VW and Dan and Lee make up

Dan and Lee say they’re sorry—as in super sorry. And thus, the lawsuit brought last week by VW against Dan Brooks and Lee Ford over that hoax-suicide-bomber-VW ad they created is over. According to this story from Reuters, the two said they regretted that it was distributed and promise not to “publicize it further.”

Um, we think the cat’s already out of the bag on this publicity thing. Here’s that link again if you missed seeing the ad the first time.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on January 31, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is this Bud really wiser?

Budweiser could have quite the marketing challenge in front of it as it prepares to roll out a new beer, called Budweiser Extra—aka B(E)—nationally. The new brew, which has been test-marketed in dozens of cities, contains caffeine, ginseng, guarina extract and fruit flavors in an apparent attempt to grab market share from cocktails that contain Red Bull and its competitors as mixers.

But some knee-jerk consumer reaction is simply, "EEEWWW!" This story in yesterday’s New York Times notes, “Various people who tasted it at my request noted NyQuil in B(E)’s bouquet and hints of white zinfandel and cherry cola on the tongue.”

Meanwhile, a quick survey of some Web posts indicated confusion, at the very least, about the beverage’s raison d’etre. Says one person at this link: “So why would you mix caffeine with a depressant? To negate the depressant aspect of alcohol? Does that even work?”

We’re not sure we want to know.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on January 31, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Some kind of relief

This was absolutely inevitable: an email pitch we got over the weekend offering us the chance to buy our own “Tsunami Relief” bracelet in the style of the ubiquitous Lance Armstrong "Live Strong" bracelet. The sales pitch, from an online store called go2iguanas.com, says ecstatically, “We have added several New Wristbands, including the New Tsunami Relief Wristbands!”

What’s weird when you go to the site, though (which also includes camouflage-style rubber bracelets with the motto, “Support Our Troops”) is that at no point does it mention whether any of the $3.99 one would pay to buy such a bracelet would go to charity. If it does, it should be stated front and center, and if not, this is pretty disgusting.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on January 31, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (4)

Bring your concern for the world, and your autograph book

Whew! That World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. If AdFreak ever gets invited, we’ll have to make sure to get some designer duds and borrow a tasteful, and phenomenally expensive, brooch from Harry Winston. The conference had the mega-ambitious tagline: "Committed to improving the state of the world." But we read several stories in recent days that made us wonder if a more suitable tagline might have been “Commited to improving the activism careers of lotsa celebrities.”

No, we’re not talking about the ad world’s own Sir Martin Sorrell, although he was in attendance. We’re talking about Richard Gere, Angelina Jolie and Sharon Stone, among others.

Though thousands of words were devoted to the conference's creeping glitz factor in this story in The New York Times, for us, the fact that the conference might be suffering a celeb overdose really boiled down to two things:

1) Last week, the New York Post filed its 50-photo online feature of the event under the topic header, “Entertainment.” (The link now appears to be down. You’ll just have to trust us.)

2) Lionel Richie—better known, these days, as the father of Nicole—was in attendance. While we applaud people using their famous names to get causes noticed, it’s dismaying to realize the ultra-serious conference now has a mere two degrees of separation from Paris Hilton.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Photo credit: Pierre Verdy/AFP/Getty Images

Published on January 31, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Game? You mean there's a game?

Maybe, you, like the rest of us, have been shaking your head in wonderment that once again the price of Super Bowl ads has gone up, to $2.4 million this year for 30 seconds. But a new study from the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association shows that maybe the rising prices aren’t misplaced. It says that 25 percent of young adults (18-24) actually watch the game for the ads, and slightly less than 20 percent watch it for that part where they play the football game. While that strikes us as liking cake for the icing but not the actual cake, it makes sense when you consider how puerile Super Bowl ads have become—as does this alternative statistic: that people over 65 are the ones most likely to see “the game as the most important part of the Super Bowl” at 41.3 percent.

