Read it out loud
July 25, 2008
Here’s a word of advice. Make sure you read your television and radio spot out loud.
Be extra careful. Because sometimes, things get by.
For example, whenever I hear Southwest Airlines commercials on the radio, I’m always confused. The fast paced nature of the spots and the quick radio read always garbles their new tagline. And I’m left wondering why Southwest would end every spot with “Please Don’t Fly With Us.”
(For the record, it’s “Fees Don’t Fly With Us.” A nice line, but poorly executed for radio.)
But that’s not nearly as bad as the most recent True North TV spot.
Seriously, was this a joke by a copywriter that no one caught? Was it a bet that made it past production?
Yeah. Nut Snacks. Maybe my mind’s in the gutter, but I can’t help but snicker every time I hear it. And I wonder how many people involved with the account, from production to placement, finally realized the error.
Read it out loud. Carefully. Then, have someone else read it. Out loud.
Lest you find yourself defending an extraordinary nut snack.
Introducing Wabli’
June 19, 2008
You never quite know what a client’s going to ask for. And sometimes you never quite know if you’ll be able to pull it off.
Our client, The First National Bank in Sioux Falls, came to us with one of these requests: a mascot to help promote high-return children’s savings accounts.
It turned out to be pretty cool.
Wabli’ (which stands for “Eagle” in Lakota) is the mascot version of The First National Bank in Sioux Falls’s iconic eagle statue and logo. And he/she took a tour of bank branches, showing off his style and preening his polyester wings.
Wabli’ and The First National Bank in Sioux Falls’s Executive Vice President Bill Baker.
Wabli’ standing beneath his shape-sake, the original FNB eagle statue.
Attempting a heist.
Relaxing after a hard day of strutting around with a head that’s seventeen times larger than it should be.
And just like that, a new mascot is born – from idea to reality, Wabli’ is now among us.
Mistaken identity
June 13, 2008
I love Guinness ads. The combination of the traditional Guinness glass and the contrast of dark beer/white foam makes for a striking image. It’s an icon that’s recognizable to anyone who has come in contact with the beer, like the Budweiser bow-tie logo or a Stella Artois glass.
I especially enjoy these ads, where a concert has been illuminated in the shape of a Guinness glass, filled with a pulsing mob that represents the rolling thunder of the beer’s patented post-pour brewing process.
Click to enlarge
Pretty neat visual.
What?
Wait. What are you saying?
Oh. How embarrassing. My bad.
Apparently, this is a Heineken ad. Heineken. Not Guinness.
Hmm…
Looks like this is another lesson in being careful what image you portray with your ads. I wonder how many people see this Heineken ad and say, “Yeah, a Guinness WOULD taste pretty good right now.”
Whistling Dixie
June 3, 2008
I noticed the weirdest thing the other day while I was watching television.
Someone had taken all of the Dixie commercials and replaced them with something completely different.
Now, when I say different, I mean to say that, while they were still showing Dixie commercials, they certainly weren’t the Dixie commercials I had grown up with.
You know the ones: Make Life Easy! Throw Away! No More Clean-up! No More Germs! Dixie promised a life of ease and convenience, of victimless consumerism and trash collection. The only thing you hurt was the pride of those who didn’t have the same foresight as you, who looked on in agony as your life’s schedule miraculously cleared up, while theirs was still tethered to the yoke of washing dishes!
Now?
The trend toward green products has placed disposable plates and cups in the same realm as oil spills and burning tires.
So let’s switch the spin, for a little bit.
This is the only version I could find on YouTube, pardon the poor quality.
Now, Dixie cups give you back your identity. You are no longer a woman washing dishes – you are a caring mother. You are one step closer to raising children who will make the right decisions. That’s what throwing away your dishes (instead of spending a crucial 15 minutes washing) will do for you.
On one hand, I applaud them for reinventing the brand, even if it means combating the onslaught of mainly beneficial Go Green messaging.
On the other, the pandering to Them Cute Kids seems so forced and non-genuine. It’s a play to every parent’s fear of not caring enough about his or her children. “I will no longer be defined by the number of dishes I wash!” she claims. Who said you were in the first place?
Of course, I already feel guilty enough when I throw away when I throw away a paper plate. So take it for what you will.
