Advertising For The Win

You're Not Fooling Anyone, Campbell-Ewald

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:56:22 -0500

For those of you not in advertising, Campbell-Ewald is an almost-100-year-old agency based in Detroit. It makes most of its money off of Big Money clients (Health Care, Automotive, Armed Forces).

In an industry where being “hip” is king, being viewed as old, stodgy and (gasp!) traditional is a death sentence. So C-E did the equivalent of ditching Talbots and buying a whole new wardrobe at Hot Topic: they have decided to recast themselves as a social media agency. This is despite the fact that the majority of their work is print and broadcast. As if that weren’t ridiculous enough, they’ve decided to host almost their entire portfolio on various social media sites.

The Company: Wikipedia

The Culture: Facebook

Case Studies: YouTube

The Work (video): YouTube

The Work (Still): Flickr

The Work (Digital): Delicious

Have you ever seen someone who’s really excited about their brand new skirt which is way too short on them and totally inappropriate because the skirt is really a top but they didn’t know that because no one told them how to put the top on and OMG GRANDMA I TOLD YOU NOT TO GO INTO MY CLOSET ANYMORE?

Yeah.

The major problem that I have with this is that not only did they completely rip off another agency’s idea, but they aren’t even doing it well. Even on the most basic level, their Facebook Fan Page is poorly executed and their YouTube pages aren’t even skinned. Their labeling of their company blog as “Campbell-Ewald’s Thought Leadership Blog” indicates that they don’t understand why most ad agencies have blogs, or they think that their readers are incredibly stupid. They call their Press area their “Social Media Newsroom”, but they’re posting items that aren’t even related to their social media work (probably because their social media work isn’t newsworthy, and an empty newsroom is a sad, sad place).

Let’s have fun with another extended metaphor: you can tell people that you have a cat, but it won’t take them long to figure out that you’re lying as soon as your cat starts to moo and eat your lawn.

As far as I’m concerned (and I’m sure many people would agree with me), the number one rule of social media marketing/engagement strategy is “don’t do it if you can’t do it well”. This site might fool a few people, but my guess is that it will alienate more traditional clients, and fail to impress the “cool” clients who they’re obviously trying to attract.

Incidentally, this attempt at catapulting themselves into the 21st century didn’t even work, it seems; this past October, Business Week published an article that revealed that Chevy is opening up to pitches from other agencies for the first time since 1922.

I’d tell them that the whole thing is FAIL, but they’d probably just try to correct my grammar.

“Wait, why did we unnecessarily hyper sexualize this...

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:09:05 -0500

“Wait, why did we unnecessarily hyper sexualize this commercial about car safety? It doesn’t even make sense anymore.”

“Yeah but sex sells, right?”

“I don’t think this is what they meant.”

On the rise of loser-generated content

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:06:39 -0500

On the rise of loser-generated content:

From one advertiser to the rest of the world: I’m sorry that my people have done this to you. Here’s an op-ed that completely agrees with me.

TV advertising used to work like this: you sat on your sofa while creatives were paid to throw a bucket of shit in your face. Today you’re expected to sit on the bucket, fill it with your own shit, and tip it over your head while filming yourself on your mobile. Then you upload the video to the creatives. You do the work; they still get paid.

Hail the rise of “loser-generated content”; commercials assembled from footage shot by members of the public coaxed into participating with the promise of TV glory. The advantages to the advertiser are obvious: it saves cash and makes your advert feel like part of some warm, communal celebration rather than the 30-second helping of underlit YouTube dog piss it is.

Google Chrome does their best Michel Gondry impression and...

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:06:09 -0500

Google Chrome does their best Michel Gondry impression and it’s a good one.

James Lipton looks like a child molester without a beard. Give...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:32:31 -0500

James Lipton looks like a child molester without a beard. Give that a ponder.

Ugh! Thank god I didn’t have to read all this.

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:18:25 -0500

Ugh! Thank god I didn’t have to read all this.

