Got good knockers? Go to London, June 28

So, Wonderbra is doing an open casting call for good knockers, in London on June 28, for what is being billed as the biggest underwear shoot ever. You can register here. Don't tell me that you never found this blog to contain useful information.

Adverganza's Monday afternoon picks, 06.16.08

Wherein I scan the Monday morning deadlines when I have the time. (Actually, I've had to be in conference mode all morning. Moderating a panel tomorrow at OMMA Publish, and chairing OMMA Social next Monday.)

From Advertising Age:

—Video of Jonah Bloom on what to look for in Cannes. If once again this year, you're seething with jealousy, don't watch. Apparently no one cares that we're pretty much in a recession and shouldn't be going on boondoggles.
—A story to that effect for those of us who actually read.
—Will Google gain $1 billion from its Yahoo! deal? And for Google isn't that just a rounding error?
—The weird durability of Spam.
—Ad spending was up only .6 percent in the first quarter. Not surprising, but it still sucks.
—How Traffic won Mitsubishi.
—What the hell is Huish Detergents?
—Parade's Randy Siegel thinks newspapers might not be dead.
—Bob Garfield thinks that BBDO's commercial "Stork" for Monster will win the Grand Prix.

From Adweek:

—Walk-up to Cannes by Brian Morrissey and Eleftheria Parpis that's truly a worthwhile read.
—Adweek comes up with its own Cannes Lions categories.
—Why figuring out who will win what at Cannes is getting harder and harder.
—Leo Burnett's Mark Tutssel about why the Titanium Lion is so important.
—Colleen deCourcy wants the Cyber Lions dead.
—Ongoing coverage of Cannes from AdFreak's obnoxious French cousin, LeFreaque.
—Q&A with Jerry Della Femina.
—Why media agencies are expanding beyond media.
—Close-up of Traffic, the little Mitsubishi agency that could.
—What will its decision to partner with Google do to Yahoo's market position?

From The New York Times:

—Tony Schwartz, who created LBJ's "Daisy" ad, passes on.
—Yep. Monetizing MySpace isn't as easy as it looked.
—Stuart Elliott on Backchannel Media, which tracks your TV viewing and puts it on your own "personal portal", or something along those lines.

From The Wall Street Journal:

—New Nortel campaign says that Cisco's systems suck energy. The campaign's tag? "The Cisco Energy Tax." Ouch. Subscription required.

Hoping to do more headlines later, but have to run. Busy day.

Woo-hoo! No more MicroHoo, YaSoft etc.

Protracted acquisition battles are always annoying, but the lengthy stalking of Yahoo by Microsoft, to me, had its own special layer of yick: those endless attempts at trying to smash the words Yahoo and Microsoft together. Way too cute for lil' miss Adverganza. On a more serious note, even if there were certain business reasons for Microsoft to own Yahoo, it seemed like a cultural misfit from the beginning, whereas the search advertising deal that Yahoo struck with Google yesterday—which killed any thoughts Microsoft might have had about still getting hitched to Yahoo—sounds right, no matter what the antitrust regulators, or Carl Icahn, or Steve Ballmer, might eventually have to say in the matter. Even after all of the numbers are crunched, it's hard to discount the importance of entities that are working so closely together having a similar world view. Google and Yahoo are different companies, no question, but both come from that quirky Silicon Valley mindset. Last time I was at Yahoo (admittedly, it's been awhile), the campus was filled with purple and yellow flowers. You could picture Google doing something similar, but that would happen at Microsoft over Ballmer's dead body. Let's hear it for YaGoogle! Doh! (Photo via Opencontent on Flickr.)

Use Tampax so the sharks won't get you

Not to be gross, but is this Tampax ad (the logo is partially visible in the corner) saying what I think it is saying? What country is it running in? Or is it a hoax? In case you don't know what I think it's saying, there's an old wives' tale—and maybe a true one—that sharks are more likely to attack women when they are having their periods because they can smell their blood. Are we to assume, then, that the so-called product benefit is that the product works so well that sharks won't attack?

