Poster Boy In Action from ANIMALmagazine on Vimeo.

[Animal NY]

Rupert made a lot of noise about taking on the Times directly when he bought the WSJ. But he has a big advantage: another major newspaper in the same market. So while the WSJ is trying to steal away the NYT's high-end advertisers (and succeeding)—luxury watchmakers, Tiffany & Co., expensive liquors, and corporations running "message" ads—the other News Corp. paper, the unprofitable Post, is competing with the Times for middlebrow advertisers and upper middle class retailers in New York City—Bergdorf Goodman, Macy's, Bloomingdale's, car dealerships, cell phone companies.

Owner Rupert Murdoch's expansion of general news coverage [at the WSJ] and a new lifestyle magazine are starting to attract wealthy consumers and create ad space for retailers, said Milton Pedraza, chief executive officer of Luxury Institute LLC.

``They certainly have become a significant part of the advertising mix for luxury brands where they were not before,'' said Pedraza, whose New York research group tracks the market for the most expensive lines of consumer goods and services. ``They're definitely stealing advertising dollars.''

News Corp. has an inherent advantage. Plus, Rupert has shown a willingness to lose huge sums of money in newspaper wars, as the Post has been doing for years.

Maybe the Times should go tabloid, go weekly, and run lots of sex ads and crush the Village Voice. Just for self-esteem! [Bloomberg; pic via Daylife]

"The study measured the number of fast-food ads kids watched and found a fast-food TV-ad ban for children's programming would reduce the number of overweight children aged 3 to 11 by 18%, and for adolescents (12- to 18-year-olds) by 14%."

You could expect McDonald's et al. to pull out the real big guns to fight any sort of proposed law that would legally restrict their marketing. It's un-American! Yes it is, but the smart countries have done it:

Sweden and Norway instituted bans on all ads to children in the early 1990s, but the legislation sought to avoid exploitation rather than prevent obesity. Quebec has banned food advertising to children during programs geared toward kids, and the Canadian province has shown lower childhood obesity rates than surrounding areas.

The Scandinavians really are our superiors. [Ad Age]

“It’s not like I’m Tom Cruise or Usher walking down the street or anything like that, but it’s gotten to the point where you have to look your best when you go out,” [Pro gamer Tom] Taylor said. “I carry a Sharpie around, like Peyton Manning.”

And now, also like Peyton Manning, he's a ubiquitous face urging us to purchase more consumer products! There is in fact a "Major League Gaming" league for pro video game players. Weird.

“What’s really going on here is for tens of millions of young men, the aspiration to be a pro gamer is the new dream of sports stardom,” he said.

[Outraged reference to how such a thing did not exist when I was playing Nintendo]. The stunning implication here: in the near future, athletes could become nerds. Computer geeks: prepare for payback. [NYT; pic via]

Find more videos like this on AdGabber

[via Adrants; pic via]

Well there's no need to exercise your pudgy fingers any more! Because now when you try to skip over a Domino's ad, it will automatically give you the option of ordering a pizza through your TiVo. This is a breakthrough in ease of service to our nation's cheese-laden bellies:

"We believe that interactive television ordering is the future," Mr. Weisberg says. "Why even get up off that couch now?" In traditional ordering, there are numerous "barriers to purchase," he says, such as turning up a competing takeout menu while looking for the Domino's flier or deciding to eat from your own refrigerator after going to it in search of a Domino's magnet.

Not sure how this fits in with the national obesity crisis. [WSJ; pic via]

This ad campaign is outrageous, reportedly, because it makes light of motherhood in an unacceptable way. Now it's been crushed and the company is grovelling in apology. Good taste has prevailed!

The beginning of the end for the Motrin push probably came Friday night, when Los Angeles blogger Jessica Gottlieb said she was tipped off to the ads and started expressing her outrage over the campaign on Twitter, where she has 1,018 followers.

"I am a satirist, I get humor, I talk about my vagina," said Ms. Gottlieb, who works as a freelance writer for National Lampoon and writes for Silicon Valley Moms Blog and Celsias. "I'm just insulted. I'm not an activist. I don't have an agenda, but I do have children."

