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

Thursday, November 29, 2007
[ Virgin America Safety Film ]

+ The in-flight safety video for Virgin America shows just how much your branding should permeate through all communications. I love the animation and the tone in this.

(Hat tip to brandflakesforbreakfast)

Labels: adgruntie, branding, web

Wednesday, November 28, 2007
[ Bubble for social networks? ]

+ Web bubble 2.0 for social networks?. Looks interesting...if I only had the time to read it. Maybe someday.

Labels: adbiz, adgruntie, interactive, online advertising, social networking, work

Tuesday, November 27, 2007
[ Owsley ]

+ This USB Flash Drive is too adorable! Owsley Owlbert. Other nice drives on the site too.

Labels: buy it, fun, inspiration, sidetracks, work

Wednesday, November 21, 2007
[ Connecting through Cookies? ]

+ It seems everyone and their grandmother wants to get in on the social-networking game. And surprisingly, one of those is Pepperidge Farm. Yes, you read that right. The NYTimes takes a look at the campaign.

FOR decades, Nabisco has sold cookies called Social Tea and crackers called Sociables. Now a competitor, Pepperidge Farm, is going all social, too, by entering the increasingly popular field known as social media with a Web site devoted to social networking.

Pepperidge Farm, owned by the Campbell Soup Company, is introducing a campaign with the theme “Connecting through cookies.” The centerpiece of the campaign is the Web site, artofthecookie.com, which is meant to help women — the target audience for Pepperidge Farm — improve their social lives.

“Our friendships with our girlfriends make our lives so much richer,” proclaims a section of the home page of the Web site. “Visit our new section about keeping those connections strong.”

Sally Horchow, the co-author with Roger Horchow of “The Art of Friendship: 70 Simple Rules for Making Meaningful Connections” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006), has been hired to serve as the spokeswoman for the campaign.

You've got to be kidding? Improve their social lives? Cookies?

“We started with this notion of wanting to move our communication with our consumers from telling them about us to having a dialogue with them,” said Michael Simon, vice president and general manager at the Pepperidge Farm snacks division in Norwalk, Conn.

To make possible that shift “to two-way marketing from one-way marketing,” Mr. Simon said, the company conducted ethnographic research by “going into our consumers’ homes, sitting down with them, talking to them about how they use our products.”

During those conversations, “this notion of connection came up again and again,” he added, and how “hectic lifestyles, life in general, has gotten in the way” of women forging and strengthening ties with friends — over, say, a pot of tea and a plate of cookies.

If Pepperidge Farm can present itself to those consumers as the brand that “can help enable connections and reconnect with friends,” Mr. Simon said, “that will be seen in a positive light.”

Still, I see the idea behind it but it still feels forced. And, that's the key to making this type of social-networking project work.

Labels: ad news, adbiz, adgruntie, social networking, work

[ OMG it's the Devil Woman! ]


+ Be afraid, very afraid. WTF - who the hell thought this made her look good? The photographer? The Art Director? It's like she's some dying devil woman...well at least the devil woman part is accurate. Still. Freeeaky. (Spotted at adverlicio.us)

Labels: adgruntie, online advertising, WTF

Tuesday, November 20, 2007
[ NYTimes discovers badlanders & dupliclaims ]

+ Imitation Hits the Marketing Business. Again. Tsk Tsk, NYTimes for not mentioning Badland, where they've been outing badlanders and dupliclaims since 1996.

Labels: ad news, adgruntie, adland

[ RIP Mr. Whipple ]

+ Mr. Whipple died at age 91 yesterday.

Labels: ad news, adgruntie

[ Coca Cola - "Beard" ]

+ Holiday ad for Coke in Argentina. Yet another one to add to the "do good" concept chain reaction.

(via Hidden Persuader)

Labels: adgruntie, commercial, watch

Tuesday, November 13, 2007
[ Aflack Rudolph holiday ad ]

+
(hat tip Leslie)

Labels: adgruntie, commercial, watch

[ Nastiest headline of the day (so far) ]

+ Papa John's Pizza Gets Finger Friendlier.

The article itself is interesting though - Pizza chain Papa John's International is rolling out a service that lets customers order pies via text message. Customers first create an account online where they save as many as four different "favorite" orders that include any combination of pizza, sides and drinks, as well as a delivery address or carry-out information and payment type. Once that's complete, customers can send a text message at any time using the shorthand "FAV1," "FAV2," "FAV3" or "FAV4."

Labels: ad news, adbiz, adgruntie, branding, mobile, trends

[ Copy Shots ]

+ Nick Padmore wrote a nice piece, "Greatest Copy Shot Ever Written" for A List Apart. It's definitely worth a read, even though it's a bit long.

Labels: adgruntie, copy

[ Rumor mill ]

+ Google to buy Sprint Nextel?

Now, rumor has it that Google might be interested in buying Sprint. With the search giant's mobile ambitions are on the table, it's clear that the biggest impediment to the company's success is that it must work with carriers like Sprint to get Android-powered phones running on their networks. Of course, open source scares them, so a Verizon or AT&T might be hesitant to strike deals with makers of the Google powered handsets. So what's a Web giant to do? Buy a network operator like Sprint and then spin off the phone business.

In another scenario, Google could then spin off Sprint's WiMAX business while maintaining a hefty chunk of equity in the company. It could then invite Cisco, Apple and other tech A-listers to invest in the WiMAX project, as long as everyone agrees it would operate as a wholesale wireless broadband network--each of these companies would love to break the broadband cable and DSL "duopoly."

Labels: news, rumor

[ Sky is falling for traditional media, again. ]

+ Marketers Threaten To Put Majority Of Budget Online

According to eMarketer projections, Web advertising as a share of total ad spend will reach 7.4% this year, more than 10% by 2009, and at least 13.3% by the end of 2011.