Wait, you mean you own a safety equipment company and...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:14:30 -0500

Wait, you mean you own a safety equipment company and you’ve never shown people going through glass or getting blown up while wearing it in beautiful slow-motion before? No wonder your shitty business is failing.

Yep, that’s my president catching a perfect spiral from...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:52:09 -0500

Yep, that’s my president catching a perfect spiral from Drew Brees and then lateraling it to a little girl while avoiding the tackle from Troy Polamalu.

Just the coolest.

Just goes to show that sometimes all you need is a catchy tune,...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:26:27 -0500

Just goes to show that sometimes all you need is a catchy tune, a clever visual style, a brilliant animator, and abandoned house you can clean up, and you’ve got a brilliant spot.

Everyone hates tweens. Everyone that is except for advertisers...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:34:02 -0500

Everyone hates tweens. Everyone that is except for advertisers that just fall all over themselves to advertise to tweens because it’s their one chance to get super crazy, put something nuts in front of the Foot By The Foot client and say “you wouldn’t understand it, it’s what kids are into now”

Everyone has really worked themselves up about these two spec...

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:45:42 -0400

Everyone has really worked themselves up about these two spec Sprite ads from Germany. And they’re right to be hot and bothered. Really Germany? It’s not hard to pull off “when you open a bottle of Sprite it sprays everywhere” and come to “just like dicks do!”

I guess we should go softer on a production company called Silly Dog Films, but come on. If you’re going for a controversial commerical it’s not how big your shock is (see “Eye Test”), but about how hard and how thick the wit is.

I guess what I’m saying is that if you’re going to make a cum joke at least have some balls about it.

The army, killin’ some ambient marketing back with WW2

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:32:51 -0400

The army, killin’ some ambient marketing back with WW2

thedailywhat: Ad Campaign of the Day: “Never Mock” and “Never...

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:54:31 -0400

thedailywhat:

Ad Campaign of the Day: “Never Mock” and “Never Flirt” by La Selección for Marani Eyewear.

How great are these? Curse my perfect vision!

[via.]

When your target is primarily women, it can often be hard to get...

Mon, 18 May 2009 16:15:00 -0400

When your target is primarily women, it can often be hard to get their attention in such a over saturated market. Well Slim Fast is happy to solve your problem. Simply take two donuts and make your product look like a dick. Problem solved. The ads practically make themselves.

(originally seen on Talking Points Memo, but it’s a banner ad so chances of finding it again are pretty slim. SLIM! Ha! See what I did there?)

Kobe and Lebron live together. And they’re puppets. And...

Fri, 15 May 2009 08:22:44 -0400

Kobe and Lebron live together. And they’re puppets. And they like to heckle each other. Wait, why do they live together again?

See the second spot, “Chalk”

Little Mac was robbed. ROBBED. If you’ve ever played Punch...

Sun, 10 May 2009 20:32:04 -0400

Little Mac was robbed. ROBBED. If you’ve ever played Punch Out you know that this kid has more heart that anyone else out there. This documentary chronicles his quest to come back in the new Punch Out.

Bontrust Finance: Increase In Currency (Money love) Okay this...

Thu, 07 May 2009 23:57:57 -0400

Bontrust Finance: Increase In Currency (Money love)

Okay this is very pretty looking, but wait for it … wait for it …

Check out this really amazing ad for Philips new TV. It’s...

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 10:55:57 -0400

Check out this really amazing ad for Philips new TV. It’s a crazy, elaborate, and completely unmoving bank heist scene. It was designed to be take you through two floors of a building completely with explosions and gun fire and then end right where it began to create an endless loops. Mind blowing.

It’s been a long time since some great advertising has...

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 09:16:00 -0400

It’s been a long time since some great advertising has piqued my interested, but this series from Corrado mattresses did it. And they have a nice little video that shows how they made it without using any computers. Bravo!

Photo

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:13:40 -0400