So the big game is on Sunday. If you want to get super hyped-up, we suggest you read Big Daddy Drew’s Jamboroo over @ Deadspin.
The upstart New York Football Giants face the dynasty everyone is sick of, the 18-0 New England Patriots, but being New England Football fans in NYC…we’re excited.
Between all the football and face-stuffing, you’ll probably see some commercials that range from ultra-crappy to pretty-fuckin’-sweet.
We would love to sit and pontificate about which spots we think will be the best, but that’s a waste of everyone’s time. It’s like those pre-tests you took in 6th grade math…before
Problem is, Barber is persona non grata now. Based on media reports, he stands a better chance at scoring a sit-down with Osama bin Laden than with Eli Manning or Michael Strahan. Barber is on the outside looking in at a very bad time for NBC.
We never really liked Barber, mostly for Fantasy Football reasons. We had him when he was Mr. Fumble and we refused to draft him when he was leading the NFL in all-purpose yards. Grrrr.
Whether the Giants win the Super Bowl or not, we think that Tiki has more than fulfilled the Ewing Theory, as explained by One Bill Simmons.
This is sorta how we feel about most of our ex-girlfriends. Sorry Tiki!
Apparently the folks @ Toshiba have not been paying attention to the news. Every major studio has sided with Blu-ray, yet Toshiba has purchased $3m worth of Super Bowl air-time. Ha! “Worth.” It was awfully silly of us to use that word!
We wish Toshiba the best of luck in selling the rest of their $499$149 HD DVD players that will, soon enough, not play DVDs from major film studios.
In the meantime, rumor has it that Microsoft is scrambling to put together a deal that will allow their X-BOX gaming console to house a Blue-ray player.
The Blogosphere, Slighted Again!
Boo-freakin-hoo.
The latest anti-blogging sentiment is coming out of Target’s PR department.
Apparently ShapingYouth.org got all bent out of shape over and advertisement that “targeted” a female’s crotch.
Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets.
We think it’s a bit of a stretch to get offended by this ad.
Either way, it’s important to remember the following, whether you’re a blogger or a large corporation:
BLOGGING IS NOT JOURNALISM. And it doesn’t aspire to be. It’s a completely different art form that has absolutely nothing in common with journalism. They aren’t the same thing, and they aren’t supposed to be.
A blog is a blank website with roughly 17 trillion potential applications. You can use it to make stupid dick jokes. You can use it to post pictures of your trip for your family and friends to check out. You can use it to sell t-shirts…It has no rules. No supposedly built-in set of ethics. No style guidelines. It’s a blank canvas, for you to do with as you please.
Thanks to Deadspin’s Big Daddy Drew for this rant on blogging. We think it will happen everyone understand the big picture of what blogging REALLY is. You can red the full rant here. (Deadspin)
Other Boxworthy Items:
We’re happy to see that Steve Carell has no interest in talking to TMZ. Smart guy. He must have attended a quite splendid academic institution. (TMZ)
Wendy’s is moving their creative chores over to Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners. We expected this, and we’ll miss Mr. Wendy and his red wig. (ADWEEK)
Jeff Zucker is tossin’ the high heat @ mobile companies, commenting on the fact that mobile providers are short-changing content companies as part of mobile deals. (ADWEEK)
…but we did see Amy Poehler, Dax Shepard, and another-dude-who-is-probably-insulted-that-we-didn’t-recognize-him walking into The Spotted Pig this afternoon. And we’re NOT reporting this to GAWKER Stalker.
We told Dax how much we enjoyed “Without A Paddle.” How that movie only gets a 5.7/10 ranking on IMDB is beyond us. For shame.
Sure, when your best line in the movie is “I never thought I’d be happy to hear anything that sounds like Creed,” you’re not going to win any Oscars…but only 5.7/10?!
