Scion presents Biz Markie's Stomping Ground

Check out a tour guided by none other than the diabolical Biz Markie at scion.com/broadband.

Martin Scorsese, Hitchcock style for Freixenet

WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY?

"What Would Jesus Buy?" a documentary about New York anti-globalism-performance artist-activist Reverend Billy comes out in theaters today. Trailer is here.

I had the pleasure of experiencing Reverend Billy's "Service" in person at MASS MoCA a year or two ago. He is hilarious, and actually so funny in his exposing of the ridiculousness of todays giant corporate conglomerates that he is far LESS "preachy" than most "serious" anti globalists.

Also see his Starbucks protest in this Youtube Clip:

Name Letter preference - Newsweek Article

What struck me about this piece that was labeled "Science". Is that on the one hand it appears to be important information for marketers, on the other hand, it is largely useless. Even if you know this, you cannot tweak your product naming to appeal to people of all names. However, you could argue that if you want to market a product towards 20-30 yr old males for example, that you could pull the records and find out what the most common name for north american males in that age bracket is. Still seems like a lot of effort for some possible marginal result though.

From the Newsweek article by Sharon Begley
"Bizarre as it sounds, studies have documented what scientists call 'name letter preference' since 1985. People are more likely to buy brands that begin with one of their initials, so Tom is more likely to buy a Toyota and Larry to buy a Lexus. Even important choices seem to be shaped by this preference: Mildreds are overrepresented in Milwaukee and Dennises among dentists."

Superfad!

I'm becoming a bigger fan of these guys everytime I see new work it seems. Their commercial for Pioneer is a truly amazing feat of animation, film and design. It involves pretty much any type of animation as far as I can tell, from 3d, to anime.

On a more toned down level, I might enjoy these target spots even more. The aesthetic is perfectly on brand while being innovative, engaging and refreshing, not a small accomplishment either.


Target Ads.



Pioneer Ad.

Lars and the Real Girl

Check out the website accompanying Lars and the Real Girl. I was asked to contribute art direction and animation to this Mammoth Advertising project.

Dove's "Onslaught" Campaign

I'm a little on the fence about the question "is this hypocritical or not", but it is daring nonetheless, for a beauty industry giant, to take a look in the mirror, ask the hard questions, and just to put it out there. They could just have pretty actresses rub lotion on themselves ofcourse, and didn't have to take this lead. Marketing wise, it is very transparent, but brilliant nonetheless.



By way of motionographer.com .

Barry Deck Studio

Time to check out the new venture by "kid-design-star", template gothic creator and branding expert Barry Deck. After being a Creative Director for such industry giants as Ogilvy and Red Rockwell, he is now heading his own company again.

Check.

Doug Bartow and Michael Fallone's ID29 wins Harry Potter contract

[From MSN MOney Central:]

A small, Troy, N.Y., advertising agency played a big role in the marketing campaign for the "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

The four-year-old id29 beat out agencies from all over the world to design print ads, Web ads, animated movies, billboards, point-of-purchase, and exhibition displays to herald the release of the book, the seventh and final one in the series about the boy wizard. Sales of the much-anticipated "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," published by Scholastic, began at midnight July 21.

"They loved our work immediately," said Michael Fallone, creative director of id29. "It's a great reminder that in the ad agency and design studio realm, some of the best work is being created by small shops."

The firm developed a design aesthetic and five words -- There Will Soon Be Seven -- that "really resonated with Scholastic," said Douglas Bartow, art director and Fallone's partner in id29. "Our creative became the basis for much of the U.S. campaign and we spent the better part of five months executing the tactical components of the effort."

Other id29 clients have included Pitney Bowes MapInfo, The (Steve) Case Foundation, and Litespeed Bicycles.

London 2012 Logo by Wolff Olins

Wolff Olins, the powerhouse branding agency, founded in 1965, is responsible for the identity design of the olympic Games in 2012 in London, UK.

The unveiling received mixed reviews and even outrage.


"It’s vital that we reach out to those young people in a language that they understand and in technology that’s familiar to them," London organizing chief Sebastian Coe said. "This brand is absolutely the world they live in."
(From the Chronicle article)

Now, first off, I am excited that a logo can still baffle, confuse and excite me. So major points there. However to style something that looks dangerously like eighties graffiti (I know a thing or two about that) seems like a misguided way to "talk the kids' language" and represent "The world they live in". I'm almost 32 myself and the logo feels nostalgic to me... aah those wonderful days of early hip-hop and spraycan art! More 1991 than 2007, no? To be sure, I don't even think this logo is ugly, wrong or inappropriate, quite the contrary. But I almost find it not forward thinking enough.