Psht.

[Ad Age. Mom protest video here. Ambient outrage goes in the comments. And UPDATE, Jessica Gottlieb responds here.]

At the same time, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., has hit at least nine states in the past year with billboards that look like they're made of stained glass but say "Beware of Dogma," "Imagine No Religion," or — coming soon — "Reason's Greetings." The group also advertises on the liberal radio network Air America. One spot features Ron Reagan, son of the former president, who signs off: "Ron Reagan, lifelong atheist. Not afraid of burning in hell."

Ron, you always were a disappointment to your dear old dad. Atheists are reportedly also engaged in subversive activities such as charity work, "meet-ups," and family fun days. This will not stand:

In seeking the spotlight, the movement risks a backlash. Some Christians find the billboards deeply offensive, especially at this time of year. In recent weeks, press releases from the religious right have accused atheists of "mocking" and "insulting" Christmas. In rural Chambersburg, Pa., one Christian group responded to an "Imagine No Religion" billboard with a giant sign of their own, asking: "Why Do Atheists Hate America?"

Check. And. Mate. [WSJ]

YES, Barack Obama is black. But NO, he is not Bob Marley.

The agency is called Dandelion, of course, because why let someone else run off with your awesome viral marketing analogy? And Dandelion is not a vulgar "ad" agency; rather, it is a "brand storyteller." For reals. All your favorites are lining up for some of that sweet marketing budget pie:

To help accomplish that, Dandelion is signing writers for projects that will integrate brands into the plot lines of stories. Ed Herbstman, who has written for Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Da Ali G Show,” will be the head writer.

Among the other writers are Eric Gilliland, of sitcoms like “My Boys,” “Roseanne” and “That ’70s Show”; Scott Sherman of The Onion and the parody “The Dangerous Book for Dogs”; and Charlie Todd, the creator of a roving band of pranksters, Improv Everywhere, perhaps best known for the annual “No Pants” ride on the New York City subway.

Next up for Improv Everywhere: "No Pants Except Dockers™ Iconic Ranger Khaki."[NYT; pic via IE]

The auto industry is one of the biggest advertisers of all. Local newspapers reap a lot of their revenue from local auto dealer ads. (The recent decline of those, along with real estate ads and retail ads, has local papers scrambling to figure out what to do). But that's just one small piece; television auto ads and sponsorships are declining too. GM spent more than $2 billion on advertising last year, and when they make cuts, media companies can see tens or hundreds of millions of dollars evaporate. In August, GM pulled out of its sponsorship of the Academy Awards. In September, the company slashed its digital ad budget and decided not to sponsor the Super Bowl.

Even when GM tries to spend money, they're cursed. They signed up for a big product placement deal in the craptastic new NBC Christian Slater show My Own Worst Enemy—but yesterday NBC announced it was going to cancel the show because of low ratings.

Boy that sucks. And today we learned that, thanks the auto industry's troubles, Christmas has been ruined at yet another media company! A tipster sent us an internal memo to staffers at Sirius XM Satellite Radio from the CEO Mel Karmazin, the former Viacom exec; he's copying his old company by canceling the holiday party and giving everyone an extra vacation day instead. "The economy is slowing, our OEM and retail partners are hurting, satellite radio sales are not growing as we would like, and our stock price reflects that along with other issues," Karmazin writes. A major reason: all those new cars with built-in satellite radios aren't selling.

How bad is it overall?

Auto makers could reduce their ad spending by as much as $3 billion this year, leaving auto ad spending down $15 billion from its high of $24 billion in 2004, according to Sanford Bernstein & Co.

So US government, on behalf of the media, let's compromise. Let the cars die, save the ads. We'll give you Christian Slater for free.

"WASHINGTON, D.C. — You better watch out. There is a new combatant in the Christmas wars."

Lock and load, Christian soldiers! The American Humanist Association is putting ads proclaiming that there is no god on buses in DC, right where children can see. And a black man seems to be involved. This proves that Obama is the Antichrist.

