Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 08.11.08

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

From Advertising Age:

—Inside the branding of Obama.
—BK franchisees aren't the party all night type.
—Ad-skipping via DVR is just getting warmed up.
—Time Warner rediscovers the joys of content.
—Ouch! General Motors to slash agency fees by 20 percent. (Why does this strike me as penny-wise and pound foolish?)
—Everyone's wearing black smog masks!
—R/GA rethinks branding by looking through the digital lens.
—Bob Garfield and why those Vista spots resemble making "a rose out of excrement." (Not his words, but good ones anyway.)

From Adweek:

—Apparently, Nike launched some very intense spots at the beginning of the Olympics. Didn't see 'em. I was out dancing.
—Cutwater, BBDO, still in Hyatt pitch, if you're paying any attention.
—Gerry Graf has started to move the creative chairs around at Saatchi, and yes, "Speed Dressing" played a role.
—Levi's unbuttons someone named Estelle. (Here she is with Kanye West.)
—In this week's utter shocker, Carat says it's better for clients to keep spending in recession.
—How come men housekeep but no one can target a lousy cleaning product to them? Sheesh. Talk about lack of respect.
—Barbara Lippert awards the gold to GE's Olympics spots.
—WPP's John O'Keeffe on why being good at crosswords means you can be a copywriter.
—Mark Wnek wishes creative directors would leave their egos at the door.
—Agencies continue pity-party concerning Google.

From Brandweek:

—Timberland launching a site called "Podium" but don't jump to the conclusion that the company is an Olympics sponsor.
—Energy drinks look like recession victims.
—As analog ends, a business opportunity begins.
—How the death of Heath Ledger might help teens not go to the medicine cabinet for fun.
—Here's your chance to think up a new Crest flavor's slogan.
—Do you know your car's Car Fun Footprint?

From Mediapost:

—Story about Lenovo's Olympic ads. If you want to see some, click here.
—Ads for Southern Comfort.
—Anyone in the market for Monopoly sneakers?
—Bernstein Research still predicting online ad growth of 20 percent.
—A traveling, glass-enclosed IKEA living space. Yes, really.
—Marketing professor chews over Wrigley's music marketing initiative. Spits it out.
—AOL super-sizes its home page ad.
—Ben & Jerry's launches a social site asking people to "Imagine Whirled Peace." That's not a typo, just a kind of dopey play on words.
—Despite high gas prices, people are seeing just as many out-of-home ads. Can't figure that one out.
—Not a good sign that The New York Times Magazine is now featuring cover wraps for advertisers for whom subtlety is not a core skillset.

From Mediaweek:

—No upset here: record numbers of people are following the Olympics on the Web.
—Rolling Stone to move to a standard-sized format.
—Sprout TV enlists Mommy bloggers. But not this one.
—New magazines from Reader's Digest.
—Anthony Crupi on the recession and those premium cable bills.

From The New York Post:

—Mel Karmazin's plan for world domination.

From The New York Times:

—Now it's time for the media companies to get paranoid about Google.
—Don't just blame the Internet for your lousy ad sales; you can blame Detroit too.
—Congress is getting serious about online privacy.
—Get Oedipus on the line: Martha Stewart's daughter to appear on show that skewers Martha Stewart.

From The Wall Street Journal:

—Magazine newsstand sales drop by 6.3 percent in the first half of 2008. Subscription required, but the headline says it all.
—Also in "Bad News in Magazines" ad pages for those big, glossy September titles are down. Free.
—Brown only advertising to Red this year. (OK, it's a UPS/Commie joke.) Free.

OK, I am so done with this post. See ya.



More to come ...

What do timeshares and social media have in common?

Not much, according to my latest Social Media Insider column which brings you to the ringside at the recent timeshare pitch I attended. You can read it here.

Here come the mediocre ads

Claire Beale of Campaign raises a good point in Monday's Independent, wondering if the recent controversies over that Snickers ad (above), that Heinz ad with the two men kissing, and a few others are a harbinger of a rise in mediocre advertising. Whatever you may think of the recent smorgasbord of controversial ads, she notes that the globalization of advertising—in which any commercial can be seen in any country—makes controversy global as well, even though some ads that don't offend local sensibilities get pulled because they garner complaints in markets where they've never even aired. The result? Watered-down ads which seek not to offend anyone, anywhere. She seems particularly annoyed at the recent Ad Age poll that asked readers which of three spots offended them (or none of the above). Beale writes: " ... although the poll is running on a site aimed predominantly at a US audience, two of the three ads in the poll are resolutely British. They're written for a British audience with British cultural reference points, British sensibilities and a British sense of humour. Are Americans really qualified to judge whether they're offensive in the context for which they were created?"

