:: sidetracks :: Seuss I am

+ Dante's Inferno, if it had been written by Dr. Seuss.

Seuss as Shakespeare...for Hamlet

Many many more here that are worth checking out.

:: adgruntie :: Mmmmm links

+ Happy 10th Birthday Flash!

Re-branding K-Y Lubricant - as it embraces it's sexier side, something it tended to run away from. This bit from the article "The K-Y strategy is less about brand repositioning than brand self-actualizing" is very Zen. But why fight what consumers have you in mind for? Especially as the article claims that K-Y has the majority marketshare. Love who you are. Don't fight it. (as long as you're getting the sales figures that is ;) ) (weyhey cred to Design Observer)

Fun anamorphic cups for coffee and tea. (Via Not Martha)

:: adgruntie :: Bavaria Beer ad

+ Ode To Testosterone by KesselsKramer. It's like if Guinness' noitulovE and CP+B's Burger King Manthem had a baby:



Also on Adage.com's commercials of note.

Related: Yet another "man" campaign looks at the Manthem ads from Crispin.

:: sidetracks :: Awww for the day

+ Yawning bunnies. No there isn't anything more to say.

:: adgruntie :: What is a good logo?

+ What makes a logo a winner and another a stinker? The Marketing Monitor panel was probed to see what they thought. Some interesting words on the matter. My favorite bit:

The original use of the logo was in the Wild West. Cattle ranchers would brand their cattle by burning an easily recognized symbol on the cow’s hindquarters. This was known as branding.

In today’s fast-paced world, a good logo is more important than ever. It stands as a symbol for all the values and attributes of the company. A logo is also a source of pride for the organization’s employees. In the split second it takes a person to view a logo, that company can reinforce its brand with no words required.

:: spacey :: Pluto...you're barred!

+ A decision has been made on Pluto...and it's no longer a planet. After a week long confabulation, scientists decided on a definition for a "planet".

A celestial body that is in orbit around the Sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a...nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit."

Poor Pluto, along with the other 3 possible planet candidates are out of contention for planet status. Earlier I posted about the possibility of a planet increase. So, even though it seemed like the odds were in Pluto's favor...scientists have clearly taken its status away.

:: adgruntie :: Thesaurus.com updated

+ Thesaurus.com has redesigned and updated with some new features! Loverly!

You can easily site the source if needed. And what I think is really great, is the way all the words in the listings are now hyperlinked to their main pages in the Thesaurus. It should make word searching much, much more simple.



Sometimes it's just little things that make all the difference. The color change is nice too, less school bus yellow, more mustard.

This is a great example of a site upgrading for purposes of usability.

:: adgruntie :: He was injured!

+ I'll bet. Check out this oldish ad for HMO Blue Cross:

:: adgruntie :: Push or Pull?

+ Don't be so pushy - an intersting article on pull marketing and a trend for marketers to embrace it over push marketing.

:: adgruntie :: Smokefree cartoons

+ Turner is editing smoking scenes out of Tom & Jerry cartoons because they feel it's not appropriate for younger viewers. Ok, but bashing someone over the head is a-ok? Sounds like a very tedious job.

Smoking scenes in vintage cartoon episodes of Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo are being reworked after a viewer complained they were not suitable for children.

Cartoon editors are painstakingly working through more than 1,500 episodes of the cartoons painting out images of characters smoking frame by frame.

Turner Broadcasting, which owns the rights to the cartoons, claims the move is a voluntary step.

But it comes after a viewer of the Boomerang Channel complained to media watchdog Ofcom, saying footage of Tom and Jerry smoking was not suitable for children.

In Texas Tom, Tom is shown trying to impress a girl by rolling and lighting a cigarette with one hand. Tennis Chumps shows Tom playing tennis and smoking a cigar.

Ofcom's report said that Turner has proposed to edit any scenes or references "where smoking appeared to be condoned, acceptable, glamorised or where it might encourage imitation".

But smoking scenes may not be edited from the screen in every instance.

"Turner believed... that editing out all references to smoking, where such references neither glamorised nor condoned, might adversely affect the value of the animation," Ofcom said.

:: adgruntie :: Stuff to read

+ Creative Factors in Interactive Advertising - a study from 2002.

Creativity vs. Effectiveness - a timeless question.

Add creativity to your decision processes - a paper by G. David Hughes.

Bit on Bernbach

An MIT forum transcription from 2001.

QUESTION: I am an ex-Ogilvy guy, and ad man David Ogilvy used to say that advertising has to make the cash register ring. So, where's the evidence that participative advertising makes the register ring? In the heyday of Budweiser's Wassup? advertising campaign, I was watching sales data and Bud's sales were dead flat.

