Madonna--commercial whore or smart business woman?

Madonna didn't stop with Sunsilk. To grease the skids (dirty hair pun!) for her new album, "Hard Candy," she's also signed deals with Vodafone and Fuji to use their commercial dollars to promote her album. The Vodafone deal lets the company's customers listen to the album pre its late April release. In this story, Madonna's moves are presented as extremely shrewd, which they are. But there's also that perception in the marketplace that if Madonna does this it's smart, whereas if it's some other artist it's selling out. Hey, did you hear it's an imperfect world?

Those Canadian Club ads actually work

Kind of humorous to see that Canadian Club's retro campaign, which uses lines like "Your Mom Wasn't Your Dad's First" has actually worked, though it makes a certain kind of sense since it's so different than other liquor campaigns that it stands out in a crowd. According to Ad Age, case volume increased by 4.4 percent in 13 weeks. Here's to being politically incorrect.

Orbit spot features Madagascar, booger breath

Maybe this Orbit ad has been airing during NCAA basketball, but since I haven't been paying attention, I don't know. It was just posted to YouTube, and, in that dorky Orbit way, is a hilarious send-up of trash-talking between two male cheerleaders. Best lines: "Kiss my Madagascar, fanny-pack!" and "Why is our fuddy-duddy cheerbook missing, booger-breath?" Alright!

Circles: the new navigation device

This post was supposed to be about Cramer Krasselt's "Engineered Mischief" campaign for Porsche, its first since getting the account. But then I literally stumbled upon the navigation at the "Engineered Mischief" Web site and discovered that the navigation is eerily similar to the BFD Builder for Domino's created by Crispin, Porter + Bogusky. Separated at birth.

Fallon's sequel to the Cadbury "Gorilla" spot

Here's the sequel, "Trucks," to last year's "Gorilla" ad for Cadbury. As with its predecessor, it features an unbeatable soundtrack: Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" which accompanies the action—airport vehicles having a drag race on the runway after the last plane at night leaves the airport. There's also the rather thin connection between the brand at the end and the rest of the commercial, though perhaps I'm taking my advertising too literally these days. Via Fallon London, whose home page, for now, has the ingredients it took to make the commercial. It's already spawning remixes, such as this one, which mashes up footage from the commercial with the BBC's coverage of the disastrous opening of Heathrow's T5 terminal last week.

Working at Goodby tougher than it looks

Video invite to Goodby, Silverstein + Partners 25th anniversary party featuring the aged Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein. From the looks of this, amazing Goodby could outlive Hal Riney. Via AdFreak.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 03.31.08

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

From Advertising Age:

—Jeff Goodby, official Hal Riney biographer.
—Bob Garfield on Hal Riney.
—Hal Riney on Hal Riney.
—Sony and Home Depot can't wait for you to get your tax rebates.
—Magazines going green, in name at least.
—And Coke's green torch relay.
—Travelers reopens its red umbrella.

From Adweek:

—The Economist tops the Hot List.
—Sony to distribute movies via mobile phone. Somewhere, David Lynch is shaking his head.
—Intel makes its engineers available for a chat.
—How all that gesticulating brands presidential candidates.
—The dismal sales behind the Mitsubishi review.
—In a world of free downloads, bands turn to corporate sponsors.
—Digital agencies do all kinds of things besides client work.
—Mark Wnek on why Geico ads are so great.
—Will Young & Rubicam's Mark Figliulo be the new Gerry Graf?
—Safran to distribute content over Microsoft's xBox live.
—Barbara Lippert on Nike's Sparq campaign. To see the campaign go to YouTube.

From Brandweek:

—Watch out. Here comes big chicken.
—New technology should help the loyalty card business.
—Q&A with John Brody, big marketing honcho at Major League Baseball.

From Mediapost:

—ZenithOptimedia revises its ad spending forecast: down with North America and Western Europe, up with Internet.
—Ouch. Newspaper revenues down 7.9 percent in 2007.
—The Radio Advertising Bureau restructures to do what else? Get more ad dollars.

From The New York Post:

—The exercise-oriented Wii Fit should be stateside by late spring.
—Yahoo launches Shine, a Web property devoted to the allegedly under-served 25 to 54 female demographic.

From The New York Times:

—The down-lo on the HuffPo.
—More on agencies and marketers attaching gizmos to your head to see if you liked an ad or not. In other words, neuroscience.
—Glamour discovers what it's like when good bloggers go bad.
—The NAD doesn't like those Wal-Mart ads about saving $2,500.

