Italian agency chops off its creatives' heads
An Italian ad agency called Milc had a strange idea for self-promotion: chopping off the heads of its creatives. This would seem to hamper their ability to provide good ideas, but it turns out it's a metaphor for the ad business in this economic downturn. The severed heads are meant to represent wonderful creative ideas that have gone unused because of client spending cutbacks. See three full ads here. "I hEad a great idea" is the hEadline, with additional copy that explains: "To cut your communications budget means to cut your own future." There's also a Web site. We're also told that "no creatives were harmed." A smart-ass might say, "That's a pity," but I'd never stoop so low. I don't know if I'd risk working with an agency that's so quick to decapitate, though I suspect the chief media outlet for these "executions" will be award-show annuals, where success will just go to their heads. Via Ads of the World.
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Published on October 26, 2009 | Permalink
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Welcome our fourth Freak blog: MediaFreak
You're familiar with AdFreak, BrandFreak and TweetFreak—the John, Paul and George of the Freak family of blogs. Now, AdweekMedia is happy to announce the addition of MediaFreak, aka Ringo, staffed by the talented writers from Mediaweek, who will keep you up to date on the latest and greatest in the world of the major media properties, from network and cable TV, to magazines and newspapers, to digital, radio, out of home and more. In the spirit of its siblings, the new blog will have a sharp eye for the offbeat and amusing. And judging by the mascot shown here, it has a pretty sharp nose as well. Follow MediaFreak on Twitter here. |
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Published on August 12, 2009 | Permalink
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Job seeker is willing to sing his own praisesWe've already seen the lengths people will go for marketing jobs in this economy. Some of the crazy stunts even work, as was the case with Chris Kahle's quixotic quest to work at Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Lawsom Clarke baring all on his portfolio site. Alec Biedrzycki is fresh out of Bentley College with a degree in marketing. He's skipped the cover letter in favor of a mercifully short music video laying out his skills. One can quibble that he doesn't exactly lay out what type of job best suits him. Still, there's no doubt he's showing initiative to differentiate. If ever there's a time for hustle, it's now. Good luck, Alec. (Via @edwardboches.) |
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Published on July 23, 2009 | Permalink
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Adweek launches RealTimeCannes.com site
The 56th International Advertising Festival opens this weekend in Cannes, France. To cover the proceedings, Adweek is launching a brand-new Cannes site, RealTimeCannes.com, where digital editor Brian Morrissey and creative editor Eleftheria Parpis, armed with video cameras, will post news reports and video interviews throughout the week. They'll also be Tweeting their various adventures through their @bmorrissey and @eparpis accounts. In addition, we'll be embedding plenty of Cannes-related stuff from Twitter, Flickr and YouTube in the sidebar. (We'll be rotating people in and out of our live Twitter modules, starting today with the Cyber Lions jury, which is already chatting about the judging process.) To get you in the mood, we've also posted all of the Grand Prix winners in Film and Press from each year since 2000, and are asking you to pick your favorite from each batch. Hope to see you there. |
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Published on June 19, 2009 | Permalink
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Help give the PR industry some positive PR
Lots of industries could use some positive press nowadays. The oft-maligned world of public relations is certainly no different. Everyone's talking authenticity and transparency, not exactly terms you associate with the nation's spinmeisters. That doesn't mean PR isn't hot with marketers who are on the hunt for "earned media" through placement in news stories and paid posts on mommy blogs. Still, many in the marketing industry still view PR as an ugly stepchild. So, PR News has launched a new advocacy campaign with the catchy title, "It's the PR." The creators say PR is an "often unrecognized or dismissed area of the marketing mix." How to raise and/or improve its profile? Paraphernalia. Buy an "It's the PR" T-shirt, bag, button or poster to show your support for the world's oldest profession. —Posted by Brian Morrissey |
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Published on May 8, 2009 | Permalink
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OK, who wants the naked, hairy copywriter?
