Caffeinated posts from a copywriter/adgrunt. I write about advertising, design, astronomy, cooking, and pretty much anything else that strikes my fancy, including random bits of reference info for work purposes. You may also know me as 'that other gal' who helps run Adland. | make contact | RSS Feed | ATOM

Saturday, May 29, 2004
[ Blurbs and 'Erbs ]

+ Update on the Miller vs. Bud story over at Adland. It's heating up. (yah, I'm being lazy, but hey it's Saturday, and we've got the ads to see there- so go visit.)

+ Targeting the aging consumer- "From travel to fitness, finance to cosmetics, cars to mobile phones, advertisers are tapping into the grey consumer market, and senior models are in hot demand.
"The grey consumer is getting stronger and stronger in Germany," said Höhs. "It is essential that this market is able to identify with models in TV and internet commercials. If they don't, then they will not buy. Or not as much as they could, as far as their spending capacity goes."" Definitely an interesting read. And it makes sense. If you've got an aging generation, especially baby boomers and the like, who don't see themselves as "old fuddy-duddys" then the advertising to them should reflect how they see themselves.

+ Coca-Cola, one of the official sponsors of the Euro 2004 tournament, have printed different labels for each of the 16 teams in the tournament.

So when a typo on Danish Coca-Cola bottles diminished what is considered in Sweden as one of its greatest sports feats, it had some Swedes seeing red – especially because the two Scandinavian nations play in Group C at the upcoming Euro 2004.
The culprit is a factual error on Euro 2004 commemorative labels on Coke bottles sold in Denmark, which claim Bulgaria won the bronze medal in the 1994 World Cup.
In Sweden, everyone knows it was the Swedes who finished third. The country beat Bulgaria 4-0 to claim the bronze.
"For us who live in Sweden, this is obviously a catastrophic error," said Magnus Nelin, spokesman for Coca-Cola's Swedish branch.
His Danish counterpart, Kenth Kaerhoeg, said the mistake was unintentional, and blamed it on the advertising agency in charge of printing the labels.

Hahahaha. Woopsie! I can't believe that no one noticed the mistake before it got printed. Hard to believe it was unintentional. But you never know.

+ Advertising washes up on the shore in a bottle. An interesting "new" way to advertise. Heh.

Friday, May 28, 2004
[ Fabulous Fridays ]

+ Ads have branded big names on our brains- This article takes a look at the claim made by Deutsche Bank in the US stating that TV advertising doesn't work for mature brands. Yet the author of the article,Richard Tomkins, doesn't quite agree. Here's an excerpt:

People absorb information both actively and passively. Some knowledge you seek, other knowledge you absorb through "implicit" learning without even knowing it is happening. According to Heath, brand communications fell mostly into the second category: although often ignored at the conscious level, they were absorbed through an automatic, subconscious mental activity known as low involvement processing.

The way long-term memory worked, the more often an idea was processed alongside a brand, the more it became associated with that brand. "And because implicit memory is more durable than explicit memory," Heath said, "these brand associations, once learnt, are rarely forgotten."

So, even more shocking than the revelation that TV advertising does not work is that it does - and without our even knowing it. Just as we always suspected, we are being brainwashed.

Brainwashed. Heh. But it is a good point that you cannot just stop advertising on TV. Plus, as Tomkins points out in the article, if your competitors continue advertising on TV and you pull the plug, they are going to have an advantage over you. And beyond TV advertising, brand choices are also ingrained from a young age depending on what products your parents used, friends used, and many other aspects. Stating that TV advertising doesn't work and claiming it to be a fact, well, that's just not looking at the big picture and is a rather silly remark to make.

+ Catfight between Miller and AB- Exerpt:

Miller Brewing Co. has gone to court to stop its competitor Anheuser-Busch Cos. from advertising activities that Miller claims are damaging its sales.

Miller filed a motion for a preliminary injunction Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

The motion alleges that St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, maker of Budweiser, has included in its recent "Unleash the Dawgs" campaign numerous activities that hurt Miller's sales.

Distributors allegedly are placing 3-by-5 stickers on Miller Lite products that contain phrases "Queen of Carbs" and "Owned by South African Breweries," according to the motion.

Miller also provided photos to the court of Miller Lite with stickers that bear the Bud Light logo and say, "All light beers are low in carbs. Choose on Taste."

