Cows tip college student for Maryland lottery

Is there a cow uprising underway? Yesterday, cows invaded New York's Bryant Park on behalf of Nestlé, and now It seems at least one U.S. state has been experiencing strange bovine behavior in recent weeks. For the past month, cows (people dressed like cows) have been spotted playing tennis, grazing at restaurants and mooing at tailgate parties in order to spread a message of “bovine unite." A commercial that aired last week in the state caught the mad cows in action—tipping over a college student while asleep in his bed. Are cows finally getting their revenge for all those drunken disturbances? Nah, it’s just The Maryland Lottery using “Uddergate” to showcase its “Let Yourself Play” message. The campaign highlights the lottery’s new $250,000 promotion, its Bovine Bucks doubler scratch-off ticket and “Nascow” online racing game. Now, I’m not quite sure why cows are the way to go for a lottery promotion but they sure are cute (even the drooly one in the spot). What’s next? Will the cows rise up for their ultimate revenge? Somehow I doubt Millie The Cow (here's a link to her blog) is ready to take on the National Cattleman's Beef Council.

—Posted by Eleftheria Parpis

Published on May 13, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Parpis

New rich media Jesus saves!

Any institution around for thousands of years must know a thing or two about product promotion. That’s why churches are a great place to find new marketing tactics. Heck, the Pope is podcasting. Now, a Palm Harbor, Fla.-based minister has produced what we’re guessing is the first interactive rich media representation of Jesus. The three-dimensional animated Christ figure on Rev. R.G. Owsley’s Jesus Speaks Web site greets site visitors, complete with a nodding head, moving lips and blinking eyes. The avatar, created by New York rich media company Oddcast, goes for a traditional representation of Jesus: beard, flowing robes and hockey hair. With a baritone voice that sounds suspiciously like it might be Rev. Owsley’s, Jesus quotes from John 8:31: “The truth will make you free.” Oddcast points out that Jesus is just the latest luminary represented by its VHost technology, joining world-renowned figures Albert Einstein, Elvis Presley and Love Connection host Chuck Woolery.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on May 13, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (6)
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News alert: Bill Gates predicts end of iPod craze

So Bill Gates spent part of his week dissing the iPod in a German newspaper, according to this story on the CNN site. (Suggested headline: Auf wiedersehen Apple.) His theory—or was this just an exercise in sour grapes?—was that people would start to migrate their audio onto their MP3-playing cell phones. At first, I thought the whole line of thinking a bunch of malarkey. I mean, I could play MP3s on my cell phone, but it’s my cell phone, you know? But then I started to think more—about how I was vaguely annoyed that even though I had recently managed to cut down on the devices I lug around by merging my PDA with my phone, I had found a new device I can’t go anywhere without: my iPod. And then I started to think about the defeat of the Mac OS, and about when Netscape used to be the premiere Web browser in the universe (sob!), and any number of other times Microsoft managed to overtake behemoth products because it is Microsoft. Crap! What if he’s right!? And then, there’s this factoid: Gates, the richest man on the planet, doesn’t even own an iPod, not even to experiment with or have crushed under a bulldozer just for fun. (Kidding!) No. He has a Creative Zen. And not even the fact that Bono recently crashed at the Gates pad while in Seattle for the U2 tour (which we discovered in Googling to get links for this post), has convinced him that maybe he should buy a special edition U2 iPod just to be a good friend. Am I seeing the first signs of the iPod apocalypse? Or is this simply a sign that I have spent most of this week intensely sleep-deprived?

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on May 13, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (11)

Rob Walker's nihilist marketing strategy

Marketing writer Rob Walker used to send out an entertaining, sporadic e-mail newsletter called "The Journal of Murketing," chronicling interesting intersections of marketing and culture before it went on hiatus a few months back in part so that Walker, who pens a column for The New York Times Magazine called "Consumed," could promote his new book, Letter from New Orleans. Murketing subscribers on Monday were treated to a "Journal of Murketing Hiatus Extension Phantom Special" detailing an ingenious new publicity plan for the book. Here's an extended quote, since the e-mail isn't on the Web anywhere and it’s entertaining enough to read the whole thing:

"There is no street team. There is no snipe campaign. Key influencers are not even identified, let alone courted and ‘seeded’ with product. The hottest DJs have not been hired, because exclusive parties will not be thrown. A secret, mobile pop-up store will not be moving from location to location in America’s hottest neighborhoods. Nothing will be distributed via 'goody bag,' and no one associated with Vice will be brought aboard to reveal what the cool people think. The folks who make a living posting fake messages on Internet chat rooms will, for this project, post nothing. Hot graf artists will contribute no murals, no stickers, no stencils. There is no podcast, no blog, and no word of mouth ('organic' or otherwise). Everywhere you turn your eyes and ears—everywhere—you’ll be totally surrounded by the absence of the brand."

