Whoops!
Today in class I made a bold claim that newspapers as a whole lost 800 million in ad revenue last year. I WAS WRONG! U.S. newspapers, including all your favorite "papers of record" lost 7.5 billion in ad sales last year alone!
And the Chicago Sun Times parent company just went bankrupt.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Doritos Guru
I was at the store today and found this bag of Doritos. Some of you may have seen this before, but it's the first time I have. It's a contest to come up with a name and an advertisement (TV) for a new flavour of Doritos, with the winner receiving $25,000 + 1% of future sales.This would have been fun to do but the contest is almost over and the finalists have already been chosen. It's a good way to get the target involved with the product, but I know I haven't heard of it so I'm wondering how many others have. I haven't seen any ads promoting the contest.
You can check out the contest and the submissions at doritosguru.ca
Video Games Aren't King... but they are royalty.
According to a recent study by Nielsen, video games are approaching usage levels that rival network TV. The study found that 64 billion minutes were spent gaming in December 2008; only 4 TV networks had more time spent than that, but NBC is in danger of falling behind video games soon.
Back in the fall Dave had posted about XBOX Live running Obama ads in one of their racing games. Up to this point in time most "advertising" in video games has been self-promotion by the gaming company for its own titles. With numbers like this to support video games, how long will it be until video games become filled with advertising messages, both obvious (billboards in the environments and subversive (such as increased product placements)?
Back in the fall Dave had posted about XBOX Live running Obama ads in one of their racing games. Up to this point in time most "advertising" in video games has been self-promotion by the gaming company for its own titles. With numbers like this to support video games, how long will it be until video games become filled with advertising messages, both obvious (billboards in the environments and subversive (such as increased product placements)?
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Twitter, sigh
I don't fully understand Twitter and yet I have this strange feeling of hate and discomfort towards it... perhaps that is why I find this funny?
You Twitter-ers... still funny to you too?
You Twitter-ers... still funny to you too?
Please don't add to the voices in my head!
First of all, I'm kidding. Second - I can't believe it. This is actually an old article (Dec 10, 07) I stumbled across while researching a painting for Petty's VD (that's Visual Dialogue) class. (It's from: http://openthefuture.com/2007/12/monday_topsight_december_10_20.html) It is short so I have included it in its entirety:
"• Oh, No: In their never-ending quest to make ordinary citizens rise up and destroy capitalism, the advertising community has discovered a new place to put hard-to-ignore ads: in your skull.
New Yorker Alison Wilson was walking down Prince Street in SoHo last week when she heard a woman's voice right in her ear asking, "Who's there? Who's there?" She looked around to find no one in her immediate surroundings. Then the voice said, "It's not your imagination." [...]
The billboard uses technology manufactured by Holosonic that transmits an "audio spotlight" from a rooftop speaker so that the sound is contained within your cranium.
Go ahead and scream. A local hero (or "vandal") stole the speaker out of the billboard shortly after it went up; the speaker has since been replaced (no word on whether they've added more security... hint hint). The Holosonic rep suggested that it might take time for people to become accustomed to this new technology. I suspect it will take less time for the system to become subject to some harsh regulation.
Please."
I think I may have heard about this before but being reminded renewed my terror. I am at a loss for words. I know I'm in advertising but if I ever have to advertise this way, I quit! If this is going to become the wave of the future I am going to find me a nice big cave and never come out. No, you can't join me.
"• Oh, No: In their never-ending quest to make ordinary citizens rise up and destroy capitalism, the advertising community has discovered a new place to put hard-to-ignore ads: in your skull.
New Yorker Alison Wilson was walking down Prince Street in SoHo last week when she heard a woman's voice right in her ear asking, "Who's there? Who's there?" She looked around to find no one in her immediate surroundings. Then the voice said, "It's not your imagination." [...]
The billboard uses technology manufactured by Holosonic that transmits an "audio spotlight" from a rooftop speaker so that the sound is contained within your cranium.
