Recently in Advertising Category

As you can see on the right there, I've added Google Adsense ads.  I don't think that I'll make any money from it, but it's a good opportunity to learn more about how Google conducts their advertising business.  I've already learned some pretty interesting things.

Let me know whether you think the ads are cool or they suck.

I caught this interesting show on The Style Channel called Peter Perfect yesterday with Heather. (video clip here)

OK, so it started out... inauspiciously. I walked in when Rocky Rhodes, the proprietor of the Rocky Roaster coffee shop, was getting his unibrow waxed.

"You should do that," Heather remarked to me.

---

The stylist, Peter Ishkhans, made over the employees and owners of the coffee shop so as to make the store more successful. He recast their appearance to make them more, well, approachable. It was a big improvement - and the stakeholders were happy. "I cannot wait to go to work tomorrow," remarked one employee. How often do you hear that, especially in the food service industry?

Peter also remade the store interior. Before the makeover, there was no underlying, unifying store theme. A chess table here, an old unattractive coffee hutch there, homemade shelves down there.... The colors and mismatched knickknacks made the store look... dowdy.

After Peter did his work, it was a whole different feel. The warm colors connoted friendliness and community. There was a large table in front so that people could sample the coffees. Everything was inviting.

Even the store sign change was dramatic. Here's the old logo (taken from http://www.rockyroaster.com/index.php:

Kind of looks like an old Waffle House or something, doesn't it? It doesn't suggest coffee shop at all.

The new sign:

Wow. What a difference. Nobody could mistake this for anything but a coffee shop now.

It's interesting - one of the changes that Peter (as well as the owner's wife) suggested was placing bags of coffee beans on display, so as to indicate to the customer that, hey, bags of coffee beans could also be purchased. Rocky was highly resistant to this, because he was staking his reputation on selling beans that were never more than three days old. The solution was to go ahead and display the bags of coffee beans, but then when a customer made an inquiry, the employee would say something like "you know what? Let me go get you some fresh coffee beans." More coffee was moved, and at the same time the customer felt like he or she was getting special treatment. Brilliant - I love it when incredible opportunities surface just by thinking about and addressing problems with even moderate creativity and sophistication.

Another thing that struck me was the profound resistance on the part of the owner to change. Case in point: he had this God-awful, colorful, damaged rooster statuette on display. Peter was trying to convince him to part with it, but Rocky was just so attached to it. I guess in the end Rocky gave it up, but it looks like it was a big, emotional struggle.

It makes me wonder about the ways in which I myself am resistant to change - change that probably is really good for me. So, friends, if you see me irrationally grasping for my rooster statuette, do me a favor and call me out on it, OK?

This episode of Peter Perfect is airing again on The Style Channel tonight at 9pm and midnight.

Now I'm all about making a profit - believe me - but Mr. James Dyson and company, I think that you are in serious danger of alienating the public's trust with your "new" Airblade technology, and its misleading (at best) marketing campaign.

Take a look at this commercial:

This commercial flows like a template, virtually, for all effective commercials. Really a work of craftsmanship. But a flawed one:

