Senator Joe Leiberman, crusader against all things fun (OK, bad), is taking on the fast food companies now and telling them to stop making kids fat by marketing junk food to them. Spouting platitudes from the pulpit, Liberman said, "Parents today are being forced to contend with a new threat; big food companies targeting junk food at children. And that's literally feeding an epidemic of obesity that our top public health experts contend is the biggest health threat out there today. It's time to stand up to the companies marketing to children products that can be harmful to their health."
No mention was made by Lieberman about parents actually taking responsibility for their children's eating habits or moderating the time they sit on their fat assess playing video games, IMing friends and watching TV.
Just Start the F'ing Movie!
Check out this week's Mediapost Out to Launch column by Amy Coor and find out what Regal Entertainment is doing to make your pre-movie experience even more painful than it already is. The company has developed a long form piece of advertainment that will replace the usual pre-movie slide show (a good thing) with a 20 minute show with entertainment from NBC, TBS, Vivendi and Convex as well as made for cinema ads (hopefully a good thing). The show, called "The 2wenty" , features a superhero who's really a projectionist but as superhero can do really cool things with light. (snooze)
Other new campaigns this week include Kmart for Martha Stewart, a new campaign from Shopping.com, a logo-mercial from Talbots and a campaign from Cheerios illustrating how the cereal can help children move from soft to solid food.
What's This Commercial For?
Acknowledging all originals ideas are taken, brands are now turing to other brands to help there own brands. The Pillsbury doughboy is now appearing in Sprint commercials. The Maytag repairman was in a GM commercial last year and the Taco Bell dog has been in Geico ads. Sure, this is temporarily funny but as Leo Burnett's Chief Creative Officer Cheryl Berman asks, "Am I supposed to make a phone call or am I supposed to buy some biscuits?", it's a risky move for brands.
Marketers have been messing brands and their icons for the past ten to fifteen years that trying to figure out what the original brand stands for is not as easy as it once was. This brand dance approach to advertising is just another lame attempt at being creative at the long term expense of a brands worth and meaning to the consumer.
Dribbleglass has put a fine collection of spoof billboards together which really puts the truth back in advertising. View more here.
Give Us A Lick Not A Tick
This Canadian Timex commercial, one of the first to use the horrible new 'Life is Ticking' tagline, is humorous in its own right but falls flat because of the tagline. Just imagine how much better this spot would be if it made a play on the girls taking an ass licking as the reason they keep ticking in the bimbo-like manner in which they do.
For all the Sci-Fi fans out there, a continuation of cult favorite Babylon 5 appears to be in development and may air as soon as next year according to creator and producer J. Michael Straczynski.
"On the B5 front, there has been something of rather substantial proportion that's finally gone from talk to money, such that I'm now working frantically to meet some deadlines,' Straczynski posted on his web site's message board. 'But there's nothing I can say about this until after January 15th, probably closer to the end of that month."
Following the breast augmentation craze in humans, Irish airline Ryanair has decided it
needs a bigger bra size as well. Ryanair CEO Mike O'Leary said the current flying angel logo was too flat chested and ordered the breast enhancement for the entire line of its 737-800 fleet. Not missing a beat, a Ryanair spokesman said, "We decided to give our customers a more uplifting experience. We think she is rather aerodynamic."
Debuting in January with an initial circulation of 50,000 in the top 10 U.S. markets is Echelon, a bi (now that's funny) -monthly magazine developed for gay and lesbian professionals. No, not that kind of professional but the kind that goes to the office every day and gets a weekly paycheck, not cash at the end of the night.
The magazine is seen as an increasing sign of alternative lifestyles in the workplace today by media analysts and will provide advertisers another channel to reach this audience segment. Echelon Publisher Michael Lamb said, "We want to be recognized for something other than our political advocacy, our partying and our entertainment. We do work every day, we do own businesses and we do pay taxes."
Playboy is embracing its fading glory in style with the launch of a new digital high-definition cable channel which will now allow us all to see that fading glory even more clearly.
Paris Hilton's romp with Rick Salomon is now officially irrelevant. After viewing the first episode of "The Simple Life" it's apparent that we are in the one of the most hilarious reality television series ever to hit the airwaves. In the first episode, Paris and Nicole fly from LA to Altus, Arkansas on a private jey and land on a private, deserted airstrip. They then have to navigate their way to the Leding family home in a beat up pick up truck that has no reverse. (Which Jossip confirms actually DOES have reverse)
Later, while picking up some groceries for the Leding family, Nicole and Paris go a bit over their allocated $50 budget at the grocery store and wonder why the clerk won't just "give" them the overage. The clerk says, "This isn't a soup kitchen" to which Paris replies, "What's a soup kitchen?"
While having dinner with the Ledings, the subject turns to shopping and Nicole asks, "Do you all hang out at Walmart?" assuming that's what all Southerners do. Hilarity ensues and Paris asks, befuddled, "What's a Walmart? Do they like sell walls and stuff?"
At the end of the episode Paris and Nicole are sitting on the front steps of the Leding house with Justin Leding talking about what there is to do in Altus for entertainment to which Justin responds, "I don't know." Then he gets up to go in the house and get a coat and Nicole turns to Paris and says, "He's cute, we should have a threesome with him."
Some claim the show is contrived and that Paris knows what Walmart is and that the Ledings don't really skin their own chickens. I'd have to agree becasue what fun would the show be, like most reality shoes, if it was actually based on reality. For her part, Paris just says in a USA Today article she is just playing a part, "I was playing a character. I'm totally normal. I think it's obnoxious when people demand limos or bodyguards. I eat at McDonald's or Taco Bell. My parents always taught us to be humble. We're not spoiled."
That said, this is just gold for Fox. Neilsen ranked the show number two for the time slot closely following JAG.