Perhaps marketers everywhere will pick up on this new form of nihilist marketing? We doubt it, and Walker does too: "Am I worried about others copying our unique Phantom Marketing tactics? No. Because executing a campaign like this one is incredibly expensive."

—Posted by Mae Anderson

Published on May 13, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (2)
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BK Darth Vaders just waiting to be stolen

Remember how popular those 10-foot-tall inflatable SpongeBob's were with crooked cartoon fans late last year? Well, Wunderman, the direct agency behind that Burger King promotional tie-in with the SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, has crafted a similar effort for Burger King's Star Wars instant win games. Beginning this week, huge inflatable Darth Vaders will be perched atop BK restaurants across the country, complete with a moving light saber and heavy breathing. Given the fact that nearly 100 SpongeBobs were stolen at the end of last year, this promotion seems to be begging for trouble. Then again, who wants a giant Darth Vader clogging up the attic?

—Posted by Lisa van der Pool

Published on May 13, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (12)
Filed under Burger King

A fond farewell to Pepsi/iTunes

The party seems to be over. Today I trundle again to the vending machine, hopeful to abscond with a free iTunes song with my Diet Pepsi but prepared to be undone by mathematics. I pop the cap off, and there’s a 10-digit code. Nice. But where it should say “Free Song,” it says “One Point.” What’s this? Wait a minute—this isn’t an iTunes bottle at all. It’s a “Sports Pass” bottle, whatever that is. (It has something to do with collecting points for sports gear.) I knew this would happen. Still, it feels sudden. Damn. I guess I should drink more water.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 12, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (4)

Save CBGB's by buying chocolate

Call it chocolate for CB's or an odd East-West partnership. Chocolate Bar, a three-year-old chocolate shop in the West Village of New York City, is selling commemorative truffles, trinkets and snack bars to raise money for the legendary East Village hole-in-the-wall, CBGB's, which for months has been battling its landlord in court over back-due rent. The landlord, a non-profit that serves the homeless called the Bowery Residents' Committee, claims that club owner Hilly Kristal owes more than $75,000 in rent due to a bookkeeping mix-up. Kristal says he has the money but won't pay until the club's future lease is secured. The current lease expires in August and Kristal says the BRC wants to nearly double the monthly rent to about $40,000, which he says he can't afford. By holding the $75,000 in escrow, he's hoping to negotiate a lower rent. Meanwhile, Kristal has legal bills to pay. Enter Chocolate Bar, which will fork over the proceeds from its CB's-themed offerings. The truffles and trinkets (key chain, stickers, etc.) come in a brown box stamped with CB's logo that also includes a "postage-paid petition" to save the club. CB's also is planning a month of benefit shows in July that will feature big names who got their start in the narrow den of noise. AdFreak, whose former band, Happyland, used to play there on not-so-coveted Tuesday nights, also is doing its part, holding a lighted Bic to salute the house that Joey Ramone (and Deborah Harry, David Byrne, Eddie Vedder, etc.) built. 

—Posted by Andrew McMains

Published on May 12, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Get your Major League Baseball peanuts here!

Isn’t it reassuring to know that despite that messy stuff involving Congressional hearings, the Major League Baseball marketing machine is alive and well? (We meant that tongue-in-cheek, OK?) While at our local supermarket the other day, we discovered it was selling these cute little bags of roasted peanuts just like you get at the ballpark, emblazoned with the logos of our two favorite teams (Mets, Red Sox), and least favorite team (Yankees). Strangely, enough, the peanuts for those three teams and the Phillies come roasted, while the peanuts packaged in the logos of the other 20 teams featured in the product line are salted and roasted. According to a reliable source—our local grocer—the peanuts are new this year. They’re being produced by Hampton Farms of Severn, North Carolina, a family farm that has been in business since the 1900s. The only drawback we can see to this product is that we can’t throw the shells indiscriminately on the floor at home like we can at the ballpark, knowing that someone else will clean up after us.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on May 12, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (4)

