The
Battle For Coca-Cola
Rages
On.
Ain't
Nothing Like
The Real Thing, Maybe.
I
Don't Mean To Say
I Told You So, But...
Are
Consumers Smarter
Then We Are?.
The
Four Great Myths
Of Global Branding.
Mr
Bevis Butts Heads
At Mitsubishi
The
Best Laid Plans
Of Mice And Men.
Dare
to Be Great:
The Mad Genius of "The Matrix"
Mitsubishi's
New Marketing Boss
Out
Of The Frying Pan.
Concept Is Stronger Than Fact.
Value
Perception In A World
Gone Mad With "Cool"
The
Future of Advertising
The
Brand
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THE GOOD OLD DAZE. Smart Ad Folk do a great job of laughing up their sleeve at those they consider the not-so-brights in the fly-over markets. But exactly how smart are the smarter-then-thou creatives who shape the vast wasteland between the beats of network television programming? vast wasteland between the beats of network television programming? I think it's high time that somebody called these pretenders out for their waste of our precious bathroom breaks. Their 30- second, dumb-downed affronts to human intellect need to be brought to task. It's a thankless job, but somebody's got to do it. |
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| I taught John Travolta to sing "I'm Stuck On Band-Aid Brand" and convinced America that "A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste."I taught cats to "Chow, Chow, Chow,"and Joe Frazier to mumble,"Thanks, I Needed That." |
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THIS BLOG IS
SO COOL THAT I JUST WANT TO THANK YOU. THE ARTICALS ALWAYS MAKE
ME THINK. |
| I've worked in every major agency in New York, Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles, so I know we can do better as an industry. I know what great advertising should be. Is there anybody out there who can't finish this sentence? "I'm stuck on Band-Aid, cause....So let's get started. |
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EVERY TIME YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH YOU SEEM TO PUT YOUR FOOT IN IT. WHAT MAKES YOU THINK PEOPLE IN ADVERTISING NEED YOU TO LOOK OVER OUR SHOULDER? WAYNE Q. NEW YORK You can send me this kind of mail and I'll post it too- HW |
| If I chose to call this column "Madison AveNew"because it's time for some new thinking and new attitudes about what people care about and what just plain pisses them off. New insights into what passes for marketing smarts and what smacks of borrowed interest. New approaches to dramatizing the way people interact with their favorite brand of stuff. New resources for coming up with the "Big Ideas" that seem so few and far between these days. I'm talking "new" as in...WOW! New is why this column is hosted by my friend Jeffrey Wells and his Hollywood Elsewhere column. |  |
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In the world of global marketing these days, more "WOW" is coming out of Hollywood than any elsewhere else, and branded entertainment is the cornerstone of thisbrave new world of "Wow" in image building and product promotion. Look for more and more marketing executives to start following the lead set by Jim McDowell, VP Marketing for BMW and godfather of their much heralded web film efforts. Jim maintains that even though the BMW short films were more expensive to produce than a commercial, the total cost was significantly less expensive than a network minute and infinitely more targeted to their audience. That's what I'm talking about when I talk about "WOW." New ways to Wow an audience that's bored to tears. In my opinion, you can't really begin to get to new without an appreciation of what's old. On Madison Avenue, "old school" was really the Golden Age of Advertising. In those days there were Dream Team agencies that could boast entire floors of genius-caliber creativity. As a result, those classic campaigns like "We Try Harder," "A Diamond Is Forever," and yes, even "I'm Stuck On Band-Aid" are still out there, selling their hearts out year after year after year. At an agency like Doyle Dane Bernbach you would have giants like Mary Wells, Phillis Robinson, Bob Gage, George Lois, Helmut Krone, Gene Case and Julian Koenig. All of them working around the clock to build brands like Avis, Polaroid, Volkswagen and The Jamaica Tourist board into household names. Two blocks away, Steve Frankfurt's Young & Rubicam boasted the talents of Bob Giraldi, Dominick Rosetti, Stan