Free Credit Report home page same as it ever was

Been curious ever since the kerfuffle broke out on Monday about the non-free-ness of freecreditreport.com about whether there would be any intimation of the controversy on the freecreditreport.com site. Methinks no. Yes, there is information on the home page in the bottom left corner disclosing that, oh, BTW, after a 7-day free trial, users will incur a monthly fee, but what's on the site now looks very much in keeping with how it was described in The New York Times story that brought the non-free-ness to light. It says " ... that language is in small print on the side of the home page on a subdued background, versus the large font and rich colors promoting enrollment." I don't expect the folks at freecreditreport.com to change so radically that they'd change the name of the site to, say $14.95/monthcreditreport.com, but at a time when consumers have access to the full range of pluses and minuses about a service, it seems that the best route to go is to be transparent, and freecreditreport.com's stance so far is to mislead. The days of being able to get away with stuff like this are numbered.

Extended Stay Americas: it's toilet-lickin' good!

Let me start by saying I can't even believe I'm posting this. I'm a respectable woman, for Christ's sake! Or I was. Yeah, the picture at left is of a woman licking a toilet, and if you want to watch the entire NFSW video, you can click here. The premise is that her hotel room is so clean she can lick all of the surfaces, and although it drags a little when she's licking the clock radio (how banal!), it does sort of reach a, uh, crescendo during the bathroom scene. Now, the reason I'm posting this is that, according to a BoingBoinger who checked out whois.com, it's posted on a site that's owned by Extended Stay Americas: extstay.com, which means either someone hacked the site, or it's real. If you look closely, it's clear the action takes place at an Extended Stay Americas hotel. (Particularly when she licks the company's logo on the phone....ewwww!) Tasteful? No. Memorable? Yes, YES, YYYEESSSS! (Thanks to Steve Rubel for tweeting about this and getting me with the program.)

Microsoft's 'Mojave Experiment'

You've probably heard by now about mojaveexperiment.com, a site that, in apparent homage to those ads of yore where coffee drinkers inadvertently discovered the joys of Folgers Crystals, computer users inadvertently discover the joys of Vista under a different name—Mojave. When they are finally told that, in fact, the operating system they've been playing around with is the much-maligned Vista, they are shocked, Shocked! Personally, I've never found these hidden camera-style ads very convincing, and that goes for this one as well. However, props to Microsoft for just out-and-out addressing the Vista problem. Saw one of the Mojave Experiment banners opposite the headline on CNET, "Why Microsoft Must Abandon Vista to Save Itself." That's either brilliant, or inadvertently contextually right on.

Want to ask Nielsen about this campaign

Don't totally understand the why and wherefore of this seemingly pricey campaign that Nielsen is running for justasknielsen.com. Saw it first in The New York Times' Olympic-focused Play magazine this Sunday—I believe it was the sole sponsor—and again this morning opposite an NYT story about the mind games that take place in the swimming pre-race room. The campaign is actually a lot of fun, since it involves a bunch of pop-culture questions that Nielsen can answer, but it's also really consumer-friendly, and I don't think Nielsen is trying to attract John Q. Public with this campaign. Mousing over the questions revelas the answer. (BTW, the answer to this question pictured here is True.)

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 08.04.08

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

From Advertising Age:

—This week's obligatory "Mad Men" story, in this case, about fashion.
—What them worry? The surprising robustness of agency holding companies.
—P&G, Unilever spend less, but Kraft, Kellogg spend, spend, spend.
—The Prius is popular. Duh.
—The newest magazine industry headache: mygazines.com.
—Cut back on ads, go bankrupt.
—Can Wired attract luxury advertisers?
—Long Island, sans Hamptons, as a tourist destination?
—How we're cutting back. Or not.
—Bob Garfield favorably reviews some cutesy PSAs. Maybe this Comcast thing has made him soft in the head. Kidding!

From Adweek:

—Agency.com on the comeback trail.
—Jon Miller not on the Yahoo board quite yet.
—Jim Stengel and the Purpose Institute.
—"Planning? Yecch!" says Mediavest.
—Video of a guy who makes hangers.

From Brandweek:

—So much for those MillerCoors craft beers.
—Dodge discounts its trucks by only 40 percent. Yikes.
—Pizza Hut goes organic on your pizza.

From Mediapost (which, full disclosure, I do a fair amount of work for):

—Will the sorry state of our debt make us hate credit card companies?
—Trucks, SUVs dragging numbers down along with them.
—Subway is no. 3!
—The refashioned WWD.com.
—How big is YuMe really?
—AOL Video relaunches with only 200 million videos.
—Interpublic takes over Endeavor's marketing group.
—More depressing news about the newspaper business.
—Larry Blasius leaves Magna Global.
—Fox leads the summer so far, until the Olympics, that is.

From Mediaweek:

—Ninety-six percent of NBC's Olympic ad revenue is sold.
—Everywhere is history.
—No one's watching TV this summer.
—Who will lead XM Sirius.

