Chicago

The land of the free, home of the brave. I love Chicago. Advertising is bigger, better and wilder down south. Check out this series of Snickers ads.

These things were everywhere, and the greatest thing is that none of them actually mentioned Snickers. They merely used its' chocolatey iconic logo to get their message across.

What an absolutely ingenious concept to revive a lagging brand.

Chicago is full of money. The downtown is filled with the world's most expensive brands: Burberry, Ralph Lauren, etc. (One tie in a Burberry store = $238, wow).

While in Chicago I was lucky enough to take part in a tour of Critical Mass, a digital-age advertising agency with seven locations world-wide. The office was much bigger than I expected. Critical Mass' client list features the likes of NASA, Rolex, and Dell.

While at the agency we toured the amazing facilities (and got to mingle with the staff).

Shortly thereafter, we were treated to a demo reel of the agency's latest creative endeavor. Critical Mass has just completed a campaign for Only Vegas, a division of the Las Vegas tourism board.

Critical Mass came up with the concept to take an entire small Texas town (many of which has never been on a plane), and give them an all-expenses trip of a lifetime to Las Vegas. So cool.

Critical Mass developed web videos telling the story of the town's vacation, and focused the webisodes around a few main characters.

Critical Mass proved that with a little imagination, advertising can move forward past its' reliance on convention methods.

The new world of advertising is all about surviving. With papers dying (The Sun-Times applied for bankruptcy a week before we left for Chicago), and TV ratings plummeting, these are the type of things ad agencies will need to do to advance the medium.

I truly loved the fact that CM was willing to take risks (or at least more so than in a huge agency). All the people in the office were dressed as they please (when asked about how the clients feel about the casual nature, "They are cool with it. They know this is how we are."

What a great experience.

Other places to visit when in Chicago (though not necessarily advertising related):

United Center - See the Blackhawks up close and personal.

The Art Institute of Chicago - American Gothic, need I say more.

Chinatown- Visit the oldest restaurant in Chinatown, the Won Kow, just like your hero (?) Al Capone.

The Blues - Blue Chicago, and Kingston Mines; absolutely great nite clubs in the city that claims to be the "Home of the Blues."

If you've never been to Chicago, you'll leave your heart there.