• 0:00 - 0:06 : The setup. James Dyson explains the problem. Traditional handblowers suck, our hands are often still wet, and we finish the job by wiping our hands on our clothes (and this is true for me at least). Nice touch: "We all do this." E.g., "You don't have to be ashamed of your barbaric behavior. But there's a better way."
• 0:06 : The viewer recognizes by now Mr. Dyson's "exotic" accent, lending him an air of sophistication and awe. To Americans, at least.
• 0:08 : the phrase Airblade Technology is introduced. "Cool! Blades are awesome. And, gee, this thing is a technology! Not like the old-fashioned, non-technology paper towel that I usually use. Used to use, I should say!"
• 0:10 : "...and it dawned on me that..." - introduces the notion that James Dyson is anything but corporate, but is instead a regular Joe who happened to have experienced romantic serendipity - a vision - of a new product that would benefit all mankind. "No, no: no market research of any kind was done before we started developing this product. We're grass roots, man!"
• 0:15 : "Instead of the old evaporation system" - reinforcing that the Dyson Airblade is new, and that you must be too old-fashioned, ignorant, or poor to want to use anything else.
• 0:17 : (Did you see this coming? Did you? I bet you did.) "Which blows all sorts of bacteria at you." Capitalizing on the antibacteria meme that has spidered its way across our culture. Hooray for fearmongering!
• 0:18 : "We came up with..." So up to now, nothing has been too bad. Pretty garden-variety, really. But at 0:18, James Dyson and company commit an egregious sin. Airblade-like technology has been around in Japan for ages; Mitsubishi has been selling their "Jet Towel" model for nearly ten years, according to Gizmodo (see also Engadget). Now, Dyson, you may have significantly improved upon the design of the Jet Towel, and I have no doubt that your Dyson Airblade is the superior product. And, it may be that you feel that you have expanded Mitsubishi's offering enough to claim you have [re]invented it. And, moreover, these feelings may actually be legitimate. Nevertheless, the perception - and that's the most important part at the end of the day, isn't it? - is that you guys are intellectual thieves. And this mismanagement of your image is inexcusable.
• 0:20 : "purified air" - man, I just have to laugh at this one. I guess blowing air through a thin filter now makes it "purified." Unlike the poisonous fumes that we breath all day.
• 0:23 : "really satisfying solution to something that's annoyed me" (emphasis mine). Reinforcing the idea that Dyson was the sole originator of the idea. Also resonates with our western sensibility that we can engineer our way out of all discomfort in life. Well done.
• 0:28 : Onscreen: "James Dyson: Inventor of Airblade(TM) technology[.]" Here they just come out and say it.

I also found this fascinating crap commercial documentary on the Airblade - also starring James Dyson - on YouTube. It's pretty much the same as the commercial they deployed for television, but in greater detail.

Great section on positioning and conspicuous consumption around 3:24. Skillful appeal to rationality at 3:40. But pay special attention to the camerawork - especially starting around 3:56. From that time until about 4:05, the cameraman films all of Dyson except his head. He cuts Dyson's head off!

Come on. I get, Dyson, that you want to create a kind of avant-garde atmosphere - one that positively oozes authenticity - with this thing. But you expect me to believe that James Dyson allowed himself to be "interviewed" for this documentary/film (frankly, I don't even know what the hell to call it) by somebody [legitimate] who was either too lazy or too incompetent to film properly? To cut off his head for nine whole seconds? Give me a break.

By the way, Dyson is a billionaire. That's with a "B." And that's in pounds sterling. Would he cut corners on something like this, an otherwise sophisticated marketing campaign? (Answer: no. Look how much attention to detail Dyson has put into the design of its product.)

---

There's an alternative/complementary scenario to all this, you realize. A sinister one: that Dyson did hire or solicit a young, aspiring filmmaker in his mid-to-late twenties (edit: or, apparently, an employee of the now-defunct Business 2.0 magazine) to create this piece. And then they - the marketing department - looked at it and said, "yeah, looks authentic. Let's go with it."

In which case, the only logical conclusion is that James Dyson and company, manufacturers of Airblade technology, believe their target market to be a bunch of lazy, shoddy slobs. Slobs... who are in sore need of hand-drying technology. Wait a minute... this marketing campaign is brilliant! I'm going to go out and buy my Dyson Airblade as early as next week! Maybe it'll be on Woot!

---

Seriously, Dyson, I think you've blundered badly with your campaign. Perhaps I'm wrong; perhaps you are making a point to ignore markets of my demographic profile, and perhaps that is in fact the strategy that will yield the most profits for you, long-term. Can't blame you for that. But I can tell you that, because of how I perceived your campaign, you have made me - and in turn, everyone who interacts with me, to some extent or another - hostile to buying any of your products.

Saw this commercial on Youtube. Formula 409 commercial starring Betty Boop. Looks to be 60s era.

Interesting conventions they employ in the commercial. Most of which are no longer applicable today.

• First, advertisers wouldn't dare equate cleaning with sexiness today. Nowadays, ads like this are designed to exploit women's feeling extremely busy. Also, there's a clear anti-bacteria bias. If you don't kill all (or nearly all) of the bacteria in your home, you're a bad mom - or so modern commercials connote.
• Look at how the bottle flexes after nearly every spray. Back then, there must have been a bias about cleaners not being strong enough to get things clean. Apparently, Formula 409 is the strong, silent type. Which is good - I don't like my cleaning products to be gabby.
• "Kid's stuff - spray and wipe!" At about 0:16, a thoughtless Betty Boop wipes off the artwork her child has just finished milliseconds before on the wall (the artwork is extraordinarily good, given the kid's apparent age). Right on, Betty Boop. Nip those faggoty artistic predilections in the bud. She could have at least said, "very nice dear" before eradicating her child's creation.
• At about 0:20, the bottle twists its own head off. That would have been enough to give me nightmares when I was a little kid. Of course, I am of the post-Exorcist generation.
• Some things haven't changed. Today, many consumers still want one product that does it all.