Go ahead and scream. A local hero (or "vandal") stole the speaker out of the billboard shortly after it went up; the speaker has since been replaced (no word on whether they've added more security... hint hint). The Holosonic rep suggested that it might take time for people to become accustomed to this new technology. I suspect it will take less time for the system to become subject to some harsh regulation.
Please."
I think I may have heard about this before but being reminded renewed my terror. I am at a loss for words. I know I'm in advertising but if I ever have to advertise this way, I quit! If this is going to become the wave of the future I am going to find me a nice big cave and never come out. No, you can't join me.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
More Bars!!
This isn't a new commercial and the angle definitely isn't new. At&T has been using "More bars in more places" since they bought Cingular Wireless. I've seen this commercial countless number of times but I never noticed how thoroughly the "more bars" imagery was used in it until last night. Every cut in the spot has a set of bars in it (and multiple sets in some) except for one; that's 11 sets of bars by my count. That's some serious USP-ing right there!
Cannes Lions 2008 Ads
I went to the Cannes Lions Ads on Thursday night at the WAG and to be honest I was kind of disappointed. There were no real ads that stood out as great ads to me. The majority of the ad winners were from the U.S. and the grand prix winners were all commercials for the Halo 3 game for X Box 360. Maybe it's because I don't know what Halo 3 but I wasn't really impressed by them. Canada also had all of the bronze winners, which was only 5, but again nothing that really impressed me.
The commercial I seem to remember the most was a silver winner from Brazil for Child Poverty awareness. I found the ad on youtube but it's in Spanish. The ad shows the same boy sitting on the same street corner. In one frame he's dirty and wearing torn clothes. In the other he's clean and wearing a nice white shirt. The boy who's dressed nicely is slowly surrounded by a crowd of people trying to help him. The line at the end reads something like "why are some children our problem but not others?"
I don't think this was the best ad of the evening it just seems to be the ad that I seem to actually remember.
Anyways, if you get the chance, head down to the art gallery and check out the ads. Even if I don't think they were great this year doesn't mean there isn't one or two ads that are worth seeing.
The commercial I seem to remember the most was a silver winner from Brazil for Child Poverty awareness. I found the ad on youtube but it's in Spanish. The ad shows the same boy sitting on the same street corner. In one frame he's dirty and wearing torn clothes. In the other he's clean and wearing a nice white shirt. The boy who's dressed nicely is slowly surrounded by a crowd of people trying to help him. The line at the end reads something like "why are some children our problem but not others?"
I don't think this was the best ad of the evening it just seems to be the ad that I seem to actually remember.
Anyways, if you get the chance, head down to the art gallery and check out the ads. Even if I don't think they were great this year doesn't mean there isn't one or two ads that are worth seeing.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
New Media
Welcome to cloud computing. A world so vast and infinite in its possibilities that I can barely contain my excitement to buy one of these:
What you see above does not have a cd or dvd drive. The RAM is laughable and the hard drive within is not even a hard drive at all; it's flash. This computer does 2 things on its own, and does them well. This computer:
- Surfs the internet
-And plays music
All within the cozy confines of Windows XP. This computer costs $400, but it is possible to get one for cheaper.
It's backwards, it's small, it's cheap, it's the future. It won't be long before this computer can do everything my $2000 can do.
In comes CLOUD computing, otherwise known as the full flex of the muscle we call the internet. The cloud is the internet. The internet is the cloud.
You see, it wont be long before everything we do will be outsourced to the internet. The computer above, on it's own, cannot handle photoshop or any other system heavy operation, but it can run the internet. Now, if you use Photoshop online within a self contained web-application, this computer then has officially outsourced the job of processing the software to a bunch of servers in, say, Japan, or Monaco. I don't know. You'll never have to install heavy software again (unless you're a graphic designer, of course).