I find this hilarious. Can you take a competitor to court because their advertising is hurting your sales? Isn't that a part of the world of business? Maybe it's just worded incorrectly- and the big issue is that they are stickering (yeah I just made up a new verb!) product that isn't theirs. I can see that being a more legitimate complaint. But it's still amusing.

+ Room at the top(free reg required) takes a look at Kate Stanners- one of London's top female creatives- "What has been described as the advertising industry's dirty little secret - the fact that creative departments are 83% male, a figure which, depressingly, is slightly up on the ratio 15 years ago - seems to make no sense at all. It is a question that pursues Stanners, who at her previous agency, St Luke's, and at her newly formed company, boymeetsgirl, has made advertisements for five different beers (the Jeff Goldblum "Anagrams" Holsten Pils campaign in the early 1990s was hers), Chrysler Jeeps and many other perfectly macho products." It's sad really. The fact that it's 2004 and we're still stuck with disproportionate gender figures in creative departments. I do think it's true though that it is harder for women to balance the work and family in an agency setting...the hours alone can be tough. It's something to work on.

+ Cleavage exploitative of and degrading to dental nurses.In New Zealand an ad for Cool Charm deodorant takes place in a dentist office, where the dentist is having trouble getting his patient to open wide enough.

+ DMC has released a viral for the the International Fund for Animal Welfare, created together with Velocity and produced by Maverick Media. Upon seeing the ad, it made me think of Trigger Happy TV.
Thursday, May 27, 2004
[ Rock on ]

+ "Trojan condoms has paid £100,000 for a 20-second advertising slot during the first episode of 'Big Brother' this Friday, promising viewers to bring the first orgasm to British television.
The spot has been created by Media Therapy as part of the "Faces" campaign, which promotes Trojan's "shared pleasure" condoms. In a move that would have the late Mary Whitehouse up in arms, the ad will show a couple having sex, focusing on a woman having an orgasm.
The ad was created by Neale Hunt, creative director at Media Therapy, and art director Andy Tye. It was directed by Ed Robinson through the Viral Factory.
Coaxing the actors to give realistic performances proved to be a challenge for the creative team. Hunt said: "Can you imagine sitting opposite 20 guys and asking to see their most intimate orgasm face? But I have to say, Ed Robinson was the man, he was a complete genius."" Shame the campaign is very similar to another campaign by Coco De Mer.

+ Sarah Jessica Parker falls into the Gap as their new spokesperson. "She will make her Gap debut in a fall marketing campaign that will break this August, via Laird + Partners in New York, on TV and in print...TV spots will air on all major networks, spot markets and cable beginning in late August, as well as on networks in Canada and Japan. Print work will appear in September magazines on sale in mid-August. The effort will tie in with Gap's 35th anniversary umbrella campaign, with Parker as the featured player, both alone and in conjunction with other artists."

+ Adweek reports on the D&AD festival. Only two black pencils were awarded...and they went to Johnson Banks,UK for its "Fruit and Veg" stamps for client Royal Mail in the graphic design category and Tourismus and Congress GmbH of Germany with its "Ship of Ideas" execution for Atelier Markgraph in the category of environmental design and architecture. ""There's no doubt agencies have done better work in the past," said Leagas Delaney's Tim Delaney, who was a judge in the writing for advertising category. A lot of craft has gone away. Print's gone to a whole visual thing. Headlines are virtually non-existent."" A good number of silver pencils were handed out.
Check out the winners here.

+ Will Kiwis beat out the Aussies at Cannes? "During the early 1990s Australia was rated highly for its witty, intelligent and well crafted TV campaigns and print work but in recent years its creative reputation has fallen away.
South Africa, Scandinavia, Holland and New Zealand meanwhile have emerged as the new upstarts to challenge the dominant Cannes winners: North America, Britain and to some extent, Brazil.
"New Zealand will clean up," predicts Michael Lynch, the publisher of the Australian advertising bible for creatives, Campaign Brief. "There's only a couple of agencies really bothering about creative here. They're the usual suspects: DDB, BMF, Saatchi & Saatchi, The Glue Society and Host. There's a possible late charge from Clemenger in Melbourne.""

