[ paul isakson ]

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Is that foreshadowing for the sound of this commercial and the web site it's for coming crashing down? This very well may be one of the worst TV commercials I've ever seen. Actually I just watched it again and it is one of the worst commercials I've ever seen. 'Boom! Boom! Boom!?' That blows! blows! blows!

I happened to catch it while watching BBC America today. Is it just me or can you actually see the dollar signs in Jeff Taylor's eyes? It's been reported for quite a few years now that the aging baby boomer population is a prime target as they've got money to spend and are looking to enjoy life after 50.  This article calls out the following:

According to “Selling to Seniors,” a monthly marketing report, people 50 and over control 77 percent of all financial assets in the United States, own almost 50 percent of all credit cards, and account for more than 50 percent of discretionary spending power – 2.5 times the average per capita.

It just seems so obvious that he is trying to cash in on this data. I'm sure that's part of the selling story that he uses with advertisers. The one he has bragged about that supposedly got him six brands locked in at one million dollars each before the site had a single user.

I'm not saying that his site is a bad idea. The core of it very well may have some merit to it given the size and value of this demographic. But the execution is what I find horrifying. I'm not over 50 and I was offended. I don't believe Mr. Taylor is over 50 either and that's where this commercial makes the biggest mistake in my eyes. Well, actually the entire thing is the biggest mistake, but if you're going to do something like this and run TV commercials for it, put someone on there who actually is in the user-group demo.

It's not just the commercial that is offensive. Parts of the site seem offensive as well. Including the name. Eons.com? Why not just call it Ancient.com? Surely they looked up what eons means before doing this. Last time I checked, calling someone old didn't really go over all that well. And then there's the sections and functions of the site. Like cRANKy. Described as 'the first age-relevant search engine delivers not millions, but the four top-ranked sites filtered for people your age.' I really want to know how that works. How can you determine what four things someone will want to see based solely on their age? He seems to use that term a lot - 'your age.'

I wonder how much they actually talked to the target audience of this site and sought out their input for what the 50+ audience would like in a version of MySpace just for them. So much of it seems to be based on broad generalizations.

'Be the first of your friends to log on.' Good call-to-action there. Very insightful. Just like teenagers, the 50+ crowd is big on trying to be cool and trendy with their on-line social networking and being the first one to do it in their circle of friends. 'You're one click away from living the biggest life possible.' Really? This site will make people live the biggest life possible? Wow. That's a powerful statement. And again, probably offensive. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people 50+ who are pretty proud of where they are in life and what they've accomplished without your little web site Jeff.

I could go on for a lot longer, but I'm tired of talking about it already. Like I said above, I think there might be a nugget of an idea here but I'm pretty sure this isn't the way to go about it. Or at least the way to go about advertising it. I hope somebody can and does build a competitive site to this that actually speaks to the audience and recognizes what they really want. Mr. Taylor made enough money with Monster.com. Now he's just being greedy.

Idea for Hire

The other day as I rearranged my bookshelf, I flipped back through Juicing The Orange. As I came to the chapter on The Hire series of films for BMW that Fallon did, I was reminded about an idea I had as the series was wrapping up. Around this same time I was reading an article that Fast Company ran discussing the booming video game industry.

As I read the article my instincts led me to thinking that The Hire would make a great video game series. The story line seemed like it would work well for a video game.  Play Station 2's and Xbox's were prominent among almost all of my friends and other guys my age at the time - mid twentysomethings either newly able to afford to buy a 3-series or on the verge of being able to. And I would venture to guess that many guys at that age would love to get their first BMW or one of its competitors. It seemed like a great way to continue the storyline of the films. Especially since with a video game, you get something that your audience of potential buyers could spend hours at a time playing, being immersed in your brand. Instead, as most of us know, The Hire was turned into a comic book. Hmmm...

Maybe Fallon came up with this idea and BMW killed it. Or liked the comic book idea better. It wouldn't be hard to believe. It happens all the time. Back then there were a lot of people who would believe that kids were the only ones playing console games. And even if that were true, would it be so bad? To have a bunch of 'kids' developing an intrest in BMW so when the get old enough to afford a car like this, they might have a preference for your brand? Anyway, I don't know what my point was to all of this other than wanting to put this out there in case someone at GSD&M happens to stumble across it. If they think it has any merit, they can run it by BMW. And if BMW buys it, well, I'd just be happy to see it come to life. But if they felt so inclined, I of course wouldn't turn down a new M5...

Science IS Cool

Or at least that's what seems to be the mission of SEED magazine. I couldn't help but notice its great design and layout when the guy sitting across the community table from me in a local Starbucks yesterday had the December/January issue open to the Incubator section [subtitled 'ideas from the edge']. On their site, they describe themselves as the magazine that connects science and society and on the cover of the magazine the line right under their name reads 'Science Is Culture.'