From The Wall Street Journal:

—U2 signs with Live Nation. Free.
—Ad agencies begin to tighten their belts, by making huge gestures like not sending so many people to Cannes. Subscription required.
—American Express discontinues its fob. Subscription required.

Company celebrates Earth Day by killing trees

One of the great things about working from home is that my life is now (almost) blissfully free of weird come-ons from PR agencies. With that, a friend who still works in an office and gets these come-ons writes: "Just got a FedEx, marked urgent, from a company in North Carolina called McNeill Communications Group. So I opened (and discarded) one medium FedEx box, transported from NC to New York. I removed (and discarded) some packing paper that was securing a cardboard box. I opened (and discarded) the cardboard box to find a plastic box wrapped in styrofoam. I threw out the styrofoam and opened the plastic box to find more paper packaging, a plastic bag of styrofoam peanuts, a plastic swizzle stick, and a three-page press release. The title of the release? "TharpeRobbins Celebrates Earth Day by Leading the Way with Environmental Initiatives." The gimmick is that the styrofoam peanuts dissolve in water. My jaw just dropped. I feel like this might almost be a joke.The best part is that I have never heard of TharpeRobbins before, and the release gives no indication of what the company is, does, or sells except for the boilerplate at the end: "The privately held TharpeRobbins was created through the February 2007 merger of The Robbins Company, founded in 1982, and the Tharpe Company Inc., founded in 1981. Customized programs include products ranging from personalized jewelry to fine art, electronics, sports equipment, and outdoor merchandise. The company also offers rewards through local and national services, entertainment and recreation." Clear as mud. The other three pages of the release are dedicated to TharpeRobbins' environmental initiatives and awards. So essentially, what this boondoggle of a press kit did was to bring TharpeRobbins to my attention and provide no information about them except that they appear ludicrously hypocritical, by announcing their commitment to environmentally sustainable operations with a really wasteful mailing. Nicely done, McNeil Communications Group!

Well how viral is your video?

Just saw an ad at Adweek.com for the First Viral Film Festival to be held on April 28th at The Dolby Screening Room in NYC. You can upload your viral smash hits at this link. Here's the conundrum: the videos will be judged, but shouldn't a viral film be judged on how many views it got? Not everything that intends to be viral is viral you know ... that's a pretty deep thought for me on a Friday.

Get ready for the new Macy's commercial

Here's the latest in JWT New York's star-studded Macy's campaign! Featuring Mariah Carey and Carlos Santana! With cameo performances from Martha Stewart and Donald Trump! Best part, actually, is when Martha tries to show her soulful, sensuous side. She doesn't have much of one.

See how you do on the corporate logo quiz

I have no time for stuff like this today, but if you do, there's a corporate logo quiz over at AOL. Guess one of these Dole logos is fake.

Dr Pepper's funniest marketing idea ever

You gotta love this new, promotion-or-whatever-it-is, for Dr Pepper. In case you haven't heard, Dr Pepper is promising a free can of Dr Pepper for everyone in the U.S. if Axl Rose can just deliver his long-awaited (well many of us have stopped waiting) album during this calendar year. When I was reading about it this morning on Mediapost, I couldn't help but laugh when I saw that the director of marketing's name was Jaxie Alt, which seems almost like an Axl Rose word scramble. Then there's this classic quote attributed to a company spokesperson: "It took a little patience for us to perfect Dr Pepper's special mix of 23 ingredients, so we completely understand and empathize with Axl's quest for the perfect album." No word from Axl's camp, far as I can tell. Then again, it's probably hunkered down in a dark closet somewhere.

Amex Open Forum open for small business

Cool idea here from American Express for its Open card targeted to business owners—an Open Forum which is both a discussion thread and resource for small business owners. I cruised around the site—and even registered—this morning after seeing the banner above at nytimes.com. The solicitation for the Card was extremely subtle and easy to get past, which is a good thing because the last thing I need is another credit card. Still, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy about American Express. Great combination of marketing coupled with content that users want.

The Citi never stops blowing up buildings

You sure couldn't have shown this commercial right after 9/11.

People actually do still like Starbucks

Hi gang. So my latest Mediapost Social Media Insider column is out, and people are piling on me like Tom Brady during a Giants game. The column is about MyStarbucksIdea.com. Enjoy.

