Presidential Candidates Get the Brand Treatment

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CEO Alan Siegel of Siegel & Gale put together a manifesto of what brand messages each of the Election 2008 candidates are conveying. Among other things, John McCain is read as the "straight-talking rebel."

Oh, we cannot emphasize how painfully we winced when we heard "The MAC is BACK!" pouring out of New Hampshire. Can't politicans just leave rap -- and any music, really -- alone? Bulworth was a movie, not a career blueprint.

Hillary Clinton, Siegel adds, undermines her "Leading Brand" role by attacking "Challenger Brand" Barack Obama.

How very Coke vs. Pepsi. Just one more reason to avoid frothy drinks and frothy speeches. Read full text below.

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by Angela Natividad    Jan-28-08    
Topic: Brands, Opinion, Policy, Political



Truth Gets Cute, Sings Songs, Introduces MAGIC!

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"A Magical Amount," by Arnold and Crispin Porter + Bogusky, starts out like a typical Truth ad: cigarette traps, a bullhorn and a bamboozled-looking group of people. Then a unicorn showed up, and there was singing, and...

Wow, just ... wow. Seriously. Wow.

You really have to watch it. The premise is tobacco companies don't want to kill you, but don't want to prevent addiction either, so there's a "magical amount" of nicotine in cigarettes. But tune out the arsenic talk and the animated oxygen mask, and you'd swear it was a superb cereal ad.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-28-08    
Topic: Cause, Commercials, Good, Television



Jay Mohr Follows Vanilla Ice With TurboTax's TaxLaugh

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We always new Jay Mohr was an actor. We never really knew he was a comedian (we gave up on SNL long ago and, more recently, never watched Last Comic Standing). Apparently, appreciates his comic abilities and hooked up with him for a video contest called TaxLaugh in which entrants vie for a $10,000 and a chance to open for Mohr prize by submitting three minute comedy vids.

Jay tells us, "Most people think doing your own taxes is hard and being funny is easy. We're out to prove them wrong. TaxLaugh will give comedians the chance to make a name for themselves by making people laugh about something no one likes - taxes."

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by Steve Hall    Jan-28-08    
Topic: Celebrity, Good, Online, Promotions, Video



Match.com Invites Users to Live Out Love Stories

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Match.com swears if in six months you don't live out a love story with someone from its site, you can have six more months of free service to make up for it.

Not all tell-worthy stories end happily though. Sometimes you get locked out or hosed -- which, now that we think about it, isn't nearly as bad a fate as this one.

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Naked PETA Babe or President Bush. You Decide

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OK, here we go again. Tonight, you have a choice. You can tune in to President Bush's State of the Union address. Or you can blow it off and, instead, head over to PETA's 2008 State of the Union Undress during which a lovely lady envisions a PETA-powered nation while she slowly transforms herself into a "fur free" state of undress. It's NSFW but not until the end and there's a Safe for Work version too.

by Steve Hall    Jan-28-08    
Topic: Cause, Good, Political, Video



GoDaddy to Run a Super Bowl Spot, Downplays it with More Racy Rejects

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Battering its usual "boo-hoo, we are too racy for Fox" shtick, GoDaddy sent us a celebratory pressie reading something like, "FINALLY, they've approved one of our deliciously naughty spots for the Super Bowl!"

The ad features Danica Patrick. And while GoDaddy didn't send us a teaser for that, it did send us one for yet another rejected ad called "Exposure." It's supposed to be a spoof of "a certain pop culture celebrity phenomenon" and Danica thinks it's really funny (we suspect she's contractually required to). See the whole thing here on game day.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-28-08    
Topic: Brands, Commercials, Online, Promotions, Super Bowl 2008



Adrants' Diversity in Advertising Efforts Enter Year Two

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We're in year two of our association with the Business Development Institutes's Diversity in Advertising efforts and want to let you know about two upcoming events. On February 12, we will host the Second Annual Advertising and Marketing Industry Job Fair at the Academy of Art Institute in San Francisco. On February 27, we will host the Second Annual Advertising Industry Diversity Job Fair and Leadership Conference at New York University.

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by Steve Hall    Jan-28-08    
Topic: Industry Events



PepsiCo Turns Stat Quo Inside-Out with 'Enable'

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Maybe because Nationwide cashed in like mad on its K-Fed pre-Super Bowl ad hype last year, everybody's releasing their spots before the drop.

We don't like the idea of opening our presents before Christmas day (which is what watching a Super Bowl ad a week in advance is like), but in some cases an early debut is a good thing.

That's the case with Pepsi's Bob's House, a Super Bowl spot by BBDO for its Enable campaign that composes a deaf world we're invited to watch from the sidelines. A silent ad is jarring, but it's weirder still to be passive observers of a community whose jokes we don't get.

Neat switcharoo on the minority experience. Can't wait to see what kind of response this generates on Super Bowl Sunday.

See the making-of, which, thankfully, isn't the usual self-congratulating "how I made my baby" swill.

by Angela Natividad    Jan-28-08    
Topic: Brands, Cause, Commercials, Good, Super Bowl 2008



Jeep Gets Cute With 'Ten Little Vehicles'

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Hmm. It looks like Jeep has taken a cue from tobacco companies and given the Joe Camel treatment to its advertising. In this KNSK Hamburg-created commercial for Jeep, kids and adults alike are treated to a fairy tale world in which ten vehicles make their way across the landscape. Nine suffer problems during the journey. Can you guess which one completes the trip? Yes, we thought you could.

OK, fine. It's not tobacco tactics trying to get five year olds to buy a Jeep. It's just some good 'ol fun bringing back childhood memories to car buying adults. We like.

by Steve Hall    Jan-28-08    




Rubicon Project Eliminates Ad Network Selection Headaches For Publishers

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Making life easier for publishers struggling to keep up with the explosion of ad networks - now numbering over 300 - and the determination of which network will yield the best results, is the Rubicon Project. Launched eight months ago by Frank Addante, the company, today, announced series B finding of $15 million bringing its total to $21 million.

We've seen a demo of Rubicon and its really fascinating. For a publisher trying to best monetize inventory, Rubicon, in a nutshell, does exactly that. A publisher joins with Rubicon, enters relevant information of their site and, poof, relevant ads are selected from the 300 or so ad networks in the system.

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by Steve Hall    Jan-28-08    
Topic: Good, Online, Tools



Consumer Reports Launches AdWatch Ad Review Series

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Consumer Reports, which for a long time has helped people buy products that aren't crap, is now expanding its analysis of the advertising that pushes both good and bad products with the launch of CR AdWatch videos.

In a somewhat comical approach, host Jamie Hirsh takes a detailed look at the long-running Abe Lincoln/Beaver ad campaign for the sleep aid Rozerem. The analysis is level headed and if ads were required to provide equal time, this is the kind of advertising we might see on a regular basis. We review ads along the lines of how pretty they are and how effective they might be. Consumer Reports goes further and lets us know the other side of the claim.

by Steve Hall    Jan-28-08    
Topic: Good, Opinion, Video