The Obama campaign finally put together a striking ad retort after weeks of allowing the McCain campaign to set the ad agenda and keep Obama on the defensive. McCain’s ad squad kicked it off in July with the now infamous Paris Hilton ad, which boxed Obama as a “celebrity,” and sought to make him look like a light-weight.
But Senator McCain handed the Obama campaign the equivalent of John Kerry’s “I voted for it before I voted against it” sound-bite four years ago.
Asked how many houses he and his wife owned by an interviewer, McCain couldn’t come up with the answer, and said his staff would have to get back to the reporter. Huh?
This is obvious red-meat to the Obama campaign, and too good to let go. The ad:
The effect of the ad is too make the first real cut at McCain exposing the Senator as a super-rich guy, not so much the brave POW. But it also works on a second level the Obama campaign had better be prepared to defend: reminding voters of Mccain's almost 72 years. The whole ad and issue gives the Obama campaign Rovian deniability that it is exploiting McCain's age and his habit of confusing facts and countries when he's on the stump. But it's there.
Obama’s ad efforts, though they have moved more pointed in their attacks on McCain in the last ten days, have simply not been as well executed as the McCain ads. This one, though, may start to change the scoreboard.
Not kowing how many houses you own is just the sort of event, like John Edwards' expensive haircut, Kerry's soundbite hell and Dan Quayle's spelling shortcomings, which will hang around kitchen tables until November.
For the second time in two days I am writing about how the interests of ad executives can run divergent to the interests of their work for clients. It’s a good thing to be able to write about.
Ad Age Creativity noticed that Crispin Porter+Bogusky chief creative officer Alex Bogusky and chairman Chuck Porter have penned a new book, “The 9-inch Diet.” Having lunched with Bogusky, I first thought the title referred to the waist-line of the hunky and talented Brad-Pittesque Bogusky.
But check out the ad copy surrounding the book: The book will focus on "proportion distortion," how our plates and average serving sizes have increased over the past few decades to secretly forge a nation of fatties….the catalog compares the book with Fast Food Nation and The Portion Teller: Smartsize Your Way to Permanent Weight Loss… and the catalog says "With years of experience manipulating the masses, two of the best tricksters in the industry explain how you as a consumer are being duped, and how you are actually a part of the conspiracy to make you fat."
The irony is that the agency has made its name in recent years with its Burger King work, though it is also launching a campaign for Microsoft now, and continues to do ad work for Volkswagen among others.
The timing of the book, set for a January release when New Year’s diet resolutions are fresh and not yet hopeless, might be better now, on the heels of the latest report saying we are more obese than ever.
Earlier this week, I blogged on the irony [in my mind anyway] of ad agency Modernista!, which handles Hummer ads [and has also done work for Businessweek], also doing ad work for a gun control organization.
It makes me wonder if the fictional ad agency in AMC's Mad Men, Sterling Cooper, will take on an effort to convince people that smoking is unhealthy.
I’m looking forward to reading the book, because I am interested in the topic, and because I somewhat know the guys who wrote it. I don’t know if they will divulge some of the intell they have probably soaked up over the years: some of the research on fat, salt, portion sizes and fast-food pricing that Burger King and McDonald’s live by?; or the fact that the fake sweetener Nutrasweet in soft drinks that makes people think they can drink all they want is actually an appetite stimulant?
But it should add to the national dialogue about how America got so fat.
When Jerry Seinfeld starts appearing in Microsoft Windows ads, will the fact that he always had a Mac on his desk during the iconic TV series figure into the work created by Miami ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky?
As reported by The Wall Street Journal today, Microsoft, frustrated that its Vista operating system becomes less and less attractive with each passing week, is turning to an ad strategy that will feature the uber-successful comedian Seinfeld, and even company founder Bill Gates.
It’s difficult, and unfair, to pass an opinion on ads I haven’t seen yet. But, going in, I’m suspicious of the strategy of using Seinfeld, 54, to attract new users and would-be Mac users to Vista and thus PCs.
