Heinz Canada worked with the Rethink Toronto to put up an IMDB page but it was ultimately removed.

All this did was which further Heinz’s tongue-in-cheek outrage and generated a ton of free press. With IMDB playing right into its marketing plan, Heinz is asking its fans to look for the ketchup in movies and share them on their social feeds in exchange for free ketchup. Don’t offer a ketchup lover freebies because they will go seven extra miles to get the thick red stuff., with the promise of free ketchup for those who take part.

Take a look at the brilliance of this commercial:

This according to Brian Neumann, senior brand manager of condiments at Kraft Heinz Canada:

“Award season is an occasion that gets everyone talking. As we look to deliver more contextually relevant and timely content to our consumers, we wanted to find a way to join the conversation. Nothing speaks more to the iconic nature of Heinz Ketchup than our appearances in countless films. This felt like the perfect time to reward our fans for spotting us in their favorite movies”

Rethink Toronto’s creative director Mike Dubrick told the Clio Muse:

“Heinz is front and center in some of the biggest movies and greatest scenes of all time. It’s one of those things that once you notice it, you can’t stop seeing it. As we were looking for ways to further cement the brand’s iconic status, it just felt right. If Wilson the volleyball gets in the credits, why shouldn’t Heinz?” 

It’s true, Wilson the Volleyball does have his own IMDB page.

The campaign’s massive response from fans has been nothing short of impressive. How will it all end? Who know, but for now, I’ll have what she’s having…

CREDITS
Spot Title: Heinz On Film
Creative Director: Mike Dubrick, Nicolas Quintal
Art Director: Hayley Hinkley, Vanessa Harbec
Writer: Jacquelyn Parent, Matthieu Lacombe

The post AD OF THE WEEK/MONTH/WHATEVER: Heinz Oscars Snub appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

In the last installment of The Biz, I recalled origin stories about my life in the New York ad agency world, including Schelp-Rock, copywriters, and would-be vampires. In the continuing saga of agency life, here’s an ode to a shirt ad that inspires even today…

*Read the copy below…

Back at the agency I was buddies with one of the creative directors. Martha was in her forties and I was in my twenties. She was tough as nails, but also had a glow of a beauty pageant queen. She hated her name because it wasn’t glamourous and some would brand her as “old” before even speaking with her. I could see her cut down a vendor at the knees and then strut down the hallway like she was working the catwalk. She was amazing when it was the 11th Hour and a campaign was due. Together, we never missed a deadline. She gave all of the credit to her Creative Director Kit that sat on her rickety bookshelf that sat opposite her drafting desk.

What was in that Creative Director Kit, you ask?

The kit was a curated collection of childhood memories: bobbleheads, vintage cameras, Charlie Brown lunch boxes, industry awards, Star Wars action figures, a View-Master in its original packaging, and Pez dispensers. While other non-creative departments often gossiped about how the kit was an overreach, i.e., a middle finger to the non-creatives, inside the department, we used it as the springboard to the Mendoza Line of the minimums of greatness.

Over the years, I’ve noticed that the greatest advertising creatives I worked with give their Creative Director Kits deep thoughts and carefully ensure that additions and subtractions to these shelves aren’t taken for granted. While their desks are disorderly messes, their muse art grease the wheels of capitalism and advertising art. I chronicled my kit a while ago here.

In Martha’s case, on the right partly hidden by her three Clio Awards and wilted bamboo leaves were a few classic print ads—some hers and some clipped from the pages of Life Magazine or Sports Illustrated. One ad that always caught my eye was powerful image of a man with an eye patch that rested upon five chunky paragraphs of copy: “The man in the Hathaway shirt.”

This legendary ad, conceived by David Ogilvy in 1951, is arguably one of the most inspiring pieces of advertising copy ever conceived and the pre-curser to non-sequitur campaigns such as Dos Equis “The Most Interesting Man in the World” and all of the Geico mascot ads. On eBay, there are dozens of framed reprints for auction with sales reported as “brisk.” The origins of the ad are a lesson in serendipity mixed with thinking outside of the box.

The man behind the Hathaway Shirt: Ellerton Jette

Ogilvy was on the way to his Hathaway shirt photo shoot when he stopped at a Manhattan drugstore and was struck by the jar of 50-cent black eyepatches. He bought a few and became a trailblazer for a brand new style of rogue advertising. Ogilvy was under a tight $30,000 national advertising budget set forth by Maine-based CF Hathaway, a new client who had never advertised before. He knew something out of the ordinary was called for but never expected that the eye patch would become part of advertising lore. He suggested to his photographer, “Just shoot a couple of these to humor me. Then, I’ll go away and you can do the serious job.”

The eye patch became the talking point, the buzz of the fashion industry. Without it, the Hathaway campaign was simply another shirt ad with a fit, well-dressed man in an upscale tailor shop. With the eye patch, the ads had a hidden story that made the reader wonder what really happened to this man. Where was he? What did he get into? It appealed to both women and men. The perfect ad.

The first media placement was in the New Yorker, clocking in at over 10 per cent of the total ad budget ($3,176, or the equivalent of $31,288 today). The impact was immediate. Seven days later, every Hathaway shirt in the city was sold out just seven days after the ad appeared.

