Quick.

I would be remiss if I had anything more to say about Miller’s new campaign than this:

Brilliant.

Another one for the HAYAE

Another candidate for the HAYAE (Heinously Annoying Yet Amazingly Effective) advertising Hall of Fame.

First there was The Clapper, then there was Head On. Saved By Zero carried the torch for a bit, but I’m not sure any of them can hold a candle to our friend Vince and his Shamwow!!!!



You follow me, camera guy? You bet I do! And I don’t even have a camera! I love this spot. I could watch it over and over. It’s cheap, it’s human. Vince is the three-card-Monty guy and Monte Hall charmingly rolled into one. But that’s not even the best part.

Vince knows Spanish! (Warning: This one’s longer)



I don’t know if they sang Saved by Zero en Espanol, but this dude’s the real deal, slinging the lingo as if he were born south of the border.

And of course, you know it’s entered popular culture when people start making parodies. (WARNING: expletives galore)

Well done, Shamwow. I dare anyone out there to tell me it’s not a horribly brilliant ad.

Why is this athlete smiling?

Sometimes you can use sports to sell stuff that has nothing to do with sports. Best example is probably the Super Bowl, but here's another. A wonderful campaign from Kuala Lumpur for a fabric softener.

No words, but do you get it? Of course you do. Tough guys unable to prevent themselves from hugging someone they should be pummeling because the should-be foe's uniform was washed in Softlan Eltra.

Another ad in the campaign is just as fun. Well done, Y&R Kuala Lumpur. Could you come over here and teach the GoDaddy and Sales Genie folks a few things?

LeBron, you funny!

Ha!



Who woulda thunk it? Beast on the court, humorous soft touch off it. That really is amazing.

On the surface, I’m with a lot of fans who love this spot. It shows a side of LeBron that we don’t normally get to see. It’s surprising. And funny.

So on it’s own, it scores. But it’s a continuation of the NBA’s “Amazing Happens” campaign, and needs to be evaluated in that context as well. Here’s one of the spots from last year:



Very different. Very, wonderfully amazing. Makes me interested in the NBA. Makes me want to watch more NBA action.

And more than anything else, it makes me feel that NBA players are uniquely interesting and pretty spectacular and just kind of cooler than those other somewhat inferior professional athletes.

I’m drawn to their personalities in an unexpected way. That’s a pretty hard-working ad.

So when LeBron sings Time After Time, I’m loving it and I like him a whole lot.

But it doesn’t make the NBA feel all that amazing.

The first "Year Of..." of 2009

So far, 2009 is the year of the teaser ad in sports. First, G. Now, this:



The rumors are flying: LeBron is leaving to play basketball; Lebron is going to the Knicks/Lakers/Maccabi Tel Aviv Electra; LeBron is co-starring with Hugh Hefner in a reality show called "The Girls Next Door to Lebron..."

I like it. It gives me just enough information to care and wonder, and not enough to give anything away. Hail Nike.

It is Nike, isn't it...?

One for the futballers

Even though I played soccer from 1st through 10th grades, I’ve never been a rabid fan of the Beautiful Game. But I appreciate a lot about it: the stamina, the athleticism, the amazing goals…and maybe most of all, the fans.

One of the best sporting events I ever attended was at Highbury a few years ago to see Arsenal play. The energy in that stadium rivaled the old Chicago Stadium during the playoffs…and this was an early, regular season game. The drum beats made my heart pound, and the chanting made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, even though I couldn’t understand what they hell they were saying.

But what I could understand was the passion, the commitment, the involvement of those fans with their team. I may not concede that soccer is the best sport in the world, but it’s hard to argue that the fans rule.

Nike has taken advantage of that incomparable fan passion to create a soccer spot that I not only understand, but love. It features lovers and haters of futbol phenom Ronaldo.



Could they have done this with any single American athlete? Doubtful. To engender a massive amount of heartfelt passion, you need to start with something that a lot of people are very passionate about, and I’m not sure any American athlete would qualify. Except maybe David Beckham.

Waitasec. He’s not…ah, never mind.

To pull or not to pull?

What happens when your morning mug of coffee is accompanied by a mug shot of the celebrity endorser in whom you’ve invested millions of dollars? There's not enough cream ‘n sugar in the world to make that particular cuppa joe taste better.

But is it bitter enough to pull the ads featuring your bad boy? For T-Mobile, yes.

They did some nice work recently featuring Dr. J, Magic Johnson, DWade and Charles Barkley, but Chuck did his own work on the Scottsdale roadways earlier this year, ushering in the New Year behind the wheel with a blood-alcohol level of .149 percent , nearly twice the legal limit of .08 percent in Arizona.

T-Mobile has pulled the ads. Charles has also lost his NBA studio gig on TNT. Oops.

Wicked, wicked alcohol. It’ll get you in trouble and lose you lots of good things, like jobs and endorsements. And the things that go with them, like really colorful suits and the freedom to gamble away $10 million over a few years. Plus, people will enjoy making fun of you (although it’ll also put you in some pretty prestigious company). Oops.

For now, all the interested parties have done what’s expected of them. Charles has apologized and T-Mobile has scrapped the ads, but like Marv Albert, Steve Howe, Bill Clinton, and probably even Pacman Jones, they’ll be back.

It’s not the illegal part that makes me crazy. It’s the stupid part. It’s watching golden eggs fly away when all you have to do is sit on them. Sad truth is, for the uber talented, there are always more golden eggs.