Hoosiers gird for time-shift-induced societal meltdown

Our friends in Indiana are bracing for chaos this weekend. The Final Four? Piece of cake. No, the normally placid Hoosiers are faced with something more dire: daylight saving time. For the rest of us, this is a normal, once-a-year hassle that, at most, cuts out an hour of sleep and makes us late for brunch. For Indiana, this whole spring-forward, fall-back thing is terra incognita. The state somehow opted out of the whole DST thing 30 some years ago, choosing instead to just keep its clocks as they are, sometimes being in step with East Coast time and other times with Central. This year, most of Indiana’s counties will switch along with Eastern Time. This is not turning out to be a simple matter in the Heartland. A few rogue counties vowed not to comply, and the state is preparing for computer glitches. It’s Y2K part two, Indiana-style. What’s more, Indy bar owners complained they’ll lose out because Final Four visitors will have an hour less of hard-core early-morning booze time. Gov. Mitch Daniels stepped in and unilaterally allowed bars to operate in a parallel universe, where daylight saving time starts at 3 a.m. and doesn’t affect last call. Quite a place. Stay calm, Hoosiers, you’ll get through this.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on March 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Morrissey

‘The Office’ PSA spoofs dole out real-world advice

As a child of the ’80s, I credit PSAs in part for my successful navigation through a very dangerous world. Thanks to Nancy Reagan, who told me to “Just say no,” Gary Coleman, who instructed me to “Stop, drop and roll,” and G.I. Joe, who reminded me that “Knowing is half the battle,” I’m not a crack addict, I’m not on fire, and I’ve never been abducted by Cobra Commander. So when NBC last night demanded my attention with its trademark “The More You Know” melody, I sat up straight and waited for my next life lesson. Sayeth Ryan from The Office: “You might be out with your friends on the weekend in a cool part of town when someone offers you a beer for $9. Don’t do it. $9 is way too much to pay for a beer. Just walk away.” Another gives advice on how to handle office romances, and a third, from Kelly, offers the following makeup tip: "If you use two shades of lipstick, it can even look cuter." OK, so it's an April Fool’s spoof series, but it's still valuable advice.

—Posted by Deanna Zammit

Published on March 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Was TV the key to baby boomer greatness?

For all of you who think AdFreak is obsessed only with Marian Salzman, here’s a note about another high-profile ad lady, Linda Kaplan Thaler. Kaplan Thaler yesterday brought to the attention of tanned, taut-beyond-their-years Angelenos that perhaps the “Greater Generation,” aka baby boomers, are not as great as they've been led to believe, via this op-ed in the L.A. Times. In fact, maybe the primary reason boomers think they’re so great is that they were the first to have their every milestone broadcast on national TV, spawning a generation of navel-gazing hula-hoopers. And advertising played no small role. Now, they're enjoying self-important Ameriprise ads with lines crediting them for “giving new meaning to the meaningful relationship,” but overlooking the one-in-two divorce rate. My favorite line: “By the way, when did we all start having restless leg syndrome? Must have happened from sitting too long watching ourselves age on the tube.”

—Posted by Deanna Zammit

Published on March 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Trump follows Branson into home loans biz, but not—that we know of—hot tub

Weird. Just as we reported yesterday that Richard Branson was launching a home loans business, we just received an invite to the launch of Trump Mortgage LLC next Wednesday at (natch) Trump Tower. Makes us wonder, if having gotten soundly beaten by the Donald on the reality show front—when he tried an Apprentice-like show—Branson just wanted to beat him into the mortgage market. No word on whether, like Branson, the Donald's mortgage advertising will include him in a hot tub with two young lovelies, though, as we speculated yesterday, we wouldn't find it completely out of the question. On the other hand, this venture seems to be a family affair, with both Don Trump Jr. and Ivanka included on the invite. Apparently, the new little Trumplet will not be in attendance.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Credit: NBC

Published on March 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

U.K. football fans are bloody animals

The World Cup is coming, and at least one U.K. advertiser is being blatantly honest about this: English football fans are animals. Check out this energetic TV spot for Sure Sport for Men showing a city overrun with wild beasts, all hyped up into a frenzy about football, about to tear one another limb from limb. (The ad was created by Lowe London, and directed by Noam Murro. The tagline is, “Extreme protection that lets you go wild.”) As part of its larger campaign, Sure Sport for Men is also looking for the U.K.’s wildest football fan, which should be a fun task. (Just look for the empty bottles of Tesco’s vodka at his feet.) Hooligan culture has been a blight on England for eons—a “hideous excrescence on our civilization,” as the Times of London once put it. Now, it seems, it might even be something to celebrate.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on March 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

