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Pearle Vision Helps Mothers With Adoption

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Well, damn! Who knew choosing an eyeglass retailer had anything to do with adoption? With nothing more than a black and white still over which the camera pans and the tagline, "we want you to see more," Arnold explains Pearle Vision is now the place to go if you're considering adoption.

To be fair, it's all part of Pearle's ongoing campaign as Arnold's Meredith Vellines explains, "The 'I have seen' campaign has been running since July 2007 and illustrates how Pearle Vision values the importance of sight and improves people's lives by helping them see the world better. All of the creative elements, including the television, are shot in black-and-white by famed fashion and art photographer, Donald Graham, whose work is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the International Center of Photography."

by Steve Hall    May- 9-08    
Topic: Commercials, Strange



Screw Consumers and User-Generated Content! Win $25,000 Yourself

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You'd think with $25,000 up for grabs and with industry creatives having a "leg up" on the competition, there'd be a flood of industry types entering Budget's Flip for Budget video contest. It's so simple. Easy money. Just whip up a concept explaining how to travel on a budget, grab the video camera, film the thing, submit it and cross your fingers for the $25,000.

Come on people! This is easy money! Screw all those non-industry types trying to cash in on the user-generated content craze when we ad people are the ones who are supposed to be making this stuff...and getting paid for it. Don't let consumers steal your job!

by Steve Hall    May- 9-08    
Topic: Consumer Created, Promotions, Video



Levi's Jeans Backflip Video Supports Viral Formula

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Gawker's Nick Douglas has a nice round up of the recent Levi's guys-jump-into-jeans viral video that scored 1.5 million views in a few days and how very similar it is to the Ray Ban vid that got 3 million views last year. From camera angles to music to YouTube posters with no previous videos to the increasingly more elaborate version of the stunts, the time-tested viral video strategy is laid out.

And it's all true. If you think about it, there's a definitive style behind most successful viral videos. It's formulaic sort of like...oh...this thing called advertising. Who knew?

by Steve Hall    May- 9-08    
Topic: Viral



Bidet Gives Enema, MSN Googles

- This Korean bidet commercial looks more like some freakish S&M high colonic fantasy than the toilet ad it is supposed to be.

- Love this! Coolspotters is a new site that tracks which products are used by which celebrities so you, too, can choose your cool.

- MSN Sync video review of $299 v-book laptop explains how Windows XP can be installed using a USB stick with instructions found on Google...oops...MSN Live Search.

by Steve Hall    May- 9-08    
Topic: Strange, Video



Creative Manager Pro Gets All Whatchamacallit Whosiwhatsit Workamajig-y

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This has to be a joke. Seriously. Creative Manger Pro, the agency software package that helps manage the creative and billing process, has changed its name to - um yea...this makes a hell of a lot of sense - Workamajig. Why? Because...um...as VP Ron Ause says, "The old brand did not properly reflect the product and organization behind it. Our old brand was too straight laced and did not properly convey what we are all about."

So...it's a product to help creative professionals manage the creative process and Creative Manager Pro doesn't properly convey that?

more »

by Steve Hall    May- 9-08    
Topic: Agencies, Tools, Worst



Conversations with People that Did Not Win One Show College Competition

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Tonight was the awards ceremony for the One Show College Competition, for which schools nationwide turned in their top student portolios. See some here.

Doritos -- which in the last couple of years has devoted much of its promotional budget to lobbing cash at "creative" users (1, 2, 3) -- also solicited a campaign brief seeking "Doritos advertising that is iconic as Doritos."

The word "iconic" sparked interesting conversation after the show. Links to video below.

more »

by Angela Natividad    May- 9-08    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Events, Industry Events, Promotions, Video



One Show: Advice from the Father of Joe Isuzu, Advertising's Most Beloved Liar

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Jerry Della Femina, founder of Della Femina Travisano & Partners (now DFJP), reminds me a lot of the ads he's sprinkled in TV Land's past. Remember Meowmix's singing cat? And Joe Isuzu? Like the spots, he's impossible to get out of your head.

Because Jerry's voice could cut through Valium. You will listen to every last thing he has to say, uncertain whether it's the ideas seducing you or the man's own confidence.

In the hour Della Femina spoke during One Show's Tuesday afternoon speaker session, I could have filled notebooks with what he continuously called "secrets of life" and "career advice."

Here's a taste.

more »

by Angela Natividad    May- 8-08    
Topic: Creative Commentary, Industry Events



ABC Uses DVR-Proof Subliminal Trickery to Promote 'The Mole'

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At first I figured it was a screw up that often occurs when a local TV station switches from the national feed to its own local feed (or vise versa) sometimes causing tiny bits of the national feed to show but no. No, no, no. It's yet another DVR-proof promotional tactic designed to make sure you know ABC's The Mole is "watching."

Hey, if ABC and all the other networks want to replace every :30 with a few of these, that's OK by me. Check out a video of the trickery here.

by Steve Hall    May- 8-08    
Topic: Television



'Get the %#*&% Out of My Office Before I M16 Your Ass!'

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If you're a media planner or buyer, you're gonna love this new online game from Intergi. Are you sick of sales people bugging you? Tired of self-important AE demanding you revise that media schedule one more time so there's one m ore line on the flow chart between the online portion of the buy and the offline? Ready to tear the head off that pompous creative who thinks he knows media?

Having fun yet? :-)

by Steve Hall    May- 8-08    
Topic: Agencies, Games, Good



Fiat Messes With Nature to Sell Cars

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And now, for the final act, Fiat will pull a rabbit out of a...tortoise shell? Damn. Why do marketers always have to go a mess with magical metaphors just to create strange looking ad campaigns? Oh well. All in good fun. Oh and to sell a few cars as well.

Along with a rabbit shacking up in tortoise shell, the campaign offer an owl sprouting peacock feathers and a spider sporting a beetle shell. Somehow this sells cars. Giovanni + DraftFcb, São Paulo created.

by Steve Hall    May- 8-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Good, Magazine



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