Google on fence about making black friends
Google has posted some new ads online called "Search Stories," which cleverly tell people's stories through only their Google searches. The "Parisian Love" posted below is particularly nice—simple, touching and a whole lot more enjoyable than the Bing search-overload ads. But they seem to have run into a problem with the approach. If you look closely, you'll notice that some of the search suggestions that appear while the person types (which can be notoriously bizarre) have been edited out. In this ad, for example, they've gotten rid of the "making friends with black people" option. Above, you can compare the suggestions from Google.com and from the ad. Hey, what's wrong with making friends with black people? —Posted by Tim Nudd |
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Published on December 10, 2009 | Permalink
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Use Bing, and get chomped on by a vampire
As I've noted in regard to infomercial spoofs, you can always leave it to advertisers to seize on a cultural trend, typically six months late, and beat it to death. Or in the case of vampires, suck all the blood out. No less than Microsoft, which has been called worse things than a bloodsucker by its rivals, is playing into this with the new Bing spot above. It shows the typical vampire type guy—greasy, long hair, severely manicured goatee—about to feast on an unsuspecting fawn after she uses Bing to find a place to eat that's suitably dark for his tastes. I'm actually surprised more advertisers haven't gone vampire for the Halloween season. —Posted by Brian Morrissey Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on October 28, 2009 | Permalink
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Dance like a lunatic for those online savings
It's probably a victory of sorts that Ask (nee Ask.com) still has any share of the Internet search market. It's less than 4 percent, but that's with having no identifiable brand positioning since mascot Jeeves the butler was sent packing. Now, we get an ad campaign by Agency.com (nee Agency.com) with guys and gals happy-dancing in colorful Brady Bunch-type squares, overjoyed that Ask's new bargain-finding service saves them money. It's just a hunch, but I suspect they were paid to hop around like that. One guy looks like Jerry Springer. There's a chorus of "Hey ladies! Hey fellas!" Jerry Lewis had a similar catchphrase, more nasal though slightly less histrionic. This Ask stuff is too earnest to be camp, but too goofy to be taken seriously. It's sort of like Yahoo's "It's Y!ou," but with an annoyingly catchy jingle. Still, folks love getting deals on stuff they don't really need, and any campaign that calls to mind Jerrys Lewis and Springer can't be all bad. —Posted by David Gianatasio Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on October 20, 2009 | Permalink
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Bing's lame jingle starts nice little squabble
Is it possible to have a three-way online flame war in which everyone wins? Apparently so. The battle in question began brewing Wednesday, when Microsoft announced the winner of its first Bing Jingle Contest. The winning entry, above, was created by Jonathan "Rock Cookie Bottom" Mann as part of his mission to write and post a new song each day. TechCrunch blogger MG Siegler took issue with the track in a post headlined "Bing Has Succeeded ... In Finding The Worst Jingle Ever." Mann fired back with another song, below, that supposedly mocked Siegler but in fact made the blogger's writing sound downright lyrical. Then, Michael Arrington weighed in, because he just can't help himself, and Siegler claimed victory on a technicality. None of which really matters. What matters is Microsoft got tons of free publicity for Bing, Mann got a record number of views for one of his songs, and Siegler discovered his accidental songwriting skills. Now come on, everybody. Group hug! See also: |
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Published on August 7, 2009 | Permalink
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Bing keeps you from being a blithering idiot
Microsoft and JWT wasted no time in following up their introductory Bing commercial that we wrote about last week. In these three ads, the new "decision engine" is posed as the cure to a new disease called "Search Overload Syndrome," also known as S.O.S. Ha, clever! (Microsoft is all about curing people these days. Its new Internet Explorer spots treat the freaky disorders F.O.M.S. and S.H.Y.N.E.S.S.) Symptoms of S.O.S. include getting distracted by unrelated links and reciting meta tag descriptions in response to loved ones' queries. I like the spots—they're right on Microsoft's brand promises of productivity, efficiency, etc. But I always thought getting lost with other links was part of the fun of Google. (These ads are almost anti-curiosity, actually.) When I think about it, though, I do waste an impressive amount of time exploring unrelated links. If Microsoft could invent Bing-epedia, my productivity could truly soar.
