Living without DirecTV is torture

Deutsch LA's campaign for DirecTV is hardly new—on the other hand, it never gets old because it's so well executed. This new commercial in the series features Kathy Bates and James Caan in 1990's "Misery."

On the other hand, the red wig sucks

This guy's no Jared, but since his thinking is so in line with the current Wendy's marketing philosophy, maybe he should be the chain's new spokesperson.

Even industry bibles are not immune

If you want to get nice and depressed about the state of trade publishing, look no further than Reed Elsevier's announcement yesterday that it was getting out of the business, looking to sell magazines including entertainment industry bible Variety, Broadcasting and Cable, Multichannel News and Publishers Weekly. The company's CEO says it's looking at "reducing exposure to advertising markets and cyclicality." It's not exactly news that advertising is cyclical. What he doesn't seem willing to say is that print trade publishing is on a downward trend it may never get out of.

It's no K-Fed, but it's not bad

Came across this celebrity-free commercial from Nationwide still using the "Life Comes at You Fast" theme. It lacks the buzz value of using K-Fed—or even Fabio—to make the tag come to life, but still comes through on delivering an almost palpable punchline. Plus, I bet it cost a lot less since it doesn't use any of those famous-for-being-famous types. Via Funnyplace.org.

The caveman is back and he's a b-ball ref

Unclear as to what the connections are between cavemen, basketball and car insurance, but Geico gets something I don't. Just noticed it's trying to build the biggest hoops bracket ever via a Facebook app, with a caveman guru as a guide. The links between all of these may indeed be tenuous, but Geico is thought of as a friendly enough brand these days that this'll probably do really well.

My interpretation of this Absolut ad

OK, Mediapost says this Absolut ad is supposed to equate vodka taste to natural childbirth. I'm not on quite the same wave length. To me—and not to be gross, but honesty is the best blogging policy—it looks like one of those animations of a tampon ad trying to prove that the product doesn't allow for leaks. Only the product is upside down, and it's green. There. I've said it. Via TBWA/Chiat/Day.

Who hired Bob? Ogilvy Entertainment

So checking out these Webisodes for the Tassimo customized hot beverage thing. (A short clip from one is posted above.) They feature a guy named Bob, who is more or less the office loser, and they're pretty funny, if a bit long. The payoff is a $20 mail-in rebate on a Tassimo beverage system. As part of the loser theme (though of course the site doesn't use the "L" word), people are asked to submit stories of their own office "Bob." The best so far: "My Bob thinks everyone is out to steal his desk chair: Of course, this has now become a self-fulfilling prophecy prank. We all take turns moving his chair to other people's offices when he's not around." Why do I feel like I've done that before? Created by Ogilvy Entertainment with writing from this Jim Biederman.

Marketers tell ANA they're down on TV

I'm enough of a curmudgeon that headlines like the one above, make me whisper under my breath, "I told you so." The headline from Ad Age sits on top of a story which says that 87 percent of client-side respondents to a survey conducted by the Association of National Advertisers and Forrester Research say they're going to spend more money on Web ads this year. There are a lot of other stats in the story, but here's another one that stands out: 62 percent of those surveyed think that TV ads are not as effective as they were two years ago. When the upfront is up again in a few months, let's revisit this story. Or maybe it won't be.

Yeah, I'm Mediapost's Social Media Insider

Now that my first Mediapost column is up—and some of you that have read that are stopping off here—thought I'd announce that I'm the new (and first) Social Media Insider for Mediapost. I'll be posting more or less weekly, and think it'll be a blast to cover. As for you newcomers to Adverganza, keep reading it too, if you like what you see. It's about the broader world of advertising, including good, old-fashioned 30-second commercials. Ideas are always welcome wherever you see me write about anything to do with advertising. Thanks all.

Esurance ads put the E in "Eccch!"

Saw one of these commercials for Esurance the other night, and all I could think was, "Is this what happens to other advertisers in a category when one of them clearly does much better work?" (Think Geico.) Does it make them turn out this dreck in an attempt to get noticed? Awful.

At TBWA/Chiat/Day, they're going away

You'd expect some reshuffling to go on at TBWA/Chiat/Day upon the departure of Gerry Graf (at right, with minimal hair) from the agency, but an exodus? And so soon? That's what appears to be going on, with Scott Vitrone and Ian Reichenthal leaving for Young & Rubicam and Isaac Silverglate and Jeff Anderson going to Droga5. (I'm sure some of you would dispute that four people equals an exodus, but let's put it this way: it's still a bunch of bodies.) But all these shifts leave important questions unanswered. What I really want to know is how Hamish McLennan sells candidates on joining Y&R when his newly-appointed creative director, Tony Granger, is still forced to cool his heels at Saatchi & Saatchi working on creative projects until his contract is up where, of course, Graf is the new creative chief. Does Granger get to meet with his future employees? And what happens when Granger and Graf meet in the hallway? Someone please clear this up. I'm getting a headache.

Coke Zero should be for losers

I'm not under the impression that Crispin, Porter + Bogusky's campaign for Coke Zero, charging the brand with taste infringement, has taken the world by storm. Anyway, looks like the agency has been pushing the brand on the Nascar circuit with this fairly humorous film, which is asking Nascar stars to throw a race so that Coke Zero--the official soft drink of Nascar--doesn't end up in the winner's circle.