As the agency Web site is busy getting reimagined, Lawson Clarke, a newly unemployed copywriter, is busy reinventing the portfolio site. Clarke, as you can see above, decided to go with a natural look in his hunt for a new job. He's paying homage to Burt Reynolds, hero to all mustachioed and hirsute men—specifically, the April 1972 centerfold of Cosmopolitan magazine, which we wrote about previously when DirecTV used it for a print ad. Lawson worked at Arnold in Boston until recently. "With so many incredibly talented advertising creatives on the street right now, and so few jobs available, I figured I had to do something to get noticed," he wrote in an e-mail. Lawson also holds the claim to fame as being the first makeover contestant, back in 2004, on Bravo's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. "Somehow I think Carson would approve of the site," he wrote. |
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Published on April 30, 2009 | Permalink
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Adweek's Ad Battle: May the best ads win
Everyone loves to watch a meek Nationwide Insurance sales rep in a gladiator-like struggle against Gene Simmons of Kiss. Which is why we have AdweekMedia's new weekly Ad Battle. Each week, a pair of commercials will square off, asking for your vote. This week, it's the aforementioned Nationwide vs. Dr Pepper contest. An employee testimonial vs. a celebrity endorsement: Weren't we just talking about this? |
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Published on April 23, 2009 | Permalink
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Taxi turns over every rock for new business
Taxi New York sent me a tweaked version of Asteroids. It's part of the shop's new business-solicitation effort. According to the agency: "Players' scores are tracked, and the leading participant receives Taxi's services at no charge on the project of his or her choice." One assumes the services in question would yield zippier fare than this self-promotion, which is a bit too much like the '80s arcade game—both boring and addictive—for my taste. Takes me back to those days at the mall, of staring into a video screen for hours on end until my vision blurred and my hands cramped up. That's exactly I how I spend my workdays as an adult, come to think of it. Same as it ever was. Thanks for that dose of melancholy self-realization, Taxi. |
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Published on April 23, 2009 | Permalink
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Naming rights to agency stadium up for bid
With apparently way too much time on its hands, Charlotte, N.C., ad agency BooneOakley is auctioning off the naming rights to its in-house basketball stadium. Wait, BooneOakley has an in-house basketball stadium? How can it afford that? Did the shop win the Microsoft account and not tell anyone? Given the mediocre quality of the company's new "Laptop Hunter" ads, I can't discount the possibility. Kidding, BooneOakley's creative ideas rock, I'm sure. Example: They sent this picture with Preparation H signage Photoshopped onto the scoreboard. Um, hilarious! (See a larger photo here.) Anyway, the "stadium" seats about 35, and according to press materials, "the one-year package includes the customary scoreboard and sideline signage, as well as roof signage, visible from outer space." This agency really needs a few more paying clients to keep these cutesy self-promos at bay. Maybe they should rent out the facility to the Hornets for practice space. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on March 31, 2009 | Permalink
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Pimp This Bum: salvation or exploitation?
Marketing specialist Kevin Dolan and his son Sean were looking for a way to test out a campaign to generate buzz for Ascendgence, their Internet marketing startup, when they approached a homeless man named Tim Edwards and paid him $100 a day to hold a cardboard sign advertising their Web site, Pimp This Bum. Now, the whole thing is making headlines for the Dolans, and thousands of dollars in donations for Tim Edwards. Corporate sponsors have even signed on, and Tim is receiving free rehab services from Sunray Treatment and Recovery in Seattle, airfare provided by Southwest Airlines. However, some homeless advocates are upset over the word "pimp" and are alleging that Tim is being exploited. If you listen to Tim when he asks you to consider his options and think again about labeling the site as exploitation, he makes it hard to get uppity about it—even though the name is reminiscent of tasteless YouTube spoofs like Pimp My Shopping Cart and MTV Cribs: Homeless Edition. When something makes us uncomfortable, there's a fine line between laughing at the situation and crying. With surprising tenderness to its subject, Pimp This Bum manages to walk that line. —Posted by Rebecca Cullers |
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Published on March 27, 2009 | Permalink
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Olson staff freeze ass off for self-promotion
The e-mail from Jennifer Weismann, the new communications director at Olson, began thusly: "With wind chills dipping to -25 and -30 this week in Minneapolis, exposed skin can become frostbitten in 5 minutes or less. So why did our Olson leadership team take this picture? Mostly because I thought it was funny to make everyone go outside and pose." See a larger photo here. The point, I guess, is to present Olson as the "hot" agency from cold climes ("stone cold hot," as the e-mail's subject line put it). Jen is probably a bad hire, but she'll get this agency on the cover of Fast Company someday—if the employees don't freeze to death first. Actually, this stunt will make any upcoming layoffs (let's pray they don't happen) a lot more palatable. Some staffers may even volunteer. Of course, the folks at Crispin would've gone topless, just to prove they could. |
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Published on December 18, 2008 | Permalink
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R/GA channels Mao with its little red books
During a quick trip to R/GA yesterday, I was offered a flu shot (don't ask) and a copy of the first in a series of "monographs" that the digital shop is producing on subjects that are important to it. Naturally, subject No. 1 is ... R/GA itself. What is unusual is the theme R/GA is borrowing. It calls the series "Little Red Books" and is distributing them to all employees. This is, of course, the name given to the book of Chairman Mao quotations published by the Chinese government in the '60s and '70s. The Cultural Revolution meet the Digital Revolution. R/GA's version is a little less focused on class struggle and imperialism. Instead, "Ten Things You Should Know About R/GA" is a statement of principles such as the shop's customer focus and commitment to making brands useful. A note of caution to R/GAers who threw the book in a drawer: Mao had people beaten or sentenced to years of hard labor if they didn't have the Little Red Book on them at all times. |
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Published on November 7, 2008 | Permalink
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Denver agency works the anti-Crispin angle
When Crispin Porter + Bogusky opened in Boulder, you had to figure other Colorado shops were grousing about mister fancy pants coming to town. One agency went a step further. When Crispin abandoned the Colorado-based Pearl Izumi running account to work for Nike, Karsh\Hagan badmouthed Crispin in a self-promotion campaign aimed at grabbing Pearl Izumi for itself. The ads, which mimicked the look and feel of Crispin's "We are not joggers" work for the brand, emphasized that Karsh, a unit of TBWA, would never cut and run on a client, even if tempted by untold conflicting treasures. They also created a Web site, WeAreNotCrispin.com. The Denver Egotist has images of the full ads; the campaign apparently just won some sort of local award. Karsh did not evidently pick up the Pearl Izumi business, though. Which is probably just as well. They won't have to think twice when Nike knocks on their door. —Posted by Tim Nudd |
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Published on October 6, 2008 | Permalink
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