From The New York Times:

—The media isn't seeing a campaign bounce of its own.
—The "Jewish HBO."
—No one wants to buy a newspaper.
—Freecreditreport.com isn't free.
—Wordscraper is the new Scrabulous.
—A plan to rehab Vista's image backfires.
—Apparently "The Mummy" and the Beijing Olympics have something in common.

From The Wall Street Journal:

—Investors expected to closely examine MySpace tomorrow when News Corp. announces earnings. Subscription required.
—McDonald's tinkering with the Dollar Menu, or when is a cheeseburger just a burger with cheese? Free.
—Did Buckcherry orchestrate its own leak? Free.

That's it. Have a good one.

Sorta kinda Michael Phelps ad for AT&T

OK, here's a new evil twin commercial for AT&T with an Olympics theme. It doesn't exactly star Michael Phelps, but wish it did. Better to have two Michael Phelps' in a commercial than two Michael Phelps fans, I always say.

Agency Spy lives to blog again

God damn if I wasn't right. As my drinking buddy George Parker mentions over at Adscam, the original AgencySpy has a new blog called gimmethebrief.com. As I've said a zillion times, blogging is, unfortunately, like crack; very hard to give up. I predicted correctly back when she retired in May, " Trust me ... she won't be able to entirely stay away."

The latest McCain ad knock on Obama

You dont' have to know much Spanish to get the point of this new John McCain ad, which the campaign just uploaded to YouTube. Targeted to the Hispanic market, it basically says that in his speech in Berlin, Barack Obama, didn't mention any countries in Latin America. McCain appears briefly at the end to say he approved the message.

Presenting the silence of the CPMs

Why does this offer not seem so appealing?

That Hilton-Spears-Obama ad

In case you haven't seen it, thought I'd post the new John McCain commercial that manages to link Paris Hilton and Britney Spears with Barack Obama, even though, to my knowledge, Obama has never been seen exiting a limo without his panties. The strategy is interesting, to say the least, and an effective tool to target voters who question Obama's leadership abilities. But to many people, this commercial is bound to come off as so much sour grapes since it's doubtful McCain could ever draw a crowd of 200,000 people in Berlin. The problem with knocking Obama for being a celebrity is that Americans love celebrities, and, on a more serious note, many of us would like us to get our international credibility—and swagger—back. In that area, Obama looks like the guy.

Comcast may just get to live

Been wondering when Bob Garfield was going to write something about Comcast's efforts to rectify its lousy customer service image, especially since my man, Frank Eliason, now has the distinction of being pictured on the front page of The New York Times. (Below the fold as I recall, but still ... ) Why Garfield? Because when he's not tearing apart ad campaigns, he runs comcastmustdie.com. So, finally noticed this column declaring "Victory!" this morning, in which Garfield says, "Comcast has institutionalized the practice of listening, in live forums around the country but especially on the internet, to resolve individual problems and learn about the (many, gaping) holes in its customer-service operations." Yeah, I lifted the picture from the Ad Age site. It's funny.

Bronze medals make good coasters

OK, as a former competitive swimmer in a galaxy now far, far away, I'm a sucker for Michael Phelps (and, of course, Dara Torres!). That said, still think this spot for SportsCenter featuring Phelps is worthy, within the great pantheon of SportCenter spots.

Eating up this Shark Week promo

Discovery Channel always does an awesome job of promoting Shark Week, usually in some entirely bizarr-o fashion, such as one element of this year's version--shark-mouthed pedi-cabs in New York. They look best when a few of them are lined up together. I saw this one outside of Bryant Park on Monday, and a whole bunch of others in a row just outside Grand Central. Unfortunately, my picture is too lousy for you guys to see that the pedi-cab drivers are dressed up as lifeguards. Doubt that taking one of these costs anything--except for an arm, and a leg. Ha! Sometimes I just crack myself up.

Aliens heart New Mexico

Sorry not to be blogging much this week. It's been three days since I returned from vacation, and I still haven't finished the laundry! Speaking of vacation, looks like these New Mexico tourism spots are back in rotation. Pretty funny take on the state's quirky rep as being alien-friendly. Also dig the "I (heart) NM" t-shirts that the protagonists from the commercial are wearing in a pic on the Web site.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 07.28.08

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

From Advertising Age:

—CMOs don't keep their jobs long, but while they have them, they make $1.5 million/year.
—Cry a tear for Noxzema.
—Everything you need to know about the Hispanic market.
—GM spends 25 percent of its marketing dollars on digital.
—Verizon, Mars get themselves in hot water.
—This guy wishes Apple would pick a successor.
—Pricewaterhouse Coopers' 2008 global media forecast.
—Miles Young and post-Shelly Lazarus Ogilvy.
—Amit Kapur explains MySpace's music strategy.
—Amazingly, there's hype in the online ad market.
—Unilever dumps those detergent brands.
—Bob Garfield feels that thrill running up his leg about this McCain video.