I've been getting pretty interested in how pharmaceutical companies have been branding their products - specifically their choice of names. Many of them seem vaguely derived from Latin or Greek - so as possibility to establish reputability and brand confidence in the consumer - but at the same time many seem to (or obviously do so, in some cases) connote the effects of the drug, or the problem the drug will solve, or clues to how the patient's lifestyle will change after taking the drug. I call these connotations psychocognates, for lack of a better term.

For some of these drugs, I was not able to derive any psychocognates. Maybe someone can help identify them in the comments.

Brand name	Pharma name	Treats/effects	Notes	Possible psychocognates
Abilify	Aripiprazole	schizophrenia		Make able (i.e. to do what you want to do)
Allegra	Fexofenadine hydrochloride	antihistimine; allergies		Allergy; also, allegro, which is Italian for speedy. This may be in response to competitor Claritin's reputation of causing patients to become drowsy
Ambien	Zolpidem	insomnia		"Ambient?" as in, possibly "turn off that Ambient light?" Or perhaps you enter a state of ambient, calm consciousness. Maybe. This is a tough one.
Boniva	Ibandronic acid	osteoporosis	Also marketed under the name "Bonviva"	Romance-languagy for "The good life"
Celebrex	Celecoxib	osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, acute pain, other ailments	Marketed in other countries as Celebra. Also, one of the coolest television commercials.	Celebrate
Cialis	Tadalafil	erectile dysfunction		??? No idea on this one.
Crestor	Rosuvastatin	cardiovascular disease		The crest of a wave, or the summit of a mountain? "Takers of this drug will be able to perform impressive athletic feats, despite their cardiovascular disease," this name seems to suggest to me. Also might be cognate with the word "cholesterol" itself, to remind patients of its effects
Cymbalta	Duloxetine	major depressive disorder, general anxiety disorder		Cymbals! As if the crashing of cymbals will somehow "wake" you out of your depressive state
Enzyte	"Suffragium asotas"	"natural male enhancement"		Not classified as a drug, but rather as a "Nutraceutical"
Flomax	Tamsulosin	benign prostatic hyperplasia, enlarged prostate, and male urinary weak stream		This one's easy: your amount of urine flow will be maximized
Fosamax	Alendronate	osteoporosis		Not sure - something's being maximized, but I've no idea what. Fossilization? Seems counterintuitive at best.
Levitra	Vardenafil	erectile dysfunction		Levitate
Lexapro	Escitalopram	antidepressant; permitted for treatment of major depressive disorder and general anxiety disorders	Lexaprin, Cipralex, Sipralexa, Entact and Seroplex are other brandings	Not sure. But Lex seems to be important. The Entact branding is particularly interesting to me. Does it mean to say that, after taking the drug, you will feel socially intact? Or, perhaps it is meant to connote the idea that the drug will endow you with tact? Seroplex is also interesting; does it connote the effects of serotonin?
Lipitor	Atorvastatin	lowers cholesterol; largest selling drug in the world (wikipedia)	This is the drug with the marketing campaign containing Dr. Robert Jarvis, inventor of the artificial heart.	Probably Lipid, which is a general term for fats.
Lipozene	Glucomannan	constipation, obesity, high cholesterol; dietary supplement		Liposuction
Lunesta	Eszopiclone	insomnia		Lunar; the moon indicates night, which might connote restful sleep
Mirena	IntraUterine System (levonorgestrel)	contraceptive		OK, I have several theories about this one, and in fact this is the drug that inspired this post. Mirena, marketed towards women, is pronounced "Marina." Marinas are where successful professional women hang out, perhaps the image is. Or I'll one up you - Miranda Hobbes as played by Cynthia Nixon in Sex and the City. This character - an attorney - was the professional woman par excellance. She requests to work only fifty-five hours per week at her law firm - after having her baby.
Nexium	Esomeprazole	heartburn/acid reflux	purplepill.com	Next? Or Nexxus? The stomach is the nexxus of our digestive tract in many ways, perhaps.
Paxil	Paroxetine	depression	side effects include suicidal ideation	Peace. Perhaps final peace? That's kind of macabre (see notes)
Prevacid	Lansoprazole	heartburn		Prevents acid
Prilosec	Omeprazole	heartburn		??? No idea
Propecia	Finasteride	male pattern baldness; benign prostatic hyperplasia		Proactivity? Productivity? Promotion of hair growth?
Prozac	Fluoxetine hydrochloride	clinical depression		Proactivity? Productivity?
Singulair	Montelukast	asthma, seasonal allergies		Singular Air - or perhaps a single dose is needed for asthma sufferers
Valtrex	Valaciclovir	herpes, shingles		??? No idea
Viagra	Sildenafil	erectile dysfunction	also marketed as Revatio; I read somewhere that Pfizer, the manufacturer, was actually the originator of the term "erectile dysfunction," like how the manufacturers of Listerine originated the term "Halitosis." Disease Mongering.	Vigor
Vioxx	Rofecoxib	osteoarthritis		Viability?
Vytorin	Ezetimibe/simvastatin	high cholestorol		Don't know, but sounds a little like Lipitor, a competitor
Xanax	Alprazolam	anxiety disorders; panic attacks	also marketed as Niravam	Maybe sanity? Or perhaps the fact that it is a palindrome has been shown to ease minds, particularly those affected by panic-related disorders. The other branding, Niravam, might connote Nirvana, a restful, living-in-the-moment state.
Zoloft	Sertraline hydrochloride	antidepressant; OCD, panic, and social anxiety disorders	also marketed as Lustral	Aloft, or lofty heights of bliss

