Controversial Commercial In Australia On Fertility: What do you think?

Australian ad agency Rhodes Shapter Dale Rhodes has produced a commercial that will air on Australian television for a fertility clinic that shows a birth taking place.

I guess it's causing a stir there. Geez, for my money, I'd rather see semi-clever ads for beer like this one, wouldn't you?

Okay, if you ignore all the cliches, from fostering (hey get it, fostering!) a national stereotype, to  setting back male/female relationships about sixty years, it is kind of funny. Hey, it's beer, right? This is the reason, though, why I don't own a television set. If I was subjected to that commercial over and over and over again, along with the rest of the campaign, I'm sure I'd have this sense that my brain and intellect was under the influence of about a case of Fosters. Which I guess is what they want.

Anyway, here's the fertility ad. What do you think? I actually like it. It's pretty to watch, but the maybe five times I've watched it now has really made me hate that heavenly host music.

Way cool commercial by Pfizer

a real tear-jerker...but a nice story that's memorable...





Graffiti - Pfizer Commercial - The best video clips are right here

When I grow up, I want to work in advertising...

Torrence Boone is leaving Digitas

We were told yesterday that Torrence Boone is leaving Digitas. He's heading up an new initiative between Dell Inc. and WPP Group to handle all of the computer maker's marketing and advertising duties.

He's leaving for New York City, but Dell is headquartered in Austin, Texas. Mecca for all things alt/indie. Hey Torrence, I have twenty years in the computer industry. Omigod, please take me with you.

Anyway, he's going to be missed around here. And it's worth telling a story.

I had only been here a couple of days when C and I got in the elevator down in the lobby. Torrence got in the elevator with us. We didn't know who he was from Adam. Or maybe C did; he's more up on these things than I am. Anyway, that same day there was a little party on the Deck to welcome new employees. I'm standing there all by myself, minding my own business, which I've learned is pretty much SOP for me around here, when Torrence walks in. I noticed him, for the simple reason Torrence is the kind of guy who you notice when he walks into a room. He has that kind of presence.

And don't you know he walks right up to me, gives me a big smile, sticks out his hand and says, here's somebody I don't know. I introduce myself, telling him what I was hired for and then I asked him what he does around here. Yeah. He starts telling me and I guess my jaw dropped. Nicest guy in the world. We talked a bit more, including the difference between working in an agency like this versus being on your own like I had been for five years. (The difference is you work a helluva lot harder on your own. You hustle a lot more on your own. As a matter of fact, you don't hustle at all in an agency; and by hustle I mean looking for work.)

Torrence is the kind of guy who knows you among the 800 other people who work in the Boston office. That's the kind of person he is, and I truly wish him luck.

Today's big advertising problem

I guess it was last week a bunch of top advertising executives all got together in California for a leadership conference of the American Association of the Advertising Agencies.

According to the New York Times (so it must be true) speakers urged the audience to stop wallowing in self-pity (oh, but creative folks are so good at that) and get on with the challenges of the industry. (It's not a problem; it's a challenge! It's an opportunity!)

Anyway, Lee Clow, chairman and chief creative at TBWA, looking for all the world like some Deadhead, was quoted:

“Stop whining,” Mr. Clow told the estimated 380 attendees. The new realities “shouldn’t be scary,” he said, because they offer “a huge opportunity for us” to become far more useful to marketer clients as they seek more effective ways to sell products.

“If you want to participate, you’ve got to start hiring young people,” Mr. Clow said, “and don’t tell them what to do — ask them what to do.”

I guess Mr. Clow never heard of age discrimination, and if he doesn't know what to do (how much is TBWA paying him??) then maybe he should hand his job over to a 21-year-old communications grad from Syracuse so he can get back up to speed.

CramerSweeney Smart Marketing IQ Test

It's sick how much marketing and advertising is a part of our lives and American culture. But when you're inundated with as much messaging as we are, it's bound to stick.

CramerSweeney, a New Jersey-based marketing firm, as a cute little game on its Website to test your marketing IQ.

I was actually kind of glad to only get 80%. Only. The first time I got one wrong (it was one of the audio brands) there was this little jolt in me, kind of this negative thing that I thought I wasn't quite measuring up. That maybe I wasn't qualified to do my job here at digital central. (Funny, how I took on the blame for not knowing, and not the corporate organization and it's marketing efforts for not reaching me.)

Our culture has such an impact on us, on our self-esteem, that we have to be so careful.

We have to keep reminding ourselves that it doesn't matter at all if we don't know the theme song to some corporate entity. It's the slippery slope.

Music to my nose

I finally put away the tent we used in Utah. It's only been what?--three weeks ago we got back? Big deal. I don't think I took down my Christmas tree until March this past year. I'm constantly tripping over backpacks in my apartment, left over from some hike. It's not unusual for a sleeping bag to be found draped over the couch, airing out. Or a bladder drying on a towel rack in the bathroom. My beat-up hiking boots were cluttering up the landing for a good week, and my trekking poles were rattling around the front seat of the truck until a week ago.

I wiped the thick layer of red dust off the groundcloth yesterday morning in the bathtub, transferring the dust from the cloth to my hands, reminding me that that's the way my skin felt for a solid week. Dry but not dirty. It's a clean dirt, powdery and fine, like talcum.

And the tent I yanked out of compression bag this morning; it was already partially out anyway because I didn't want to stuff it tight in the bag. It's an REI Quarterdome UL, supposedly a two-person tent, but it's really a one-person-and-his-dog tent. Sue and I do just fine in it, though. One night, the night we had it pitched on slick rock on the edge of a canyon and thunderstorms ripped all around us, we even had all our gear in there with us. I slept that night propped up on my pack, and I never slept better.