[via Adfreak]

[The group that produced the paper put out a statement announcing their work this morning. It doesn't say that the Yes Men are responsible, but they are. And to the one guy who's already put a copy of the spoof issue on eBay for $199, good luck, you nut. People are going to be a little smarter after going through this.]

[via Flickr]

[Facebook via Adrants]

Media futurist Jack Myers knows how to make billions of dollars for the media!

Media companies need to convince investors they have the management team in place that can develop and implement a coherent and intelligent vision for the future – a future in which they will be forced to be less dependent on advertising revenues...
Go to www.JackMyers.com to see the chart or to order your free copy of Jack Myers' Investment forecast.

How exactly can all the flailing media companies scoop up these billions they've left on the table? Simple, folks:

Each media brand needs to be assessed for its potential to generate revenues from events, sales promotion, database marketing, cause related initiatives, long-tail sales, and other below-the-line marketing communications budgets.

But I don't understand. Help!

To communicate with or to be contacted by the executives and/or companies mentioned in this column, link to the JackMyers Connection Hotline.

Thanks, media futurist and "blogger" for HuffPo Jack Myers!

They're adding a webcast called "Straight from Iraq" to their website, where soldiers will tell you the real deal about life in the desert war zone. Presumably not too real, though. They're also supercharging their marketing plan with the following changes:

- More internet, less "sponsorships of professional rodeos."
- The voice of Gary Sinise!
- New commercial: "young workers in business attire suddenly start climbing walls. 'This company is filled with dreamers,' Mr. Sinise says." You'll have to join the Army to know how it ends!

Of course, all of this is very much deck chair/ Titanic. If more people join the Army it will be because they can't get a job anywhere else since our economy collapsed. And if the Army was smart it would have one simple selling point: "Bush is gone." [NYT]

You can post your favorite ape ads in the comments and reminisce.

[Via Adfreak; Pic via BW. And no I don't know the difference between a monkey and an ape, okay.]

1. Facebook doesn't mean shit: This is really the insight that gives us the most delight. All those Facebook groups for Obama and donating your Facebook status do not mean shit. They are a great way to feel as if you're participating in the campaign fight while actually doing nothing to sway any votes. Facebook is the epitome of preaching to the choir. To the extent that it's an easy and effective way to communicate with people, sure, it helps, and it will be adopted by both parties eventually to the extent that it makes their jobs easier, just like email and websites. But the idea that some sort of "Facebook activism" actually helped shift red states to blue states is just wrong. Offline tendencies drive online behavior, not vice versa.

2. TV is still king: With all the internet and the websites and the social networking and the blast emails and the online video and the microtargeting, you know what the most important weapon is for any campaign. TV ads, as always. That's where all that money you give on the internet gets spent (Obama spent $250 million on ads—which sounds like a lot until you compare it to, say, the $300 million Microsoft is spending for its current ad campaign). In terms of being a powerfully influential medium for moving voters, TV crushes the internet now and forevermore until further notice, the end.

3. The candidates matter: Did Barack Obama do better than John Kerry because Obama had a more sophisticated media strategy? OR was it because Obama is more competent, more likable, more telegenic, and was running against a teetering old warmonger who would be a heartbeat away from turning the Oval Office over to a fundamentalist Alaskan psycho woman? You decide.

4. Elections ride the swinging pendulum: When the nation swings as far to one end of the spectrum as we've been for the last eight years, with such disastrous results, you can bet it'll swing back to the other end. Honestly, Christopher Dodd with no Facebook page at all would have had a pretty decent shot at winning this year if he raised the money Obama did. It's the Democrats' time.

5. Campaign tactics are always evaluated in retrospect because the media has no idea what it's talking about, mostly: Here's how media experts evaluate the tactics of a presidential campaign: A campaign does something. The media sees what the reaction is. Then they "explain" why it was a good/ bad idea, based on whether it worked or not. If some tactic starts off slow and is pronounced a failure only to eventually start working, watch the media magically create a reason for this dynamic that does not include "We have no idea what we're talking about." This goes for us too, btw. Neither we or our media colleagues are any more able to predict the dynamics of an election in advance than you, the average idiot! The only prediction worth a shit is one made beforehand, that turns out to be right. And the person making that prediction is still not worth a shit unless they can make similar, accurate predictions repeatedly over an extended period of time. This is why everything that pundits say is good only for entertainment value, and Nate Silver will rule the world.