In-sleep advertising: reaching a truly passive audience

In what would have to be an April Fool’s joke, eMarketer has posted a story about marketers such as Coke, Nike and Speedo exploring “in-sleep advertising,” which uses a cochlear implant to deliver ads during slumber. (But good for them for not disclosing it's a joke at any point ... unless—yikes—it's real.) The story explains: “The beauty of the technology is that the cochlear implant communicates wirelessly with the ad server connected to the Internet so new ads can be tailored to each subject and delivered at each REM phase.” It even predicts that in-sleep advertising will be a $3.3 billion market by 2010. Maybe there’s a marketing opportunity here for Ambien? UPDATE: AdJab has reported this story without even a hint of skepticism. Is it possible they're not in on the joke?

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on March 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Universal picks 25-year-old’s ‘Slither’ ad

A month ago, Universal Pictures challenged movie fans to create their own TV commercials for Slither, its upcoming slug-centric horror film. The results are in, and a 25-year-old Southern Californian named Chris Ell has won the contest with a spot titled “Chick Flick Payback.” “Remember the last movie she made you see?” says on-screen copy, as a romantic scene begins—then cuts off. “It’s payback time.” Then we get the Slither scenes, showing little red slugs crawling all over everything and a monster with a serious side-bite problem. It’s pretty amusing, although if this movie’s main selling point is that it’s not a romantic comedy, it may be in trouble. The spot aired nationally last night during NBC’s My Name Is Earl, and Ell won $25,000 for his efforts. Thanks to Movie Marketing Madness for the link.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on March 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

When notorious supermodels attack ...

Time to scratch Naomi Campbell from the list of candidates for a phone-company endorsement deal.

—Posted by Mark Dolliver

Published on March 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3)

‘Snakes on a Plane’ bound for box-office gold?

Who needs advertising when you’ve got a really dumb title for your movie? Snakes on a Plane is still five months from takeoff but has already been declared the “worst film of 2006” by Wired magazine, according to a Wikipedia entry, anyway. Think that will hurt its opening-weekend box office? Not a chance. As the hot topic in online movie circles, Snakes (or SOAP) is inspiring the blogosphere to create freelance movie trailers, posters and story lines. In online vernacular, it’s one of the hotest memes since The Blair Witch Project. Star Samuel L. Jackson, who threatened to quit when someone proposed changing the name of the movie to Pacific Air Flight 121, signed up for the project based on the name alone. For the posters to come, may we suggest this headline: “You’ve read the title. Why see the movie?”

—Posted by Richard Williamson

Credit: James Dittiger/New Line Productions

Published on March 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (4)

Hooters Air clips its wings

It seems that after three years of flying the very friendly skies, Hooters Air is about to undergo a bit of a surgical reduction. That is, it’s grounding regular passenger service in favor of charter flights for sports and tour groups, its original business model. Founder Bob Brooks said it’s the industry, and not his business model, that’s “a terrible mess.” Although, when you market yourself to chicken-wing eating, boobie-drooling Bubbas who want nothing more from an airline than inspiration for flotation device jokes, you’re not exactly going to grab the four-seat-per-purchase family crowd. Niche marketing does have its drawbacks.

—Posted by Deanna Zammit

Published on March 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2)

London Tube says 'Sleeper Cell' ad insulting to Muslims

The London Underground is refusing to run posters for the series Sleeper Cell which feature the headline, "America's latest hero is a Muslim straight out of jail"—at least until the word "Muslim" is omitted from the campaign. Officials who run the Tube say the posters are sensationalist and are out of line with its advertising policies, "which seek to avoid gratuitoulsy insulting large groups of Londoners." The ad was given the green light by the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority, so, it will run, as is, in newspapers. As for what the headline is meant to be describe, the series is about a Muslim who goes undercover within a fundamentalist group.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on March 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Can you find the link between Richard Branson in a hot tub and home loans?