When I yanked the tent full out, the pungent smell of ripstop/tent filled the room. I imagine Bob experiences the world and all its rich smells that way...so strong, that a smell conjures up an entire journey for him. That explains why he gets so excited when I pull gear out of the closet in preparation for a trip that's still day's away. The symphony of smells the gear gives off--mountain air, mud, cool stream water, rock, and wood smoke--is music to his nose. (That's possible, right?)

Mitt Romney, not for president

So, it’s official. Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, is running for president. Or rather, it was announced that he would announce next week. Reminds me of times in the corporate world when we’d have meetings about meetings. Is this really what we want in the White House?

Anyway, I’ll bet he never makes it. Not even close. American voters will never again elect someone from Massachusetts into the White House. That’s because Middle America thinks Massachusetts is the loony bin of the country. Mass has gay marriages. Mass has all of these liberals running around. Romney is just one more to add to the list made up of Ted Kennedy (who, by the way, makes a terrific senator and should never have even considered being a candidate for the Peter Principle), John Kerry, and Mike Dukakis wearing that goofy helmet in the tank.

Romney is going to get ripped over the Big Dig, from its enormous cost overrides to shoddy workmanship. Never mind that he inherited the project. All the screw ups came on his watch, and if he can’t manage a road project, how’s he going to run a country? And while he is so against gay marriages, again, they came on his watch. Those tough farmers out in the heartland are gonna ask him how’d he let a bunch of gay liberals push him around like that.

And is it me, or does the man look like an undertaker?

The little guy getting the shaft

You know, it’s always the little guy that gets the shaft, isn’t it?

Turner Broadcasting hires some company in NYC called Interference (gee, I wonder what business they’re in? Why didn’t they just name their firm, Annoyance and get it over with?) who pays a couple of artist types 300 bucks to make some battery-operated signs promoting a cartoon show and plant them around Boston. It seems these signs were hanging around for three weeks—there were reports in the paper that joggers and the like saw them and just ignored the stupid things—until a T worker spotted these gizmos with lights and wires and batteries hanging out of them and called the bomb squad.

Pandemonium ensued.

The city spent a million dollars (double the $500,000 reported yesterday) calling out SWAT teams and water cannons and helicopters and a bunch of common folk just minding their own business had one more irritation thrown into their day making them late for work or maybe something even more serious.

So, who’s on the front page of the Globe today? Not any of the marketing types in Atlanta or NYC who came up with and approved this boneheaded idea. Not anyone from the NYC agency who pulled a Watergate and told the artists to be quiet even when their conscience kicked in and started freaking out when they realized the results of their actions. Nope, it’s the artists who are in court today.

Lawyers and liberals have ruined this country, throwing common sense clean out the window and defending the people who we know should just be slapped. I want to see the suits in court. Sure these two techno-savvy (as they’re described in the press) hippies should have thought a bit more about what they’re doing. But the real people responsible are the high-powered marketers who should have known better.

Thinking like a terrorist

Yesterday the city of Boston went into a panic because of some viral advertising that was placed around the city. They were little LCD signs with batteries plugged in the back that advertised a cartoon show on TBS. Someone found one and thought it was a bomb. More were found and helicopters and bomb squads were flying all over the city. The mayor is incensed, mostly it seems because he was ignored by TBS until 7:00 p.m. and then he was called by a low level PR minion. Responsible people decried the stunt, and younger, hipper people thought it was funny because they recognized the image and knew and understood viral marketing. If the stunt did anything, it underscored a generation gap, that’s for sure.

Hmmm….

Did the city overreact? Yes. Was it a stupid stunt by irresponsible, greedy marketing hucksters? Again, yes. They should have known better.

A few years ago I was floating around in Boston Harbor in a sailboat when a natural gas tanker came into port. NG tankers are basically floating bombs, and in the aftermath of 9/11 their security takes on the highest priority. They are ushered into the harbor by armed boats, and all traffic must stop and stay clear, which is why I was floating and not sailing.

One of the guys I was floating around with told the story about someone who had been arrested in New Jersey for buying an ambulance. I’ll pause now so you can scratch your head in bewilderment. Or maybe you know the upshot of this story. The person was arrested for being a terrorist because you can pack an ambulance with explosives, turn on the siren, and get pretty much wherever you want to go. People will even pull over to let you get where you’re going.

“Wow, I said, I just don’t think like that.” To which my crewmate said, “You make it sound like that’s a bad thing.”

But you know, it is a bad thing. We do have to think like terrorists. We can’t leave our luggage unattended or risk the bomb squad blowing it up with water cannons, which is what they did to the little signs in Boston. We do have to be alert for suspicious behavior when we’re on the subway or on a train, or when we’re in crowded public places.

9/11 shocked me, but it didn’t surprise me. I had been waiting for something like that to happen for years, because it had been happening all over the world for years. We Americans are so insular. So protected. So unaware of what is going on in the world. We think we’re different, and it’s only a matter of time before something to the extent of 9/11 happens again.

Who the heck is Action Bob Markle?

Bob Markle is the title character of a novel I’m working on. He’s an almost over-the-hill, almost jaded copywriter in the firm of Busby and Associates owned by Oliver Busby. Ollie was a writer, but his writing career was cut short when his father, the real Busby in Busby and Associates, up and died and left the whole shootin’ match to his son. Ollie actually brought the firm to national prominence due in large part to the creative work of Markle, whose cynicism and unwavering belief in his fellow human beings kept the firm honest and on track during its early years.