FRANK: This goes back to the 1960s when the last big creative revolution was going on. By the end of the decade, you had these crazy campaigns that were entertaining to the audience, but had little to do with selling a product. In the 1970s you had this reaction against creative advertising. You had the lines drawn in the world, people who said creativity works and those that said it didn't. The Wall Street Journal has been a perpetual enemy of creative advertising.

MONTAGUE: Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't and no one can say why, that is why advertising in not a science, it is an art. There was a time in the early 1990s that Reebok pulled ahead of Nike in total world sales and Reebok believed that the way to sell shoes was to talk about the technology contained in the sole of the shoe, and the rational benefits of the shoe.

Nike understood that people don't buy shoes based on rational benefits. Eighty percent of all basketball shoes never touch a basketball court. People buy basketball shoes because of the badge value of wearing them, the way it makes them feel to wear a certain brand. Nike understood that and continued to sell everything but the rational benefits of the shoe. Now, Nike leads the market.

:: adgruntie :: Pepsi over Coke

+ An old Pepsi ad...cute.

:: adgruntie :: Golf Balls In Spaaace!

+ Sending two golf balls into orbit for a commercial has been given the green light by NASA. The deal is between the Russian space agency and Element 21 Golf Company, based in Toronto, Canada.

The drives will be made by cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, who is set to launch to the station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in about a month.

During a spacewalk planned for November, Tyurin will be filmed as he makes the shots from a special platform outside the station. There, a custom-built tee will use two springs to keep the ball from floating away.

The cosmonaut is a golf novice and was tutored in July by a golf instructor and Carol Mann, a retired professional golfer.

He will also make the one-handed swings while wearing a bulky Russian Orlan spacesuit, hampering the power of his drives and lessening the potential risk to the station. "It's not like Tiger Woods taking a drive," Shireman notes.

Tyurin will also hit the balls in the opposite direction from the station's direction of travel, and space debris experts say the balls' possible trajectories will not endanger the station. The golf balls will not be a hazard for any upcoming shuttle, Soyuz or Progress cargo ship flights either, Shireman says.

The balls will be too small for ground radar to track their flight, but NASA estimates that they will burn up in the Earth's atmosphere within three days.

Tyurin and commander Michael Lopez-Alegria of the US will launch to the ISS in a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan as early as 14 September.

:: adgruntie :: Read this...from Ideas on Ideas

+ Things to read over a large coffee (or tea or juice):
The Culpable Designer
Web 2.0 is Bull

:: adgruntie :: Folgers goes gourmet

+ Will it be a tough job to sell Folgers gourmet line? The campaign will break in September, created by Saatchi & Saatchi, Ny and will include television, print and online ads.

Folgers knows better than to aim at consumers who are diehard Starbucks fans. Instead, it is going after customers who drink a cheaper coffee every morning at home, but consider finer coffee to be a special treat. (In one television ad, a woman stands in her kitchen, dreamily sipping coffee, until her banana-throwing toddler interrupts her reverie.)

The brand is hoping there is an opening in the category for a "gourmet-inspired coffee that could be consumed on an everyday basis," said Gennifer Hobbs, a management supervisor at Saatchi & Saatchi who worked on the Folgers account.

"We know from research that currently she's saving her coffee for special occasions," Ms. Hobbs said. "She does go to Starbucks occasionally, but this is more of a mainstream coffee drinker."

Hey that's me! hahah. Smart that they are avoiding attacking Starbucks. But this is actually a very smart segment to go after. I too will buy expensive, high-quality coffee, but usually only have it on weekends or when people are over. Because I tend to have anywhere from 1-3 cups in the morning though afternoon, I will get a cheaper coffee for everyday. In fact, the cheaper coffee isn't horrid, but the blends aren't as tasty and they can have a more burnt flavor from the roasting process. But there's nothing like a fine blend of coffee that just hits the spot. Personally I think some of the best coffee I've had has been special blends of different types of coffee. I've even done it myself from the whole bean bins at the store. A little Colombian, a little French Roast, a smidge of Kona, etc. My uncle has his own magic blend that is absolutely fantastic. Oh, wait I digressed didn't I?

I will be curious to see if Folgers follows up on the Happy Sunshine viral from July for this campaign.

:: sidetracks :: Because Autumn is coming

+ How to preserve a leaf. Bring a mixture of 2 parts water and 1 part glycerin (available in most pharmacies) to a boil in a saucepan. Pour into a heat-proof container. Drop in a few leaves and gently submerge with a wooden spoon. Keep in a cool, dark place until there is a slight change in the leaves' tints. Then remove them and blot dry with a paper towel. Instead of turning brown and crumbly, the leaves will retain their brilliant hues.

