Advertising still not learning

Flea Marketing

This looks fake to me and it's a strange choice of perspective considering how many people walking over this ad are missing the message but it looks fun none the less. If anyone knows anything more about this piece feel free to shoot me an email.

Thanks Joe!

I stand Corrected! The ad is real. You can read more here.

Advertising Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Jakarta, Indonesia
Chief Creative Officer: Andy Greenaway
Executive Creative Director: Juhi Kalia
Art Director: Aryanto Salim, Joel Clement
Copywriter: Pancaputera, Juhi Kalia
Photographer: Heret Frasthio
Producer: Annisa Mulyani, Muhammad Iskak

via I believe in Advertising

Thanks Ali!

Street Signs

Cricket Calling

Cricket called on the Cultural Engineers of Seattle-based strategic non-traditional marketing and events firm NEVERSTOP to craft a unique campaign leveraging the creation of the world’s largest fully functioning cell phone. The campaign will included pop-up retail stores, inconspicuous wallet drops containing cards, coupons, and sometimes cash to drive traffic to the official campaign website. Commuters who spot fellow commuters reading green newsprint featuring the letter “K” and containing the campaign URL will be rewarded with Cricket-branded free subway or train passes. http://www.getsomerespekt.com

The Cricket pop-up boutique with the world’s largest cell phone will be active March 6th through 15th in Chicago. The campaign will launch in Philadelphia on March 20th.

Thanks Cosondra!

Kalle Lasn: Clearing the Mindscape

Adbusters interviews Kalle Lasn on the state of advertising, Subvertising and cosumer culture. Lasn, one of the founders of the non-profit, anti-consumerist Adbusters Media Foundation is also the author of “Culture Jam: How to Reverse America’s Suicidal Consumer Binge – And Why We Must,” and “Design Anarchy.”

full interview here.

288,000 Candles

I'm sorry AKQA but I have a new favorite holiday video. Famous from Brussels delivers an amazing year end video with the help of 288,000 tea candles.

Agency: Famous, Brussels
Creative Director: Christophe Ghewy
Art Director: Nicolas France
Copywriter: Olivier Roland

And of course there is a making of...

AKQA Nukes Christmas

Perhaps my new favorite agency holiday video of all time.

Expedia's Coffee-tising

In cooperation with coffee shops (Deli Star), stencils are distributed which are used to create the offer in cocoa on top of the milk foam. Underneath the cup is a paper coaster printed with expedia.de and further explanation of the offer.

Advertising Agency: Serviceplan Munich / Hamburg, Germany
Creative director: Ekki Frenkler
Art Directors: Patrizia Marroni, Pei Mueller-Lierheim
Copywriter: Petra Nachtigall

via Ads of the World.

Mad Skate

Tim Nolan of Poke and Marco Cigini of McCann Erickson have created a skate club for the Ad industry set and have dubbed it MAD SKATE, naturally. How's it work? Join the group on Facebook here. Each member will be asked to fork over a bit of cash to help rent a park such as the The Autumn Bowl in Greenpoint, Brooklyn or the Shield Skate Park in New Jersey. Any left over money will be donated to charity.

via Agency Spy

Addidas Originals: Break Up Service

Agency: TBWA\London
Production Company (Japan): Taiyokikau
Creatives: Mat Fox/Mark Nicholson
Producer: Satoshi Takahashi
Production Company: Blink, London

via Scary Ideas

The Elephant in the Chatroom

Wired has published an article on their website that finally, FINALLY, confronts the 500lbs. elephant in the room when it comes to advertising on social networking sites. To paraphrase, it's invasive and it doesn't work. For the last five years, "Social Networking" has taken the place of "Viral" as the most overused buzzword in your company's marketing department and today, Wired reported on what any network user could have told you all along, that just because users are willing to volunteer information about themselves does not mean that they welcome that information to be used to bombard them with marketing messages. Speaking at a digital marketing conference in Cincinnati recently, Procter & Gamble's head of interactive marketing and innovation, Ted McConnell stated...

“Consumers weren’t trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody…. We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it...What in heaven's name made you think you could monetize the real estate in which somebody is breaking up with their girlfriend?”

Cheers Ted!

Read the entire article here.

