Broken links exactly as bad as kids with guns

No. I don't think this ad is as bad as this one, but don't you think it's a little over-the-top to compare broken links with a three-year-old packing a 9 millimeter? This postcard ad is for a product called LinkFixerPlus made by LinkTek, a Clearwater, Florida-based company which counts UBS, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman as its clients. (Maybe this is appealing to the military- contractor demographic.) Turn the postcard over, and there's an attempt to turn this stupid/offensive ad into a concept. It says: "You wouldn't let your kids play with guns. So don't pull the trigger on your data migration project without LinkFixerPlus!" Sheesh.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 03.03.08

Wherein I scan the Monday morning headlines so you don't have to (sorry a little late this morning):

From Advertising Age:

—Starcom is Ad Age's media agency of the year.
—Who's the most ethical of them all: Unilever? Or Procter & Gamble?
—A feature that focuses more on Paul Tilley's life and death than ad blogs.
—Jonah Bloom on why last week's ugliness surrounding Paul Tilley's death is the industry at its lowest.
—So, last Thursday night was the "Media Battle of the Bands" to benefit CityMeals on Wheels. Yeah, it's really great people are going to get fed and all, but who won?
—Why the media agency business is where it's at.
—Vote for John McCain because his ad spending has the best ROI.
—Can Crispin make Microsoft hip?
—Bob Garfield on Hillary's alleged fear-mongering ad.

From Adweek (I'd put up the cover but can't find it online):

—Breaking with media agency of the year orthodoxy, Adweek picks Mediaedge:cia.
—Microsoft never would've hired a small shop like Crispin five years ago.
—Joseph Jaffe on why so many big campaigns, sizzle, then fizzle.
—Barbara Lippert on the product defects of Brand Hillary.
—Tap water rules.
—Data from Nielsen Monitor-Plus (go to the home page and scroll down).
—And you thought Doc Martens were the only shoe brand that trafficked in dead celebrities (from Friday).
—Bud.TV, still in purgatory (from Friday).

From Brandweek:

—Many, including the FTC, are part of a green backlash.
—Going beyond the last click.
—Presidential candidates love Dunkin' Donuts.
—The Premio Lo Nuestro Latin Music Awards are the Super Bowl of Hispanic TV.
—Dockers are no longer just for slightly paunchy guys.

From Mediapost:

—All-State campaign features Kasey Kahne.
—A men's fragrance from Coty and Playboy.
—Social network providers Mzinga and Prospero merge.
—Timex uses podcasts to launch its iPod-friendly Ironman iControl watch.
—WPP Group predicts a global slowdown in 2009.

From The New York Post:

—Shocker! Not. Martin Sorrell thinks Microsoft buying Yahoo is a good idea.

From The New York Times:

—The Times weighs in on 'Blogs of Death.'
—Sears and Hearst cozy up in a new campaign.
—Wal-Mart buyers blog about products they don't like. Here's the site.

From The Wall Street Journal:

—Ad buyers and network execs see a strong upfront (not because it's been such a blockbuster TV season). Free.
—Toshiba's chief on HD DVD RIP. Free.

A link to that Beckham/Sharpie commercial

OK, so I didn't find an embeddable copy so far of the David Beckham/Sharpie commercial, but at least I found a link to it. Hard to tell if they really are his hands. Via Boxspots.

DDB's online remembrance of Paul Tilley

One last note on Paul Tilley, and one that illustrates how the Web, like any other medium, can be used to good end, not just bad. If you haven't noticed already, DDB has a tribute to Tilley up on the home page of its site. If you click on the "Remembering our friend Paul Tilley" link, you'll find a post from chief creative officer Bob Scarpelli, and 37 comments thus far from people affected by his death a week ago. The people who contributed range from very close colleagues, to an actor who worked on several of his commercials, to those who didn't know him at all. It's worth a read, and some reflection. (The navigation is a little quirky. To see all the comments you have to hit your down arrow key. There's no nav-bar up/down thingie on the right.)

Saul Hansell's thoughts on Yahoo

Finally got a chance today to check out Saul Hansell's "Bits" blog over at Nytimes.com to see what he had to say about the IAB conference. Read this excellent post, "Wishing for the old yodel from Yahoo"—it's a good summation of why Yahoo finds itself where it is today, and includes a nice tip of the hat to Wenda Harris Millard, who, Hansell notes "was unceremoniously pushed aside in a power struggle with Yahoo’s search advertising department." I've long believed that Yahoo didn't know what it had in her—an executive who could truly bridge both sides of the traditional/non-traditional divide—and I think Hansell agrees.

MasterCard's "Priceless" campaign works in any language

Utalkmarketing just posted this overseas commercial from the MasterCard "Priceless" campaign. Even though the denominations aren't in dollars, I think this commercial could just as well run stateside.

Bottles of Coke, not that exciting

I gather this commercial aired on "American Idol" the other night. I'll just take the whole thing literally—screw the voiceover—and say I hope I never get this excited over a bottle of Coke.