Nike tells what William Gallas knows

If you want to see a good, unadorned use of YouTube by a marketer, subscribe to the NikeFootball channel. You will find commercials there, such as the recent Guy Ritchie-directed film, but it's also a repository for short interviews with international soccer/football stars. The four-minute clip I've embedded above features William Gallas, a defender and captain of Arsenal (not that I know my international soccer stuff). It's a straightforward mix of sound bites and highlights, carrying the theme, "What William Knows." This is not the sort of content that is going to send people flocking to YouTube in the tens of millions, but it's a great, ongoing way to connect Nike Football with its formidable , passionate fan base.

Did 'Ad Age' kill the name "Synarchy"?

You may have seen yesterday that the new name for WPP Group's Dell-dedicated agency is Enfatico, instead of Synarchy. Now the question is, "Did the name change because of what happened after the name was leaked, or was it never all that definite anyway?" Fortunately for Ad Age, its initial story did leave an out, stating, "WPP could change direction if the name doesn't pass legal muster or translate well into the various international locales in which it operates." What it didn't say, of course, was that the company might also steer clear of the name if it was linked to something, like, say, Nazis, a connection that I believe was first made by the writers of that story, who pointed out that the term synarchy's Wikipedia entry, " ... quotes from a book on Vichy France that had an account of French industrialists who saw Nazi Germany as alternative to Communism." The blogosphere noticed, and now, the unit has a new name, Enfatico.

Is the upfront like the market for oil?

Stuart Elliott's summation this morning of this year's network upfront, includes this analogy from one analyst: that the market for the upfront is like the current state of the oil markets—in other words not all that sensical. “It’s totally counterintuitive,” Sanford C. Bernstein & Company media analyst Michael Nathanson told Elliott. “ ... the harder it is to find audiences, or barrels of oil, the fiercer the frenzy to pay more to acquire them.” Of course, the difference between network TV, which looks like it hit the same upfront numbers as last year, despite declining audiences, is that alternative sources of eyeballs, unlike alternative sources of energy, very much exist. It's just that marketers and media companies haven't figured out how to tap them yet, because, gee, it's only 14 years into the digital revolution.

Wenda Harris Millard tells what's wrong with Yahoo

Brian Morrissey at Adweek has posted a story about yesterday's interview of Wenda Harris Millard by Federated Media chief John Battelle at the Conversational Marketing Conference. It proved unusual in that Martha Stewart Omnimedia media president Millard actually took swipes at her former employer, Yahoo, which seems to have sunk into a year-2001-like mire since her departure. But Millard's criticism doesn't come off as sour grapes, but as a well-reasoned analysis of a company that has lost its, well, sites, placing technology above all else. "Technology is very important, but where many companies go wrong is when they think technology is the answer or primary solution to proving a business solution to a marketing problem," she said. "The business of advertising is still a business of persuasion. Machines can't make art." (Of course, Yahoo has said that it can do great brand advertising and focus on technology at the same time.) UPDATE: Martha Stewart Omnimedia just announced that Millard and the president of merchandising, Robin Marino, are being promoted to replace Susan Lyne, who just said she is leaving as chief executive.

Making stuff out of branded boxes all the rage

So I'm not the only one who immediately thought of the guy who made his furniture out of FedEx boxes when I heard about Deutsch's new campaign to promote the first New York City IKEA. You might recall that this guy posted photos of his FedEx furniture at this site several years ago. Thankfully, it's still up. Then FedEx, cluelessly, started to threaten legal action, and then, Stanford University's Law School Center for Internet and Society began to represent him. Anyway, so the Deutsch campaign features New York landmarks made out of IKEA boxes, only this time, it's not some guy building stuff out of boxes, but an artist and architect named John Hobbs, who I should probably know about. But I don't.

