Matt Freeman leaves Tribal to go fishing

This just in to my email box: Matt Freeman, CEO of Tribal DDB, is leaving to become CEO of a company called GoFish, which, according to the email, is "a relatively new digital media company that provides brand marketers with deeply immersive advertising environments across its burgeoning network that already reaches over 20 million consumers per month in the US and 65 million worldwide." Matt says that Paul Gunning will take over as CEO. Matt's been at Tribal for ten years, which in this business in particular is a long time. Never heard of GoFish until this morning. Well, whatever. Good luck Matt, and amazing that he chose to move just weeks before the annual junket to Cannes.

Sobe Life Water makes your nipples silky

I haven't made it a secret that I'm not a big fan of the Sobe Life Water campaign that manages to rips off not just one part of pop culture, but several. Leveraging "Thriller" and the Geico campaign to create something that has nothing whatsoever to do with the product? Genius. Discovered that there are now a series of videos featuring the lizards on YouTube, including this new one, which involves two lizards and a Sobe Life Water theme park, and a discussion of whether the product makes lizards' nipples silky. Really. It also features a slight ripoff of that Geico spot where the gecko breaks into the song "Kung Fu Fighting." Fortunately, no Naomi Campbell, which is the other thing I simply detest about this campaign—after all of the harassment of hers that various people have endured, no one should be looking to give her work.

The Social Media Insider smells Herbal Essences

Too busy yesterday to link to my Social Media Insider column, which this week focuses on the concept of advertiser Facebook page as CRM database. C'mon geeks, you know you love it. You can be a passive observer and just read the thing, or join the discussion, here.

All about Yahoo, and lunch

As I haven't been traveling into the big, evil city much of late, missed yesterday's Ad Age Digital Hollywood Advertising 2.0 conference, which, strangely enough, was held in New York. But since this post is all about territory not really mattering anymore, I guess that's fitting enough. Seems Yahoo's Susan Decker told the assembled multitudes yesterday that the company is going to be selling ads on Walmart.com. Meanwhile, in a separate lunch with what I gather was a gaggle of reporters, Decker said the company is still serious about search, despite the fact that Google, well, eats Yahoo's lunch in that area. Me? I was home eating a roast beef sandwich and drinking some VitaminWater. BTW, here's the text of Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock's letter to Carl Icahn. It starts with this not-so-nicety: "We are in receipt of your letter of June 4th and take issue with its content." Have a nice day!

Kelly Awards Gallery goes live today

So, The Kelly Awards has its virtual awards show going live this morning at this site. There are also "inspiration" videos going up on The Kelly Awards channel on YouTube. Above, Wieden + Kennedy's video about the inspiration for the Nike "Rush Hour" campaign, starring Dan Wieden.

Shouldn't the MasterCard "Mr. Bill" spot be up?

I'm gonig to pose a question to you, dear readers, so you better respond, and it's another question that proves, without a doubt, that I have no life. So, yesterday, you probably read that MasterCard let it be known that its latest spot in the "Priceless" campaign features Mr. Bill, the iconic, eternally-damaged clay guy from Saturday Night Live. But the commercial isn't going to go on air, or apparently live on the priceless.com site or YouTube until Monday. Here's the question: if you're MasterCard, and you're going to go out getting all that press, shouldn't the commercial be available immediately? I think it's a missed opportunity to get it going virally when the press and blogosphere is all over it. Post your thoughts below.

Look here for an ad from Google

You may have read earlier this week that Google is advertising now, so the irony of the company that makes the online ad market what it is not being an advertiser itself is over. For what it's worth, here's an example.

Adverganza's late Monday picks, 06.02.08

Wherein at 10:23 p.m. I finally scan the Monday morning headlines, which all of you probably already have, but in case you haven't:

From Advertising Age:

--Not again! Networks get small upfront price increases.
--Guess who's not liking McDonald's Dollar Menu?
--"How to Get Your Brand on Oprah." 'Nuff said.
--Al Ries on ad slogans. Well, at least someone still cares about them.
--An obit of Coke's Chuck Fruit.
--What if Brazilians take over Bud?
--Google actually does some advertising.
--Bob Garfield gets all steamy about K-Y Yours + Mine lubricant stuff.
--Once again, I don't make Ad Age's list of "Women to Watch."