Detroit had a new "reveal" (eye roll) the other day. I learned about this via an NPR article:

Car makers are employing strobe lights, pyrotechnics, cowboys and even cattle in their efforts to publicize new models — known in industry parlance as the "reveal."

In an arena filled to capacity — mostly with the press — Ford unveiled its newly redesigned F-150 pickup truck Sunday afternoon.

The truck emerged from the back of the stage through a cloud of blue smoke and flickering strobe lights. Then, country-and-western singer Toby Keith talked up the virtues of the new truck.

Toby Keith? Isn't that the guy that sang:

Oh, Justice will be served and the battle will rage.
This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage
You'll be sorry that you messed with the US of A
'Cuz we'll put a boot in your ass
It's the American way.

Let's see what this gentleman and scholar had to say about the Ford F150:

"It's roomy, the interior is really slick, but it's still roomy for a big guy like me," he said.

Straight from the heart. I like the reinforcement of equating "big" with, say, "cowboy," "tough," and "glamorous - but in a macho kind of way."

But wait -- there's more!

This week's most anticipated reveal was for Chrysler's new Dodge Ram pickup truck. Two brand-new trucks joined a dozen cowboys herding 120 head of longhorn Texas steer through downtown Detroit.

I like how the announcer for Chrysler really drives home the idea that the new Dodge Ram is separating itself from the herd (groan). And 120 longhorn Texas steer? Through downtown Detroit? Now little is tougher than The Cowboy in the American psyche, but herding cattle through a major metropolis? "Silly" is putting it charitably. But here's the best part:

It was a great idea, but in the end, it was just a group of big cows lumbering down the street. Then, when Chrysler Vice Chairman Jim Press tried to talk about the new truck, some of the steers began to mount each other.

"Well, let's not watch that. This is one show you're not going to forget. OK, look at the truck," he told the crowd.

Kind of turned "pay no attention to the man behind that curtain!" on its head, didn't it?

The auto blog Jalopnik has hilarious video highlights of the event. The first few frames sum it up pretty well.

Have you seed Burger King's latest advertising campaign? The "Get me a Whopper" one, where they pretend that Burger King has discontinued the Whopper forever?

On the first viewing, it seems kind of amusing. But after several viewings, it seems more and more to me that these people are exhibiting signs of actual addiction to their fast food. Look how emotional people get! It's kind of sinister.

Link from YouTube.

Regan Burns always cracks me up, though.

Over the holidays, I played a game with my future sister-in-law, her husband, and Heather in which one person recited a little advertising jingle and the others would have to guess. It's amazing how much advertising signals can permeate your psyche.