+ Product placement in Shrek and in movies in general- "The product placement in Shrek 2 is simply hideous. The brand names are smuggled in via olde fairytale jokes (Barneys Old York, Versachery, Pork Illustrated, Tower of London Records) and one or two of these gags would be fine, but the film is larded with in-jokes, mouldy movie spoofs (that From Here to Eternity beach scene yet again), cover versions of hit songs, and a glut of pop-culture references. (the DreamWorks boss Spielberg gets two homages.)"

Wednesday, May 26, 2004
[ Newsy ]

+ " MTV Networks has unveiled details of its long-awaited gay television network, dubbed LOGO, which promises a mix of programming from movies to news and documentaries aimed at an audience of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. LOGO will launch in February 2005 in markets including Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia and Atlanta."

+ The ASA reports about an "objection to an advertisement, in Campaign magazine, for tickets to an advertising awards ceremony. The advertisement showed a photo of an unbuttoned dress shirt with stains on the front and captions describing them. A lipstick stain at the bottom of the shirt was captioned "ZOE. CREATIVE SECRETARY". The complainant objected that the suggestion of oral sex was offensive and demeaned women, especially those who worked in advertising." The ASA upheld the complaint and "considered that readers of the magazine were likely to think that that implication demeaned women in the advertising industry." They told Creative Circle not to repeat the ad.

+ "Levi's Europe has launched its first major online campaign in two years, created by its digital agency Lateral as part of the TV campaign for its 501 Anti-Fit jeans.
The campaign is looking to build online brand awareness and develop the theme created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty's "Anti-Fit" campaign, as well as drive registrations to Levi's email programme. It centres on the Levi's Video Mixer, which allows users to create digital fridge-magnet-style messages using two actors from the TV campaign and send them to each other." The European Levi's site offers users more than 20MB of material to choose from.

+ IBM is launching a new global advertising campaign, replacing the "e-business" tag line the company has used since 1997 with "on demand business." A new marketing symbol of a red computer button marked "on" will be their new "symbol", and ads will feature international brands like Acura and Napster, as well as Canadian firms Mark's Work Wearhouse and Cirque du Soleil. "The "on" concept is represented in advertising through declarations such as "China is on," "Acura is on," and "Fighting cancer is on."" The ads, which begin this week in U.S. newspapers and expand to Canada on June 1, focus on business or services first and technology second. Is it just me or doesn't HP do this in their ads already? *wink*

+ The Publican takes a look at how one of McCann Erickson's ads for Bacardi came together.
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
[ Tuesday Turbulence ]

+ Creative Showcase, a part of the Interactive Advertising Bureau UK, turns one year old this month. It's a way for interactive ads to be showcased (fitting for the name, huh?). "Danny Meadows-Klue, chief executive of the IAB, said: "This is a wake-up call for anyone who thought online media didn't give creative impact. Creative Showcase is filled with outstanding work. Our young digital creative industry has risen to the challenge and the IAB's CreativeShowcase.net gives us a best-in-class resource that every marketer should refer to."" They named the "Trojan Games" campaign by The Viral Factory the Online Creative Campaign of the Year. Each month the site updates with new winners and runners up.

+ "ESPN Shorts" signal a possible change in advertising.

If you're a regular "SportsCenter" viewer, you likely saw the first of these initiatives: a four-part series called "The Scout." It was filmed as a six-minute short feature brought to you by Sears Craftsman products. In it, a baseball general manager sends out an older scout to bring back a major league prospect "or else." Instead of a player, he brings back a young groundskeeping prospect -- towing a Craftsman tractor behind the car.
Next up is a Miller Lite series titled "The Squeeze." It revolves around the Red Sox but also around too many old themes: 1918, curses, fans dying without seeing the Sox win it all.
In Part 1, the Sox are in Game 6 of the World Series when Uncle Mack, too antsy to watch the end of the game, steps outside as his three nephews watch the Sox force a Game 7. Unfortunately, Uncle Mack won't live to see it. He has had The Big One during the last at-bat. Now, Game 7 is the same day as Uncle Mack's funeral.
What are the nephews to do? Stay tuned for Parts 2-4.

Seems to be the way to go these days. Take Adult Swim...they have created a following for their "bumps" which really just is another form of this, intended to keep the viewer watching for just a bit longer.