“The man in the Hathaway shirt” is a master course in copywriting. It’s an ad for a short but created a myth and a legend in one fell swoop without ever deviating that the shirt is the primary reason that three thousand dollars was being dropped on a single magazine ad that reached approximately 350,000 people in 1951. Even more startling is that this 247-word advertising manuscript is almost impossible to put down. Try finding an ad now this long in our short-attention-span world. Even today, the copy flows like a novel would, conjuring instant pictures of the finest that a shirt company could offer:

The man in the Hathaway shirt

At long last American men are begging to realize that it is ridiculous to buy good suits and then spoil the whole effect by wearing a cheap, mass-produces shirt. Hence the growing popularity of Hathaway shirts, which are in a class by themselves.

Hathaway shirts wear infinitely longer — a matter of years. They make you look younger and more distinguished, because of the subtle way Hathaway cut collars. The whole shirt is tailored more generously and therefore more comfortable. The tails are longer, and stay in your trousers. The buttons are made of mother of pearl. Even the stitching has an ante-bellum elegance about it.

Above all, Hathaway make their shirts of very remarkable fabrics, collected from the four corners of the earth—Viyella and Aertex from England, woolen taffeta from Scotland, Sea Island cotton from the West Indies, hand-woven madras from India, broadcloth from Manchester, linen batiste from Paris, hand-blocked silks from England, exclusive cottons from the best weavers in America. You will get a great deal of quiet satisfaction out of wearing shirts which are in such impeccable taste.

Hathaway shirts are made by a smaller company of dedicated craftsmen in the little town of Waterville, Maine. They have been at it, man and boy, for one hundred fifteen years.At better stores everywhere, or write C. F. Hathaway, Waterville, Maine, for the name of your nearest store. In New York, telephone MU 9-4157. Prices from $5.50 to $25.00.

Ogilvy on the campaign: “For some reason I’ve never known, it made Hathaway instantly famous. Perhaps, more to the point, it made me instantly famous.” It also made the eye patch famous.

The patch started popping up in other company’s ads featuring eye patches on cows, babies, and dogs. Ellerton Jette, Hathaway’s president, was laughing all the way to the bank having being the genius of deferral, allowing Ogilvy to dream up a campaign unencumbered, promising never to change a word of his copy or fire the agency.

Over the years, I’ve convinced colleagues to take a deeper dive in the Creative Director Kit found in every creative’s office because ads like Hathaway truly puts things in perspective. As the old golf saying goes, you “drive for show and putt for dough. And while it is true that the big drive off the tee brings the oooooooooooo’s and aaaaahhhhhh’s, the short game is the hard work just like the Big Idea is the hard work and when you land it, it makes you indispensable.

So yes, “The man in the Hathaway shirt” sets a very high creative bar. If you find the ad sitting in the in a creative director’s office, rest assured this is someone who aspires to greatness. Someone who realizes their duty is much more than their desk or their paycheck. Someone like Martha. A nod to the diligence and creative energy of yesteryear.

–>

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Okay, so where am I?

I’m out on vacation from my 60 hour a week marketing gig working my other media job that I can only do when I’m on vacation. Good thing my 60 hour a week career has a liberal time-off policy akin to the countries of France and Brazil. Ah, the things I do to make commercials and extra scratch for the folks in Japan!

So, I’m at Atlanta and I made the mistake of letting my office handle the arrangements and I wound up in the bad part of Atlanta…called Atlanta. Take a look in the header of this blog and picture this friendly, All-American face wondering in Atlanta and gasp, “Ohhhhhhhhhhh Noooooooooooo!”

Not great, Bob!

I don’t know if you’ve ever been driving around a sketchy neighborhood and you do what I do and tell yourself, “It’s me.” Yep, it’s me judging the neighborhood inappropriately.

I do it a lot and I cannot lie.

My inner dialogue went something like this:

“Stop it…it’s fine…it’s different and I like it…thank you! What a vibrant community to let my rental Mercedes idle at these loooooooooooooooooong, long lights. Nope! No danger here….24 hour check cashing places? What a wonderful service. Yes, those should be on every corner!…Oh ‘Cash for Gold’ you say? Yes! Thank you very much, let me scribble a note down just in case.”

I knew it was a bad area because I saw a pimp strolling around. How do I know it was a pimp? Close your eyes and picture a pimp. Yep, that’s him. Do not, I repeat, do not alter your first draft of mental pimp in the least. A man in a Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat suit, a furry fedora, a glass cane, platform shoes, and a pinky ring.

Indeed, I saw a pimp.

Listen, I’m not babe in the woods but seeing a pimp outside of the movies (*) in 2018 where all such activities are reserved for the world wide web is a clear indicator that I was in the wrong part of town.

A mile away I arrived at my hotel and, I don’t know if you’re still playing the picture game, but it wasn’t looking like a Four Seasons. It was more like an abandoned building here someone spray painted the word “Hotel” on the side of it. So there I am checking in behind 20 inches of bulletproof Plexiglas and imagining what a delightful stay this is going to be while asking what the Wi-Fi password is but not being able to hear though the muffled sound of an apathetic front desk clerk.

It was then when it hit me. It doesn’t have anything to do with me or or my perception of the area. This is just a messed up area and I need to get the hell out of here. So there I am in the middle of the transaction, wallet in one hand, roller bag in the other, I was like: “Never mind all of this!” as I kept rolling back out hoping my Mercedes wasn’t on blocks at this point.

I roll out to the parking lot and this whole thing is playing out like a Jeff Foxworthy standup routine and jump into the my car with my bag on my lap pretending to be Snake Plissken,  but really more like George Costanza facing a fire.  All I knew is I need to get somewhere more bougie.

