Word-of-mouthers: Advertising blows

The World of Mouth Marketing Association is hosting a conference in September titled “Word of Mouth vs. Advertising,” and has launched a blog to drum up publicity for it. Early posters to the blog have taken the group’s pugilistic ethos to heart. Zane Safrit, CEO of an online conference-calling startup, jauntily declares, “I think advertising’s a near complete waste of time except for entertainment,” and advises companies to just create good products and services that people like. A long post by George Silverman, a psychologist turned marketing consultant, offers a blistering critique of what he calls “saturation advertising.” His point? Traditional advertising kills WOM, since it makes everyone aware of a product, and people only tell other people about things they think they don’t know about. “It may be the case,” Silverman says, “that if less advertising were done, more and better WOM campaigns could do much better.” As for the agencies behind these nefarious deeds, Ian McGee, CEO of WOM firm Vocanic, has this to say: “My experience [is] the traditional agency guys are hopelessly routed [sic] in interruption advertising—a model that is going the way of the dinosaur. And most are terrified of data, and hate the idea of creating a real dialogue with the customer.” Visit the blog for plenty more non-decaf fare.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on August 31, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Morrissey

iPod, cell phone, to wed in public ceremony

Finally! As we gadget-hounds are already so burdened with carrying around separate cell phones, PDA, AND iPods, a solution has been found. There have been reports over the last few days that the ubiquitous iPod is about to mate with—yes, the cell phone. That Motorola in your pocket that already rings in an embarrassing Busta Rhymes song is about to store your whole musical library as well. This story indicates that Apple Computer and Motorola plan to release a cell phone equipped with iTunes, and the big unveiling is happening Sept. 7 in San Francisco. Microsoft’s Bill Gates predicted the death of the iPod, and something tells AdFreak that a sinister force of the universe conspired with him. OK, confession time: who remembers when a calculator watch was a hot, advanced piece of tech equipment?

—Posted by Celeste Ward

Published on August 31, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (2)

White Sox present Mullet Night

I like the White Sox, mostly because I grew up south of Chicago. But today I like the White Sox more than ever, because this Friday, Sept. 2, is Mullet Night at U.S. Cellular Field, sponsored by a hair salon called Great Clips. A number of people I went to high school with will no doubt turn up for the festivities, which will include a Mullet March (not a Million Mullet March, but still). “March your mullet over to Gate 1,” the Sox Web site says, “where mulleted men and women will parade their classic cuts around the warning track. Wigged mullets will be accepted.” The first 500 mullet marchers will get a free White Sox Mullet Night T-shirt. Those who can’t make it to the ballpark can visit RateMyMullet.com instead to get their mullet fix.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

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

Insert giant head of movie star here

So, I can’t say I’ve ever waxed nostalgic about movie posters but it seems everyone else is. Check out this missive about the blandness of today’s one sheets. He’s right, they do all look the same, giant heads of stars all trying for top billing. Even pop culture bible Entertainment Weekly, in its most recent issue, dissects the upcoming Cameron Diaz release, In Her Shoes, which showcases the starlet over her co-stars, Shirley MacLaine and Toni Collette. (Two weeks ago, the magazine—aping an Adweek favorite feature—pointed out the similarities between the posters for Just Like Heaven and My Date with Drew. Subscriptions are required for both EW links.) So maybe these people do have a point. But considering that most Hollywood films are retreads of each other (or past television shows), perhaps the trend isn’t that surprising.

—Posted by Aaron Baar

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

Wow! Those intrepid citizen journalists!

It proved nigh impossible to stop watching cable TV coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina last night, and now at least two broadcast networks are devoting an hour of prime time to the disaster tonight. Still, there’s one story, covered during every recent crisis, that we could do without: the “citizen journalist” story. You know, the one in which journalists who are paid to cover big stories express amazement at those plucky everyday folks who record the chaos around them using video, cell-phone cameras and their blogs and—wow!—post it on the Internet. Isn’t that amazing?! Of course, it’s not. What is amazing is how posts from people directly affected by the disaster are often so much more compelling than anything a paid journalist can produce. By the way, here’s a link to the Red Cross donation form.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Credit: UPI Photo/Vincent LaForet/Pool

Published on August 31, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Wal-Mart T-shirts. Always.