Adverganza's Tuesday morning picks, 02.19.08

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

From Advertising Age:

—Marketing jobs, not media jobs, are where it's at.
—Subway can't derail Jared.
—How Rupert Murdoch could use Yahoo to rain on Steve Ballmer's parade.
—What J. Lo's twins could fetch in the celebrity mag market.
—The upfront presentations survive the writers' strike.
—Starcom Mediavest Group dumps Donovan.
—Absolut Irrelevance. Vodka brand ditches old campaign and watches sales go up.
—Bob Garfield finds teensy-weensy problems in BBDO's new Monster.com spot.

From Adweek (I would include a pic of the cover if I could find it on the new site, but so far I haven't. UPDATE: I scanned my print cover when it came in the mail this afternoon.):

—AKQA is Adweek's digital agency of the year.
—Barbarian's Benjamin Palmer on the possibilities of open-source creative.
—Ground Zero buys a stake in a vodka brand.
—Another interview with Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi on why the company's proposed buying of Yahoo is a fantabulous idea.
—Pedigree's adopt-a-dog centered campaign.
—Barbara Lippert talks about Jackie-Moon-meets-Bud-Light-meets-Old-Spice. And yes, all of it's right for you.

From Brandweek:

—JC Penney plans to spend big to launch its American Living line.
—Take a swig of this: socially-responsible water.
—How brands fared in the Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index Rankings.

From Mediapost:

—Michael Bay's commercial for Verizon.
—So what else is new? Scion campaign goes after youth market.
—Mortgage companies slash their online spending according to Nielsen Online. You knew that was gonna happen.
—The Advertising Research Foundation starts an official Engagement Council.

What we're hearing from The Delaney Report:

—Denny's relationship with Publicis Mid America may be "on the rocks."
—Is TBWA/Chiat/Day in trouble on Snickers? Hard to believe. That campaign is great.
—Merger of Miller Brewing and Molson Coors to lead to $700 million review?

From The New York Times:

—More on that JC Penney campaign, including the actual ads, which were shot by Bruce Weber.
—Despite what Nielsen Online says, mortage advertisers are still very active.

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

—Don Scales' plan to get back at Omnicom.
—Martha Stewart Living to buy the Emeril Lagasse empire.

OK. That's it. Have a good one.

The fight to make St. Paddy's a holiday

You may have noticed this campaign from Guinness, which asks Guinness drinkers to sign a petition, which will be presented to Congress, requesting that St. Patrick's Day be declared a national holiday. (The site for the promo is proposition317.com and print ads to drive traffic to the site have been running as well.) When Guinness gets to one million signatures, which it's obviously not close to, it'll make the trip to Washington, DC. Great idea, but as a campaign it's kind of a one-off. Don't think Guinness can pull this stunt every year.

Dentsu's Wikipedia entry: just facts, no sex

It's been awhile since I continued my series on agency Wikipedia entries, so—it being what appears to be a slow news day—here's a look at the one from Dentsu. (Last one was Crispin ... I'm going in more-or-less alphabetical order). In short, it manages to turn the world's largest agency (actually it calls it "one of the largest agency brands in the world" which is a bit of an understatement) sound really boring. Except for the 48-floor Dentsu building in Tokyo, which, the Wikipedia entry explains, "is the eleventh-tallest building in Tokyo ... designed by Jean Nouvel, the French architect." But if you're looking for who Dentsu's clients are, or whether any one at the company has been to a Czech brothel, don't look here.

Why it's important to read Page Six

Because then you'd know stuff like this, which was buried in the "Sightings" item yesterday: "HULK Hogan dining on salmon and salad at Del Frisco with maverick ad man and BBDO boss John Osborn and signing autographs for fans ... "

An interview with Bryan Buckley

Over at Adweek, the featured video interview this week is with Bryan Buckley, who, in addition to directing ads, has been running a Web video channel, Hungry Man TV. If you're into irony, you'll find it a-plenty. One segment of the interview is about "Undercover Cheerleaders," one of Hungry Man's shows. Buckley says that he's just finished shooting a pilot for it at the behest of one of the networks. See? It's still all about TV.

And now, Martin Scorsese for AT&T

Came across this PSA, which I think is meant to remind people to turn off their cell phones at the movies. Features the increasingly ubiquitous Martin Scorsese, who does a great rendition of himself.

Orville Redenbacher still not dead

I suppose this spot for Orville Redenbacher popcorn is better than the infamous one from Crispin that resurrected Orville last year, but it's still pretty creepy. It uses a Dr. Phil spoof to sell popcorn and then gives Orville a cameo at the end. Ugh. Looks like this is the work of Venables, Bell & Partners. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: let Orville rest in peace.

Is this Toyota ad an homage or a rip-off?

Is it intentional that this Toyota Corolla ad is a ripoff of a commercial from the 1970s in which someone cut a diamond in the back of a car to prove how smooth the ride was? I want to say it was for a Ford or a Chrysler. What was more memorable was a "Saturday Night Live" spoof of the original ad featuring Dan Ackroyd and Gilda Radner in which a newborn was circumcised by a rabbi in the back seat of the "Royal Deluxe II."

And the YouTube-a-bowl's bottom five

I promise this is my final Super Bowl 2008 post, but wanted to point out which commercials have gotten the least YouTube streams. (The least-streamed spot is embedded above.) Note to self: if I'm ever a movie marketing exec might wanna pass on a Super Bowl buy. The bottom five, in descending-to-the-very-bottom order, are:

Fifth worst: Jack in the Box "Make a Jack Sandwich." (wondering if this one only ran in spot). 37,240 streams.
4. AMP Energy drink spot featuring Dale Earnhart and a camel. 35,075 streams.
3. Trailer for "88 Minutes." 13,728 streams.
2. Trailer for "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins." 17,340 streams.
1. Trailer for "Vantage Point." 13,033 streams.