From Adweek:

—"Strong", "aggressive" Miles Young.
—Spike TV actually gets non-beer advertisers.
—Obama makes an Olympics buy.
—Pete Blackshaw talks up word-of-mouth marketing.
—What's all this about clients taking jobs at agencies?
—When will a sinking campaign suck the wind out of marketing budgets?
—The story behind "Black Boy Wanting Water."
—All about the Jay Chiat Planning Awards.
—Avi Dan asks: "What happened to the madness?"
—Social Media 101.
—Barbara Lippert is right. This Reebok spot from mcgarrybowen rocks. Too bad all it advertises is this lousy t-shirt.

From The New York Post:

—Interview with, among others, Ogilvy's chief diversity officer, talking about fondue. Ha. No, they're talking about diversity dummy!

From The New York Times:

—Stuff most of you don't know about ad exchanges.
—Kewl. Former Google execs launch their own search engine, called Cuil.


Much more to come, when I get a chance later. Friends in town unexpectedly. Must go do lunch.

OK, now it's later, and I never did finish this. Sorry. Post-vzcation re-entry proving arduous.

Things I learned while on vacation

Hi all. For better or worse, I'm back from a 2000-mile road trip that took the family from Ithaca to Niagara Falls to Toronto to Glens Falls to the Berkshires to the South shore of Boston to Cape Cod and back home. A few bits of intel I picked up:

—The "Life Is Good" brand is huge in Massachusetts.
—Ithaca has a better children's museum than Boston.
—Most of the Canadians accept American cash!
—Tim Horton's = Dunkin' Donuts.
—Gas prices are cheapest in New Bedford: $3.89/gallon!

Adverganza's going fishing

Hi all. Sorry not to have posted for a few days, but wanted to let you know that even though I probably won't be posting for the next few weeks, as I'm going on vacation, you'll be in my thoughts, poor working bastards!

Cablevision, Verizon, and me

We just completed installing Cablevision's IO triple play in our household, save for a few particulars like the fact that the WiFi doesn't work, and, all I can say is, man, did we ever earn the alleged savings we'll get for dropping Verizon. It all started about six weeks ago, when Cablevision courted my husband when he called them to subscribe to some European Soccer package. If we signed up for the triple play, they said, we'd get the European Soccer package for free! We told them we'd get back to them—it was more a matter of me not wanting to part with the three voicemail boxes Verizon permits you to have, which come in handy when your home is also your business address.
Then, before I'd had a chance to see if Cablevision offered such a thing, the phone calls came. The cable guy was apparently at our house for the scheduled appointment—the one, of course, that we hadn't scheduled at all, so no one was home.
Then came the calls to "reschedule." And when I say calls, I mean calls. Like multiple calls, every day, at just the wrong time. Most of the time, Cablevision seemed to leave a message, and those messages had two variations: heavy breathing or muzak, as though the people who make calls at Cablevision haven't ever left voicemail before. None of those messages contained human speech.
Finally, one day I was there to pick up the phone: "Well, I want to switch but I just have one question about the voicemail service. Do you guys give people multiple voicemail boxes?"
"I don't know," said the voice on the other end. "I'll find out and call you next week."
The week came and went, with no answer, and continuing calls from Cablevision to reschedule the appointment we'd never scheduled. Finally, one day when they called, I was available to pick up the phone again. "Well, I've been trying to answer the question of whether you guys offer multiple voicemail boxes and no one has ever gotten back to me."
"Oh, let me check on that," said the voice on the other end. After a pause, "No, we don't offer that service."
Since, in the intervening weeks, my brother had told me how complicated he thought the multiple voicemail boxes were anyway, I decided to drop the issue, and give Cablevision my business. There were multiple questions I had to answer, including one about whether I wanted to keep our current phone number (yes, though it's a $40 one-time charge). Then, I was transferred to another department, where, I thought, The Great Scheduling of my installation was about to happen. But I ended up in dead air. "Oh, well," I thought. "At least I know they'll call back."
Within two days, an ExpressMail envelope arrived. It was a one-page letter from Verizon, with a huge "Stop" sign on it, asking me to reconsider before switching my service. There was no turning back.
Finally, a week or so later, after more voicemails filled with either heavy-breathing or Muzak, I was available to answer one of Cablevision's calls. The cable guy would be coming, the very next morning! And he showed up more or less on time!
So, you'd think that the last thing I'd have to do to complete this arduous process is cancel my Verizon DSL service, and I'm trying. Really. But when I called Verizon the other day, they started in with the scare tactics, based on the theory that a shared cable pipe was less secure, and less available, than a single DSL line into the home. They've given me thirty days of free DSL service, even though to use it I'd have to crawl under my desk and start fooling around with any number of phone jacks and filters. Hell, I can't even pick up the phone when Cablevision calls. It's not going to happen.
OK, so that's the story of Cablevision, Verizon and me. After reading this, you may be as exhausted as I am.

