Smartly not attempting to launch a podcast about the latest and greatest washing machine, Whirlpool has launched a podcast series about the American family which will "explore a range of issues affecting today's families including but not limited to parenting, education, career, health and relationships." Recent topics include life a a stay-at-home Dad, caring for an older parent, teaching values to pre-schoolers, choosing the right daycare, being blind in America, playdates (that's when kids play with each other for you non-parents and others who can't stand today's overly invented parental-speak), raising teens and tweens and Naval spouses (no, not spouses with a belly button fetish but those who are in the Navy - those military people on ships.)
Nice subject matter. Far better than listening to someone drone on about the latest agitator technology.
Following the theme of today's New York City Marathon, ad:tech hosted a party for its exhibitors at the New York Hilton giving them a selection of food and beverage alongside a racetrack adhered to the floor of on of the Hilton's function rooms. Hot dogs, pizza, ice cream and drinks were served.
Interestingly, to get to this off the beaten path function room, a trip through the exhibit hall and up an escalator was required revealing yet another exhibit hall space with about 30 more exhibitors. That, in addition to the number of exhibitors on the main floor brings this to an all time high for the show. We're told upwards of 7,500 people will attend the show this week.
In yet another confluence of unfortunate events and ill-timed ad campaigns comes this Jeep commercial that shows the vehicle emerging from the ocean after a happy, fun-filled underwater family adventure. Quick cut to KIRO YV news footage of a Jeep getting pulled out of the water after a flood. Oops.
On the heels of the muffin billboard and those Powerballs, this bit of creative for Labatt is making the rounds. It very creatively explains what can happen when a car, a billboard and too much beer are combined.
Likely not endorsed by Starbucks, or any of the other brands in this collection of body art, South Korean body artists Kim-Joon has painted some very nice looking asses with the brand iconography of Adidas, Starbucks and others. No doubt, we'll see, or have already seen, corporately branded nude models flocking to Times Square any day now.
This is not right. Sure, the message in this Unicef ad appears to be "don't be wasteful with food and other items because there are needy people in the world who need things" but an open mouth on a what appears to be a trashcan open wide, ready to have trash stuffed in. Wrong message. Very wrong.
Closely following the Lugz/Apple story in which an Apple commercial featuring Eminem was called similar to a 2002 Lugz footwear commercial, AdFreak reports it has been told by Lugz the company has sent Apple a cease and desist letter asking Apple to stop running the Eminem spot. Stay tuned. We're sure there will be more to this story.
It's 12:30pm Sunday at the New York Hilton and you'd never know ad:tech New York 2005 was starting tomorrow morning. The exhibit hall looks like a large warehouse with boxes, crates and dollies all over the place being swiftly moved by crews racing the clock to be ready for the 6,000 who will descend upon the Hilton as the show opens.
While checking out the layout of things, we stumbled upon a crew of 20 or so preparing the attendee bags which will be handed out to all who show up. As is usually the case when people do the same thing 6,000 times in a row, things can get silly. Be sure to check out the video in the photo album of the crew singing "Dina Won't Ya Blow" or whatever that song is called.
The two people mugging for the camera at the end of the album are ad:tech Director of Marketing Meredith Medland and ad:tech Content Director Warren Picket taking a break from preparing speaker and press passes.
Below are two "film loops" from Film Loop you can join. They'll be updated with images over the three day period of the show.