Here's Mr. Bill for MasterCard

The people at MasterCard sure are lucky that I remembered—days after the hype subsided—to look up the new Mr. Bill spot that they touted last week but didn't put up online until around now. Anyway, here's the commercial. The nostalgia will no doubt work, but somehow I remember the old Mr. Bill sketches featuring a lot more, well, dismemberment.

Metacafe makes David Wright $1082.01 richer

So the bidding for Ian Schafer's Twitter feed is over and the winner is an entity called Teametacafe (aka metacafe.com), paying over $1000 for the one month privilege to take over his Twitter profile page and replace his mug with some its assets, like maybe its logo. Wishing, once again, that I'd thought of that, but it's never too late is it? Still didn't get the first mover advantage though. Oh, right, what's the reference to New York Met David Wright? Schafer says he's giving the money to the David Wright Foundation.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 06.09.08

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

From Advertising Age:

—More thumbs-down on the Hummer. Here's to hoping they close down the dealership in my hometown.
—If you think you can monetize YouTube, than you sell some ads.
—The iPhone and the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference.
—Going green not just for Birkenstock-wearing liberals.
—Exploring the oxymoron that is the news weekly.
—Really need a (non-alcoholic) drink? Go to McDonald's.
—All about the upfront.
—Toyota targets puts, of all things, a Camry in the middle of an espionage-filled online game.
—Jonah Bloom thinks Yahoo has a plan.
—Bob Garfield gets verklempt about Element 79's last work for Gatorade.

From Adweek:

—How Dell learned to listen.
—Tough times for agency outposts in L.A.
—Milk discovers this thing called the Internet.
—Profile of See Jane Run TV Marketing's Jane Rockwell.
—More on the Wachovia review.
—Will WPP bid again for TNS?
—Barbara Lippert floats through the air over Wieden + Kennedy's "Jump" live stunt for Honda. Metaphorically speaking.

From Brandweek:

—Licensing industry in the dumps.
—Star Trek-themed coffins and urns? Oy.
—Even in an economic downturn, organic sells.
—Can you find canyoufindwaldo.com?
—Q&A on how Everlast plans to last forever.

From Mediapost:

—Interview with Barry Herstein, PayPal's first CMO.
—Traffic to super centers up, gas station convenience stores down.
—"Alcoholic beverages are withstanding the economic downturn very well." Why is that not at all surprising?
—Best Western hires a travel blogger.
—Initiative decides to hold Alan Cohen to his contract.
—TV commercials still rule.
—Most depressing story of the day: Tribune's plan to "right-size" the company.
—Rodale shuffles editors, wants to expand digital and international.
—Diane Mermigas on online video's (lacking) business model.
—Will the cable upfront be moderately up?
—Meebo launches some new ad formats.

From Mediaweek:

—The network TV upfront may go north of last year's $9 billion.
—Magazines dive into more low-class direct response ads.
—Those reliable online metrics aren't actually that reliable.
—Broadcast networks summer shows nothing to write upfront deals about.
—9.5 million people watch first game of Celtics vs. Lakers.

From The New York Post:

—The iPhone gets ready to steal some of Blackberry's thumbs.
—Store windows might start watching you back.

From The New York Times:

—Profile of Joe Ripp, the AOL whistleblower, who is not named in a financial fraud civil suit.
—Taking toys on tour.
—Wal-Mart in concert.
—Will Steve Jobs use today's iPhone announcement to make other news?

From The Wall Street Journal:

—"Kung Fu Panda" wins big at the box office. Subscription required.
—After the earthquake, marketing in China becomes a delicate exercise. Subscription required.
—AC/DC to sell its newest album exclusively at Wal-Mart. Subscription required.

That's it for today folks. Stay inside. Drink lots of water.

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.

The Davids as guitar heroes

Had no idea when I woke up this morning that I'd spend part of the day on a "Guitar Hero" blogging jag. Never even played it. Weird. Anyway, just noticed this "Risky Business" spoof starring American Idol winner David Cook. Didn't watch the show much this year. Assume this appeared during the show. Another one, featuring that other David dude is here.