Another ridiculous, great Old Spice ad

Was looking for the new Old Spice spot starring Will Ferrell as Jackie Moon. Instead I tripped across this new Old Spice commercial. If "Slide" is a 9 on a scale of one to 10, this is a 12. Via Wieden + Kennedy.

Live blogging CNBC's Nike documentary because I just happen to be in front of the TV

So I'm watching the CNBC documentary "Swoosh: Inside Nike," which hasn't told me anything I didn't know already, but sure beats watching Donny Deutsch's show, which it's pre-empting. The focus on Wieden+Kennedy starts about 20 minutes in, with an interview with Dan. They're showing all the stuff you'd expect, perhaps overplaying the whole suit by the Beatles about using the song "Revolution," but providing a decent flashback to "Bo Knows", the creation of the "Just Do It' theme line, and the power of the Michael Jordan/Spike Lee collaboration. Oh wait, here's Charles Barkley calling the greatest thing he's ever done in his career the Nike ad in which he declared "I am not a role model." Tiger Woods isn't saying he feels the same way about that ad where he bounces the golf ball off his golf club. Nor is LeBron James saying it about his contribution to the Nike oeuvre. No mention about Crispin, Porter + Bogusky edging in on Wieden's turf recently. Makes sense. That's the kind of thing that only ad nerds care about. OK, now the show is moving on to Nike's overseas labor problems. Even though you could argue that the story of Nike is the story of advertising, the focus on the ads got about ten minutes of time.

Who really won the YouTube-a-bowl

OK, I know the post below is supposed to be the answer to the question, "What was the most popular Super Bowl commercial on YouTube?" But, I asked myself this morning because I have no life, "Wouldn't the best Super Bowl spot according to YouTube be the one that has gotten the most streams?" (And isn't voting on YouTube a little bit redundant? Don't you vote by clicking the 'play' button?) If number of streams is your metric, the clear winner is the SoBe LifeWater "Thrillicious" commercial (above), which has been streamed almost a million times so far. (This, as with all the numbers in this post, are using the versions of the commercials available at this link on YouTube.) Here's the rest of the top 10 Super Bowl spots so far, as ordered by number of streams.

2. E*Trade Trading Baby (well, I prefer to call this "Barfing Baby," but I suppose that would detract from the selling proposition). 847,707 streams.
3. Derek Jeter and G2. 762,489 streams.
4. E*Trade Banking Baby. 717,936 streams.
5. Bridgestone Scream. 643,287 streams.
6. CareerBuilder Queen of Hearts. 493,915 streams.
7. Bud Light Jackie Moon. 480,997 streams.
8. Tide to Go Interview (which got the most YouTube votes. Go figure.) 442,923 streams.
9. CareerBuilder Firefly. 440,297 streams.
10. Victoria's Secret . 431,699 streams.

Tide Wins YouTube-a-Bowl

YouTube this morning unveiled the winner of its poll to determine the best Super Bowl ad of all, and the winner is "Talking Stain" from Tide. There are now a gazillion polls of Super Bowl ads out there, of course, but interesting to see how the spot did now as opposed to how it did in the USA Today AdMeter. In that poll, it tied for tenth with the Sobe LifeWater spot featuring the serial cellphone thrower dancing with a bunch of Geico Geckos.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 02.11.08

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

From Advertising Age:

—How will a recession affect ad spending? You can read this, but you still won't know the answer.
—You might want to find out who Michael Copps is.
—An interview with Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi about why it would be good for everyone—except maybe Google—if it bought Yahoo. (Interview was before Yahoo rejected its bid.)
—Why Naked entered into the warm embrace of Photon.
—Are you ready for big, big magazines?
—Having your brain-scanned while watching Super Bowl ads.
—Rance Crain wants to kill Sears.

From Adweek:

—This headline is really from Friday, but Jay-Z, Interpublic and a guy from Interscope are opening an ad agency.
—Also from Friday: Marian Salzman heading to Porter Novelli from JWT.
—Dave Morgan plans to leave AOL.
—CNN to launch a user-generated news site.
—Publicis and Hal Riney launch a new campaign for Hungry Man dinners.
—Debut campaign from Eleven Inc. for Virgin America Airlines.

When I clicked on the "In Print" link this morning, it was all content from last week, so I'm assuming this is part of the new biweekly schedule. On the other hand, not sure I got a print edition last week. If you got one, report back.

From Brandweek:

—In a tough economy, free-standing inserts are in!
—Tostitos focuses on the Food Network's Ingrid Hoffman in its new campaign.
—And now, the social network for Las Vegas-bound travelers.
—NASCAR puts marketing into fifth.
—Procter & Gamble makes the Times Square Shuttle smell better.

From Mediapost:

—General Motors launches a wiki at GMNext.com.
—Landor says iconic brands will suffer in an economic slump.
—Revenue Science creates the Behavorial Targeting Standards Consortium.
—Not surprisingly, the writers' strike spurred more traffic in online video.
—Fast Company launches a user-generated content site.

What we're hearing from The Delaney Report:

—Is BBDO vulnerable on Chrysler?
—Walt Disney is looking for agencies for movie marketing and advertising.