That said, how exciting that the IOC went out on a limb and let Wolff-Olins do something to shake things up in branding-world.


Apparently epilepsy patients would have suffered seizures from the animated version that has since been yanked off the web:

From the Housston Chronicle:
Epilepsy Action, a British health charity, said 10 people had complained about the animation and some had suffered seizures from watching images depicting a diver plunging into a pool.

The Olympic group said it has taken steps to remove the animation from the Web site and will now re-edit the film.

The design is made up of four jagged pieces that form the numbers 2012. It cost $796,000 and was targeted at young people. The logo was unveiled Monday, and within hours an online petition was established asking for a new design.

London's Design Museum founder Stephen Bayley said the logo was "a puerile mess, an artistic flop and a commercial scandal."

TV networks getting sneakier about commercials

It is interesting to see that the latest form of creativity in the industry today is about inventing new vehicles for delivery of advertising.

From an excellent story on cnn.com:

The Geico cavemen have become popular enough they've become the subject of a show.


Story Highlights:
• Viewers paying less attention to standard commercials
• Broadcasters trying new ways to attract attention
• Nielsen is starting to rate commercials

NEW YORK (AP) -- Some of the most creative thinking in television these days has nothing to do with comedy or drama. It's about the commercials.

Fueled by a growing sense of desperation, networks are inserting games, quizzes and mini-dramas into commercial breaks. They're incorporating more product pitches into programming. Two experimental programs without traditional commercial breaks will premiere this fall. NBC has even called on Jerry Seinfeld for help.

This is all being done to stop viewers with DVRs from fast-forwarding through advertisements, or to circumvent those that do. (Blog: All commercials, all the time)

Adding to the urgency, this week Nielsen Media Research begins offering ratings for commercial breaks, instead of just the shows around them.

"We all need to become more creative in how we incorporate sponsors into a program," said Ed Swindler, executive vice president for NBC Universal ad sales. "No one on the creative side or the business side wants to make commercials intrusive, but we do need to commercialize efficiently so viewers can afford to get free television."

Read the entire article on cnn.com

Brand Apart by Joe Duffy, Book party

Book Release party for Brand Apart by Joe Duffy

The One Club and AIGA invite you to a book party and signing for Brand Apart by Joe Duffy.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Presentation by the author at 6:30 pm.
Reception and book signing to follow.

AIGA National Design Center
164 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010

Free Admission

Call 212.979.1900

RSVP: rsvp@oneclub.org

$100 mine lands on black 26

This clever advertising appears in one of italian airport. It is developed by AdmCom agency for Casino di Venezia. As you can see the luggage belt has been painted and looks like casino roulette wheel!

Agency: AdmCom, Italy
Creative Director: Maurizio Cinti
Art Director: Andrea Ligi, Sergio Lelli
Copyrighter: Rebecca Rossi, Silva Fedrigo

(Source: Digg.com)

KFC puts high pitched tone in ad for kids

I personally still have no inclination to head over to
KFC for some chicken, but the buzz about the commercial did get around to me. I could not hear the tone when the ad played on TV (though I will listen for it again) but in the YouTube version it is really easy to notice. As silly and gimmicky as this is, it does get people talking, who might otherwise not talk about KFC at all, ever. Like me. Well except for that time that hundreds of rats were running around in a KFC restaurant, here in NYC:

Interactive Outdoor Advertising

From Businessweek Magazine:
"SWIRLING SNOWFLAKES
The advertising industry is dreaming up uses for motion capture that literally stop consumers in their tracks. Recently, with little fanfare, Target (TGT ), adidas Group, and Clorox (CLX ) began running interactive ads on subway station walls in New York. One Target ad, a 6-by-20-ft. projection, featured snowflakes gently fluttering from the sky. It seemed unremarkable until you approached the wall. If you swiped your hand in the air, the background scene transformed from a wooded winter scene into a city skyline. And by waving both hands you could send the snowflakes into a swirl.

Adidas chose a similar approach for its ad in the entrance of the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. The ad perked up when people walked by and responded with a shower of shoes. The more they gesticulated, the bigger the deluge became. "People don't ignore the ads—they want to play with them," says John Payne, president of Monster Media, which created the campaigns for adidas, Clorox, and Target. "It's like Willy Wonka."


Photo by Perez-Fox.
See more images on http://www.perezfox.com/2006/11/17/target-new-york/

W+K Tokylab on Apple.com

A nice profile of Wieden and Kennedy's Experimental Graphic Design Lab in Tokyo, featuring Mr. Eric Cruz.

Wieden+Kennedy books.