Is the new Cadillac ELR ad offensive?

I was browsing one of my favorite websites, Quora, and I saw this offensive or not ad discussion started by Kevin Baker.

I don't think it's offensive; I think it gives an otherwise mundane hybrid car an attitude.  After all, the Cadillac ELR is a Chevrolet Volt that's heavier and more luxurious.

Outspoken marketing is nothing new as Microsoft has done with "Bing it on" versus Google and T-Mobile has done that with "Un-carrier" versus AT&T.

Tom Wills

Hate politics. Always vote.

1 Vote by Neel Kumar.

It's pretty ignorant, but life is too short to get offended. Brainlessness is the norm in advertising anyway - always has been. Best to ignore this kind of thing and move on ... our time is too valuable. By giving it our attention, we give undeserved value to worthless things like this.

  

Answered in twenty minutes.

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25m ago

Dan Zhang

Computer Engineering PhD student at UT Austin

1 Vote by Kelly Good.

I think the ad is sorta offensive. Americans have indeed done great things, but we went to the moon on the talent of engineers and researchers, not douchebag "Alpha males" driving Cadillacs.

  

Answered in eighteen minutes.

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26m ago

Neel Kumar

Geek/Foodie/Traveler/Genealogist/Money Coach/Dr... (more) 

I am DEEPLY offended.  But not for the reasons you think.

I am offended that the ad company thinks that this crappy ad would make me even want to test drive this crappy car.  The shitty schtick of shitting on the French (freedom fries, anyone?) got old 20 years back.  If this is the best you can do, please give me your contact info so that I can make sure I do not bother to watch anything you make, EVER!

  

A non-profit agency doing non-profit work

In this economy running a non-profit is difficult. Soliciting donors while balancing high stress on a shoestring budget is not fun. On top of that, most non-profits are most lacking in marketing and IT help.

This is why Serve Marketing + Advertising, a non-profit agency, is so remarkable.

One of their recent campaigns, Close The Gap, targets salary disparities between men and women while another campaign was for the American Diabetes Association.

Here in Texas, two agencies come to mind when thinking about social causes. Sherry Matthews Advocacy Marketing in Austin is known for positive social change and IS7 in Dallas focuses on interactive work for non-profits.

Heard of My Ad Council?

One of the lesser known aspects of the advertising industry not really covered in school is PSA (Public Service Announcements). While the famous Avis- We try harder, Volkswagen- lemon, and other Bernbach, Burnett, and Ogilvy classics are often covered, classic PSAs are not- with the exception of Smokey the Bear-Only you can prevent forest fires.

The organization behind creating PSAs for America is the Ad Council and they have a great website and newsletter called My Ad Council. Top notch agencies donate their time, manpower, and resources to create public service campaigns. The nonprofit clients are treated like Fortune 500 clients and agencies are rewarded with much greater creative license than normal clients give.

My Top Three Super Bowl Ads

Super Bowl XLIV is over and there was a record 48 minutes of commercial time. Of all the commercials, my top three are below. These are the top three because of their simplicity, memorability ("stickiness"), and effectiveness.

View the rest at The 2010 USA TODAY Ad Meter^SM or the AdAge Special Report.

#1. Parisian Love by Google in-house marketing department

#2 Title: TruTV's Punxsutawney Polamalu by Grey, New York

#3 Dorito's House Rules by crashthesuperbowl.com contest

Top 20 Super Bowl ads ever

Since this Sunday is Super Bowl 44 here are the top 20 Super Bowl ads as chosen by Creativity Magazine. My top three personal favorites are below.

Monster.com "When I Grow Up" by Mullen




Reebok "Terry Tate Office Linebacker" by Arnell Group




McDonald's "Showdown" by Leo Burnett

Austin ADDYs Show at Seaholm - February 12th

View it online.

Chinese Environmental Ads

For those unfamiliar with traditional Chinese ink paintings, the paintings usually depict the majestic jagged and sharp mountains of China which are different than the more rounded and wider mountains of the US i.e. The Rockies. This campaign has swept the advertising awards shows in Asia. Who says the Chinese don't care about the environment?

