The new branding gimmick making its way through Madison Avenue? "Recession proofing." That is: How do we tell consumers that even with this economic downturn, the brand you've come to know and trust and pour untold sums of your HHI into is still alive, kicking, and ready to kick it wit u? One way of doing that, apparently, is spending untold gobs of cash to refurbish your logo. Recently, the creative agency Mindshare did this, spending an estimated half million dollars to interweave two circles, one blue and one purple, to create its new look. Brilliant spend! If you're blessed not to spend your days responding to RFPs, though, you may not be familiar with Mindshare (although you should, because they dictate which publishers receive hundreds of millions of dollars in ad dollars). But one brand you're definitely familiar with is Pepsi, the cola that never did anything so silly as come out with "New Pepsi." The Pepsi brand is now 110 years old, which is something to be proud of, because hey, you're still around, but also somewhat of a liability, because kids these days want the newest and hippest thing, and century-plus aged companies don't fall into that category. So what's a stodgy pop brand to do? Shape shift! CONTINUED »
AdAge: "Coca-Cola is again the world's most valuable brand, according to Interbrand's just-released annual list of the Best 100 Global Brands." And it only spent $2.4 billion for the honor!
Is this one of the most inappropriate government logos ever? Though it's unlikely to become the official branding for the U.K.'s Office of Government Commerce now that its X-rated factor has been determined, it did make it through the final rounds. So why will it be, um, revised? CONTINUED »
• Incarcerated diva Foxy Brown reportedly insists on accessorizing her prison jumpsuit with designer footwear. Next up for the snotty Rikers inmate: A tattoo on her forehead that says "Rape me in the shower, please!"
• Apparently, the gays don't really care much for former fatty Mike Huckabee. Then again, they're just a bunch of dirty HIV carriers who should be isolated from society and summarily destroyed.
• Watch this crappy montage of Neel Shah unsuccessfully hitting on a barrage of women! Because, in a way, there's nothing funnier than a silly man in a Mr. Rogers' cardigan attempting to brand himself as an ethnic Lothario.
• Meanwhile, watch as these stock photographs of Amy Winehouse awkwardly spliced together to the tune of "Love is a Losing Game" tell the story of small, strangely coiffed woman who can't be trusted to breathe, speak or move on her own.
More of what you missed at the AMC (American Magazine Conference) 2007: "By Monday afternoon, Men's Health editor-in-chief David Zinczenko was still blithely torturing the English language both by pushing the term "magabrands" (despite an early onstage warning from Advertising Age editor-in-chief Jonah Bloom that he was boycotting it) and overindulging in puns."
Worse still? Although he got up for an a.m. tv spot, word has it he drank so many "magabrandies" (the signature drink) he missed his weekly chest-waxing appointment. [WWD]
Those of you who had a little too much to drink last night (and are, therefore, contending with morning crankiness, a throbbing headache and an almost irrepressible urge to vomit) may wish to avoid Gawker alum Doree Shafrir's article in this week's New York Observer about media personalities and the increasing importance of "branding." Not just because it quotes Julia Allison (again) without disclosing the author's indirect – or possibly even direct – hand in Allison's rise to fame overhyped mediocrity* but because it quotes Times' media columnist David Carr doing his best impression of a self-important elitist trying to come across as humble.
Editorial Director
