And after the polls, don’t forget to grab your FREE cup of Starbucks coffee. A tasty reminder to do your duty.

Posted: November 4th, 2008 under Everyday Life, Advertising/Marketing.
Comments: none

Looking at these stirs me and has an effect. (Like any conscious American with a soul.) It’s NOT vote for _______, it’s just vote PERIOD. The simple approach of focusing on one topic and using it to catapult the overall message I think is genius. Commercialism of our country, Foreign countries selling to us and competing with us, Healthcare, it’s all here, but represented in concise little visual packages that push buttons. Just try to ignore this message they say. Powerful. Happy Voting. (Hopefully.)

Posted: November 4th, 2008 under Advertising/Marketing.
Comments: none

I don’t want to get uber political, but I thought this was an out-of-the-box way for Ron Howard with friends Henry Winkler and Andy Griffith to show support for a particular candidate. Originally posted on Funny or Die (Will Ferrel’s website), this has been all over the internet. Whether you agree with him or not, he does show his sincerity in this short clip, and it is fun to watch. Kudos for the creativity.

Posted: October 27th, 2008 under Advertising/Marketing.
Comments: none

Here are some new mac ads that put Vista in perspective. Now of course I’m biased, (duh) but it amazes me that such a simple and refined concept could have so much impact. And hey, these guys are hard not to love.

Posted: October 22nd, 2008 under Advertising/Marketing.
Comments: 1

What a great debate. And on your way to work, why not stop at a 7-11 and “vote” for your favorite candidate by drinking coffee. Let your vote ring loud and proud by sportin’ your candidates election cup. And if perchance your candidates cup supplies run out, which is possible, you can always grab the opponents cup and write “Sucks” underneath it with a nice large black sharpie. So vote everyday if you like, 7-11 would love you.

Posted: October 16th, 2008 under Advertising/Marketing.
Comments: none

Love this ad. It’s a clever show of force to illustrate what your business is, imply how good you are at it and snuff the competition all without using words.

Posted: October 14th, 2008 under Advertising/Marketing.
Comments: none

I ran across this ad and thought it caught my eye. I really like ads that you can interact with, I’m not sure if that’s everybody or just me. This was a cool looking, typical, SUV and you could pick from one of six grills with logos on them to figure out which one matched correctly. Now what’s really fun that you can’t see through your monitor is that these six front grills were stickers. When you peeled them off the word “WRONG” was printed behind the sticker on all of them except for the Kia one that said “CORRECT. The Kia Borrego, a new kind of Luxury SUV.” When you flipped the page over the ad continued on the back and told you all about the vehicle. Pretty cool. You would never think this ad or this vehicle for that matter was from Kia, and that’s the point.

Posted: October 6th, 2008 under Advertising/Marketing.
Comments: none

There is something about a television ad that doesn’t have words that intrigues me. Does it have a song, or sound, or is it strictly visual and silent. As one who totally subscribes to the “less is more” idea wholeheartedly, it’s fun to see these types of commercials in action. Television commercials that don’t have words have to work harder at drawing a viewer in to pay attention to the message they are trying to relay, and I think it’s this very limitation that drives them harder and farther to get that message across in an interesting and memorable way. The marketers have to make sure that without a doubt you look up from you newspaper, magazine or at the screen when walking for a snack and are intrigued enough to pay attention and take their message away with you or it fails. I think this ad succeeds. I won’t reveal what it’s for because it’s a nice surprise, as it shows the product in a new and unexpected way, which helps keep their brand in your brain.

Posted: September 30th, 2008 under Advertising/Marketing.
Comments: none

These ads put out by Russian Bear Vodka started in South Africa to help curtail drinking and driving. They have this propaganda/dictatorish feel to them and appear to be in the russian language, but upon closer inspection (looking at them in a mirror) they reveal their true message. Does this clever trick make them any more/less effective in actually slowing down drinking and driving? I’d be curious to know, but would probably bank on not really. But they do ad a fun twist to the ads and deserve a nod here.

Posted: September 26th, 2008 under Design, Advertising/Marketing.
Comments: 2

The Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates Vista commercials have been scrapped. Already. Before you could even figure out what was actually happening in them, and from what I hear they weren’t really leading to anywhere are done. (Seinfeld make a commercial about nothing? What?) 2 weeks and a lot of money out the “window”, here are the newer commercials from Microsoft that try to identify with you, the user. And like borrowing ideas from Apple for their operating system, they have a dead ringer for PC guy John Hodgeman kick off this 30 sec spot. Do these work? I’m not sure, but they are better than the unfocused meanderings of Gates and Seinfeld. And why is Microsoft scared of Apple? They have 80% of the market, (In desk-top operating systems anyway) So why are they reacting this way to Apple’s campaign? Could it be the not so successful Zune? Apples growing brand and now new phone market? Well at any rate it is fun that they now care more about a company, they could care less about before.

Posted: September 19th, 2008 under Advertising/Marketing.
Comments: none