I need to rant about a commercial that I think is so stupid I honestly thought it was a joke the first time I saw it. It's for Thrive, the miracle 'quit smoking gum'. I have many issues with the ad...the cheap Angelina Jolie knock off, the length of the campaign, and the fact that the commercial has actually been re-edited to launch Thrive Lozenge. That’s right, this piece of shit actually ran for months and someone thought it was so good they simply had to keep using it! Either that or it was cheaper than paying faux-Angelina to make another brilliant spot.
As someone who works in advertising and feels consumer insights are essential to a campaign's success, I feel I need to point out how shitty this ad really is.
It all lies in the ad's tagline- 'Lose the Smoke, Keep the Fire'. Are they seriously building off the insight that smokers are filling their lungs with nicotine, tar, and cancer because it makes them feel cool??? Its 2009, not the 1970's. James Dean is dead! (He smoked right?). This offends me both as a smoker, and as someone who works in the industry.
People don't smoke because they think it makes them feel cool, we're not 12 anymore! And for all those 12 year-olds that think they're cool but don't wanna 'lose the smoke' because they wanna 'keep the fire', they’re probably too young/broke to buy the product anyways.
There are a million reasons to quit smoking (health, money, being a social outcast, it's cold and I don't want to go outside and freeze my ass off), all of which would have been a better insight to build your campaign around then 'stay cool'. Did they honestly gather a focus group of smokers and come up with this garbage?
Anyways you be the judge...sorry the link isn't the best quality but it's the only one I could find
Be warned though...I'm told that every time someone watches it a baby cries
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY4SEn0JZDM
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Burger Cologne!!!
I love this...
firemeetsdesire.com
As if BK came out with a cologne? How randomly stupid / brilliant! I mean jerks like me are posting about it on their blog right?
What I want to know is who thought of this monstrosity and how the hell did they sell it to their clients? Well done sir or madame, you're a better man (or woman) then I
firemeetsdesire.com
As if BK came out with a cologne? How randomly stupid / brilliant! I mean jerks like me are posting about it on their blog right?
What I want to know is who thought of this monstrosity and how the hell did they sell it to their clients? Well done sir or madame, you're a better man (or woman) then I
Bitter Rant #1- Search Engine Marketing
Seeing how we're on holidays, I'm not as pissy as I'd normally be had I not been off work for the last couple weeks. That said, I've thought of my first rant! This REALLY pisses me off as it's happened to me more than once on the account I work on.
SEM (aka search)...I still have clients who refuse to get on board with this. Like really??? What effing year is this??? Here you have consumers who are ACTIVELY LOOKING FOR YOUR BRAND/PRODUCT and you don't want to be there??? And I'm not talking about vauge category keywords either...we have research that shows exactly how many people are searching for their brand name. Some of our competitors have even been buying our key words for the last couple years and these morons still don't want to spend 1% of their budget on SEM! Their reasons are gems like 'we have a lot of other initiatives we'd like to pursue, or our website isn't up to date'. Well then maybe you should re-think your priorities!
As if not owning your own keywords isn't ridiculous enough, there's also the matter of all the insights SEM offers your brand. Ever wonder what the key periods for your business are? Or if having activity in the marketplace is creating consumer response? Search Engine Marketing tells you exactly that and shit-loads more!
On that note I'm in the middle of reading a great book on the subject called 'Click...Unexpected Insights for Business and Life' by Bill Tancer. I'd post a link to a book review or something but I'm still 'bloggingly challenged'
You'll just have to Google it
SEM (aka search)...I still have clients who refuse to get on board with this. Like really??? What effing year is this??? Here you have consumers who are ACTIVELY LOOKING FOR YOUR BRAND/PRODUCT and you don't want to be there??? And I'm not talking about vauge category keywords either...we have research that shows exactly how many people are searching for their brand name. Some of our competitors have even been buying our key words for the last couple years and these morons still don't want to spend 1% of their budget on SEM! Their reasons are gems like 'we have a lot of other initiatives we'd like to pursue, or our website isn't up to date'. Well then maybe you should re-think your priorities!
As if not owning your own keywords isn't ridiculous enough, there's also the matter of all the insights SEM offers your brand. Ever wonder what the key periods for your business are? Or if having activity in the marketplace is creating consumer response? Search Engine Marketing tells you exactly that and shit-loads more!
On that note I'm in the middle of reading a great book on the subject called 'Click...Unexpected Insights for Business and Life' by Bill Tancer. I'd post a link to a book review or something but I'm still 'bloggingly challenged'
You'll just have to Google it
Worst. Blog. Ever?
Okay so I’m still learning! I have no idea how to add all the cool things I see on blogs I read to my ghetto blog. Things like links to blogs I like, uploading a pic or video, or even how to save a damn draft before posting (sad I know).
Whatever, I can rant which is the whole point of the blogging-world isn’t it? I’ll have to learn as I go so please hang in there. Assuming anyone is reading??? Great, another thing I need to figure out
Cheers
Whatever, I can rant which is the whole point of the blogging-world isn’t it? I’ll have to learn as I go so please hang in there. Assuming anyone is reading??? Great, another thing I need to figure out
Cheers
Canadman Begins!
So Canadman begins and I want to thank everyone for reading.
This blog is going to be about my thoughts, opinions, and rants about working in the advertising industry in Toronto.
As a long time reader of ad blogs, I thought it might be fun to try it first hand. WOW for a first blog this is an incredibly crappy post, but I just want to make sure everything works properly. I have to admit, I'm probably the least tech saavy blogger in the history of the world.
Enjoy and I promise more interesting, witty, and relevant posts to follow
This blog is going to be about my thoughts, opinions, and rants about working in the advertising industry in Toronto.
As a long time reader of ad blogs, I thought it might be fun to try it first hand. WOW for a first blog this is an incredibly crappy post, but I just want to make sure everything works properly. I have to admit, I'm probably the least tech saavy blogger in the history of the world.
Enjoy and I promise more interesting, witty, and relevant posts to follow
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