And succumbs to running ads on its frontpage, the last bastion if editorial independence and ode to the good old days of newspapers. [AllThingsD]
US ad spending is expected to decline even further in 2009. If it does (small "if"), it would be the first three-year drop in American advertising since the Great Depression.
Finally, a casualty of the recession we won't mourn. In fact, here's a list of the ads we think should be the first to go in the new year.
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Happy holidays, everyone. Good luck robbing stores blind tomorrow in a last-minute attempt to get the things commercials have tricked you into thinking you deserve. What, you're not a thief yet? Well get on the bandwagon, dude!
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Has anyone taken a look around Swide.com yet? It's the new online magazine from Dolce & Gabbana, focusing on "fashion as well as luxury, art, music, food, beauty and lifestyle," because there was really a dearth of those in the market right now.
One thing we nearly forgot about this holiday season: The sourpatch of what remains of Project Runway, which the Weinsten Company tried to oust from NBC to bring to a more profitably Lifetime. And while no decision has yet been made, Lifetime is bracing for the worst. CONTINUED »
Creepy, cap-toothed casino mogul Steve Wynn will include in his newest venture, a resort and casino called Encore, a Frank Sinatra-themed Italian restaurant decorated liberally with the late crooner's belongings. Because what's more appetizing than the personal effects of a dead gangster?
Sadly, Wynn's not the first person to take advantage of the fact that the masses cotton to products hawked by deceased celebrities. The history of pimping images of famous dead people for profit is a long one, filled with worse and worse despicable exploits. (Mad Men's not popular because the characters are decent people, folks!) Here are some of our favorites.
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Since when does a church promote itself via "reverse graffiti" instead of word of mouth? Since they became the only business on the block with any money left for advertising, that's when. CONTINUED »
NBC is asking advertisers to spend $3 million per 30 seconds during the 2009 Super Bowl — a hefty request given the recession and the advertising climate overall. So what do if you're on a budget but still want to reach the game's 90 million viewers? Only buy 3 seconds. CONTINUED »
What are we watching here: A surreal Jan Svankmeyer short? Perhaps one of Lynch's early works?
Nope, just Diesel's spring catalog, which is the most terrifying collection of images we've seen in a long time.
“There are no messages, themes or commentary to understand,” explained Diesel creative director Wilbert Das of the hipster take on David Lynch. “Our objective is to intrigue and provoke a thought.”
So it's down to this: complete nihilism in advertising. "They don't believe in anything, Lebowski!"
Well, we should at least be grateful that the brand saw fit to actually put clothes on their models.
(Side note: Is that The Eels singing as the meat puppet?)
This billboard was snapped in Seattle, and yeesh, a little harsh, don't you think? "Dumb" is such a cruel word, and, as an insult, calling something dumb is also sort of "dumb" considering the plethora of language we have at our disposal.
Anyway, this sign is a a new attack ad from McDonald's, which is trying to push its coffee drinks onto the denizens of Seattle, the birthplace of Starbucks. Sort of a ballsy move.
Starbucks' response so far? Ignore them to death.
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And here we were, stupidly assuming that more direct advertising was a good thing, and something has to come along and show us the error of our ways. Because the price hike isn't going to be bad enough, now the MTA decided the best way to make a quick buck is to advertise is on the windows of subway cars: essentially keeping the sardine-squished passengers without even the view of the underground tracks that are so lovely this time of year. Then again: it's a way to make revenue for the MTA, and that means less expensive fare…and maybe we can even keep our seats (pretty please?).
So yes, on the one hand, who is going to miss windows on a subway? On the other: who are these ads for that couldn't view from inside the car already? The ever elusive mole people demographic?
And for the love of God, why not on the sides of subway cars? Why the windows??!
Spoofing diamond company De Beers is nothing new. There are sexual innuendo spoofs, physical brutality spoofs, and the social consciousness spoofs, all executed reasonably well and without the cost of an advertising agency's copywriter coming up with cutesy ways to say "spend two month's salary on this blood rock."
Then there's the De Beers spoof that appeared in that awesome, and well received, New York Times spoof from The Yes Men, which enlisted the help of others to come up with a mock daily announcing all the types of change we can believe in. The Times brushed off the attention with nary a response (though they did cover it with admiration).
But De Beers? Well with billions of dollars hinged on a brand concept that's terribly transparent — essentially, "a shiny stone that catches the light just so is worth going in to debt for" — they haven't taken it so well. And they're demanding a retraction. CONTINUED »
Recession, schmecession. The most-watched collection of Madison Avenue's lowest common denominator thinking, known to some as the Super Bowl, has sold out 88 percent of available time slots, some going for $3 million per 30 seconds. Yes, marketers continue to spend on TV, and in the case of the Super Bowl, they're spending more per second than last year. (Worth noting: In September NBC said it sold 85 percent of available time; usually only 60 percent of advertising is sold by then.)