From The New York Times:

Over in the U.K., they're having a hard time coming up with a fat logo.

Nothing of interest in The Wall Street Journal, so that's it for today. Have a good one.

Look away ... it's Sunsilk-ified MySpace

Forgot to post this a few days ago: the incredibly inane, obnoxious Sunsilk buy on the home page of MySpace, which compelements the incredibly inane, obnoxious Sunsilk Super Bowl spot. It was up on the site earlier this week. Thankfully, no more.

Better than attaching jumper cables to nipples

One of my least favorite Super Bowl ads was the one for Amp Energy Drink showing some guy attaching jumper cables to his nipples. I dunno, maybe it's just me. I like the Amp commercial above far better, not only because it doesn't really have a gross-out factor, but because it's much clearer about what Amp does. (I'm not an energy drink afficionado, OK?) The Super Bowl spot, by contrast, is so focused on shocking people that the line that connects cause to effect somehow isn't so clear.

Yeah ... Eli Manning's going to Disney World

I guess this ad is obligatory by this point—on the other hand, I wasn't entirely sure Disney was still doing these, until I saw this during a commercial break of "Hannah Montana" last night. Yeah, I was watching "Hannah Montana" last night. Still can't figure out why. Via BestAds.

Global Al-Qaeda account in review?

As Tom Delaney might say, "Shops might poke around Al-Qaeda ... "

Calm down people, REM didn't write the song

So, I saw this Toyota Sequoia spot the other day which used REM's "Superman" as the soundtrack. Kept hoping it was for a hybrid Sequoia or something maybe green-friendly that would explain this stunning error in judgment—but no. What had happened? Had REM sold out? Had Michael Jackson bought the band's catalog? Turns out that when REM recorded the tune in 1986 for Lifes Rich Pageant, they were covering a song by some band called The Clique from 1969. I feel like I should've known they didn't write that song—then again, it's been quite a few decades since I had the time to obsessively study liner notes. Anyway ... phew!

Super Bowl advertisers buy search

I always expect to be unimpressed by major advertisers and their interest in search. Or lack thereof. So, I was surprised to find this list of advertisers pop up when I Googled the term "Super Bowl commercials." Good work, people. You're learning.

Found! Someone who loves CareerBuilder ad!

Still mystified by that CareerBuilder ad on the Super Bowl that showed the heart leaping out of a woman's chest and quivering on her keyboard. (It's above.) In unison: "EEEEWWWWWWWWWW." Now that we've gotten that out of our systems, the thing that's perplexing about it isn't that it exists--it's that Wieden + Kennedy did it. It's as though, for a lark, the creative team on this spot decided to go slumming by pretending they worked at the schlockiest agency they could think of (insert name of shlocky agency here). But there is someone who actually likes the ad: "Your heart can tell you an awful lot about which way to go," says Nancy Colasurdo, Life Coach at FOXBusiness, in gushing over the ad. (I always find that title highly suspicious). "That’s why you hear people on the right career path say things like, 'I love what I do.' Love equals heart. Get it?" Yeah, got it, but that doesn't mean my heart has to jump out of my shirt to let me know.

BigFoot meets a Jeep Liberty

Silly.

Some thoughts on the new Adweek.com

If you've read some of my previous posts about my former employer Adweek, than you're probably expecting me to rip the new Adweek site to shreds. But sorry folks, I'm not going to do that. The relaunched Web site, which went up over the weekend, isn't perfect, but it's loads better than what came before it. Even the biggest grousers out there have to admit that. The old home page, as the years went by, became more and more cluttered, as content had to be shoehorned into places it probably was never meant to go. The new Web site actually has white space and displays more content than the old site.

In fact, that's the site's biggest achievement--bringing more content to the home page. My frustrations with the old Adweek.com were almost endless (and I think those thoughts were shared by insiders and outsiders alike), but one of the most unfortunate things was that, if you cared to click on links to "creative", "digital," and so forth you'd actually find some good content, but you had to know the site backwards and forwards to find it. The old home page seemed capable of holding about four to five main stories, and a few links, many of which changed every couple of months, if that fast; the new one has 17 stories and or video streams, and a whole batch of headlines as well. It sounds like it should be a cluttered mess, but it's not. Also the nav bar at the top displays where more content lies if you mouse over it. A big improvement.

The publication has also cleaned up the morass that was the archive. I don't know how many people other than reporters have habitually used the archive, but I always felt the Web site probably lost loads of traffic because of a key fault: you could only get content for more than three months previous by using the "advanced search" option. How many people over the years simply thought that the story didn't exist in the archive, because it never occurred to them that the basic search option didn't go back any further?

Do I see faults in the site as it's presented today? Absolutely. As streaming video is the hot thing on Web sites right now, the appearance on the site is that there's very little video available. This actually isn't true--if you drill down far enough, you'll find that just like Ad Age, Adweek.com has full streams of all the Super Bowl spots, but it's hard to find. And the big video box, which features Tom Carroll, is only populated with his Q&A and an introduction to the new Adweek by editor Alison Fahey. It should have been far more populated at launch, and it should also include links to creative video there as well. The assumption on an advertising site, is that video, first and foremost, means ads, but for some reason the site treats video of ad exec talking heads as separate from creative. Second, there are several stories referencing Super Bowl ads, which either don't link to the specific spots or use a still to tell the story, such as this one for E*Trade. In 2008, you can't get away with that anymore. People expect they are going to be able to stream the spot the person is writing about right then and there. This may be easier to do on a blog, but it doesn't matter. You have to meet the consumer expectation on this.

