What the Franklin Umberto Calvin Kooty......

My close anonymous friend at Franklin Umberto Calvin Kooty Advertising sent me her latest piece of work. It's a "tactical" ad for H&R Block. How do they get away with this stuff!

Still one of the best ever....

From one of the best beer campaigns ever. Kudos to Lowe Howard Spink and Jonathan Glazer. With maybe, just maybe a little inspiration from "Jean de Florette".

Battle of the crowds.

In 2008, Doritos took their "Crash the Superbowl" crowd-sourcing concept across the big pond. The Brits gave us Rick Astley so it's only fair we reciprocated in kind.

The 2010 version has just been rolled out. Boldly dubbed, "King of Ads" (I guess they're already ruling out a female winner) the competition will challenge users to not only make their own Doritos commercials, but then audition them before a panel of judges.

It should be interesting to see what the British crowd comes up with this time. Given differing tastes and senses of humor I suspect it will be a little different from what we endured on the Superbowl. But will it be better?

Brain-teaser Monday.

 

 Is this an ad for: 

1. A religious institution.
2. A technology company.
3. A cable channel.

Answer to last week's brain-teaser: Salman Rushdie

The "Make it Happen" challenge.

An extraordinary man once said, "Even a schmuck can come up with a great idea, but only a genius can bring it to life."

Time to play "Make it Happen", the crowd-sourcing challenge to see if my big ideas can come to fruition thanks to the rich community of creatives, writers, artists, designers, inventors, scientists, architects, pharmacologists, techies, provocateurs, ethicists, military contractors, etc.

MIH Brief 002

OBJECTIVE:

Create a television reality series called "The Loveless Boat". It is inspired by the exploits of the "Independence of the Seas", a ship belonging to Royal Carribean Crusie Lines that made news soon after the Haitian earthquake.

Check this out for more background, but to surmise, the "Independence of the Seas" docked off the Haitian coast a few days after the earthquake allowing some of its passengers to engage in champagne and cocktail fueled revelry a few kilometers from scenes of unimaginable human suffering and devastation. 

In each episode, the Loveless Boat will seek out areas ravaged by the worst kinds of catastrophe, despair, suffering and its crew and passengers will engage in the most inappropriate forms of celebration and revelry.

THOUGHT STARTERS:

  -  Think "Love Boat" meets "The Real Housewives of Orange County".

  -  Find ways to add tension and conflict to the story. e.g. perhaps one of passengers develops a conscience and tries to show his fellow shipmates the errors of their ways.
  -  The more tragic the location of despair the more engaging the show.

MANDATORIES:

  -  It must be reality based.

  -  The title must be, "The Loveless Boat". No derivations, please.

  -  No Hiltons or Kardashians please.

  -  The cast of crew and passengers must include at least one republican, one health-care insurance professional, one Wall Street executive, a former staffer to the John Edward's presidential campaign and a Fox News executive or conservative radio talk show host.

Good luck and make it happen, people!

Sarah Palin in bed with Hugo Chavez.

Yesterday Sarah "If only Rush Limbaugh had insulted me then everything would have been okay" Palin was outraged. Outraged I tell you, at the Fox animation series "Family Guy" for allegedly mocking her son who has Down's syndrome. So she went on Facebook and complained about being "kicked in the gut" one more time.

It's a free Facebook so she's entitled to rant, as is first daughter Bristol. Perhaps they need take it further and turn their whining into action. For starters they should friend that other "Family Guy" hater, Hugo Chavez. Last year he called for the show to be banned in Venezuela for allegedly promoting the use of marijuana. He even threatened to punish any TV station that continued to broadcast it.

Together, the Palins and the Chavezs (he also has a big beef with "The Simpsons") could form their own Facebook group, "Real people against American liberal elite cartoons". Judging by the thirteen thousand plus who gave Sarah the thumbs up as well as the huge masses, willing or not, that Hugo will be able to deliver it could be quite the constituency.

Sarah and Hugo. S.B.I. (Strange Bedfellows Indeed)

I'm loving it. (sorry, I had to go there)

Dreaming In Mono - Alain Duchamp - The Dreamer from Dreaming In Mono on Vimeo.

McDonald's have done something really unexpected. No, they haven't created a happy meal that actually makes you happy. Or come up with a milkshake that doesn't leave you constipated for three days. It's almost as ground-breaking, though. They've entered the branded-entertainment space with a pretty cool web series.

“I am not a fan of traditional advertising," says creator, writer and director Jens Jonsson. "McDonald’s has basically given me a free hand to tell my story about a crazy group of characters set around a McDonald's restaurant in the far north of Sweden somewhere on the borders with Finland and Norway. The briefing was not to show how good it is with hamburgers, but rather to create content that is entertaining and fun."

See people it's that easy. Check out dreaminginmono.com for all the episodes. And kudos to McDonald's, Jonsson and Perfect Fools, a Swedish digital creative agency.

(Sharing credit to jawbone.tv)

Black history month.

