Adverganza's Tuesday morning picks, 09.02.08

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

From Advertising Age (from what I can tell at this writing, no Labor Day print edition):

—Hungry for deals? Here's a close-up on the Wendy's dollar menu.
—Honeyshed names Stephen Greifer CEO; buzzes beyond hive. (Bee metaphor!)
—Attempt to rationalize John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin as VP nominee.
—ABC's "Pushing Daisies" lets people eat pie.

From Adweek:

—John McCain wins gold medal in the Olympics. Barack Obama does better in the overall.
—Go experience the Army, in a Philadephia mall.
—Gerri Graf hires people from Goodby, comic books.
—What Sarah Jessica Parker, Stan and Cartman, have in common.
—The CW lives, on mobile devices.
—TNS, you have until Sept. 12.
—The AARP advertises that U.S. medical care sucks.
—Lisa Colantuono and Leslie Winthrop tell you how to thrive in touch times.
—Alan Wolk opines: "The real digital revolution has nothing to do with advertising or marketing. In fact, it's the mortal enemy of both." Yikes.
—Barbara Lippert on Microsoft's new endorser: " ... the company has hired Jerry Seinfeld as its pitchman. Really? Was Michael Bolton busy?"

From Brandweek:

—Fast food companies advertise that times are tough.
—Papa John's pushes the specialty pizza.
—Consumer-generated media is not dead, thanks to Samsung.
—Bulgari wants to shine at the Breeders' Cup.
—We're loving coupons more than we used to.
—Coke turns the conventions green.

From Mediapost:

—MassMutual is so damn responsible.
—AT&T lets fans pick best college football player of the week, via texting, of course.
—Edmunds.com says August car sales won't add up to being quite as bad as it thought. Trust me, it's nothing to get too excited about.
—Nastia Liukin for Vanilla Star Jeans.
—LaDainian Tomlinson loves his Campbell's Soup.
—Target makes its site more blind-friendly.
—"90201" promo gets around.
—Those new IAB formats are said to rock.
—MediaVest starts an Impact Circle of less-than-higher-ups who get to shake the place up. Sounds like fun.
—ESPN admits it was tuned into NBC's Olympics.
—Look who wants to buy a Reed Elsevier trade pub.

From Mediaweek:

—Nielsen reveals first out-of-home TV ratings. It's about time, wouldn't you say?
—Women's Health editrix Tina Johnson is leaving the Rodale pub.
—Style.com flips on an online shopping channel.

From The New York Post:

—The TV networks don't have much to promote, but promote they are.
—Look for Nastia Liukin to score a book deal.
—The Google Chrome Web browser. Don't get that name at all.

From The New York Times:

—More on Google Chrome.
—Target to debut Manhattan "pop-up" stores.
—Google cozies up to ad agencies. Great Rob Norman quote basically saying that the death of media planners is greatly exaggerated: “I think there still may be at least one human media planner left, other than the one that pulls the handle on the Google machine.”

From The Wall Street Journal:

—Lipitor ads after the drop-kick of Robert Jarvik. Subscription required.
—Wilmington, North Carolina first city to go totally digital. Subscription required.

OK, have a good one. Sorry the summer's over, but it's beyond even my formidable blogging powers to change that sad fact.

Adverganza's gone fishin' again

Hi all. I'll be on the beach for a few days, so don't think I'll be posting. See ya after Labor Day!

TBS' funny ads, not made here

I'll probably be flipping between the Mets/Phillies game tonight and the Democratic National Convention, but you can go watch TBS' "World's Funniest Commercials" tonight at 9. I screened a few this morning—as though I have nothing better to do today—and none were from the U.S. What does it all mean, I ask ya? Kevin Nealon, who is not our nation's best humor export, hosts.