Dragoti, Alex Kroll and yours truly. All of us burning equal amounts of midnight oil to put BirdsEye, Dr Pepper, Band- Aid Brand, Metropolitan Life and Eastern Airlines (R.I.P.) on the map. This was the dawn of creativity in advertising. Commercials were 60 and 90 seconds long back then. Like everything else in the 60's (which actually stretched only from '67 to '69) the revolution was in full effect. Today, the only thing revolutionary about advertising is the amount of money being thrown away. That, and more and more clients determined to find a better solution than the media based commissions that agencies have traditionally used as a basis of compensation. From Y&RNY and DDB, the creative virus quickly spread in the 70's to spin-off agencies started by immigrant creatives who jumped from their motherships: Wells, Rich, Greene; Papert, Koenig Lois; DellaFemina Travisano; Rosenfeld, Sirowitz & Lawson; Carl Ally; Ammerati & Puris; Scali, McCabe & Sloves; Delehanty, and Kernit & Geller, to name but a few. All it took was an award-winning writer/art director team, a sharp business guy or gal, and a client willing to take the million dollar leap of faith. Amazing brands were built by these defector agencies. Carl Ally created Fed-Ex. Wells Rich Greene revived Branif, Alka-Seltzer and American Motors. Sam Scali and Ed McCabe gave America Volvo and Purdue Chicken. George Lois made a generation whine, "I want my MTV." A handful of brilliant minds. Billions upon billions generated in sales. With the exception of Lee Clow (Apple), Dave Wieden (Nike) and Donny Deutch ( Mitsubishi), few can make that statement today. I don't get it. The clients are screaming for NEW!, but nobody's stepping up to the plate. The most memorable advertising campaign on the planet inthe past ten years has been "Whaassupp! "And that was lifted intact from a short film called "True."Whassupwitdat? Let's
look at the ten years before that. Michael Jackson's hair
blazing Pepsi Campaign and the resultant Victory Tour.
Pepsi boss Rodger Enrico and Don King put that amazing
deal together in Kathryn Jackson's kitchen at Jackson's house
on Havenhurst in Encino. BBDO and Phil Dusenberry were
nowhere in sight for that particular thriller, until Mikey
was rushed to Brotman Burn Center. Ten years before that? The Golden Age we just canonized. That's not to say there were not bursts of brilliance over the past 20 years. Apple's "1984" comes to mind. But it was George Orwell, not Chiat/Day and Ridley Scott, that made that a classic."Just Do It" did good. But how can you go wrong with Jordan, Woods, Lennon/ McCartney and Spike Lee? Am I noticing a pattern here? Short Films, Triple Platinum Hits, Sports Super Stars, Classic Novels. Can you say "borrowed interest," boys and girls? "Avis Tries Harder," '"I Want My MTV," "Diamonds Are Forever," or another one of mine,"Chow, Chow, Chow" Now, can you say, "Product As Hero?" .
Let's look at the folks responsible for the most recent Arby's campaign. Here we have a quick service restaurant with a great new menu ( their "Market-Fresh Sandwiches" are da bomb) and a brand new store design. New, new, new. How do they decide to advertise all this newness? By ripping off the Hamburger Helper oven mitt as a spokes-thingy. What were they thinking? One, their menu is the one true antidote for burger death in the category. Why go anywhere near an image that says hamburger anything? Monumental stupidity on a scale that defies all logic. Two, why is this terrific new menu the last thing this idiot glove communicates? These are not baked sandwiches. Pot roast is not baked. Three, they've been spending $15 million a year (which is chicken feed in fast food) to be absolutely invisible. They need to get four bucks worth of bang for every buck they spend just to get noticed. Thankfully, somebody down at Arby's in Ft. Lauderdale finally got a clue. Detroit's W.B. Donner, who created the spokesglove campaign, is OUT and the account is up for grabs. The four finalists are some of the brightest shops in the biz. Interpublic Group's Mullen in Wenham, Mass.; Omnicom Group's Merkley + Partners in New York; MDC's Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners in New York; and independent Venables, Bell & Partners in San Francisco. Good luck guys. Don't forget to bring the NEW.
Stay Tuned. |
MARKETERS
FROM OGILVY
& MATHER ADRANTS BANK
OF AMERICA DELTA
AIR LINES And
You. |