flyova

Catfoa Musings

2009-05-12T01:13:00.000-07:00

Tonight's CATFOA got me thinking enough to actually write down more than 140 char.

Like most good self help, rousing speeches or pep talks, Michael Lebowitz didn't tell us much we didn't already know. He did reawaken the groggy throughts, and made a few things a little stickier in their articulation. While there were other yeah!yeah! moments, these stuck out to me.

STICKY 1: Advertising is the business of growing business.
Sometimes it thinks it's in the biz of winning awards, getting noticed or making the "rock stars" he talked about.

STICKY 2: "If I tell someone about your brand.. it's [because I like them, not your brand]"
Like he said, when's the last time someone repeated a tagline to you?

STICKY 3: A brand is the sum of its actions.
Most still talk incessantly about themselves, too much and too loud. Granted, in Mpls that probably wouldn't get you punched in the face, but it would make for lonely happy hours.

STICKY 4: Marketing is a value exchange.
A Zeus Jonesian observation about how the process should be looking at what people care about and trying to make it better.

STICKY 5: People appreciate complexity.
How I wish clients embraced this one. Like he said, no one walks out of a movie and marvels at how clear it was. I'd add, unless you're unhappy about how predictable it was.

STICKY 6: Don't try to solve a problem that never existed.
In the race to create content, apps, etc. a lot of needless things are being created. Good point - just because it's digital and it's not a print ad doesn't mean it matters.

STICKY 7: Don't outsource
This seems a bit controversial, as the legacy agencies tried to build capabilities, fail, and point to Crispin & Barbarian or Sierra Bravo and Mpls. I wonder if this came up after I left in Q&A

STICKY 8: You can't really get mgmt to care.
That was my net in the Q-n-A. Maybe you really do need to cut bait.

Scary, but I realized the last two CATFOA guys don't have deep, gilded resumes with rock star pedigree.

To paraphrase a tagline that many briefs and ad people HAVE repeated over the years -- they just did it.

TV is not dead

2008-06-10T16:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOhcAe1NCAY

See above.

Where are the Grown Ups?

2008-06-08T23:30:00.001-07:00

The title (if not the content) if this David Brooks column, multiplied by recent reckonings with my own arrested adolescent behavior got me thinking about the lack of grown up ANYTHING in our culture. Brands, branding, advertising, "experiences" included.

The Brooks column is a little twisted, relishing in Lincoln's depression/mental illness/potential denial of other true parts of his nature. But this jumped out:

"Candidates get elected by telling people what they want to hear, leading them by using the sugar of their own fantasies."

Hmmm... in other words, marketing?

From creepy media like "Moment of Truth" to man-vertising to the elevation of pro athletes as gods to the ironic t-shirt or gross-out pizza product introductions, the sophomoric, the junk or the cheap thrill often seem to win.

Are there honest conversations or higher appeals happening out there? Weight Watchers and Dove come close, but the little things left unsaid make them ultimately unsatisfying, at least to me.

Which brands, cultural movements, etc. are making adult appeals? Or is entertainment ultimately what brands must be, and may escapism reign?

With gas prices, credit problems, the weak $, the Middle East, etc., maybe we will be forced into a grown up moment. Then again, maybe it'll be a bigger boom for junk escapsim to forget some more that it's all happening.

Change

2008-06-08T23:24:00.000-07:00

Isn't this a bit short-sighted?

Sleeping with the enemy is a better way to affect change. (insert "from within" joke here)

My boyfriend has now voted Green party AND democrat and hasn't gone by the R-word in years. And that was pre-W term 2.

Iraq - the worst branded anti-war ever

2008-06-02T10:36:00.001-07:00

Forget the playlist, one thing I like about long drives is the random radio scan - especially on two-lanes or in the south.

Yesterday I had such an opportunity and actually listened to "Peace Train"

Which made me think, "How come there have been so few protest songs for Iraq?"
Which made me think, "How come there have been so few protests of any kind for Iraq?"

The most powerful anti-war branding msg I saw was at the end of a Flaming Lips show a couple of years ago. War Pigs, faithfullly covered with a montage of the Bush-Cheney administration and the most graphic scenes of war carnage I'd seen.
Pretty easy, since you see so few.

One thing you have to give the baby boomers, they branded their youth and their cause well.

People are more uptight now about compact fluorescents than Iraq.
I wish there was a new biz pitch to jump in on this.

Blah blah blah

2008-04-15T20:32:00.001-07:00

I never wanted a blog because I felt like ad bloggers all talked about the same things.

And talked talked talked more than did.

Now that I've seen someone get paid, published, followed, friended and ranked for doing it, I realize I was right.

If you can't beat 'em....

I am officially uncool

2008-04-13T18:16:00.000-07:00

Yes friends, I am an official correspondent for
theuncoolhunter

Destiny, I am one step closer to you...

Flickr goes Video

2008-04-12T18:08:00.001-07:00

Ferris Wheel
Originally uploaded by Chaddles

It'll be interesting to see how Flickr Vid develops vs. youtube.

Relevance, Hip Hop Ballet & Lagerfeld Theft Auto

2008-04-12T11:47:00.000-07:00

As old-guard remixes cultural relevancy, agencies talking about breaking conventions feels really conventional.