Below are twenty-five odd of the ones we came up with. Some are easy, but some are pretty difficult, I think. How many can you get?

Comments enabled.

1. ???? ? ???? the San Francisco Treat!
2. 800-588-2300 ?????? ?????
3. The incredible, edible ???
4. Ho Ho Ho. ????? ?????
5. It's a good time for the great taste of ??????????
6. Like a good neighbor, ????? ???? is there
7. Oh, what a feeling! ??????
8. ??????? ????? ??????, they're magically delicious!
9. Winning Ohio over, have you driven a ???? lately?
10. Oh, oh, oh, who's that kid with the ???? ??????
11. ?. ?.; it's the way you should be. Just try ?. ?. and you'll see.
12. Confident! Confident, dry, and secure! Raise your hand, raise your hand if you're ????
13. Head for ????? beer. Head for the mountains.
14. Every kiss begins with ???
15. ??? ?????, down on the farm
16. It's hard to get clean in hard water; and Cleveland is a hard water town. Yeah, but we know best, we've got hard-water ????
17. ???? is it!
18. Mmm mmm good! Mmm mmm good! That's why ?????????? ???? is mmm mmm good!
19. ???????: we build excitement!
20. ???????? is thirst aid, for that deep-down body thirst!
21. ????? ????? is gonna move you! (not a product for incontinence, BTW).
22. ?.?.?. we're home even when you're not
23. I believe in ??????? ???? 'cause I believe in me
24. That ??? ??? freshness lasts right through it; your fresh breath goes on and on -- while you chew it
25. ???? ????? got baked potato appeal; they're made from potatos and skins that are real! Cheddar cheese and bacon, sour cream and chives, tasty baked potatos you won't believe your eyes! They're made from potato and skins that are real. ???? ????? from Keebler got baked potato appeal
26. * Save today ??? ?????'s way!
27. * ??????? ????: we sell spatulas -- and that's all!

This is awesome. Thanks to Rich for sending me this link.

Call and Response from wreckandsalvage on Vimeo.

The other day Heather and I watched Blood Diamond. Wasn't very good. Insult to injury, it was rather depressing, and the American-style uplifting redemption theme at the end didn't resurrect it. I don't mind depressing movies - as long as they're good. In any case, when we turned off the DVD player and saw that the Mel Gibson movie What Women Want was playing, we welcomed the opportunity. This - by most accounts - light-hearted and thin-intellected film seemed like just what the doctor ordered to brighten our spirits.

It was as predictable as you might expect. There were some funny bits, but little in the way of noteworthiness. Heather expressed her disgust at Mel's dance routine. It really is hilariously absurd. The dance starts at about 0:27. The song, at least, is in English. What an endearing little anti-semite! [link]

Yeah - a little hint to the ladies: straight men don't do that.

What was extremely noteworthy was the integration of the storyline of a Nike advertising campaign into the film.

It was brilliant. Long story short, the two main characters, played by Helen Hunt and Mel Gibson, are competing/cooperating coworkers - and developing love interests - at a major New York ad firm. The plot device centers on the chauvinistic Gibson's character acquiring the ability to "hear" the thoughts of nearby women. He capitalizes on his new-found ability to create what we are led to suspend to believe is the to be the mother of all women-focused television advertising campaigns.

The movie carefully takes us through the campaign's development, "explaining" it to the audience as the movie progresses, so by the time we see it, we'll be ready for it. It will seem natural to us. Inevitablly, we see the ad - narrated sexily by Gibson. We're also graced with the conspicuously approving expressions of Helen Hunt and the three Nike account contacts (all women). It's as if *gasp* Nike were programming you how to feel about their brand! [link]

And people actually paid to go see this movie - this feature-length advertisement, I should say! Nike, you're brilliant!

It's a far cry from their "slasher" ad, which, in contrast, was hilarious but ultimately ineffective in targeting its target female demographic. Rumor has it that it was actually banned in the U.S. [link]:

We also just watched the 1997 movie In the Company of Men. It was our inaugural time watching movies on the computer through the Netflicks service (very good service, by the way). The movie had good directing, good acting, good just about everything... but it seems like such a waste of a movie. I can't wrap my head around why anyone would make a movie like that. Perhaps it made sense in the cultural context (but this is only ten years ago we're talking, here!).