While on our family’s annual pilgrimage through New England over the last few weeks, we made our customary stop at the Wal-Mart in Littleton, N.H., since we live in a Wal-Mart-deprived area of the universe. On this visit, we encountered two twentysomething guys engaging in what looked like an attempt at Wal-Mart irony. One wore a T-shirt identifying him as a Wal-Mart shareholder; the other an athletic-team T-shirt that, instead of containing the name of a sports team, carried the “Wal-Mart. Always” slogan. They seemed to delight in their shopping. Anyway, when we got home, I tried to Google those T-shirts, since neither of them looked like official Wal-Mart merchandise. I didn’t find either one, but I did find a predictably impressive array of T-shirts and other paraphernalia that invokes the name of the country’s largest retailer. They range from this one, which replicates a Wal-Mart receipt on its front, to legions of anti-Wal-Mart wear. As you might expect, if you’ve followed Wal-Mart’s dust-ups with the state of Vermont, there’s a “Sprawl-Mart” T-shirt available from the Vermont Natural Resources Council. Despite the state’s historically anti-Wal-Mart stance (although at least two Vermont communities have caved), there are always about as many Vermont license plates in the parking lot of the Littleton Wal-Mart as there are ones from New Hampshire.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

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

AmEx loses its U.S. Open mojo

What a shame for American Express. The company, which based its U.S. Open ad campaign around Andy Roddick, has seen its tagline—“Have you seen Andy’s mojo?”—become a punch line, as Roddick lost in the first round of the tournament last night. Sportswriters are all over it. “Sometimes, reality is more twisted than an ad campaign,” Selena Roberts writes in The New York Times this morning. “Every disquieted fan who had been sitting in the stands had to ask, ‘Have you seen Andy’s mojo?’ ” The mojo ads, ubiquitous online in the past several days, are nowhere to be seen this morning. Now we’re curious what AmEx might do with the TV spots. UPDATE: I have run across the online ads this afternoon. They look downright sad.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

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

‘Weather Man’ off again, on again

The saying in New England is, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait 10 minutes.” Were it not for Paramount’s suddenly firmed-up release date for The Weather Man, there might be another saying: “If you think you might like The Weather Man, just wait 10 months.” For reasons termed “normal delays” by the studio, the Nicolas Cage/Michael Caine drama, directed by Clio and Cannes Lion winner Gore Verbinski, has been put off so long that it’s leading to all sorts of speculation on message boards. Paramount released the trailer months ago, pulled it and now has it back in theaters. With a release date of Oct. 28 just announced, who knows if the trailer will run until then or be pulled again? At this point, even infrequent moviegoers can doubtless recite the lines from it.

—Posted by Gregory Solman

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

Pastoral personal ad is a big hit

With circulation scandals and lackluster ad sales, newspapers and magazines already have a pocketful of worries. Now comes a threat to the print medium’s classified ads: farmers who plant personal ads in their fields. Case in point is New York cattle-and-crops farmer Pieter DeHond, a 41-year-old divorced father of two. He planted a lovelorn message in his cow pasture using 50-foot (15-meter) letters made from corn stalks. The pastoral plea states: “S.W.F Got-2 [heart] Farm-n.” The response since the May planting of the cornstalk communiqué? More than 700 replies! (Most presumably got in touch after reading media reports like this one, not after flying over the farm.) DeHond has responded to only one reply so far: a California gal who had a pizza delivered to DeHond’s farmhouse. “A very attractive woman” is how DeHond described his new friend to his hometown paper, the Daily Messenger of Canandaigua, N.Y. The Messenger and other papers ought to be worried about the response rate for DeHond’s manure-enriched missive of almost 6 percent of Canandaigua’s population of 12,000. Your average direct marketer is happy with less than half that. Has DeHond stumbled upon the next great communications touch point?

—Posted by Steve McClellan

Photo: AP/Robert Mincer

Published on August 30, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Where to place your travel-show sponsorship

