the company does, in fact, buy its name as a keyword these days, it always seems as though the way most of these companies must end up suing is because they were once so naive about search advertising that it wasn't until a corporate higher-up Googled the company name that they realized another company could "buy" their name. But I've long felt that to term this kind of media buy as purchasing another company's name is essentially a misnomer. What the advertiser is buying is an adjacency to its competitors name, which is no different than a Ford buying a billboard next to a Toyota dealership. But the lawsuits continue. Next up on the court docket? American Airlines.

xBox ad so confusing my head exploded

Video: Xbox Live Vision Ad
Barbara Lippert at Adweek critiques this 60-second ad for xBox Live Vision in today's online creative newsletter. It's certainly memorable to have the commercial star a woman whose head is a box, but I agree with Barbara--it's confusing. AKQA would've been better off scrapping the allegory and explained what in hell Live Vision does. (It allows you to insert your face on the head of the character you're playing in xBox games.)

Adverganza's post-Labor Day picks, 09.04.07

Where I scan the Monday and Tuesday morning headlines, so you can continue to weep over the end of summer:

From Advertising Age:

—That Wendy's story (see below).
—AT&T drops fewest dropped calls claim. What? I can't hear you.
—This story takes media prognosticators to task, and boy is it fun ... unless you work at Forrester or Veronis, Suhler.
—In yet another shocker, advertisers don't want to buy time on "Kid Nation." What I wouldn't give to see an ad on this show for Willy Wonka Nerd Rope. I mean, if the kids on this show are running their own world, why can't they pick the advertising? (Here's a link I found on YouTube to the preview.)
—Bob Garfield calls the new campaign for Grey Goose vodka from Radical Media "screamingly obnoxious." Really, having just gone to that link and streamed it, I think he's being kind.

From Adweek:

—Goodby used scrap paper to promote a Sprint Nextel promotion. Seriously.
—Andrew McMains on WPP's plan to buy Blast Radius, and what traditional agencies are doing to fix the fact that they still suck at interactive.
—Here's the answer to the question "Whatever happened to Robin Raj?"
—ABC leads the buzz in the online world for fall, and also has what many believe will be the worst show—you guessed it, "Cavemen."

From Mediapost:

—Will the subprime mortgage debacle kill the online advertising market? Henry Blodget says yes, which may mean it won't kill it at all.
—Omnicom shutters PHD St. Louis.

What we hear from The Delaney Report:

—Is IHOP mulling a move from McCann-Erickson because it doesn't want two company-owned restaurant chains at the same agency?
—You might check into billmelater.com.

From The New York Times:

—Giving new meaning to the term "Sensurround", movies in the future will really stink.
—Giving new meaning to the phrase, "Have You Driven a Ford Lately?", Ford has owners of other cars swap their rides.
—Keep yourself from downloading AdBlock Plus, which "whites out" online ads.
—Reckitt Benckiser goes green.

From The Wall Street Journal (subscription required unless otherwise noted):

—Sony plans to enter the video downloading business (free).
—A Q&A with TBWA's Colleen deCourcy (this is from Friday, but you were away, weren't you?).
—Looks like Mattel is going to find itself in another PR debacle (free).

Wendy doesn't like Wendy's campaign

During the car ride home from Massachusetts, my husband suggested I read this free story that ran on Friday in The Wall Street Journal about the failed turnaround of Wendy's. For people in the ad business, let's cut to the chase, which can be found in paragraph 36: "As an 8-year-old, the red-headed Wendy Thomas posed in braided pigtails for the picture that now adorns Wendy's 6,600 locations. At the suggestion of her sister, Ms. Farber, executives arranged for Ms. Thomas, now 46, to do a television screen test in the company's corporate kitchen [Ed. note: in spring of 2006]. Chief marketing officer Ian Rowden says executives gave the screen test 'very, very, very serious consideration,' but no 'Wendy' campaign ensued. This spring, the company launched a television ad featuring a young man wearing a wig of red, braided pigtails. Wendy Thomas says she took the spot as a personal affront." Ad Age has now picked up on the Journal's story, with a twist: Wendy's says that the "That's right" campaign from Saatchi has done more in eight weeks than the old campaign did in 18 months; the story also points out that the Thomas family's influence is waning, with it owning only 15 out of about 6000 restaurant and having a minimal share in the company. Who knows what putting Wendy's on the block will do for its agency relationship, but for now, look for more guys to run around in red wigs, I guess.

