The uber-conference/festival South by Southwest kicked off Friday and it's very, very different than your average advertising conference mostly because, well, it's not really about advertising. SXSW (as it's called) is three shows in one. There's Interactive which deals with all things online/internet/technology and geek-related. This is where the advertising portion of the show falls and it's why I'm here as a panelists to discuss the ten or so worst social media campiagns we've seen in the past few years.
For the panel, I'll be talking about Walmart's fake blog, Wal-marting Across America, Target's Rounders, an initially no-so-forthcoming program where participants where asked to hype without disclosure and the Mentos/Diet Coke phenomenon which Mentos smartly embraced and Coke dissed...until, of course the usurped it for themselves...eight months later.
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By John Door of KPCB, no less. Don't believe us? Watch it yourselves (it's near the end).
The outburst of Jobs laud followed Apple's launch of the third-party SDK for the iPhone. It also announced the birth of the App Store, which will appear in the iPhone 2.0 software update in June (free to iPhone users, "nominal fee" to iPod touch users).
Okay. To be fair, it's tough trying to think up an entrepreneur who visibly tops the cultural impact Jobs has made. And the iPhone is a pretty exciting, business landscape-changing platform.
But world's greatest? Jesus Christ. After getting a verbal rub-down like that, you'd probably lose all desire to eat, sleep and have sex ever again.
Check out this :50 teaser for Vantage Point by th1ng. Vantage Point is a stock action film (premise: presidential assassination, ooooh) with a respectable cast (Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker).
The teaser was positioned as an "amber-drenched" perspective piece, which is a gorgeous way of saying you'll get nothing but a crisp, clear shot of the movie title. It will, however, leave you with a distinct "That's IT?!!" feeling.
What's the phrase -- no emotional reaction is a bad emotional reaction? No wait, that's not right...
Maybe because the white space technique wasn't sufficiently saucy, DDB Stockholm's latest McDonald's campaign has gone all red. (If it worked for The Economist, the People's Republic and Forbes, why not McD's, right?)
The ad -- which will run full-page in major Swedish newspapers this week -- reads, "We don't hire Turks, Greeks, Poles, Indians, Ethiopians, Vietnamese, Chinese or Peruvians."
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London-based Enter the Chapel swears it has an ad idea that's instant Cannes-bait. But oops, the idea was castrated internally, so now it's for sale on eBay.
What've you got to lose? Five quid? Your dignity?
How to get new blood into a casino:
- Promise the newbs free money
- Launch an addictive but impossible game (extra points: call it a "challenge!")
- Infuse game with cheery casino noises
- Slip online casino URL right under "try again" button
- Sit and let simmer. With time, a gateway drug almost always conceives an addiction
Mohegan Sun, are you listening?
How does your hearing compare to others in your age group? Find out in this quick hearing exam, sponsored by the Red Cross and Oslo Health.
You might learn something about captivating audiences to broadcast a message they'd normally ignore. That's what we walked away with.
Thanks Shedwa for pointing it out.
You can debut all the privacy controls you want, but there's nothing like a generic safety PSA to show the feds you mean business.
See "Don't Stop the Dialogue," produced by Big Fuel for MySpace. It will run on iKeepSafe.org and MySpace Safety along with featured safety tips and a soothing message from CSO Hemanshu Nigam.
Chill effect much?
The Clio Awards team just launched the 2008 Clio Future Gold Young Creatives Program. It's open to copywriters and art directors worldwide, 30 years of age or younger.
12 people -- two from each of six global regions -- will be picked to attend the Clio Festival in South Beach from May 14-17. They'll engage in a 24-hour creative challenge that will be judged by Clio jury members and a client.
Winners will be honored at the Awards Gala on May 16.
Looking to join? The deadline is April 1. Here's your chance. (It'll only cost an arm and a leg -- but who needs those where fame's involved?)
Oh, and beware portfolio thieves. Even among friends! It's a jungle out thar.
The winged creature at left is one of the poster children for Liquidnet's Become Supernatural campaign.
We went on the website to find stuff to make fun of but it turns out we liked clicking on the characters, listening to the "whoosh" and watching the brokers' eyes glint. Oh well.
By the way, not to steal Liquidnet's thunder or anything, but if you actually want to buy and sell stocks online, Zecco doesn't charge brokerage fees for up to 10 trades per month. Huzzah.
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