Measuring Bogusky's "9 inch 'Diet'"

Still pondering Alex Bogusky's decision to write a diet book with the support of his partner-in-crime, Chuck Porter. And despite musings about its raison d'etre, from reading yesterday's Ad Age, it seems unlikely that the book is part of some viral marketing stunt for Domino's so intricate it is beyond the understanding of mere advertising mortals. As the magazine points out, the book was listed among its publisher's titles before Bogusky's agency, Crispin, Porter + Bogusky won the Domino's account. Here's part of its description on Amazon: "With years of experience manipulating the masses, two of the best tricksters in the industry explain how you as a consumer are being duped, and how you are actually a part of the conspiracy to make you fat. But more importantly, they teach you how to break the cycle." One would think that might include not stopping so often at Burger King and Domino's, though the book's title, "The 9 Inch 'Diet'" focuses mostly on using a smaller plate to make you feel as though you are consuming more food than you actually are. Maybe Bogusky has won a 9-inch plate client?
Still, take a look at that book description: "How you as a consumer are being duped"? If that doesn't scream to Domino's and Burger King that (at least) a stern talking to is in order with Mr. Bogusky, I don't know what does. However, the perverse genius of the situation is that all fast food organizations these days have to give, pun intended, lip service to healthier eating. They can't openly protest the book's premise that perhaps we are eating too much and that corporate America has much to do with it.
The situation reminds me of a client conflict situation that ended badly for Saatchi & Saatchi back in the day, weeks after I had left the agency in the late 1980s. Saatchi had prepared a commercial for Northwest Airlines showing passengers cheering the fact that Northwest had decided to ban smoking on all domestic flights. RJR Nabisco, another Saatchi client for which the agency actually didn't handle any tobacco brands, got so pissed off it pulled $100 million in business from Saatchi, a move that, at the time, made the front page of The New York Times. No one came out in support of RJR, but I imagine what mattered most to Saatchi was keeping the account. Even if Bogusky has an excellent point to make with this book, if Domino's or Burger King mysteriously leave Crispin, you probably wouldn't go wrong to blame it on the book.

Adverganza's Monday morning picks, 08.25.08

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

From Advertising Age:

—Jonah Bloom is back from Africa and boy, he's depressed.
—Close-up on that Alex Bogusky and Chuck Porter diet book. Yes, if you've been on the beach, they really are writing a diet book, called "The 9-Inch Diet Book."
—A company that sells potatoes on "Why McCain Should Be in the White House."
—Now's the time to be in the CRM business.
—Ad Age gives the gold in buzz to Speedo.
—Would Microsoft sell Avenue A/Razorfish to WPP in exchange for 24/7 Media? Hell if I know.
—Value add from Beijing: NBC starts to figure out how to measure overall video consumption.
—Bob Garfield awards only 1.5 stars to the new United Airlines commercial, based on the fact that no one will feel better about flying just because the client's ad agency can commission a mean animated frog.

From Adweek:

—Lots of depressing research reports. Maybe hold off on reading 'til after Labor Day.
—The first multi-platform broadcast of the International Paralympic Games.
—Brian Morrissey on Google's attempts to change the TV ad market. Come out from under the covers people. You don't have to be that scared.
—The blogosphere gives a Bronx cheer to Jerry Seinfeld's ad deal with Microsoft.
—In advertising, is "50 the new 65?"
—Wieden looks for top creatives. Not apparently as easy as it sounds.
—Glen Engler becomes head of Digitas Boston.
—Benjamin Palmer teaches User Experience 101.
—Joseph Jaffe no longer flies Delta Air Lines, if he can help it.
—Barbara Lippert gives high marks for execution, low marks for completion, for The Climate Protection Alliance.

From Brandweek:

—Interview with Scion's Jeri Yoshizu.
—Apparently, it's not too early to start marketing pushes around Halloween.
—Procter & Gamble emphasizes value in Cascade push.

From Mediapost:

—How Stop 'n' Shop and Giant are fighting back against the evil supercenters.
—Audi lands an app on the iPhone.
—More evidence that in a down economy, people drink more. Present company excluded, of course.
—What? Banks still suck at customer service?
—Interpublic, Socialvibe, to friend each other.
—Q&A with Barry Herstein, new CMO of PayPal.