At this stage, it's hard to see whether Adweek's expanded CGM (or is that agency-generated media?) gambit will work Among the site's new features is the ability to upload advertising content and critique it. Agencies can update their profiles on the site too.

But the site's biggest problem is that it's launching in 2008, rather than a few years ago. While the site is driving down generally the right road, the blogs, and Ad Age have been miles ahead for some time now. To invoke another metaphor, Adweek is playing catch-up ball and it may be too late in the game for the brand to come from behind. I've pasted a chart here from Alexa showing comparative traffic of adage.com, adweek.com and mediapost.com over the last three months. Can that gap be made up?

Adverganza's, er, Monday morning picks, 02.04.08

Monday morning picks now available late Monday night! Sorry about the delay. It's been one of those days/weeks/months:

From Advertising Age:

—Microsoft can go and buy Yahoo all it wants and it'll still have less revenue than Google. Ha!
—Bud Light campaign accused of plagiarizing, like, five other campaigns, which means it plagiarized a plagiarizer, which plagiarized a plagiarizer, which plagirized a plagiarizer, which plagiarized a plagiarizer, which plagiraizer a plagiaraizer. Gee, that's kinda viral.
—Bob Garfield's complete rundown of Super Bowl commercials. He's not happy. You can watch a post-game video of him ranting here.
—Nokia thinks it should narrow down its digital roster from 500 shops. Sounds good to me.
—I cannot believe that Wieden + Kennedy did that horrible Career Builder follow your heart spot, which ranked even worse than Cramer-Krasselt's spot on the Super Bowl.

From Adweek (yeah, I know the big news here is the new Adweek, but I'll post about that later):

—Barbara Lippert on the Super Bowl spots. She's happy.
—All in all it's just another BRIC in the wall. OK, couldn't find a way to spice this one up ... it's a story we should probably all read on the growth of the Brazil, Russia, India and China markets.
—Roy Bostock, non-executive chairman of Yahoo? Who knew?
—Why the proposed Microsoft/Yahoo deal shouldn't leave you tied up in your underwear.

From Brandweek:

—Will Ferrell Bud Light ad was supposed to be an online short.
—More ads on school busses. Yuck.
—Kellogg's Frosted Flakes Gold: it's gggrrrreeeeaaaatttt.
—A Q&A with Hyundai vp/marketing Joel Ewanick who explains about the Genesis, and other stuff.

From Mediapost:

—Mercedes-Benz, Fashion Week, upcoming Sex and the City movie, synergy.
—More on the Yahoo?Microsoft deal, in the offchance you're not already sick of it.

What we're hearing from The Delaney Report:

—Blockbuster might be an account to look at.
—Also worth looking at: Sony Ericcson.

From The New York Post:

—Fashion Week gets into fashion "presentations."
—Is the Yahoo/Microsoft deal really about display advertising?

From The New York Times:

—Stuart Elliott's take on the Super Bowl ads.
—"Is Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC?"

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

—Is Microsoft undervaluing Yahoo? Free.
—A mock Mac vs. PC ad about the time WSJ tech columnist Brian Fitzgerald's iMac broke. After only three weeks. Free.

My one-sided chat with Hillary Clinton

Just got a call from Hillary asking me to vote in tomorrow's New York primary. She sounded a little bit rushed at the end. Guess she's in a hurry.

Stream of consciousness on the Super Bowl

No, I did not live blog the Super Bowl, but I posted my favorite spot above. Too much else to do this weekend, so it was time to drink some beer, eat some pulled pork and relax once the game came on. Only problem with that scenario was that my husband is a Pats fan. Ouch. Not as bad as my 2007 Mets imploding right before the playoffs, but this is up there. I guess not blogging the Super Bowl, for the first time since 2004, was somewhat instructive. I haven't entered a Super Bowl contest with this little knowledge of the ads in a long time. I was much more like a consumer than an ad wonk. Here are a few stream-of-consciousness thoughts I came away with: when the ads are not your focus, they don't seem all that great—plus consumers hold Super Bowl ads to a higher standard, so when they don't deliver, it's bad news. Repulsion seemed a big theme, with the slobbering dog for Gatorade (which, frankly, no one watching the game at my house understood and Adrants called "the most baffling" Super Bowl spot ever), the barfing baby for E*Trade (which came away as a favorite spot amongst our crowd), and the guy who'd attached jumper cables to his nipples (don't remember the advertiser, but no one around me liked that one). Our gang was also entirely confused by the Sobe Life Water spot featuring Naomi Campbell with a bunch of Geico geckos who were channeling Michael Jackson's "Thriller." Just that description explains why. We far preferred the Shaquille O'Neal jockey spot for Glaceau's VitaminWater. A Botox injection wouldn't hurt Tom Petty. I was wrong about the Taco Bell ad. It ranked in the bottom half of theUSA Today AdMeter, but not the bottom third. However, the Hyundai Genesis ad which referenced the USA Today AdMeter, came in 13th-to-last. Wasn't that Doritos' spot with the giant rat a cast-off from last year's CGM contest? What was with that Sunsilk spot? Are we really to believe that Madonna uses that stuff? You'll notice I haven't mentioned Anheuser-Busch. No real news there. Its spots were the crowd favorites again. OK gotta busy day in front of me. Hope to get the Adverganza Monday morning picks in by Monday afternoon ...

