Brain-teaser Monday.

What should be dumped according to this recently killed, carefully redacted print ad?

1. The Tea Party.
2. Democrats in Congress.
3. Imported Beer.
4. Cable Television.
5. Verizon.

Answer to last week's brain-teaser: 1. The History Channel

"Dead Ideaville"

My dead ideas are deader than yours. Case in point: FT.com

FT.com - "Pay to Win"

I really liked the brief. It was simple and open. The Financial Times wanted a digital idea to help grow their paid subscription base.

Right now members can get some useful information from FT.com for free through their basic subscription.

For a modest monthly fee they can get more proprietary information (standard subscription). And for a slightly larger fee they are privy to all sorts of valuable information and analysis from the best brains in the biz (premium subscription).

The idea was to tap into an insight that serious players in the game of finance understand all too well - that valuable information is a potential game-changer, but it has a price. So that if you’re not willing to pay then you probably won’t win.

The result was a fun, yet strategic business game for users to play, either on Facebook with friends or on a specially created microsite. The game is free and progress and success in the game depends on acquiring and utilizing valuable information. Each player is given a monetary resource with which they buy information. But because the resource is finite they have to be very careful how they spend it.

So really, why play?
The user would win a free month of paid content by playing. Depending on their score they could win either the standard subscription or the premium subscription. In doing so they get to literally experience the ultimate value of paid information for themselves.

Certainly a game on Facebook is not exactly a novel idea. Indeed the social media network is bursting with all sorts of games. But what made this familiar direction feel right for FT.com is that it could have made the conversation about paid content a little more persuasive, yet engaging.

Gucci Guilty of lame ad.

As is usually the case with mega-hyped content, this Frank Miller offering for Gucci is decidedly poor. In fact poo poos to everyone involved.

Brain-teaser Monday.

What cable channel is behind this print ad?

1. The History Channel.
2. Discovery Channel.
3. Black Entertainment Television.
4. Comedy Central.
5. Fox News Channel.
6. BBC America.
7. Game Show Network.

Answer to last week's brain-teaser: b) An MP3 player

Friday afternoon cuteness.

I'm getting soft in my old age....

"Dead Ideaville"

I've just finished the first sentence of "The Dead" by James Joyce. And speaking of, here's a brand new arrival in Dead Ideaville. Let's give a warm, or rather cold welcome to the Prostate Cancer Charity (PCC) in Britain.

Every March in Britain is Prostate Awareness Month. The PCC likes to use the month to push their message that Prostate Cancer is a major hidden killer of men, indeed a man dies every hour.

For next year's awareness month they wanted something extra buzz worthy with a dash of non-traditional thrown in. Why do I keep falling for this!!!

Prostate Cancer Charity - "Hidden Voices"

The idea was to create a campaign, designed to spark maximum intrigue and chatter, whereby Prostate Cancer Awareness Month is the big reveal.

In other words, let’s begin a mysterious campaign sometime before the official start of the awareness month, thereby allowing its start to be the big payoff.

To really hit home the “hidden threat” of Prostate Cancer, we would bring it to life as a threatening, cryptic persona that is around you, but you can’t see it. It warns you of the damage it can cause and dares you to stop it, without revealing what it is.

But rather than a visual approach we would take an aural approach. Thus, the hidden presence of Prostate Cancer would be in the form of threatening voices that reach out across the airwaves to sound their warning about how deadly and destructive they can be to men, families and communities.

So how exactly would it work?
During a pre-determined time before the start of Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, people all around Britain would hear, but not see mysterious threatening voices that are very much present around them.

In the busiest shopping centers, business centers, sporting stadiums, cinema theatres, the airspace would be penetrated by these voices. They would be live and call out actual people on the ground to prove that they are present. Here is a sample of what the voices could sound like:

  “I just killed a man and like you he didn’t see me coming. One less husband. One less father. One less brother. One less friend on Facebook. And in an hour I will kill another. And another, sixty minutes after that. You there in the green shirt, yes I talking to you, what are you going to do to stop me? That’s right look up. Look left. How are you going to stop me if you can’t even see me.”

To support this mysterious campaign we would initiate a social media dialogue. A Facebook page, “Have you seen the voices?” would be started. It would document all the places where the voices are being heard as well become the venue where users can share filmed footage of this "strange phenomenon. Twitter feeds could also report on where exactly these voices are being heard.

Then on the first day of Prostate Cancer Awareness Month the voices would cease and the reveal begins. A series of trucks branded with Prostate Cancer Charity signage would tour the country in the very areas where the voices are being heard. Fitted with loud speakers, the charity would make people “aware” of what exactly these voices represent.

In effect the Prostate Cancer Charity would become the calming, reassuring voice, explaining what can be done to fight back against the hidden threats of prostate cancer.

Unfortunately no one was able to see the growing hidden threat of timidity in the client until it was too late. A little ironic really that a charity set up to prevent deaths could so easily inflict some of its own.

Brilliant idea of the now.

It's sad to say, but the country that brought us the "crazy ones" seems to have lost it's zeal for out there ideas. Not so the Germans.

I absolutely love this idea by Paraplush, a German toymaker, that has created stuffed animals with psychological disorders. Indeed I am putting in my order as I type.

And I have lots to choose from. There's Kroko the crocodile, who is terrified of water; Lilo the hippo, who's been obsessed with solving the same wooden jigsaw puzzle for months; Dolly the sheep/wolf with multiple personality syndrome and Sly snake who suffers from terrifying hallucinations.

Says owner and creator Martin Kittsteiner, "Children and grown ups like their vulnerability and find something in them that gives them a great sense of comfort in helping to heal them."

Okay that may sound like major psycho babble, but it shouldn't detract from what is a very cute idea.


(Shared credit to Adfreak)

Brain-teaser Monday.

Just because it's a labor day holiday doesn't mean your brain should take the day off. What is this commercial selling?


Answer to last week's brain-teaser: A lite beer that really does taste like a premium beer

A man alone in the woods with a bear...

Sure this interactive campaign bears (couldn't resist) more than a passing similarity to Burger King's "Subservient Chicken", albeit with more rude options. But its brilliance is more to do with how it is being advertised.

I may be wrong, but this has to be one of the best, if not the best example of how to smartly advertise on YouTube.

So kudos to Buzzman for their cleverness. And for letting us see, sort of, a man get it on with a bear in the woods.


(Sharing credit to Alison Smith)

Not so awesome after all.

I never really liked this commercial/anthem for the Discovery Channel. Given recent events I thought it worth reviewing for the bitter irony. Seems like the world is quite a fucked up place really.