Note to Richard Branson: just because a marketing message is meant to be viral doesn't mean that it has to have shoddy production values. This is not something we are saying out of the blue. Branson is branching out into home loans in Australia via this peculiar video which shows the billionaire in a hot tub, drinking champagne with two young, topless lovelies (one of whom we thought was destined to have a Tara Reid moment (caution ... link might be NSFW), but, thankfully, did not). But the sound of the hot tub effectively, well, drowns out the dialogue—such as it is. And, since the link between threesomes in a hot tub and home loans isn't exactly intuitive (unless, maybe, you are a member of the cast of Big Love), the entire effort is all for naught, except for the the thrill someone might get out of seeing Branson in a hot tub. This story from a blog published by The Sydney Morning Herald, asks, " What other CEO of a major corporation would allow themselves to be filmed sipping champagne in a spa with naked ladies?" Well, actually, we can think of one.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on March 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Threesomes

Polish jokes still not OK in advertising

If you aired a TV commercial in Germany that portrayed Polish people as thieving scoundrels, wouldn’t you expect some sort of backlash? German retailer Mediamarkt has done just that, and is now backtracking. In a recent ad, a Mediamarkt salesman insists that “Poles are decent people,” before being set upon by a bunch of Polish customers, who steal his trousers. Not exactly subtle stuff. The ad plays off a common stereotype in Germany that Polish people will steal anything they can get their hands on. The spot has been pulled off the air, and Mediamarkt has apologized “to all those who were insulted or even hurt by this.”

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on March 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Who’s up for some yummy Nascar Meats?

I don’t know which is better here, the product name or the tagline. Yes, officially licensed Nascar Meats are coming to a grocery store near you, and can’t you just “Taste the excitement”? No roadkill. No beef jerky. Just jumbo hot dogs (aka tube steaks), bacon and smoked sausage. When can we expect the Motocross Cheeses?

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on March 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

'New York' magazine explains case of the missing grown-ups

Even if you read the piece we’re about to gush about solely to keep up with trends important to your job in advertising, do yourself a favor and read New York magazine’s cover story this week—“Forever Youngish: Why Nobody Wants to Be An Adult Anymore.” It’s about adults—many with children—who refuse to grow up with the same set of fixed notions of adulthood as their parents. (Somewhere in the halls of JWT, Marian Salzman is wishing she'd thought of this first.) Don't be surprised if you see a bit of yourself in this story; if not, it’s so on target that you’ll certainly see the truths it tells in the people all around you. As the story explains, "It’s about the mom in the low-slung Sevens and ankle boots and vaguely Berlin-art-scene blouse with the $800 stroller and the TV-screen-size Olsen-twins sunglasses perched on her head walking through Bryant Park listening to Death Cab for Cutie on her Nano." As that excerpt makes obvious, the story is positively choking with brand names—as long as they combine alternative culture with a price tag that makes whatever the item is unaffordable for someone with a blue-collar job. (In one extremely telling passage, a designer seems stunned at the market for his professionally-ripped jeans. “I was surprised that people would pay that amount of money for something that literally falls apart.”) It's always excruciating when magazines try to come up with a new buzzword with the obvious intent of hoping it catches on, and this story falls into that category, borrowing the term "grups” from an old Star Trek episode "in which Kirk and crew land on a planet run entirely by kids, who called grownups “grups."’ As the story's author, Adam Sternbergh, explains, "It's not the most elegant term, but it passes the field test of real-world utility." OK, good defense. Call ’em grups, if you must.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on March 29, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (24)

Newspaper’s urinal mirrors deliver ‘the truth’

We’ve got a urinal theme going this morning. First we looked at Brazil’s urinal soccer games. Now we see that the newspaper Bild has installed tilted mirrors above urinals in Germany, more or less forcing men to contemplate their masculinity while taking a leak. The headline on the mirrors delivers the newspaper’s brand message while at the same time insulting the viewer (or at least the less-endowed viewer): “Nothing is harder than the truth.” Actually, coming up with urinal advertising that doesn’t have an element of grossness might be harder, but there you go. Link via Advertising/Design Goodness.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on March 29, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (23)

VH1 provides outlet for all of the useless trivia clogging your brain

Not that we'll be participating, as our job is merely to observe, but—especially as a service to those of you who continue to comment frequently to our Gastineau Girls post—we'd like to point out that VH1 is hosting a "World Series of Pop Culture." The initial qualifying round is taking place at VH1.com at 7 p.m. EST tonight. Those who are selected, through a formula that seems to combine pop culture savvy with that certain "x" factor seen in reality show participants, will compete in New York in late April at the Ziegfeld Theater. (That part will make it on to the cable network.) According to the Web site, the so-called "Pop Culture IQ Test" taking place tonight will be divided into six sections, ranging from lyric identification to "pop culture trivia math questions." Want an example of math trivia? What is the correct answer to George Costanza's favorite baby name multiplied by the number of children on The Cosby Show minus the number of nipples Chandler Bing had before his "nubbinectomy”? Fortunately, it's a multiple-choice question—the answer is 32, 39, 52 or 63. Let the games begin.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on March 29, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