View the TV and print ads at Coloribus


Client: China Environment Protection Foundation
Agency: JWT Shanghai
Production Company: One Production
Director: Hailong Li
Executive Creative Director: Yang Yeo
Art Director: Lillie Zhong, Yang Yong Liang
Copywriter: Jacqueline Ye, Rafael Freire
Editor: Chun Huang, Jing Li
Agency Producer: Jane Zhang
Producer: Xue Wu, Yuncheng An
Music: Vision Unit Production
Artist: Yang Yong Liang
Composer: Jiangzhou Feng
Client Service: Betty Tsai

A Trillion Dollar Ad Campaign

In Zimbabwe, the hyperinflation of the currency has gotten so bad that foreign currencies are being accepted in to circulation.

TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris has created this unusual outdoor campaign for The Zimbabwean, a newspaper produced by a group of exiled Zimbabwean journalists. The Zimbabwean is sold in the UK, South Africa and Zimbabwe but when entering the latter is charged an import duty of 55 per cent, making it unaffordable to the average Zimbabwean

Via Creative Review UK

new fatherhood PSAs

More than 79% of Americans feel "the most significant family or social problem facing America is the physical absence of the father from the home." Research shows that the lack of a father in the home correlates closely with crime, educational and emotional problems, teenage pregnancy, and drug and alcohol abuse.

In an effort to show dads the critical role they play in their children's lives, the Ad Council has partnered with the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse and volunteer ad agency Campbell-Ewald to create a new PSA campaign that communicates to fathers that their presence is essential to their children's well-being. The campaign provides fathers with the information they need to become better dads.

Watch the whole TV campaign on youtube. See the radio, print, and TV campaign on the Adcouncil site.

Does anyone know the full credits for the campaign?

Thanks to Tim for the link on facebook.

Texas Rangers advertising

When I first saw these simple TV spots, they really caught my eye because typical Rangers commercials are basically announcements. So, I decided to find out who made them. Being the Texas Rangers, in DFW, I thought the agency might've been The Richards Group or another local agency. Lo and behold, the AOR (Agency of Record) is Door Number 3 in Austin! Here is what the Creative Director, Prentice Howe, had to say.

For some odd reason this is the first Texas-based agency to have their work featured in the ads showcase.

How in the world did a 20-person agency win the prestigious Texas Rangers account?

Hard work. Seriously. This was the type of account we wanted so we put in the time and energy to get it. I think winning Dallas/Fort Worth Area Tourism helped give us a presence in the area. From there, it was about building relationships, getting in the door and impressing the Rangers organization with our thinking. It was a very competitive review process so we knew we’d need to give it everything we had. We burned more than a few weekends preparing.

Now, a question from a disgruntled Rangers fan (me). How do you think they're going to do this year? World-Series bound?

As the ad agency for the Rangers, we’re not at liberty to comment. But I will tell you this. There’s a Rangers T-ball team in town that’s looking really strong this pre-season. They have a cleanup hitter named Lil’ Grande. Keep your eye on that kid.

What was the inspiration behind the campaign?

Like anything, it begins with a good strategy. Suzanne Kyba (Director of Account Service at Door Number 3) and the team put together a very smart strategy based around people’s insatiable desire for shared experiences. We’re living in a time when people hold their Blackberry more than their kids. With this campaign, we’re offering up the ballpark as a place where – win or lose – people can reconnect and get back to what really matters in life.

I noticed the ads don't show any of the players. Are they going to be in any future work?

Not in the TV, outdoor or print. We’ll have players’ voices in radio spots and we may find a way to weave them into our alt media tactics. Stay tuned.

What's it like working in LA compared to working in Austin (Prentice used to work in LA)? And what's the future for Door Number 3? Stay small or go big?

The differences have more to do with the vibe of the city than anything else. The processes and the minds are very similar. Austin is loaded with people from California, New York and everywhere in between. The creative class chooses location first, job second. Which means if you’re living in a cool city, the talent pool will keep growing and the work will find its way to the national stage.

The future for Door Number 3 is all about growing, getting better and continuing to bring out the personality of every brand we represent. I don’t think we’ll use an employee headcount as a benchmark. We’ll have met our goal when we all have matching PT Cruisers with the Door Number 3 logo airbrushed on the back.

Xbox "Gears of War" with Donnie Darko music

McCann-Erickson San Francisco is the agency of record (AOR) for Xbox. They had a recent Xbox commercial that when I first saw it, I dropped my TV remote; it was that hauntingly amazing. And that's saying a lot because I don't really watch TV shows or commercials when they're on TV (I download commercials to my computer to watch). Here it is in all its glory along with insight from the creative team. More background info can be found at Duncans TV.



