The Rise of the Youth Culture
Craig Ferguson describes the rise of youth culture as triggered by a change in advertising and marketing.
Musical Protection
There is something infectious about this song that makes me want to listen to it over and over. I am not normally a fan of dance music, but I really dig the beat. I am also not a big fan of the message, either, and I can chalk that up to being a parent, or maybe just leading a relatively boring life. But there is one redeeming feature that is actually a product placement. Trojan condoms took the unusual step and paid to be included in this video by Cobra Starship, featuring Gossip Girl, Leighton Meester.
According to an article in the NY Daily News, “even though Trojan is a regular advertiser on cable channels such as MTV, Comedy Central and Spike, Jim Daniels, vice president of marketing for the brand, said he is frustrated with restrictions the major broadcast networks continue to place on condom ads. ‘We have these media barriers, and so we are looking for ways to broaden our reach,’ Daniels said. ‘If this is effective, we will look at doing more of it.’ ”
This is one more instance of the blurring of entertainment and advertising due to the fragmentation and dissolution of mass media. Bands can’t get their music heard, so they license it to advertisers for use in commercials, and now brands are paying musicians to feature products in their videos so they can reach the band’s audience.
(Hat tip to Brand Freak)
Free and Natural Running from Nike
The latest Nike ad probably won’t air on a tv near you. Nike has launched their new Free family of running shoes, which are as light and nonrestrictive as running barefoot, with a short video introducing the Bear Butte Running Camp. Several world class runners participate in the fun. Hattip to Brandfreak.
BMW Paints a Picture
BMW has a long history of art cars, but this may be the first time they have commissioned an artist to paint with a car, rather than on a car. South African artist Robin Rhode used a BMW Z4 roadster to apply paint to a 30 by 40 foot canvas that will be on display in NYC’s Grand Central Station. He developed a different style for each color, and each style referenced another contemporary artist. He used remote control jets near the wheels to spray the paint on the canvas. The whole process from conception to artwork was captured for a series of videos on the microsite, Expressions of Joy, and a complete documentary will be on the Discovery Channel. Art patronage still matters.
24 Heures
Belgian brewer Stella Artois and the Mother agency of London have created a series of short films that re-imagine the stories of contemporary cinema and television in the style of French New Wave. You can find all three shorts on Smoothoriginals.com, but my favorite is the updated, laid-back version of 24.
Grace’s SuperSk8boards
Grace needed to create a business for her advertising unit in school, and she made a commercial for her web-based skateboard business.
McCain Strategy Sessions
Here is a series of spots from ad agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners creative director Jamie Barrett and director Craig Gillespie (Lars and The Real Girl). While very technically this is user-generated content, since it was not commissioned by either campaign or their party supporters, it was produced by advertising professionals with actors, scripts, sets and real production equipment. See below for an interview from Creativity.com (part of AdAge.com)
Maverick
Can’t Put a Gag on Her
Saving Americans Money at the Pump
Karl Rove: Our Moral Barometer
Creativity.com spoke to Jamie Barrett about the effort, how it started, if we’ll be seeing their efforts on TV before November 4th and more.
How did this come about?
The way it started is that Jeff Goodby, Rich Silverstein, a few more people from here and I have been pretty proactive for the last while in looking for opportunities to do something for the Obama campaign. Jeff and Rich have done some things for the Democratic Party in the past, but we’re not an official party agency or anything. We just have energy for it and wanted to contribute to the conversation some how.When did Craig Gillespie get involved?
This specific idea came from Craig. I’ve know him over the years and I think he got wind I was working on some Obama things and the agency was somewhat galvanized behind that so he reached out to me about three or four weeks ago. He was in the middle of shooting a TV pilot but said he’d love to do a behind the scenes Republican version of The War Room, that doc with George Stephanopoulos and James Carville from the Clinton campaign. He said he had all the ingredients – the set and actors, etc. – if we could come up with some scripts. So we came up with a dozen or so scripts and he ended up shooting five of them, amazingly, in about an hour and a half. They just shot them before a day of real shooting for the project Craig was working on at the time.Will these be running on TV?
We’re hoping so. They’ve been sent to various people within the Democratic National Committee who have some role in the campaign and, so far, we’ve got some good response. The political situation changes so quickly, it’s almost asking, what’s the theme of the day? We’re hoping that one or more of these will feel particularly right to them. In the meantime we’re pushing it online and just trying to engage as many people as possible.Which spot best fits the climate right now?
I think the “Maverick” spot is clearly the one most of the moment, post-SNL, post-debate, so we’re hoping something will happen. McCain has been throwing that word around for a while but I think with the debates and everything, it’s sort of reached critical mass. So I think if this one was on the air right now it would tie in great. It just seems in the moment right now.Is this the first time you’ve applied your skills to a political purpose?
I’ve dabbled a bit in the past but I think, like a lot of people who’ve been excited by Obama, I’ve been swept up in his campaign and thought there might just be a way to have a small voice through this advertising thing we do.
Next Jerry and Bill Ad
Still no computers. Still no Windows. Still no good. This is 4 and a half minutes of mess. Wonder what the 30 second tv edit looks like? That is even if they are planning on tv for this spot. This could be the ultimate viral campaign that doesn’t make it to tv for a while, as the internet explodes at how bad the spots are. We are all getting hoodwinked into thinking, but more importantly talking about, how bad these are. But that is the buzz generating part of the campaign. Finally, a really good spot goes to tv with a clear, forward-thinking branding message about Windows. Nah, it will probably just be more toenail clipping and toy stealing.
Design a Stop Sign
What if a modern corporation’s marketing staff commissioned their agency to design a stop sign? Here’s a video posted on Wall Street Fighter:
http://view.break.com/542649 – Watch more free videos
Boost Your PR by Doing Something
Here’s a great column by Al Ries in Ad Age about improving PR and advertising effectiveness by staging a regular event. It creates media coverage opportunities, however, with media staff cutbacks, new media and user generated content will become even more important to create buzz.
Remember when a political party used to hold a convention to select its candidates for national office? Of course you don’t. Today, the candidates are already selected long before the convention starts. Then what is the function of a national convention?Public relations.
More than 40 million Americans watched Barack Obama’s acceptance speech last Thursday night. That’s a larger audience than the Olympics drew on any given night and even larger than the season finale of “American Idol.” As an indication of the real function of a political convention, consider that some 14,000 journalists traveled to Denver to cover the activities of only 3,000 delegates.