Ok, enough celebri-tard news for now…we’ll give you our thoughts on Amy Winehouse later on in the show…
Other Boxworthy Items:
Need further evidence that music venues will be the final frontier for making money off music? Our advice to aspiring artists is this: Do what 50 Cent did, invest in energy drinks. Electrolytes, it’s what people crave. (NYT)
We have a membership to Hulu. It’s awesome. Soon enough, you will be able to indulge in the excellence that is Hulu. Check out this exclusive interview with CTO, Eric Feng. (TechCrunch)
Smoking pot will turn you into a caterpillar, and eventually into a butterfly! old man…just watch (GSD&M):
In other news…
It comes as a huge surprise to us that Amy Winehouse even made it to rehab. We figured she would have died on the way. It’s really a matter of time before she shows up on the Faces Of Meth website.
Whether or not she actually uses meth could be the deal-breaker…but seriously, check out the before and after (on the left)!
To Watch Tonight:
FOX - 8pm - Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?
NBC- 8pm - Chuck
ION - 8pm - Momma’s Family
OK, For the love of GOD, would the writers strike end already?!
Lots of things going on today, and we’ve got lots to say about it.
ADWEEK is reporting that LOTS of Moms will be watching the Super Bowl this year. Ok…and?
And there’s more:
“According to a new survey, 80 percent of moms plan to watch the big game and 60 percent say they will watch just to see the commercials. But 76 percent say they don’t think the ads are targeting them.”
So true, so true. The survey we’d like to conduct is the one that calculates ad recall among drunk male fans during a game. Can someone get on that?
New York Times Chips In With This…
Stuart Elliot has stumbled upon the brilliant notion that product placement works better in reality shows than it does in scripted dramas. So let us get this right, when you see a real person using a real product…nevermind. We’ll just stop right there.
But wait, there’s less…
In-program ads target the issue of break erosion, making your advertisements all the more sticky and valuable. Crazy. Didn’t even cross your mind, did it?
Of course there’s also the clever play of “branded content.” Also commonly known as sticking a brand name on some videotaped garbage, branded content is fast becoming a favorite tool among “new media” execs.
Daisy Whitney brings us the pairing of Kid Rock & GM to the table in her TV Week blog. We’re sure GM thought this would be like pairing a delicious Alsace Riesling with a fresh fillet of flounder. Well, to us it’s more like pairing leftover biscuits and sausage gravy with malt liquor. Then again, it is Detroit.
Either way, we’re not interested in seeing ANY more of this.
Other Boxworthy Items:
When we look @ these financial figures for Apple, we think to ourselves: Isn’t Apple just Microsoft with cooler gadgets and better products? (Engadget)
Richard Branson is finally making our dream of being an astronaut blogger come true. Fantastic. (TechCrunch)
Everything you need to knowabout Pysop going public. Can someone tell us what a reverse merger is? (Motionographer)
ESPN has suspended Dana Jacobson for her Eff Notre Dame Jesus remarks. We’ll really miss Dana on ESPN’s First Take this week. Just kidding. (Huffington Post)
So Morgan Spurlock, of “Supersize Me” fame, did NOT find Osama Bin Laden. No word yet on whether or not Morgan will shave his facial hair in attempt to look a bit less like an adult film star. Gawker says he owes the President an apology. Other say President Bush owes an apology for not reading the sign that Spurlock allegedly came across warning of “the strict prohibition against foreigners in their lands.” Maybe Bush thought that the Pakistanis were unaware of the 21st Amendment? (GAWKER)
Just a regular Tuesday here @ SB1748. We’re a fortnight away from the Super Bowl, which means two weeks of over-hyping a game that really needs no hype.
Take a look @ who is buying spots for this year’s marketing clusterbang.
We need to get a couple things out of the way:
Please don’t tell us that you’re surprised to hear about Amy Winehouse’s rock smokin’ habits. Seriously folks, have you seen her?
Jerry O’Connell is funny. For now. Stand by for the official’s review on that call.
Those sausages we promised! Ad Chops loves the humor so much that he’s going to actually BUY some Bud Light…and give it away to strangers before buying some higher quality, hop-infused beverages. We suggest that he try some Belgian Brew if he’s stuck thinking that German Beer is where it’s at.
Elsewhere on the interwebs, AdRants suggests that this spot could have as much stickiness as the “wasssssup” spots from several years back. Please. This sausage spot is funny, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I’ll stop being a Debbie Downer when the youth of New York City start running around the subways yelling “sausages” in their best cockney accents, but until then…get real.
Fear not, residents of Green Bay, Wisconsin: Help is on the way. Now that gunslinging Brett Favre has gunslinged you guys out of the NFL playoffs, you can redeem your parting gift. HBO will now be putting their shows online @ HBO.com for current subscribers. Starting in Cheese Country, the service will slowly roll out across the country over the first 1/2 of this year. Bout time!
So we’re not sure if this new AXE spot is for a chocolate-scented body spray…but we do love that our favorite Lady’s Man line has now been acted out in an ad: “I would like to take a bite outta yo butt!”
You know it’s a slow news day when you’re celebrating commemorating the 10 year anniversary of the Monica Lewinsky Scandal.
Ah, the memories…Slick Willy and his beret wearing, cigar loving heffer.
Sure, The G.W. Bush Administration lacks the hot and heavy scandal of the mid-90s. I guess we can blame that on the fact that he gave up on booger sugar and moonshine long ago, but at leasthelp is on the way for our fledgling economy…can’t wait to get my $200 check to spend on consumer electronics, tractors, bomb-making products @ Home Depot…student loans! Talk about revitalizing the economy!
But hey, it’s still better than living in Canada.
Other Boxworthy Items:
Does it help for creative people to ‘look’ creative? 30 out of 52 people say YES! (Scamp)
Wait, it wasn’t about the taste, Mr. Rivers? Oh, nevermind…
This new spot from Discovery titled “Lobstermen”is cool and all…but I grew up in Maine…and Lobstermen (and women) do not go out Lobstering at night in lightening storms. Yeah, really.
If Discovery got Lobstermen to do such a thing…well good for them…but seriously, this is just silly. (CREATIVITY)
Surprise! Rachel Ray is who we thought she was! (AdFreak)
If your football team is still in it this weekend…and ours is…BEST OF LUCK!
(Note: This does not apply to Chargers fans.)
If you’re in the Green Bay area, well we’ve got a deal for you. Yeah, you better go ahead and hold that:
It’s been a crazy week @ SB1748. It’s already Thursday and we’ve been to Washington, D.C., spied on Vegas and watched the stock market begin to collapse before out very eyes! Can’t wait for this recession.
It’s been busy over the last couple weeks: Jenna Jameson retired, Steve Jobs introduced the thinnest laptop ever made, and Eli Manning won a freakin’ playoff game…AGAIN!
Apparently it’s raining “wicked hard” outside right now, so let’s jam out some boxworthy items before getting soaked. We’ll be back tomorrow with a more extensive post.
If you can’t stand Steve Jobs, or you want to get around hearing “This is really cool!” 4890234 times, here is the MacWorld Keynote in 60 seconds. (Daisy Whitney)
Cool Monster spot from BBDO. But is it really a good piece of advertising? You be the judge… (CREATIVITY)
Crispin Porter, the agency everybody loves to hate, is rocking out some digital work with this new Domino’s Pizza Builder. Can’t hate on something that tastes looks that delicious. (Adverblog)
I’m going to take this advice, get a bottle of wine, and bang out a brilliant idea tonight! (Advertising For Peanuts)
We were going to rock out our first Green Column today, but we’ll let Marc Gunther make it happen for us until next Thursday. (Marc Gunther)
We insist that you check out Psyop’s latest nugget brilliance commissioned by BBDO’s Ireland office:
The Best Part Of CES? It Means MacWorld Is Coming Soon.