:: adgruntie :: Font size on the web

+ Ever wonder what impact font size has on your site? Check out this from Eyetrack. It might be a bit old but it's still rather valid. (hat tip mmarino)

:: adgruntie :: Ads blamed for poor mental health

+ Came across this interesting tidbit today. TV ads make our minds toxic. Ok. Here's the key excerpts:

here are some environmentalists who say that we should be as concerned about the clean state of our minds as we are about the polluted physical world around us. Their concern, according to an article in the Guardian, is that many of us are suffering from a "toxic mental environment". Bombarded by advertisements and marketing ploys, people’s minds are becoming "poisoned", making them prone to stress and frayed nerves.

Take for instance, an ad that repeats five times during a programme and then five days a week, several times a month. Even if it is aesthetically or cleverly done, this repetition is bound to irritate. Or take telemarketers, the scourge of our modern era, who call at the most inconvenient times to sell you something you don’t want. These daily invasions are borne stoically by some, but for many others, they are troubling and troublesome. TV ads certainly have escalated in recent times, with some programmes switching to commercials every few minutes. It often seems that there is no getting away from someone who is trying to push something on you, and this is what makes our minds toxic, say those fighting for a clean mental environment.
[snip]
Dr Shekhar Reddy, a psychiatrist feels that people today have hardly any time to relax, which is in itself stressful. "The toxic mental environment works at a multi-dimensional and multi-media level. Most people have a problem with product marketing and advertisements. This is the reason why mobile advertising has been banned. The mind is unable to cope with the pace at which it’s being fed with words, information and even reactions. This could ultimately lead to mental fatigue, wherein the mind just shuts off," he says. As many as four out of 10 people are affected by this type of bombardment, even to the point of becoming emotionally unbalanced, he adds.

Ok, so I can't argue too much about the annoyance of frequency media buys. They drive me insane as well. Maybe they're on to something. ;)

:: adgruntie :: Frustration and Low Achievement

+ A monument to frustration and low achievement found at DeCordova. It seemed too appropriate so I had to get a snap. Unfortunately the sun was a bit bright and I've yet to master the manual fstop, etc. The inside part of the curved underhang is filled with excuses.

:: adgruntie :: Do nothing, look busy

+ How to do nothing at work and get away with it from W+K Portland's blog.

:: sidetracks :: Plug me in!

+ Need a costume idea for Halloween? (It will be here before you know it).

While looking for somthing at I came across this costume...it's pretty funny. And actually a nice couple costume that's a bit unusual. I'd think if you were crafty enough you might even be able to make this yourself.

More info here.

:: adgruntie :: Ooh we're so great...

+ This could be the most chest-pounding statement of the day:

"We are holding lighting in a jar … with our evolved positioning, we're opening that jar, putting the power of that lightning bolt in the hands of the customer and waking up the rest of the industry," said Mark Schweitzer, Sprint Nextel's chief marketing officer, in a company statement.

:: adgruntie :: CAPS Off group wants CAPS key out

+ CAPSOff is a movement to try to ban the caps lock key. First found at Engadget.com, which linked to Slashdot which linked to a Google Groups.

But there's one thing that's annoyed me for years. OK, there were bigger annoyances at the time, and work, family life, and obligation buried the problem for a long time. But yesterday, as I found myself typing a row of uppercase and I asked myself, "wtf is this?", I realised that enough is enough, and sometimes, we just gotta do what we gotta do.

So I decided to do something about it. The CAPS key is an abomination. We all know that. It's a huge key, stuck right there where the Ctrl used to be, and as far as I know, it's only used by 419 scammers and Fortran programmers.

Now, I can understand that the keyboard producers of the world don't really appreciate the problem. For them, one key is as good as another, and no-one's complained, so why change a perfectly good model?

Obviously the keyboard producers have been so indoctrinated that they don't even inspect their own products any longer. Listen, dudes: no-one wants that crummy CAPS key. It's history. It dates back to the times when bold meant going back and typing the same text twice.

And so I have launched CAPSoff, a campaign to change the world, one key at a time. We're going to start with the CAPS LOCK key, which is fat and useless and has no friends, so should be an easy target. Maybe after that we can gang up on the SysRq key.

:: adgruntie :: Worth the pain?

+ I posted this the other day on Adland, only to get a tip in my inbox for COJ. So I'll post it here too. :D

Worth the pain - a microsite for YoungGuns call for entries. Created by Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand. Gross and fun.

:: adgruntie :: Planets swell to 12...maybe

+ With the introduction of 3 new planets to the solar system, we're going to need to come up with a new mnemonic for the planets. Currently it's "My Very Excellent Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas" or "My Very Educated Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pies".

A committee convened by the International Astronomical Union has proposed a new class of planets called "plutons", or Pluto-like objects.

If the expert group's proposal is passed by the general assembly of the IAU at a meeting in Prague next Thursday, the new list of planets in the Solar System will be Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Charon and the awkwardly named 2003 UB313.

This line-up includes the eight classical planets, the plutons Pluto, Charon and 2003 UB313, and Ceres, the largest asteroid.