Gnarled Parsley
May 28, 2008
We’ve tilled the dirt and pulled the weeds and prepared every tool we can scrape together. We’re ready to drop our plants into our gardens. The only problem is that we don’t have any plants yet.
Of course, when we finally DO get some plants in, there’s a huge chance that we’ll
The thing about planting your own gardens is that you get to see behind the scenes, like a Behind the Music for the produce section. You see the twisted stumps of carrots, the bulbous tomatoes with goiter-like lumps, the cucumbers that curl up like horseshoes – in other words, the stuff that’s not fit to sell on an aesthetically-pleasing grocery store level.
Which is why I love this ad series for Tramontina. The headline reads: “The Perfect Knife for an Imperfect World.”
In fact, I think those carrots might actually be from my garden.
(Via Ads of the World.)
For those with their head in the clouds
May 7, 2008
Advertising is everywhere.
We see it on television and we hear it on radio. We page past it in our magazines and newspapers and we drive past it on our way to and from work.
But that’s just the typical. It’s in our video games. Our novels. Sprinkled throughout the Internet. On our mobile phone.
It’s on the conveyor belt at the grocery store. It’s in front of us as we’re relieving ourselves in the bathroom. It’s installed in public places, stenciled onto the sidewalk, hidden in images and piped into our elevators and bus stations.
It’s in the water. On the grass. In and around every natural landscaping element known to the human race.
And thanks to Flogos – branded logo clouds - it’s in the sky.
I wish I was making this up. But there it is – Flogos. Cloud advertising. (Check out the demo video.)
What’s left? Our own children?
(Oops.)
A new musical journey
April 25, 2008
Last night I saw a TV spot for the new 2009 Dodge Journey. My ears instantly perked up. There was something familiar about it. Something I’d heard before.
It was the music. Specifically, Grandaddy’s “AM-180” from their 1997 album Under the Western Freeway.
I’ve been a Grandaddy fan for about a decade. And this song is one of my favorites. So you can imagine my surprise.
“Isn’t this a mini-van,” I thought? “Aren’t those for parents and yuppies and guys in hip hop groups?”
(To which I answered myself, “You know, the people who liked that song when it came our are probably either: 1. Parents 2. Yuppies 3. Guys in bands, though not necessarily hip hop.)
I then got over it and realized how cool this was. Grandaddy, getting national airplay (albeit uncredited commercial airplay).
What I find amazing is the idea of television advertising – and to a certain extent, teenage-driven television shows – as one of the most effective vehicles for music distribution.
It seems more than ever that the independent rock scene is overflowing with bands that have marginal, niche audiences. There are simply too many to take in at once.
But getting your music in commercials or television shows, whether on purpose or by chance, is proving to be an incredibly viable path to sudden respectability – or, at least, relevance.
After all, look what it did for Feist. (Or, come to think of it, The Fratellis, Yael Naem, or any Apple artist.)
——-
(Added bonus – when searching for the Grandaddy spot, I found another Dodge Journey spot – exact same video, different song, different copy. I wonder which was created first…and if this one was even supposed to be released.)
A return to “simple”
April 25, 2008
The newest Sony ad is out.
I’m reminded of the Sony Bravia campaign – a campaign that started with one of my favorites: “Balls,” a simple and stunning spot that combined the childlike exuberance of colorful high-bounce balls with the passion of Jose Gonzales’s “Heartbeats.”
Sony followed the spot up with “Paint,” where a series of buildings were covered in paint in a brash, carnival-like setting. The feeling was still there, but it seemed like something was missing. Then, “Rabbits,” featuring claymation bunnies and the predictable “She’s a Rainbow” by the Rolling Stones.
The original Sony Bravia spot was beautiful. It made you stop and think about the majesty and sheer size of color, of the possibilities and promises.
It was subdued. It was simple. It needed no extra machinery, no special effects, no overwrought and “we can do it bigger” premonitions. It was organic, relying only on elasticity and gravity, two forces that acted as if they were Creative Director on the spot itself.
It showed you something great. Something you wish you could do. The music matched perfectly, instilling a sense of hope and beauty.
Since then, the spots have drifted further away from the point – that color is beauty, and that it’s a force to be reckoned with. Maybe they jumped the shark at the beginning, leaving everything to pale in the wake of beauty. Either way, it seems now that color is just a stepping-stone to their next overdone feat.
