Not Very Amusing
Charter is promoting its $39.99 per month broadband phone service with a not so great spot that take the "laughing all the way to the bank" pun overboard. Aside from unfunny creative, why would anyone with cable use a $39.95 per month broadband phone service when they can just hook up with Vonage broadband for $24.99 per month?
Charter did one thing right though. The call to action in the spot is an 800 number instead of a website. Good thing. That $39.99 price is nowhere to be found on the Charter product page. All you get is pointers back to the 800 number. Is it really that difficult to list prices so people can make decisions without having to wade though layers and layers of phone menus just to be placed perpetually on hold?
Absolut has launched a pseudo-scientific little Flashy thing, called "Find Your Flavor," that lets you take a timed quiz which then determines which flavor of Absolut you are. We seem to me Mandarin but that's probably because we get dyslexic navigating fancy Flash sites. No matter, give it a whirl. After all, you have no actual work to do today, right? You're just "concepting."
New York JWT ad exec Steve Coulson has launched the mother of all eBay ironies with his "Your Logo on my Golden Palace" bid. Poking fun at eBay's ability to catapult absolutely nothing to fame and Golden Palace's ceaseless appetite for all parts of the human body, the ad promises the winning bidder's logo will be placed on a small Golden Palace which will be displayed on Steve's desk and seen by "decision makers, media buyers and celebrities" who visit his office. Perhaps this will finally end this little mini-trend.
Hippie Goes Hip-Hop
Later this month. Coke will launch a campaign to introduce its new calorie-free drink, Zero. The centerpiece of the campaign will be a remake, created by Crispin Porter + Bogusky and shot last week in Philadelphia, of the classic "Hilltop" spot which featured the famous song, "I'd Like to Buy The World A Coke" which also introduced the tagline, "It's the Real Thing." The new commercial is being labeled "Chilltop" and the song will be sung by G. Love.
Fast Company's Ryan Underwood isn't too thrilled with the song's new lyrics which have, as he writes, "about as much personality as the mahogany table around which they were surely penned."
Commercial Alert is a bit upset the U.S. Department of Agriculture, yesterday, rejected a petition (pdf) asking the government group to enforce its own rules which prohibit public schools from selling "foods of minimal nutritional value," otherwise known as junk food. The petition asked for, among other things, monthly certification by schools that they are abiding by USDA guidelines, annual audits by state agencies to insure guidelines are being followed, adherence to guidelines as a critical area of review for school food authorities, adherence to guidelines an integral part of Food and Nutrition Service review of state agencies and USDA management control over compliance with guidelines.
Commercial Alert Executive Director Gary Ruskin isn't pleased. "It is outrageous that the USDA is refusing to enforce its own rules against selling junk food in public schools. They have turned their back on American children, who are suffering from an epidemic of obesity." While no one is forcefully placing the mouths of children on the dispensing area of vending machines, temptation is hard to resist.
Planned Parenthood has released a little video, called "The G Spot," which, you guessed it, talks about how babies are made. In a humorous manner and without holding anything back, including pre-ejaculate, the video features two characters shaped like sexual organs. Predictably, it's the male organ who can't wait to get busy and the female organ who says, "wait a minute," and proceeds to give a lesson in how sperm make their way to the eggs.
Seth Godin's blog was named the "best individual blog on the general topic of marketing and advertising" by MarketingSherpa in its annual Ten Best Blogs survey. The survey examined 52 nominated blogs across ten categories. Last year, Adrants won but we're all about sharing fame so a hearty congratulations to Seth Godin and thanks to all who would even consider Adrants worthy of mention alongside the great and legendary Seth Godin. We're also pleased to report our friend, MarketingVOX, was named "best group weblog on the general topic of marketing and advertising. MarketingSherpa has published a complete summary of the survey and other category winners here.