+ Fallon loses Subway account...gee I wonder why? (*wink*). Most of the work coming out from David Lubars' shop is rather good. I'm not quite sure what caused them to miss the mark so terribly in the "It's OK, I had Subway" campaign. My guess is that their ads didn't connect really to the food aspect...and showing people being jerks because they ate a sub doesn't really make a connection for the consumer. There's a big leap and something missing. Plus it gives the impression that all those who eat at Subway are assholes. Probably something that the client doesn't want to come across. Granted, it was a nice break from having to watch Jared blather on about his weight loss (which, as noted in a previous post a while back, isn't even sanctioned by Subway). MMB, Boston is going to be handling the account while another creative review takes place this summer.

+ Olympic Sponsors for the Athens 2004 Games, only 80 days away:
Top V Sponsors: Coca Cola- Official Soda/Non-Alcoholic Beverage, Atos Origin- Official Information Technology company, John Hancock- Life Insurance/Annuities, McDonald's- Retail food services, Panasonic-Audio/TV/Video equipment, Samsung -Wireless Communication Equipment, Sports Illustrated/Time Inc.- peroidicals/newspapers/magazines, Swatch- Timing, Scoring systems and Services Category, Visa - Consumer payment services, Xerox- Document Publishing, Processing and Supplies.

Grand Sponsors: ALPHA Bank (Greece), Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (Greece), Heineken/Athenian Brewery, HYUNDAI HELLAS (will provide vehicles needed), DELTA and FAGE (Greece's two leading dairy companies), ERT (Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation) (for the TV and radio category), Hellenic Post, Olympic Airlines, Public Power Corporation S.A. (for the electric energy category).
Official Supporters:
Adidas-Official Outfitter, SHELL HELLAS S.A. for petrolum based products category, JET SET SPORTS for the hospitality management/travel agencies category, ABB-AREVA-SIEMENS-DIEKAT for the electric power distribution plants category, Ticketmaster for ticketing services category, General Electric International Inc. as the supply of services for back-up power with the necessary studies.
Global Olympic torch relay sponsors: Coca-Cola and Samsung; the Official Supporter for the International Torch Relay is Eurosport, and the Official Supporter for the National Torch Relay is Gefyra S.A.

Team U.S.A. Supporters and Sponsors:
Allstate- Home and Auto Insurance Sponsor, AT&T and AT&T Wireless- Telecommunications Services, Bank of America- Offical Bank of the US Team, Budweiser- Official Beer of the US Team, ChevronTexaco- Official Fuel provider of the US Team ("Fueling the Dream"), Gateway- Official provider of computer hardware for the team, coaches, and athletes, General Motors- Official Automaker for the US Team, Hallmark- Official Supplier of Personal Expression Products to the US Team, Home Depot- Home Improvement Sponsor for US Olympic and Paralympic Team, Jet Set Sports- Official Hospitality Package Sponsor for US Team (and Olympics), Kellogg's- Official Breakfast maker for the US Team, Lucent | Marker | Monster- Official online career management services sponsor of the 2004 US Olympic Team, Office Depot- Official Office Supplies Supplier for US teams and committee, United- Official Airline for the US Team, Kotex- Official Feminine protetion for US Team, Dasani- Official bottled water,
Coca Cola- Official Soda, Budweiser- Official Beer, Kotex- Official Feminine protetion, Kodak, Dasani- Official bottled water, and Visa, an Olympic "top partner", and the Marriott- Official hotel of the U.S. Team.

A lot of the information on the US Olympic Committee site has yet to be updated. There's still a lot of old info there. So there might be some errors in the above listing.

[ Two Years ]

Two years ago today I started this little place. It's evolved, the layout has changed a bunch, and it's starting to come together. If you're a regular reader, thanks for reading. If you're just passing through, hi there.
Sunday, May 23, 2004
[ That's the power of ads ]

+ EU election ad encouraging people to vote gets altered for British only - All other EU countries will see the film in its entirity. "A film encouraging people to vote in the European elections has been "censored" for British viewers because it showed a glimpse of a nipple. Originally the nipple appeared in a brief sequence showing a baby trying to make up its mind about breastfeeding. The film is intended to show that people have to make choices." It's hard to get the connection between a baby choosing to breast feed and the choice of voting - but maybe it works. I'd have to see it I guess to really know if it is good or bad. But it does seem somewhat like a disconnect-comparing the two. I mean, don't babies want to breastfeed? Isn't that natural instinct? *shrug*

+ Ad biz in recovery mode. Or so they say. Still seems like it's taking its sweet time. Although there have been more openings in recent months. Baby steps I guess.