Tangerine Toad's take on Twitter

Tangerine Toad wrote a post the other day that jumps deep into the heart of the weirdness that is Twitter. My favorite item on his "10 Things I Hate About Twitter" was this: "8. I WISH people would realize how odd it sounds to twitter about how you are currently playing with your children. Children are sentient beings who get that Mommy or Daddy can’t simultaneously be playing with them and typing about it on Twitter. Not to mention that (to paraphrase Chris Rock’s famous routine) you’re a parent: You’re supposed to be playing with your children. This is also true of people who twitter about how they are currently at dinner with various friends and relatives. All I can think of is 7 other people sitting there aghast as you blithely type new Twitter updates throughout the meal." I have a question for Tange or anyone else who can answer: if you have more people following you on Twitter than you are following, does that make you ego-centric? If so, I've got work to do.

Free at last! Tony Granger may be free at last!

Ad Age is reporting that Tony Granger may finally be emancipated from his cell at Saatchi & Saatchi to finally take that job he signed on for over at Young & Rubicam. (You know, the one where he's the creative chief?) True, Granger had a contract, and Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts seems to have been hell-bent on holding him to it. On the other hand, at a certain point, it's just time to settle, particularly with his replacement, fromer TBWA/Chiat/Day CD Gerry Graf walking the halls. Can't be good for the smooth running of an agency to have a guy who's made his intentions clear to get out of there hanging around.

Upon his death, a selection of Hal Riney spots

Thought I'd start the morning with a selection of Hal Riney commercials, because, if you haven't heard already, he passed away yesterday at the age of 75. Best obit I've seen so far is at Adweek.com, written by Jeff Goodby. First, a Bartles & Jaymes ad that played off the "Bo Knows" Nike commercial from Wieden.



Here's the famous 1984 Reagan commercial, "Morning Again in America," narrated by Riney.



Here's a two-and-a-half minute clip from a documentary about Henry Weinhard breweries, which includes a Henry Weinhard spot. Not absolutely sure this is Hal Riney's voice, but it's definitely patterned after him. No doubt about that.

Dumb: exclusive holding company contracts

Even though it's been known for awhile that BankofAmerica was going to cease doing all of its business with Omnicom, seeing the client pick a winner yesterday in its media review—Publicis Groupe's Starcom—makes it fresh once again to discuss how wrong-headed these exclusive agency holding company contracts with clients are. Inevitably, they fall apart, when there's a new CMO—and we know how frequent that is—or the client in question finds out that the agency holding company's services aren't all they were cracked up to be during the halcyon days of the review. It wasn't all that long ago (2002, in fact) that BofA gave its exclusive contract to Interpublic. Then it cycled through Omnicom, and now, although the marriage to Omnicom still, basically, exists, they're carrying on on the side with Publicis. Are you listening Da Vinci?

Paul Tilley and the irresponsibility project

Wake up people! Amazed that this post on AdFreak hasn't garnered more than one irate comment. Here's the news: Liberty Mutual has actually bought the keyword "Paul Tilley" to link to a site it's calling responsiblityproject.org, allegedly an exploration of "what it means to do the right thing." Those who click on the ad will be confronted by a post once again dredging up the speculation about what role bloggers may have played in his death. As the writer of this post has no more insight than any of the rest of us outsiders do about why Tilley committed suicide, isn't it more than a little irresponsible to continue the speculation and try to enhance traffic about it by buying a keyword? Seems pretty obvious to me. Feel free to leave your comment below the post on the Liberty Mutual site, and don't make your comment anonymous. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE: A source points out that Liberty Mutual also bought the keywords of the two blogs most involved in the controversy: "Adscam" and "AgencySpy." LATE AFTERNOON UPDATE: Liberty Mutual has pulled the links. Also I should have credited the Tribble Agency which started this whole gosh darn thing.

The stats so far on Goodby's "One Gallon Axe"

I'm getting confused about what qualifies as a viral hit these days, but Goodby Silverstein's "One Gallon Axe" by the fictitious band White Gold for those California milk people is up to 221,000 YouTube views in a week. On MySpace, its influential friends include Dave Grohl (does he get paid for that?), and there are a total of almost 3000 of them. The "single" has about 6000 plays so far and the profile has been viewed over 19,000 times. On Facebook—admittedly not filled with this campaign's target demo—White Gold has a measly 73 fans. Less than me! If I were giving out grades—well I guess I am—I'd give the YouTube views tally a B, the MySpace stats an A-, and the Facebook stats a C-. As for the music video, to me, it's a bit long. Seems to be straining for new jokes by the end. The chorus of people dressed in, well, milky white is a nice touch.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 03.24.08

Wherein I scan the Monday morning headlines so you don't have to. (Hope I get through them all during this round. Who heard of kids having three days off from school for Easter?):

From Advertising Age:

—Hey marketers! Come cozy up to the recession! And another story about marketing in a recession.
—Starbucks, the social network.
—Ashley Dupre needs to get a move on.
—SaveSudan.org. Kinda.
—Did you know that last week was "Water Week"? Sorry for drinking all that Diet Coke.
—Speaking of which, Coke has been helping Darfur, no matter what Jill Savitt said.
—New Sprint commercial makes Bob Garfield dizzy.