Anyone can score a travel show these days. No longer the domain of British world travelers turned PBS hosts, basic cable is bringing us the glossy exploits of such seasoned adventurers as Cameron Diaz, John Ratzenberger and Tara Reid. Diaz went Trippin for MTV, bumming around Nepal, Honduras and Tanzania. Ratzenberger is blathering on, Cliff Clavin style, on the Travel Channel’s Made in America, as he scours the U.S. for vestiges of American craftsmanship and branded entertainment. (Zippo lighters and Airstream trailers have been featured.) Even Reid is reveling her way around the Mediterranean for E! in a show called Taradise (“She’s improving world relations one party at a time!”). If these shows can lure advertisers, surely Celia Sandys, granddaughter of Sir Winston Churchill, can secure a title sponsor for the documentary version of her book Chasing Churchill, about her grandfather’s travels. Let’s compare: Tara (almost) ran with the bulls. Churchill escaped from a Boer prison camp in South Africa. Tara parasailed with Paris Hilton and Paris Latsis. Churchill cruised with Aristotle Onassis and Maria Callas. Maybe he never toured the Grand Canyon in an Airstream or lit his cigar with a Zippo, but he did save the free world from the Nazis. I think that merits a sponsorship.

—Posted by Deanna Zammit

Published on August 30, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Opel deal casts shadow over Collina

Pierluigi Collina, the world’s only soccer referee who qualifies as a true celebrity, is in danger of retiring on a sour note due to a controversial sponsorship deal. Collina, beloved and admired the world over for his impeccable judgment and decisive authority, often delivered with a wink and a smile, has reached the Italian league’s mandatory retirement age for referees of 45. At the beginning of this season, the Italian Football Federation gave him one more year, to age 46. But then the federation accused Collina of a conflict of interest after he accepted a sponsorship deal from Opel, which also sponsors Italian league club AC Milan. As it stands, Collina’s future is in doubt. He has tried to resign, but the head of Italian referees has refused the resignation. Yet despite almost universal public support, Collina, who refereed the 2002 Brazil/Germany World Cup final, sounds like he’s finished for good. “People must believe in a referee,” he says. “In the end, we have all lost out. I have slept less these last few nights than on the eve of the World Cup final.”

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Photo: Carlo Baroncini

Published on August 30, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Serena to Nike: What about my curves?

The next time Nike does an ad campaign featuring curvy women athletes, Serena Williams wants in. Williams, who signed a five-year, $55 million endorsement deal with Nike in 2003, found out about the Nike campaign in a newspaper article. At a press conference following her opening-round U.S. Open win yesterday, she had this to say about images of beauty: “I’m no model. ... I’ve always accepted my curves. There’s nothing I can do about it, so I’ve learned to accept it and live with it. I mean, I read an article in USA Today that was talking about these new ads. Nike had this new campaign. I told my Nike representative, ‘Why didn’t you guys use me for this?’ ”

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Photo: Ron Scheffler/US Presswire

Published on August 30, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (2)

South African companies fighting AIDS

In South Africa, where it is estimated more than one in nine people have HIV/AIDS, and where the government is being criticized for reacting slowly to the epidemic, corporations are picking up the slack in terms of education. Just one recent example: a new board game created by Volkswagen of South Africa in which children age 11-13 learn about HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and pregnancy. “The game is very similar to Trivial Pursuit ... but pertinent to that age group, without being pornographic,” says the head of health services at VWSA. Five schools are taking part in the pilot program in the town of Uitenhage, where VWSA is based. VWSA also offers free HIV testing to its employees and their families. Other companies, including De Beers, are running similar programs.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on August 30, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nerds score in Japanese movie promotion

Geeks in Tokyo are enjoying a special discount at one movie theater showing Train Man, a film about a nerdy guy who falls in love. “One ticket for a geek” are the magic words to get the special price. “Customers are getting a kick out of saying it,” says a theater rep, adding that about 70 percent of customers are now claiming to be geeks. “There are only a few who look like typical geeks, though.” There is no separate added discount yet for 40-year-old virgins.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on August 30, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Smackdown: WWE vs. UFC

According to wrestling-news titan ProWrestling.com, WWE chief Vince McMahon is “furious” about a TV spot for Ultimate Fighting Championship that labels pro wrestling as “fake.” The commercial features the lines, “What’s real? Pro wrestling? No. Boxing? Not anymore. The UFC is real!” It particularly chafes McMahon that the spot has aired during the broadcast of WWE’s Raw on Spike TV. To rectify the situation, perhaps UFC could use the word simulated rather than fake. As the Wikipedia entry on pro wrestling rightly points out, “While the outcomes [of WWE matches] are predetermined, the maneuvers rehearsed (sometimes ad-libbed by experienced, or quick wrestlers) and executed cooperatively, and their effects upon the opponent exaggerated, most moves still cause genuine pain (and if performed incorrectly, are capable of causing serious injury).”