+ Gas prices and truth in signage- From a Mobile station in Georgia, USA. (click link to see the image.)

+ The first day of the D&AD awards was Friday. Some of the shortlisted TV spots include 3 Honda spots (including the well-known "Cog" ad) and an Adidas spot featuring Beckham. The final day of the awards is May 26th (Wed) and after that, all Yellow Pencils will be handed out...if there are any to be given out. Although I do think that "Cog" stands a rather good chance of getting one. There's loads more to see on the Nominations part of the site as well. View the TV spots, check out the print ads, and listen to the radio spots. Winners will be posted May 27th (Thursday).

+ Dan Wieden interviewed on advertising. "For Wieden, the philosophy is simple: "Creative people need some sense of security in which they can operate -- some sense that they're loved, quite honestly, and respected -- and then asked to do daring things."" A decent article worth checking out.

+ NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Barbara Lippert of Adweek about the Clio Award Show from last week. (listen to it at the link)


Saturday, May 22, 2004
[ Lovemarks ]

+ So the other day I took a trip to the bookstore to pick up a plethora of ad related mags (Print, Archive, HOW, Creativity, Communication Arts, etc). On such trips I tend to take a peek at the ad/marketing books as well. I had heard of "Lovemarks", by Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi. I flipped through it and thought it looked good enough to purchase. So I did. The design of the book is great for starters. Then there's the content. I'm only a few pages in to it so far, but I think it's great. It looks at a variety of brands and also has commentary from some well known guys like Bob Isherwood. There's also Lovemarks.com, a website for it as well where visitors can vote for their favorite lovemarks or nominate a brand that isn't there already.
I'll post more later- after I've had a chance to get through some more of the book.

[ It's all inside. ]

+ Slim Fast unveils summer push. "A new campaign created by Grey London taps into the "universal fear" of not being able to fit into a bikini in time for the summer season. The initiative will be focused on press and outdoor activity and features a series of teasers depicting French, Spanish and Swedish bikini-clad women and incorporate straplines such as "I love British women … they make me look great," and "British women are so brave … sharing a beach with us. Five "curvy but gorgeous" British women are then revealed with a call to action to visit Slim-Fast's dedicated website (lets-bikini.co.uk) to help users drop a bikini size. The strapline reads, "Three weeks and we'll be a smaller size. You got that, foreign girls?"" See link for poster from the campaign. UPDATE: all the online areas (including the website itself), screensavers and technology were all provided by a company called Vivid London Limited. (thanks to neil for the heads up)

+ From ycnonline.com:

The ‘Tidyman’ logo was originally developed by the Keep America Beautiful campaign in conjunction with the American Brewers Association back in the 1960’s. The logo first made it’s debut in the UK in the early 1970’s as the main branding for the Keep Britain Tidy campaign. Soon after it’s inception, its use by industry became widespread and to this day, it is still one of the most globally recognised symbols.
Recently commissioned research by the Keep Britain Tidy campaign has indicated that raising the profile of the ‘Tidyman’ character through internet marketing may potentially be of huge benefit, especially when it comes to communicating issues of littering to the younger members of society. With this in mind, Keep Britain Tidy wishes to invite animators and designers to help inject some personality into the rather characterless icon that is ‘Tidyman’.

There's more info at ycnonline.com.
Also check out some posters from prior ENCAMS "Keep Britain Tidy" campaigns.

+ CBC won't air SPCA ad that equates children with pets. Porkpie Hat Advertising, Toronto has done an attention grabbing campaign for the Nova Scotia SPCA, urging people to think before they adopt pets by using children as spokesmodels. See the ad on the Porkpie site. (via adland.)
Friday, May 21, 2004
[ Motorcycles and beer ]

+ Found via Brand Republic:

ITV is seeking advertising creatives to take part in a reality show it is producing for Sky One in which they will create an ad campaign for the famous Raleigh Chopper Bike.
The show aims to recreate the 1970s in a suburban office and will recruit a total of 12 advertising creatives from several agencies to represent their company. They will then be asked to pitch for Raleigh of Nottingham's 'Raleigh Chopper' Christmas ad campaign, potentially worth millions of pounds in sales.
For two weeks, the ad execs will live and work without any trappings of 21st century technology. The '1970s Office' will see the ad execs taken back to a time when there were no computers, mobile phones, internet or even motorcycle couriers -- things today's everyday creative takes for granted.
Chopper, the iconic 1970s bicycle brand, recently announced that it was relaunching to capitalise on a nostalgia wave for design classics.