What people are saying about Tiger's Gatorade drinks

I was felled yesterday by a stomach virus so sorry for the sparse posting. We'll see what I'm made of today. Anyway, you have to drill down a bit on the new Adweek site, but if you go to the BuzzMetrics section of its DataCenter, there's a daily post by my former AdFreak partner in crime Tim Nudd about what brands are meriting buzz online—and what people are saying. Today's post is about the new Gatorade flavors developed by Tiger Woods, and let's just say the fans are not impressed. Says someone who goes by the handle Dogs That Chase Cars: "Quiet Storm is the grape flavor of the new Tiger drink, and it tastes, well, exactly like Grape Gatorade ... If I was going to pay $100 million to an athlete to pimp a drink, I'd at least change the recipe around." Comments someone else who is obviously painfully aware of Woods' endorsement deals: "If it weren't for the different colors and the creative descriptions of the names on the label, you wouldn't know what the actual flavor was, but you'd sure feel like playing golf, driving a Buick, and shaving with a Gillette razor afterwards." It's counterintuitive for the BuzzMetrics section not to let visitors comment to the posts, but, hey, it's a fun read anyway. Comment amongst yourselves.

Goofing off at Honda's "Problem Playground"

Was fooling around tonight on "Problem Playground," the site that accompanies Honda's new "Problem Playground" video that went up online earlier this month from Wieden + Kennedy London. It's really entertaining, and full of fairly-challenging games. (The screen shot above is my unsuccessful attempt at untangling the lines in the sun.) Funniest part of the site is the little animated Honda engineers who "ooh" and "aah" as you try to solve some of the puzzles.

David Beckham signs on with Sharpie

Frustrated that I can't find this spot for Sharpie today that stars David Beckham--or his hands anyway. Long story. But I think that since this blog has posted something about it proves I wasn't seeing things. Does Beckham really need more endorsement money? Does he use his Sharpies to write his name in his soccer shorts so they don't get confused with someone else's?

A few thoughts on the sad topic of the week

I write this post wondering if I should. Maybe the time to comment on the suicide of DDB's Paul Tilley was several days ago. And yet, the story continues, particularly because of the posts and comments which appeared on AgencySpy and Adscam just before his death. I would never have the temerity to comment on any cause and effect between blog postings and someone's decision to take his or her own life, but I do want to say this: though it's more the rule than the exception for people to comment anonymously to blog posts, I still think it's the coward's way to go when it concerns personal attacks on other people. If you have something to say about someone, by all means say it. And have the courage to put your name next to it.
My thoughts go out to Paul Tilley's family, friends and colleagues.

Taking a look at Hulu.com

I think most of us at the IAB meeting who had not seen a demo of Hulu.com (it’s in so-called private beta, and I couldn’t find Hulu.com president Jason Kilar after his speech to get a free password), were suitably impressed with the News Corp. and NBC joint venture, which, as he pointed out, isn’t a YouTube killer at all, but rather, plans to be the central Web property for “premium content.” (I think that's the abridged version of saying that the content never includes seven minutes of video of someone's cat peeing into a toilet.) Part of what makes it cool is the elegant, simple interface, which makes YouTube look like your crazy aunt’s attic by comparison. But enough already with the YouTube analogies. In addition to the fact that the quality of the video streams is well—fuckin’ awesome!—another thing about Hulu that stands out is the ability to search by any number of metrics. I think it included most viewed, favorited and so forth. Other cool features: the ability to send parts of clips to friends, embeddable video, and that Hulu isn't going for the walled garden approach, using content only from the partners. It'll, well, find "Lost" for you, even though it's on ABC. Not so good: that the ad model so far doesn't allow for revenue sharing with other sites which embed its content. When are these video sites going to get a clue on that issue?
If I have time later today, I'll post more about IAB, but other duties call.

You're not a creative agency, you're a boutique

I should check if Group M’s Rob Norman has said this before, but he said during his speech yesterday at the IAB, and during his a later brief conversation I had with him at the airport that, “Creativity is inherently a boutique business.” Don’t go telling that to the head of a major creative agency. If you take a step back further, to what Norman sees as the future of his own Group M, you’ll see why he might be right—if media agencies are able not only to buy, sell and track campaigns, roll-their-own content and most importantly, aggregate data in such a way as to have their hands at the controls of consumer insight, they also have the fuel that keeps the marketing engine running over the long-term. In that context, creatives certainly are allowed to produce moments of magic, but what they are essentially doing is providing one-off solutions to more immediate positioning problems. OK creatives, it’s time to be pissed off.