Edge Gel Girls ads put the W in weird

These "Edge Gel Girls" ads aren't brand new, but I don't care. I just needed to point out that perhaps whoever created these ads has been watching too many Axe commercials, which doesn't mean that they got the campiness thing down. You can watch one of the commercials above, but I also felt compelled to do a screen grab of part of what the commercial depicts: miniature girls—no higher than the stubble on a guy's face—with little, teeny spray guns running around on some guy's face shooting out lather. Another great scene: when another guy inhales dozens of these miniature Edge girls. It really doesn't get much weirder than this.

Steve Biegel and Dentsu settle

So, looks like what I was hearing last week about Steve Biegel and Dentsu settling was right. Just got a copy of this statement, entitled "Joint Written Statement Regarding the Settlement":

"Today Steve Biegel settled his lawsuit against Dentsu Holdings USA, Inc., Dentsu America, Inc., Toyo Shigeta [at the time the suit was filed CEO, Dentsu Holdings USA], and Timothy Andree [then Dentsu America CEO]. Together the parties are issuing this joint statement regarding the resolution of this dispute. Other than this joint statement, the parties will not comment further about this case or its settlement.

Steve Biegel worked as Senior Vice President, Creative Director for Dentsu, from May 1, 2003 to November 17, 2006. His termination was not performance based, in fact, Toyo Shigeta was generally satisfied with Biegel's performance on behalf of Dentsu's clients.

Certain allegations and public statements were made by all parties in connection with this litigation. Biegel brought claims for discrimination, harassment and retaliation, and Dentsu threatened to bring counterclaims for defamation and fraud which were never asserted. As a result of this settlement, those allegations and claims have been dismissed, including any potential counterclaims that have not been asserted by Dentsu. Both parties retract all public statements.

Any other terms of the settlement shall remain confidential, and the parties have agreed not to disclose anything further regarding this case or its settlement. Through this settlement, both parties wish to put the dispute behind them and move on to successful future endeavors."

I may have more to say on this later, but one part of this statement, in particular, stands out: that Dentsu has now gone back on its claims that Biegel's firing was performance-based, which, if not an admission of guilt, at least begs the question of why someone would be fired if it weren't for performance. The settlement seems to fly in the face of this choice quote from Tim Andree: "If Steve Biegel had exhibited as much creativity and effort when he worked here as he has on manufacturing this frivolous complaint, the company would not have fired him. When I was hired at Dentsu, I insisted on having a mandate to make all hiring and firing decisions. Toyo Shigeta had nothing to do with the decision to fire Biegel. . . . We've told him from the outset that if he felt he had a case, he should file it. It took him a year . . . Now we will file ours."

Far as I can tell, Dentsu never filed a thing.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 07.07.08

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

From Advertising Age:

—Profile of Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton.
—Ad Age's story on the Biegel vs. Dentsu settlement.
—The weather's fine at NBC Universal.
—In China, resistance is futile to the Beijing Olympics.
—Shocker! Advertisers not flocking to "Swingtown."
—Media buyers up on cable, online, and mobile. Down on everything else.
—Line extensions no longer extending the line so well.
—P&G discovers the connection between Buffalo and Cannes.
—Bob Garfield isn't digging the new work for the HP TouchSmart from Goodby. Personally, I think he's being a little rough, though agree a little more demo would've been nice.

From Adweek:

—Microsoft, Carl Icahn team up to oust Yahoo's board.
—J.C. Penney recycles "The Breakfast Club" in its back-to-school campaign. What this world needs is a reminder of Judd Nelson.
—For some reason, MSNBC.com brings back the cyber cafe.
—Q&A with Ed McCabe. You can watch a video of it at this link.

From Mediapost:

—A close-up on the current trends in auto incentives.
—Will convenience stores get eaten by high gas prices?
—The raw food trend comes to pet food.
—Allstate campaign looks to help the middle-class allay its retirement fears.
—New campaign for Loopt, a social mapping service.
—Privacy experts are glad a judge agrees with them that Google has too much information on all of us.
—Forrester: Corporate blogging not all the rage.
—Looking closely at the newspaper business ain't pretty.
—Following in the Manolo Blahniks of "Sex and the City," there will be a "Friends" movie.

From Mediaweek:

—NBC offering cross-platform Olympic measurement.
—Fox orders up an Osbourne variety series. (The link doesn't seem to go anywhere, so I'm not linking to it.)

From The New York Times:

—More on Steve Ballmer and Carl Icahn vs. Jerry Yang.
—Profile of the Facebook guy who works for Obama.
—Dove tries to tighten the ties that bind its products to women's self-esteem.

From The Wall Street Journal:

—General Motors may shed more white-collar jobs, and some brands. Free.
—Ads touting John McCain's energy policies aren't produced by the McCain campaign.

That's all folks.

