Wish I'd invented it: advertising that tells and shows. Check out this solar-powered magazine ad promoting green energy in Israel. Look at it in the publication under artificial light and it's a black-and-white sketch. But hold it up to sunlight and the image morphs into living color right before your eyes.
Webroot, the largest privately held Internet security company in the U.S., is targeting tech-heavy home consumers in the US and Western Europe. They're out to prove that “You don’t care how it works, as long as it does.”
Their website overwhelms, as most technology sites do, but their newly launched ad campaign keeps it real simple and just funny enough to attack an unfunny problem.
As a veteran of McCann-Erickson Worldwide and several other ad agencies, I can personally attest to the fact that many of the quotes and not a few of the hijinks on AMC's Mad Men are spot on and not a little unfamiliar. Yes, there are stories, but I won't tell!
I will say one thing, advertising (and marketing) is now and always will be about knowing the customer very, very intimately.
Limn, an inspired San Francisco art and design institution, beautifies their parking lot and the neighborhood with advertising unfurled on fabric. I appreciate the impermanence and flexibility of this medium. A quick and intelligent way to increase street cred.
As a confirmed health food advocate, I recognize that granola lovers can get a little too serious about millet, garlic cloves, spirulina, tofu, rice cakes and wheat grass juice. Have you ever wondered why so few people are smiling in health food stores? Gardenburger is changing all that. They say, "Eat Positive" and are putting fun (and politics) into their advertising and the category.
"Peace, Love & Hominy!"
I was profoundly moved by the "I AM AFRICAN" advertising campaign. Moved to learn more about Keep a Child Alive, an organization dedicated to providing life-saving anti-retroviral treatment to children and their families with HIV/AIDS in Africa and the developing world. Moved to donate.
The ads are powerful, provocative and beautiful, projecting an urgency to help. Showing us, whether we read the small print or not, that we are all on this tiny planet together and impacted by what happens a continent away.
David Bowie, Gwyneth Paltrow, David Byrne, Alicia Keys, Oprah, Kanye West and Bono, among others, are lending their faces, voices, money and time to support Keep a Child Alive. Imagine your own face, your own heart, connected at the most primal level with all others. Who then can afford not to get involved?
Take Action Somewhere Somehow.
Versace is recognized more for aggressive fashion statements than "pretty in pink".
I was intrigued by the full-page Bright Crystal fragrance ad featured in last week's New York Times Sunday supplement, sensing, ad woman that I am, a repositioning of the Versace brand. "Soft power" (with a touch of Lolita), was written all over it. I immediately Googled everything "Versace".
The perfume's backstory confirmed my suspicions:
"Delicate tastes of colorful and juicy pomegranate grains, lotus flowers and the enticing presence of plant amber, acajou and musk. A perfect scent for the Versace woman who is a hybrid of strength and confidence yet feminine, sensual and always glamorous."
Versace is finally waking up and reaching beyond their original target audience. Not that we will ever forget Elizabeth Hurley snuggly ensconced in a black Versace gown, held together, just barely, with golden safety pins.
I am hard to please when it comes to advertising. Maybe because I've been in the business for so long. But I really like this one – Inconveniently Telling the Truth. Real Time with Bill Maher – announcing Maher's return to TV. It's funny, honest, has the important information in big type, plays to Maher's acerbic personality and includes a penguin.
Click the ad, which appeared on yesterday's front page of the New York Times' "Today's Headlines", and you'll land on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher site, complete with video clips, community, bulletin boards and merchandise. Natch. Go Bill.
Eagle Eyes: Doubleclick's url showed up for a split second, just before I linked to the HBO site from the ad. They're optimizing this web ad's effectiveness, tracking response and viewers all along the way.
