Archive for the 'Advertising' Category

Quite aside from all of the tasteless, sophomoric Super Bowl ads that make it to broadcast, there are now spots created intentionally to be “banned” in the hope they might go viral via social media. Below, one reputed such currently “under review” by CBS.  It’s lame, of course, but not nearly so tasteless as the notorious Snickers commercial a few years back, the one in which two car mechanics inadvertently kiss, then rip out their chest hair.

Maybe that’s going a bit far , but anthropologist Grant McCracken (interviewed in Shoptimism) pays high tribute to this Nike spot produced seven years ago. Culturally, right on the button, he argues in his new book, Chief Culture Officer. The commercial’s well done, no doubt, but the fact that it was shot in Toronto may have ignited Canadian McCracken’s joyful enthusiasm for it.

For a snapshot of how dismal the state of today’s advertising creative efforts, consider the spot following. It was selected as the “Ad of the Day” by the trade pub Adweek. Why? “Pop Secret’s new campaign from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners features the inhabitants of a Pop Secret street where animated kernels enjoy movie night together. The character development and animation are great, and the kernels have just the right texture to give them their hard dense forms.”

Fascinating how Domino’s Pizza is aggressively advertising how rotten its product was, via TV spots that feature presumably accurate focus group testimony and management’s commitment to a “pizza turnaround.” I’m wondering if a Detroit automaker might have found redemption in a similar strategy. Domino’s is going so far as to post a lot of online footage that fuels the campaign: