Facebook is your life

Via Adfreak

Would this make you take the stairs?

"...in Stockholm’s Odenplan subway station, the staircase has been retrofitted to resemble giant piano keys, which produce real sound, to encourage commuters to climb the stairs rather than ride the escalator. According to this video — which seems to be part of a Volkswagen marketing initiative, though it’s unclear — it’s been a raging success."

Via Freakonomics.

Paper cutting to the max

We never did this kind of paper cutting in elementary school.

The work of Peter Callesen.

via Good Magazine.

Re: The problem ad agencies have got at the moment

diagram from www.adliterate.com

Danny Nathan, a Texas Creative Ex in NYC, has posed this open-ended question of his fellow ad bloggers over at Beyond Madison Avenue.

"The problem advertising agencies have got at the moment is…"


"...that people who are in the industry care too much about advertising and people who aren't in the industry care too little."

-David Wen

update: Check out this Adweek Survey of perceptions of advertising.

The thing I hate most about advertising is...

From Bryan over at Room 116.

Banksy is perhaps the world's most famous and notorious (He's wanted in two countries) graffiti artist.

Mad Men

Hey ad students, if you want to feel bad about yourself and your chosen profession, tune in to Mad Men, AMC's new show about the ad world in the 60's. Sexual exploits, corruption, sleazy salesmen: what's not to love?

I haven't actually seen the show yet (debuted last week) but I've heard it's not bad. Would love to know people's thoughts on it, particularly anyone was around during that era.

Update: Speaking of people around during that era, there's a TV spot that shows that old-timers (60+) can still work and thrive in todays agencies at Duncans TV and here.

Texas Exes in Super Bowl Ads Part 1

This is the first in a two part series.

Here's an interesting article. Griffin Creech, a 29 year old copywriter who graduated from UT-Austin in 1999 was also the actor in the Careerbuilder "Office Monkeys" commercials. Other campaigns where advertising agency employees are used as actors are the UPS "Whiteboard" commercials where The Martin Agency Group Creative Director, Andy Azula, is also the actor drawing on the dry-erase board and the Bud Light "Ted Ferguson" commercials where a DDB Chicago copywriter, Jeb Quaid, plays Ted Ferguson.

St. Basil's Cathedral by Motorola

These are all Motorola PEBL cell phones. I wonder if they're real phones or just those plastic display models. From Russia Blog

Very helpful podcasts

In iTunes there are some really useful and helpful podcasts dealing with creativity, photoshop tutorials, cool-hunting, and other related topics. Just open up itunes, go to the itunes store, click on podcasts and browse the different categories. I've been using the Chinese podcasts to brush up on my Mandarin. Warning: these podcasts take up a lot of hard drive space.

Pretty cool CGC

Someone has too much time on their hands. From Mack's Adverb.

Be wary of what you hear

Court TV is paying for a Big brother-like marketing initiative where customers in bookstores are targeted with prerecorded voices. It's called audio spotlighting and the thirty second voice is triggered when someone walks in front of a sensor.

Until now, this technology has been used in prestigious musuems around the world for educational purposes.

Patrick West of Zoom Media, who designed the system, has this to say, "What's great about this is I can hear the message perfectly clear ... the person sitting there reading their book or having coffee, it doesn't interfere with them whatsoever."

Excuse me Mr. West, but I would think that hearing advertising messages beamed at my ears while I browse Barnes & Noble is interference.

thanks to David Roth for the link

Make and produce your own commercial for $349

Spot Runner is a LA-based company that sells do-it-yourself commercial toolkits ranging from $349 to $499. It's helped small businesses such as Findley's meat market in Atlanta (or Hotlanta as the Rappers say) generate more business according to CNNMoney. Now, every small business owner can ditch their local ad agency. The future of advertising is clients make their own commercials!

The commercials cost Findley's $349 and $499 and the shop spent about $2,100 in March and $1,100 in May to air the spots on ESPN, Food TV, Fox News Channel and Fox Sports.

"We found out that it was very affordable and they help you work with a small budget," said Findley's owner Dolores Barr.

And right away "we saw a noticeable increase in first-time walk in traffic" that translated into a "35 percent sales increase," Barr said.

"Spot Runner is very interesting," said Greg Sterling, an industry analyst. "They're doing something unique right now, which is offering traditional TV advertising to the small business market."

Business Week also asks, "Is Spot Runner Revolutionary?"

But wait a second, does this sound too good to be true? If you scroll down to the last comment on another Businessweek article about Spot Runner you'll find an interesting and very pricey catch.

One of my concerns about this is about the creativity of it all. Is Spot Runner allowing a free-reign on ideas (with them being the Kingpin)? After all, advertising is an idea business.

It's that time of the "every two years"

Here are some interesting sites/campaigns to check out

Sean Thompson showed us Payattention.org in our Art Director's seminar.

Adfreak also linked to Slate a site that offers critiques and dissection of political ads.

PBS has a cool site/project about the :30 candidate that gives more background on political ads of the past.

And just because there hasn't been enough Bush-bashing, Moveon.org hosted a political advertising contest called Bush in 30 seconds. The Top 150 ads are now on the website.

One Year Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina Destruction

I'm not going to bring any politics into The Ranch so I'm just going to post this GSD&M created TV spot as a tribute. Although I did notice that the NY Times coverage of the White House's role in it was different in severity than other newspapers.