Sue A&P rappers, gain 20,000 YouTube views

You may have read this morning that A&P is suing two former employees, who, under the name Fresh Beets, made a video (embedded above) called "Produce Paradise" which features some NSFW actions being taken with some of the wares in the produce section. As of Mediapost's coverage of the lawsuit this morning, said video had 60,000 views during its first three weeks on YouTube; now it's up to almost 80,000. Smart move, A&P. THE LATEST: As of about 6 p.m. on Labor Day weekend, total views were closing in on 94,000. And you'd think that during the last weekend of the summer, people would have something better to do.

Borg, McEnroe compete again for Tesco

Like my buds over at AdFreak, I'm a sucker for aging tennis icons this time of year. They reference this spot this morning for Tesco featuring John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg in a game of competitive grocery shopping. I find the very idea of John McEnroe shopping for produce funny, but this commercial also has other moments.

McCann most powerful chick in advertising

Forbes is out with its list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women, and the most powerful woman in the agency industry's neck of the woods is not Shelly Lazarus. It's Renetta McCann, CEO of Publicis' Starcom Mediavest Group, coming in at a respectable #41 (although last year she was #27). Lazarus barely makes the list, at #96. With the proviso that such lists shouldn't be overanalyzed, you have to wonder whether the fact that McCann actually controls client money—while Lazarus doesn't—contributes to the huge disparity between the two. Or maybe it's just that Lazarus has held her job for since 1996, making McCann, who has only been CEO since 2005, more newsworthy. Picture from Starcom MediaVest web site.

Geico spots featuring those other cavemen

Best I could do in terms of finding the new Geico spots was this link to the Flintstones commercial on Adweek. Surprisingly, there's no mention of those other cavemen in this spot, which, like a similar one featuring The Beverly Hillbillies, is presented as a, um, mock-u-mentary uncovering how each fictitious family could really afford certain aspects of their lifestyle. (In Wilma's case, it's that necklace made of huge rocks.) Of course, the answer is by buying insurance from Geico. I don't think the Flintstones spots are any match for the earlier caveman spots, but, as you may have noticed if you're a regular reader, the Geico spots continue to fascinate. The campaign's singular achievement, I think, is that it's really a bunch of campaigns running more or less concurrently. I can't think of any other advertiser that runs four or so completely different efforts and still makes the message so memorable that no one ever mistakes the geckos, cavemen, Beverly Hillbillies and those ads featuring Little Richard and the Movie Voiceover Guy as being for any other company. Having a big budget helps, but much of it has to do with The Martin Agency's idiosyncratic approach to crafting a campaign.

Maurice Levy with Charlie Rose

I wouldn't normally post clips of 55-minute interviews, but what the hell, it's the Friday before Labor Day, and anyone who is in the office needs something to do besides really working. Thus, with a tip of the hat to AgencySpy, which unearthed it, we present a 2004 interview of Publicis chief Maurice Levy with Charlie Rose. For some reason, there's a cameo appearance by the Money Honey. Maybe she digs his alluring French accent.

Is Yahoo ad sales purge going too far?

Here's a look at the staff memo (WSJ online subscription required until Rupert opens the floodgates) distributed to Yahoo employees yesterday about the latest reorg, which buries the lead that Greg Coleman, the former Reader's Digest exec who was exec vp/global sales, is leaving the company. The specific passage about Coleman is the usual corporate pablum: " ... we mutually agreed that Greg would leave Yahoo! to pursue other opportunities. We are fortunate that he will continue to assist us in this transition through February, closely advising the team ... " The departure of Coleman is hardly surprising, but I keep wondering whether this throwing-out-the-baby-with-the-bathwater approach Yahoo has been taking with its ad sales team and top management will wind up being a mistake. Changes need to be made, certainly, but the whole reason the Coleman/Wenda Harris Millard team was brought in under former CEO Terry Semel was to help mainstream advertisers become comfortable with advertising online, and so they used old-fashioned Madison Avenue methods, such as hand-holding and inspiring creatives to create decent online ads, to get the ad deals rolling in. Advertisers are more comfortable online than they were six or so years ago—when the Terry Semel era began—but there are plenty of advertising and media people, with huge budgets, that still appreciate the old-style approach. For Yahoo's sake, let's hope that Hilary Schneider, the former Knight-Ridder exec who will now largely be in charge of Yahoo's advertising relationships, plans to continue some of what the former team built.

