Experience Manifesto

Baby's Got SpongeBob?

Come on, it's a commercial for kids meals, folks. Meals for people under like 8 years old. Is Sir Mix-a-Lot really the right artist for a commercial promoting kids meals? I get the square butt thing, but it's not working for me here. I might like it if it was promoting a meal for adults although admittedly it wouldn't make any sense at all for adults.

I also really didn't like the Wanna get withcha', cause you make me richer line. Sure, it's all in your face about how much money BK will make selling kids meals, but I think it's a little too in your face for me.

A few years ago, my wife & I went to see Eyes Wide Shut, the last film by great director Stanley Kubrick. At one point in the film, I asked my wife why no one told Stanley that the film wasn't that good. They could see the dailey's and clearly the film wasn't working. Our guess is that no one wanted to be the person to tell Stanley Kubrick, a truly great filmmaker, that this one was a stinker.

Is Burger King now in that position with Crispin? Do they now all sit in the room when Crispin shows them new work, all nodding & enthusiastic while internally hoping that someone else will say "Huh?" Someone in the room should've at least thought about the fact that this was advertising a kids meal and maybe not the most appropriate way to do so.

Spirit flight attendants not happy with airline's proposed uniforms | detnews.com | The Detroit News

Yea, sometimes you can push the whole logos on everything a little too far! Wonder who's paying for it and how much they're paying.

Spirit Airlines flight attendants are saying, "This Bud's not for us," after glimpsing a proposed new uniform that includes aprons sporting logos for Budweiser and other alcoholic beverages.

According to the Association of Flight Attendants chapter at Spirit Airlines, the apron that would go with new uniforms is unacceptable attire that sends customers the wrong message.

"Turning flight attendants into walking billboards is unacceptable," Deborah Crowley, president of Spirit's flight attendants union chapter, said in a statement. "The proposed aprons diminish the primary and federally mandated role of flight attendants as safety professionals."

Spirit flight attendants not happy with airline's proposed uniforms | detnews.com | The Detroit News.

AdScam/The Horror! : I'm PC... And I'm not talking Microsoft!

Nothing I can add to these post from George Parker over at Adscam other then to say if you're not reading him every day, you should be! Sitting in my office laughing out loud while reading this!

On the BBC news today, here in England (I’m over for a short time on family business) it was announced that Cadbury is going to print the warning "contains milk" on bars of Dairy Milk, despite the presence of the name and a fucking big picture showing a glass and a half of milk being poured into a the chocolate. The warning is being introduced on wrappers to meet legal requirements, according to the company.  The warning will be made on wrappers in capital letters encased in yellow boxes saying "Contains: Milk". Cadbury is also introducing a warning on bars of Dairy Milk Whole Nut, saying "Contains: Nuts, milk". This to me is further proof that we have all gone stark, fucking raving mad. With all the shit we are currently in; don’t we have more serious things to get our knickers in a twist about? Cadbury's move is not the first, after Tesco (Britain’s biggest supermarket) put labels on milk cartons saying they contained milk three year ago, and also warned that bags of assorted nuts contained nuts. Fuck, what’s next, health warnings on cigarettes?

AdScam/The Horror! : I'm PC... And I'm not talking Microsoft!.

At Least Learn to Lie Better!

So, this morning, I get this comment on a post back from September of 2005:

Has anyone out there heard about XXXXXXXXXX (I'm deliberately blocking out their name, cause I really don't want to help them at all!). It seems like a way better service then wasting money on PPC. Apparently they are using refering websites ( forums, blogs, wiki, etc. ) and have a viral word of mouth distributed approach to it. My friend told me he got around 100 visits from single post which cost him $0.40c. I am going to give them a try today . In case you are intrested here is it.

Now, when you have a Typepad account and you get notification of a comment, it gives you information about who left the comment. At least if they're being honest! So, I would tell that the comment was left by the people from the company they were promoting by pretend! I mean, come on folks, put a little effort into it! So, I reported the comment as spam and sent them this note:

In case you were unaware of this, when you post comments on blogs, they usually send a report to the person who runs the blog with your contact info and IP address, all of which pointed me back to your company. I just wanted to let you know that you would go much further with bloggers if you were actually honest & upfront. Pretending that you’ve got some new thing to promote because your “friend” used the service when you’re actually with the company just doesn’t work. Had you commented that you’re company created something new and that I might be interested in learning more about it, I would have left the comment up. But you didn’t and I didn’t. It’s 2008, stop with with spam already!

Not expecting a reply, but if I do get one, I'll pass it along!

Agency Tart

Nothing I can add to this!

Thoroughly frustrated with one of my clients today. Big client. Big, big, big client. I dare say that if you stopped a Torghut on his way across the Ala-shan plateau in the Gobi desert and asked him if he was familiar with this company, he would be. Then he would kill you and he and his falcon would have a nice dinner. I digress. Had a meeting with one of the mindless middle managers to discuss a YouTube ad we’d be doing for her group within this company.

Me: And that’s our concept for the ad. We’ll have to start production next week to meet the April run date.
Mindless Middle Manager: YouTube? Isn’t that where kids watch pornography on the internets?

Me: Ummm..well…actually the demographics are a little different. Your competitors have been using YouTube for over a year to reach your customers and are experiencing high interaction rates. Whether or not you personally like YouTube, it stands to reason XXX Corporation needs to have a presence there. Besides, it’s not a stand-alone initiative. It’s part of a larger campaign.

MMM: I honestly think all this video on the web is a passing fancy. No one in my circle watches video on our computers. It’s a kid thing. So we’re going to pass. I’m going to divert the funds to direct mail.