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on August 30, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (581)

GM hits brakes on ‘Take it off’ spot

A tagline like “Take it off” just invites misbehavior. And sure enough, General Motors South Africa has had to pull a commercial for its Opel Tigra convertible (shown here) off the air after receiving complaints about its strong sexual undertones. “Take it off” is supposed to refer to the convertible’s roof; in the ad, it refers more often to women’s clothing. Several women appear topless, their breasts hidden by graphics. In one particularly unfortunate shot, a preschool girl takes off her shirt and is left wearing only a pair of panties. At least one critic said that could be construed as child pornography.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on August 29, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Heath Ledger against ad ‘whoring’

Heath Ledger is just as disgusted as his fellow Aussie pal Russell Crowe about actors appearing in ads. Heath—yeah, the guy from The Four Feathers and 10 Things I Hate About You—calls it “whoring ourselves for millions of dollars.” (Some might say the same about some of Heath’s film projects, but that’s another matter). Ledger is so opposed, in fact, that he almost had a falling out with Nicole Kidman (the star of the mega mini-movie for Chanel No. 5) when he said it was “sacrilegious” for movie stars to be in ads. On a side note, do all Australian actors hang in groups? Must they all be of the same mind-set in order to get along?

—Posted by Celeste Ward

Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Published on August 29, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Diddy doesn’t pass Google test

So, we’ve been away for a few weeks and were shocked at how quiet our inner blogger became when not given its daily dose of banner ads and TV promos. Given the situation, the best way to snap back into AdFreak-y reality was to tune in the VMAs last night (does anyone actually call them the Video Music Awards anymore?) for an overdose of special performances, product placement tie-ins and an explanation from the show’s host, P. Diddy, on why he has rebranded himself again. The rechristened “Diddy”—as those of you who were not in northern Maine in mid-August know— has claimed that he lopped off the “P.” because people were growing confused over how to refer to him. That’s all well and fine, but, alas, the new moniker doesn’t pass the Google test. If you google the term “P. Diddy”, the search engine spits back an uninterrupted list of dozens of links to the man once known as Sean Combs. Type in "Diddy", however, and the new brand doesn’t get the same play. In the first ten results alone, there are links to three unrelated Diddys: Do Wah Diddy (#2), Diddy Wah (#4) and Diddy Kong Racing (#9). Maybe next time Diddy changes his name—why does that seem so likely?—he should consider giving his new nom de rap a Google test run first.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Published on August 29, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (2)
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Spot tries too hard to fill the Gap

If you were watching the VMAs last night, you probably saw the debut of Gap’s new commercial featuring Alanis Morissette, Joss Stone, Michelle Williams and others talking about their favorite songs. The spot, shot in black and white, flows along nicely as long as it basically sticks to the musical theme—even if most of the commercial employs a split-screen technique so that a parade of different jeans can be displayed on one side while the musicians talk on the other. But when the campaign makes a clumsy leap into having the same artists talk about their favorite jeans, it becomes, well, unstitched. It’s true music and denim have a relationship that goes way back, but the denim point is made without musicians having to force a connection between great music and a great pair of pants. (While watching the spot, you can practically hear the client asking the agency to play up the product more.) Speaking of which, when we went to link to the Gap site earlier today, we found it “temporarily closed for scheduled site improvements.” The retailer’s new campaign launched last night, we're in the middle of back-to-school season and yet Gap doesn’t currently have a functioning Web site? That’s downright crazy.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on August 29, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Bubblicious readies talking viral effort

DM News is reporting that Bubblicious is set to break a new viral campaign in which kids visiting Bubblicious.com can call a phone number, leave a personal message and see an animated character on the Web site lip sync the message. They will also be able to accessorize the character and forward it to friends. The effort (which doesn’t seem to be live yet but is due to launch today) uses technology from Oddcast, the “conversational character products” specialist that has done projects for companies including L’Oréal, whose “virtual Pure Zone skin consultant” is shown here. UPDATE: The effort has now launched. Go to Bubblicious.com, and click on the Virtual Buddy.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on August 29, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Starbucks quote-cups irk women’s group