We love that Steve Jobs gives CES the ol’ middle finger every year and unleashes Apple’s new gadgets during his own damn keynote at his own damn branded expo!
What can we expect this year?
We were hoping for Apple TV + Bigger HD + WiFi-enabled Movie Library + New iTunes Visualisers all controlled by our iPhone. If Jobs can’t deliver, we’re dumping all of our Apple stock.
Silicon Alley Insider can tell you 5 more things you won’t see @ MacWorld.
Daisy Whitney relays G4’s list ofTop 5 CES Gadgetsfrom this year’s Show.
Don’t Tase Me Bro! I Didn’t Do Anything!
This is beyond scary. We think Steve Jobs is secretly behind the new Taser + MP3 player. Why? For the next time he meets Steve Ballmer in a dark alley.
Here’s another question: WHY DOES THIS EVEN EXIST?
We can’t even begin to wrestle with the obvious question: “What if you accidentally tase yourself when you were just trying to listen to Britney’s latest single?”
Furthermore, shouldn’t this device play CDs cassette tapes?
AdRants reports that Wendy’s might be giving the axe to Saatchi & Saatchi. Whatever. We don’t care as long as we can get a JBC, 5-spot nuggets, and a small Sprite for $2.98. Oh baby, that hits the spot.
The Weinstein Company, one of Hollywood’s biggest independent film companies, is expected to formally announce an agreement with striking writers as early as Thursday, according to Harvey Weinstein, the company’s co-founder.
Other Boxworthy Items:
Coca-Cola’s HR DepartmentGets A Sweet MakeoverThanks to AKQA (CREATIVITY)
The recent development of a potential music tax is music to the ears venue owners. Pun intended. (TechCrunch)
If you have some free time, and you’re Australian…feel free to votefor the ‘word of the year.’ (BBC)
WSJ is moving closer and closer to free online content.Let’s not fool ourselves, they’re going to make more money with advertising sales than they ever dreamed of making with subscription fees. Rupert Murdoch is not running a freakin’ charity, folks! (TechCrunch)
Your very own guide to becoming a brand strategist. (Satchel Of Gravel)
OK, now that we’ve wiped the tears off our face and recovered from the NH primary, we’d like to get back to something more important than the election that is still several months away.
First…The Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD war that has been going on for 5+ years looks to be ending soon.
Guest blogger “The Color Of Moss” (that’s usually green, for those of you keeping score), explains this whole High-End Hullabaloo. In his very own words:
“I need to take 5 minutes here to set the record straight here. The Blu-ray vs. HD DVD battle has been going on, mostly, in the past 5 years. It’s origins lay in the desire to record & play back HD content. So Sony teamed up with Pioneer and experimented with blue lasers. Blue lasers have a shorter wavelength and can fit more data into smaller places (Rocket science, I know). Thus, Blu-ray DVD was born.
Toshiba wanted to do the HD thing too, but decided on their own blue laser research. Microsoft quickly jumped into the HD DVD ring as well, because they wanted the discs to use their “HDi” platform for interactive features. The Sony/Pioneer team preferred to use an open-source Java-based environment. To avoid a format war, the Blu-ray team tried to get Toshiba to use the open-source Java environment, but the big HD DVD partner (Microsoft) said “No.”
Microsoft & Toshiba quickly enlisted the support of Intel, NEC, Sanyo, RCA, Kenwood, and Memory-tech for technology development. Additionally they went to Univeral studios, Paramount, Warner Brothers, Nickelodeon, MTV, Dreamworks, & The Winstein company for content. HD DVD was actually closer, in terms of technology, to regular DVD’s, making production less expensive. Format limitations, which effect the quality of the image, are 1080i, 15GB per layer.