Big Boi's ballet in Atlanta

apparently, Atlanta Ballet has also staged Great Gatsby & a project with Indigo Girls

HD Opera live at the cineplex on Saturday afternoons - from the Met
(next one: Saturday, April 26, 2008)

Karl Lagerfeld as a charater, VO and DJ on the next Grand Theft Auto Vice City
Quote: “They (the video game guys) had written a politically incorrect dialogue,” the designer says of his new gig. “I loved it, [particularly] in a time when everybody wants to be so politically correct when they talk.”

Suddenly a billboard doesn't feel all that "convention breaking" does it?

Help is on the way

2008-04-12T09:45:00.001-07:00

I'm sucker for good design with wit. But the genius of this isn't just the insight that all remedy medication is likely to make a head pound or stomach turn worse.

It's the "I'm bored" section. If you don't LOL, don't come to my happy hour.

xox

Endorsing controversy

2008-04-02T10:20:00.001-07:00

A few days ago, the Sierra Club endorsed Clorox Greenworks.

Allegedly the Florida S.C. chapter was banned due to its public opposition (or was it because of chapter corruption?)

Pondering:
Sell-out?
Or a recognition of embracing mass to have the most potent impact, given how (big brands, thoughtlessly) and where (Wal Mart)people shop?

Is the cash to help Sierra Club do greater good thus justifiable?
Or is really going for virgin paper Post-Its?

Must third parties always be NGO for street cred?
Or should a household name win on salience to the average Jane?

Is the endorsement worth the sell out?
Is it worth the renewed exposure to a gigantic audience?

In the future, maybe corporate do-gooding will be less about Earth Day clutter and more a matter of powerful badge brands endorsing charities, especially charities pursuing legislation.

Mini did it rather boringly a few years ago by giving (branded) billboard space to already well-known, non-objectionable charities like Habitat for Humanity.

Moveon.org endorsed Obama and is now asking members for their input on local/regional candidates.

Can't wait to see who is helped, hurt or rather unaffected by all these bedfellows.

Are Women's Demons that Boring?

2008-04-02T05:39:00.000-07:00

No one's been talking about the '08 Weight Watchers campaign - except my friend Heather and I. And she works at McCann.

Is it good? Is it interesting? Or it is just shot and cast well enough so that first-tier suburban women under 50 can relate?

I kinda forgot about it until I saw a new restaurant execution (unfindable) and then watched BBDO's New Balance work.

As an unrepentant one-time WWer and a intermittent runner, I got thinking about what's lacking in both.

WW - In a quest for empathy, it flirts at truth and settles for the giant, lecturing lie. Of course it's a diet. The huge opportunity was to go naked on what sucks about the food/body thing with intelligence, wit, honesty or some of the above.

Anyone who's done WW knows it does work, it is a diet,and it's a matter of points algebra and good old fashioned portion control. The unspoken truth of WW - you have your booze, the occasional nacho and still be on the diet. If that's not pro-women, what is.

Then there's NB. Another passion/guilt category.

Anthem of the rip-it-and-pitch it school, and nicely done at that.

But... so what? In a spot all about tension there isn't any. Running is usually best when you just finished doing it, even on a great day. And I like it.

In both cases, the strategy shouted down a huge opportunity.

But, speaking of honesty I would be far from ashamed to have done either. Would love a crack at round 2, though.

No adcritic haters here.

ultimate flattish screen

2008-04-01T18:04:00.000-07:00

Wearable media goes beyond t-shirts. This could be a great thing not simply for marketing, but for self publishing.. or those hockey mom buttons.

Made in China - it's not just for discounters anymore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPzdJz-zHHA&NR=1

Big Brother thinks you don't need that cookie

2008-03-25T14:48:00.000-07:00

Amazing - a new voice-enabling technology that will essentially read thoughts aloud.

This is Nobel-prize winning stuff. The inventors could probably do just about anything now and still retain a slight karmic advantage over Mother Teresa.

But as with any technology there are potential moral implications. My mind went immediately the impact this could have on

business meetings...
focus groups...
the longevity of romantic relationships...
thanksgiving dinner with the family...
the nightly income of an exotic dancer...
etc

Honesty should be part of the conversation. But does anyone (consumer included) want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

next stop...

2008-03-21T11:46:00.000-07:00

Lazy/Forgetful Consumer Alert.

Continental is allowing people to check in via mobile device. Finally! The NYTimes indicated that Northwest is doing the same (though I certainly haven't seen it).

This is another fabulous enabler for people like me who can misplace anything at just about any time.

On my dream list: movie and concert tickets, gym memberships, loyalty programs and the offers that come with them - though I guess that would wreck the secret not-many-points-get-redeemed model.

now, fairly close to never

2007-10-08T22:14:00.001-07:00

This time, it's for real.
Really.

ok time to start again

2007-03-19T20:50:00.000-07:00

Why? Because it's there. And I'm here in LA for the week.

Greetings from Flyover Country!

2005-11-28T19:57:00.000-08:00

Welcome. All those who love NYC, San Francisco and LA, but particularly on expense account. Those who believe women can have double-digit sizes and still be sexy. All those who've eaten Velveeta both with and without irony. We may read gawker, defamer and the nytimes, but that doesn't mean we have to feel bad about it. Now pass the chips.