The foam in this new Sony commercial might be overdone as well. But it’s overdone in the right way – a way that bring back a feeling of wonder. The emotion is back again. The wonder. The beauty.
I guess this is just a long way of saying, “I’m glad they’ve gotten back to simple.”
Benefit over matter
April 22, 2008
We’ve all done it before, usually out of necessity.
We’ve created ads that are jam packed with information. We just start plugging things in. This element has to be there. That element cannot be taken out. My boss will freak if she doesn’t see the logo a little bigger. Here’s a list of features to add. And we have a special promotion that needs to be included. Don’t forget the Web site, both phone numbers, our seventeen locations and the names of each of our managers.
And by the way, the ad needs to be a little smaller.
It happens all the time. Each company has a lot to say in a very small space. But when it comes down to it, how much of it is necessary?
At a recent SDAF luncheon, Steve Lance of Unconventional Wisdom talked about how often advertising and marketing is driven by a list of features that the reader is expected to extrapolate into a perceived benefit. Really, Steve says, it should be the other way around. The benefit should be front and center. The details can come later.
What are you going to promote? A vehicle’s 3rd Generation Swiss-Engineered Classically Mounted ABS Brakes? Or a vehicle’s unprecedented safety (which, coincidentally, happens to be due to those aforementioned brakes).
Imagine your typical cable television remote. Of the 75 buttons featured, only about 10 of them really matter. Channel up and down, volume up and down, power and, to a lesser extent, the guide and record buttons. Take the rest of the buttons off and you’ve got a sleek, easy to use interface.
You know, like an iPod – the single most popular electronic device of this generation.
Your message could be the same. Why mention every single product feature when your audience really just wants to know why they should care? Pare it back, wow them with some blistering creative, create an image in their mind, tell a story in ten words or less and drive them to get more information on their time, not yours.
A vehicle’s safety is going to create a stronger emotional tie than the brand of ABS brakes being used. A music device’s style and functionality is going to create more of a buzz than FM capability, multi-colored moving display, optional earphones and side-impact airbags. (Oops. Got my feature set confused).
Why make things so complicated when all you need to do is leave a lasting impression?
Promotion, with sprinkles.
July 20, 2007
Initially, I was lukewarm about seeing The Simpsons Movie.
I haven’t watched the show in years, though I’ve always liked it. Like many of us, I spent plenty of hours watching The Simpsons re-runs in the commons area at my dorm, in my college apartments, and at my friend’s house once I graduated.
I thought I had seen it all, really. What else can The Simpsons do that could cover the two hours a movie commonly lasts?
And then, suddenly, I was sucked in again. I was ready to see the movie. I hoped it would come out tomorrow, even.
What happened?
I became part of The Simpsons’ universe.
The Simpsons Movie isn’t being promoted simply through trailers and word of mouth, both of which would have been sufficient in and of themselves. If that was the case, I’d still be ho-hum about it. I’d still wonder what the big deal could possibly be about, still thinking I’d seen it all.
But instead of resting on the laurels of its name and its reputation as being an edgy, always funny, long running cartoon sitcom, The Simpsons Movie is going an extra step. It’s putting you in Springfield, Wherever. It’s putting you not just in the theatre, but in the cartoon’s universe through several clever and amazing stunts.
First, go to The Simpsons Movie website. Create your own avatar. That’s you, only as a Simpsons character. Sure, it’s good for hours of wasted time, but it’s even more amazing to see yourself as one of the popular yellow skinned, four fingered characters.
Then, find one of the 12 7-11 stores that were miraculously turned into a Kwik-E-Mart. Walk in, and get lost in all of the Simpsons regalia. Krusty Os? Buzz Cola? Pink doughnuts with sprinkles? It’s all there. You’ve got to see it to believe it: Click Here for the Pictures.
Why does this work?
Because everyone knows who The Simpsons are. But none of us can ever have the chance to be in the same situations. It’s a cartoon, you know? The Simpsons’ Springfield is unable to be replicated.
Until now. Now, you’re able to put yourself where you’ve never been able to. And in doing that, you’re connecting yourself perfectly.
It’s also working because it’s different. People who think they’ve seen all that The Simpsons have to offer are being given another direction to look in. And once you’ve seen yourself at Moe’s Tavern, you’re suddenly reenergized to see the movie.
Now where did I set my pink doughnut?
One of 12 7-11s turned into a Kwik-E-Mart.