In the meantime, the Sony/Pioneer-lead Blu-ray team started it’s own technology development posse, adding Panasonic, Phillips, Samsung, Sharp, Hitachi, and LG. Even Apple joined the party, with the Sony CEO coming on-stage with Steve Jobs during Macworld ‘06. Content came from Sony, MGM, Disney 20th Century Fox, New Line, and Lionsgate. Warner brothers later decided to do both formats. Blu-ray has a better picture quailty, at 1080p with 25GB per layer.
Initially HD DVD sales seemed to be doing pretty well, primarily because of the low price point for consumers ($199 and up). The first player was on the market 3 months before Blu-ray came out with its first set-top box ($499 and up). BUT! Sony’s secret weapon was the PS3, and with heavy discounting, (these $400 babies were the cheapest Blu-ray player around) the most powerful gaming system ever built enabled Blu-ray to build up a ~7 million unit base. Shortly thereafter, Microsoft countered with an HD DVD drive for the X-Box.
About 170million Blu-ray discs have been sold so far, but the some projections have as many as 1 BILLION discs being sold in 2008. Not a bad trajectory, beating HD DVD player sales by about 4:1. It also helps too that Blockbuster is exclusively Blu-ray, Target is only selling Blu-ray consoles, and the Home Theatre Specialists of America endorsed it.
We know that when the movie studios see the title sales, they think about MONEY...like the $24-billion home movie industry? Yeah, like that. The next step is that they start taking sides. Dreamworks decided to go Blu-ray in August, and just a few days ago, Warner brothers did the same. Universal & Paramount as the only studios that have full-up support for HD DVD, and I reckon it’s not for much longer. Rumors has it that they’re fixin’ to switch.
Straight Cash, Homey. Any Questions?”
So there you have it folks. Hope it didn’t hurt that badly. Special thanks to “The Color Of Moss” for putting that together for us.
A quick synopsis on how the networks are positioned for the extended WGA Strike. While FOX loses a season of “24,” the Super Bowl and “American Idol” should keep them from going hungry. (Alley Insider)
Gosh, Steve Ballmer is STILL not funny! Cool video from Bill Gates’ 2008 CES Keynote. We’re loving the Wooderson cameo…wait, that’s Matthew McConaughey? We thought Wooderson was a real person… (Random Culture)
Motionographer is slurpin’ Psyop again (…and they even admit it!), but with good reason. This Adidas spot is…well…just look. We just want someone to test that swimmer for Performance Enhancers, Peyton Manning told us that you can’t have a 6-pack if you’re over 23 and don’t play professional football! We’re off to buy some bigger shirts. Peace. (Motionographer)
Well it’s damn near 60 degrees in NYC’s West Village today, which might have been a record if it wasn’t 72 degrees on this date last year. What say you, Al Gore? Before we get back to making fuel out of water, coke cans and old flip phones we’re going to run through a few things here…
We Always Knew There Were Little Men Living Inside Pinball Machines
Little side note: Someday CREATIVITY will being to understand that it will be beneficial for them, and their advertisers, to provide embeddable video.
Until then, we just have to link up really cool spots like this one that Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners did for MINI.
Comcast Is Makin’ Moves
With over 6 billion views of its VOD content, Comcast is really asserting itself as a leading carrier of content. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts gave the keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show today.
Other aspects of Fancast make it much like IMDB; you can check out information about casts and crews, review information about past episodes, and look at related photos. Users are also promised the ability to control their DVR online so they can schedule recordings of shows when they are away from home. Furthermore, the service will recommend shows coming up on television that it thinks you might like to see.
Britney Is A “Big Deal.”
No, seriously. The AP sent out a memo today to all its staffers regarding the on-going All-American saga that is Britney Spears. Really?!
When we figure out how to put a poll on our blog, we will ask you if you think Britney is “news worthy.”
We just wanted to blog a few sticky, snackable items on this Frigid Friday…
CREATIVITY is featuring a cool new spot for Monster out of BBDO NY.