Obligatory SalesGenie post: foreign accents ... funny!

Find more videos like this on AdGabber

Still trying to wrap my head around the spots for SalesGenie.com, which, if you haven't heard, actually take a stab at creativity this year by being animated. That and thinking that Chinese accents and Indian accents are hilarious. Personally, I find these demeaning to the Chinese, the Indians, and the panda bears since their cast as the dummies who can't get their sales shit together until they contact SalesGenie.com. It's not only a demean-o-fest, it's a trifecta! Watch the spot above, and look at the other one here and you'll see what I mean. Thanks again to Ian Schafer for making my job a lot easier today. With that, I won't post anything at least until the game itself. Au revoir and go Pats!

Jumping on Super Bowl bandwagon winner: Nationwide

No, Nationwide Insurance is not appearing on the Super Bowl this year, after a three-year run which culminated with what many consider last year's breakout commercial: the one featuring K-Fed at the fry joint (above). But that doesn't mean the company isn't trying to get in on the action ... no. Actually got an email from one of their reps today featuring a Q&A with Steven Schreibman, vp of advertising and brand management at the company, advising companies on how to get the most out of their Super Bowl ads. I won't bother to post it because the first step to taking advantage of Super Bowl hype is to think about it well in advance of the Friday before the game, and the Q&A leaves unanswered the question of why the company bowed out this year. And, you don't need to read the Q&A to conclude that Nationwide is the winner of this year's Super Bowl Bandwagon Award, given exclusively at Adverganza. Congrats all around!

Watch this Coke spot before it comes down

Don't think this Coke spot that will appear on the Super Bowl is supposed to be posted yet, but thanks to our friends at the Associated Press, it is. (Watch, it'll get pulled down if anyone notices.) It features James Carville and Bill Frist, if you didn't know already, and even though it's no "Happiness Factory," it has its moments. Coke has posted some B-roll at Coca-ColaConversations.com, but you can only see it using Internet Explorer. Of course, I am biased. I think that portrait of George Washington on the horse that the two look at in the National Portrait Gallerywas painted by one of my long ago Peale relatives. (Thus, my middle initial.) As you can tell, not one iota of visual artistry made it down the generations to me. Still trying to confirm the agency. Doesn't seem very Wieden-esque to me.

Hyundai Super Bowl spots are hyo-hyum

Find more videos like this on AdGabber

Thought I'd take a look at the Hyundai Super Bowl spots, just because they're from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, though, I promise, by day's end to sink to the depth of posting something about SalesGenie. Especially coming from Goodby, these spots are disappointing, just because the only interesting thing I found is that the first of the two (embedded above), actually speculates about how the spot might do on the USA Today AdMeter, with the implication it probably won't score all that high. I guess that's a smart way to hedge your bets as an agency—you don't want to get your ass fired, like Cramer-Krasselt allegedly did, because your spot doesn't do well on that particular poll. As for what the commecials advertise, it's new Hyundai Genesis, an upscale sedan that is being compared in these commercials to Mercedes, BMW and Lexus. While the car may line up favorably in terms of specs—particularly on price—to those cars, at the end of the day it's still a Hyundai, and that's would seem to be the main marketing issue.

Chrysler says it's a new day

Chrysler just posted this spot to YouTube—part of a new corporate campaign, with brand-specific components, that is breaking in spot TV on the Super Bowl. It's part of what the company is calling its New Day Celebration, focused on "the new Chrysler LLC direction as a company that listens to its customers and is committed to moving fast and responding to customer and dealer feedback." How radical. This commercial reminds me of the kicking trees spot for Wendy's since it takes place in a forest. Man, just can't get this red wig campaign out of my, um, hair. It's a sickness.

This just in: Microsoft makes bid for Yahoo!

From my Wall Street Journal tech alert emails:

"Microsoft Corp. offered $44.6 billion to buy Yahoo Inc., in a bold attempt to dramatically expand its online business and compete more effectively with Google Inc. in services ranging from email to Internet advertising sales.

The offer was made in a letter sent Thursday by Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer to Yahoo's board of directors. One person familiar with the matter said that Microsoft decided to "go hostile" with its bid within the last few weeks after Yahoo ignored its latest overtures.

The offer, $31 a share in cash and stock, is a 62% premium to Thursday's closing price. ..."

Makes a lot of sense, actually. Yahoo!, clearly vulnerable. Microsoft, a player in the online ad game, but not nearly as much of a player as it would like to be. Yahoo, much stronger in search. Microsoft, much stronger in wealth. We shall see.

27 Super Bowl spots on YouTube so far

In the email that came to me yesterday with the most short-term payoff, Ian Schafer, the CEO of Deep Focus (it's an interactive shop for you traditional types), sent me a link to his post of every Super Bowl spot that's been put on YouTube so far. What a relief! Now I can just crib from him relentlessly.! Seriously, though, thanks. Now, for our discussion topic of the day (though I admit my usual group of commenters has been a might bit lazy this week): Is it a good thing or a bad thing to post your Super Bowl spot online before the game? And what of the annoying "teaser" trend? Discuss.

Snoop Dogg on what you can do with your phone

Face it. You're a sucker for commercials starring Snoop Dogg, just like I am, so let's interrupt all this Super Bowl stuff to take a look at a new one that's running across the pond. This looks to be from the same campaign for Orange that featured Macaulay Culkin. Via Utalkmarketing.