Funny how they interchange the terms "ad execs" and "creative". You'd think Brand Republic would know better than to confuse the two. ;)

+ Mudslinging with Bud and Miller - From the article: "The No. 1 brewer on Thursday ran an ad in USA Today showing a bottle of Miller Lite above the legend “The Queen of Carbs” and in smaller type, “South African Owned.” The bottom portion of the ads shows a much larger photo of the top of a bottle of Budweiser and text that says, “American brewed since 1876. The King of Beers.”
The bottom of the ad reads: “We’ll let Miller Lite spend all their time talking about carbs. At Budweiser, we’ll continue to spend all our efforts making great beer.”
This is the first shot in what Anheuser-Busch is calling its “Unleash the Dawgs” campaign against Miller Lite." See link for image of ad.

Wednesday, May 19, 2004
[ Waiter, there's a fly in my soup. ]

+ The Roto-Rooter jingle turns 50 this month and in a Roto-Rooter telephone poll of 1000 people it came in 2nd to Wrigley's "Double your pleasure" as the most known jingle.

+ Via Brand Republic:
"Sky is throwing down the gauntlet to agencies to come up with more innovative and creative interactive television advertising campaigns, and is offering reduced price production and hosting on the Sky Digital for the agency that does.Creative, media and advertising agencies will all be welcome to respond to the challenge, and will be able to submit one entry for each client.
Mark Wood, commercial director at Sky Media, said: "Engaging the creative sector will be key to realising the full potential of interactivity so we believe 'Out of the Box' is a unique opportunity for agencies to showcase their brand-building skills.""

+ The BBC takes a look at McDonald's new salad adverts. From the article:
"Not that the printed adverts are any more subtle. One in a women's health magazine reads: "Aromatherapist Anna is typical of the new breed of customer attracted to McDonald's... Anna hates football, but love Thierry Henry. She hates alcohol but loves bars... She hates her job but loves her boss" etc.
Just to avoid any doubt, small print at the bottom of the page reads: "Anna is intended to illustrate a possible customer-type and is not a real person.""

Hahaha...gotta love a disclaimer like that! :)

+ Capital Radio's Scottish radio station Beat 106, has come under fire from the ad watchdog for a poster in which a woman appears to be using sex as a bargaining tool, dressed in unzipped jeans revealing pink underwear, created by The Leith Agency. See the link for an image of said ad.
Monday, May 17, 2004
[ WoooHooo!! ]

+ Free to Marry! Today is a historical day in the history of the United States. With all the war, terrorist, political, and economic grey clouds hovering, there is a ray of light. Congrats to all those applying for marriage licenses today - and congrats to all those who made it possible. Also this is the 50th anniversary of the landmark decision for Brown vs. The Board of Education, in which "separate but equal" was eliminated. An appropriate day for gay and lesbians to start off on their way to a life together with the person they love. And a great day for celebrating our rights and freedoms.

+ Eddie Izzard is making a film about his life called Diva 51, set to be released in 2005. "It will show his exhaustive efforts to crack America, culminating in two Emmy awards for his stand-up show and a Tony nomination for his performance in A Day In The Death of Joe Egg on Broadway. Robin Williams, Tim Roth and Eric Idle also feature in the documentary, paying tribute to Izzard's talents." (mmm Tim Roth!)
Saturday, May 15, 2004
[ Doobeedooobeeedooo ]

+ Someone's lovin' it. McDonald's thinks that because their campaign has a high level of awareness, it's popular. Not a smart mistake to make. They are preparing to launch more ads - hopefully not with the same frequency as last time. Just because I see a commercial 3 billion times does not make me spend my money there. It may result in awareness, but, that's about it.