"Shifts among marketers away from traditional media would make U.S. advertising growth flat-line without the Internet," said David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer.

The increased spending on online ads is coming from a mix of additional allocations and budget shifts from other media, and TV may be in for the largest losses. Among the largest companies, 42.4% of marketing executives recently told BusinessWeek that TV would take the biggest hit in ad budgets in the next few years.

Labels: ad news, adgruntie, interactive

[ No election spoofs, please. ]

+ Dear Creatives:
The 2008 US Presidential Election is closing in. And, we all know that means spoof ads of elections. In past election years, the citizens of the US have been the unfortunate viewers of crappy spoof election ads. Please...just because an election is going on, it doesn't mean that you have to find a way to tie it in to your advertising campaign. Is it not bad enough that we have to endure the obnoxious onslaught of political campaigning? Is it not bad enough that we watch ad after ad for candidates that say mostly nothing or the same thing? Please. Refrain from adding your noise to the cacophonous "I approve this message".

Labels: adgruntie, creative

[ Bringing more "real" shopping experiences to online ]

+ Virtual Lures for Holiday Shopping looks at some retailers who have worked to add more experience to online shopping.

Online merchants are introducing search features meant to take even more pain out of the shopping experience. The changes range from subtle to radical, but in a holiday retailing environment that looks like a nail-biter, businesses are pinning high hopes on such initiatives.

Labels: adgruntie, interactive, online advertising, web

Monday, November 12, 2007
[ Bad day for car ads ]

+ Toyota's ad angers Fresno. And in other car/ad news, Bob Garfield at Adage isn't amused at the new Lincoln MKX spot with Harry Connick Jr., which he gives "Zero Stars".

Labels: ad news, ad review, adgruntie

Friday, November 09, 2007
[ Two Crap Radio Ads Walk Into A Bar ]

+ Every morning I listen to the radio on my way to work. There have been two radio spots that I've heard in the last few days that I just don't get.

One airs on a hiphop/pop rock station. It's a kid singing in an operatic style about wanting to get a phone. I can't figure out who it is supposed to be appealing to. Moms? Kids? Granted it does catch your attention as it's such a switch from the typical musical genre played on the channel. But it seems odd to me if it's targeted at teens, why they would choose opera. *shrug*

The other ad is for Uno Chicago Grill Restaurants. There's a line in the script that says, "Uno's isn't some made up restaurant". Um. Was that a complaint customers had about the restaurant? I'm still not exactly sure what the hell that means. And yes, I'm serious, it's in there. You can even listen to the spot yourself here (Click on Listen to Radio Ad). To the copywriter that had to suck it up when the client demanded that line was used...I feel your pain.

Labels: ad review, adgruntie, local, radio

Thursday, November 08, 2007
[ Guinness Tipping Point Goes All Out ]

+ Guinness's £10m ad topples record.

Guinness tonight launches the most expensive TV ad in its 80-year marketing history, with highly unusual domino rally.

The £10m ad begins with 6,000 dominoes, leading on to objects such as books, paint cans, tyres, flaming hay bales, fridges, suitcases and even cars.

Created by ad agency AMV BBDO, "Tipping point" was directed by Nicolai Fugslig, the man behind the camera for Sony Bravia's "Balls" commercial.

Mr Fugslig said the combination of the intricacy of the shoot, the high altitude location in Argentina and the use of hundreds of villagers made filming the ad the "biggest challenge" of his career to date.

"The ad is fundamentally a celebration of community," said Paul Cornell, the marketing manager for Guinness at Diageo GB.

See the ad.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2007/nov/08/guinnessadvert?gusrc=rss&feed=media

Labels: ad news, adgruntie, branding, commercial, watch

Wednesday, November 07, 2007
[ Triumph Bikes Viral ]

+ Wonderful Douglas Adams and Python mash-up.


"The first part of the bike to be added is it's centre of gravity."
"Fun is absorbed by osmosis."

Labels: adgruntie, interactive, online advertising, watch, web

Friday, November 02, 2007
[ Internet Policing ]

+ F.T.C. Member Vows Tighter Controls of Online Ads:

To safeguard consumers, Mr. Leibowitz said that standard rules about the privacy policies of Web sites may need to be established. He pointed to a study that found that people with a high school education can easily understand only 1 percent of the privacy policies of large companies.

He also noted that none of the companies in the survey made targeting an opt-in decision. Most companies today make people take action in order to opt out of their tracking programs; Mr. Leibowitz suggested that more policies should be opt-in.

•

“People should have dominion over their computers,” he said. “The current ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ in online tracking and profiling has to end.”

But some people from the online advertising industry said that the commission, which conducted the forum, should stay out.

Randall Rothenberg, president and chief executive of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, said the agency should not regulate online advertising because it could limit what he called a recent “extraordinary pattern of innovation.”

Also today in internet policing news, A coalition of consumer groups and legal scholars on Thursday formally asked the Federal Communications Commission to stop Comcast Corp. from interfering with its subscribers' file sharing.

Two of the groups are also asking the FCC to fine Comcast $195,000 for every affected subscriber.

The petitions will be the first real test of the FCC's stance on "Net Neutrality," the long-standing principle that Internet traffic be treated equally by carriers. The agency has a policy supporting the concept but its position hasn't been tested in a real-world case.

Labels: ad news, adgruntie, interactive, online advertising, web

[ BigLots holiday site ]

+ BigLots Holiday Microsite takes you to the North Pole.

Labels: adgruntie, interactive

Thursday, November 01, 2007
[ BTACA ]

+ BTA Craft Award winners are up.

Labels: ad award, adgruntie