With my handle trembling towards my GPS system I proceeded to search for the most bougie place I could think of in Atlanta: Barnes and Noble. (**)

(**) I feel many of you reading this are wondering if you can laugh at this one, while others are you are quietly filing this away mentally to use at a later time when you find yourself in the wrong part of town. Other businesses that will work for this get out of sketchy scenario include: Panera and the Apple Store. 

Whatever you think of this strategy, just know that in 22 minutes I had a scone and an espresso while getting a foot massage at The Ritz-Carlton Buckhead. (***)

(***) – AD OF THE WEEK/MONTH/WHATEVER
Glico
Agency: Me, The Media Guy, Michael Lloyd

Here’s the work that came from the Atlanta meetings and that scone:

The post Pimping Out Atlanta appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

Okay, so where am I?

Currently I’m drive straight into the hellfire known as the Skirball Fire that’s across from The Getty Center threatening to shut down the freeway and burn down every decent home along the way.

God bless the first responders and the Los Angeles Fire Department for trying to save our homes, our lives, our pets, our wildlife, and our neighborhoods. Quite frankly, I am overwhelmed with the Armageddon of it all.

While I slogged through traffic my mind wandered to happier things like Christmas decorations. Yeah, I know I am supposed to call it holiday decorations, but you know, all of the decorations, EVER, are Santa, Rudolph, or elf themed. So, for my columns I am sticking with Christmas decorations…

There nothing like christmas decorations that can get me out of the holiday spirit so fast! I would have to say, I am very particular about outdoor christmas decorations. You read my previous columns railing against giant inflatables and now the latest irritation are the influx of motion detectors that flood the walls of homes with a blanket of shimmering stars or blinking lights. Now at the flick of a light switch your decorating is now done!

Christmas decorations at their perfect best.

I’m going to call fraud because with one Target or K-Mart purchase, you’ve become the Bernie Madoff of your block. The whole street is painfully aware of your egregious shortcut and should bring you in front of the neighborhood watch for Christmas decorating crimes. I mean at the local Starbucks, your neighbors are all bemoaning the laziness and your sharp veer from tradition.

Here’s how you properly decorate your home: you get out your ladder, your trusty hammer, some small U-shaped staple nails, and a strong of lights. And not just any lights. Get the old school ones, you know, the misshapen oval red and green glass bulbs. I guess the white icicles will do as well, but nothing else.

Top Tip: Use clips instead of a hammer and nails.

Place that ladder under your house, climb up, and hammer and tap your way systematically placing those lights just below your roofline, moving your ladder inch by inch to admiring glances of passersby noting your old school work ethic. Weakening the wood in your house you say? Nonsense. All you need at the end of the season is to work some wood putty into the holes left by the nails when you take them down in January. Some nice touch up paint and your house gets the TLC it deserves. It’s a small price to pay for authenticity…yet I digress…

Once you finish your uniform tappity-tap-tapping, you climb down the ladder, plug in your lights and marvel at your laborious creation. Simple, simple. But while I am at it, let’s tackle Christmas cards.

There is no greater joy than opening a Christmas card with warm heartfelt message included inside. However, there are no tidings of comforts or joy for Hallmark, American Greetings, and other card markers because their annual holiday staple, the Christmas card, is ebbing from Americana, fading from the landscape of traditional communication. It wasn’t long ago, the annual Christmas card exchange was one of the highlights of the season. A way for far-flung friends, relatives, and acquaintances to stay in touch.

Mailboxes were once filled with paper holiday treats, each one giving more love than the one before. Now they trickle in like water from an old pump well in the Sahara Desert.

Facebook has taken away the Christmas cards (and birthday cards for that matter). Log into your social media go to a friends pages and whip out five to 10 words wishing someone a happy holidays and your work is done, albeit half-heartedly.

How about thumbing your nose at technology and bring back the card exchange in an ode to Christmas tradition with a couple of changes:

1) The superstars of the Christmas cards are: decorated trees, holiday ornaments, Santa, reindeer, and carolers. Send me a card with one of those stars on the front of the card. If you’re going to be so nice as to send us a picture of your family, remember, as adorable as you all are, you aren’t cover material. The family picture should be a 4×6 print that goes inside the card you send.

-and-

2) Please refrain from your urge to include your annual newsletter that chronicles all of the details of your past year. I’ve been following your social media and again, this is about Santa and his merry clan of friends and helpers.

Help me save Christmas or let’s just wrap New Years into a combo gift giving / celebration night into one tidy holiday.

AD OF THE WEEK/MONTH/WHATEVER
Three Great 2017 Holiday Advertisements to Re-energize Your Holiday Spirit


Cost Plus World Market
“The Performance”


The llamas take over…

Lego
“Christmas Film 2017”


Sensei Wu saves Santa who is then able to save Christmas…

The post Saving the Spirit of Christmas appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

If you think I’m going to bore you with the myth :they could have fit on the door but Rose just wouldn’t share,” then think again. It’s been proven (somehow) that they could not fit. I mean Jack tried to get on the door and it started to sink because they were too heavy. Pretty much that’s the end of that discussion.

Any pictures of those grandkids? Nope!

What I wanted rail on is that when Rose dies at the end of the movie, she goes to that shiny Titanic in the heavens and meets Jack at the top of the staircase. How furious do you thing Rose’s husband is while he waits for her at the Pearly Gates?

I mean, this lady has a wild, one-night stand with Jack and she’s going to meet him at the end of her long, selfish life?

Did everyone forget that she was married and had a bunch of kids with this husband?