Danica Patrick's alternative homemaker universe

Pretty amusing video at this URL to support Danica Patrick's Motorola sponsorship, of course timed to this weekend's Indy 500. Premise is that instead of being a race car driver, she has a home show a la Martha Stewart. Of course, as the picture at right shows, her ideas are a little off-base. Much better than that GoDaddy stuff she does. Via Ogilvy.

Coming soon ... Guitar Hero 4

Posting this mostly because it exists. New "Guitar Hero" channel on Y'Tube.

Social Media Insider ponders the Plaxo-Comcast deal

In case you missed it, Plaxo agreed to be acquired by Comcast yesterday. Before you keep scratching your head, go read my Social Media Insider column over at Mediapost. Makes more sense to me now, too.

Good God! Not Agency 3.0!

So, a couple of my friends on Twitter were going on this morning about an agency that plans to call itself Agency 3.0 and is underwritten by the William Morris Agency. For some great press release gobbledy-gook, read on: "The new agency combines WMA’s deep entertainment expertise with the award-winning creativity and experience of the founding team to assist clients in designing, implementing and monetizing their digital media strategies. One part digital technology leader, one part next generation marketing agency, one part strategic content developer, Agency 3.0 is designed to go beyond the scope of traditional agencies by serving clients in this new world of mobility, convergence and digital entertainment." Wondering if we could add "one part bullshit" into that sentence and whether anyone would notice. Anyway, the new shop's founder is Peter Adderton, who looks like a Ford model, but apparently led the bankrupt Amp'd Mobile and Boost Mobile. Now, about this name, Agency 3.0, do you think the blogosphere can kill it the way it seems to have hobbled Synarchy? The name Agency 3.0 just reeks of hubris, although, happily, there's no connection to Nazis! Just to hedge his bets, Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus, went out this morning and bought the URL http://www.agency4-0.com. Good one, Ian. LOL. UPDATE: So, for the record, Greg Johnson, a former Digitas and IPG Emerging Media Lab exec who will also be part of the agency, says Agency 3.0 is a "working title." I'm just telling you what I read in Adweek.

Uniqlock has me in trance

So, I'm sitting here watching the winner of the Grand Clio in interactive (which isn't particularly interactive). It's this wacky Uniqlock site; my husband is watching, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance?" which makes the whole thing seem even stranger. To watch, go here then, stare at the computer screen. You won't need drugs after this, promise. If you're not in a trance already, go read Barbara Lippert's critique.

ID theft guru gets identity stolen, a lot

Ever see those ads where that guy said he was so confident of his company, LifeLock, that he actually ran his Social Security number in the ads? Whoops. Turns out it might not be that great a product. Richard Todd Davis, the company CEO, has had his identity stolen 20 times, according to class action suit followed in South Carolina. It also says that LifeLock doesn't provide nearly the degree of protection that the commercials say it does. Oh, for Davis' Social Security number, just watch the commercial above.

Ed Meyer, Yahoo director?

Either I haven't been paying attention, or none of us have, because I just noticed that Ed Meyer is listed as one of Carl Icahn's prospective board members of Yahoo. Ed Meyer, as in the head of Grey for six gazillion years (OK, it was really 36 years). Interesting that this part of the Yahoo battle sort of pits former MacManus Group chief Roy Bostock (Yahoo's chairman), against the former head of Grey. And you thought this was all about Carl Icahn vs. Jerry Yang. In other news, allegedly Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo's search business and take a minority a stake in the company. Makes sense to me.

Does Benzo have another idea?

So, I just checked out this Levi's viral clip, "Jumpin' In," shot by Benzo, and it's actually astonishing to see how much it copies his earlier YouTube hit, also created with Cutwater, "Guy Catches Glasses with Face." Exact same concept, similar quirky, happy-go-lucky music, similar somewhere-in-California-locale. So what if in one a guy is catching Ray-Bans on his face and in the other a few guys are jumping into a pair of jeans? I was having a flashback the entire time I watched it. Yeah, I know it's got more than 3 million YouTube views, but I'm not impressed Take a look.