When Starbucks started printing random quotes on its cups, as part of an initiative called “The Way I See It,” we found it awkward that they felt compelled to include a legal disclaimer that read, “This is the author’s opinion, not necessarily that of Starbucks.” It seems less silly now that one “national Christian women’s organization” is furious about the following quote from author Armistead Maupin: “My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long. I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don’t make that mistake yourself. Life’s too damn short.” The group, called Concerned Women for America, isn’t calling for a boycott but does think Starbucks should steer clear of associating itself with issues like gay rights, “so that they don’t offend conservatives and people of faith,” according to one rep. Starbucks says it is not taking a political stand with the program but merely wants to promote discourse. The company has no plans to pull the Maupin quote and is actually expanding the program with quotes from regular customers.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on August 29, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (4)

An unwelcome plug for chewing tobacco

Chewing tobacco just isn’t blessed with many spontaneous celebrity endorsements. U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Corp., makers of Skoal dip, must have been at least somewhat pleased, then, when Gretchen Wilson wrote a song called “Skoal Ring” for her latest album—even though the country singer’s main talent seems to lie in calling herself a redneck. (“I’m redneck woman/And I ain’t no high-class broad/I’m just a product of my raisin’/And I say “Hey, y’all” and “Yee-haw,” goes her hit song.) But Skoal will take what it can get. That is, unless Tennessee’s attorney general intervenes. Paul Summers doesn’t have an issue with the song, but he is unhappy with Wilson’s live performance of it, which typically includes her pulling a tin of Skoal from her pocket as she sings. With that flourish, Summers believes, Wilson is publicly glamorizing tobacco use and thus may be violating the tobacco settlement provision forbidding tobacco ads targeting young people. Instead of seductively playing with the tin, perhaps Wilson could start actually dipping on stage. That would take care of the glamour problem.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on August 26, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (13)

No use crying over thrown-up milk

The unemployed Florida Marlins batboy who got benched for accepting a dare to chug a whole gallon of milk in an hour without vomiting has found sympathy in the minor leagues. The Fort Myers Miracle of the Florida State League has offered him an honorary batboy job Monday night. “Similar to a rehab stint, we want to help this kid stay on top of his game,” Miracle GM Steve Gliner said. The team is also offering kids 14 and under a pint of milk upon entering the game. Do they have to drink it right there? Because unless they bring coolers, that milk will get pretty rank sitting in the Florida heat for hours. Now, we could understand if the kid drank that much milk and actually won the $500 dare. But he drank it, puked, lost and got suspended! And not to mention, who dared him? Another batboy? Oh, no. It was former Marlins pitcher Brad Penny, who is 27 and probably should not be using any of his $5 million salary to get kids to do stupid things. Penny plans to at least pay the boy the original bounty. It’s the least he could do. The Miracle aren’t the only ones who want to make good of the incident. The Milk Processor Education Program is offering the batboy $500, along with any lost wages from the suspension, as long as he promises to drink only the recommended three glasses of milk a day.

—Posted by Celeste Ward

Published on August 26, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (4)

‘Ring Two’ viral so good it’s scary

Viral marketing, like a good joke, often seems to work best when it’s at someone’s expense. Thus, we see great promise in New Media Maze’s viral effort supporting the DVD release of The Ring Two in the U.K. Nefarious pranksters are invited to visit 7DaysLeft.com and enter a friend’s e-mail address and cell-phone number. The site then sends the friend an e-mail, inviting him or her to view the Ring Two trailer online. As the video plays, the friend’s cell phone rings, and a voice on the other end whispers “seven days”—which, if the friend has seen the Ring movies, might just prompt a soiling of the friend’s trousers.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on August 26, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (12)

CNET gets a measure of revenge

The tech and Google-obsessed crowds have chewed over the Google-CNET dispute to the point of exhaustion. To briefly recap, Google has decided to blackball CNET reporters until July 2006 in retaliation for a story CNET wrote pointing out potential privacy issues with Google’s desktop search product. Now, in retaliation for Google’s talk-to-the-hand treatment, CNET appears to be using the search engine against itself. In every story about Google it has published in the past three weeks, CNET has added this disclaimer: “Google representatives have instituted a policy of not talking with CNET News.com reporters until July 2006 in response to privacy issues raised by a previous story,” with a link to the offending CNET story. The effect? Thanks to the links and others from bloggers, CNET has used Google’s own PageRank formula, which uses link popularity to determine search results, to push the story Google is upset about up to No. 3 in Google’s own rankings for “Google privacy issues” queries.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on August 26, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (3)
Filed under Morrissey