The Planet Definition Committee has spent 2 years reworking the definition of a planet.

Traditionally the word "planet", from the Greek for "wanderer", simply described a celestial object that appeared to roam the sky. According to the new draft definition, a planet must be in orbit around a star while not being itself a star, and must be large, or massive, enough for its own gravity to pull it into a nearly spherical shape.

There are also 12 other planet candidates on the list due to the changing the definition of a planet.

:: adgruntie :: Say it on a bottle of Heinz

+A while back Heinz had let celebrities create lines for their katchup labels. Then Heinz created a competition for customers to get their lines on the bottles. Now they are letting folks put personalized messages on bottles for birthdays, weddings, etc at myheinz.com.

The good folks at Coudal have tipped me to Industrial Brand Creative's post on this. They are asking for your submissions and have created a flickr group to show them off.

:: adgruntie :: Concepts get indexed

+ Check out Indexed. A new blog with a fun concept. Using charts, graphs and venn diagrams Old Bag's project "makes fun of some things and sense of others." (hat tip to the swissmiss)

:: adgruntie :: It lives! Who knew!

+ The other day while driving on the highway, I saw a white SUV with a Pam Am logo on it (and the words Pan Am underneath it). I thought it was rather odd. Apparently there is still a company operating with that name in its 3rd incarnation. Who knew they were still alive and kicking...I had thought Pan Am was a brand of the past.

:: adgruntie :: Creature Comforts Dishwash Electric Ad

+

:: sidetracks :: Dennis Leary and Lenny Clarke at last nights Red Sox Game

+ Poor Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo are laughing so hard they're choking! It was rather jaw dropping watching that live. I kept waiting for them to get dropped into commercial or something.

:: adgruntie :: Denis Leary Mastercard Red Sox Spoof

+Oldie but funny.

:: adgruntie :: Couple ads from the UK

+Fosters - Super chilled


Volvic Water - Pole Dance

:: adgruntie :: Rescue Me loves Cadillac?

+Last Tuesday on Rescue Me Tommy, Denis Leary's character was given a Cadillac Escalade Truck by one of his girlfriends. They spent a good 5 minutes of the show (ok, was probably more like 2-3, but it felt longer) talking about the horsepower, chrome, blah blah.

Obviously it was a paid product placement. But what I found rather odd was that shortly after he gets the car, it gets stolen. Somewhat surprised Cadillac went along with that. At one point he even races a similar style Toyota (I think or might have been a Honda- was a quick shot across the front of it with the logo) at a stop light...of course Tommy's truck out runs the other guy's.

The thing is, it was so blatent it was sickening. I normally would say that product placements like that should be somewhat upfront, but...this was just hokey.

:: adgruntie :: Nice collateral baby!

+ A nice collateral piece for VW - Jetta's Backseat Driver Manual. Apparently this was an insert in the July issue of Wired. (via Coudal)

:: adgruntie :: Fosters drops TV spots

+ Fosters drops TV for the internet.

The new format will still retain an Aussie flavour, using Foster's familiar "F" inside an "O" logo, above the new slogan of "Crack Open a Friendly", intended to cement the image of Australians as a matey, sociable bunch.

But the internet promotion will, to borrow a slogan from one of Foster's main European competitors, reach places other beers cannot. The heavy.com ads will carry a competition to win a date in Las Vegas with an Australian model by answering questions based on video clips about the 10 girls posted on the site.

Foster's advertising firm, Ogilvy & Mather, also plans what it calls a "viral" campaign, with commercials made to look like homemade videos which it hopes will create a word-of-mouth buzz about the brand.

:: adgruntie :: Stupid complaints

+ Thursday Adage reported on the PTC wanting Toyota and Chrysler to pull advertising from Rescue Me.

Citing Nielsen data, Ms. Caldwell said more than 130,000 people under the age of 18 typically watch "Rescue Me," and children as young as 2 are viewers. "We're not saying parents have no obligation. But advertisers have an obligation," she said. "If a line is to be drawn in the sand, it will be by advertisers," because the program won't air without ads.

Every time Rescue Me airs, it's after 10pm, for the reason that the content is not appropriate for younger viewers. If the group wants advertisers to take action because some idiotic parent is letting their 2 year old watch the show with them at that time, perhaps they need to instead be educating parents about what is appropriate viewing for their children or, maybe even ask the question "why is your 2 year old awake at 10pm?"

Is it worse than Dr. Phil having people on who are sleeping with their grandmother or the many many many other shows that air when 2 year olds are typically awake? In some ways, sure. But that is why even the repeats do not air on FX until the 10pm watershead. argh.

Another question I have is that if Neilsen data only is aquired from 5,000 households, how do they get the number that 130,000 of the viewers are in fact under 18? I've already ranted on their "data" so I won't again.