Dabitch.net - Everything is so random there must be a pattern

Have you seen Duval Guillaume’s latest ad for Alfa Romeo yet? In it, they show a filmed story of how they lower a poster to the lowest point on earth (which it isn’t by the way), to make a point about low prices. Oh, hardy-har, isn’t that clever. No. It’s a long way for a drink of water, and the only way it’ll spread (as the agency hopes, I’m sure) is if the punters believe that they actually did this. Watch the film.

Alfa Romeo – Expedition 147: Alfa Romeo advertises on lowest point on earth.

At 01:51 they leave what seems to be a pretty big clue, to let some folks in on the joke: “It’ll be crushed before it reaches the bottom” says a man who knows about pressure. Then they spend some time elaborating on how the special billboard is filled with water and such to avoid this faith. But honestly, do you really think they put a billboard at that depth, when all they had to do was make a cute film somewhere tropical instead (way cheaper). Not to be a bore, but environmental agencies tend to really dislike advertisers tossing billboards all over the landscape. (I recall some soda-pop brand fined lots of money for painting a mountain somewhere years ago, but I can’t find my old adland post about it now.) Agencyspy even posted the question: Is Alfa Romeo’s latest campaign a fake?

I’ve been a bit wary of this particular Belgian agency ever since the Schweppes fountains of effervescence. Their release, which Caff caught first and posted stated: “… fountains through European cities in countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway” – a really random collection of countries (and no cities actually named) coupled with a bunch of large photos that could just as well be photoshopped. Is it Hoaxvertising, as I coined it in the 10*10 – top ten new ad spaces in the past ten years, or did they actually do it? When asked them point blank, they kinda dodged me. Other works from them could clearly be done, like the bowling hole stickers, and then the question only is how many stickers did they actually distribute? Does it matter, when every newspaper and blogs picks up on the story? Not really, they reach the eyeballs they might have missed on the street, via those who talk about it. And that is the idea of “hoaxvertising”.

Just look at the success of the largest drawing in the world, where the student project shown had one part GPS, one part DHL and one part gusto. Stir, mix, make a credible film and toss it up on youtube and bingo – the world was talking about the idea. Erik Nordenankar who made it later clarified with bright red text on his project page that “This is my graduation project on advertising and graphic design at Beckmans college of design. This is fictional work. DHL did not transport the GPS at any time”. Which was fine, since it still kicked ass as a graduation project.

Now that he’s working at Mother though, and is the guy on the left in The Honest Christmas Spam film, one might start to wonder if this film is a real as it portrays to be. Wouldn’t that be funny, if it was set up? I mean, with the name “honest” in the film and all. The conversation might have gone “Hey, Theo Delaney, wanna look like a hero and play a part in our christmas card idea? We’re going to give ten grand to Forward Nigeria and thought you’d be the right guy to help tell the story.”

Then again, nobody actually expects advertising to be honest now, do they? That’s like expecting reality TV to be unscripted.