Put your fingers around a free Wendy's Frosty

Finger-free Frostys all ‘round! Wendy’s restaurants nationwide will extend a—hand—to consumers this weekend with a special Junior Frosty giveaway, Friday through Sunday. The giveaway of 14 million of the slushy ice-cream drinks is a move to draw customers back to the embattled burger chain, which saw its reputation dragged through the mud after a Las Vegas woman went to a San Jose, Calif, restaurant and said she was served a bowl of chili with part of a finger in it—and now has been charged in connection with planting the finger. The free Frosty weekend was already a big hit in the San Francisco Bay Area a few weeks ago—the chain gave out 100,000 Frostys.

—Posted by Celeste Ward

Published on May 12, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Wendy's

Get your pathetic fan Web site some ink!

Movies.com has announced a call for entries for its second annual Movie Site Awards. The contest invites “cinefiles” to “tell the world about the best haunts on the ’Net that have that certain movie ‘mojo,’ ” according to the press release. “Movies.com is excited to provide a voice for fans who want to honor extraordinary movie sites on the Internet,” Dan Sherlock, vp of Movies.com, said in a statement. Last year, DanRadcliffe.com (a tribute to the actor who plays Harry Potter) beat out this Johnny Depp fan site, among others, for Best Actor Fan Site. I’m planning on nominating the Depp site again—it’s got amazing details on his tattoos alone!

—Posted by Lisa van der Pool

Published on May 12, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

MTA finally confirms: it's Nestlé

Not to beat a dead cow or anything, but the MTA finally got back to us and confirmed that, yes, the cow invasion happening in New York tomorrow is, indeed, being sponsored by Nestlé to launch a new Coffeemate product. Of course, the confirmation comes days after AdFreak readers presented us with truckloads of evidence that Nestlé was behind this thing, including the time and place of an event supporting it tomorrow, but we’ll take what we can get. And New Yorkers wonder why the trains don’t run at time.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on May 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Will someone give this baby a name?

Here’s a pathetic story—perhaps you can help. Last night on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360°, right after a story on Bush’s security scare, they do an “On a Lighter Note” piece called “Nameless Baby.” It’s about an 18-month-old girl whose parents still haven’t given her a name. Cooper leads in with a snide “You would think it wouldn’t be too difficult to name a baby after being pregnant for nine months,” but then lets viewers know that’s not true for Andrew Heatley and Mary Lane of Tuscon, Ariz. Then there’s footage of the parents trying to explain: “We wanted to wait to see if she had her own personality, so we decided to wait.” But they never could decide. On the baby’s first birthday, the cake said, “Happy Birthday Baby.” Because she has no legal name, the baby has no birth certificate and no Social Security number. At the doctor’s office, she’s called simply Baby Girl Lane. As the story wraps, Cooper, arms folded, clearly amazed, asks readers to log on to the show’s site and suggest names. I have one I’d like to share—how about Pam, for my Parents Are Morons?

—Posted by Alison Fahey

Published on May 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (15)

The hot and spicy world of extreme foods

Sports, sex, makeovers—these days, anything and everything is extreme. This week, we’re sorry to say, we are learning about “extreme foods.” A guy in New Jersey named Blair Lazar is king of the category—he runs a company called, yes, Extreme Foods, and has just released a hot sauce that is reputed to be 30 times hotter than the spiciest pepper and 8,000 times stronger than Tabasco. “16 Million Reserve” (the figure refers to the sauce’s score on the “Scoville” heat index) is an ultra-refined version of chili powder. People who buy it must sign a waiver absolving Lazar of liability if they are foolish enough to try it. Manufactured in what sounds like a chemistry lab, it’s not meant to actually be ingested—it’s just too damn extreme, evidently. Of course, the product already has a cult following among rabid hot sauce fans.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Organic Trade Association spoofs Star Wars

OK, we didn’t even find this video particularly funny, but thought it a great example of how far people will go to jump on the Star Wars bandwagon. It’s a five-minute spoof of Star Wars sponsored by the Organic Trade Association, featuring a character named Cuke Skywalker who goes up against Darth Tader, a wayward, non-organic potato. (That’s as opposed to Darth Tater, pictured here.) Anywho, we liked a couple of the scenes, like the one where the plastic salad container is called in to do battle, but at five minutes, the movie just takes too much of our quality time, especially when we know what the movie’s overarching message will be before we even hit the play button: organic: good, all other forms of plant matter: bad. (By the way, in case you were wondering, people are already camping out at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York so that they can be first in line for tickets for the real movie's May 19th opening.)