The only GoDaddy Super Bowl post I'll do

I'm just going to get GoDaddy over with right now. There's a Super Bowl teaser featuring some WWE chick above. And a buncha other stuff, some of which will run on the game and some of which won't, here. True confession. Oh, God, here I go. My domain name is registered with GoDaddy. I signed up with them before they got so freakin' smarmy. I think.

Why put this Taco Bell ad on the Super Bowl?

And now, here's the Taco Bell spot from DraftFCB. Is it the worst ad ever? No. Is it Super Bowl-worthy? No. Prediction (and I will revisit this): it will rank in the bottom third of USA Today's Super Bowl poll.

The Justin Timberlake/Pepsi/Super Bowl ad

This thing is violent. And then there's the guy with the straws in his nose. Hmmm.

OK, kids, here are Bud Super Bowl teasers

I also got shipped a bunch of teasers yesterday for Bud and Bud Light (the Clydesdale one is above; you can find the other four here, here, here and here. While occasionally showing potential, when looked at, in teaser form, they run like a check list for what to make sure to include in Super Bowl ads, especially for an advertiser who has as many spots to play with as Anheuser-Busch. Frustrated cavemen? Check. Animals with human emotions? Check. Frat boy humor? Check. Making fun of foreign accents? Check. I may sound a little jaded, mostly cuz I am, but I'm sure these commercials will be huge hits. Coolest thing to me about this campaign is that A-B has created a widget to make it easy for people to stream these ads on their MySpace, Facebook or other Web pages. Would love to know how the metrics turn out on that one. Isn't it weird to contemplate that advertisers are spending $2.7 million for 30 seconds of airtime on the Super Bowl while simultaneously spreading their Super Bowl ads for free all over the Web? I know there's nothing expressly new there, but every now and then you have to take a moment to think about how bizarre that really is.

Here's Under Armour's Super Bowl teaser

So Under Armour has this Super Bowl teaser out. Don't know what to make of it really. Man rolls a tire, finds a red box. Of course, since until earlier this week I thought Under Armour was some spinoff brand of Armour All, I guess I ain't the target.

Adverganza's Super Bowl hype begins ...

OK, so as of today Adverganza is finally succumbing to Super Bowl hype. Amazing that I've been able to hold out until three days before the Big Game before even posting a Super Bowl ad, but all good things must come to an end. Now I'm going to be a Super Bowl ad whore, posting anything that has the remotest thing to do with the Super Bowl, so there! Still looking for candidates to live blog the game with me. But I won't take just anyone. Email me at cathyptaylor@gmail.com, if you're, well, game.

Yes, it will blend picket signs

And now, the special writers' strike edition of Blendtec's "Will It Blend?"

One place where the red wig lives

In case you're feeling nostalgic already for the Wendy's red wig campaign, it continues to live. for now, at Wendys.com.

My lazy take on Quizno's vs. Subway

I'm a little late to the party on this Quizno's vs. Subway fracas, wherein Quizno's asked its fans to do the attacking for them--by having them shoot anti-Subway videos and, more to the point, post them. Subway has not been pleased. The one above, may or may not be part of the official contest. I guess I picked it to stream because it's one of the more recent ones posted on YouTube and, at least at the beginning, it has a Led Zep soundtrack. Maybe they should solve this whole thing by streaming a wrestling match between the Quizno's mascot in this vid and Jared. I dunno.

Zucker on why NBC won't do an upfront show

So NBC's Jeff Zucker gave the keynote yesterday at NATPE, and talked about what why the network, in all likelihood, is not planning a glamorous upfront presentation this year, and he did so--at least if you look at the snippets here on the Ad Age site--without once mentioning how the writers' strike might leave a network with not a lot to show. Zucker talks about the upfront presentation as a thing of the past. Why does this seem like a trendlet that we'll see for a few years rather than the end of an era? I guess it's 'cuz ad execs sure like their TV stars.