So, who are Paul Lavoie's Facebook friends?

OK, folks. It's time for number three in our series investigating whose friends with who on Facebook. We think we've got the right Paul Lavoie, based on the percentile of his head pictured on his profile page (registration required) and pictured here. As to why we picked the founder of Taxi, this investigative series is entirely random and since a source close to Adverganza's thinking mentioned Taxi this morning, we haven't been able to get the bald one out of our (beautifully-coiffed) head. OK, that pre-amble was quite long enough. Here are Paul's Facebook friends: Fallon (we think) art director Adrien Bindi, Jonathan Careless, a Toronto-based copywriter, ad-guy-about-town Bryan Chiao, Goodby's Mike Geiger, The Barbarian Group's Benjamin Palmer and Rick Webb, the Ontario College of Art + Design's Sherry Martin, MTVu's Ross Martin and many, many more.

HSBC has to face(book) the music

This story is extremely cool, if you're a consumer, that is. If you're a marketer, beware—or at least listen up. The National Union of Students in the U.K. has successfully mobilized against HSBC on Facebook, after the bank suddenly started charging overdraft fees to students. (Let's not get into whether the bank should be able to charge such fees to those who can't balance their checkbook. Apparently, that hadn't been HSBC's previous practice with NUS members.) The Facebook group had grown to 4000 members, which has caused HSBC, "to freeze interest on 2007 graduate overdrafts up to £1,500, with future policy subject to review. All those recent graduates who have been subject to additional interest charges this August will be eligible for a refund." By agreeing to this, HSBC was able to stop a real-world protest slated for Sept. 4 at its headquarters. While no company wants picketers outside its door, it's getting so that, as compared with a Facebook protest, it might be the lesser of two evils.

John McEnroe mad for American Express

Unlike Andy Roddick, there's little doubt about whether John McEnroe knows where his mojo is. Maybe that was the thought behind this new American Express campaign centering on the Card's dispute resolution services, timed, of course, for maximum exposure during the U.S. Open, which draws on McEnroe's long, confrontational history for both a commercial (which you can see here), and a fairly amusing film on "The Art of the Dispute." It features McEnroe commentating on some of the baddest tennis behavior of all time--including his own. I'm not sure how much better AmEx's dispute resolution services are compared to competitors, but by putting McEnroe at center stage of the campaign, they are differentiated, at least, because they become more memorable. Another nice touch: the Open's 30-minute twice-daily highlight show is available on demand on the American Express site.

Romney tries out a CGM campaign

Good thing you can always count on a presidential candidate to jump on a new media bandwagon long after it's left town. Yes, electorate, Mitt Romney has launched a CGM contest--or maybe this should be called voter-generated media--per this item at washingtonpost.com. Entrants can create their own campaign using content provided by the campaign and their own content. Of course, the item points out that this idea isn't even that original within political circles, noting Hillary Clinton's shout-out to supporters to help her pick a theme song and John Edwards' initiative to let people add to his TV spot on YouTube. The Romney contest has a deadline of September 17th. If the voter-created spot above is any indication, the prize is a plaque in the Cliched Political Ads Hall of Fame.

Despite death of Bud Pong, beer pong lives!

The Wall Street Journal has a helpful free article and video this morning on the expanding market for beer pong product, despite Budweiser's disastrous experience at trying to market the sport under the "Bud Pong" moniker a few years back. (People thought, since the game forces your opponent to drink if the ping pong ball you've thrown lands in his cup of beer, that it might inspire binge drinking. Ya think?) Anyway, Budweiser to one side, it's quite the entrepreneurial opportunity, inspiring custom balls, tables, and even apparel, um, apparently. Though my experience with beer pong tracks back to the old-fashioned version of the game, in which people played ping pong and tried to aim the ball with their racket into the glass, it would be great if someone came up with ping pong ball sanitizer. Let's just say that the ball lands a lot of places it shouldn't before it actually lands in a cup of beer, which ain't exactly sanitary.