Me: Direct mail? So the campaign will have TV, a microsite, banner ads, event marketing and postcards? Your media team already booked the space, too.

MMM: It’s proven. The internets are not proven.

Me: I’m not going to argue with you. This whole internet thing might end tomorrow. You’re right.

Link: YouTube Is A Fad - Agency Tart.

adfreak - Bad Taxi Experience

There was actually a strike by some cab drivers last week over this system and here's a good, first-hand review from Adfreak. Sure, it's only one cabbie saying he would never buy Panasonic again, but how many other people will be turned off by the advertising intrusion. Once again, it begs the question. If we keep talking about the consumer being in control, why did we insist on creating things like this that the consumer can't control?

Last night, I came in contact with Taxi TV for the first time, New York’s effort to “modernize” its taxicabs. By “modernize,” I mean allow use of credit cards in cabs by bombarding riders with repetitive commercials to pay for the upgrade. Man, it sucks out loud. During a 15-minute trip, I saw one commercial for a Panasonic laptop a half dozen times and another for some cut-rate brokerage called Zecco.com several more. The menu has “channels” that don’t actually work: Switching from NBC news highlights to “sports” yields yet another Panasonic ad, followed by more of the same news clips. Ads can’t be muted. After my experience, I think I’ll go back to looking out the window. Drivers hate the system because of the GPS tracking, but they also have to put up with the nonstop racket. My driver told me he despises Panasonic after being subjected to the ads hundreds of times a day. He predicts “only tourists” will use Taxi TV after regular riders try it once. “It’s a scam,” he said. “The ad companies and the city are the only ones getting the cheese.”

Link: adfreak.

Agency Spy

This just in from Agency Spy. Well, this would explain the whole William Hung thing!

Ohhh… A contestant on the West African version of American Idols has been exposed as an actor created by Ogilvy Johannesburg to give a boost to the ratings. The contestant, Cliff Jennings, was played by film- maker and director Eduan van Jaarsveldt who also owns Stealth Donkey pictures. The stunt worked as “Cliff” now has a cult following due to his terrible voice and the slammings he received by the judges. Watch the video above to see him in action.

A few days later, Ogilvy Johannesburg was forced to come clean right after “Cliff Jennings: Living The Dream” was prematurely, featured on Ads Of The World. The spots have since been pulled from the site. We remember blowing by them without much thought last week. Shucks. Ogilvy is saying that neither the station nor the show hired them. So who did? In any case, “Cliff” is claiming that the judges knew all about on the scheme on his hard to comprehend blog. Hmmm….

It’s not surprising to see that someone hired an advertising agency to boost ratings for a TV show. That’s what agencies do - get people to pay attention to a product, service, interest. And by golly, it worked. The problem is that now, viewers will look at Idols as rigged or suspect (with good reason) ruining the whole concept behind the show - any woman/man can be the next big thing.

Link: Agency Spy.

Halloween

Beneath the mask, behind the madness, comes a legendary tale as it's never been told... Seriously, how could they describe a remake of Halloween as a legendary tale??? As it's never been told??? Kid goes crazy, kid kills everyone, breaks out years later and kills a bunch of people again. Are they going to add some kind of subtext to explain how he became a killer??? It's a psycho killer movie, not classic literature for god's sake. Why are the remaking this movie???

Link: Halloween.

No Criminal Charges For Men in Cartoon Network Stunt?

Thankfully, one of the greatest crimes in the history of advertising has been resolved and we can move on with our lives, without the horror of meaningless advertising stunts hanging over our heads. I know that I will sleep better tonight knowing that my family will never have to worry about guerilla advertising stunts the next time we're in Boston! Thanks to the Boston City Council for making sure that they stayed on top of this very critical issue for Boston. Thankfully, it seems, they have addressed all of the other issues facing large cities and are now free to devote their time & energy to ridding their streets of corporate attempts to market to us.

The two men who were charged in the late January Boston marketing plot that resulted in a bomb scare apologized Friday for their actions and settled their case with community service, which they already completed.

Peter Berdovsky, 27, and Sean Stevens, 28, told Judge Anthony Sullivan in Charlestown District Court that they never intended to upset anyone.

“I deeply regret that this incident caused such anguish and disruption to so many people,” Berdovsky said in a statement to the court. “I acknowledge responsibility for my part in that disruption, and I apologize to the residents of Boston, Cambridge, Somerville and everyone else affected for the hardships they encountered.”

This resolves the case, and prosecutors agreed not to pursue criminal charges against the two.

“This was a painful lesson to guerilla marketers in Boston and elsewhere that their actions have consequences,” Boston City Council President Maureen Feeney said Friday in a statement. “While this settlement seems to mark the end of criminal proceedings, we must continue to learn from these incidents to ensure that they never happen again.”

Link: No Criminal Charges For Men in Cartoon Network Stunt?.

New Jersey lawmakers may ban texting while driving - Yahoo! News

File this under the obvious laws category! Do we really need a law to tell us that writing while driving is a bad idea? I've always wondered about cars that let you check your e-mail and things like that. I mean, unless the car is going to drive itself, it's sorta' critical that the driver can actually pay attention.

New Jersey drivers who insist on sending text messages on their cell phones or personal digital assistants may find themselves on the wrong side of the law if legislators approve a new bill.

The plan is in response to a recent Nationwide Insurance survey finding that one in five drivers are texting while driving, a figure that rises to about one in three among people aged 18 to 34, said Democratic Assemblyman Paul Moriarty.

Link: New Jersey lawmakers may ban texting while driving - Yahoo! News.