From Adweek:

—Switching to C3: The aftermath.
—How Magna Global's Steve Sternberg would like to see C3 evolve.
—Why Group M's Rino Scanzoni thinks C3 will be around for awhile.
—Guess what? Social media metrics aren't perfect yet.
—Brian Morrissey's long-awaited prom dress story. (OK, that was an inside joke.)
—How many people have been watching TV on Web portals.
—More on Crispin's equity deal with AmericaFree.TV.
—Good God. Focus group hypnosis.
—Now PHD is going green. St. Patrick's day was last week.

From Brandweek:

—VW to launch campaign featuring talking car named Max. Scary.
—The good and the bad about Coldwell Banker's new campaign.

From Mediapost:

—Gatorade launches its Tiger Woods campaign. Some sort of contest, etc.
—New Balance focuses on high-schoolers and triples its ad budget.
—LinkedIn to do company profiles with BusinessWeek.
—Media buyers want sports programmers to move over to C3, but they don't.

From The New York Post:

—MySpace may launch its digital music venture with record labels as soon as this week.

From The New York Times:

—Recession? What Doubledown Media worry?
—C'mon everybody, let's haggle! (OK, this link is from Sunday, but ya gotta read it before you pay list price on that flat-screen TV.)
—Now that we're all gonna learn what "rickrolling" is, it'll be uncool by tomorrow.
—Scion devotees can make their own logo.

From The Wall Street Journal:

—Election-themed spots from mainstream advertisers. Happens every four years. Free.

Mac vs. PC vs. Richardson vs. Obama

The New York Times has given over some of the sacred space on its home page to this latest online version of the Mac vs. PC ads, but this campaign can get away with stealing attention away from the headline that Bill Richardson has endorsed Obama. It's gimmicky, sure, but the idea of the "emergency banner refresh" cracks me up. Go to nytimes.com, before it goes away.

Chocolate: the new agency revenue stream

I'm cribbing a lot from Adweek's creative newsletter today. Funny item about Brooklyn Brothers getting into the candy business, selling an organic chocolate called Fat Pig. Well, if that advertising thing doesn't work out, at least they'll have a chocolate high and maybe some cash to go with it. Best quote in the story was founder Guy Barrett on why they picked the chocolate flavor they picked: "The flavoring most people responded to was a Swiss milk chocolate. It was rich with no kind of aftertaste. It was a little sweeter than a Belgian chocolate but without the undertones." Here's a little advice: when the client calls and you're at the factory overseeing production, lie and tell them you're really at another client.

BBDO's David Lubars talks about things

Adweek has posted an interview with BBDO's David Lubars. There's nothing earthshaking here, but he's David Lubars, and you're not. Does like to say "thing" quite a bit. It's Good Friday and the office is kinda quiet. Go watch.

I totally get Nokia's "Morph" video

"The surface form is context dependent." These are among the nuggets of nano-wisdom in Nokia's "Morph" video, which has been up for about three weeks now and garnered more than a million YouTube views. You have to see it to get what's going on ... think of it as demo-ing, via animation, an iPhone on stretchable, collapsible, wearable, solar-powered steroids. Huh? OK, before you go watch it—if you haven't already—I'll leave you with this other bit of nano-wisdom: "Nanotechnology allows control of physical properties of nanostructures and devices with single molecule precision." Well, duh.

Correction shows Gotlieb isn't testing limits that much

There's always a bit of "There but for the grace of God go I," in seeing another reporter's story generate an excruciatingly long list of corrections. When you're a reporter, any of your bad days at the office can become very public. Still, one can only wonder how BusinessWeek's March 3 story on GroupM's Irwin Gotlieb, "An Ad Man Tests the Limits" could result in a correction approaching 150 words and highlighting four factual errors, some of which were central to the story's premise, that Gotlieb is pursuing some new revenue streams that might be seen as controversial. As one example, the original story claimed that Gotlieb predicted GroupM might not even represent advertisers within five to seven years. Not true, says the correction. Someone slipped me a copy of the correction from the print edition, and I'm running it in its entirety here. In his column today, fellow Mediapost columnist Jack Feuer described it as the Iliad of corrections. Well, at least BW did spell Gotlieb with only one 't'.