From Mediaweek:

—The NBC Olympics: the most-watched television event ever.
—Magazines looking for CPM increases in 2009, because their expenses are high. Is that the way this is supposed to work?
—Facebook's new Engagement Ads.
—Erwin Ephron on working in advertising, circa 1966.
—Paula, Randy, Simon and ... Kara?

From The New York Times:

—Stuart Elliott gives out his Olympic ad medals; disagrees with Bob Garfield about those United ads.
—Can LinkedIn help unemployed screenwriters?
—Refrigerator, TV havin' a little chit-chat.
—Dick Ebersol on why NBC's Olympics were such a success.

From The Wall Street Journal:

—And now the dark side of NBC's Olympics: only $5.75 million in online ad vid revenue. Free.
—Rafael Nadal gets a pre-U.S. Open makeover. Free.

That's it for today. See ya tomorrow.

Do 'Mad Men' characters have time to Twitter?

It's time to spend a little quality time on the subject of whether all of these "Mad Men" characters showing up on Twitter are part of an AMC marketing stunt. I first became aware there was an @don_draper on Twitter from Alan Wolk, so I decided to follow him. He's elusive, as you might expect, and keeps popping out of the office for extended periods of time. Then, last night, I got an email that Peggy Olson was following me. Peggy is much more prolific on Twitter—work has been keeping her up at night. Pete Campbell, Bertram Cooper and a couple of other characters seem to be tweeting away too. When it was just Don Draper, I thought this was a late-summer time-waster. Now I'm not so sure, although, on the other hand, it isn't exactly in keeping with the series' slavish devotion to retro to embrace a newfangled online service like Twitter.

Think twice before you complete the "Triple Play"

Those of you who follow me on Twitter, or read my earlier post on Cablevision, Verizon and me, have no doubt gathered that I've been in the midst of an infrastructural makeover.
And what a disaster it has been.
For awhile, my husband and I courted the overtures from Cablevision to switch to the "triple play" of Internet, cable and phone service for a low, low $89.85 per month, and finally switched from Verizon. And, though I have never professed any particular love for Verizon, which seems to always find a way to get the bill you worked to reduce back to its previous level and beyond, I'm now wishing I'd never made the switch.
Here's the deal: the moment we installed our cable modem, the wireless connection went haywire. Either it didn't work at all, went offline for no reason, or, in the weirdest of its permutations, would be working, as would the cable modem, but mysteriously keep the computer from being able to go online.
I consider my wireless connection important. It helps me work at night, particularly when it's time to put the kids to bed and I don't want to keep them awake with the continuing clatter of the keyboard from my upstairs office, located way too close to their bedrooms. Yes, that's one reason I haven't been blogging as much— I can't take the laptop downstairs.
In the weeks since early July when we made the switch, I've been told various reasons for why this situation exists from the two sides involved: that something was wrong with the Ethernet cable (I went to a Cablevision walk-in center and picked up a new one), that cable modems have problems with electrical surges and go out more than DSL lines (you can guess whether it was NetGear or Cablevision which told me that). You get the drift. Cablevision promised me I'd save money by switching, and yet, here I am, almost two months later, with a non-working router, which seems only fixable by buying a new router for at the very least $50.00 (but probably more) and countless hours trying to fix the problem. Cablevision keeps saying that the problem with my router is not its problem, but all I know is that my router worked just fine until the very moment the cable modem entered the picture. The company seems to forget it is in the customer service business. It promised me it would save me money. In fact, it is costing me money, and time, and aggravation after weeks and weeks of trying to court me. So far, my pleas to them to give me a discount in the amount it will cost me to buy a new router have gone unheeded. And yet, I've checked the Web site. There is no disclaimer that I could find that said, oh, by the way, if you switch, and your wireless router goes awry, it's not our problem. There is nothing in the reference guide that discloses this either. But here I am, left holding the bag on a problem that started because I took Cablevision up on its offer. I talked to a very nice supervisor tonight named Jordan, but he's off duty until Sunday. In the meantime, I can't take it anymore, and am set to buy a new router tomorrow. After all the crap I've gone through, I may not see this as objectively as many of you, but what do you guys think? Should Cablevision reimburse me for the trouble I've gone through to give them my business?