I've exposed my Twitter addiction

This week in the Social Media Insider, I have let it be known that I am a Twitter addict. Stop me before I tweet again!!! Best part is that the comments that are up so far read like an invitation to a 12-step meeting. Not that I would know about such things, but the way things are going, perhaps I soon will.

Axe spot is misogynist masterpiece

I know you couldn't objectify women to a greater extent than is found in this spot for Axe Detailer, some newfangled thing that gets the dirt and slime off of teen males. Still, I'm laughing my head off. Assume this is from Bartle Bogle Hegarty.

Without Clay Felker, there'd be no Bob Garfield

Barbara Lippert has a wonderful piece about Clay Felker on Adweek.com today, and you really should go read it if you want to remember an era gone by, and perhaps even if you don't. The crux of Barbara's piece is how Felker led her into the world of advertising criticism, a specialty that didn't exist at the time. Says Lippert: "My first review was of a Ralph Lauren print series during the winter. ("You want to wear your best $300 sweater while walking your husky," I said, trying to sound like I knew what I was doing.) ... Clay gave it a whole page--the inside cover. I heard that the competition was literally laughing at giving an ad review so much space in the magazine. ... But before we knew it, our chief competitor had hired a writer to do the same thing." And so it goes. Now, as Lippert points out, everyone, including me, fancies themselves a critic.

The story of Clay Felker and 'Adweek'

You may have seen the obituary of Clay Felker, best known as the editor behind New York magazine. I'm writing about him here because he was also, at what was an admittedly a lesser point in his career, the editor of Adweek. Much of the publication's early 1980s reputation as the cheeky upstart going up against staid Advertising Age, was due to him and his long-time professional partner-in-crime, the graphic designer Milton Glaser. I'm working to get more of a recollection from someone who was there at the time. Will update when and if I can. UPDATE: Here are a few thoughts from Ken Fadner, the current head of Mediapost who was one of the founders of Adweek: "Clay gave me my big break in publishing at New York Magazine. And, much of what was ADWEEK was inspired by him or invented by him. We all owe him a great deal -- but I do, especially." There's a reminiscence from an anonymous poster below, who also talks about Walter Bernard's role in creating Adweek.

Did Dentsu and Steve Biegel settle?

Just got a tip that Dentsu and Steve Biegel may have settled the lawsuit, in which former Dentsu creative director Biegel made allegations of sexual harassment against a Dentsu executive Toyo Shigeta. (As though I need to actually recount any of this stuff for you.) I'm checking out the veracity of the report now, but given how quiet it's been on this front, wouldn't be surprising if it was because the two sides were trying to hammer out a deal. I'll update as soon as I know what's going on. UPDATE: There's nothing about a settlement listed in an online copy of the court docket. That doesn't necessarily mean they haven't settled, but obviously the proof isn't there yet.

Energizer ad reminds me of Cliff Freeman

I've no idea how old/new this commercial is, but more than a little reminiscent of an old campaign that Cliff Freeman did for Philips light bulbs back in the day. In the Freeman spot, note the homage to the Chrysler Building elevators. That's because at the time Cliff was a creative director at Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, which was located in that building. Don't ask me how I know these things—if you know why I know than you know why I know.

Not those Svedka gal-bots again

Please do me a favor and don't ever download the Svedka widget. Thanks.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 06.30.08

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

From Advertising Age: (they don't seem to have put their print issue content up yet, so more to come later, I guess).

—Is a burger from Burger King worth $190?
—How Florida is fighting the possibility of another ad tax.
—Now people can't afford to lose weight.
—Unilever CMO Simon Clift calls P&G's Jim Stengel "a bigger media whore than Madonna." He also says other stuff in this story.
—Discover's media account is in review.

From Adweek:

—Digital shops are sick and tired of not getting credit.
—In case you haven't read enough about the J.C. Penney/Epoch kerfuffle over that "Speed Dressing" ad.
—Building agency cultures that respect both traditional and digital staffers ain't easy.
—Attik's Will Travis is turning Japanese. I really think so.
—Rob Moorman will try to get us to care about Merkley + Partners.
—Interactive polling coming soon to a theater near you.
—The inside scoop on T-Mobile's CGM campaign starring Charles Barkley and Dwyane Wade.
—Steve Lambert is replacing online ads with contemporary art. Check out his Add Art project here.
—Benjamin Palmer on why the Internet is finally here to stay.
—Barbara Lippert plays around with 42 Entertainment's "Year Zero" game for Nine Inch Nails.
—Only four out of 56 agencies who filled out Report Card questionnaires do paid search on their own names.
—Digitas becomes a third Publicis global media brand.


From Brandweek:

—Trying to put a value on word-of-mouth marketing.
—Ford Flex uses novellas to reach Hispanic consumers.
—MTV adds metrics like awareness and purchase intent to the good ol' CPM.

