Son of Friday Filler

Last week I started something called "Friday Filler" in which I threw a few odds and ends together. People seemed to like it so I'm going to continue it. Actually, I really don't give a shit if people liked it, writing 5 posts a week is too damn hard.This Could Cost Him Votes In Berkeley.Reinventing Iconic Bullshit:Last week, McKinney in Raleigh N.C, won the Sherwin-Williams account. From

More Social Media Baloney

Remember TAC's first rule of research: Never trust a study done by an interested party.Here's a lovely example.The ClickZ Network reports that in a study released by Razorfish... "...many MySpace and Facebook users said ads on their favorite social sites have prompted them to buy something"Sounds promising, doesn't it? Just don't look too closely."Razorfish describes the survey respondents as "

Pols Not Spending On Web

Once again, the hype about online advertising has been proven wrong.At the beginning of this presidential cycle, pundits were gushing about how the web was where the action would be, and how online advertising would challenge traditional tv ads.Not even close.Back in January, a Lehman Brothers forecast predicted that this year candidates would spend as much as $110 million in online

The Smear Machine

Alan Wolk of The Toad Stool is one of my favorite bloggers. Today, however, I have to disagree with him on something.In a post last Thursday, Alan praised an hypothesis described by Arianna Huffington and attributed to Eric Schmidt, ceo of Google, that the internet is a kind of antidote for lies, smears, and general bullshit.The logic, in abridged form, goes like this: politicians and others have

Top 10 Bullshit Professions

I was thinking that maybe advertising was the world's number one bullshit profession.After semi-painstaking analysis and consideration, however, I am happy to report that advertising is way down at number eight.To develop this list I did two things. First I eliminated all occupations that are obviously scams -- like palm reader, astrologer, and economist.Second, I used only one criterion in

Friday Filler

Pepsi: Is spending 1.2 billion (yeah, with a b) behind a "rebranding" over 3 years. The first move is the introduction of new logos. If the rest of the "rebranding" is as shitty as this, it's gonna be a long 3 years. 1.2 billion on fucking Pac-Man?The Press:The idea of press neutrality is a joke. You don't have to be a McCain supporter to observe that the press has been drooling over Obama since

The Living Dead

If you read the advertising trades, the mainstream press, and the online pundits, you know that advertising is dead.Don't believe me? Check out the bibliography below. The People Who Always Get It Wrong are pretty certain about this.I wish I was as dead as advertising.It's not enough that just about every fucking square inch of the planet is covered in it, now we're finding new unimagined places

Dust Off That Old Television

From Ad Age, October 17, 2008
TiVo CEO Says End Is Nigh for TV Ads

TiVo CEO Tom Rogers did everything but hang an "end is near" sign around his neck as he tried to rouse a Saturday morning breakfast crowd at the Association of National Advertisers annual conference with warnings of fast-approaching doom for conventional TV ads.

At issue is whether DVR penetration is about to reach the tipping

Where Account Planning Came From

In a recent post I was critical of account planning. A reader wrote and asked why it developed as it did.I have a theory about how account planning developed in the U.S.It goes back to the late 1970s. In those days, every client had a market research department. The market research department was constantly at war with the ad agency, and it always won.Every time the agency would say "we think X

Words Without Meaning

One thing we can all agree on -- there's a lot of bullshit in the ad business.As a matter of fact, if it wasn't for presidential candidates, art critics, and branding consultants, we would lead the league in bullshit.What occurred to me earlier this week was that we create two different kinds of bullshit. The first kind is intentionally misleading bullshit. You know, the "no pain reliever is

Myth Of Web Metrics

We are often told that the big advantage of web marketing is that it is so easily measurable.Bullshit.I have a very simple little blog here. All I want to know is how many people visit it each day. I can't imagine a simpler piece of data to ask for -- no calculations, no processing, no complicated algorithm, just a simple count.And yet, I cannot get a verifiable number.If I install a counter I

Advertising Isn't Dead. It's Just Numb.