In 2007 a scrawny kid from the wrong side of East Saint Louis followed in the giant footsteps of Hiram Revels, Jackie Robinson and Guion S. Bluford Jr to break a color barrier. His name was Rucker and he became the first African American to graduate from Camp Exposure, the oldest training academy for streaking.

Since then Rucker has successfully gone on to streak Busch Stadium on "St Louis Cardinals Old Timer's Day",  as well as a series of pick-up basketball games all across the country. In celebration of Black History Month, here is an excerpt from the most recent interview given by Rucker in December 2009 in Orlando, Florida. In it he candidly talks about the difficultly of being the "Jackie Robinson" of streakers.

POLICE SERGEANT DARRYL CROWLEY: Do you know why you were arrested?

Rucker: Because I'm a black man living in America.

CROWLEY: You were running naked on a private golf course.

Rucker: Just exercising my first amendment rights, you know freedom of expression.

CROWLEY: I can put you away for two counts of public indecency and trespassing.

Rucker: My aunt is a member of the Bay Hill Club.

CROWLEY: Why were you exposing yourself?

Rucker: I'm training.

CROWLEY: Training for what?

Rucker: The PGA tour.

CROWLEY: Do you usually train naked?

Rucker: If I was white we wouldn't be here right now.

CROWLEY: If you were Phil Mickelson and I caught you swinging your dick around instead of your clubs you'd be here, trust me.

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Brain-teaser Monday.

In the 1970's the National Dairy Council in England created a new campaign for cream cakes with the tagline, "Naughty but nice". Which famous author, then a no name copywriter, coined the slogan?

• Fay Weldon
• Martin Amis
• Don Delillo
• Jane Austin
• Salman Rushdie
• Harold Pinter
• John Grisham
• Irvin Welsh
• J. K. Rowling
• Hanif Kureishi
• Alan Bennett

Answer to last week's brain teaser: 1. Eurotrash RSCG/NY (Euro RSCG/NY; 2. Lady Speed Suck (Lady Speed Stick); 3. M&C Sasquatch/NY (M&C Saatchi/NY; 4. Vagina (Viagra); 5. Rockstar Energy Drunk (Rockstar Energy Drink); 6. Twits (Twix); 7. 1895 - 1996 (1995 - 1996); 8. The Learning Year (The Learning Years); 9. New Dork University (New York University); 10. The Whining Years (The Winning Years)

Something sweet for Valentine's day.

It's no secret I'm the big softy, romantic type. Valentine's day is unquestionably my favorite shopping day of the year. Red roses. Vermont teddy bears . De Beers commercials. They get to me every time.

So imagine how smitten I am with this valentine's day offering from Puma. It quite cleverly allows man to properly engage his first love without neglecting his second. Kudos to Droga5 for making it happen.

(Sharing credit to Adfreak)

Uncivil wars.

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed the striking similarities between the ongoing Democratic/Republican conflict and the recent spat between Verizon and AT&T. Here's the breakdown:

• Colors - This is an obvious similarity. The Republican/Democratic fight is red versus blue. The Verizon/AT&T fight is red versus blue.  
• Maps - Democrats and Republicans battle over electoral maps. Verizon and AT&T are battling it out over coverage maps.
• Claims - Republicans and Democrats both claim Americans will be better off choosing them. Verizon and AT&T make a similar claim.
• Negative attacks - Republicans and Democrats both claim the other side is out of touch with more Americans. Verizon and AT&T both claim more Americans will be "out of touch" with the other side.
• The Wilson Factor - In the Republican/Democratic clash Joe Wilson says, "You lie". In the Verizon/AT&T scuffle Luke Wilson insinuates, "You lie."
• Third party challengers - Both the Republicans and Democrats have to watch out for the tea-party movement.  Both Verizon and AT&T have to watch out for the t-mobile network. (okay this one's a stretch.)
• Dishonesty - In both wars the truth is the major casualty.

Can your paprika do this?

I love hearing stories about brilliance emerging from an accident. Reminds me of the story of Hermann Einstein doing a spot of nude gardening when he tripped over his own big feet and landed right on top of his wife, Pauline, who happened to be in the middle of her nude thigh stretching exercises. Nine months later Albert was born. Okay I totally made that up. Albert was born prematurely after only eight months.

This though, really did happen. In 2008 Matthew Albanese, a young artist spilled some paprika and a Strange World was born. Who knew everyday materials like cotton, faux fur, parsley, tile grout, cinnamon, wool and jello could make for such beautiful art.

(Sharing credit to Brain Pickings)

Fuck you Tancredo.

I'm still seething over remarks made by former congressman Tom Tancredo (bloody foreign sounding name) at the Tea Party convention this past Saturday. He called for the renewal of a "civics literacy test" for voters, the kind of test that was used back in the fifties in the south to prevent blacks from voting.

He also suggested that such a test today would have prevented Barack Obama from becoming president. The implication being, of course, that Obama's supporters are a bunch of illiterate, ill-informed nincompoops. 