Think of watching a movie in a theatre. The Movie has already been filmed, processed, and put on a reel to project on the screen for us. Behind the theatre, there is no set where the actors act out every scene verbatim every single night. No, no, no, that would be ridiculous, and a lot of work!
Wasn't long ago I paid $400 dollars for a graphic card so I could run the game Deus Ex on my small PC. But what if we outsourced that job to a server farm that solely ran Deus Ex continually, streaming it to any piece of technology with a screen, with you only relaying the vector points to control the game over the internet.
Here are some web apps that are pioneering the new wave of cloud computing:
http://www.pixlr.com/
http://docs.google.com/
http://www.zoho.com/
http://www.me.com/
http://www.acrobat.com/
http://www.jooce.com/
http://www.evernote.com/
http://www.blist.com/
http://www.photoshop.com/express
http://g.ho.st/
And windows is working on an operating system that is based solely in the Cloud. What does that mean? It means you can access your computer from any and everywhere. Cause it's on the internet.
You'll never need a jump drive again!
So what does this have to do with advertising? YOU TELL ME!
What you see above does not have a cd or dvd drive. The RAM is laughable and the hard drive within is not even a hard drive at all; it's flash. This computer does 2 things on its own, and does them well. This computer:
- Surfs the internet
-And plays music
All within the cozy confines of Windows XP. This computer costs $400, but it is possible to get one for cheaper.
It's backwards, it's small, it's cheap, it's the future. It won't be long before this computer can do everything my $2000 can do.
In comes CLOUD computing, otherwise known as the full flex of the muscle we call the internet. The cloud is the internet. The internet is the cloud.
You see, it wont be long before everything we do will be outsourced to the internet. The computer above, on it's own, cannot handle photoshop or any other system heavy operation, but it can run the internet. Now, if you use Photoshop online within a self contained web-application, this computer then has officially outsourced the job of processing the software to a bunch of servers in, say, Japan, or Monaco. I don't know. You'll never have to install heavy software again (unless you're a graphic designer, of course).
Think of watching a movie in a theatre. The Movie has already been filmed, processed, and put on a reel to project on the screen for us. Behind the theatre, there is no set where the actors act out every scene verbatim every single night. No, no, no, that would be ridiculous, and a lot of work!
Wasn't long ago I paid $400 dollars for a graphic card so I could run the game Deus Ex on my small PC. But what if we outsourced that job to a server farm that solely ran Deus Ex continually, streaming it to any piece of technology with a screen, with you only relaying the vector points to control the game over the internet.
Here are some web apps that are pioneering the new wave of cloud computing:
http://www.pixlr.com/
http://docs.google.com/
http://www.zoho.com/
http://www.me.com/
http://www.acrobat.com/
http://www.jooce.com/
http://www.evernote.com/
http://www.blist.com/
http://www.photoshop.com/express
http://g.ho.st/
And windows is working on an operating system that is based solely in the Cloud. What does that mean? It means you can access your computer from any and everywhere. Cause it's on the internet.
You'll never need a jump drive again!
So what does this have to do with advertising? YOU TELL ME!
Satire or Seriousness?
I've been meaning to post this ad on the blog for awhile but I just hadn't gotten a picture of the bus bench. I'm not sure if Fabutan is trying to be cheeky or if they truly are serious. Either way the ad is easily remembered and jumps out at you.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
RECALDENT
What do you do when you want to increase the healthful nature of the gum you're selling? Invent a new fangled technology that the other guys don't have: Recaldent. That's right, Trident Extra Care is the gum that uses Recaldent to strengthen tooth enamel - does anyone else offer the same promise? This is a genius move to counteract long-lasting gum rivals such as Stride (which has made strides of their own in the market of late - ha!). Having trouble branding your product? Develop a technology the competition will never have.
It takes more than BULL SH-
So what is up here? What is the angle Pfizer is taking? Something smells in the pharmaceutical world. You all know my thoughts on these companies... but what makes them want to go this route?
I don't buy this for a moment.
I don't buy this for a moment.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
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