[In new Target ads,] Watching a $13 DVD on the living room sofa is celebrated as “the new movie night.” A $59.99 bicycle is presented as “the new commute.” There are similar salutes to people who eat in rather than dine out, cut their children’s hair and turn a backyard tent into “the new family room.”

Hooverville bad. [NYT; Pic via]

Well, only if the economic crisis doesn't force Moscow to quit taking down billboards before it starts. It's a nice idea, but we don't want to cut into revenue here!

Ad-industry officials generally praise the city's strategy of phasing in the restrictions and compensating them for any losses on unexpired contracts with their billboard clients. They also hope the removals won't crimp their market too much. Analysts estimate the Moscow outdoor-ad market, whose value has more than doubled over the past decade, at about $7.9 billion, up 7.5% so far this year.

Crikey, that's a lot of money for billboards. The Reds are trying to clear the area around the Kremlin, but, you know, there's a crisis and all, and they don't appear to have gotten too far yet:

Just a few steps from the Kremlin and the brightly colored domes of St. Basil's Cathedral stands the 'M-Wall,' a more than 1,300-foot-long ad adorned with full-size models of BMW AG's cars. The M-Wall, which surrounds the former site of the demolished Rossiya Hotel, is bigger than Rome's Coliseum in surface area, the wall's creators say.

America will beat this even if we have to cover every square inch of the US Capitol dome with McDonald's logos. [WSJ; Pic via]

• Fashion: Fashionista types are so in the tank. The promise of Obama even lured Anna Wintour out of her Batcave to vote! So where does the huge industry trade group the American Apparel and Footwear Association stand on the issues? Well, they're against anything that makes unions stronger, obviously. Not good. They're very upset about China's domination of the textile manufacturing sector. Obama will presumably push China on some issues, but he's far from a protectionist. And they don't want to have to compete with Federal Prisoners for government contracts. When Obama frees the oppressed, that won't be a problem. Huzzah!
• Advertising: Ad people love Obama so much they named him Marketer of the Year! But as Ad Age points out today, the industry is concerned about what the new administration might do on a number issues: Will they endanger direct-to-consumer drug advertising? Will they pass stricter privacy rules that cut back on the ability of marketers to profile people? Will they strengthen the FTC and the FCC to reverse rampant deregulation and media consolidation? The ad industry would not like to see any of those changes, all of which are objectively good for consumers.
• Public Relations: Lots of CEOs of major PR firms were totally in the tank for Obama, including big ole Democrat Richard Edelman, and Michael Kempner of MWW, who was at the Chicago Obama rally personally, palling around with Oprah! But PR firms are worried about a lot of the same communications and media law issues that the ad industry is worried about. Media consolidation could be considered good for corporate PR practitioners, because it narrows down the number of channels they have to deal with and gives them greater leverage. Net neutrality, which Obama probably will support, is a toss up. Political flacks will make their money no matter what, just on different issues. Mainly the PR industry would like Obama to fix the economy so they don't, you know, lose all their clients. The biggest loser in all of PR since the election, obviously, is this guy.
• Entertainment: Hollywood liberals are so sickeningly in the tank we won't even bother listing dozens and dozens of examples in order to support our assertion! Why not drive your Prius over to Leonardo DiCaprio's house and talk about it with him? So then, what does the MPAA, the trade group that rules Hollywood, care about politically? Well they won't stop talking about "piracy" of movies, for one, which is getting really tiresome and is unlikely to be a matter of great interest to a President mired in two wars. Besides that ridiculous obsession, they basically want free flow of trade to enable them to spread their sinful pictures to all corners of the globe, filling their coffers in the process. So Hollywood types should get along okay with the Obama administration.
  Until the new taxes come down.

[Pic via Catwalk Queen]

Last month, we sent out a note to the agency on the importance of making your voice count by registering to vote.