So I've done some research on the google and lo and behold looky here at what I discovered. Granted this civics literacy survey by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute is from November 2008, but since it was around the same time as the election, I think it's still valid.

Bottom line, elected officials scored lower than the general public, although to be fair, the numbers were shockingly low for everyone. 74% of public officials failed the test compared to 71% of the public. In fact, officeholders were less likely than other respondents to correctly answer 29 of the 33 test questions.

Of course you don't need a civics literacy test to spot an ill-informed nincompoop elected official.

Brain-teaser Tuesday.

This is a two-parter:

1. What the hell were the people behind this thinking?
2. What were they smoking that aided in said thinking?

(Sharing credit to Adfreak)

Brain-teaser Monday.

Can you spot all ten errors in my resume?

THE WORKING YEARS

FREELANCE WRITER AT RAZORFISH/NY; Y&R/PARIS; COMMUNE/NY; EUROTRASH RSCG/NY; MRM WORLDWIDE; WOLFF-OLINS/NY; THE BRAVO GROUP/NY

2007-Present

Evian, MasterCard, Ritz Toasted Chips, Wrigley’s, Washington Mutual, Crown Plaza, Colgate, Lady Speed Suck, Ralph Lauren

FREELANCE WRITER AT M&C SASQUATCH/NY

2005-2007

British Airways, Financial Times, PODS, NYC Marketing, 
AIG Financial Products, TOTO

FREELANCE WRITER AT Y&R/NY; MERKLEY&PARTNERS; COSSETTE POST/NY

2003-2005

Diet Dr. Pepper, The History Channel, Vagina, Rockstar Energy Drunk, 
Blue Cross Blue Shield

SENIOR COPYWRITER AT D’ARCY/NY

1996-2001

Norelco, Philips, Tempo, Crest, Puffs, Twits, Totinos, Ernst&Young, 
Scope, The Street.com

COPYWRITER AT HOLLAND ADVERTISING

1895-1996

Comedy Central, Aiwa, Metropolitan Museum of Art

THE SABBATICAL YEARS

SCREENWRITER

2002 to 2003

Screenplays include, “The Spokesman”

THE LEARNING YEAR

B.A. FROM NEW DORK UNIVERSITY

1986-1990

THE WHINING YEARS

Awards include Clio, Addy, NY Addy, London International, NY Festivals,

Adweek’s “Best spots of the decade”

Answer to last week's brain-teaser: b) The History Channel

The Superbowl commercial as a predictor of things to come.

Here's a fascinating read by Robert Lipsyte, a former sports columnist for the New York Times. Apparently, a lot more than just fart jokes, gratuitous use of celebrities, cute horses, ugly babies and hot babes go into a Superbowl commercial. How about prescient thinking. Come Sunday night we should know what the next ten years will bring us.

(Sharing credit to Cosimo Urbano)

The "Make it happen" challenge.

Every now and then I come up with a cool idea. It's usually for a film or web series or tv show. Sometimes it's an idea for a book. Occasionally it's a business idea. And once in a while it's a diabolical plot to take over the world.

I nurture the idea for a while showering it with the right amount of love and attention, but then abandon it. A bit like a young, recent unwed mother who after total maternal devotion loses all hope and then one dark night dumps her baby on a stranger's doorstop hoping they will take care of it.

Well I've decided to find my own "stranger's doorstep". So I'm launching a new segment on godpoop, which will appear on the first and third Fridays of every month. I call it "Make it Happen" and it's my crowd-sourcing challenge to see if my big ideas can come to fruition thanks to the rich community of creatives, writers, artists, designers, inventors, scientists, architects, pharmacologists, techies, provocateurs, ethicists, military contractors, etc.

So to the inaugural "Make it Happen" brief:

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Shakespearean tragedy.

Okay, I'm a little late to this story, but it got me thinking. What are the odds of a man named Shakespeare winning the lottery and then getting murdered? I think the Earl of Salisbury in "Henry V" nailed it when he says, "tis a fearful odds". And then he added, "Hey you never know."

So that's where the black box is.

Here's an interesting rebranding job for Kulula, a South African version of Jet Blue. Kudos to their agency Atmosphere for funning things up. Of course one can't help but see the practical side to this too. It will make it much easier for crash investigators to gather and identify all the parts.

(Sharing credit to psfk)

What do you think Joe?

If you haven't already you must check out joelapompe.net, the site "dedicated to hunting and exposing similar advertising ideas from around the world". I bring this up because I just had a "joe" moment.

There I was happily wandering the series of tubes known as the internet when I stumbled upon this.    

It's for a service called Pet Butler in Kentucky. From what I can ascertain it was done by a local ad agency about two years ago, give or take a few months. Funny, you say. Indeed so. Especially the first time round when I DID IT about ten years ago!

So as Joe would ask, "shameless copycat or unfortunate coincidence?" You make the call.

(One thing beyond doubt is that my pigeon is more well read than their dog.)

Brain-teaser Monday.

What is this a commercial for?


Answer to last week's brain-teaser: DAA (the fictitious ad agency in the 80's drama series "thirty something")