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Published on June 11, 2009 | Permalink
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Microsoft's Bing prepares to save the world
Here we have a breaking campaign from a giant global company that's struggling to compete in a brutal market. It talks about making "decisions that help us get to the right place at the right time." Out with the old, in with the new. Reinvention. Revving a shiny new engine. But this isn't one of GM's "We're not dead yet!" spots by Deutsch (though there is car footage). No, it's introductory spot by JWT for Microsoft's Bing search engine (sorry, decision engine). Oh, I know the campaigns have vastly different purposes and can't be fairly compared, yadda yadda. It's just the similarity of the images and approach ... big-time drama by way of (mostly) stock footage. The Bing ad uses a snippet of Clockwork Orange-style wide-eyed thought-control footage—you know, where the subject is forced to keep his eyes open as images whip past on screen. That represents the chaotic state of digital information overload. A new search engine (sorry, decision engine) and a bunch of new commercials won't add to that, surely. |
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Published on June 3, 2009 | Permalink
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Google puts kodachrome in new Chrome ad
Motion Theory created this fun, stylistic spot for Google's Web browser, Chrome. Google doesn't put out much in the way of self-promotional advertising, so it's always nice to see what happens when they do. The spot is actually one of 11 short videos Google commissioned to advertise Chrome. The batch also includes the one below, by Christoph Niemann. The foot-tapping tune in the spot above is "The Lucky Ones" by Tim Myers. The song was also used in one of those Canadian Lay's spot from Juniper Park earlier this year, and featured in an Ugly Betty episode. Another track by Myers popped up last year in an ad for the Saturn Aura. —Posted by David Griner |
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Published on April 30, 2009 | Permalink
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Will Jeeves return, and do we want him to?
IAC-owned search engine Ask, perennially a rounding error in search-market share reports, is showing signs it will bring back its butler mascot. Jeeves is now back at the search engine in the U.K. IAC banished the fuddy-duddy butler in 2005, finding that he was a little too corny for the company to be taken seriously as a Google competitor. What followed were a series of disastrous marketing moves, including the ill-fated Crispin Porter + Bogusky campaign "The Algorithm" that culminated with the bizarre "Chicks with Swords" TV spot. For his part, Jeeves claims he's returned from his tomb because of public demand. The truth is, Jeeves was always associated with Ask's promise of answering people's questions directly rather than just spitting out 10 blue links. This is still a hot area—check out what Flickr founder Caterina Fake is doing with Hunch and the intriguing startup Aardvark—but Ask was never able to fulfill that promise. Maybe it should have spent more energy nailing that aspect than blaming its mascot. —Posted by Brian Morrissey |
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Published on April 20, 2009 | Permalink
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Ask.com campaign just got more titillating
—Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on October 7, 2008 | Permalink
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Google might (and should) advertise in U.S.
Despite being a global juggernaut roughly the size of Unicron, Google has long eschewed advertising in favor of word-of-mouth and PR. Now, the tech giant is rethinking its piddling $20 million annual ad budget and might soon hire an ad agency. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google is looking at Wieden + Kennedy and Taxi, among others. In recent months, Wieden has been running an ad campaign for Google in Japan, largely targeting rail commuters. Check out a gallery of the executions here. While I can't read the Japanese text, it's easy to tell that each ad focuses on the wide range of Google products that many casual Web users aren't aware of. I'd imagine Google faces the same knowledge gap here in the States and over in Europe. How many people even know about Google Scholar, Google Audio Indexing or Google Health? With so many companies struggling to create a brand image that will help sell their products, Google's biggest challenge is telling you how much they're already giving you for free. |
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Published on October 3, 2008 | Permalink
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Yahoo! offering questionable fashion advice
Microsoft has Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. Will Yahoo! soon put Jerry Yang and Prince in its commercials? That's not much of a lead, but I'm reeling from Yahoo!'s "Start wearing purple" push and can't seem to think straight. Purple, Price's favorite color, supposedly symbolizes innovation. In Yahoo!'s new campaign, it looks shag-rug ugly. Online copy reads: "Go ahead. Take the road less traveled. Zig when others zag. Wear purple after Labor Day. Be you with Yahoo!" And it gets worse when you click through to content such as "spontaneous purple happenings directed by New York comedian Charlie Todd." This stuff makes Bill and Jerry's antics seem like Shakespeare. It's a put-on, right? A so-bad-it's-good attempt that, sadly, really is just so bad? I wish Microsoft would buy Yahoo! just to get this stuff off the Web. The way the markets are heading, Yang and his crew better take whatever deal they can get before a whole lotta green slides off the table for good. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on September 16, 2008 | Permalink
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Thank you for trying my new Web browser
—Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on September 9, 2008 | Permalink
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Search bot goes on Internet-wide rampage
—Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on September 2, 2008 | Permalink
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