It's about five-six hours ago that we wrapped it up now, me Bill Green of Makethlogobigger and Angela Natividad Live and Uncensored recorded show 11 for AdVerve (@Adverve) where we talk about sexism in advertising. Sexist ads, and sexism at the workplace. I'm still kicking myself for yet again not managing to be ...what's the word, oh yeah, diplomatic. I know that whatever I said on this topic will probably return to bite me in the ass sooner rather than later, each word chosen should be carefully so, but I've never been that good at filtering between what my brain thinks and what my mouth says. I'm pretty sure I cursed a few times too, oops. I gave the full disclosure that yes, I am a feminist, no matter what other people may think this word means, to me not being a feminist is not possible. There are people who argue that the word "feminism" is excluding men by being a gendered word to begin with. Like I said on the show: Civil rights was already taken. That is what it is. I, as a female human being, should have the same rights as a male human being. Human being is key here - feminism is inclusionary, racism needs to end as well as sexism - basta. Despite all the progress that has been made since the civil rights movement truly sparked in the states, there's still blatant racism in the workplace and in advertising, something Hadji spoke about at length on the very same show. There are people who argue that 'extreme versions' of feminism tainted the word and it's so polarizing it overshadows any coherent argument one might make under its mantle. I've had pals argue with me that the word "humanist" should be used instead, since they know so well my stance on wanting equality for all in the human rat race. But it doesn't matter what word we label it with, to those who don't want to listen, it'll always be the wrong word. We could call it fluffycup and someone would turn it around to say fluffycup-nazibitches, I promise you. I'm also kicking myself for not telling the rather ironic story of when I worked on a campaign about women's rights - as the only woman on the core team - with a household name brand. The work was web-only, so we only communicated via the phone and email. The job began in february, and for whatever reason, the deadline for the sitelaunch kept moving, first it was July, then September, then finally October 4. At that phone-conferance I informed them that I could not work as hard after October 4 as That's my probable due date. The meeting was cut short and the project leader called me up gasping rather agitated How could you not have informed us of this!? failing completely to see the irony of it all. I was rather cold and told him that I had accepted a freelance assignment set to end in July, so if deadlines had been held, there was no reason to inform him that I was pregnant. I brought up something dubbed Schrödinger’s Rapist on the show, you should read the monster thread here at Metafilter: "Hi watcha reading?" for a full blow of women's experiences when we walk down the street to fully grasp what that helpful tutorial was trying to tell the Nice Guy™. The original post is simply trying to explain to Nice Guy™ why a woman may seem "cold" when approached in public. We've been trained by experience. Even just glancing through the monster thread you will see women from all walks of life sharing why they fear and get ever so angry about having to feel that way. It is in that light you need to view ads where women are the sexy half-naked decoration. It's from that point of view that you will understand why it hurts to see sexist ads, these ads are an extension of the harassing world I greet whenever I step outside of my own front door.

Sexist ads reinforce women being owned by other people than themselves, and to top it off these ads invade our home and our daughters brains. We shouldn't have to "lighten up", it's time people try to understand fully where the complaints are coming from. Those asking us to lighten up about it aren't looking at the full picture.

Are some people overreacting to some ads, when they are intended to be funny? I dunno, how many times will you have to hear: "You're cute when you're angry" before you completely lose it? And, as I have argued before, these ads are insulting to men with brains too. Like one quipped under that post on adland "It practically screams "HELLO CAVEMAN WE OWN YOU WITH HORMONES". I've got news for BMW, my reptilian brain does not make expensive car purchasing decisions and I'm truly insulted you thought that it did." Product as hero ads are really hard to do well, they always were. It's not just because products and services have become more complex, only the best creative shops did great product as hero campaigns. This is the holy grail to strive for. Selling without making a joke on someone's expense is a great skill. These days it looks like adpeople aren't even trying sometimes. Working in advertising isn't all that different from working anywhere else, women will be treated different in advertising because they are treated differently in the world. I brought up this study as well: Salary, Gender and the Social Cost of Haggling, to underline my point that salaries being lower for women isn't just because we aren't asking for higher pay. We know that when we do ask, we're labelled "hard to work with". I am, as I have learned, throughout the years, incredibly hard to work with. They said the same about my mentor Paul Arden, but of course when he was, it was cool. Stuff I wish I had said on that sexism show, part 2 & more: That Shiny Suds commercial, and the Adverve sexism show.

Det var när vi var på väg till Amsterdam som Thomas ryckte fram sin ifån och checkade in mitt på bron mellan Sverige och Danmark som jag smittades av Gowalla-feber. Snart var jag också igång och checkade in på Beurs van Berlage under Eurobest 2009, och när vi kom hem till Sverige var jag ju tvungen att hoppa in i kaninhålet till Kina. Alla coola hoppar ned där, trust me. ;) I jakt på en Beatnik Poet och en Golden Gift började jag checka in överallt, och om det inte fanns någonstans att checka in så skapade jag platser. Till exempel den Den Hirschsprungske Samling, Statens museum for kunst, Playblack, Stockholm, och Dance Studio no 1 men populärast är såklart Hemköp Entré, för vi måste alla äta. Jag skapade en pytteliten plats för mitt kontor och tänkte, där checkar nog bara jag in, men oj vad fel jag hade, när jag såg att fetmange checkat in här kändes det som ett litet sajberinbrott, och när jag såg att han checkat in överallt där jag hade varit på den dagen han hälsat på i Malmö kände jag mig nästan lite sajber-förföljd. Han har 30 vaulted items, det är tydligt att han samlar på ting, och jag är ju lika fånig som springer iväg till Värnhemstorget enbart för att plocka upp brevpappret som Morpac lämnat där. Vill ni ha det så får ni komma hälsa på mig. ;) Någon Golden Gift hittade jag aldrig, men Patrick Geuder den turgubben snavade över en i Good Old's kontor. Avis.

