Focus groups' chilling effect on advertising

Wow, that must be one REALLY cold beer.



That, or what Bud Light has to say about Drinkability is so important, so relevant to my life, so time-stands-still interesting, that people are frozen right there in place, and of course, we’re supposed to stop whatever we’re doing and listen too. Hmm. Might this be a classic case of a brand telling people what the brand wants them to now, rather that what the people might want to know? Research will tell you that consumers want to know why they buy one product over another. Thank you, research, for giving us these wonderfully informative and dull ads.

Oh wait, the monologuers do funny things to the frozen people too, like pour hot sauce in their mouths. OK, that’s better. NOW I’ll pay attention to what they want me to know about the finer points of beer.

Here’s a spot that focus groups would’ve hated because they would’ve said it was too confusing.



It won the biggest advertising award in the world.

Sneaker wars jump to a new level

What makes you better at what you do? How do you best get up for a challenge?

Do you follow the Bobby Knight bejeezus-scaring school of motivational theory? WARNING: THIS IS EXTREMELY EXTREMELY EXPLETIVE LADEN.



Or are you a joyful follower of the Dick Vermeil school, sponsored by Kleenex®, (where your coach is your friend, mentor, and hugbuddy all wrapped into one)? Either way, there’ll be tears.

Maybe it’s simply good enough to look across the battlefield and stare into the eyes of a fierce opponent.

If you believe that stiffer competition makes you do better work, then there’s good news for Nike, Adidas and Reebok.

Puma has hooked up with Droga 5.

Given their history for creating ideas that make people notice, there’s no doubt they’ll do the same for Puma. It's generating much discussion and healthy debate. Big question is, what kind of a brand Puma will be?

They do sports ads now.



Nothing to write home about. Not even done all that well. Although the shoes seem pretty damn cool.

They also have seemingly endless styles of cool looking shoes in wonderfully crazy colors and designs.

So what do they focus on? Sports? Fashion? Both? Youngsters? Hipsters? Chicks? Dudes? US? Europe? Asia?

My bet is, all of the above. Can’t wait to see it.

Don't pet the messenger

Bad economy got you down? With marketers struggling to find the right messages to encourage optimistic attitudes at the cash register and beyond, here are some thoughts and suggestions to provide a bit of impetus to get folks motivated again.

The first comes from the last President to broadly inspire Americans to work for change, John F. Kennedy. He borrowed from the Chinese to make his point.

If you work at Procter and Gamble…or are in the do-it-yourself hair dye racket, then the sight of stocks plummeting makes your spirit soar.

And if, perchance, you just can’t get away from the badness out there, and have to face up to some unavoidably unpleasant facts, then you do have a good option: Send a puppy to do your dirty work.

You know what they say: The cuter the messenger, the less likely he’ll get shot.

Just don’t let him in the sausage race at Miller Park

I love guerilla marketing, and I love the smell of bacon, so it’s no surprise that I love Bacon Salt Boy. He’s the linchpin behind the new campaign from J&D’s Bacon Salt (check out their yummy smelling blog). Beside the fact that it’s calorie and fat free, it’s a great case study in effectively using new media to launch and support a new product.

BSB isn’t a big hit with the official sports entities who paid significant sums of sponsorship cash, but he’s making waves. Any time you can get a strip of bacon in the mayo ring with a giant jar of mayonnaise, you’re bound to get some attention.



I'm getting hungry.

Image of the weekend

And this was just in the first quarter.

The flying spit screaming session didn’t work, unfortunately. Ron Zook’s Illini suffered a loss to Western Michigan that was much worse than the 23-17 score, mainly because it could wind up costing them a trip to a bowl game.

Coach Zook is a genuinely nice guy, and a good coach, but he has a penchant for winding up in phun photos.

Hope you win your two last games convincingly and get to a bowl game, Coach Zook.

Celebrity endorsing gone horribly wrong, Part 1

In my rush to praise the awful yet buzzworthy Toyota "Saved by Zero" commercials, I did a terrible disservice to another commercial that is nauseatingly deserving of similar recognition.



Emmitt Smith, Clyde Frazier, and Keith Hernandez. Three athletes who have nothing to do with each other, and seemingly nothing in common, other than the fact that they’re older than young people. That, and/or they’re all terrible card players and they gambled away their pride.

And everything they say rhymes. Even the announcer! How awesome is that?

For what it’s worth, using ex-pro athletes for a men’s lose-the-grey-hair product absolutely makes sense. Might make more sense to use someone who is known for having grey hair, like Brett Favre. Maybe he’s too good a card player.

Hey Nike: Adidas is still on your tail

As far as I know, there’s no Mr. Nike. No one person in Beaverton, OR who’s given his heart and soul and name to a company, who thought up designs for his products and sketched possibilities and wrote entries in his journal that started with “The parcel of aviation gasoline and albatross feathers arrived today…I’m not certain of whether the winged chariot will fly, but then again, if I knew all the possibilities, there would be no point in trying.”

The guy who wrote that, according to a campaign from Lifelounge in Melbourne, was Adi Dassler, the man who started (with his brother Rudolf) the Adidas company.

“Adidas” has become a retronym for “All Day I Dream About Sports,” and this web campaign combines that retronym with Adi’s passion for design to showcase all kinds of crazy and wonderful possibilities in the world of athletic (ish) footwear.

Nike has kicked serious ass in the world of sports for what seems like forever, but Adidas has been nipping at their heels for years with really smart, fresh tactics like this website, including this extremely cool animated 3:00 ad featuring Adi’s story.



Adidas has something powerful with Mr. Dassler. They’d be wise to keep using him.