One doesn’t have to look very hard to find the foil to this strategy. It’s the Apple campaign for Mac computers. Quick: name the two actors who play in the ongoing story in Mac ads
in which the cool guy is the Mac and the older nerd, refugee from The Office” is the PC.? Certainly, a few readers of this blog can, but I’d say 99.9% of consumers can’t. [It’s Justin Long as Mac dude and John Hodgman as PC shlub). They do know, though, that those ads are for Mac and that they are entertaining. In fact, the Mac ads have a slight air of having been written by Seinfeld writers. They are that well done by TBWA/Chiat Day.
Using celebrities in lieu of a really good original idea is dodgy business. You know what brand of car Tiger Woods flogs? Buick. During the time that Woods has touted the GM brand, it has fallen bigtime in sales and popularity. Celine Dion was famously hired and then quickly cast aside by Chrysler after the automaker paid her about the same amount of money Microsoft is paying Seinfeld--$10 million. Gap dumped Sara Jessica Parker in 2004 when the actress was at her zenith, because the ads tested so badly. I’m struck by the irony that CP+B’s most successful work to date, for Burger King, has been grounded on original ideas and use of the iconic “Burger King,” not celebs.
One of the few exceptions I can recall, from my childhood, was Paul Masson being given a leg up by iconoclast actor/director Orson Welles, and the Miller Lite ads of the 1970s taking off by using professional athletes and coaches.
But make no mistake…Miller Lite was the star of those “Tastes Great. Less Filling Ads.” The ever changing casting of those TV commercials, pairing unique sports figures, was part of the fun and narrative.
You gotta like the irony. Boston-based Modernista! Ad agency is probably best known for doing the Hummer advertising for GM. Now, you could superficially think that there is a healthy cross-section between Hummer enthusiasts and pro-gun consumers [ By that, I mean consumers who generally side with the National Rifle Association on issues of gun legislation]. I have no direct knowledge of the link, but I’m thinking there is some correlation.
So, he is Modernista!’s newest work for www.stophandgunviolence.org, an organization I’m thinking is not exactly simpatico with the NRA.
The billboard, on the Mass Pike near Boston's Fenway Park, may be the nation's largest. Like the Southies in Boston say….I think the ad is a wicked pissah.
I promise that this is a total coincidence. But for the second time in two days, I find myself going after the work of The Martin Agency in Richmond. It’s normally a fine agency, drawing much praise in this space. Indeed, yesterday, I was very complimentary toward the Geico ads, just not the decision by Geico and Martin to overplay the campaign in other venues.
The agency also handles creative duties for Al Gore’s “We Can Solve The Climate Crisis” effort. I didn’t think it was possible to perfectly capture the stiff school-marm tone of Gore’s entire 2000 campaign in one ad, but this comes pretty close.
I have a question. Never mind “Where Have All The Flowers Gone.” I want to know: “Where Have All The Writers Gone?” It’s as if the idiots who have prescribed TV networks to jam three or four people into a 90 second cut-in, or give Larry King six people to talk to some nights, or fill the screen with three or four elements of running info and crawls are also advising ad agencies today.
Climate change, global warming, people making a difference….C’mon here. This stuff is ripe for talented writers telling compelling stories. This strategy of capturing Al Gore’s campaign voice [not even the voice of his Oscar winning documentary] is a loser for this worthy cause and issue.
I’m trying to figure out why there is an effort to leverage the Geico cavemen into something besides ad characters. Last year, there was an attempt to put the inferiority-complex...
Papa John finished its crop circle ad, and I think it looks pretty good. You have to be pretty impressed with the GPS technology that allows tractors to work...
While presumptive GOP nominee John McCain has been pilloried for a flurry of negative ads and attacks against Democratic challenger Barack Obama, Obama is hardly immune from overstatements in ads....
The McCain Presidential campaign has made a $5 million ad buy on the Olympics, $1 million more than the Obama campaign. According to AdAge, the McCain purchase includes network and...
Housing values are in the dumper. Jobs are being lost by the thousands per month. The stock market is a worse ride than a busted roller coaster. Gas prices...
News, opinions, inflammatory meanderings and occasional ravings about the world of advertising, marketing and media. By Marketing Editor Burt Helm and Senior Correspondent David Kiley.
