Slayterbox1748

You were an accident - Durex.

For years now, McDonalds has stood high atop the business world; as one of the most widely recognized brands, it’s no surprise. Even after Super Size Me, a film documenting director/guinea-pig Morgan Spurlock’s transformation from hard ass to lard ass courtesy of a 30-day, all-McDonalds diet, the fast food chain still remains the world’s most popular restaurant.

And even though brands like Subway helped create a new, albeit fictional, demographic of health-conscious fast food eaters, riding the health wave forced McDonalds to reconstruct their public persona. So to whom do those high atop the Mickey D’s food chain owe such impeccable brand resilience?

Their advertisers.

Whereas competitors like Carl’s Jr. seem to have fallen asleep at the wheel with the introduction of their new chili cheeseburger – a newer, more advanced breed of sh*t — can we say the same for McDonalds, who consistently dominates the competition?

With their most recent campaign promoting their Southern Style Chicken Biscuits, the newest in their long line of watered-down advertisements, it seems like McDonalds is playing it safe. But in a world full of progressive advertising, it seems as though many forget the effectiveness of a simple spot. Though adhering to cliches and trying to convince us that a chicken sandwich is “non-conformist” may be pushing it, with competitors like Carl’s Jr pushing turd-burgers to the masses, it’s no wonder McDonalds produces lame (yet effective) ads.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s first crack…

…at the Nike account “(mostly) pleases” says ADWEEK.

We think the story is good, and the brand position is clearly communicated. But in terms of authenticity, it lacks something.

Watch this…

…and then tell us that Russians don’t know anything about American football…or Rugby…or candy bars…or whatever… IT’S BAD ASS. Big ups to BBDO Moscow for showing the rest of the world what we already knew about SNICKERS.

Yeah, we know the Vicky’s Fashion Show was several days ago…

…but a recap is better late than never.

In case you missed it, we’ve done humanity a great service by watching, re-watching, and watching again in slow motion Tuesday night’s annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show on CBS, which we have graciously broken up into only the most important segments. It’s a tough job, and no one really has to do it, but we did it anyway.

Does anyone else think of Tom Brady EVERY time they see Gisele? Ah, TomGis, amazing. Thanks, HuffPo.

MTV Freelancers are walking out @ 3pm on Monday…

…reports Gawker. The 2008 Fall is really shaping up as a fun time to strike, isn’t it? Internal memos are always fun!

UPDATE: 401k plans have been returned to some freelancers…stay tuned…

Thirdway Blog says that…

…Truemers is craigslist meets wikipedia. We say, is that even necessary?

Adverblog gets some hot interviews…

…they recently chatted with Martin Cedergren, Executive Creative Director at AKQA Amsterdam.

Advertising For Peanuts brings the obvious to the table…

And while we award them a big “duh,” we still like the post. The most telling tidbit is the first comment:

Wait, I’m confused. I thought interactives role was to come in at the last minute after the “real” creatives came up with the campaign, and to create a cute site that takes 1 month to make with a 1 week deadline. And the creative directors are supposed to give them the direction of “do something like subservient chicken, but different” and then the client is supposed to slash the budget. Am I wrong?

So true, yo…so true.

Those agency guys are such assholes!

AdRANTs directs us to the musings of Ken Convoy. He’s wicked ticked off about big agencies and their alleged arrogance. This supposed arrogance is news to us…pshhhhhhhh! Where do these agency people get off?!

Convoy oughta know that if you want to beat ‘em, you gotta become one of ‘em…and the morph back…but by the point you don’t want to lose your stock options, hot wife, and endless supply of booger sugar…ah fuck it…

Will Smith’s new movie is going to be…

…banned in China. Bummer, man. Apparently China is putting the kabash on all US films in an attempt to bolster their own film industry during the holiday season. I guess they do this every year, who knew?

Chinese consumers should probably be happy they won’t get to see “I Am Legend.” Wasn’t Will Smith jumped-the-shark at this point? How is he any different than Jack Nicholson? They both play themselves and they have both been sticking 41 cent stamps on their performances since 2004.

We say that the Chinese would be better off picking up Richard Matheson’s short story by the same title (think less-verbose Hemingway + Zombies). The book is always better than the movie, everybody knows that!

We dig this Belvedere spot…

…out of Berlin Cameron United. We guess it’s like a hipster holiday party for vodka lovers, right?

We’re loving the comments @ CREATIVITY Online: “Belvedere - for angry, sloppy, drunks who spread chaos and herpes with equal abandon.” -Dukker

We would be remiss to not take this chance to personally thank Mr.Vincent Gallo not only for keeping his pants on, but for also keeping “it” in his pants. Thank you Mr. Gallo, thank you very very much, kinda sir.

The newest Apple store…

…opens today just up the street from SlayterBox1748’s top-secret headquarters (located in a West Village cave). Our insider information indicates (alliteration, anyone?) that this store is going to sell…the EXACT same stuff as all the other Apple stores. Crazy, we know.

Gawker thinks the place looks cool. Good for them.

But we have some sage advice. Be careful on those stairs. They’re tricky…especially after four or five martinis…we have the bruises to prove it. Safety first, kids.