We'd like to remind you that the future of your country depends on making your voice count, NOT your political affiliation—which is why Ogilvy is actively encouraging each and every one of you to exercise your constitutional right to vote in the November 4, 2008 General Election.

We will both be voting before we come to the office on Tuesday. Shelly believes so much in our power to vote that she even filmed a video as part of a CEO Get Out the Vote effort sponsored by Google. (To see Shelly's full message, click on this link: https://truffles.ogilvy.com/root/tpl/en/nws_room.asp?newsID=7342. To view the full Google montage, click on this link: http://www.votehour.org/#.)

We urge everyone to try to vote early. We will be flexible that day if you need to come in late or leave a little early (please make sure you account for your office's minimum required hours of work time – if you need more time, please use personal or vacation).

What's important is that everyone takes the time to cast a ballot and make your opinion count.

Companies are bringing back their old classic jingles to remind you of a happier time, before mortgage payments and credit card debt and your whore wife sleeping with the fella who came to repair your A/C. "I am stuck on Band-Aid brand cause Band-Aid's stuck on me!" "I don't want to grow up, I'm a Toys 'R' Us kid." Poignant. Even IKEA is encouraging happy homes:

"We felt the emphasis of home was about the value of being home than what was inside the house," says an Ikea spokeswoman.

That's just because your furniture depreciates at an alarming rate, IKEA! If only there was a go-to quote machine to explain this marketing phenomenon with a vague, unverifiable platitude:

Faith Popcorn, chief executive of marketing firm BrainReserve, says "people are looking for warm, cozy places to curl up in" in the current economic climate. "We are in a period of shock right now, and we are looking for respite and revival and restoration."

Faith Popcorn's favorite place to curl up: in front of a computer, with a fat sack of salvia.

[via Copyranter at Animal NY]

[via Guanabee]

Jim Stengel is retiring as head of marketing at P&G—the world's biggest advertiser—and starting up his own marketing firm that he says is about "defining what a company does — beyond making money — and how it can make its customers' lives better."

Though the WSJ describes this approach as "newfangled," it's been around for years. You know what the ceiling is on the market for this type of thing? The ceiling is how much extra leftover cash companies have to throw around after they do their real marketing, which has the goal of making money. Nothing "beyond making money" comes about until the "making money" part is accomplished. Corporate social responsibility is considered a luxury product. Which is why Jim Stengel's firm is doomed, according to his less conscience-plagued peers:

This approach is "not going to save your bacon in this tough world," says Jack Trout, president of Trout & Partners, a marketing-strategy firm in Old Greenwich, Conn. Consumers are "going for the cheaper guy now."

There ain't no love in corporate marketing, Jim. [WSJ; pic via]

ContactMusic.com reported Glitter earned $156,000 in royalties from the ads (which have since had the music switched). So the company is putting money in the pockets of a child molester fresh out of prison. Cue outraged child-abuse groups in 3... 2... oh wait that already happened: The HP campaign "shows a distinct lack of sensitivity," ChildAbuse-watch.net told ContactMusic.com.

But it's worse than all that. This was a song about TOUCHING for a computer about TOUCHING, which is one of the last sorts of products you want associated in any way with a child molester, if only because it's the sort of thing people will remember for years every time they interact with it.

Then there's the bad precedent. Due to the whole "touch" angle, HP really had no choice but to pull the ads. But as Ad Age notes, this opens a can of worms. What other sorts of crimes should bar musicians from being included in a typical corporate ad campaign? Child molestation should. Recreational drug use shouldn't. But there's a lot of room in between.

HP better get to work screening contestants in its new reality show. It's probably best to avoid promoting any more sex offenders (Oh Yeah).

Sample lyrics:

We've been here too long tryin' to get along
Pretending that you're oh so shy
I'm a natural man doin' all I can
My temp'rature is runnin' high
...Ev'ry growin' boy needs a little joy, all you do is sit an' stare
Beggin' on my knees, baby won't you please
Run your fingers thru' my hair
My my my whisky & Dry, don't it make you feel so fine?
Right or wrong, don't it turn you on
Can't you see we're wastin' time?