From Mediapost:

—Fourth of July celebrations may be recession-proof.
—Why Virgin Mobile bought Helio.
—Cartier enters MySpace.
—Shocker! Edmunds.com revises its annual car sales estimate downward.
—EMI way into the copyright infringement lawsuits.
—Here's one guy who will be going on a road trip this summer.
—The FCC mulls whether product placement deals should be disclosed. As I know my opinion matters, I think they should be.
—Zenith Optimedia ups its forecast for global and online spending for 2008, downgrades North American spending.
—Anheuser-Busch will slash costs, but not marketing spending. Ad industry, drink up!
—WPP doesn't want to mess with Robert Mugabe.
—The FTC is happy with the alcohol industry.

From Mediaweek:

—Fast-food, packaged goods gorge on cable ad deals.
—Metrics, schmetrics. Digital ad buyers aren't all hot and bothered about Google's new Web metrics.
—Fewer people want to drive to the newsstand to buy a magazine.
—VH1's "Love Money" wants to superpoke you.
—Gas Station TV tells advertisers to switch to 15-second spots.

From The New York Post:

—MTV finally decides to compete with iTunes.

From The New York Times:

—Lots of people are whining about spilled milk.
—Google to distribute Web-only content from "The Family Guy" guy.
—Yahoo says that Carl Icahn "misrepresents the manner in which we negotiated with Microsoft."

From The Wall Street Journal:

—Despite the unfunny economy, Sealy finds humor in selling mattresses. Free.
—Everybody went to see "Wall-E" this weekend (except for me ... I saw "Kung Fu Panda.") Subscription required.

Since Ad Age still doesn't seem to have posted its full June 30 print issue content, I might go back and update its section later. Or maybe not. I got things to do, people.

Bronze Lion, Epoch hardly knew ye

So the J.C. Penney debacle has reached its ignominious end. Cannes has withdrawn the Bronze Lion awarded last week to production company Epoch Films, which created, and submitted, the unauthorized J.C. Penney ad "Speed Dressing" to the award show. (A clip of it is above, which, like the first one, will probably get taken off YouTube.) There are many dumbelinas in this tale of award lust, but I'd give the top award to Epoch for actually thinking they could get away with this, although it's surprising that the commercial didn't raise a little bit of an eyebrow with the people who run the Cannes Ad Festival or with the jury which judged it. The premise of the commercial is completely implausible coming from an advertiser like J.C. Penney. Abercrombie & Fitch, maybe, but J.C. Penney? And even if the commercial had a less racy subject matter, you have to wonder why Epoch would submit it to an award show. If it won, it was only going to put a spotlight on the fact that the production company acted without the ok of its agency, Saatchi, or the client, J.C. Penney, and that can't help its reputation with them or with other prospective clients. There was no upside for Epoch for winning a statue over this commercial, even if it didn't feature teens in states of un-dress. As for the jury, they may be least responsible, though they also shouldn't feel good about this. As Cannes jury contain people from all over the world, they may not have gotten how discordant this commerical was for this particular brand. OK, time to move on.

Honda wants to know how you do it yourself

The Honda Pilot is sponsoring a do-it-yourself contest on YouTube, where people submit videos of do-it-yourself projects, with the best submission winning $15,000 in cold, hard cash. (One professionally-produced video, I think shot by Honda, is above.) Oh, you want to know what this has to do with a Honda Pilot? Not all that much, though there's an attempt at linkage in the copy about the contest: "The new Pilot from Honda. Ride it like a toolbox: the trailer-hitching, eight-person-seating, MP3-playing, safety-equipping, hill-start-assisting handyman of the road."

Yes, you can subscribe to Adverganza

Thought I'd put up an Adverganza feed a long time ago, but someone—can't remember who—got in touch earlier this week to ask where my feed was, and I discovered I didn't have one. Horrors! You can see the link at the top right. I suppose you could blame me for being so lazy (no, wait busy!), but I think I'll just blame Google for the fun of it. Now go subscribe people!

Director's cut of Nike's "Take it to the NEXT LEVEL"

Nike Football has made the wise decision to post a 3-minute director's cut (the director being Guy Ritchie) of the "Take It to the Next Level" film that currently has about 3 million views on YouTube. This one is even better, because Ritchie gets to extend the concept--which is the world seen through the eyes of a world-class soccer player--in more ways off the field. Take a look.

What's so special about Cadbury's "Gorilla"?