+ Missed the latest CP+B ad for Burger King salads which broke during the Friends finale? Check it out here. Or visit Ugoff's site, which also contains some of the fake fashion print ads which have shown up in Cosmo and the like.
When you compare what CP+B is doing to the other ads for fast food joints like Wendy's and McDs, there's just something special about what those Florida guys are doing.

+ Colin Millward, a legendary figure in british advertising has moved on up
to the big agency in the sky. In 1960 he was made founding creaive (art)
Director of Collett Dickenson Pearce where he worked on now classic
campaigns like Hamlet, Vogue, Fiat and Benson & Hedges. The Telegraph writes: "The legendary maverick who put British ads on the map." Check out the old ads at the History of Advertising Trust Archives, featuring the work from CDP. (via Dab.)

+ Today is the first day of the 45th CLIO Awards Festival in Miami Beach. Tomorrow the Lifetime Achivement Award will be presented to Lee Clow, Chairman & Chief Creative Officer Worldwide at TBWA/Chiat/Day.
Saturday, May 08, 2004
[ Cool stuff to watch ]

+ "Beauty Sleep" for Virgin Atlantic done by RKCR/Y&R London. Very good.

+ "Wave" for Borsodi Sorgyar done at Y&R Budapest. Nice execution.

+ "Wardrobe Malfunction" for Burger King done by the amazing guys over at CP+B. Love this campaign. Another great ad.

+ Bush and Blair sing "Love Song"- Not sure what this is for but it's damn funny. Check it out.

+ "Funeral Streaker" for London Rugby Sevens. Yup, another streaker ad.

+ "Dving" for John Smith's Extra Smooth Bitter.

+ Check out the ad for Mike's Hard Lime. (Enter site- flash- click on TV and watch the TV spot- no direct link since it's a flashy site). Saw this on telly last night. My reaction was "uh..wow that's sexual". Still it's a pretty good spot. Especially since the sex thing is turned around. Smart guys doing the ads on this one, since more women probably drink the product than guys.

[ Saturday Inspiration ]

+ Biography of Shirley Polykoff- renowned copywriter and one of the first women inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame in 1981.

+ Biography of Mary Wells- renowned copywriter inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame in 2000.

+ Pangram fun over at p22 with a chance to win some fun stuff. Contest ends next month. (hat tip to Clay.)

+ The Hidden Persuader - a cool ad blog you should check out. Lots of images (so might take a bit to load, but worth it.)
Friday, May 07, 2004
[ Come on baby light my fire ]

+ Apple "Think Different" billboards you'll never see.

+ The Product Placement Bible. Amusing.

+ Viral ad library- with lots you've probably seen if you're an adgeek. Still worth checking out. (via Dab.)

+ Tesco brings shoppers in-store adverts. It will be interesting to see how this will work. Will shoppers enjoy the extra information or will they be annoyed by the bombardment of more advertising?

+ Last day for the Adland/Jewelboxing competition. Get over to the Trivial Chain game for your chance to win!

Wednesday, May 05, 2004
[ May flowers ]

+ Campbells goes retro with Warhol art. (via Clay)

+What's your birthday color? Matches your birthday to a pantone color. (via Dab)

+ Are most internships illegal? (via Dab)

+ Interpublic releases salaries of top execs. "Interpublic's board gave management hefty bonuses -- not as a reward for the holding company's performance, which still lags that of rivals, but for executives' work in moving Interpublic ahead in a difficult turnaround." So these guys get bonuses for laying people off? Strange.
"The board also signaled a shift in incentive compensation starting in 2004 toward awards of stock tied to future results, an effort to more closely link pay to company performance." Of course, now that the management got their dough, the rest of the folks who should be getting their raises, etc won't be getting salary raises or bonuses, but stock. How nice.
Sickening, annoying, and yet, not at all surprising. Especially this part: "Brian Brooks, former executive vice president and chief talent and human resources officer who resigned from the company on Feb. 27, will continue to receive his annual salary of $495,000 until February 2005. Mr. Brooks remains a consultant to Interpublic and is entitled to $400 an hour for non-executive recruitment duties."

+ Typoholism. Amusing. (Via Clay & Mefi)

+ International icons for cereal from the early 1900s-today.

+ Smoking gun has some of the 1600 letters of complaint sent to the FCC after Oprah talked about naughty stuff at 4pm. (via Dab)