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on May 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (3)

For George Lucas, the URL that got away

You’d think if you went to revengeofthesith.com, you might be in for a treat. Maybe a 30-second clip from the upcoming and hugely anticipated final chapter in George Lucas’ Star Wars saga. Maybe a few words from Lucas about why this series took 30 years to make or why you should be first in line to catch the Sith flick. Nope, none of that (although you can get all the clips and downloads you want at starwars.com). At revengeofthesith.com, you get to preview Chapter One of the somewhat bizarre story of Thesith Williams, part of a book titled Revenge of Thesith. Thesith, evidently, is a dwarf, or a midget, not sure which, but at any rate he’s 3-foot-1. He’s also an accomplished pro bowler and is “well known in the adult film industry.” (If you want to know his adult-film stage name, you’ll have to go to the Web site yourself.) After you are appropriately teased with Chapter One, well, that’s pretty much it. Info will be added later on where to buy the book. Now, I’m not the biggest sci-fi fan, and yard-tall bowling porn stars aren’t high on my list, either. But I do wonder how Lucas let this URL slip from his usually tight grip. On the other hand, I’m not going to expend a lot of energy over the next 30 years trying to figure it out.

—Posted by Steve McClellan

Published on May 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (4)

Early training for women in marketing?

If women are meaner than men—and I’m not daring to say they are!—maybe it’s because they start practicing earlier in life. Researchers at Brigham Young University found that “relational aggression”—defined as “harming others through purposeful manipulation and damage to relationships”—is a factor in the pecking order even among pre-schoolers. “Exclusionary behavior and threatening to withdraw friendship are two prime examples of relational aggression,” according to a BYU summary of the study, which examined how pre-schoolers regard their peers. “Research indicates that this behavior is the preferred type of aggression among girls.” Quoting one of the BYU professors involved in the research, another part of this summary makes it sound as though mean pre-school girls will be well-suited to ad-agency life when they grow up: “They are good resource controllers, socially skilled, popular, conscientious and socially integrated, and yet are among the most aggressive, dominant and arrogant children in the peer group. It is this bi-strategic mix of positive and negative behavior that allows them to maintain their standing in the social hierarchy.” In an Associated Press dispatch about the study, another of the researchers notes that such behavior is found in about one-fifth of girls. “It also shows up in boys, but much less frequently.”

—Posted by Mark Dolliver

Published on May 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Washington’s endless ‘nuclear option’ ads

You’d think Election Day never happened, given the political ads still clogging the airwaves in the nation’s capital. The main topic of discontent these days is the “nuclear option,” and we’re not talking about North Korea, although that’s serious enough. What the left and right are really bothered about is Bill Frist’s desire to end the filibuster, a tactic threatened by the minority Democrats to prevent the Republicans from confirming conservative judges. It’s fodder for endless ads, and we don’t mean good ads. Take Pat Robertson’s remarks on ABC’s This Week. Robertson thinks an out-of-control judiciary is more of a threat to America today than al Qaeda. MoveOn then launches a campaign calling on Frist and Tom DeLay to repudiate Robertson’s remarks, “because they undermine American democratic institutions and insult those who lost loved ones in the 9/11 tragedy.” Come on. Like that’ll happen. The money would be better spent on ads targeting the Republican senators who are most concerned about raw abuses of power and jettisoning a 200-plus-year-old Senate rule designed to provide some checks and balances. And if the left lacks good creative ideas for ad content, it can read Paul Loeb’s item on Arianna Huffington’s new blog and seek out Loeb’s friend, a Watergate sinner who once hired G. Gordon Liddy and went to jail for his role in those Nixonian shenanigans. Having a Watergate participant appear in an ad saying, “We nearly destroyed democracy, but these people are infinitely more ruthless,” just might get some attention.

—Posted by Wendy Melillo

Photo: Index Stock Imagery/Newscom

Published on May 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Too many ‘Star Wars’ tie-ins? Never!