Everything you wanted to know about U.S. advertising

I've let 48 hours go by without fulfilling my self-promotional duty to link to a long piece on the entire U.S. advertising industry which I wrote for the Project for Excellence in Journalism's annual State of the News Media report which came out on Monday. The entire report covers a lot of ground, as does my story--which covers everything from spot TV to newspapers to measurement to what the upfront is--so maybe it will educate a few people outside the ad industry along the way. This is the first time that the PEJ, which is part of the Pew Research Center in Washington, has covered advertising as part of the report. Hope I did well by 'em.

Comcast wallet catches a thief

Of course, Bob Garfield is going to hate this commercial because it's from Comcast, but it's another bit o' funny in the "your wallet will thank you" series promoting the Comcast Triple Play. OK, I have one technical complaint that Garfield and I would probably agree on: the interplay between the wallet and the thief happens so fast it's hard to tell the wallet is beating him up. What about a little slo' mo'? Assume this is from Goodby. Via Funnyplace.org.

Dupre in spitzing distance of vodka contract

OK, so Kristen-Alexandra-Ashley-Dupre and so on might get an endorsement deal from Georgi Vodka that would put her derriere on loads of city busses. Kind of surprised Svedka didn't get to her first. Its current campaign is about putting a fembot in the White House. Classy.

Let's start a new award show ... the Brainys!

OK, so now the Clios are going to have that firm that monitors people's brainwaves while watching Super Bowl ads do the same thing at the Clios. The plan is to take the finalists' ads and let people at the show have electrodes attached to their heads while they watch them. "Brain activity will be measured and recorded in millisecond increments to determine which ads elicit the strongest response," the email accompanying the release says. Since judges are always whining about how hard it is to judge, let's just eliminate them altogether and let the brainwaves do the awarding.

Borg and McEnroe? I don't think so.

Someone sent me a link to this bizarr-o campaign for Marc Jacobs something or other coming this summer. It's supposed to portray Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, but to my mind doesn't succeed. It's not just that, other than the trademark 'dos, they don't look at all like the people they are supposed to be portraying. They also don't seem anywhere near as attractive as the tennis players themselves were. "McEnroe" looks kinda short. Any idea why the Borg character is wearing that dress? And who is Mr. Teller?

Microsoft trading in silly Irish stereotypes

As if St. Patrick's Day isn't tacky enough, Microsoft had to do this incredibly cheesy ad featuring a leprechaun as computer virus. Before he turned this appealing green color , he was red. Saw it in both the print and online versions of The New York Post.

Sunsilk ad starring Madonna ... why? why?

Above is the new Sunsilk commercial featuring a track from Madonna's forthcoming album, and a lot of Madonna too. Still can't figure out why she thinks that promoting this particular brand is a good idea. I've got no problem with her, of all people, doing endorsement deals, but Sunsilk shampoo? Sheesh. Given the new album great timing on the rumors of marital strife though.

Ogilvy creatives get 'New York' mag Spitzer gig

Since it has voluminous coverage of the Eliot Spitzer sex scandal, this week's New York magazine is a must-read. One of the things that makes its Spitzer package distinctive—in addition to some excellent insight, even with the quick turnaround—are ten of what the magazine calls "visual interpretations" of what went down last week, three of which were provided by creatives from Ogilvy & Mather. So without further ado, the first one is from the team of Tom Godici and Greg Ketchum and the last two are from Andy Gray. You can see the entire photo gallery here.

And the score is: Adweek, 19 Nielsen mentions; Ad Age, 16

Ever since the job description for the Adweek editor's post started circulating last week, a tempest has been brewing over whether the ties between the Adweek magazines and their corporate overlords at Nielsen are growing. This because the job posting touts that the magazine is carrying exclusive Nielsen data. And while the debate started fairly reasonabily, it's gotten increasingly silly in the blogosphere. (Yes, for those of you who don't know, I used to work at Adweek.)The magazine group, which includes Mediaweek and Brandweek, hasn't shied away from critical coverage of the conversion to C3, the new ratings currency that was adopted for upfront negotiations last year. You can browse the database and find stories critical of Nielsen's C3 ratings currency, carrying headlines such as "Buyers Debate C3 Ratings" and "Buyers Remorse: Want Make Goods, Not Scatter." The debate reached its silliest in a post at psfk.com, which trumpets "AdWeek Mentions Parent Company Services Up To 3 or 4 Times A Day”—and then shows a search of the Adweek database which divulges recent Nielsen mentions. I’ve countered with the visual above—which is a screen grab of competitor Ad Age’s recent mentions of Nielsen. Going back a week, I discovered that while Adweek mentioned Nielsen 19 times, Ad Age mentions the company 16 times, and if anyone writes in to say that proves that Adweek is biased toward Nielsen than they … well let’s not go there. With that close a margin, it probably wouldn't take very long to find a week in which Ad Age mentioned Nielsen more than Adweek. Any situation such as the ownership of the Adweek books by Nielsen warrants keeping an eye out for a loss of editorial autonomy, but so far, we’re not there. There’s a reason Nielsen gets mentioned a lot by Adweek and Ad Age, and that’s because it’s Nielsen. Nielsen has a lot of data. Advertising trade magazines print a lot of data. Period.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 03.17.08