Adverve show is online, and as I was listening to it, cringing at my own voice I suddenly remembered a funny exchange that would have been perfect for the show. One of my copywriters asked me with a straight face: **Would you sleep with someone to get a job? I didn't even look up from my sketchpad when I replied "Sure, if I get it in writing ....and then I'll sue that motherfucker's ass off... Would you?" Yeah, we split as a team after that. I'm still not sure if he was being serious or just joshing me, because dude, seriously? Did you just ask that?

Mediavärlden gjorde en kort 15:45 intervju med mig i 2009: "Vem vill se 37 år gamla Super Bowl-filmer, Åsk Wäppling?" Mycket bra fråga, faktiskt. Web archive.

På reklambloggen Adland har Åsk Wäppling lagt upp de senaste 37 årens reklamfilmer som sänts i amerikanska Super Bowl. Bloggen har gått från 30 till 40 000 unika besökare - per dag.

– Reklamnördar, det är faktiskt populärkultur, och många uttryck kommer från de här filmerna.

Vad är speciellt med reklamen i Super Bowl?

– Det är enda gången man har hela landet tittandes på samma reklam. När man spenderar så mycket pengar för att nå så mycket folk då tar man verkligen ut svängarna!

– Man har insett att folk sitter kvar för att se reklamen och att de pratar om de filmer som är mer vågade.

Varför är det du som lägger ut dem?

– Jag har samlat länge, det är många års mailande och telefonsamtal till producenter, reklamare och kunder.

Har du fått tag på alla?

– I stort sett. Några filmer från 1976 saknar, och jag har inga från 75 som var första året Super Bowl var en enkanalsgrej.

**Tjänar du pengar på att lägga ut filmerna?
**
– Jag har lagt in en massa Googlereklam nu, men jag vill ha reklam till en riktad målgrupp, reklamstudenter, reklamare och reklamnördar, så vi får se.

Har du märkt någon trafikökning?

– Ja, jag har gått från 30 000 till 40 000 unika besökare om dagen, och de kommer från hela världen. Jag har börjat använda Google Analytics nu också och ska sammanställa ett statistiskt underlag för att sälja banners.

Advertising Age did something called the "power 150", where all prominent advertising and marketing related blogs from SEO tips to planning and strategy, were ranked by the numbers of readers and followers they had. It checked the StumbleUpon shares, the yahoo inlinks, the Alexa points, the Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook followers, the number of RSS subscribers, as well as the Todd points.

Todd points?

Todd Points (1 to 15): As the only subjective measure in the Power 150 algorithm, 1 to 15 opinion points were assigned to each blog. Todd Andrlik values frequent, relevant, creative and high-quality content as well as unique visual appearance and style. The use of audio, video and graphics is also heavily weighted in the Todd Points.

The rankings went up and down depending not only on new blogs being listed but also the removal of RSS and adding of other rankable social media points. 

Adland: Live from the Cannes Festival

Reklambloggen Adland - med grunadern Åsk Wäppling, vill vara flugan på väggen för alla dem som inte får åka till reklamfestivalem i Cannes i år. Projektet är ett samarbete med videosajten Bambuser.

Advertising blog Adland, with founder Åsk Wäppling, wants to be the fly on the wall for all the people who can't go to the advertising festival in Cannes this year. The project is a co-operation with the videosite Bambuser.

Adland's users can from Cannes film with their cellphones, and at that moment the films can be seen on Adland's website.

We build the Internet: Åsk Wäppling, Adland.tv Åsk Wäppling from Adland.tv answers four questions about the site, business models, inspiration and the web.

What makes you unique?

- When we started in 1996, there was nothing like it. Now there are in themselves many who try to emulate but they have not succeeded in capturing the whole. It has partly to do with me and partly the audience we have, because it is not only advertising people, but it is also teachers and people who have found that it is a popular source of culture. The audience makes us unique.

What does the business model look like?

- At Adland we preserve, we publish, we deliver, we review and sometimes we harass all advertising that exists.

What inspired you when you started this?

- The fact that I, like all advertising people, is not geographically dependent, but I move around a lot. And so do many in the advertising industry, just as it is they work in Düsseldorf, the next day they are in Amsterdam and so on. After all, 

Interviewer, Pelle Sten