We'll be old before Young Guns video is over

Some of my fellow ad bloggers covered this site for the Young Guns awards yesterday, and while, it has its moments, it also, ironically enough, represents much of what's wrong with online advertising creative: it assumes too much interest on the part of the intended user (or in this case viewer). After taking forever to load (I agree with you on that Agency Spy), and a brief intro by a daft, fat, male angel, the first excerpt in this "awards virgins" contest—accessible at letusbeyourfirst.com—takes the form of an (intentionally) bad high school musical, except, maybe, for the sexual innuendo. There's a wee bit of fairly meaningless interaction, some singing and dancing, and a special appearance by Alex Bogusky (above, appearing as an angel/genie/fairy godfather), but ultimately, one has to ask the question, why is this little sketch going on for almost five minutes? It'd be unusual to find an advertising creative who isn't interested in entering an awards show, so even if it's fine to have some fun along the way to the entry form, this much preamble just isn't necessary, and doesn't respect people's time.

Did Della Femina outdrink Allen Rosenshine?

I'm always suspicious that Jerry Della Femina inflates everything by half, and this story that ran in The New York Post on Monday does nothing to change my perception. It asks the central question that's been plaguing every overworked, stressed out person in advertising since the launch of "Mad Men": did ad people really drink, smoke and have that much fun (sex) back in the day? According to Della Femina, who claims that a colleague used to chug a huge tumbler of scotch every morning at 8:30 a.m., the answer is yes. However, Rosenshine (former BBDO chief, which even you young 'uns should know), in his classic curmudgeonly style, describes the show as “a total fabrication ... I won’t deny that there was drinking, but it was never like that. And if anybody talked to women the way these goons do, they’d have been out on their ass.”

Polls are open for best mascot and slogan

Note to Sunshine, Sachs & Associates: before you send out releases about Advertising Week's annual vote for a favorite slogan and mascot, make sure the release contains the right URL. OK, now that I've gotten that off my chest, you can vote for your favorite icon and slogan here. This year, your mascot choices include the Geico Caveman, Little Debbie (help me out on that one), Orville Redenbacher (the dead one), and many others. As for slogans, "Got milk?", "This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs," and "What happens here stays here" are among the candidates. As for what this all means, I've no idea.

Clearasil spot makes sex message clear

This Clearasil spot from Euro RSCG New York is getting a bit of a following. The kids may love it, but if the mothers like the one depicted in the spot are any indication, they might reach for another acne brand for their teenager next time they're in CVS.

Who really stands a chance in AT&T review?

Perusing the stories about the just-revealed AT&T media review, it's a little odd to ponder the rather disparate roster of incumbents that are said to be pitching the chance to win the consolidated, really big account: Digitas, GSD&M, Initiative, Mediaedge:cia and OMD. Now really, is any client going to give this business to GSD&M or Digitas without a little help from their holding company friends? Of course not. So GSD&M will partner with OMD and Digitas will partner with Starcom or Mediavest, depending on such issues as client conflicts, and then maybe this thing can be a full-on, all-agency-holding-companies-on-deck review full of the rumors and rampant speculation which are the only things that make these reviews interesting. And if I'm wrong, I'll write a post about how screwed up my speculation is. (BTW, Adverganza is not a place where you'll see billings figures, because they are such an antiquated, inaccurate way to express what's really at stake here in terms of revenue. If someone wants to throw me a few ideas on what a reasonable average ratio of billings-to-revenue is for a media review, I'll concoct my own formula for the size of this account.)

Story about ad vehicles all the road rage ... ha!