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

From Advertising Age:

—The digital special issue (although these days isn't every issue about digital?).
—Rethinking whether Web advertising should even exist. Not to rain on your St. Patrick's Day parade or anything.
—What Google's stock drop means in the larger world, if anything.
—General Motors will spend half its budget in digital within three years.
—Could it be that the four major ad holding companies are ahead when it comes to digital spending? Strange, but true.
—Unilever tops the Digital A-List. Here are others on the A-List.
—Can someone define AOL for us please?

From Adweek:

—What happens when consumers continue the campaign long after the marketer might have planned on abandoning it.
—Pepsi will launch its own series this summer.
—Cutwater brings someone from elsewhere in Omnicom to replace Brad Harrington.
—Mucinex moves to MPG. Unfortunately, since it's a media shift Mr. Mucus will probably live on.
—The effect online communities are having on what you see on TV.
—Alex Bogusky tells us what knocked him on his ass.
—Carnival Cruise Lines is drinking the Kool-Aid on integration.
—Goodby does an online campaign that features a fake band called White Gold.

From Brandweek:

—An interview with Sea''s CMO Richard Gerstein.
—Method, Seventh Generation products full of carcinogens?

From Mediapost:

—Shamrocks, chocolate easter bunnies ... what's a purveyor of schlocky, holiday-related merchandise to do?
—Madonna still associating with horrible Sunsilk advertising. Is it too late to take back her Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame induction?
—Debbie Richman moves from OMD to head ad sales at Lifetime.

From The New York Times:

—The "Sex and the City" promotional juggernaut begins, and the movie isn't due out for another 10 weeks.
—Is Starbucks' musical taste too mainstream?
—VoteForTheWorst.com gets mainstream advertisers like Friskies.
—Consumer Reports makes its opinions clear, via advertising.

Lots of interesting stuff in The Wall Street Journal, but none of it has to do with marketing or advertising, if you know what I mean.

No Michael Gates Gill found at Starbucks

As luck would have it, I had a cup of coffee this morning with a friend at what is probably the advertising industry's most famous Starbucks—the one where ex-JWT executive Michael Gates Gill found employment, and a book and movie deals for writing How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else. Sadly, there was scant evidence of Mr. Gill amid the tall lattes, save for a poster on the wall about how Starbucks is hiring that contained a picture of him. I realize now I should have endeavored to find out if he still pours the occasional cappuccino there. Also of note, is that while Starbucks did have at least one book for sale, there was no evidence that his tome is currently on the Starbucks' bestseller list. Not a copy to be found.

Inside look at OMD case studies

For some reason utalkmarketing.com spent part of yesterday posting case studies from OMD. I think there all from the UK, but hey, if you want insight into how one of your media agency competitors markets itself, here's your chance. The one above is for Habitat. There are also ones posted for the Sony Playstation Singstar and Brylcreem.

Assignment: read Dave Morgan's column on Curt Viebranz

In case you hadn't noticed, one of the big stories this week was the firing of Curt Viebranz, head of AOL's Platform A advertising unit. One reason it made headlines was that his dismissal eschewed the usual niceties used to describe higher-ups who have been told to move on. More than one headline I read used the word "sacked." There was nothing said about "leaving to pursue other opportunities." Several posts have asserted that Viebranz got fired after refusing to meet very aggressive revenue targets. Dave Morgan's Mediapost column about Viebranz yesterday doesn't address that issue directly, but it paints a picture of a man who is not only competent, but is very clear-eyed about the interactive market, its highs and its lows. A must read.

This spot is for Scion. Try to remember that.

Saw this Scion spot on The Daily Show or something the other night. Funny concept, though I'm not sure that I'd walk away from it remembering the brand. God, I'm old school.

New Misko Iho-directed Coke commercial

Misko Iho, or people associated with the Finnish director, just posted this spot. What's the language? Well, it kinda makes sense in any language.