Did the writers forget?

She was married for decades for goodness sakes! To a good man it seemed. A man that Rose was using so she could ride horses, jump in planes, and pose for boudoir pictures.

Rose shouldn’t be going to see Jack on that fresh shiny staircase. She should be going to see her husband. And right there you realize that Rose DeWitt Bukater might be the most selfish character in the history of film.

Let’s draw the line even further. Kate Winslet’s Young Rose was someone I would have loved to hang with in a post-Prohibition USA. Filled with moxie, highly educated, and quite adventurous. I imagine her to be quite the wingwoman as well.

It’s Gloria Stuart’s Old Rose that I take issue with here.

Old Rose is the villain you missed the first time you watched!

Old Rose set the stage with helping us forget. In the last few minutes of the movie, we see all of those pictures on Old Rose’s night table. Are they pictures of her family? Maybe a wedding pic? How about those cute grandkids Jack foretold as he was getting ready to die in that freezing water?

Nope. Just her. And what about that necklace.

Yeah, I get that your douchebag fiancé gave you that Heart of the Ocean necklace (aka Le Cœur de la Mer) and even though he’s dead now, you really want to keep sticking it to him by throwing it overboard, but for goodness sakes, that Louis XVI diamond is worth $250 million.

Maybe it’s just me that had to scrub toilets to pay a bar tab in 1990 when my original wingwoman went home with my date and my wallets, but $250 million is a truckload of cash. Oh Old Rose. Think about all of the people you could have helped by selling that gem off at Sotheby’s and creating the Old Rose DeWitt Bukater Foundation. Maybe, just maybe, chucking a priceless necklace off the side of the search boat is a bit irrational.

Did I say priceless? What I meant was two hundred million dollars! Which brings us why you where asked to come aboard Mr. Lovett’s private funded ship in the first place…

No, it was because of your emotional voice-cracking Titanic testimonials. The sole reason you were invited by Mr. Lovett was that he found out that scandalous drawing of a lady wearing the Heart of the Ocean was you.

Yes, he happily invited you aboard his boat, and why not? His life’s work was spent studying the Titanic and developing the needed technology to explore the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean and find this precious gem. Surely you knew this going in Old Rose, didn’t you?

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest…


AD OF THE WEEK/MONTH/WHATEVER
“Gorilla” – 1970
Company: American Tourister
Ad agency: DDB/Doyle Dane Bernbach


DDB (Doyle Dane Bernbach) specialized in self-effacing styled advertisements in the late 1960s / early 1970s. The geniuses at this firm brought this style to America Tourister, mocking nearly all aspects of the consumer culture.

Before the “Gorilla” spot, DDB put the American Tourister through the rigors of life, showcasing the product’s resistance to accidents, clumsiness, and malicious intent. The long running campaign provided ample real estate to render more realistic instances of a consumer’s life. People ran over American Touristers in cars and were dropped from airplanes. DDB took full aim at the beloved advertising icons of yesteryear, lampooning the compliant porter, the admiring butler and the Philip Morris bellboy.

The 30-second spot entirely of a gorilla (actually a man in a $20,000 ape suit) in a zoo cage, slamming an American Tourister suitcase against the bars, walls, and ceiling — all while the stereotypical 1970s deep-voiced male voiceover calmly and sarcastically assured us that the product could withstand the beating without worry:

One could (and should credit) DDB for American Tourister’s continued growth through the seventies. By the time the “Gorilla” commercial was winning awards, the company was one of the most popular manufacturers of mid-priced luggage in the United States. A general industry upswing in the 1970s helped the firm rise to a new peak in sales. Luggage owners replaced cases at a more rapid rate and leisure travel in general was on the rise. These trends and the company’s entrance into the growing market for business cases helped the company achieve record sales.


The Gorillas of the Ad World

Bill Bernbach and Ned Doyle worked together at Grey Advertising in New York, where Bernbach was Creative Director. In 1949, they teamed up with Mac Dane, who was running a tiny agency, and together they started Doyle Dane Bernbach in Manhattan. Dane ran the administrative and promotional aspects of the business; Doyle had a client focus and Bernbach played an integral role in the writing of advertising, serving as the creative engine of the agency.

The agency’s first ads were for Ohrbach’s department store and they typified the new “soft-sell” approach using catchy slogans and witty humour in contrast to the repetition and hard-sell advertising that was in vogue until then. The new agency was initially successful in winning business for clients with small budgets. As of 2013, DDB has had the Volkswagen account since 1959. Their campaigns for Volkswagen throughout the 1950s and 1960s were said to have revolutionized advertising. Notable campaigns included the 1959 Think Small series of Volkswagen advertisements, which was voted the No. 1 campaign of all time in Advertising Age’s 1999 The Century of Advertising. In 1960, the agency won the account of Avis, then the number-two auto rental company. The tongue-in-cheek approach, “We Try Harder Because We’re Number 2,” was a major success (and remains part of the company’s slogan today: “We Try Harder”). The DDB “Daisy” ad is considered a significant factor in Lyndon B. Johnson’s defeat of Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election and landed Maxwell Dane on the infamous Nixon’s Enemies List. 1972’s Little Mikey commercial for Quaker Oats ran continuously in the U.S for twelve years.

A branch office was opened in Los Angeles in 1954. In 1961, DDB opened its first international office in West Germany to service Volkswagen. Significant growth came in the mid-sixties after the firm signed Mobil Oil and the available budgets grew materially. Offices in London and other European locations were opened. Bernbach was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 1968 when the agency was publicly listed; he became Chairman of the Executive Committee in 1976.

