If Redskins owner Daniel Snyder has his way and takes over the Six Flags amusement park, he says the park's advertising and marketing need to be retooled and isn't sure he'd keep the famed dancing geriatric, Mr. Six on board in future ad campaigns. Doner Advertising Creative Director David Banta says Mr' Six scores well with moms and teens in consumer advertising awareness studies but Snyder thinks a more direct marketing type approach should be taken. Come on. Say it ain't so. We love the old guy.
Tipping the scale at four pounds, the September issue of Vogue contains 691 ad pages beating last years record of 651. While Vogue Publisher Thomas Florio is lovin' it, we have to wonder what it's like as an advertiser to have a one in 691 chance of your ad being seen. Can you say ego buy?
We received this last week and thought it was a joke (there was no tagline). Apparently, our viral radar was out of service. Turns out, it's an ad campaign in the UK for the Department of Transport bringing to light the fact traffic accidents are the biggest cause of accidental death for 12-16 year olds. The ad was created by Leo Burnett's Paul Hordan and Angus Macadam and shot by kids on cell phone cameras. After circulating last week online, it aired on television over the weekend. Dramatic stuff.
Tonight, HBO's Six Feet Under concluded its five year run ending its final season with a finale full of multiple closures wonderfully befitting the series. Series creator Alan Ball delivered an emotionally powerful finale to a season that began quite plainly and, for a time, seemed headed towards undramatic plainness. That all changed several weeks ago with the sudden death of one of the main characters in an episode which, on its own, would have made a fitting finale but Ball pressed on, raised the bar and, in a nod to life's inevitable finality, brought Six Feet Under to its death slowly, beautifully, hauntingly, painfully and eloquently. The series will be missed.
UPDATE: The intensely moving song which played during the final scene of the show is called "Breathe Me" by Sia and is available over at Stereogum.
While we seem to think we have seen this stunt before, it's still a very attention getting advertising tactic. To promote HBO's Sopranos, BBDO, we're told, placed life-like arms hanging out of a few cabs. New or old, we still think it's a great piece of advertising.