The singer, I believe, is New Orleans native Aaron Neville (sp?).

buy a portfolio

Anybody want a portfolio off eBay?

Platinum: advertising photography

This is some great photography and art direction: Platinum

Donate money to UT

The University of Texas College of Communication building was built in the 1970s to house 1,200 students. Currently, there are at least 5,000 communication students. Therefore, the College of Communication is starting a fundraising drive centered around the theme: "Because of UT, I turned into me."

At graduation, the hilarious Dean Hart demanded all the graduates to fork over $100 to the college in exchange for a t-shirt.

Hopefully, the College of Communication can follow in the footsteps of the business school, where Red McCombs (ex-owner of the Minnesota Vikings and San Antonio Spurs) donated $50 million. The School of Geology was also created with a $300 million gift from John Jackson.

Basically, The University of Texas College of Communication should beg Roy Spence ,a close friend of Pres. Clinton I might add, to donate money to create the Spence College of Communication.

Olivio Barbieri, The photographer

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)

Can you identify what and where each picture is of?
A. Disney Concert Hall
B. The Queen Mary, Long Beach, California
C. Hoover Dam
D. The Coliseum
E. Mussonlini's EUR suburb
F. New York-New York Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas

These are all shot by photographer Olivio Barbieri. from Metropolis

Read your water bottle label for even longer now!

An Australian company, ilove, has started printing mini-magazines on water bottle labels.

from Springwise

Michael Dell, meet Nelson Gonzalez

Dell (started by Michael Dell from his Dobie dorm room while he was a UT student) has bought out Alienware.

Dell gave a very inspired UT commencement speech in 2003. Here's an excerpt:

"...With the understanding that you will face tough times and amazing experiences, you must also commit to the adventure. Just have faith in the skills and the knowledge you’ve been blessed with and go. Because regrets are born of paths never taken.

Then, as you start your journey, the first thing you should do is throw away that store-bought map and begin to draw your own. When Dell got started, it didn’t come with a manual on how to become number 1 in the world. We had to figure that out every step of the way. And with each new product and new market, the industry “experts” said we’d fail. Just a few short years ago, we announced plans to build powerful computers at the center of the Internet (“servers” for those of you from the engineering school.) Through the chorus of naysayers, we emerged as a world leader in servers, and we continue to gain momentum. And as always, we did it our way, with customers—not the experts—in mind.

You too have an advantage that you’re not encumbered by years of conventional thinking. You have a new and fresh perspective with which to view the world. Your time at this great university has helped sharpen your sense of discovery, and there is no better catalyst for success than curiosity.

...But whether it’s evolution or revolution, there’s always a better way to build a computer, or map a genome, or liberate a country, or take a basketball team to the Final Four. Just work to understand the world around you. Read books. Read websites. Read other people. Circle the pitfalls and highlight the opportunities. Then build a vision of how it could all be better and work like hell to make it happen...

As you walk the path you’ve chosen, remember that the road ahead is paved with relationships. I’ve enjoyed some great fortune, but none of it would have happened without the people who shared their wisdom, the hard work of the Dell team worldwide, and the love and support of my family and friends. Remember … there’s no such thing as a self-made success.

...Try never to be the smartest person in the room. And if you are, I suggest you invite smarter people … or find a different room. In professional circles it’s called networking. In organizations it’s called team building. And in life it’s called family, friends, and community. We are all gifts to each other, and my own growth as a leader has shown me again and again that the most rewarding experiences come from my relationships.

...There’s no other place that so purely preserved a centuries-old heritage of hard work, self reliance, and initiative like Texas. There’s no other place whose sons and daughters have so consistently set the standard—from government, business, and music, to sports, education, and technology—like Texas. And there’s no other place that can stir such jealousy in New Yorkers, such disdain in Californians, and such contempt in the French—yet hold their utmost respect—like the Lone Star State.

The spirit of Texas is the purest concentration of the American spirit. Texas is to this country, what America is to the world. And there is no greater embodiment of that spirit than The University of Texas at Austin.During your travels, remember where you came from, and do right by Texas.

...I was fortunate to find my passion early in life. I started as a UT biology major and soon realized that all of those stacks of computer parts in my room were trying to tell me something. (And my roommate had a few things to say as well.) So 19 years ago, when I was 19 years old, I started Dell in that dorm room right over there. And despite juggling my classes and a computer company … I just knew there had to be something easier than organic chemistry!

But many people find their passion later in life, and others never find it at all. And for some, their greatest passion is the search itself. But whether you’ve found your calling, or if you’re still searching, passion should be the fire that drives your life’s work.

The key is to listen to your heart and let it carry you in the direction of your dreams. I’ve learned that it’s possible to set your sights high and achieve your dreams and do it with integrity, character, and love. And each day that you’re moving toward your dreams without compromising who you are, you’re winning. Look around you..."

This merger is very interesting because both computer companies were started by die-hard computer enthusiasts. Initially, this looks to be a more compatible merger than the HP-Compaq disaster.

excerpted from Alienware website

"...A famous philosopher said that “only he who attempts the absurd can achieve the impossible.” That’s been very much our mantra at Alienware and it always will be. We have accomplished much since 1996, but we have much more to do. Our new relationship with Dell will help us continue reaching for the stars — and we’re excited about taking that journey with you."