The genius of free.
If you didn’t know that Denny’s was giving away free Grand Slam breakfasts until 2:00 today, you’re the only one in America. And while on the surface, giving away free food doesn’t seem like a Gold Lion-winning idea from Goodby Silverstein, their usual genius is at work.
Here’s the bottom line: people will take anything for free.
People spend two hours listening to a condo salesman’s pitch just to get a cheap-ass free barbecue. People swing a block out of their way on the walk to work to get a free crappy granola bar. And people will collect Coke caps and waste time online getting points so they can get free shit. So if you’re trying to get people to reappraise your brand and try you again, what better way than to offer a free Grand Slam Breakfast to everyone in America?
The response last year was huge (they served more than 2 million meals) and, so far today, it’s been even bigger. I awoke to the local San Francisco news doing a live broadcast from a Denny’s and apparently across the country people lined up well before the 6:00 a.m. opening to get their free eggs and pancakes.
So while I wasn’t a fan of the screaming chickens Super Bowl spots, the strategy and messaging is truly genius.
Filed under: Good Stuff | Leave a Comment
Tags: good, promotion
MTV redesigns logo. World yawns.
After 29 years, MTV has finally dropped “Music Television” from their redesigned logo.
I’m glad they did this so soon. Because, you know, it’d be terrible for a brand that defined my generation to become the butt of comedians’ jokes about how they haven’t shown actual videos for a decade.
Filed under: Eh. | 1 Comment
Tags: branding, logos, ridiculous
Super Bowl violence.
30 seconds. Every act of violence in all the Super Bowl commercials from this year.
Lots of head slapping. A ton of punching (mostly thanks to the Volkswagen spot). And a few old people getting blindsided.
Enjoy. Or not. Whatever.
Filed under: Eh. | Leave a Comment
Tags: advertising, super bowl, TV
No, I’m not going to do a Best of/Worst of list. But here are a few quick thoughts from tonight’s game.
Who the Hell decided to run two spots with pantsless guys back-to-back in one commercial pod (Career Builder and Dockers), Bette White and Tim Tebow’s mom both getting blindsided, and then two spots with midgets back-to-back (Dr. Pepper and truTV)?
Is this the first Super Bowl in history where the second half spots are better than the first half?
Was there really a masturbation joke in that Megan Fox commercial?
Did any of you go see the rest of the “uncensored” Go-Daddy commercial on their website? (That’s rhetorical by the way.)
I will have nightmares about screaming chickens.
Can I never see another talking baby again?
Filed under: Commentary | 1 Comment
Tags: advertising, Commentary, super bowl, TV
I’m sorry, what was that again?
AE: “We’re doing an email. Our target audience is men and women 24-46 who frequent Mildred’s Temple Kitchen. The key message is ‘come have sex in our bathrooms.’ We’ll need concepts by the 20th and first round…”
Creatives: “Wait, wait, wait…what was that?”
AE: “We need concepts by the 20th. That’s plenty of time.”
Creatives: “No, we meant before that.”
AE: “I don’t know which part you mean. Be more specific.”
Filed under: Out there | Leave a Comment
Tags: email, weird
Friday FAIL: We’re going down!
Filed under: Are you kidding me? | Leave a Comment
Tags: outdoor, screw-up
Xceptionally lame.
“So we’re Comcast. And we want to change the name of our cable, internet and phone service. Our biggest competitor is AT&T Uverse. Hmmm… what’s a cooler letter than U and is bigger than the Universe? Crap. Nothing’s bigger than the Universe, right? I mean, the Universe goes on to inifini… HOLY SHIT I’VE GOT IT!“
Filed under: Eh. | Leave a Comment
Tags: naming, ridiculous
Ketchup gets a new look.
It’s so small and insignificant. And 99.9% of people will never think about the design. But really, how often does someone get to redesign a ketchup packet? Apparently once every 40 years.
Nice to see they put some real thought into it. “The new design has a base that’s more like a cup for dipping and also a tear-off end for squeezing, plus it holds three times as much ketchup than a traditional packet.”
Filed under: Good Stuff | Leave a Comment
Tags: design, good, opportunity
Recent Entries
- The genius of free.
- The future of advertising.
- MTV redesigns logo. World yawns.
- The Google Super Bowl ad you’ll never see.
- Super Bowl violence.
- Quick Super Bowl commercial thoughts.
- I’m sorry, what was that again?
- Friday FAIL: We’re going down!
- Xceptionally lame.
- Ketchup gets a new look.
- The Haiti Poster Project.
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The future of advertising.
I’ve done my share of crystal ball gazing on the future of advertising. And certainly everyone and their advertising grandma has an opinion on it. But Bud Caddell, Senior Strategist for digital think tank Undercurrent has one of the most thoughtful posts on the subject I’ve read in a long, long time.
He’s done his research, thought through the arguments, knows he doesn’t know it all – and still manages to pump out an excellent, provoking article on why the ad agency of the future may not even be an agency at all. If you read one thing today, this should be it. The discussion and comments are quite good as well.
It’ll certainly get you thinking.
Filed under: Commentary, Good Stuff | Leave a Comment
Tags: advertising, agency, Commentary, future