Credits
Agency: McCann-Erickson, SF
CD: Scott Duchon, Geoff Edwards
AD: Nate Able
CW: Matt Burnell
Producer: Hannah Murray

Every other video game commercial I've seen (I haven't seen a lot though) doesn't have a soundtrack. Why a soundtrack for this particular one?

Nate Able says...
Because every other video game commercial you've seen doesn't have a soundtrack. Actually, We've seen game spots with tracks on them but not many. And those we have seen didn't do much to connect you with the characters or story. Usually it's just some fast, intense track trying to reinforce how fast and intense the game is.

We thought a more unique approach would be to take a bloody, action shooter like Gears and connect the viewer to the main character with more of a mood piece. Let the viewer feel the hopelessness and despair of the situation. The song has got despair in spades.


How did you choose the song?

We knew the song from the movie Donnie Darko. When the general idea of avoiding the usual cutty, action trailer kind of spot led us to doing a moodier thing the song came up pretty quickly. The spot was pretty much written with the song on repeat.


In my humble opinion, I really think the music is what makes the spot so hauntingly amazing. What do you all think makes the spot so good?

Yeah, it’s pretty much the music. And it doesn’t hurt that the game looks sick. The game looking so good helps make it possible for the viewer to connect with Marcus. Layer on the despair you feel in the song and you practically want to blow your brains out by the end. If a commercial for a video game can actually make people feel something that’s saying something.


Generally speaking, is it hard choosing soundtracks, voice talent, production companies and directors for ads?

Every project is different really. The perfect song for a spot might never come along and you wind up settling for something that’s just ok, or it could be the first song you think of like it happened for Mad World. Same goes for directors and the rest really. In general though, the better the work is the easier it will be to enlist top talent to help you get it done. We were lucky enough on this one to find talented people that had love for it and wanted to be involved.


How did the idea for this TV spot come about?

Long story short the client said, “show us the game. Don’t be clever. Show us the game.” Usually we would start anywhere but just showing the game because that’s what everyone does. But the game looked sweet so we started thinking of ways we could do it and make it unique. Judging by the reaction it has been getting I think we were able to be just clever enough to make something a bit original.


What's it like working at McCann and living in SF?

San Francisco is a great city. Love it here. As far as McCann goes... Well every agency has its issues but, we work with a good group of people on Xbox and we’ve been getting to do some fun work so can’t complain too much.

Dieste Harmel & Partners

Dieste Harmel & Partners took a Gold, a Silver and a Bronze today at the New York Festival, taking home the most medals of any US Hispanic shop. The awards were for their work for Budweiser and for ED Bosques Clinic, a treatment center for eating disorders in Mexico.

TV commercials can be downloaded here from Mack's Adverb blog.

some of life's lessons

This was originally posted May 29. The Creatives' insight has been added.

per david's request, i brought over one of my entries on a campaign he wanted written about here at the ranch. here it goes:

i don't know how many people have caught tlc's "life lessons" campaign going around, but i think it's just great. i saw a few print ads in the latest 'entertainment weekly' and searched online shortly after to see if there were any commercials. tada! there are.
i love how the "lessons learned" resonates perfectly with their targeted audience and the commercials are served up with an excellent dose of dry humor. to top it off, the strange statuettes are crazy reminiscent of the precious moments ones (sans halos and dopey eyes) and are actually being sold through tlc's website for anyone interested in having their own life lesson reminder.

edit: Here is additional insight into the campaign from The Martin Agency. Work can be seen here at Duncans TV Land


How did you come up with the campaign?

Sean Riley, the Creative Director says:

TLC came to us with the goal of rebranding their network. They wanted to move away from do-it-yourself programming and re-define themselves as the network that offers learning for "30 somethings." People who have reached the stage in life where they are dealing with parenting, marrige, homeownership, careers and spirituality, as they put it, people who have grown-up but not grown old. All Their programming is developed around subjects that will resonate with this target.

It was important for the advertising to maintain the learning aspect of the network but make it relevant to this group of people and their particular life stage. The agency felt that it was important to make learning fun, it's not medicine it's entertainment. The Life Lesson campaign came out of that mix: relevant learning with enough of a laugh to make it
entertaining.

How did the idea for figurines come about?

Now, it's Todd's turn (the copywriter).