But of course, cynics that we are, there's another way of thinking about this: With just two months to go before Feb. 1's big game, a full 12 percent of ad space has gone unsold, mostly because if General Motors — one of the Super Bowl's biggest spenders — is feeling shamed flying corporate executives to Washington on private jets, the automaker figured dumping $3 million trying to push the 13mpg GMC Sierra Denali would yield similar feelings.
This, from the same company who last year dedicated a full minute of Super Bowl ad time to celebrating itself. That ad, plus its minute-long spot introducing its new hybrid SUV, below. CONTINUED »
From the Dept. of Studies We Don't Need comes one revealing that television advertising can lead to childhood obesity! When Justin Timberlake endorses McDonald's and Michael Phelps endorses Frosted Flakes, kids these days take that to mean they should be shoveling these foods down their double-chinned little faces. The research suggests — and research always suggests — the more unhealthy TV ads a child sees, the more likely he will develop weight issues. So what's the solution? We could either get kids off the couch and into the backyard with a jump rope, or pray for an economic collapse that forces the world's biggest companies to cut back on marketing campaigns. Whew, there is a god.
Call it the Microsoft vision of marketing. Taking everyday folks, or people with one quirky talent, and using them to sell their computers. And hey, it's working out better than their ads with a traditional star like Jerry Seinfeld!
Now Dr. Pepper is in on the deal too. Knowing that their soft drink is prized among MMORPG nerds who need the caffeine and sugar to stay up late playing World of Warcraft, the label recently decided to sign "celebrity athletes" like the Tom Taylor, the 21-year old kid who has a three-year, $250,000 contract to play Halo 3.
And you end up feeling torn, right? Because on the one hand yes, celebrity athletes get an obscene money for their endorsements, just like they get an even more obscene amount of money to throw/kick/hit a ball around. So let's let the skinny ADD kids who can't concentrate on anything longer than three seconds unless it's on a computer screen have their shot at the big leagues.
But. And this is a huge but (just like the ones on the kids who play Halo all day!)…
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Remember all that free stuff you could collect on Election Day if you told people you voted? Well, yeah, technically that's illegal because you can't bribe people into voting. So instead many of these promotions had to change their deal to, "If you show up on Election Day, you just have to ask for the item and we'll give it to you, whether you voted or not." And Starbucks had to pull a bunch of their ads at the last minute.
But no matter! The coffee giant still made out like a bandit for the cross-promotion with our democratic rights, in the form of free shoutouts on the news. The giveaway cost less than $1 million in free coffee, but you know what they say, good advertising is priceless.
Although, Starbucks might have been sneakily trying to save some money all across this great state of ours by discouraging their patriotic customers from receiving free cups of joe.
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Teen titles are not having it any easier during this recession than any other magazines. Just look at the cruel (or some would say, karmic) fate of CosmoGIRL! earlier this month, or Teen People, or ELLEgirl.
So with only a few titles left, including omg, Tiger Beat(!), how can teen editors reasonably expect to compete in an industry with sagging ad sales and a increasingly disinterested audience that would rather go online than pay five bucks for the same stories they could get for free on the net?
Why, offer them what every girl wants, obviously. A store to hang out and drink smoothies in all day long. In the maaaaaaaall.
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Last night, Barack Obama doled out $1 million each to NBC, CBS, and Fox, and probably a hefty chunk of change to MSNBC, Univision, BET and TV One, for airing his 30-minute Obamamercial, where he rattled off the tales of four families — in swing states — who are suffering, and just how the Democrat would solve their woes. That's on top of the gobs of cash he's been spending locally, regionally, and nationally, delivering 30-second spots across the land as he outspends John McCain 4:1 in television advertising. Then, a penny for your thoughts: how come here we are, in 2008, with Obama having raised $600 million, and TV networks are seeing less political ad spending than every before? CONTINUED »
Say what you will about Barack Obama's plan to enslave all American Christians and make broodmares out of blonde females, you've got to admit his marketing team is really, really good. Like, Nike in the late 90s and early aughts good.
That One's newest ads make the case for an Obama presidency not by highlighting common Democratic rhetoric, but by focusing on the words of two superstars of the GOP—one from the past and one from the present.
The beer brand Heineken has gone without any new advertising for a year, after dumping its creative agency and failing to approve any new spots. Sales of Heineken, thus, fell almost 4 percent during "prime beer sales months" July and August. See? America needs to be told what to like. [AdAge]