The magazine is opening a store, called the Teen Vogue Haute Spot, in the Mall at Short Hills in New Jersey. But the magazine does not intend to sell merchandise.

Instead, the store will be a place for girls to relax, try on clothes and drink smoothies — all while marketers woo them.

Bring your daughter in to charge her iPod and enjoy snacks and relax and be attended by stylists and try on makeup and perfume and clothes and then be escorted to the stores in the mall where she can buy those very items, thereby proving that she supports the media and journalism and free speech in America, Q.E.D. Then get her a mall tattoo. Of a screaming bald eagle holding a Teen Vogue. [NYT]

Last month the MPAA banned the movie's poster for being too raunchy. That was a huge red flag. The company responded by thumbing its nose with a cute little riff on the controversy, and continued on its merry way, marketing-wise.

But ads for the film were still getting banned across the country. Now it seems to be sinking in that the very title of the movie could prevent it from being properly marketed and advertised, dooming it to box office failure:

The public outcry has left the film's director and distributor flabbergasted. "I can't believe this is happening in the 21st century," says Mr. Smith. "When was the last time you saw a porno with the word porno in the title?"

"Anyone who takes the title seriously is missing the comedic aspect of the movie," says Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of Weinstein Co.

"This is the one time I don't want controversy. This is a big, broad, fun Seth Rogen comedy," he says. "Hopefully people will see the movie for what it really is."

Do we detect a touch of nervousness in Harvey's quotes? As dumb as American puritanism is, you'd think that a company in Weinstein Co.'s position would go out of its way to make sure that a promising film actually succeeds financially. If Zack And Miri tanks because of a careless title... well, let's just hope it doesn't. For Harvey's sake!

• Chris Matthews, MSNBC: "It was romance. It was realism... I thought it was fabulous."
• Sara K. Smith, Wonkette: "Cried through the whole informercial... Your editor is such a pussy."
• Mark Halperin, Time: "F'ing well done."
• Mark Hemingway, National Review: "The last thing that should be driving America's voting habits is a half-hour of Manipulative Portraits of Downtrodden Victims of Shadowy Governmental Forces... America is not one big breadline
  
• Ben Smith, Politico: " A dramatic gesture executed in a very safe fashion."
• McCain campaign: "The sales-job is always better than the product. Buyer beware."
• Rachel Maddow, MSNBC: "He had me at the waving wheat."
• Tom Shales, Washington Post, via Hollywood Reporter: "An elegant combination of pictures, sounds, voices and music designed not so much to sell America on Barack Obama as to communicate... how it would feel to live in an America with Barack Obama in the White House."
  
• Rocky Mountain News, via same: "This was 30 minutes of high-class production values, which told you little that you didn't know before but which offered you 30 minutes of feeling comfortable watching Obama from your living room."
• Full ad is after the jump, if you somehow missed it.

[via Agency Spy]

The end result features folks making mundane, sarcastic or downright bizarre pronouncements, from "I'm a PC and I like the slimming effect of a purple striped shirt" to "I'm a PC and by that I don't mean politically correct."...

So are the people uploading pictures and videos actually real PC users, or are they merely looking for 15 seconds of fame? For its part, Microsoft doesn't really care.

You know what Microsoft's problem is here? They tried to make an entire ad campaign that's essentially a response to all the needling they've taken from Apple and god damn Justin Long over the years. But Apple went ahead and continued to needle Microsoft about its ad campaign, placing the onus on Microsoft to actually win the argument through some grand gesture. Instead, they believe they can win simply by placing every PC owner in the world in a television ad, one by one. Which doesn't work when none of them are attractive. [Ad Age]

As the screen flashes scenes of suburban lawns, a freight train and Mr. Obama seated at a kitchen table with a group of white, apparently working-class voters, Mr. Obama says: “We’ve seen over the last eight years how decisions by a president can have a profound effect on the course of history and on American lives; much that’s wrong with our country goes back even farther than that.”

Presumably the freight train is accompanied by a Woody Guthrie soundtrack, lest the Great Depression imagery be lost on viewers.

The show will also feature the struggles of four different American families, every last one of them damned Okies, probably.