The impact of Doyle Dane Bernbach’s creativity on advertising around the world, and the history of management crises that led to merger in 1986, are detailed in the book Nobody’s Perfect: Bill Bernbach and the Golden Age of Advertising. Written by journalist Doris Willens, who served as DDB’s Director of Public Relations for 18 years, the book is based on oral histories and interviews with the three founders, the line of the agency’s presidents, and key creative and account people. By 1986, four years after Bernbach’s death, the agency group had worldwide billings of USD $1.67B, 54 offices in 19 countries, and 3,400 employees, but showed profits declining 30% on the prior year.

The post Gorillas appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

Okay, so where am I?

I sitting in my hotel room staring at a keyboard that doesn’t move and won’t move as a wrestle with my inadequacies that only copy can deliver to an imperfect mind. It both frightening and paralyzing. I have four books in print, countless commercials still on air, and a straight from Korean theater to DVD movie I’ve penned and yet, one client shakes her head at some ad copy and I freeze up.

But why?

Digging around the mind of anyone in this odd cricket-herd we call advertising and marketing is a virtuous way to see some bizarre and dreadful things. So, to poke a manicured finger into the hornet’s nest that is your own professional essence is less the subject of a quirky column and more the act of a dodgy madcap.

Nevertheless, the psychosomatic makeup of the regular Joe copywriter comprises the kind of struggle, hallucination, and outright hysteria that coerces us to peel away the aluminum foil helmet and renders the delirious truth. (I’ll warn you though, this column contains a daring amount of wild generality and no trivial degree of hypocrisy).

In most copywriters there exists an abnormal sense of privilege. Not that we demand a powder blue dressing room filled with green M&Ms, pricey writing instruments, and precisely-chilled Perrier, but more a obligation to be listened to. The very nature of the job is to be, not the loudest voice, but the most gripping – to say something predictable and common in a way that feels extraordinary and compulsory. How often have you seen a copywriter punctured by a message that, within the promotional vortex, whines timidly to be noticed?

We’re also guilty of a festering exasperation, a moral disrespect for those who believe that anyone with fingers, eyes and direct access to ink or Microsoft Word is capable of writing serious prose. And, we see these characters everywhere, even prowling in the shadows of our finest and most fruitful client relationships.

A sentiment that our contribution isn’t quite as valued by some as we know it should be is perhaps the energy fueling another common apprehension: a compulsive, crippling, infuriating conscientiousness. Leave some copywriters alone with a flawlessly erected headline and they will rip it to shreds, splattering the walls with a spray of progressively unsatisfying substitutes. I’ve met many a writer chase down a final draft on its way out of the door, paralyzed by a fear that there may be not enough, or indeed too many, commas.

Your typical, well-fed copywriter is also unsettlingly contented with their own professional schizophrenia. We are personas with endless voices and takes clattering around in our minds, with the aptitude to debate for, and against, any exact point with identical persuasion. And yet, while we’re capable of nurturing all kinds of dissimilar voices, we never truly release our own. Even in that 2200-word manual for a digital camera, our own unique style clicks quietly around the onscreen shutter speed menu.

We are, I suppose, beasts of inspiration trussed inescapably to authenticity. We define success by artistic genius, knowing ultimately it is only properly defined by commercial performance. And amongst all this, we bungee jump in and out of an offbeat state of absorption – spellbound by a brief about insect repellant, or chewing gum, or coffee drinks all the time knowing that none of it really exists. Writing, like advertising, is the art of sculpting fog.

That’s just a few of the phobias and idiosyncrasies I can identify in myself and other writers with whom I’ve interacted. There are some of us who share these, just as there are some with no recognition at all, for this somewhat lumbering picture of our vocation. There are some, I’m quite sure, with an even more complex relationship with the job.

Whether it’s the foundation of abnormality that the job that sends our way, or whether it’s our inherent foibles that direct us to this weird working life, I’m unsure.

Ink on the page, ink on our hands and, without doubt, ink on the soul.


AD OF THE WEEK/MONTH/WHATEVER
The Olivetti girl


Advertising legend George Lois crafted the “Olivetti girl” ad for electric Olivetti typewriter in the mid 1960s. But just who is the Olivetti girl? (From the George Lois website:)

WE HAD TO MAKE THE OLIVETTI TYPEWRITER FAMOUS FOR SECRETARIES TO ACCEPT IT.

Olivetti, the great ltalian typewriter, had been advertised in America with a primary emphasis on the beauty of its design. Among industrial design cognoscenti, Olivetti was always synonymous with beauty, but most people wouldn’t recognize good design if they tripped over it. Sales of Olivetti’s splendid line of electric typewriters had gone stagnant while mighty IBM had the market locked up. IBM was so dominant that purchasing agents of large corporations would rarely even consider buying another brand. We had to breakthrough the IBM barrier. To plot our strategy, Jim Callaway interviewed many key buyers and found that while they regarded Olivetti as a top-notch typewriter, their hands were tied. Secretaries, they explained to Jim, felt that IBM gave them status. So we conceived the Olivetti Girl, who would out-status everyone. We told secretaries that Olivetti was the typewriter to type on. And we were putting across a message that was being seen by her boss, her girl friends, and all those reluctant purchasing agents. We produced six ads and nine TV spots that showed the Olivetti Girl as the star performer in her office, as the secretary who typed faster, neater, sharper, as the girl most I likely to succeed. (One of our headlines summed it up: “When you want to do something right, give it to the Olivetti Girl!”) In a few weeks, brand awareness of Olivetti leaped, and sales of Olivetti typewriters went through the roof.

THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN VS. BROADWAY JOE NAMATH

Believe it or not, these ads were the genesis of the first #TimesUp movement.  The Olivetti campaign burst on the scene in 1972, just as the National Organization for Women was flexing its muscles. NOW attacked the campaign for stereotyping women as underlings (they were furious that only men were shown as bosses while only women were shown as secretaries), and they called me a male chauvinist pig.

They picketed the Olivetti building on Park Avenue and sent hecklers up to my office to un-n-n-nerve me. Something had to be done. Who can fight a woman’s fury? I capitulated. I would do an ad and a TV spot, with a woman executive giving orders to a male secretary. I cast an actual woman exec (not an actress) as the boss. I cast Jets great Joe Namath as the secretary (because he could type).

Lois invited the women of NOW to view the spot, but when they saw the boss ask her secretary for a date at the conclusion of the spot, they were aghast. (You do very good work, Joseph. By the way, what are you doing for dinner tonight?) “It’s an old story,” I said. “The boss always tries to make the secretary.” They cursed Lois, walked out, and never bothered that male chauvinist pig again.

From “Rebel Secretaries,” Time magazine, March 20, 1972:

“This infuriated a group of New York City secretaries, backed by members of the National Organization of Women, a feminist organization, which picketed Olivetti’s headquarters. The 2,000,000 U.S. secretaries —nearly all women, many underutilized and underpaid—would seem to be ideal recruits for Women’s Liberation. Yet few so far have joined the cause. Nevertheless, with new pages being turned almost everywhere else, some are being flipped over in shorthand notebooks too.

Last week, responding to complaints from employees, the U.S. State Department ordered its executives to stop treating secretaries as “char help,” to show a little more diplomacy toward them and to encourage independent secretarial decision making.”

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I just pulled off an impressive haul at the 38th Telly Awards. I’m stuck in traffic on the 101 Freeway near Hollywood, watching the world swirl around me in a rage (more on that later). One good thing about traffic is that you get a lot of chance to think.

Who wore it better…yeah, Adele did…

I’ve been to 38 states and spent considerable amount of time in 18 different countries. I’ve lived on the west coast and the east coast. I’ve spent upwards of 1,000 days in the Middle East. Having seen the world through different eyes, this expanded living has immensely helped me in my career as an ad man.

“Why is that?” you ask…

…simply you have to live to understand.

Understand the people.

Understand the micro-cultures that exists in pockets of the globe.

You have to get stuck in a traffic jam there. Eat there. Deal with the weather there. You have to deal with a crisis. You have to build a rapport with the people there. Understanding is the key to great advertising, marketing and public relations.

Through all of these experiences you begin to see the differences beyond the stereotypes and the superficial reporting of the media. You see how united we are and how divided we are. But the power of culture is an overwhelming attribute that many mid-level media types miss when researching a new project or campaign.

Yet I digress in traffic as people yell at one another, salute with their middle finger, and slam their cars into each other while texting.

Can we calm America’s road rage? Seriously we all need to take a deep breath. Road rage is frightening. Sometimes it’s deadly. It’s where flaring tempers mix with two-ton machines and continues to be a problem on America’s highways, leading to accidents, assaults and occasionally even murder.

It’s a perplexing problem in part because it can happen at anytime and anywhere that roads and vehicles are involved, yet specific statistics on its frequency are hard to come by.

All that aside, though, there are solutions that can at least reduce the number of road-rage incidents. People who are easily angered by slower drivers, detours and other traffic disruptions can be taught to be more aware of their responses and modify them to reduce accident risks, according to research published by the Society for Risk Analysis.

That let’s-calm-down approach is applauded by Scott Morofsky, author of the books “The Daily Breath: Transform Your Life One Breath at a Time” and “Wellativity: In-Powering Wellness Through Communication.”

“Sometimes there’s this tendency to throw on the brakes when someone is tailgating us, or use an obscene gesture at an aggressive driver,” says Morofsky, who developed the concept of Wellativity, which helps people address any behavior that inhibits wellness.

“But when you encounter an aggressive driver, you don’t want to engage them or do anything to further agitate them.”

What are some of our behaviors that can aggravate other drivers? The No. 1 culprit is drivers who are texting, according to the Expedia Road Rage Report. Those texting drivers upset 26 per cent of us. Other offenders, in descending order, are tailgaters, left-lane hogs, slow drivers and drivers multi-tasking.

Of course, those examples represent situations that can raise your ire after you are behind the wheel. Often, the foundation for fury on the highway was laid before you got into the car. Maybe you had an argument with someone earlier. Maybe you are stressed because you are running late for an appointment.

“Probably all of us at some time have been angry and someone wisely told us to take a deep breath,” Morofsky says. “That’s actually good advice because breathing and taking in oxygen plays an important role in every area of our health and well-being.”