Yahoo wants to open it up

At a time like this, you have to give props to Jerry Yang just for showing up at the IAB conference. But as far as really addressing Microsoft’s attempt at an acquisition, well, of course, he didn’t. (To that extent, it seemed like he and Microsoft senior vp Brian McAndrews, who appeared later in the day, were reading from the same playbook, both using almost precisely the same wording to describe how they couldn’t really add anything to what’s already been out there. Maybe they're closer in world view than we thought.) After IAB CEO Randall Rothenberg gamely asked about the Microsoft deal, Yang, and Susan Decker, who was added to the agenda late (as Jerry’s bodyguard?) discussed what they saw as the Next Big Thing Yahoo should pursue having finally completed its search reinvention, Project Panama, last year. What they came up with isn’t exactly nothing you've heard before, but here you go: a sort of uber-advertising network which would let advertisers buy inventory across multiple sites beyond what is available today, and would allow publishers to package inventory (both their own and others) across a using a streamlined, standardized platform that would take a lot of friction out of the industry. But here’s the problem: from what I could tell from other conference attendees, no one in the industry seems to be buying what Yahoo’s selling. During a later panel moderated by Federated Media founder/"Search" author/super blogger John Battelle, the panelists were openly derisive of Yahoo’s idea. Here are some quotes:

From Peter Horan, CEO of IAC Media and Advertising, "Run your own business well before you start running someone else's business."

Lauren Weiner, senior vp, Meredith Digital Media was down on losing the insight and control of inventory has across its own sites: "We lose that advantage when we start representing other properties."

From Don Friedman, exec vp/CMO of Computer Associates (who spends 30 percent of his budget in digital): "It's not going to be as clean as they play it out to be."

Whether Yang and Decker caught wind of this, I don't know. After their talk was over, they went quickly backstage; one intrepid reporter I talked to, who tried to get back there, wasn't even allowed to breath the same air as Yang, things being what they are.

The Yahoo bashing continued during the many conversations I had over drinks later in the day. What I can’t get my head around is this: this is an industry in which new standards are always being invented, and, although it would be lovely if one platform could dominate (probably Google search comes as close as anything to a frictionless transaction market in online), it’s hard to see how this would happen. Sometimes I think it would be especially great for agencies who still have trouble figuring out how to make money off of this business. Making planning and buying not so time-consuming would help. However, if it truly is a great idea, Microsoft and Google would surely build their own, and the industry, instead of being streamlined, might end up right where it started. The upside is that even in its hobbled state, Yahoo still is much more of a powerhouse in display advertising than either Microsoft or Google, but in the current, down-on-Yahoo environment it still doesn’t necessarily seem positioned to rewrite the rules of the marketplace.

A few short notes from the IAB conference

Sorry the blog has been quiet for the last day. Kind of ironic since yesterday would have been a great day to blog more since I've been at the IAB conference (that's the Interactive Advertising Bureau, but seriously if you don't know that by now I have no time for you.). I'll say more later, but wanted to jot down that this has been one of the few conferences where there has actually been real discussion and interesting things to ponder, whether it was trying to look past Jerry Yang's glasses and figure out what was really going to happen between Microsoft and Yahoo! or Group M's Rob Norman stating the case for media agencies to take on, and profit from, the markets in which they play. What I haven't seen--dare I say of course?--are many traditional advertising types, which, about fourteen years into the revolution, is frankly astonishing. However, in addition to the Internet faces in the crowd like Martha Stewart's Wenda Harris Millard, Internet exec around town Dave Morgan, and Google North American president Tim Armstrong, attendees included the Magazine Publishers Association's Ellen Oppenheim, and Nancy Hill, incoming head of the 4As. While I'm listening to the panel onstage now, here's a new definition for remnant inventory: Inventory that hasn't found a buyer yet. Ha! One last note: the IAB was hoping for 200 attendees. They got 400. More meaty posts to follow.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 02.25.08

Wherein I scan the Monday morning headlines so you don't have to (though I'm out at the Interactive Advertising Bureau conference in Phoenix so this may be spotty) ...

From Advertising Age:

--The death of DDB's Paul Tilley by apparent suicide.
--Sony opens up its gaming platform to advertisers.
--Kimberly-Clark, Unilever cut back on their TV budgets.
--Actual ad creatives behind Barack Obama's viral video successes.
--After all these years, Bob Garfield decides he likes Fallon's Holiday Inn campaign.

From Adweek:

--More on the death of Paul Tilley.

From The New York Times:

--Company wants to turn cell phones into universal remotes. Scary.
--ABC to launch on-demand service that doesn't allow users to skip commercials. Scary.
--The Leap Year Day as promotional opportunity. Yeah, that's scary too.

From Brandweek:

--Automotives scramble for online inventory.
--Crest WhiteStrips are really for protecting you against tartar. Yeah, sure.
--Why worry about commodity inflation?
--How mobile will be a big hit among print publishers.

From The Wall Street Journal:

--Online ad networks get more funding. Click away, it's free.

From Mediapost:

--Burger King will follow rules for marketing to kids in Europe.
--P&G gets behind initiative to measure marketing in stores.
--Avenue A/Razorfish spent less on portals last year.
--Zinio strikes a deal with Havas Media.
--Internal email from Microsoft's Kevin Johnson detailing how the Yahoo deal would come together.
--Project Apollo is dead.

More to come later. I'm off to the IAB conference call to hear Jerry Yang speak. Should be, um, interesting.

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 ...