Most of you are probably over Cannes, and I am too, except that I never got to muse (I mean rant) about the perplexing choice of Cadbury's "Gorilla", from Fallon London, as a Grand Prix winner for Film. According to this story, the Film jury picked it, among other reasons, because it "defies the conventions of the category," by not showing chocolate. True enough, I guess, but there's nothing particularly new about commercials that de-emphasize showing the product. The fact that in this case it was the confectionery category is merely an interesting aside. The jury chair, JWT worldwide chief creative officer Craig Davis of JWT, even went so far as to call the spot "courageous." In a commercial world already inundated with talking lizards and babies who trade stocks, what's so special about a gorilla who drums? It's not a bad commercial. It has great momentum, and a lot of amusing quirks, such as when the gorilla seems to be trying to work the kinds out of his neck, but at the end of the day, "Gorilla" is nothing more than a very well-crafted gimmick. Even in a tie--with T.A.G./McCann Worldgroup's much more deserving "Halo 3" campaign for xBox--it is in no way the best spot of the year.

Weirdest Old Spice ad of the centaur-y

More ridiculousness from Old Spice. Beginning to think that the team at Wieden + Kennedy who does this stuff is really into the controlled substances.

Emphatically not into Enfatico ad

You pretty much never see an agency buy an online display ad to promote itself, and that's not a good thing. In fact, the first time I've ever seen this done came today, from Enfatico, the new all-Dell agency created by WPP, and to me it seems crazily off strategy. (I found it on the Adweek home page.) The ad, at left, would seem to exist to attract clients, and yet, the agency's first, and probably only, priority in the near-term is to concentrate on Dell. Maybe the ad was meant to recruit talent, but all it does is link to the Enfatico home page. Why does this exist? Branding? Why do you need to brand when you're Dell's house agency?

Does this ad hit or miss the Target?

God, I love contextual advertising.

Here's that fake J.C. Penney commercial

Before this JC Penney commercial that's entirely fake and is causing controversy gets taken down, here it is. Here's the chain of blame, J.C. Penney isn't pleased with ots agency, Saatchi, which says it is unauthorized work done by the production studio, Epoch Films. Now, where can Epoch point?

Adverganza's Tuesday morning picks, 06.24.08

Wherein I scan the Monday and Tuesday morning headlines on Tuesday because I was not in the office yesterday.

From Advertising Age:

—Ad spending flat, flat, flat.
—Shocker! Some people have anti-trust concerns about Yahoo and Google's partnership.
—Even the Toyota Corolla isn't selling.
—OMFG! Some people don't like this CW promo.
—In the U.K., men can love their ketchup. Just not each other.
—An interview with the Washington Post's Katherine Weymouth.
—In the wake of the iPhone, pity the poor, has-been iPod.
—Hugh Laurie loves his Burger King gold card.

From Adweek:
—One Laptop per Child isn't just a byte dream.
—Kraft may be shifting the deck chairs a bit more.
—Are personal care ads too honest?
—Marketers are pitching products to young voters via new technologies, even if politicians aren't (see below).
—Will jerseys in sports other than soccer start to carry logos?
—Search outfit Outrider opens a social media practice.
—New York Public Library opens a show about famous ad execs.
—With HBO's "Voyeur" the talk of Cannes town, why didn't it win the big prizes?
—Tangerine Toad's (aka Alan Wolk) Adweek column debut, "You Are Not My Friend." Well, I like to think he's one of mine.
—Barbara Lippert is all smiles about Saatchi's new work for Crest.
—Jonah Bloom mops up Cannes, figuratively speaking, luckily.

From Brandweek:
—The SuperBrands home page. And a video that answers the question, "What Is a SuperBrand?"
—How AT&T could benefit from the latest iPhone price cut.
—MadCrazyLove for Lincoln's MKS Sedan.

From Mediapost:

—Fox partners with Passenger, not MySpace for a community built around its TV shows.
—Just what the world needs: another ad auction service.
—Vera Wang blogs.
—"Peanut Butter Manifesto" author at Yahoo, takes his jar of Skippy elsewhere.
—IPG lets Alan Cohen go free.
—Gannett buys a stake in Cozi.
—Google launches an ad planner, freaking everyone out.
—Gavin O'Malley on yesterday's OMMA Social.
—Martin Sorrell may not like Google, but it has the best corporate reputation.
—Not sure anyone cares, but PIC Media divorced Interpublic.

From Mediaweek:

—Once again, the presidential candidates are slow to grasp online advertising.
—The impact of DVRs on TV viewing is getting stronger.
—The top editor at The Washington Post resigns.

From The New York Post:

—Yahoo has 700 jobs open.

From The New York Times:

—The cable nets are up 7 to 8 percent in the upfront.

From The Wall Street Journal:

—Visa opens up shop on Facebook. Subscription required for some silly reason, because the Journal picked this up from the AP, which is a long way of saying you can read it for free here.
—The kerfuffle about that fake J.C. Penney ad.


More to come ...

Get ready for Adverganza's Tuesday morning picks!

I'm the emcee of Mediapost's OMMA Social tomorrow at the Yale Club, which will pretty much eat up my Adverganza blogging time, so I'll do the Monday morning picks on Tuesday, complete with late-breaking headlines! You may see a few posts from me over at the Mediapost Raw blog today, so check it out if you're so inclined. Back at ya on Tuesday.