Do Target's New Ads Misogynistically Objectify Women?

Just what the hell is this new Mono-created Target ad attempting to convey?

Climbing a ladder in heels is difficult? Women are "challenged" by ladder climbing? Life throws many curve balls in a woman's path? Women don't know how to screw and unscrew a light bulb?

And how about the rest of the ads in the series?

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Ad Banned For Claiming Cream Will Make Your Ass Look Like Mila Kunis'

An ad for Rodial body cream featuring Mila Kunis was banned by the UK's Advertising Standards authority for claiming its cream will provide a "body to die for." The ad, which took the form of an email, featured Mila Kunis from a recent Esquire shoot. In the ad, Kunis can be seen standing against a wall in her underwear. The headline reads, "Get a body to die for with 50% off body sculpture for 24 hours."

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'Eye On' Aims to Provide Proof of Marketing's Financial Performance

Black Ink, a division of Boston-based Winsper, has announced Eye On Enterprise Marketing ROI Suite, a cloud-based offering that provides brands with empirical evidence regarding marketing's contribution to the bottom line. Eye On reports on more than 50 interdependent key performance indicators (KPIs) across Marketing ROI, Customer ROI, and Business ROI. It is said to work with any database environment including enterprise resource planning (ERP), sales force automation (SFA), marketing resource management (MRM), marketing automation (MA), and point of sale (POS).

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How Agencies Are Reinventing Themselves As AOR Model Changes

Back in the day...actually not so long ago, clients would choose an agency, dub them agency of record, sign a contract, pay a monthly retainer and the partnership would last for years. Everything was "hunky-dory" to use a term from back when things in the advertising business were, well, "hunky-dory."

Both sides trusted the other would hold up their end of the bargain. The agency would live up to its promise to deliver campaigns that worked and the client would reward that dedication and success with business commitment to the agency.

Then a few things happened. CMOs began changing jobs every 12 to 18 months. Hoping to make a mark at their new company and impress their bosses, they'd promptly fire the agency, hold a review and choose a new agency.

Continued on Central Desktop blog...

Confess Your Creative Sins With 'The Creative Confessional'

If you've worked in advertising for longer than, well, a day, you have sins to confess. And what better place to confess your sins than on The Creative Confessional. Not only will you be able to rid your mind of your sins but you will also be able to commiserate with a brotherhood of other creative sinners. You can also vote to absolve or condemn your fellow sinners. Some recent confessions include

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How to Quantify Social Media Engagement in B2B Marketing

For the past five years or so, social media has been all the rage. It's the cool, now not-so-new shiny toy that routinely makes its way into just about every new business and client presentation. Brands have slapped up Facebook pages, opened Twitter accounts, pounced on Pinterest, queried Quora, lapped up LinkedIn and given Google+ a gander.

But does any of it work? As is always the case with new marketing tactics (and old, as well), the question comes down to ROI; where did the money go and how did it affect the bottom line of the business? Here is one company's approach to answering that question.

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