Not exactly surprised that yesterday's New York Times story, "Your Ad Here, on My S.U.V.? And You'll Pay?," is currently No. 2 on the newspaper's most emailed list. I mean, who can resist a story in which people get paid as much as $800 a month to wrap their cars in advertising, sometimes from national advertisers such as Verizon Wireless or Procter & Gamble? Makes me want to get on the horn (no pun intended) to FreeCar Media, a Los Angeles-based company that allegedly has a database of a million consumers who are willing to pimp their ride in the name of an advertiser. (People who misrepresent the brand by engaging in road rage incidents need not apply.) The story also points out, by inference, what chumps we've all been in letting our cars be free advertising vehicles (OK, maybe this pun was intended) for the dealers from which we've bought our cars. My family is running around in a Mazda MPV minivan with a huge frame around the license plate that promotes ADZAM in Bedford Hills, NY (get it? Mazda backwards) for four years now, and yet the money continues to flow in their direction instead of ours. Something's wrong here, people.

An idea for what Advertising Week could be

I don't share Advertising Age's obsession with the pros and cons of Advertising Week, but I sort of agree with Jonah Bloom's assertion of a few weeks ago that perhaps a cornerstone of the week-long industry self-congratulation-fest should be to do something for the greater good. But here's where I would direct the industry's efforts: to better advertising's image among the general public, which has always seemed like a no-brainer to me, but alas, never happens. I was reminded of my fondness for this particular soapbox last week when YouTube unveiled its new, allegedly intrusional ad model. (Click here, and you'll see one roughly 20 seconds in.) Whatever the merits of that particular ad model, it's dismaying to once again hear consumers doing the usual: whining loudly, threatening to boycott, and so forth, as if it has never occurred to them what media would be like without advertising to fund it. Always makes me feel like saying, "Hey, ad people, stand up for yourselves dammit!" Maybe the idea of the industry spending the week trying to find a way to sell itself sounds awful—like so much more bellybutton pondering, but it doesn't have to be that way. In fact, it's hard not to see the benefit of consumers being more conscious of how the content they consume is funded. OK, I've just jumped off the soapbox. What a relief for all of us.

Is Bob Mould or TIAA-CREF selling out?

MSNBC.com is jawing on this morning about the TIAA-CREF spot that's been out for a few weeks now featuring Bob Mould's "See a Little Light." The issue this time isn't artists selling out, but advertisers, I guess, selling in. The story asks, "Advertisers claim to revel in being creative and original. How does repackaging someone else’s artistic efforts for their own sales pitches accomplish either of those goals?" Not a bad question, except that advertisers aren't generally in the business of making music. If they were, they'd be in the music business. And although the story goes on at length about the potential silliness in positioning TIAA-CREF as a "dot-org" and therefore above the commercial fray, at least the Mould song isn't being used to bolster the profits of Citibank or Bank of America, which has its own storied history of repurposing meaningful rock songs.

Heinz puts the contrived in CGM

Once again, a CGM commercial contest has been taken over by people who know their way around commercial production. I took the time to screen all 15 semifinalists in the the Heinz "Top This TV" challenge, and, no matter what you think of the concepts or theme lines, all of them are professionally produced, right down to staging the ketchup bottle so that it gets long, lingering straight-on appearances in each commercial. (If you care to do that, or vote, click here.) Seen in succession, the ads look more like a reel spliced together of spec ads submitted by agencies for a new business pitch than real consumer ads. I Googled the name of the first semi-finalist, and lo and behold, it's Jared Cicon (pictured here), the wedding photographer who was one of the five finalists in the Doritos Super Bowl CGM contest. In case there is any doubt, these CGM contests have jumped the shark.

Ad guy time-wasting on YouTube

The only reason to watch the above--and it may be a really good reason--is because this is allegedly of an "Ad Guy Playing Unreal Tournament at the office." Nothing much happens, except that it would be much fun to figure out which ad agency this is allegedly taking place in. From what's out the window, it's fairly obvious this is taking place in midtown Manhattan--could it be McCann, or BBDO maybe? Anyone who wishes to guess, please post your theory below.

Who are the Taco Bell chihuahua's Facebook friends?

I really wasn't looking for this Facebook series I've been doing to delve into the personal lives of famous ad mascots, but thought I'd mention that the "I miss the taco bell chihuahua" group on Facebook has 41 friends. Fairly impressive given that the chihuahua's career ended in 2000. Yeah, it's a slow news day.

