Copywriter: “Our last concept has a crazy laughing dude who has bananas for hands, in his ears and on his head. Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY loves him. Then suddenly, he sees a woman crying, so he flies over, shoots bananas out of his nose, makes her happy, and then levitates away.”
Art Director: “There’s also a catchy jingle.”
Client: “And this will sell Dole bananas?”
Creatives: “We guarantee it.”
Client: “Approved.”
Filed under: Are you kidding me?, Out there | Leave a Comment
Tags: advertising, TV, weird
If you haven’t seen this video yet, check it out. It’s got to be one of the worst driving exhibitions on record. When I saw it, I immediately thought, “Damn, that would suck if you came out of the gym and your car was all smashed in like that.” So what does this have to do with marketing? I’m glad you asked.
Hyundai of Canada saw the video and decided to turn it into a great story by giving the owner a new car to replace his old 2004 Elantra. What a perfect way to capitalize on a viral video like this with some great PR. One of Hyundai’s agencies even filmed the new car giveaway and may use it in a future commercial.
It’s opportunities like these that too many clients fail to set aside marketing dollars for. A word of advice as clients start planning for 2010 – a small amount of money can pay big dividends if you plan ahead and are ready to jump when the opportunity presents itself.
Filed under: Good Stuff | Leave a Comment
Tags: good, opportunity, pr, video, viral
The marketing geniuses at Chrysler decided the way to drag their dying auto brand out of the toilet was to run a new ad for Dodge Ram 190 times during prime time last night – including what turned out to be the last game of the World Series. On its face, it’s a ridiculously expensive, desperate, old-school tactic that shows how out of touch they are with ways to reach an audience these days. But what makes it even worse is that the commercial itself is absolutely horrible.
You can see it here, but save yourself the minute of your life.
It all starts with what quickly becomes an annoying mantra throughout the spot: “My name is Ram. And my tank is full.” Then it devolves into cliché after cliché that are so bad I actually laughed out loud. ”I am fueled by optimism, driven by passion and stopped by nothing.” “I am built not to last, but to outlast. Not to achieve but to…” (you know what’s coming, don’t you?) “… over-achieve.”
Then it gets even more jaw-droppingly bad as they try and go all Apple “Think Different” on us by throwing in shots of Muhammad Ali and Einstein. The result however is just pathetic. It’s a trite, emotionless shell of an ad that does absolutely nothing to make me want to buy one. In fact, the only thing this ad makes me do is feel sorry that they’re actually pinning their hopes on this.
Ram doesn’t seem to understand that the tank isn’t full – it’s as empty as this commercial is. And running it 190 times doesn’t make it any better.
Filed under: Are you kidding me? | 2 Comments
Tags: advertising, ridiculous, TV
There’s been so much news around healthcare reform lately, it’s made me wonder why I haven’t seen more advertising about it. Well, that’s about to change with the Organizing America Health Reform Video Challenge.
Nearly 1,000 people submitted videos and you, along with some other judges, get to vote for your favorite. It’s been narrowed down to the Top 20, so it won’t take forever to view all the entries. My personal favorite is the one above – a really simple concept, beautifully executed. The others are a little hit-or-miss, but mostly they’re pretty good. See for yourself and rank them – voting ends on Friday. It’s the least you can do for something so important.
Filed under: Good Stuff | Leave a Comment
Tags: contest, good, video, viral
Here’s some interesting news. Pizza Hut announced that they have already made $1 million in sales from the iPhone app they launched three months ago – including incremental sales they would not have made otherwise.
Other pizza joints are getting in on the action, too. Domino’s is seeing 20% monthly growth in mobile orders and early adopter Papa John’s mobile sales are increasing tenfold annually.
These will undoubtedly become great case studies as more and more businesses learn how to really profit from mobile apps and sites. However, there was also some curious data in the report. Yes, $1 million in sales sound great. But there have been 1 million iPhone app downloads. That means Pizza Hut is only looking at $1 in sales per download. So despite 20% off mobile orders, they haven’t actually managed to get that many people ordering. It’ll be interesting to see if they can activate more of that mobile base in the future.