We think that internet games and treasure hunts for TV shows are usually pretty lame. Well, ABC has proved us wrong (once!) with this cool new game for LOST’s upcoming 4th season. Ad rants hasthe scoop.
2008 resolutions for the ad industry, brought to you by Advertising For Peanuts. We’re a big fan of #8: “We will stop using great music over crappy spots.” Right on, mate.
We really enjoyed this rant from David Lynch. Couldn’t agree more about watching movies on mobile devices. We’re willing to be that Lynch didn’t wait in line for the iPhone.
It comes as no surprise to us that people prefer to watch television shows on TV as opposed to online. ADWEEK throws some interesting data at us by way of a study conducted by Horowitz Associates.
But seriously, at the end of the day, isn’t it just EASIER to get your content from your TV? And doesn’t it look better? And isn’t it more reliable since you don’t have to worry about your Internet connection slowing down or your hard drive crashing from all that music you stole bought?
It appears that the content that people watch online, is the content that is not programmed as on-air content:
Horowitz Associates found that news and user-generated content (non-professional) are the highest-viewed genres, followed by movie previews, music videos and segments of television shows.
Keyword(s) here: SNACKABLE + STICKY.
LG’s New Box
The New York Times reports that Netflix has inked a deal with LG that will bring Netflix into homes via a set-top box. The product is scheduled to launch in Q3 2008, and other products/features will likely be added.
The new service would combine the benefits of an Internet browser with the luxury of watching movies and TV shows on large, high-definition TV screens. Subscribers would be able to go to the Netflix Web site to create lists of movies they wanted to see. The Netflix service on the TV would offer a simple way to watch those movies.
If we’re talking about a HD DVD/Blu-Ray DVD player with Netflix capabilities, Internet browsing, and God knows what other bells and whistles…then the price point would have to be around a cool $1k for the box. It seems to us that presents quite a hurdle, and it’s unlikely that these will be selling like hot cakes.
TechCrunch really puts the damper on this whole deal and suggests from alternate routes for Netflix:
Who needs yet another set-top box under their TV? People only have room for a few boxes in their living rooms, not to mention the hassles of wiring it up to a broadband modem that may be in another room. Until Netflix gets this feature integrated into the set-top boxes distributed (and subsidized) by the cable and satellite TV companies, it won’t make much difference to Netflix’s overall business. Netflix has indicated that this is just the first such set-top box deal and that it will try to strike more with other set-top box manufacturers. (Maybe it should talk to Google about including Netflix in Google’s secret set-top box project). Before it gets to critical mass, though, Netflix might have to pay for carriage on some of these devices, and it will take years for it to gain meaningful distribution in American homes.
All negative prognostications aside, this would still be pretty damn cool, right? We would love to get Netflix minus those annoying red envelopes.
Skittles Ads Are Funny. People like funny stuff. People watch Skittles Ads.
2007 is starting to feel like that ex-gf or buddy Sal would never shut up about. We promise to stop talking about it soon.
“I met a man on the bus today. I shook his hand. He’ll never see his family again. I guess it’s pretty awesome.”
A Whole Slew Of Other Boxworthy Items:
CSTV will fold into CBS Sports like chocolate chips into cookie dough. CSTV’s online presence and massive amount of interactive content should become a tremendous asset to CBS Sports.
We just hope this means that Gus Johnson will be calling EVERY important college sporting event from here on out.
Apparently the folks @ Lifetime don’t read the Farmer’s Almanac! Tough day to be running around in your undies on the New York Subway with highs in the 20s today! Very cool promotion from the network that is beefing up its original programming.
This is why we don’t play video games: In game advertising.
And now we really begin to understand what Robert Goulet’s death REALLY meant…
From the Jonathan Ogden file for embarrassing TV Spots done by awkward, tall athletes comes Chris Bosh’s plea for you to vote him into the 2008 NBA All-Star game in New Orleans.