From Adweek:

--Dave Morgan becomes chairman of the Tennis Company?
--Planworks gets out the hatchet.
--C3? Meet L3.
--Interview with Hal Varian, Google's chief economist.
--Macy's YouTube version of "Road Rules."

From Brandweek:

--Mac OS share up 6.1 percent. Maybe those "Mac vs. PC" ads are actually effective.
--What me worry. Hummer launches a campaign for the H3.
--The store within a store concept grows.

From Mediapost:

—Faith Popcorn thinks "Sex and the City" is new "Depression-era feel-good movie." Just hope it doesn't cost too much gas to get to the theater.
—Burger King uses Diddy, Spike Lee to promote that it's now open until 2 a.m.
—Olay launches Color Recapture. Sounds like a camera, but, no, it's "a daily anti-aging moisturizer that provides sheer coverage."
—Seth Goldstein's regrets about Beacon.
—Did anyone notice? FedEx is losing the Kinko's name and rebranding it FedEx Office. Why does this feel like a mistake?
—Interview with Oren Frank, new worldwide chief cd at MRM Worldwide.
—NBC Universal, Nielsen, developing new media research product.

From Mediaweek:

—This just in: Taylor Nelson Sofres and GFK get the urge to merge.
—Group M does a few network and cable upfront deals.
—Turner packages together its sites into an ad network.
—Discovery's Planet Green launches tomorrow.
—Massive agrees to third-party verification of its in-game ads.
—This week's magazine facts and figures.

From The New York Post:

—It's been 123 days since Carl Icahn's last blog post.

From The New York Times:

—New Mr. Bill ad for MasterCard currently the Times' second most e-mailed business story. Old ways die hard. Sorry, the spot isn't available online yet.

From The Wall Street Journal:

—Wal-Mart lets people post free classifieds on its site. Interesting. Free.
—Who wants to show off their bottle of Febreze?

OK, gang. Sorry that took so long. Enjoy.


More to come ...

Where are the Monday morning picks?

Hi folks. I'll be getting to them much later in the day, unfortunately. Work obligations, a conference to go to in town. See, sometimes even I leave my desk.

Why the sudden Cheetos uproar?

So, I'm amazed at what appears to be a sudden uproar concerning the Cheetos campaign. (If that sentence isn't proof enough that I have no life, than I don't know what else I can tell ya.) It all started on Monday morning, when Bob Garfield's column in Ad Age ran under the headline, "Cheetos Ads That Promote 'Random Acts' Are Irresponsible." Whew! Garfield compares the campaign's premise of encouraging youth to commit random acts to "stick it to the man" as stealing marketing tactics from the drug trade. Don't need to tell you how many stars he gave the campaign, but let's just say that Cheetos' agency, Goodby, Silverstein + Partners, may have never seen this treatment before. Then, yesterday, someone at AOL Living picked up the story, which now has 239 comments. Here's the amazing thing: this campaign has been out for months now, so where was the initial outrage? Seems to me that if a thing can sit around for months without anyone expressing outrage, than it's a trumped up controversy—although, yeah, not the best ad idea ever.

iTunes Coldplay ad leaves me, well, cold

I really didn't wake up this morning thinking, "Today I'll be not-so-complimentary of TBWA/Chiat/Day," though between this post and the one just below, you might think that. At least a dozen people have posted this iTunes ad featuring Coldplay to YouTube, and I'm just not diggin' it. The beginning of it looks too much like a video from an overly emotive 1980s synth-pop band. The first time I saw it, I found it so overwrought I was waiting for the punchline. It gets a little better when it moves to slightly more color, but it just doesn't pop the way the original iTunes ads do. It's all about the contrasts and stark silhouettes, and this commercial doesn't really have them.