Filed under: Good Stuff | 2 Comments
Tags: good, mobile, phone, technology
8 racist ads that recently ran.
In this day and age, when seemingly every single person at an agency as well as everyone in a client’s marketing department needs to get their two cents in about an ad, it’s shocking that these eight spots saw the light of day.
One look at these and you’ll see why. I just don’t get why no one on the client or agency sides caught them. It makes you wonder what they shot down.
Filed under: Are you kidding me? | Leave a Comment
Tags: advertising, ridiculous, screw-up
Read ick yoo luss.
A Dog & Pony reader from Los Angeles sent me this newspaper ad for the Monte Carlo in Vegas. It’s part of a campaign from David & Goliath that originally broke in June and apparently continues to run. Although why, I’m not sure.
I hated the campaign back then and I hate it now. I get what they’re trying to do (barely), but I don’t get why. Anyone care to explain why you’d purposely write a headline in ridiculously poor phonetics so that people could hardly read it and then pair it with a generic shot of a beautiful model looking bored to death on a bed?
There are millions of reasons you could give someone that would make them want to come to Vegas. These guys couldn’t even come up with one?
Filed under: Are you kidding me? | 3 Comments
Tags: advertising, print, ridiculous
Online comes off.
Are online retailers realizing the reverse of what their off-line counterparts did years ago? Namely that one channel is not enough to sell things these days? It sure looks like it with eBay’s announcement that they’ll be debuting a pop up store in New York for the holidays.
It makes sense. Brick-and-mortar stores learned a long time ago that they needed an online presence to increase sales. It stands to reason that the reverse is also true.
It also helps break eBay out of the “Online garage sale” perception, as they’ll be showcasing Norma Kamali’s exclusive fashions for eBay, L.A.M.B shoes, handbags from Michael Kors and Dooney & Burke, Anthropologie dresses and cosmetics from M.A.C., Smashbox and other brands.
I’ll be interested to see how this works. My guess is the novelty of the store will help it do brisk sales even in a down economy. We’ll have to see whether or not it leads to further eBay purchases and more customer loyalty down the road – and if it’s a success, how many other online retailers follow suit.
Filed under: Good Stuff | Leave a Comment
Tags: marketing, storefront
Recent Entries
- The Japanese are on drugs. Or bananas
- Friday banner FAIL: Rihanna version
- Extreme parking calls for extreme PR.
- Ram ad runs 190 times last night. Crickets chirp.
- Vote now for the best healthcare reform spot.
- Agencies finally starting to grow a pair.
- Pizza Hut makes a million bucks from iPhone app.
- 8 racist ads that recently ran.
- Read ick yoo luss.
- Online comes off.
- Not a joke ad, just a joke.
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Agencies finally starting to grow a pair.
It used to be a given: when a big piece of your business went into review, you threw everything your agency had at it and worked like Hell to keep the account. And in today’s economy, where every last dollar counts, you’d imagine re-pitching business would be even more important. But recently (and thankfully), agencies have started to grow a pair and tell jumpy clients to screw off.
Crispin Porter + Bogusky decided not to defend the gigantic $200 million VW account a few months back. “As a rule, we do not participate in reviews for current accounts and this will not be an exception” their statement said. Modernista didn’t defend the Cadillac account. Donner didn’t defend the $60 million Expedia account this Summer. And now, Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners has decided not to defend the $40 million Panasonic account.
Maybe agencies started looking at the massive amount of resources that go into defending a client and the low odds of the incumbent winning. (Some estimates have it as low as 10%.)
Or maybe they realized that a client asking you to competitively re-pitch for an account is like your long-time girlfriend saying “You know, I want to start dating other people. I’m going to go on first dates with 30 or 40 guys. Second dates with maybe ten. Third dates with three or four. And if I like any of them better, I’m breaking up with you. Otherwise, I’ll be back. For now. And I won’t put out as much.”
Good to see agencies standing up and saying “You want to go date other guys? Go for it. But don’t come back. And don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
Filed under: Commentary | Leave a Comment
Tags: advertising, clients, Commentary, pitch, strategy