With her signature mixture of humor and mindfulness, Mondelez marketing chief Dana Anderson generated laughs and knowing nods this morning at the 4A's Transformation Conference in Beverly Hills, Calif. Anderson's topic was collaboration, and, true to form, she delivered it with the ease of a standup comedian.
It's that time of year again, folks. St. Patrick's Day! A day to commemorate something about snakes and a potato famine, or drinking green beer and singing a little ditty, or ... what is it about, anyway? Judging by today's branded tweets, it's about green clothes, shaming your pets with green clothes, and making green food—and if it's not green, adding green things to it. Notably quiet are the alcohol brands, with nary a St. Patrick's Day mention from Guinness, Budweiser, Miller Lite ... ahh, there you are, Coors Light. Way to come through. Check out some of today's branded St.
With its decision yesterday to withdraw support of today’s St. Patrick’s Day parade today, beer giant Guinness became the latest beer brand to pull its support of the legendary parade, which draws about a million spectators and 200,000 marchers in New York each year. Both Heineken and Boston Beer (maker of the popular Samuel Adams brand) recently announced that they would be sitting on the curb this year, too.
Colorado is proud to be the first state to legalize recreational marijuana use. Ad creatives in Colorado are happy to have an opportunity to make stoner references. Three new PSAs for the state's Department of Transportation (by Denver agency Amélie Company and HSI director Simon Cole) gleefully remind would-be weed smokers that they are free to act like idiots while doing many things—but not while driving. Get high and do a bad job installing your TV. Get high and do a bad job playing basketball. Get high and do a bad job cooking steaks. Don't get high and drive. It's pretty simple.
What a load of bulgogi. The grilled, marinated meat from Korea is suddenly on the media's plate after this strange ad was placed in The New York Times last week. Texas Rangers outfielder Shin-Soo Choo—a huge star in his native South Korea, but not so much in this country, where he actually plays—offers up a morsel with chopsticks. Copy begins: "Spring's here and I'm ready to play! And do you know what got me through training? Bulgogi. Try some at your favorite Korean restaurant. It's delicious!" Thanks for the tip, Choo!
When you're a Muppet and there's a new movie coming out, chances are you'll find yourself in a simultaneous ad campaign or two.
Talk about a rude awakening. After a night of cocktails, group dinners and revelry, ad industry executives gathered at the 4A's Transformation Conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., awoke today to a California-like greeting: a 4.4 magnitude earthquake. Those staying at the conference hotel, the Beverly Hilton, largely shrugged off the 6:26 a.m. rustling, though it generated plenty of jokes at breakfast (Was it as good for you as it was for me?) and the opening of the general session.
By David Schwab, Octagon First Call Season 18 of Dancing With the Stars kicks off Monday night with some big changes—most notably, Erin Andrews is the new co-host, replacing Brooke Burke. Like Burke, Andrews is a past competitor—she finished third on Season 10. Andrews has a strong (mostly male) fan base from her days on ESPN and current gig with Fox Sports, so this new role should make her more of a household name with women. She is already busy in the endorsement space, with current and past deals including Reebok, TruBiotics, Diet Mountain Dew and Ticketmaster.
A lot of U.S. zombies don't get the chance to see things through the eye holes of their neighbors to the north, mostly because of the constant and distracting craving for brains. The Canadian Film Fest, which opens Thursday in Toronto, rectifies this with the amusing spot below from JWT that shines a light on the challenges facing Canadian zombies—namely, that they're too nice for the movies. The spot is sprinkled with the usual softball tropes about Canuck culture, but with a twist. Antoine Zombé isn't an overly apologetic Canadian actor; he's actually undead.
It's been almost a year since we've seen Terry Crews psychotically scream his way through an Old Spice sales pitch. So, to make up for lost time, we get twice the Terry in one spot. "Get Shaved in the Face" is the newest oddity from Wieden + Kennedy, which first tapped Crews in 2010 for a series of over-the-top spots directed by comedy duo Tim & Eric. In this installment, Crews faces the existential dillema of whether to shave off a facial hair that appears to be his micro-clone.