Last comment on Ogilvy's Verge

Last note on Ogilvy's Verge digital summit. I'll start with saying that I've had a warm spot in my heart for the agency ever since working there as my first job out of college. That was a loooonnnnng time ago, and it was quite a time. The shop was really running on all pistons at that point—American Express' "Don't Leave Home Without It" and the Smith Barney campaign, "We make money the old-fashioned way. We earn it" were the shop's signature campaigns. Shelly Lazarus was a management supervisor on the Amex business, Hal Riney was in charge of the San Francisco office and occasionally, I'd pick up my boss' phone, and D.O. would be on the other end. The place was just humming with smart people, and even though I went on to work at other agencies (Dancer Fitzgerald Sample into Saatchi, Grey and JWT), none of those agencies came anywhere close to being as good as Ogilvy. I guess giving you this background is a long way of saying that you should take what follows with a grain of salt, but Verge was really good. First, they got some big names: NBC's Ben Silverman,Warner Music's Kevin Liles, ESPN's George Bodenheimer, Federated Media's John Battelle, former Facebook exec Owen Van Natta, Gawker's Nick Denton, The New York Times' Martin Nisenholtz, Sequioa Capital's Mark Kvamme ... you could do worse. Of course, Ogilvy people were sprinkled throughout the program, but with a few minor exceptions, it wasn't all about Ogilvy. It was about innovation, digital media, and how and if storytelling and data-driven media can co-exist. The agency could charge for conferences like this (and I take it it does when certain clients have asked for their own, proprietary, in-house Verge). It's hard to picture most of the big global agencies (or BDAs as George Parker calls them) being able to pull this kind of meeting off with the same degree of digital savvy. Of course, what's curious is that the shop hasn't been translating its digital chops into a huge new business streak. Don't have the answer to that one.

Cadbury Flake's Joss Stone commercial

It seemed like it was big news in the U.K. a week or so ago when Joss Stone was named a new spokes-eater for Cadbury's Flake. Here is the result. Think it tries a little too hard not to be a commercial, if that makes any sense, because, hey, it's a commercial.

Stream of consciousness post on perpetual beta panel

I'm having a flashback because Mark Kvamme is on stage previewing something called SearchMe. Remember Kvamme? CKS? He's been at Sequioa Capital, VCing for awhile. And now he's talking about his son's project, FunnyOrDie. He looks too young to have a son that age. Also on the panel: Scott Kurnit, who founded About.com. Moderator: The New York Times' Martin Nisenholtz, who started the Ogilvy interactive practice in 1983 doing teletext, I think. The topic: perpetual beta, although Nisenholtz maintains that interactive TV has been in perpetual alpha. True. Now Nisenholtz is getting ribbed for traffic clogs on nytimes.com because of the Spitzer scandal. He just said something along the lines of: "We can't engineer for the governor getting caught in a prostitution scandal." Also true. Kurnit just mentioned Prodigy. Remember Prodigy? He used to be in charge of it. Martin's now asking what people should focus on in the next few years, but my flashbsck state is only intensifying. Next thing I know, someone will mention Netscape.

Who's right ... John Battelle or Nick Denton?

Maybe because I'm Mediapost's Social Media Insider (plug), I thought the social media panel was the most interesting so far. John Battelle, the ubiquitous head of Federated Media, and Nick Denton, founder of Gawker Media, best illustrated why, because they represented polar opposite views of whether social media's engagement power will make it online marketing's killer app. Said Battelle: "I think social media is the place that is going to happen. I really believe that." Denton said that a social media properties 'ability to engage consumers is correlated with "their failure as an advertising medium." So, which one is right?:

Looking inside Ogilvy Digital Labs

Afternoon here at the Ogilvy Verge conference and we're hearing bout new technologies. Apparently, the agency is working with a company which can let consumers put themselves into commercial content. Beyond the fun factor, the agency thinks such personalized/customized media will build awareness and maybe increase sales for brands that let you incorporate you, the individual. Big thought. Hmmm.
Now they're showing something called the WiiFit which is the Wii as an exercise device. The reason it's been delayed for U.S. release is because we're fat. The WiiFit platform, which you stand on as you exercise, has to be adapted to people who weigh as much as 300 pounds for the U.S. market. Pass the Doritos.

Things you didn't know about Dove "Evolution"

Even though her presentation was pretty much only about 0ogilvy clients, Shelly Lazarus didn't sound too sales-y. Her attitude was more one of amazement at what is possible in advertising today. With that, here are the latest stats she presented about "Evolution": 500 million views, $150 million in media value and $100 million in incremental sales. All for $50,000 in production costs.

