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The UnReal Thing How do I say this without sounding like a total putz. Deep in my heart, discounting the fact that these guys got me my 15 seconds of fame in the New York Times last month, I think the new Coke Campaign is truely dreadful. "Let's Get Real" premiered on the now bullet-proof "American Idol" show last night. If the acerbic Simon Cowell had my job, I'm sure he would agree that the all-girl garage band featured in the spot put only one thing to mind. Thank God those girls don't practice next door to my house. The spot went on forever (it was a :60) and the heavy-handed cutting and forced product interaction made me think I was watching a Sundance reject from five years ago. What could Brand Coca-Cola be thinking? Billy Davis, my old running buddy from Motown days and the genius behind "I'd like to teach the world to sing" must be twisting in his crypt at Forrest Lawn. |
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| Here, on what is arguably the biggest showcase for marginal to abominable vocal talent on the planet, Coke gives us a band that would make even Paula cringe. I can hear the pitch now. "No Chuck (Mr. Fruit to us) really. Here's the thing. These girls are like so not the Bangles. I mean they really could be the girls next door, you can't wait to wear themselves out. See. That's the whole point. They are MAKING IT REAL...Get it?" Now at that point, Mr. Fruit is suppsed to bury his head in his hands and a faithful assistant is supposed to show the Worldwide Executive Creative Director the door. No, really. |
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THIS BLOG IS
SO COOL THAT I JUST WANT TO THANK YOU. THE ARTICALS ALWAYS MAKE
ME THINK. JEFF D. MEMPHIS |
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EVERY TIME YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH YOU SEEM TO PUT YOUR FOOT IN IT. WHAT MAKES YOU THINK PEOPLE IN ADVERTISING NEED YOU TO LOOK OVER OUR SHOULDER? WAYNE Q. NEW YORK People in advertising - HW |
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That's the way it's supposed to go. This is Coca-Cola. This brand has been responsible for some of the greatest music in commercials. "Iconic" was the word Mr. Fruit used in his marching orders to the worldwide creative forces. "Iconic", not moronic. But that's just one person's opinion. Of course, if you look at the performance of the stock ( which is all I really care about) you see that the new crew has been able to bottom out the nose dive of August and September, but flat is not my idea of performnce. And after seeing what the team did on their flagship media outlet, confidence is low. But the un-reality is not stopping there. Can we talk about how Mcdonald's has apparently also lost its way. A McDonald's sandwich somehow miraculously falls from the skies and lands on the ground in front of two proto-slackers, who give the now-standard "what's up with dat?" smirk.Then one of them reaches down and examines the sandwich, as if contemplating an instant snack. Bad Music for Coke. Road kill meals from McDonalds. The two historic leaders of the creative revolution in advertising. Is this is what they have come to? I give a lot of disrespect to lack-luster agency creative performance. With good reason. Take McDonald's for instance. A few years ago, Keith Reinhard, head of DDB/Needham ( McDonald's Agency) was asked about the changing landscape of the agency business. Reinhard's proposed solution to the problem was to suggest reinventing the entire industry.Ê "If we doen't," he stated, "we will become carpenters, as opposed to the architects we aspire to be." Certainly there is no easy answer to the question of how to reinvent an entire industry, nor would the process be a painless one. Reinharted stated that "Agencies must change their entire structure, hire new people with different skills to the ones usually sought in ad agency executives, and find new revenue streams."But the key thing agencies need to do, according to Reinhard, was to find a way to charge for their core competency: the creation of ideas. If this is indeed the case, and picking up burgers off the street is the product being charged for, then it is the buyers of these services that should be brought to task, for accepting such shabby workmanship. McDonald's woild never accept delivery of a deep fry cooker that leaked hot oil. How could they bring themselves to accept advertising that denegrated their product to the point of sidewalk litter? But then Mr. Reinhard believes that advertising as a business is slow to change, and he laments the fact that managers worldwide have not been able to point out a client who hasn't changed their fundamental approach to business more than the agencies have. "Advertising is the most conservative industry," he says, "and we should be the most creative." Where was he when the McDonald's creative group was being so creative with their product they positioned it as a side dish for road kill?
Our New Look. I wish I had some kind of lofty, esoteric justification for the new look of MadisonAveNew.com, but the truth is, I was just bored with the old look. A virus attack took out all of our archived jpg files and so I decided that since so many of our readers are using portable devices to check us out, I'd go ahead and make it easier for them. Besides, I would rather spend more time art directing our DoubleThink campaigns than this Adblog anyhow. I know Jeffrey will probably have some issues about the fact that we have walked completely away from his look and feel at Hollywood-Elsewhere.com. But change is good. We rebuilt the archives and in the next few weeks we'll be building out the rest of the site as you can see by the addition of MadisonAvenew.com sight navigation. For those of you who have complained about having to scroll across the page, I don't want you to think we've gone to a narrower measure just for you.The narrower measure is so I don't have to write so much drivel each week. Enjoy Heh, heh, heh. Not one word about Mitsu. The campaign is done. Now is when the fun begins.
Stay Tuned. |
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MARKETERS
FROM OGILVY
& MATHER ADRANTS BANK
OF AMERICA DELTA
AIR LINES WELCOME And
You.
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