NYC water towers to get baseball caps

1010 Wins reports that water towers in New York City will soon be festooned with Mets and Yankees caps to celebrate opening day. The inflatable caps are size 61 and half. The Yankees probably spent way too much for their cap, and it’ll probably be injured before the first pitch is thrown. Link via Gothamist.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on March 29, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Only Brazil would invent urinal soccer

You can’t escape World Cup fever, particularly in São Paulo bars, where this quirky game of urinal soccer comes from. “Soccer is good everywhere, but it is much better on ESPN,” says the headline. It might be less good, for many reasons, in a urinal, but it’s a fun idea. Seen on Ads of the World.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on March 29, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (27)

Clow, Bogusky continue their conversation

Creativity has a new video series featuring a “conversation” between creative heavyweights Lee Clow and Alex Bogusky. In the first clip, they talked about agency dress codes, and Clow managed to slip in the phrases “pushing the envelope” and “the inmates are running the asylum.” In the second clip, which is out now, they discuss the word “advertising” and the challenge of innovation. Clow credits Apple Computer for encouraging TBWA to become a “total media-arts company.” Bogusky says he has no good prediction more than 30 minutes into the future for how advertising will evolve. There’s no visible halo of light surrounding Clow in the videos, but he does seem to be taking advantage of the free wine more so than Bogusky.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on March 29, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Be a cover girl with a Playboy beach towel

Jessica Alba won’t be buying one of these sweet Playboy beach towels anytime soon. The text on the towel translates to, “I could be Miss March.” They were created by Grey Argentina and left on beaches. People may be getting fired from Maxim and FHM as we speak. Spotted on Ad Hunt via Coloribus.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on March 29, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (4)

Klansman ads promote Brazil radio station

Quite an unbelievable ad here, created by TBWA in São Paulo, Brazil, for a local radio station’s Jazzmasters program. The headline reads, “We play only black music.” Thus the Klansman’s pose—he just can’t stand listening to the stuff. Another ad in the series shows the Klan dude taking a cigarette lighter to a transistor radio. Using the Ku Klux Klan as a punch line seems oh maybe just a little tasteless. Link via Creative Brain.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on March 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (7)

For Schwarzenegger, it's morning again ... in California

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday unveiled the first ad in his reelection campaign, and some are likening it to the 1984 "Morning Again in America" presidential effort for that other actor-turned-governor of California, Ronald Reagan. It definitely shares the upbeat tone of that long-ago ad, and the opening visuals of the sun rising first over a bucolic suburb, and then over the Golden Gate Bridge, certainly help. But, strangely, the spot's central motif is California traffic—albeit California traffic moving in fast forward—as if to say, "Hey, California! We are happenin’!" Anyway, as we know that Tom Messner, who had a hand in Reagan's advertising, stops by AdFreak now and again, we have to ask, Tom, if you're reading this morning, what do you think? Is this like the Reagan ad, or just what political advertising looks like before everyone start slinging mud at one another?

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on March 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

How about some Final Four hookers, too?

I’m no expert at event marketing, but if you want to encourage good, clean, drug-free fun at your big Final Four party in Indianapolis, do you really want to call it My Coke Fest? Link via Deadspin.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on March 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Score one for the American-made SUVs

The ad shown here, from Saatchi in the U.K., wants you to believe the Toyota Hilux is one tough son of a bitch, wrecking-ball-like in its sturdiness. But the Hilux might be a little embarrassed the next time it runs into a Ford Explorer at a party. Nancy Batista drove her Explorer into a giant sinkhole in Brooklyn yesterday, and by all accounts the SUV fared quite well. It “looked pretty good, considering it had just plunged into a big hole,” says The New York Times. What’s weird is that the bird’s-eye photos of the accident in the Times look remarkably like a reverse angle of the Hilux ad. (You can see an AP photo here, but the Times photos are better.) Hilux link via Ads of the World. 

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on March 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2)