Meanwhile, consumers planning to watch will spend an average of $49.27 in provisions for the game. God that’s a lot of Doritos and Bud.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on January 31, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Super Bowl that was, the companies that weren't

Believe it or not, it’s been five years since the Super Bowl was flooded with dot-com ads. Forbes.com has figured that’s distance enough to take a look back, in this special feature—complete with streams of the commercials!—of what it’s calling the Bubble Bowl.

So much to see … there’s the Pets.com sock puppet before he was forced to shill for that cheesy car loan company, the E*Trade chimp, a spot for epidemic.com (AdFreak has no recollection of them, whatsoever) and ourbeginning.com (wedding invitations).

Looking at these ads makes Budweiser’s flatulent horse look almost classy.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on January 28, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

France! New and improved!

We’ve never really thought of the French as being, as they say, “in-your-face,” but an ad touting how wonderful France is for business on the back page of today’s New York Times business section certainly, uh, made us sit up a little straighter in our chair. An interview with GE Europe CEO Nani Beccalli, its headline shouts, “What could make the European CEO of one of the world’s largest companies admit to an attraction for France?” Its tagline: “The New France. Where the Smart Money Goes.” (You can look at an accompanying promotional web site here.)

While our first guess would have been that CEOs—and the rest of us—are attracted to France for the wine and food, Beccalli talks about how “The French have a passion for engineering and technology.” Snore.

But, the best part is when he knocks his home country. Asked “Would you live [in France]?” Beccalli responds, "Absolutely. Paris is my favorite city. I’m Italian, but I prefer Paris to Rome by a factor of 100.” You might be moving sooner than you think.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on January 28, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Driving away dysfunction

In the many decades we’ve been on planet Earth, we’ve never seen a golf ad we liked, let alone one that got us to laugh. But this new spot for Cleveland Golf’s Cleveland 460 Comp Driver does the trick, because it’s a brutally funny take-off on erectile-dysfunction ads.

It’s not just that the club promises to treat “trajectile dysfunction” or that the company had the ... well, you know ... to register the domain trajectiledysfunction.com. The commercial also includes all the hallmarks of the erectile-dysfunction-commercial genre (except, maybe, for an appearance by Bob Dole). There’s the randy wife looking on amorously, the warning that “in rare occasions, players have been known to stay long for more than four hours” and, in a nod to that Levitra ad, a guy hitting a golf ball through a tire swing.

Aw, we’ve given it all away. Just go watch the thing (there’s a funny intro thing first). According to USA Today, it was created by a small California shop called Brainsaw.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on January 28, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Avat your way?

For a while now, it hasn’t been quite enough to rant about your favorite sports team with close friends and family. Ranting is becoming an Internet staple. Super Bowl fans will be pleased to know that ESPN.com’s SportsNation is hosting Voice of the Fan avatars for the Big Game, created by the folks at Oddcast. Yes, you can dress your avatar (we dressed one up like Elvis during his Las Vegas phase, but there are plenty of other options, like the one pictured here) and record a message, which you can share with other fans or e-mail to the same close friends and family you used to actually talk to back in the day.

As for our Elvis avatar, he looked fabulous, but we couldn’t think of much for him to say. We don’t think the Big E ever really clarified whether he liked the Pats or the Eagles.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on January 28, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Motor Oil gets Funky

Add Funkmaster Flex's name to the long list of hip-hop product endorsers. Flex, a DJ who has a nationally syndicated radio show and a Spike TV series, Ride with Funkmaster Flex, just inked a deal with Castrol Syntec to promote the motor oil to his fan base.

“Funkmaster Flex is committed to spreading enthusiasm and passion for automotive power, performance and style by introducing aspects of car culture to new audiences of young people across the country,” said Mike DeBiasi, Castrol Syntec brand manager, in a press release. “Flex’s automotive expertise, passion and excitement for finely tuned and customized vehicles is inspiring, and we’re thrilled to forge this partnership with him, putting our premium, highest-performing motor-oil brand—Castrol Syntec—alongside his highly acclaimed show, events and fans.”

—Posted by Lisa van der Pool

Published on January 28, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)