In an effort to counter the "research online, buy off line mentality," Amazon will launch five short films starring among others Minie Driver, Chris Noth, Daryl Hannah which will feature various brands sprinkled throughout the films. Viewers can click on the name of the brand in the credits to buy the product.
The campaign was created by Fallon and Hollywood production company RSA USA. It's the next entry in the soon to be long line of subtlety marketing.
UPDATE: Rick Bruner points to the first two of the five mini-films. Agent Orange, directed by Tony Scott is pretty cool - in that hipster/I'm a cool filmaker sort of way.
Following Missy Elliot, the Virgin Mobile campaign, to promote its call and text bundles which don't expire, continues with LL Cool J who freaks his buddy out while helping him move his recently dead grandmother's stuff.
Not anywhere near as smart as Burger King's Subservient Chicken, Heineken's Crystal Light has launched Netherlands-based Ask Crystal, an online talk show type program where you can ask Crystal questions.
Unfortunately, she's not half as smart as our chicken friend and delivers only canned asnwers and mindless commentary. Next.
Levi's puts the spotlight on 6 creative individuals who are independently expressing their personal vision and allowing them to share stories that aim to inspire a wider audience to believe in themselves. (Yes, that did come form a press release) Two websites, www.501anti-fit.se and www.anti-fit.no, promote the project along with a DVD and street marketing. As is usual with these campaigns, the work and the accompanying videos are ethereal and sub-culturally hip which brands love to try and capture and identify with. For us, we prefer the "buy our jeans" approach. It takes less work and it's easier to say no to.
A subject near and dear to our hearts is the portrayal of dads and men as blithering idiots in television commercials. The trend has been around for a long time and now there's an advocacy group speaking out against the practice. The group, Dad's and Daughters which, in some circles, could be construed to stand for something very different than healthy father/daughter relationships, is furious over a recent Verizon DSL ad which features a computer-clueless Dad trying to help his daughter with her homework online. In the ad, he gets shoed away by his wife as he looks over his daughter's shoulders.
"It's really outrageous," said Joe Kelly, executive director of the national advocacy group Dads and Daughters. "It's reflective of some deeply entrenched cultural attitudes - that fathers are second-class parents, that they're not really necessary. To operate from the assumption that Dad is a dolt is harmful to fathers, harmful to children and harmful to mothers." Of course the counter argument is that it's simply a joke and advocacy groups like this one should just learn to have a sense of humor. Afterall, we're just paying dues for all those years we gave women the bimbo treatment, right? Verizon has maintained a bit of a backbone following complaints. "All we can say at this point is we're looking at it," said Verizon spokesman John Bonomo.
"We take our feedback and customer comments quite seriously. We're obviously dismayed that some customers find one of our commercials offensive."
Verizon in running a similar spot for their phones which shows a Dad giving his two daughters new phones and saying, "Now we can all talk together" to which his daughters grin and groan until his wife pipes in and says "and it has "in" so you can talk to your friends as long as you want" getting a much more positive response from the daughters.
Jossip lends its unique use of the English language to call attention to the sad state of reality television by pitting NBC's The Biggest Loser host Caroline Rhea and UPN's America's Next Top Model host Tyra Banks against each other in a running for the best Reality Host Misfit.