Rare close-up of Crispin letterhead

So, I got a mailing, on genuine paper from Crispin, Porter + Bogusky right before I went on vacation. As I'd already posted about the campaign in question, thought the most interesting thing was the letterhead. Here's what it says at the very top: "This is an official piece of Crispin Porter + Bogusky letterhead. There is something about a letter or memo written on letterhead that seems to make it carry more weight. It just seems to be coming from a whole organization, not a mere lone individual. In fact, sometimes that's true. Although most times it's just coming from some lone individual acting on their own and is in no way endorsed by any organization. Keep that in mind if you ever get any correspondence on this letterhead that is in any way offensive. It is probably not our fault. We didn't mean it. By 'we' we mean 'all of us' didn't mean it. It was a loose cannon acting on their and 'we' never really liked them anyway." Discuss. Personally, I think it could use a few more commas. (The picture above is of the official Crispin sandal. Really. You can buy a pair by going to cpbgroup.com and clicking on "CP+B Gear".)

Adverganza's post-vacation picks, 08.27.07

OK, I'm back from vacation and rarin' to go. God, I lie. Without further ado, here's my scan of the Monday morning headlines, so you don't have to:

From Advertising Age:

—Martha Stewart has faith in people over 50. Let's give her a presidential pardon.
—Ad Age gets an exclusive on GSD&M's transformation into The Idea City. Or was it already one? UPDATE: It wasn't an exclusive, as it's also in the Journal today as paid content.
—How Procter & Gamble reaches African-American women.
—Hold your nose: the pharmaceutical industry tries out sensory branding.
—Bob Garfield gives zero stars to Berlin Cameron United's Heineken DraftKeg campaign.

From Adweek (no print issue this week, lazy bastards! Kidding;):

—A Q&A with Tom Carroll on the hiring of JWT's Colleen DeCourcy.
—WPP unit says that old media still are viewed as most effective among consumers. It must be that they're largely analog, she mused facetiously.

From Mediapost:

—If you're a baby boomer, Ann Taylor is looking for you.
—New Subaru campaign exploits a niche for every model.
—WSJ Digital rejiggers its management.
—Users react to YouTube's new ad model.
—Consumer Reports offers up free crash-test videos. For hours of carnage-induced fun, point your browser here.

From The New York Times:

—One way to finance your SUV: get someone to pay to have it plastered with ads.
—South Park creators cut a deal to get a share of Web ad revenue. Artists getting compensated? Who'da thunk?
—You mean advertisers don't want their ads showing up on "To Catch a Predator"?

From The Wall Street Journal (subscription required unless otherwise indicated):

—Web company pays bloggers to write about them. Oy. (Free content!)
—Famous Amos explains how to make a brand around a personality.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 08.20.07

This may be my only post of the week, because as previously stated, I am on vacation. (The weather has been great, BTW). So, here are Adverganza's Monday morning picks, where I scan the headlines so you don't have to:

From Advertising Age:

—Why pitching Dell could turn out to be a disaster. (Quiz question: Why is Adweek completely ignoring this review? Does that mean something?)
—Are marketers ignoring the fact that the label "Made in China" is becoming a liability?
—Rance Crain thinks advertising could avert a worldwide economic crisis.
—Is Web video the new :30?
—New 5 gum doesn't give Bob Garfield a full-body orgasm.

From Adweek:

—Brian Morrissey on why social networking doesn't always work for advertisers.
—Does advertising today act a lot like Karl Rove?
—TV networks embrace the recap episode.
—Non-vacationing ad execs talk about how Mattel can fix its image.
—Tom Messner on the long, storied history of sports-betting scandals.
—Barbara Lippert on "the GoDaddying of political advertising."

From Mediapost:

—McDonald's is offering drinks with flavor shots. How about Hawaiian Punch with a Cherry Coke chaser?
—Nissan: Official car of an Arizona city. Quiz question: Are you expelled for driving a Toyota?
—Staples is using paper to help people social network.
—BK traffic surges by 774 percent on Simpsons Movie tie-in, but did it sell more hamburgers?

From The New York Times:

—Who can withstand 30 days of fashion?
—Kwik-E-Mart mementos now available on eBay.
—Why advertising may not be the cure for what ails AOL.

From The Wall Street Journal (subscription required, for now):

—A close-up of Ethos JWT.
—WPP Group sees ad growth in 2008 because of the usual suspects: the Olympics and the election.