Smart (Business) Cards

Advertising Agency: Duval Guillaume
Creative Directors: Katrien Bottez, Peter Ampe
Creation: Tom Theys
Copywriter: Hans/Raoul
Typography: Stoffel Van den Bergh

via Ads of the World

Taxi Cafe

Vancouver--For a long time now there has been a shift in the marketing tactics of companies who are moving away from simply advertising their product or service in favor of aligning their brands with particular lifestyle choices (think Mac vs. PC). A couple of weeks ago we covered the opening of BK Studios here in Chicago in which Burger King has desperately attempted to buy themselves into a subculture with their burger-free art loft. Now comes word that advertising agency, Taxi is getting in on the act by opening Taxi Cafe. I know what you're thinking, "But I work at an Ad agency and we have a coffee bar..." except your coffee bar is most likely hidden away on the 16th floor and exists only to impress clients and serve slacking employees where as Taxi Cafe is situated at street level and serves not only to impresses clients (the cafe itself is decorated with successful Taxi ad campaigns) and serve the occasional employee (no word on the discounts yet) but Taxi Cafe is 100% open to the public (you know, that bizarre outside population of consumers, agencies are supposed to uh, be able to interact with?).

via Ad Pulp

Immersion

Ever catch yourself in the reflection of your computer screen or TV set and feel like you're staring at a stranger? A couple months ago a friend made a video of me working and though hilarious to watch a nine hour work day compressed into a two minute time lapse, it was also slightly disturbing to see how immersed I had become staring into a computer monitor. Now comes Immersion Blog, a fascinating look at user interaction with the various media that have come to dominate our daily lives. Most shocking perhaps is photographer, Robbie Cooper's Immersion study (above) and Godfrey Reggio's Evidence videos which record the facial reactions of children while interacting with a video game and television set respectfully. It should be noted that advertising agency, Fallon London attempted a similar execution in their CBBC spots a couple months ago that shows the joyous expressions of toddlers immersed in children's programing on the BBC. One idea, three very different results--all of them illuminating in their own way.

via Coups de Pub

Censorship

A couple of of days ago I was having a conversation with a friend about SEO and I started to wonder about the challenges facing companies and agencies while marketing their products online overseas. How does a company or agency reach an international online community when governments are filtering your message and is it irresponsible for agencies to find a way to subvert these filters in order to reach their target? The Advertising industry has a long history of pushing the envelop when it comes to public decency but what about political censorship? It's all well and good to run a human rights campaigns targeted at China here in the states in an English speaking magazine, everyone will applaud you, but what about actually using that "web-savvy" agencies are always patting themselves on the back for to actually reach your real target overseas.

Unbranding 101

Burger King Studio: Wicker Park, Chicago


Quarter Pounder: Shibuya, Tokyo

On oct. 12 BK Studio opened in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood at 1904 W. North Ave. A kind of artist's loft/think tank/art space blah blah etc. packed with things the kids are supposed to be into these days like DJ's, silk screen T-shirts, and sneakers. Noticeably absent, were actual Burger King burgers. Now comes word that McDonald's, not to be outdone, has opened "Quarter Pounder," in Tokyo's Shibuya neighborhood. The ultra modern eatery is almost entirely devoid of McDonald's branding even going as far as serving traditional McMeals in unbranded packages. The whole thing smacks of a "Denny's All Nighter" debacle. More information on Mcdonald's Quarter Pounder can be found courtesy of Neil Duckett in Tokyo.

Please Feed The Animals

Please Feed The Animals is a new blog for the recently unemployed advertising professional. We predict that it will be getting a lot of hits in the coming weeks.

via American Copywriter.

Freelance-to-Fire

In news-I-could-have-told-you-first-hand-last-Thursday, Agency spy is reporting this morning that Citigroup is predicting that Advertising in the U.S. may not recover until 2010. In an eerily relevant post a little more than an hour later Agency spy reports that Chicago's Mayor, Richard M. Daley, has told reporters that ...

"both city and private sector workers should get ready for a clusterfuck. The Mayor says that chief executive officers have told him to expect huge layoffs in the next month and into the new year. Hopefully, those execs that spoke with Daley do not include CEOs of agencies. Crossed fingers that Chicago's advertising industry can weather the storm and holding companies can assist where necessary."

For those who think Agency Spy, which is sponserd by Job resource site Media Bistro, is simply driving traffic to their job site, let me tell you that everything they have reported this morning is true. Believe me, it's true.

Minneapolis says moNO!

In a perfect example of how people are willing to sign anything, Agency Mono stomped around my old neighborhood in Minneapolis and soon to be Mono's new neighborhood, in an attempt to gather signatures to ban the agency from moving in. Sound confusing? Watch the video. See you at Christmas Mpls!

via Adgabber.

Saved By Gimmicks

There has been a lot of talk within the industry lately about how people find Toyota's Saved By Zero ads so irritating. It's legitimate, the ads combine an ear-bleeding jingle with lame computer animation of Toyota vehicles rotating around a giant 0%. But for me, and at least a few others out there, Charles Schwab's rotoscope ads are even worse. Chuck Schwab is my Saved By Zero. Why? Because rotoscoping went out of fashion and was only briefly interesting in 2001. It was visually bland then and it's visually bland now. Combine Rotoscoping with depressing financial whining and you get a cringe inducing spot. During a time where everyone has something to complain about when it comes to finances, the last person I want to hear it from is charles Schwab. For this reason, watching this morning's episode of 3min Ad Age was particularly difficult.

via The Ad Feed.

Originally I had credited the Saved By Zero Ads to Ford, they are actually from Toyota. Thanks for the correction Andrew.