TLC wanted to hit the folks that are between MTV and Bravo. They're grown-up but definitely not old. They are forever young-ish. They're learning as they go. They're faced with the hard choices in life -marriage, buying a house, kids, establishing a career, putting roots in the ground. In these times there is a lot screwing up. There is a lot going on and not a lot of guidence. TLC wanted to be that guidance. They wanted to show this target that screwing up is all part of the learning process.

Their tagline says it best - "Live and Learn."

Pat and I looked at this target and the things they face, we wanted to communicate to them in a way they would believe. If you put the mirror up to them, and say, "Hey, we know what you're going though," it feels like a bunch of B.S. and these people are savvy and will see right through it. Being in this target ourselves, we both really understand and appreciate sarcasm. That coupled with fact that we wanted something slightly bizarre and weird to get attention and a knock on "Precious Moments" or the crap you find a Hallmark seemed to stick. Take those terrible, pull at your heart strings trinkets and figurines that they sell and put that "screwing up and learning" filter on it and there you have "Life Lessons." Since we had to promote a bunch of shows it seemed perfect that you could have a figurine for every show. Every TLC show you watch is another lesson learned. Hope that answers it. What a longwinded answer. Sorry.

Did you watch a lot of TLC while you and Pat Wittich (the AD) were
brainstorming?

We watched some clips of each show to get a sense of what was happening. But to b honest, we really didn't focus on the shows construct. We just wanted to get a topline of what the lesson what that each show was trying to give. Take a show like "Honey, We're Killing the Kids." There's a lot going on there. The concept of the show is hard to summarize. It's almost two shows in one. But the bottom line is what we needed to quickly capture a lesson and make a figurine for it. The one liner for the show is that parents can sometimes be too nice to there kids and let them go astray. The lesson became, "Sometimes Being Their Best Friend Isn't Being Their Best Friend." Again, hope that makes sense.


Are they for sale?

Back to Sean now.

They are for sale $14.95.

It seems like The Martin Agency does a tremendous job at humor with this campaign and then the Geico work too. Is there something in the water in Richmond that creates humor?

We live in Richmond, the only other funny thing to do around here is civil war re-enactments. I'm not that into guns.

Ads Showcase: The Canadian IRS ads

click on images to enlarge





Who are the clients with great ads out there? Nike? Budweiser? Volkswagen? Target? Sony? Axe? ICBC? Richmond Centre?

Well, how about the Canadian Internal Revenue Service (Canadian Revenue Agency)?

DDB Canada (née PJ DDB) has long been one of the creative powerhouses of Canada, with the typically wonderful DDB culture, and now they've created some undeniably cool work for the the Canadian Revenue Agency.

I asked the art director Dan Strasser, who helped think of the Bud Light "Skydiver" Super Bowl commercial, how in the world did they think of origami heathen mini-demons to sell tax collection?!

"My ad partner, Kevin Rathgeber and I were sitting around trying to come up with an idea for SnapTax. We discussed how paper can be deadly, as in the case of extreme paper cuts. We explored that area for a while and that lead us to the thought that if paper kills, then it is evil. How can paper be evil we thought? We then decided to create this evil origami monster that would do 'evil' things around the house. And that basically is how it all went down. Not overly glamourous, but definitely a fun thing to produce. We used an origami master, Joseph Wu, to create our monster, and Alastair Bird to photograph everything. Oh and we did all this in about a week. It was one of the faster turn arounds I've had. It doesn't usually go that fast. "

Client: Snaptax.ca
Agency: DDB Canada, Vancouver
Creative Director: Alan Russell
Copywriter: Kevin Rathgeber
Art Director: Dan Strasser
Producer: Wendy Moriarty, Gary Taylor
Photographer: Alastair Bird
Origami Artist: Joseph Wu

Ads Showcase: W+K have done it again.

Another amazing TV spot from Wieden + Kennedy.



They also made a "very clean" TV spot about Carmelo Anthony.

They did an amazing job of blending a great storyline with amazing music and very strong, iconic (in the Jordan commercial) visuals in both spots.

The Jordan spot especially has very "sticky visuals" that stay with you even after the commercial is done.

The Carmelo spot is strong because it ties in the basketball game player introduction with his life story and then it ends it again as he's being introduced. The white glow around him makes him seem angelic as he's about to start a new stage in life in the NBA. Very good story development.

The client/agency relationship between W+K (Dan Wieden) and Nike (Phil Knight) is built upon such a great trust that it seems like true creative freedom is displayed a lot in the Nike work.