My interview with new 4As CEO Nancy Hill

It's official. Nancy Hill has been named the new president-CEO of the 4As.
I had a chat with her yesterday, and came away thinking that she will bring a decidedly different spin to what has been, by almost all accounts, a pretty staid organization. I admit that in a post on her expected appointment last week, I didn't realize she had tech experience. In fact, she's worked on a raft of tech accounts, and explained to me that it taught her not to separate digital advertising from traditional advertising. "I was never allowed to separate the two because the technology clients wouldn't let you separate the two," she explained. That said, she's obviously thought a lot about the digital divide—not the one that separates the computer-haves from the computer have-nots, but the one that separates the traditional advertising people from the digital ones. The traditional side, she said, focuses on ads as solutions; the digital side focuses on applications as solutions. "I think where the 4As can help is that we can help bring the conversation together." Digital vs. traditional is my personal bailiwick, but we also talked about other topics of concern to the ad populi.
One was the 4As Management Conference, which, Hill admitted, is ranking fairly low on the relevancy scale. "It has been a management conference where agency heads have stood up and talked about what was happening at their own agencies," she observed. After last year's conference, she and some other ad execs got together all by themselves and brainstormed what the conference should be; her thought was that it should "look outside the industry" at other creative industries who have adjusted to change. She'd like to bring in people like Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, who have managed to sustain and grow a partnership through a rapidly-changing landscape in their own business. That doesn't mean they're on the agenda; Hill had to disengage from the project once she was under consideration for the 4As job. I checked out what the 4As Web site has to say about this year's conference, by the way, and it has been renamed the 4As Leadership Conference. It also promises to deliver, "CEOs from major digital companies, a global media agency CEO, a major architect, a Hollywood producer, a venture capitalist, a major package goods advertisers and the legendary Lee Clow, worldwide creative director, TBWA\Chiat\Day." (Hey, I thought Lee recently changed his title to Master of the Dark Arts, or something. No wait, I had that a little wrong.)
Anyway, perhaps we'll soon be able to say goodbye to the 4As conference as we've known it, which is great, as long as it keeps being at high-end resorts and includes many beverages, of course. Some things should never change.
So anyway, we also touched on the industry's sorry record when it comes to diversity and how the 4As could do more to make it, well, less white bread. (My words, not hers.) Hill feels many minorities have trouble picturing themselves in the ad industry, which is among the difficulties in making the industry more diverse. "How can we position the industry as attractive to all constituencies?" she asked. "I think that starts before somebody gets out of school."
And, of course, no interview of an incoming 4As CEO would be complete without talking about Advertising Week, which, although it pales in importance next to the changing media landscape and diversity, somehow seems to lead to the most 4As headlines. Although she applauds the passion that the late Ken Kaess, and Ron Berger will continue to bring to it, it isn't front-and-center for her right now. She confessed, "My perspective on it is cloudy at this point be honest with you." Given the substantive issues facing the ad industry right now, that's not a bad thing.
If you're surprised that you're reading her comments on a blog, so am I. But Hill wanted to communicate with the blogosphere as well as the usual ad media suspects. As none of them have posted any interviews with her yet, do me a favor and remember that you read it on Adverganza first.

And now the new Wendy's work from Kirshenbaum

Now that we've laid the red wig campaign to rest (see below), let's examine the new Wendy's work from Kirshenbaum + Bond, which you can see here at the Ad Age site. (These people sure work fast, don't they?) You can see the tag at right, which says Wendy's is "waaaay better than fast food" well, maybe. As for the whole commercial, which focuses on its version of the Filet-o-fish, it's very product-centric. And it's also exceedingly boring.

Wendy's red wig, we hardly knew ye

Red wig campaign from Saatchi for Wendy's: Jan. 29, 2007 - Jan. 28, 2008.
Yep, it lasted just about a year.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 01.28.08

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

From Advertising Age:

—All about that National Association of Realtors campaign that says now is a great time to buy. As a real estate agent myself, I shall refrain from commenting.
—People will watch the Super Bowl into the fourth quarter, this story predicts. Yeah, but what about the focusing problems of the drunks?
—Mac people really are arrogant, says study. But, no, they don't all date Drew Barrymore.
—Hundreds of thousands of people embrace Dewmocracy.
—Colt 45 ads feature cartoon-like characters and the tag, "Works Every Time." Would you believe some people are offended?
—More insight into the appointment of Nancy Hill to head the 4As.
—Bob Garfield doesn't like the aforementioned real estate spots. But he dislikes Realtors even more. Hey, Bob, we're not all the same. (OK, I commented.)

From Adweek:

—Toby Gabriner goes to Adzilla.
—To promote her new book, Nina DiSesa talks about how advertising is till a boys' club.
—Nielsen to use its Hey! Nielsen! site to see what people really think of this year's Super Bowl ads.
—Complete pre-game analysis of this year's Super Bowl advertising, in case you haven't gotten enough hype yet.
—Interpublic says there's still life in Magna Global.
—People don't really agree on what the second best Super Bowl spot ever is.
—Barbara Lippert goes bottom-fishing, critiquing Super Bowl ads for GoDaddy and SalesGenie.com.

From Brandweek:

—Are sales of import beers in a recession-induced stupor?
—Nike to launch a new line of performance trainers, and another brand that I've never heard of, may be threatened. Maybe I don't work out enough.
—More Super Bowl hype, and the demise of consumer-generated Super Bowl ads. I'm liking this year's crop of spots better already.
—Why the new Subway Feast sandwich isn't a natural fit for the chain that made a name for itself out of Jared's jeans.
—A new video feature, "Marketing Wakeup Call," talks about crappy social networking campaigns.
—Tiger Woods cosies up to the Buick Enclave, and the timing couldn't be better.

From Mediapost:

—Dunkin' Donuts launches a CGM contest on YouTube. Well, I guess CGM isn't entirely dead.
—Super Bowl advertisers' stocks beat out the S&P 500, according to some egghead professor guy.
—Imus gets sued for criticizing a commercial for Gerald Ford's book a full year ago, saying that the publisher ""have been waiting for him to croak so they can unload these."
—Blame the writers' strike: people are actually watching "Celebrity Apprentice."

What we hear from The Delaney Report:

—Hershey's is closely examining its marketing and advertising, though it seems too early for use of the "R" word.
—"Green" car Tesla might be getting off the ground. Might want to check around on when it'll need an agency.
—Tom doesn't like BBDO's new Monster.com spots.

From The New York Times:

—Advertisers are partying like it's a ... recession.
—On Fox, it'll be SuperBowlTuesday, or SuperTuesdayBowl, or something like that.
—Target doesn't care about bloggers, and bloggers can get really, really mad (registration required).
—Scientology's been very, very good to Gawker.

From The Wall Street Journal (alas, subscription required unless otherwise noted, from here to eternity):

—Here's its round-up of the Super Bowl ads, and lucky you, it's free.