Subscribe to RSS

Law Firm Intimates Women Are Better Lawyers Than Men

schroder_joseph_women_argue.jpg

Ever notice how women, when in conflict with another, or with a man for that matter, discuss the issue at great length until every last feeling is expressed? Ever notice how men, when in conflict with another (but not a woman), just punch each other, offer up a fist bump or brush it off with a "no worries, dude?" Though some might debate the point, that's not sexist. It's just a natural difference in the way men and women deal with confrontation and disagreement.

So perhaps an ad from 100 percent women-owned Buffalo law firm Schroder, Joseph Associates, LLC with the headline, "Ever Argue With A Woman," is compelling since arguing legal issues requires ad nauseum debate to the point of excruciating insanity. In the courtroom, that's a good thing. Not so much when you're at home and just want to sit down with a beer and watch the game.

more »

by Steve Hall    May-30-08   Comments (7)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Creative Commentary, Opinion, Trends and Culture

Crocs Alligator Bites Tail of Shark That Jumped It, Succeeds

crocs_scream.jpg

The beauty, and success, of Crocs shoes (no, we never owned a pair, thank God) came mostly from word of mouth and the desire to be cool because you wore strange looking shoes that squeaked. It's sort of like the Flip Video camera which used to be packaged in those impossible-to-open, hermetically sealed plastic packages that hung from hooks in Wal-Mart until it experienced a Web 2.0, "Must. Vlog. That.", iJustine-fueled rebirth.

more »

by Steve Hall    May-29-08   Comments (2)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Campaigns, Commercials, Creative Commentary, Good

Weezer Wired, Hulk Whored, Philly Punks Out, Billboard Butters Up

ironman-advert.jpg

- Wired interviewed the director of Weezer's Pork and Beans music video, which is a whiplash-inducing tribute to 'net-ebrities.

- Apptera promotes The Incredible Hulk to callers who request information on Iron Man.

- I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! launched a site called Now We Know Better. Scroll over the vintage homemakers to see them magically turn into ... modern homemakers! The site's a dream destination for daytime TV addicts: game shows, girl talk and margarine.

more »

by Angela Natividad    May-29-08   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Campaigns, Celebrity, Creative Commentary, Mobile/Wireless, Online, Outdoor

Fuel Efficiency and Cement-Encased Man Don't Work For Honda

Honda01.jpg

Honda decided the two-hour season finale of guilty pleasure Grey's Anatomy last week was a good time to show their new commercial, previously mentioned here as part of their new campaign promoting the 2009 Honda Pilot.

In the spot, a man in a Pilot approaches a man who had accidentally been encased in cement. He offers to help and after getting the man, still trapped in a cement block, in the back seat, notes they won't have to stop for gas because of how fuel-efficient the Pilot is. The other man, who doesn't seem the least bit worried about the fact he's essentially a talking head sticking out of a chunk of cement, agrees that the Pilot is indeed really fuel-efficient. He read it on a blog.

more »

by Amy Yen    May-28-08   Comments (3)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Creative Commentary, Television

Converting the Converted, and Other Tricks of the Light

CIMG3059.JPG

On Wednesday at the One Show Festival, design guru Brian Collins illustrated the power of branding with a history lesson about pirates.

Or rather, just their flag.

Back in 1748, if you had the misfortune of being a single bobbing ship at sea when a tattered vessel with a skull and crossbones crossed your path, you knew instantly what to expect.

"You're fucked." (Collins, verbatim.)

more »

by Angela Natividad    May-12-08   Comments (5)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Brands, Creative Commentary, Industry Events, Opinion

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

CIMG3002.jpg

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   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Creative Commentary, Industry Events

Freeze-Packed Used Condoms Call Attention to Beach Pollution

Seafood_posters-7.jpg

If you're one of those beach police dudes, you might want to make sure you take your keys out of your little beach cart before you inform a beachgoer they're on a private beach lest you want an angry walrus to drive off with it. That particular scenario is part of a Saatchi & Saatchi LA-created campaign for the beach protection cause group Surfrider.

Along with an amateur-style video with the walrus antics, which, let's be honest, is pretty lame, comes seafood packaging placed in local farmer's markets which don't contain fish, rather various collections of trash collected from the beach. Not exactly the sort of thing you'd want to see when digging through the cooler for that prefect cut of fish.

more »

by Steve Hall    May- 5-08   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Campaigns, Cause, Creative Commentary, Good, Magazine, Packaging, Point of Purchase, Strange, Video

'Hey Whipple, Squeeze This' Will Add Four Hours to Your Workday

hey-whipple-squeeze-this.jpg

A few months ago, a senior copywriter recommended I read Hey Whipple, Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan. I was incredulous, mostly because I've been swinging off Ogilvy's left you-know-what since Confessions of an Advertising Man.

(Getting into Ogilvy is like reading Atlas Shrugged for the first time. It will fuck with your mind.)

Just to be nice, I bought Sullivan's book, and I'm really sorry I did. Because now my walls are COVERED in strategic doodling. I am developing ideas I wouldn't have allocated brainpower to six months ago.

more »

by Angela Natividad    May- 1-08   Comments (4)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Creative Commentary, Good, Opinion, Publishing, Tools

Children's Hospital Campaign Gets Personal

roxanne_akron_childrens_hospital.jpg

The Akron Children's Hospital , with help from Cleveland's Marcus Thomas, is running a new campaign made up of video portraits highlighting the lives of two patients staying in the hospital. Nick and Roxanne, both 15, are seen in two commercials (1, 2) as well as several other videos hosted on the hospital's site. Along with videos from many other patients, the dour aspects childhood cancer are left behind in favor of the upside: the fact life goes on, one can live with cancer and one cab even beat cancer.

more »

by Steve Hall    Apr-29-08   Comments ()    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Commercials, Creative Commentary, Good, Online, Television, Video

Beer Commercials Deceive Aliens, Happier Planets Sought

miller_mark.jpg

OK, seriously. Just what is it about beer that is supposed to make life perfect? How did beer, swill such as Miller Lite no less, become the answer to all of life's ills? Seriously. It's liquefied wheat and barley injected with air. That doesn't sound like a life-altering panacea yet marketer after marketer after marketer insist a sip of beer will get you the girl, turn your life into a posh existence, help you one up your friends and turn you into some sort of superior being with qualities only found in, well, beer commercials.

more »

by Steve Hall    Apr-28-08   Comments (1)    Bookmark and Share     
Topic: Commercials, Creative Commentary, Opinion

follow-us-on-twitter-bird-160.jpg
    @adrants
    @stevehall