Brooklyn, 1984. My cousins Craig and Phillip hover around a pile of Star Wars action figures like convicts around a square meal. Craig’s favorite is intergalactic bounty hunter Boba Fett. Having only seen bits and pieces of the first two films—oh, and having two X chromosomes—I’m not terribly interested in making whooshing noises as plastic TIE Fighters bear down on Luke and Han. For me, the drama starts when my cousin’s dog creeps in unnoticed and sweeps up Boba, retreating to a corner while Craig shrieks and wails, until my Uncle Eddie pries the figure from Fido’s jaws. In the pantheon of Craig’s boyhood tragedies, Boba’s Disfigurement ranks high and, I’m guessing, might still reduce my now-6-foot-6 cousin to tears. Consider that when you read the article in today’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required) that asks if too many tie-ins to Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith have diluted the marketers’ messages. Sure, Yoda may be in spots for two different products. Sure, Darth Vader/M&Ms will never be as memorable as ET/Reese’s Pieces. But as a woman who is married to another man who considers Star Wars to be a seminal event in his childhood, I understand the force that holds sway over these guys. (The TIE in TI Fighter, by the way, stands for Twin Ion Engine. “Everyone knows that,” my husband says.) When any one of these ads comes on—Chewy recording a ringtone, Yoda levitating a Diet Pepsi—I am shushed, the TV volume is raised, and my husband stands gape-mouthed before the tube. Several times he has rewound the DVR to watch an ad he would otherwise have skipped. Show me another series of ads that do that. I’d say the messages are being transmitted uninterrupted.

—Posted by Deanna Zammit

Published on May 10, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Jesse Dylan’s really bad TV commercials

So far, Jesse Dylan, son of a certain legendary musician, has demonstrated some aptitude for directing commercials (from high-fashion Tommy Hilfiger and Barneys spots to the high-concept Match.com spot with the pantomime bear at the beach and the Nino Rota music) but little feel for movies (How High, the execrable American Wedding). He gets to do both in his latest project, the Universal Pictures feature film Kicking & Screaming—which includes intentionally bad TV spots for a sporting-goods chain owned by a Great Santini-like character played by Robert Duvall. As if to demonstrate the ineptitude of local spotmeisters, Duvall’s (and later Will Ferrell’s) acting is particularly stiff, the editing clunky, the effects cheesy and the double entendre—a tagline in which Duvall, and later Ferrell, smirkingly proclaim that they “have balls”—unlikely and needlessly rating-threatening. Judging by a Los Angeles screening, even kids find that tag too obvious to laugh at. Numerous soccer balls to the crotch on the field of play, meanwhile, did draw the intended titters.

—Posted by Gregory Solman

Published on May 10, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Disgusting ad icons, you’ve got company

Thought Mucinex’s Mr. Mucus wasn’t gross enough of a mascot? Oh, good. Then let us introduce you to Mr. Floatie. This charming gent, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Mr. Hanky (shown here), is Canadian—the product of the imagination of average guy James Skwarok, who showed up to a public meeting dressed as a piece of excrement, representing what he called POOP—People Opposed to Outfall Pollution. Skwarok is on a mission to stop to the dumping of raw sewage into the Pacific Ocean, but he was not allowed in the meeting. This rejection left him “a little bummed out,” he told reporters. He proceeded to pass out business cards on toilet paper. Now, while polluting the ocean is bad all around, perhaps Mr. Skwarok could concentrate on getting his message across in a more refined manner—at least one that would allow him to be admitted to a meeting. But I am sure South Park fans thought his plot was genius.

—Posted by Celeste Ward

Credit: Comedy Central

Published on May 10, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Paying for the privilege of a Prius

Looking to save the environment one car at a time? Get in line. People are so desperate to buy the short-stocked Toyota Prius gas/electric hybrid that some have taken to paying $1,000 over sticker price for a used one. Their actions are commendable. However, AdFreak is somewhat reluctant to fork over 22,000 clams to tool around in a sedan that looks like an orthopedic shoe. But we digress. It’s not just Priuses (Prii?) that have drawn this kind of competitive bidding, according to Consumer Guide Automotive. Other mid-priced cars that have turned otherwise normal U.S. residents into rabid coveters include the tiny 1990 Mazda Miata convertible; the 1998 retro Volkswagen Beetle; and 2001’s Chrysler PT Cruiser. Not only did dealers have long waiting lists, but the more impatient buyers who couldn’t wait to be seen in the trendy rides would outbid others just to take one home. The redesigned Ford Thunderbird also got that kind of attention, but “fell from grace” quickly.