Classically bad: Chiat's UBU ads for Reebok

Was reminiscing with someone yesterday about the old days of the Reebok account, which had its share of agencies back in the day. And then, we started talking about this classically bad campaign from Chiat/Day called U.B.U. (Get it?) Just goes to show even the greats aren't great all the time and that you can find just about anything on YouTube.

Rachel Ray, coffee-loving terrorist ... right

Was just reading this whole ridiculous story about Dunkin' Donuts having to pull an online ad featuring Rachel Ray because it appears as though Ray is wearing a keffiyeh, which, I'll admit, I hadn't remembered was the name of the scarves that look similar to the one she is wearing. Now some poor stylist has had the worst day of his or her career, people are probably yammering on somewhere about whether Ray secretly supports terrorists, and Dunkin' Donuts has its own PR problem--though hopefully minor--to nicely coincide with the equally dumb scandal over the breasts in the Starbucks logo. Silly.

Go read this week's Social Media Insider

This week the Social Media Insider asks, "Can Ad Banners Find a Safe Home in an Online Community?" You can read the column here.

Ian Schafer auctions Ian Schafer on Twitter

Saw this on Twitter and said to myself, "Why aren't I doing that?" What I saw is that Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer is auctioning off sponsorship to his Twitter feed on eBay. Opening bid is $400. Here's an excerpt from his blog, IanSchafer.com on what he's offering: "This one-month sponsorship includes replacing of the existing background image with the image(s) of your choice, as well as replacement of my handsome photo with another image of your choice (ie. brand logo)." He also says that "numerous journalists" follow him which I guess includes me, but, hey, it's been worth it. Without him, I'd never have gotten on to the big story of last week: Agency 3.0.

Looks like Twitter needs more servers

OK, so none of us know what Twitter's business model is yet, but if its recent batch of technological quirks is any indication, it sure is getting popular. However, this message, which I got when I just tried to follow a new acquaintance on Twitter, is a first for me anyway.

How Sanjaya's Nationwide spot shoulda happened

You may have read that now it's Sanjaya's turn to star in a Nationwide Insurance ad. If the K-Fed ad was any indication, it'll be a smash hit. On the other hand, the timing seems kind of odd. Sanjaya is last year's news. K-Fed, at the time of his Nationwide debut, was in the middle of his divorce from Britney (not that I memorize this stuff). Woulda been better if Nationwide had actually bought a Super Bowl ad and put Sanjaya in it earlier this year. I mean the Super Bowl even aired on Fox! And they were heavily promoting 'American Idol'! But what do I know? I'm just a blogger. (BTW, the commercial isn't available yet.)

Honda ASIMO creeps me out

I've always found Honda's ASIMO robot to be exceedingly creepy. I think we're supposed to think he's cute. Here he is conducting the Detroit Symphony, who, not at all coincidentally, is playing "The Impossible Dream." All I can say is: "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!"

Adverganza's Tuesday morning picks, 05.27.08

Wherein I scan the Monday and Tuesday morning headlines because I'm not so much of a wonk that I would actually work on Memorial Day:

From Advertising Age:

—Close-up of Vincent Bolloré, the man who would have Aegis.
—How the China earthquake has given a boost to beleaguered Olympic sponsors.
—No matter what the company does, no one likes getting charged for luggage by American Airlines.
—Why it's good that the Gap isn't advertising on TV.
—More on "Starbucks Cups Feature Tits!"
—Did you know you spend $500/year on Big Macs?
—UPS will continue to win with Big Brown.
—There's money in moving to Microsoft search.
—Jonah Bloom likes brands that market themselves usefully.
—Wow. I doubt Bob Garfield will ever eat Cheetos again.

