Today, Slate has a slide show featuring a whole host of racist and stereotypical advertising imagery throughout the 20th century, like this bit from 1964: I can just picture in my mind, legions of white men in suits and horn-rimmed glasses sitting around Madison Avenue boardrooms just loving all of this. But the slide show ends with Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima, now more dignified in their appearances, but as the …
This Ain’t No Disco, This Ain’t No Foolin’ Around
The Tech Observer by Kevin Maney launched earlier this month at Condé Nast's new Portfolio.com. The blog is written by Kevin Maney of USA Today fame. He's also a member of Not Dead Yet, a powerpop band from Clifton, Virginia. Maney starts things off with a bang. 1. This is the smart tech blog. The thoughtful tech blog. The irreverent tech blog. It will burst bubbles. It will probably get in trouble, just hopefully …
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MySpace Moderation Required
According to Daytona Beach News-Journal, a steering committee, made up of volunteers from businesses and the community, has been meeting since fall tasked with providing a blueprint for Daytona Beach's future that will preserve the city's quality and vitality. Recently, the committee set up a MySpace page to improve its outreach efforts, but that move backfired when unseemly ads from MySpace "friends" began to appear …
Data Is Draft’s Friend (It Can Be Your Friend Too)
New York Times advertising critic, Stuart Elliott, joined agency big wigs at a swank resort in Southwest Florida this week. He came away with a litany of Draftisms, also known as maxims from The Howard. Mr. Draft, remarking on the trend toward consumer generated content, paraphrased a familiar advisory by the advertising leader David Ogilvy: “The consumer is not a moron. She is your wife.” Mr. Draft’s version: “The …
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IPG’s Roth Says We’re All Doomed–Well, Sort Of
You have to dig really deep into this Adweek article to see how perceptive Michael Roth is. Here he is speaking at the AAAA Management Conference: Like the airline and music industries, the ad industry must adapt and evolve with the times, said Roth, who quoted Charles Darwin toward the end of his address: "It's not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent—but the one who is responsive to …
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A Real Promotion In Virtual Clothes
On Monday, crayon helped launch its first official effort on behalf of Coca-Cola. The effort, known as Virtual Thirst is a promotion where consumers generate content in virtual world, Second Life. Agency principal, Joseph Jaffe says: "Instead of purchasing an Island and creating a grandeous ediface of brash self-congratulation, this was a lot more understated and ground up." Here's an early entry in the contest... …
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Winter, You’ll Miss It When It’s Gone
Houtlust kindly shares a new Greenpeace ad from TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris, Johannesburg (where it's coming up on winter). …
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The Word “Advertising” Is Under Attack
You know that old "Advertising is dead" meme? It's baaaaaack. Paul McEnany of Hee Haw Marketing typed up the following: So maybe it's time we just stop calling what we do advertising. What it is now is much too personal to be so shorted with that brand of commercial artistry. When before we were segmented and massified at the same time, today we are increasingly individualized, personalized, and magnified. 10 years …
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