—Posted by Celeste Ward

Published on May 10, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Dave Matthews rocks out ... for free

Just to prove that not only do we sometimes leave our computer, but occasionally even  leave the house, here’s our picture from the Dave Matthews concert we went to last night at Roseland Ballroom in New York. (Yeah, we know, it sucks, but you’ll just have to trust us. He’s up there somewhere.) The concert was part of AOL Music’s series of performances which are Webcast live and then can be streamed on demand. What we were really curious about as we bopped (besides why the guy in front of us seemed so compelled to take up more than his allotment of personal space), was whether AOL was still only allowing subscribers to see the show online, which, back in the day, was considered one way in which the service would keep those subscription dollars flowing. This morning, roughly seven hours after we got home, we got our answer: it’s no. Anyone with an Internet connection can stream the whole thing, which clocks in at over two hours. On the one hand, that’s really cool. On the other hand, we’re not exactly sure what the business model is here; the only commerce taking place on the Web page where the concert is being streamed is an opportunity to buy the new Dave Matthews CD.  Oh God, we’re overthinking this aren’t we? Uh, rock on.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on May 10, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Back on the road with Mr. Starbucks

The last time we checked in with the Starbucks fanatic known simply as Winter (shown here), he had visited some 2,850 Starbucks locations. Now, three years later, he’s up to more than 4,500, and has “no plans to stop” tooling around America in his 1997 Honda, slurping down all the talls with two sugars he can get his hands on. Back in 2002, Winter admitted to harboring Jared-esque fantasies. “I have thought of doing commercials along the lines of ‘Where’s Winter?’ and what zany adventures I am having, trying to find the next Starbucks,” he told us back then. “Whimsical is how I picture [them]. ... I, in the Ben Franklin tradition, must expect that they will pass on the idea, but who knows?” He seems to have given up that particular dream: “[Winter] makes it clear he isn’t interested in shilling for the company,” this latest story indicates. But perhaps even bigger things are in store: Before long, you may see a documentary about this guy.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 9, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Grey strikes back after ‘worst reel’ vote

Grey is taking matters into its own hands. Voted the agency with the industry’s worst creative reel in a recent Adweek survey, the WPP Group shop took out an ad in this week’s Adweek inviting readers to “see the ‘worst reel’ in the business” at www.worstagencyreel.com. Now, we feel compelled to point out that in the Agency Report Cards issue, published April 25, Adweek’s editorial staff gave Grey’s reel a B- grade, which was hardly the worst of the 33 national agencies, or even all that bad. It was Grey’s ad-industry peers—the ones who voted in the survey—who lowered the boom. (In the survey, Doner was judged to have the second-worst reel, followed by Campbell Mithun, The Kaplan Thaler Group and Young & Rubicam.) It just goes to show that old perceptions die hard. But we at AdFreak think that an ad directing people to a Web site for “worst reel” is a praise-worthy example of turning lemons into lemonade. So there.

—Posted by Kathleen Sampey

Published on May 9, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (12)

Is Nestlé behind the cow invasion?

The mystery of the impending onslaught of cows to New York City this Thursday hasn’t been solved definitively, but we’re getting closer, gosh darnit! Since our initial post here on AdFreak, a flurry of curious posters have weighed in about the cute little cows, claiming they are everything from a tourist gimmick to a Bovine United stunt to a Chick-Fil-A promotion. However, several posters allege that the subway ads are teasers for a new type of Nestlé creamer. One poster—“Maybe?”—tantalizes us with, “Maybe it’s Nestlé, and maybe it’s a new creamer they’re debuting. ... Maybe a contest will be announced that asks you to look at a website on Thursday morning. Maybe at 10 am. Maybe you’ll need to race somewhere to win a contest. Maybe it’s Bryant Park. Just a bunch of maybes.... :)” Frustrated with more non-Nestlé speculation, the frustrated Mr./Ms. Maybe? later writes, “Come on, people! Ignore my ‘maybes’! I’m telling you what’s going to happen!” Alright, already! As of yet, Nestlé has not returned calls. A rep at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority claimed to not know why the cows were coming. Stay tuned.

—Posted by Lisa van der Pool

Published on May 9, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (9)