brand new

New Sony Bravia ad

Is now online here.  To my mind, certainly passes the interesting test.   It's an example I think of where execution is strategy (and vice versa) in order to solve the conumdrum of how to dramatize 'color like no other' when you're at the ransom of the TV sets or computer monitors the ad is being watched on.  The answer, like 'Balls', was to celebrate color.  Sounds simple, but this is a powerful compressed idea.

Update:  now (shock horror) on youtube

Top of the Pops

I don't really think about England that much anymore (apart from my friends over there) but every now and then I remember what I love about my homeland.  I was out last night to see the fantastic Art Brut and their lead 'singer' (yes, that is his singing voice, it's not irony) Eddie Argos is just so fantastically English in his sensibility.  I probably feel it more acutely now I live in a country that is relatively irony free and tends not to use fantastic turns of phrase.  If you get the chance, go and see them.

If you're in the Boston area in November

I suggest you sign up for this.   And if you're not, I'd consider visiting.  There's a fantastic free (yes, that's free) conference on November 17-18, put together by the Convergence Culture Consortium at MIT featuring a slew of stimulating speakers and discussions about the future of media and communications.  Here's an except from their blurb:

As advertisers look for new ways to engage audiences, content creators search for new audiences, and audiences quest for new ways to connect with culture, the nature of what counts as 'entertainment' is rapidly changing. We are seeing the blurring of aesthetic and technological distinctions between media platforms, of 'advertising' and 'content' and of 'creator' and 'consumer'. Futures of Entertainment brings together key industry leaders who are shaping these new directions in our culture. The conference will consider developments such as user-generated content, transmedia storytelling, the rise of mobile media and the emergence of social networking.

You can register here but I'd do it soon as it's likely to sell out quickly.

Go shopping. Now.

On Friday, (RED) launched in America.  If you buy (RED) branded products then a portion of their profits goes to the Global Fund to provide drugs to those affected by the AIDS emegency in Africa.  Here's a clip from the news:

And here's how the idea works.

More on this to come.

Do stuff

Brands today are less about words and more about deeds and actions.  And to my mind, no brand better captures this than Target and their belief in the importance of design, and making it accessible to all - their Michael Graves homeware and ClearRX packaging are great examples of this.

Their latest 'action' is working with the Cooper Hewitt museum to sponsor the People's Design Award.  OK, you may say lots of brands sponsor awards.  Target's add is to offer free admission through National Design Week so anyone can go and see some of the best design in the world. I get they believe in design, and they may make more people interested in the power and importance of this discipline (which of course will help a retailer who is about accessible design).  If you're in New York I suggest you go and visit the exhibition - it's a fantastic museum.

Spam redux

I've just come across this article from USA Today via Adpulp that talks about the rise of non-traditional ad placement.  There's a great quote in it from Richard Notarianni who hit the nails on the head:
"The industry is desperate to find clever ways to reach people, whether or not it has any legitimate value. ... When someone says, 'Let's put advertising in bathroom stalls,' another says 'That's great. It's a captive audience.' " 
As Rance Crain comments:
"I've never seen things changing as much as they are now.  Advertisers will not be satisfied until they put their mark on every blade of grass. Advertising is so ubiquitous that it's turning people off. It's desensitizing people to the message."
I've banged on about this when talking to students that we seem as an industry to be living in a world of insanity - doing the same thing again and again and expecting something different to happen.  All we talk about is finding 'new ways of reaching people' rather than spending time working out how we can make the content and stuff we produce more interesting and valuable.  We're in desperate need to change the conversation, to make it about better content not new ways to spam people into indifference or anger.
Maybe we need to look to backwards to see the way forward.  As Howard Gossage said many years ago: "Nobody reads advertising.  People read what they want to read and sometimes it's an ad".

Recommended read

Just picked up Advertising is Dead, Long Live Advertising by Tom Himpe.  It's a good read chock full of examples of uncoventional/guerilla/ambient/insert name of the day communication.  What makes it more useful than most is the thinking behind the strategies and reasons for use of these channels to engage rather than spam people.

Ad Wars South Africa

(Thanks to Chris Jensen, M!'s car / offensive advertising expert in residence) 

A moment in time

Yahoo have just begun an interesting project - the Yahoo! time capsule.  As their press release says:
"Yahoo today announced the launch of what is expected to be the world’s largest time capsule in history. Starting today, Yahoo! is encouraging people from around the world to contribute personal photos, stories, thoughts, ideas, poems, prayers, home movies, music and art to an online anthropology project designed to celebrate and understand life and global culture in 2006. Content from the time capsule will be broadcast directly onto the 216-foot tall Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan and sent into space through a light beam from the historic monument."

It's in an early state, but it says a lot about the optimism inherent in the human condition that the most entries so far are in the 'love' category.

Chaos 2006

There is a conference going on in Austin November 17 and 18 with a bunch of good speakers - Russell Davies, Joseph Jaffe, Rick Boyko to name a few - discussing the changing nature of the advertising landscape.  Details are here.