Best Eliot Spitzer quip at Verge

There have been a number of Eliot Spitzer, um, insights here at Verge. Best one so far from Ogilvy's Rory Sutherland (may have spelled the last name wrong) is this: "How can he possibly pay for sex from a Web site that spells emperors without an apostrophe?" You won't hear that insight on CNN.

Things you didn't know about ESPN

You can always get a crowd engaged by showing Wieden & Kennedy's SportsCenter spots, even in a crowd full of people from Ogilvy. George Bodenheimer from ESPN, who is speaking now, is no dummy. I've never seen him present before, but what comes across is how pragmatism and innovation aren't mutually exclusive. Here are some things you probably didn't know about ESPN: the company has a ScoreCenter in beta aiming to publish every sports score in the world in real-time, the ESPN Widget Center has 1000 widgets and ESPN: The Magazine is celebrating its 10th anniversary with 10 different covers. On a frightening note, 28 families over the years have informed ESPN that they've named a child after the network. There's brand loyalty, and then there's stuff like this.

Here comes Bill Gray

So Ogilvy major executive Bill Gray is introducing ESPN's George Bodenheimer. Here's my first recollection of Bill Gray: it's about 1983. I'm a PR assistant (OK, glorified secretary) at Ogilvy & Mather back at 2 E. 48th Street waiting for the elevator next to Bill Gray, who is about 15 levels above me in the agency heirarchy. Gray is pacing, pacing, pacing in front of the elevator with an intensity I've never seen before or since. Obviously, it got him somewhere. Have wondered, more than once, if he still paces like that.

Blogging from Ogilvy's Verge digital summit today

So I'm here at Ogilvy's Verge digital summit today at The New York Times building. I'm a little bit disappointed at the size of the crowd here. A few too many people here to have a chance to out Agency Spy, who allegedly is here today. Gotta run. Carla Hendra is talking.

The skinny on that Adweek editorial job

I was away skiing on Friday when some saw this intriguing headline on Gawker: "'Adweek' Seeks Slightly Less Loathed Editor." I'm here to tell ya it ain't quite what it seems. According to the job spec, "The ideal candidate will play an important role in working with the senior management team, including Alison Fahey, who has moved into a general management role." Sabrina Crow, senior vp at Nielsen Business Media, and Fahey's boss, confirmed to me that Fahey will continue to be involved with the new editor and that Cheyenne Group is handling the search.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 03.10.08

Wherein I scan the Monday morning headlines so you don't have to (sorry I'm behind today):

From Advertising Age:

—One big happy family: Pepsi, Starbucks, water, Matt Damon.
—Campbell's Soup with less sodium is hot!
—Companies that lend money are evil.
—At the 4As media conference: what's to be done about measurement?
—Finally, a story that explains why Britney made the cover of The Atlantic.
—Sheryl Sandberg on why she moved to Facebook.
—Bob Garfield's on Abercrombie and Fitch's new Australian-themed underwear brand. He cracks a "down under" joke.

From Adweek (would link to its 4As Media Conference coverage, except that clicking on the banner about it on the home page doesn't do squat. UPDATE: They've loaded some more videos from the Media Conference now, but don't click on the banner; click on the video links up above it):

—Ad agencies pushing the envelope on office design. Now if that can just filter down to more of the ads.
—Airborne has no reason to get all rattled about false ad claims.
—Domino's pizza builder as sign of a revolution.
—U.K.'s Steak comes stateside. Insert Mad Cow joke here.
—Barbara Lippert critiques Kobe Bryant's new Nike site.

From Brandweek:

—A fire sale at MySpace.
—All-natural Skyy Vodka. But is it better for your liver?
—Here's an idea: marketing Tecate to Mexican immigrants.
—Advertisers who are scared of online advertising.

From Mediapost:
—Buick signs up Tiger Woods to be your caddy. And I don't mean Caddy.
—Are search ads about to become more expensive?
—Some may not be able to curb their enthusiasm about a Seinfeld reality show.
—Advertising Research Foundation sees engagement as so 2007. Now it's all about brands, baby.

From The New York Times:
—It can't be good for the online industry that the Times put "To Aim Ads, Web Is Keeping Closer Eye on You," on its front page this morning.
—Oh, crap. This "Thriller" rebirth has gone beyond that stupid Naomi Campbell commercial.
—Welcome to the do-it-yourself commercial.

From The Wall Street Journal:
—Polo Ralph Lauren loses its fight to stop the United States Polo Association and Jordache from using a logo that looks like someone playing polo. Does it get sillier? (Story not free.)
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