Dove's campaign for "The Women"

I like skincare products. Lots of 'em. So, when Dove emailed me to say it would send me a basket of goodies and a pair of free movie tickets to a flick called "The Women", I said yes. And now I'm blogging about it. So there. (I'll never get to actually go to the movie, BTW. Seeing a movie outside of the house is beyond my current abilities.) Dove has invested heavily in promoting what looks like the ultimate chick flick, in that it features, among others, Meg Ryan, Bette Midler, Annette Bening and Jada Pinkett-Smith. Dove is hosting a whole bunch of videos about the movie on its site here, and promoting it via emails to bloggers-with-no-standards who will post for the sake of free skincare products. Ha! Apparently, the movie deals with many issues that have been the focus of "The Campaign for Real Beauty." If it seems unsynergistic that Ryan--who became a poster-child for bad plastic surgery--is behind this movie, look the other way, though she looks a bit more natural in these vids than she has in years.

Sanjaya is here, if you care

Sorry not to have been blogging much lately. It's because of a weird combination of lots of work and lots of play colliding in such a way that squeezing in time for Adverganza has been difficult. OK, so here, finally, like about a year and a half after he was the talk of the Idol-o-sphere, is Sanjaya in that Nationwide commercial. Yes, there is an appearance by his faux-hawk. Sometimes, when I link to commercials like this, I wonder if I'm, like, codependent or something.

Adverganza's Tuesday morning picks, 08.19.08

Wherein I scan the Tuesday morning headlines because I goofed off yesterday.

From Advertising Age (no print issue this week):

—Remember account reviews? No one ever writes about them anymore. Well, Stella Artois is in review.
—You're shit out of luck if you want to see a preview of the new 90210.
—Maybe people don't run away screaming from pre-rolls.
—Users more and more and more satisfied with Google.
—Influential mad women talk at the Women to Watch luncheon.

From Adweek:

—SAG and AFTRA talk about a contract. Blah.
—Huge power company simplifies agency pitching process!
—J&R Music World discovers this thing called an ad agency and picks Toy.
—Time Warner Cable looks to take its media account out of the house.
—Fox unveils a Hispanic wiki.
—Barbara Lippert on why political ads airing on the Olympics don't fit the Olympics zeitgeist.
—What Commercial Alert doesn't like about Olympic sponsorships.
—All about Steffan Postaer's second novel.
—Tom Bedecarre's rose-tinted glasses.
—What Harvey Marco plans to do at JWT N.Y.
—Axe's foray into branded entertainment.
—JWT's Tom Doctoroff from inside the Bird's Nest.

From Brandweek:

—Dow XLA is the new Spandex, in case you were looking for a new Spandex.
—No more red carpets for GM.
—Allegedly, credit card companies aren't sending out as much as direct mail. Yeah, right.

From Mediapost:

—Microsoft invades Sheraton lobbies.
—No new bookbags or shoes for school kiddies.
—Everyone loves Benadryl. In fact, I'll be buying some later today.
—The cute little Ford Ka rides with James Bond.
—Nielsen looks for better ways to measure DVR viewing.
—Will the Tribune Co. default in 2009?
—Gannett tells 1,000 staffers to hit the road.
—The Banana Splits are back!
—This economic downturn is so powerful it's changing our belief systems. Whew.
—Economic downturns don't mean it's time to let the pet get sick.
—Westin's Heavenly Bed coming to United Airlines.
—Levi's unbuttons for art.
—ABC takes over TV Guide. Temporarily, anyway.
—Magna Global's Steve Sternberg is steamed about Olympic ratings not including numbers for individual events.
—Soon to come: a British version of "The Apprentice." Fortunately, the Donald will stay on this side of the pond.