He offers these tips for heading off your own road rage or avoiding the rage of others:

• Don’t turn that ignition. If you are feeling stressed and anxious before you even start your trip, then the time to calm down is now, not after you are on the highway. Get a grip before you start the car, Morofsky says. Take that deep breath you always heard would work. You might even try counting from one to 10, inhaling on one, exhaling on two, up to 10 and back to one again. “You want to be relaxed before you head out,” he says.
• Stop right there. If you are already driving, and you feel your anger is starting to impact your judgment, pull over for a few moments. “Breathe and ask yourself, is my problem important enough to risk lives?” he says. “Taking a few conscious breaths could prevent a catastrophe.”
• Don’t react or retaliate. You can’t control those other drivers, but you can control how you react to them. If someone is tailgating you, flipped you off or is just infuriating you with bad driving habits, ignore them, Morofsky says. Engaging in some sort of road-rage argument will just further raise your blood pressure, and could prove dangerous in some circumstances. This is just one more opportunity to take that deep breath, he says.

AD OF THE WEEK/MONTH/WHATEVER
“How to Put on a Bra”

There’s been a lot of talk recently about hacking, spy work and the like. I remember back in the day working on an intimate line of clothing and trying to push the envelope on the commercials I wanted to make. Alas, could not get my cutting edge ideas to air. I stumbled on this clip recently and whenever the road idiots get in my way, I imagine them being one of these keystone cop types against this brilliant atomic blonde.

The post SUMMER LEARNING: Bras Can Solve Road Rage appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

I’m at the local 7-11 buying my twice weekly Powerball tickets. My grandfather always said I was going to win the lottery and I believed him. Today I have good reason to buy a couple of $2 orange tickets because the jackpot is worth about $447 million dollars.

Yes, a boy can dream!

Speaking of dreaming…What makes a winning ad? In a today’s advertising world, nearly anything can be turned into an ad. It doesn’t seem to matter what’s in the ad—geckos, puppymonkeybabies, talking cows—there’s still nothing quite like a little gambling fantasy to to remind you of the fundamentals of great copywriting and art direction.

On my way to the 7-11 I heard the California Lottery Powerball Commercial on the car radio and it is magical, yet the “Snowfall” television spot is even better.

From the first strike of the piano keys, the commercial sends chills through your imagination cortex.

The commercial shows white lottery balls falling from the sky like snow. The lotto balls fall in some of California’s most famous landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, at the truck of the Sequoias, and Downtown Los Angeles. The balls fall in a swimming pool as a woman looks out the window, unsure of what she’s seeing. People everywhere are looking up at the sky, watching the “snowfall”. One man is standing in the pouring down lotto balls, when he holds out his hand and catches the red Powerball.

Yes, a boy can dream and sometimes dreams do come true.

The California Lottery wanted to go beyond showing the great things in life you can do with a lot of money, and focus instead of the possibility of winning the lottery — a 1 in 175,223,510 shot , according to the Powerball website.

But still, you can’t win without trying, and you won’t try unless you believe in something bigger than yourself. The Scala and Kolacny Brothers’ “California Dreamin'” cover sets the tone for this dreamy ad and the lyrics, perfectly composed by Mamas & Papas icons John Phillips and Michelle Phillips still conjure up the perfect image of a better life…

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My Los Angeles Kings* flamed out on their way to the Stanley Cup. Shoot, they didn’t even make the playoff this year. Nothing left to cheer for in the 2017 playoffs except every team playing the loathsome Anaheim Ducks. Attention NHL: let’s get this done ASAP.

Needless to say I’m a little depressed after watching this season. So many reasons including the Bob Miller, the vaunted voice of the Kings is retiring after 44 years and then the team’s decision to fire the coach and the general manager right after the season ended.

To say I need a stiff beverage is definitely an understatement.

For once, I have to tell you that this column is written for more for me than for you. And so, if you don’t want to read my catharsis about a sports announcer, I forgive you. Come back later for a new column or re-read an old Oscars column. Today, it’s about a beloved voice that impacted me in ways too profound to truly describe…

Bob Miller is special for many reasons. None of which most would ever understand. In my sports universe, Bob was there for almost every high and every low. Bob Miller announced 3,353 Kings games, closing with this unscripted speech:

For those 44 years and nearly 4,400 games, Angelenos have been hearing those passionate words come floating out of that voice: the most passionate, most welcoming, most knowledgable voice in the sports universe. And if it feels as if this voice has been a part of your life forever, well, it probably has.

He has been as much a presence over these last 44 years as the cool ice mist and the sparkling spotlights that hover above the broadcast booths where he has spun his magical web of hockey tales. So how am I supposed to comprehend life after Bob, life after hockey’s most iconic voice exited the booth for the last time?

When Bob first walked into the Kings broadcast booth, I was just a kid who was allowed in Jack Kent Cooke’s office stuffing season tickets into envelopes. I went to so many games in the early years, that I only heard his voice on away games and home games that were sold out (those were the games I couldn’t go to for free). In a game that featured non-stop motion and a rubber disk you could never see on a 1970’s TV he drew a verbal picture that guided my hockey senses for nearly four decades now. It was one particular instance that forever engrained him into my life.

It was April 22, 1976. My Kings were overmatched against the Big, Bad Boston Bruins (yeah I hate alliteration too) playing game six at home trying desperately to force a deciding game seven. Try as we might, there was no ticket to be had for me. Staying at home wasn’t something I was used to doing when the Kings played. After all I had been to about 100 games in three seasons. With the game NOT on television (imagine this today), I sat cross-legged in my dad’s Inglewood apartment as I listened on my Toot-A-Loop radio, staring intently as if I was willing Bob’s voice from the device. The game ventured into overtime and the playoff torture was on. Each shot resulted in a heart attack for this eight-year-old. Late into the fourth period of the game, the magic happened and I can still hear the words exploding from the AM dial:

So how do I capture the magnitude of Bob Miller, the meaning of Bob Miller, the majesty of Bob Miller? I guess it is not with my words, but with the words of the people who have known him best and whose company he has shared:

To some of you reading this, you’ll say, “it only sports.”