The story behind Twitter's Steve Colbert

Last week, I received an email saying that StephenTColbert was following me on Twitter. Following being the sincerest form of social media flattery, I followed him back. Of course, I was not alone. Colbert was following 10,000 people and being followed by about 5,000. But was Colbert real? I did wonder. Not that I pictured him tweeting away all day, but figured that it was possible that Comedy Central had embarked on some Twitter-based promotional campaign. And some of the tweets certainly sounded legit: "Like any good newsman, I believe that if you're not scared, I'm not doing my job." "Move over Oprah, tonight every member of the Colbert Nation receives a priceless gift... the Truth." Credible enough. Comedy Central issued a denial, but was that just part of the joke? Then, last night, this: "Question to Twitter: Shall I continue this farce or retire the account?" OK, so it wasn't Steve Colbert. Whoever did impersonate Colbert, posted a lengthy explanation here. including how the post from one believer, titled, "Stephen Colbert watches Diggnation!” made it to Digg's front page. The fake Colbert has symbolically handed the account over to the real one. Would be cool, if he, or some other worthy personality actually did use Twitter, but not sure we're there yet.

Tangerine Toad revealed, doesn't have orange skin

Some of us have been watching Tangerine Toad do a slow reveal over the last few months. First there was his picture on Twitter, which started as a Toad and then was a toad with a superimposed headshot on it, and then just his headshot. Later, came a first name, Alan, and then last week, when he posted a link to a 1989 New York Times article in which he was quoted, a first and last name, Alan Wolk. (Turns out we overlapped at JWT for an entire month back then.) Now there's nothing left in his closet. Alan has done a good interview over at AgencySpy. Until recently, he worked at DraftFCB. Thanks for outing yourself, Alan.

The wrath of Cannes ... or Cannes goes Coney Island

Last year, New York shop I've never heard of Woods Witt Dealy & Sons launched the Wrath of Cannes, staging most of its site, such as the hilarious video above, on Coney Island. This year, the agency is holding an actual awards show on June 19, at Cha Cha's Club Atlantis on Coney Island. Enjoy, and watch the video if you never have before.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 05.20.08

Wherein I scan the Monday morning headlines so you don't have to. (I'm doing a shortened version today because of deadlines. Maybe I'll make it complete later in the day. Sorry!):

From Advertising Age:

—Do CPG companies lie when they say they're going to slash-and-burn their upfront budgets?
—This upfront could get ugly.
—WalMart discovers tacos.
—JetBlue looks to hire a crisis communications agency. It's about damn time.
—Nutrasweet becomes a tabletop sweetener.
—Looks like that annoying blogosphere doesn't like the name Synarchy for WPP's Dell-only agency. I can't imagine why.
—Is the personal care trend over?
—Bob Garfield gives 3 1/2 stars to this Canon commercial from Grey.

From Adweek:

—Forget about Yahoo for a minute; Microsoft's efforts in surface computing.
—The ad model for social media isn't figured out yet.
—Halo 3 campaign wins big at the Clios.
—Microsoft, Yahoo start to talk again.
—A closer look at VW's Max campaign. The non-TV part.
—Benjamin Palmer's down on branded content.
—Barry Wacksman asks that "media" be divorced from "emerging."
—Levi's viral campaign, "Jumpin' In" takes off.

From The New York Times:

—More on Microsoft's re-pursuit of Yahoo.
—Is there a slowdown in online display ads?
—America imports more overseas TV series.

From The Wall Street Journal:

—Yeah, more Microsoft/Yahoo. Free.
—News Corp.'s new ad network. Subscription required.
—Close-up on Starbucks' Howard Schultz. Subscription required.



More to come ...