Mitsubishi Pitch Team Adds Emmy-Award Winning Producer

New Mitsubishi Eclipse

With its U.S. corporate management in turmoil, sales sagging, and an ad agency review tainted by dealer complaints, Mitsubishi is in need of all the help it can get. It may soon have some from a less than traditional source. Reported earlier, the DoubleThink Ad Hoc Creative Team are preparing a presentation for Mitsubishi and newly named CEO Rich Gilligan. Commenting on the approach the group is taking, DoubleThink's Harry Webber, today, said, "This is a brand immersion campaign that utilizes technology and branded entertainment as well as advertising to fully envelop the lifestyle of their (Mitsubishiu's) Gen Y target audience. An audience that is extremely adverse to traditional marketing methodologies."

In preparing the campaign, Webber has announced the addition of Emmy-Award winning Producer John Feist to DoubleThink. Feist, who produced Survivor, Restaurant and Casino will serve as executive producer on the branded entertainment elements of the mystery-shrouded campaign. Commenting on his decision to join DoubleThink, Feist said, "When I saw the scope of what Harry Webber's group had created for the launch of the 2006 Eclipse, I had to be involved. This campaign leaves cutting-edge in the dust."

Webber's DoubleThink previously created an ad hoc campaign for Coke with the tagline "A Cool American" which caught the eye of Coke execs but, ultimately, did not go any further. This time, Webber is looking to gain more ground with a campaign that doesn't just speak to but lives and breathes the language of the Mitsubishi Eclipse target audience.

by Steve Hall    Jan- 6-05    




GM's Bob Lutz Launches FastLane Blog

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Following the launch of the GM SmallBlock weblog, as expected, GM has launched another weblog. This one, called FastLane Blog, will feature the writings of GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz and other GM corporate management. In Lutz's first post, he discusses the success of Saturn and GM's plans to refresh the aging lineup with new products. One of the new vehicles is a convertible called SKY.

GM is the first large scale company to bring the human voice of its corporate executives to the public in the weblog format. While we don't expect to hear about about Bob's Saturday afternoon barbecues or his favorite movie, we can, perhaps, catch a glimpse of into one of human beings behind the coprporate monolith.

by Steve Hall    Jan- 6-05    




Naming Returns to Normalcy

Having worked through and contributed to the insanity of dot com era inspired brand naming, we're pleased to see an end to ridiculously idiotic sounding corporate names created though marathon, caffeine-induced brainstorming sessions supported by lengthy PowerPoint presentations so fluffy, not even the most verbally diarrhetic account manager, skilled in the art of brand puffery, could pass off as strategically sound. Writing in business 2.0, Alex Frankel walks us though how we got to that level of insanity, why naming trends change all the time and why we're back to a more common sense-based approach to naming.

by Steve Hall    Jan- 6-05    




Curvaceous Silhouettes Yeild to Flapvertising

If FlapMedia has its way, we won't be seeing the usual silver silhouetted busty babe, or other such low brow imagery, on mud flaps of passing trucks much longer. FlapMedia has introduced flapvertising and signed Wyoming State Tourism as its first client.

"We thought FlapMedia was a terrific idea and wanted to be the first to put our brand on the road," says Diane Shober, Wyoming state tourism director. "I knew we'd made a good choice when a friend from Chicago told me he'd seen a great ad for Wyoming on the mud flaps of a truck driving down I-55 near I-294." Friend-based media research. That's a new one on us. FlapMedia has, however, done its homework and claimed its medium effective by hiring Harris Interactive which found flapvertising to have the highest recall compared to other forms of out of home media. It's truck flaps are priced under one dollar per thousand.

by Steve Hall    Jan- 6-05    




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Boston Herald Publisher Says Times Purchase of METRO Illegal

Like the band geek who lost the girl to the quarterback, Boston Herald Publisher is crying over Boston Globe parent company The New York Times purchase of the METRO, of which Boston METRO is a part, claiming it gives the Boston Globe an illegal circulation advantage.

Not missing a chance to slap broadsheet Boston Globe, Purcell said, "We are intrigued that the Boston Globe has finally recognized the merits of tabloid newspapers, but the fact is this deal is aimed directly at the Herald."

While Purcell might be crying, he has good reason. The combined circulation of the Boston Globe (450,000 daily) and the Boston METRO (180,000) is 39 percent higher than allowed by Justice Department rules.

Globe Publisher Richard Gilman brushes off Purcell saying, "The Metro is a single free newspaper in the Boston media market, which has 18 paid daily newspapers. In addition, there are a considerable number of free weekly newspapers, including the many owned by Herald Media Co."

We love a good 'ol smack down among publishers.

by Steve Hall    Jan- 6-05    




Hispanic People Ups Rate Base to 450,000

Purely to offset the the roadblock of the female form here on Adrants, we are pleased to announce, as well as provide hunk imagery, People en Espanol has raised its rate base from 425,000 to 450,000 with its February issue making it the number one Hispanic magazine in America. Both its ad pages and newsstand sales are up dramatically. See. We're not completely one-sided.

by Steve Hall    Jan- 6-05    




Ad Industry Newsletter Hires New Editor, Relaunches

The AdBumb Newsletter, loved by some, maligned by others, has relaunched with a new design and the hiring of Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Hines.

Founded in 2001 and with a claimed circulation of 25,000, AdBumb covers new media for publishers and sales organizations. For those who fall into the "maligned by others" category, Hines has, admittedly, made a vast improvement to the quality of the editorial. Though, we're still not to happy about those massive 700 X 700 ads.

by Steve Hall    Jan- 6-05    




Radio Station Terrorism Ad Gets Banned. Sort Of

Dallas/Fort Worth talk radio station KLIF is manufacturing its own controversy having created a low-budget, terrorism-focused, self-promotional TV spot that area broadcasters then declined to accept. The station is promoting the spot on its website. Tom at The Media Drop suggest KLIF, knowing the spot would likely be banned, should have released the ad through viral channels rather than attempt to place it traditionally. Oddly, KLIF will achieve it's goals anyway as the banning receives media coverage.

Amid visuals of happy family life which quickly shift to images of explosions, a suicide bomber and Osama Bin Laden, the spot's voiceover says, "There are people in this world who want you dead. We need to talk." While being promoted as "banned," The Dallas Morning Herald is reporting Comcast cable will accept an edited version of the spot that removes a baby targeted by a gun sight. Drama in Dallas. More at 11.

by Steve Hall    Jan- 6-05