From Mediaweek:

—MSN debuts "The Republicrats." Yeah, it's about Republicans, presidential elections, stuff like that. Can't imagine where they got the idea.
—Washington Post, Newsweek with the major political convention video streams.

From The New York Post:

—Some guy I should probably know called Ed Castillo blogs about "Mad Men."
—Nautica gets a lot of sweat equity out of Misty May-Treanor's head band. Personally, I think most people spend more time looking at her Nike bikini.
—This Olympics is all about the gals.
—Who cares about his leg. What will happen to Liu Xiang's endorsement deals?

From The Wall Street Journal:

—Coke plies the Chinese with Coke. Free.
—Barnes & Noble pissed at Amazon, Obama. Free.
—Now the race is on for Michael Phelps endorsement deals. What a predictable metaphor. Free.
—Olympic ads compete in tug of heartstrings. Free.

Where are the Monday morning picks?

Due to this situation called me and the kids are having too much fun in Rhode Island, I'll be posting the picks tomorrow, as in Tuesday. Wish us no traffic on I-95. As my cousin's daughter says, "Peace out!"

Love that collapsing Parthenon!

Not sure what this spot is doing for General Electric, but the 10-year-old loves it. Via Funnyplace.org.

Look at the cute little Coke birdies!

Wondering if this Coke commercial—featuring little blobby birds making a bird's nest to replicate the Olympic stadium—is too cute by half, but it fits nicely in the "Happiness Factory" oeuvre. I've seen another version at this link (it starts about 1:45 in the link), where there are lyrics, but for some reason, it comes off to me as confusing. Via Wieden + Kennedy, methinks.

When am I going to be in a Gap ad?

So, was reading this morning in Ad Age about Gap's return to advertising. Reminded me that, the other day, whilst driving up the West Side Highway (travel advisory: if you miss the very confusing turn off on I-78 to get on the New Jersey Turnpike going north, you might end up at Chelsea Piers), I saw a ginormous billboard featuring four models wearing denim bell bottoms. The clothes actually looked cool--not at all conservative. Anyway, apparently the campaign is almost celebrity-free, featuring Liv Tyler and a few "lesser-known 'style makers'" per Ad Age. One of these is a blogger named Scott Schuman (right), who apparently runs something called The Sartorialist. It doesn't hurt that he's kinda good looking. Back here at Adverganza Estates, I still await my moment in the sun, but given my preference for t-shirts from dead dot-coms, and five-year-old shorts from Old Navy, it ain't happenin' anytime soon.

What if synchronized divers blogged?

So, David Churbuck of Lenovo pointed out on Twitter this morning that the company is hosting blogs from 100 Olympic athletes. I did the obvious—a search for Michael Phelps' posts—but apparently the guy ain't got time to blog. Still, good idea, in keeping with a company that is a Chinese sponsor of the Olympics that makes computers. You can also follow Olympians at lenovo2008 on Twitter. Unfortunately, no posts from synchronized divers. Really want to know if synchronized divers do everything in tandem. Like, if synchronized divers did blog, would they simultaneously type out the exact same posts? My head is exploding.

Redmond comes up lame, but not Visa

I like this Visa commercial airing on the Olympics featuring Derek Redmond because, well, the guy loses the race. Now you could get all treacly on me and go on about how, since his father comes out and helps him limp across the finish line he didn't really lose, but face it people, his hamstring popped. Good counterbalance to the usual Olympic hype.

Pepto-Bismol hopes stomaches are viral

Pepto-Bismol has just posted this with the intent of it going viral. It's not awful, but basically looks like a commercial that no one had the cojones to edit. Nice pink-themed office though. Created by Publicis.

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!