Get out the novocain. Apparently dentistry isn't painful enough.Now dentists will be inflicting an extra dose of agony.According to The San Francisco Chronicle, while your dentist is drilling on you he will also be showing you ads through the miracle of InChairTVThis is not a joke."...For the past year, InChairTV has been filling commercial breaks with short infomercials about teeth whitening and

Scientists Discover "The Brand Gene"

"Brand affinity is clearly hard wired. It is...fundamental to human existence. It must have a genetic component."Google CEO, Eric Schmidt.NEW YORK - In a paper published today, researchers from the University of Search Engine Optimization claim to have discovered the brand gene.For years geneticists have speculated that humans must have a "brand gene." How else, they say, can you explain the

Lying With Numbers

Here's why you should never trust research done by an interested party.Break Media released some research last week. The research was summarized in an article on the website TV Week by an idiot reporter under the headline, "Study Finds Men Responsive to Online Ads."The lead finding from the article was this:"The company found that 47% of online men in that demographic (18-34) have purchased a

Stop Listening To Consumers

From the website Broadcasting and Cable:'A new frontier in advertising research is “listening” to consumers via the digital-media ether...Audience listening is a brave new world. “It’s a big opportunity for the research industry and broader marketing, as well,” 'Can we get one thing straight? Listening to consumers......is the biggest cliche in marketing...is not a new idea...is most often a

How To Sell Great Creative: Ego and Failure

In Wednesday's post, I talked about a simple, sensible way to present creative work more successfully. Today, why this is a virtual impossibility in most agencies and with most clients.At every client organization there is one person who is the real decision maker. In some companies it's the cmo. In some companies it's the ceo. In some companies it's the brand manager. Their title is irrelevant.

The Web: TV With Its Hat On Backwards

From Ad Age, Tuesday:"Until now, online viewers have been able to watch TV with one substantial perk: fewer ads than if they watched the same show on TV...But that will soon change. The networks and distributors putting TV online are facing some tough economics...And that's forcing sites to consider breaking what has been a de facto rule in web video, that viewers only get one ad per break..."

How To Sell Great Creative: "Let's Do It On The Floor"

In the first part of this series, The Big Show, I talked about how big presentations are the death of good ideas. Today, an interesting lesson I learned from a couple of oddballs.At one point in my career I was creative director for the US operation of an Australia-based agency called Mojo.Mojo was recognized as one of the world’s really good creative shops. It was named “International

Odds, Ends and Beyond and More.

Top 5 Bullshit Marketing Terms Of 20085. Ideation4. Authenticity3. Megabrand2. Conversation1. NarrativeTop 7 Nothings Whose Names Made Them Something7. Joba Chamberlain6. Carrot Top4. Cheech3. Chong2. Regis Philbin2. Wavy Gravy1. Whoopi GoldbergSo Who Asked You To Look?Headline from Yahoo News: "Dim But Visible: Seeking Out Uranus"Most Difficult Word For Republicans To Pronounce:NuclearWhy I Love

The Crisis Of Advertising, Part 5: What To Do

The first four parts of this series were the fun parts -- whining about all the problems. This is the not fun part -- finding answers. I've written three drafts of this post and I still don't know what the hell I'm trying to say. The Crisis of Advertising? I have no idea what to do about it and anyone who says he does is full of shit.The first draft said we were going the way of the music

Funny Or Not Funny?

This "mock" recruitment video was very controversial around the agency when we produced it a while back.Some people thought it was hilarious. Some people were horrified.I'd love your opinion. Take a look at it and please respond to the poll on the right. The polling is over and here are the results:a) Funny-66%;b) Not funny -20%;c) Funny, But Easily Misunderstood - 14%If you think it's funny,

How To Sell Great Creative: The Big Show

You’ve been working on a new campaign for six weeks. Tomorrow’s the day you present to the client.The account director has booked the main conference room. Pastries have been ordered. The agenda has been Xeroxed.Coming from the client organization are the CMO and/or marketing director, the advertising manager, the brand manager and assistant brand manager, and maybe someone from upper

The Crisis of Advertising, Part 4 - Brain Drain

Last week, in The Crisis of Advertising, Part 3, I talked about why we are not attracting enough good creative people. Today's post is about the debasement of account management.The following is a true story.One of our junior account people was hired by our client. She had done a nice job working on the account. The client, not understanding the difference between cooks and waiters, hired her