From Adweek:

—Great quote on why Nike dropped Crispin: "They were in love with the idea of Crispin more than the actual work from Crispin." Read on here.
—Digital agencies you may or may not have heard of that you should be watching: 360i, Big Spaceship, Deep Focus, EVB and Schematic.
—Story about DaVinci that barely mentions Synarchy.
—Inspiring entire countries to social change.
—Marian Salzman on how marketers might respond to the recession.
—Joseph Jaffe explains why most viral marketing sucks.
—Barbara Lippert on advertising which is considered breakthrough that she thinks isn't. You go girl. Totally agree with you. Cadbury's "Gorilla"? So what!

From Brandweek:

—More on the frightening "we'll pay your gas" trend.
—Who wants a piece of online ad video pie?
—Yeah, sure. Candy that's good for you.
—How those iProducts have hurt car stereo companies.
—Q&A with Procter & Gamble's green guru.
—Are you ready for caffeinated snack chips? I hope not.
—Scary findings from The Change Report, here, here and here.
—Hey, agency people: Only 15 percent of you get it.

From Mediapost (they seem to be on a tourism jag this morning):

—New York brings back "I (heart) New York." Why the state ever dropped it, I've no idea.
—Other state tourism campaigns still expect us to burn lotsa gas this summer.
—Michigan proves the return on investment of its tourism dollars.
—Rand McNally says Americans are changing their travel plans this summer because of high gas prices, but not that much.
—Family trip planning on the Motel 6 Web site, GoIn6.com.
—A fragrance called Bond Girl 007?
—Stuff about email marketing, here, here, and here from Mediapost's Email Marketing Summit.
—Twenty percent of homes not ready for digital conversion. What tells me that some people just have better things to do?
—Ten percent of Washington Post staff leaves via buyouts.

From Mediaweek:

—Mike Shields reports from Microsoft's annual agency/advertiser summit.
—Despite what you may have read, advertisers and agencies still love American Idol.
—Univision employees (heart) Joe Uva.
—Lehman Brothers projects network upfront revenue to decline by 3 percent. The villain? Cable.

From The New York Post:

—How networks are building their own on-demand options.
—The Carl Icahn "I Can't Blog" counter, which tallies the days, hours, minutes and seconds since Icahn's last blog post. We're up to 116 days.
—Linens 'n' Things may close even more stores.

From The New York Times:

—More on our lack of preparedness for the digital conversion. Unfortunately, I own the TV located on the left in the picture. Damn.
—Rob Walker asks if dead brands can be resurrected.
—The networks don't like redlasso.com.
—Who knew there was this much to know about people who twist balloons?

From The Wall Street Journal:

—Page one feature on August Busch IV's fight "for his legacy." Free.
—Why the success of "Indiana Jones" isn't quite as much a boon for its studio as you might think. Free.
—Gap brings the sites of its four retail chains closer together. Subscription required.
—Some marketers are getting into opt-in text message ads. Free.

OK, that's it. Have a good one!

Nike comes back to its marriage with Wieden

George Parker actually got credit over at the Adweek site for breaking the news yesterday that Nike has dropped Crispin, Porter + Bogusky from its roster. Good for my drinking buddy! As for Nike's decision, in hindisght, it kind of looked inevitable. For one, throughout its flirtation with Crispin, Nike has seemed like the husband who leaves his wife for another woman. Eventually, it found how good it used to have it in the first place. And then there's the work. Probably the best known thing that Crispin did for Nike was the spot above, and while certainly above average, it wasn't particularly special and inspired, either. It didn't have that hard-to-describe sensibility that makes Nike advertising what it is. Could have just as easily been created for New Balance or Adidas. Wieden + Kennedy doesn't have a lock on that sensibility, as the new Guy Ritchie film from 72andSunny demonstrates, but the agency gets something about Nike that you can only understand if you've worked with the client for decades. I hope that what Wieden has learned from this is that digital should now be a core expertise for all agencies. As you might recall, the shop's relative lack of interactive cred was what supposedly sent the business to Crispin in the first place. Good for you, Wieden. With that, have a great Memorial Day weekend all.