To me…to many…Bob Miller was the steady voice showing us the way. First, through decades of failure. Then through a pinnacle of success. He was the cadence of my life. The one steady force I could count on to get lost with after a bad day or celebrate on a good day. Surely, there will be someone decent, maybe good, maybe great, to replace him over the airwaves. But that all rings hollow right now.

I’ll miss you Bob.

Hockey will never be the same.

#ThankYouBob

AD OF THE WEEK/MONTH/WHATEVER


Panasonic was the trail blazer of the gadget mobility path. Making electronics smaller and smaller was a big part of the second-half of the twentieth century. The the Toot-A-Loop could transform from a loop that (kind of) fit around your one’s wrist into a shofar-like horn contraption, and yes, it was also a radio.

The Cooper Hewitt Museum explains “Simply by twisting the swivel joint at its thinnest point, the radio opens out into a snake-like ‘S’ shape with a bold, circular station selection dial at the top and the speaker grill at the bottom.”

In print ads, Panasonic emphasized how crazy such a radio was. It was no gray box. No, it was “as much fun to look at as listen to.” While I opted out of the color model — I went white — the device that predominantly delivered Bob Miller voice during hockey games was beautiful with smooth, interesting curves. Good times…!

Toot-a-Loop Radios – great ads. Great sound. Better with Bob Miller.

The post #ThankYouBob appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

I’m on a conference call with the big bosses of Strong Zero based in Tokyo trying to get them to change the radio ad that I penned. Why should I campaign for change? Take a look at the television version they made:

This is definitely NOT what I had in mind when they said they would float me an extra $800 in royalties for the added exposure on TV…Ugh…

All of this got me thinking about what makes a great radio ad. I have written nearly 100 radio commercials over the years. Some were great. Some were smart. Some were shlock. Nearly all worked and the clients were happy.

Why were they good? Well, I use a few principles that guide good copy. Take a journey with me…

A barn.
Blue skies.
A horse running through the fields.

A great image just came to your mind reading those words, right? But what color was the barn – red? What color was the horse – brown, white, black, spotted? And while the horse was running through the fields under the blue skies, was it a winter day with snow on the ground or were there wild flowers growing. Whatever your answer was, it doesn’t matter. The image that came to mind was relevant to you and that is the power of radio commercials.

Therein lies the the secret formula: regardless of who you speak to and who works on creating radio ads, they all share the same thought – ads on radio always tell a story and, if done well, it’s memorable.

When working on radio ads, here are some quotes that can help you remember what makes great radio.

“Speak softly…” While that may be a portion of President Roosevelt’s memorable phrase, it can also apply as advice if you want to get the listener’s attention. You could yell, and that might get the listener to remember you – remember that they don’t like you.

“I get no respect.” Yes, that’s a famous Rodney Dangerfield line and when he said it, it made people laugh. Humor doesn’t always work, and in fact it is difficult to pull off so you have to do it right.

“You really like me!” Sally, who wouldn’t like you? And like Sally Field, making sure that listeners like your commercials means that they will remember the message you send.

“I have a dream.” Those were the words of Martin Luther King.  Those words drive a strong and emotional reaction today as they did back in 1963.  Radio ads should always prompt an emotion – whether it is sad, funny, happy, etc.

“Rome was not built in a day.” Writing great radio takes time, patience, and work. Sometimes things that look good on paper may not sound.

“Tried and true.” Just because it’s been used before doesn’t mean it works. Keep away from clichés.

“If you build it, they will come.” Putting together a script for a great radio ad is good but why stop there? Make it great by putting just as much work into producing it as you did creating it.  You can’t fake the sound of someone running when creating a sneaker commercial.  It’s not believable and they won’t buy the product.  Now, have someone really run while speaking.  It takes it to a whole new level.

What is the most powerful use of sound?  Silence.  Sometimes the most effective sound is no sound at all.  It causes the listener to “lean in” and really hear the message.  When it comes to radio creative, silence really can be golden.


AD OF THE WEEK/MONTH/WHATEVER
Radio will surpass newspapers in local ad revenue by 2021

Usually I bring you a clever new or TBT ad to spark nostalgia or your creative energy. But today, I couldn’t resist telling you that radio is growing again! A new report from industry giant BIA/Kelsey foretells digital ad spending for local radio stations will increase with the fastest growing segment not being over the air, but rather on digital platforms.

BIA/Kelsey’s 2017 Investing in Radio report details that the 2016 digital advertising income of U.S. radio stations was up 14 percent. Online radio includes locally targeted online streaming advertising on services like Pandora as well as online properties of over-the-air stations.

The report found that by 2021, radio will surpass newspapers and become the fifth-largest media category among advertisers. Over-the-air income raked in the biggest piece of the pie at over $14 billion.

“In an age where consumers have many entertainment choices, local radio maintains its strength and popularity in the marketplace among national and local advertisers,” said Mark Fratrik, SVP and chief economist at BIA/Kelsey.

Direct mail remains the most lucrative segment of local ad spending. Radio revenue is expected to hit $14.9 billion this year, and by 2021, it will top $16 billion, according to the report.

The news-talk category wins the most improvement category with robust presidential campaign spending taking Washington DC’s WTOP to the top spot with $67 million in revenues. $67 million? Who know that local radio could generate like this?

The post Radio Ads: The Secret Formula appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.