The layout and their web site certainly reinforce this. It's fresh and very unexpected for a science magazine. At least in my opinion. This would be a great reference piece for those of you who have a tech or science client and want some visual/layout inspiration for your creative teams assigned to the project. Especially if they think that tech and science = boring.

Aside from the great layout, it seems to be filled with some interesting articles for you planners that could help give you a new perspective on things you might be facing. For instance, this article discusses behavioral psychology's unexpected lesson for urban design. I've taken a couple of snaps of the interior pages and included them below. They really don't do the magazine justice. I suggest you go pick yourself up a copy on newstands instead. And if you find it as inspiring as I do, you might consider a subscription for yourself or your department to share.

These are from the November 2006 issue, pictured above. The December/January issue was focused on trends in science for 2007. (I think this was the cover story, but could be off a bit. Guess I'll just have to see when I get a copy in hand again.)

Trends for 2007 Videos

PSFK has done us all a great service and posted some of their thoughts for trends to watch in 2007 to YouTube. The above is just one of several they've put up. Additionally, they've encouraged some of the top minds in the business to contribute their thinking on the same subject. You might want to put on your headphones as the volume isn't the best on some of them.

'We Need A YouTube Video!'

Yesterday morning while making breakfast I was watching CNN; just as I do most mornings these days to try to get a quick grasp of what's going on in the world before I head off to work. As I cooked my eggs and tried to get some coffee in my system, they ran a quick story on some scientists making a potential breakthrough in working towards finding the cause of Alzheimer's disease. Since this is a subject dealing with the human brain, and my family suspecting that both of my grandmothers suffered from this disease, I paid close attention.

The article linked discusses the tests and results well so I won't go into that, but I did want to mention that a question was raised at the end of the story that people might be wondering 'what good does finding out if someone has it earlier do us if we can't cure it or treat it?' The response was a good one in that the only way we will be able to find a cure or an effective treatment is to first understand what is causing the disease.

Now, why all this long-windedness about Alzheimer's? Well, immediately after this story my brain made a correlation between the question/answer at the end of the story and our daily lives as agency people. I would guess that right now, many of us are having clients come to us saying something along the lines of the headline of this post, or maybe 'We need a MySpace page!,' or perhaps 'Let's create something viral!' Or it might be that there are people within our own walls jumping on this bandwagon too quickly. And I'm sure it's not just the new and exciting Web 2.0 stuff.

We also often get direction for a new TV campaign, a new web site or maybe a new promotional program. The point being we often get asked to run down a path towards creating something for our clients and all too often I fear we don't stop to really ask if this treatment is the right cure for what ails our client's brand. I'm afraid that we often just do something because it's 'what we've always done' or is the tactic du jour and everyone is excited to jump on it. (I realize that in some instances, this very well may be the right direction if the problem has been previously properly identified and in these cases, then by all means we should move forward, but let's suppose it's not for the purpose of this post.)

I hope this isn't the case, and I'm sure it's not at some of the better agencies and with some of the better clients who 'get it' when it comes to what we do as their agency. But I know it happens a lot of the time at a lot of agencies. Then when said execution doesn't work, the agency gets blamed for doing a poor job, or worse, after a few of these situations gets fired. And maybe rightfully so in some cases since it should be our job to make sure we're doing the right things in the first place. Anyway...

I guess what I wanted to say with all of this is that the next time one of our clients or internal bandwagon-jumpers comes running to us with the request for a specific execution that we're pretty sure isn't right, we should use an analogy that they will likely understand to help put the request in context. That analogy being, you don't go to the doctor and request a prescription or treatment before the doctor runs through their routine of tests and checks and uncovers what's really wrong with you. Even if you have a good idea of what's wrong, you go in and let the doctor correctly diagnose your situation. It's the only way you're going to get better.

And that's what we need in the 'Let's make a YouTube video!' scurry. Let us first help diagnose what the problem is that the brand is facing (or possibly multiple problems) through research and exploration before we recommend what the right treatment or cure is. It's the only way we're going to really get things going in the right direction. Just as the scientists working on finding what the cause of Altzheimer's is so that they can then begin working on a cure, we need to find out what is keeping our brands from achieving their goals before we can start creating the ideas that will get them there.

Roehm If You Want To...

Come on Ad Age. Is there really nothing better to cover in the advertising world than the Wal-Mart / Julie Roehm / DraftFCB soap opera? I realize that when this story broke last week and the pieces of it were revealed, it was big news. But does do you really need to fill your entire email from yesterday with different angles/stories on it? Do we still have to read headlines about it today?

Please. Stop. Surely there is much better stuff to write about than this. It was a bad culture fit. She did and/or said some things that Wal-Mart didn't like so much. She got dismissed. DraftFCB lost the biz before they started on it. Move on. Stop spreading gossip. Leave that to the likes of the National Enquirer and Star Magazine.

good purpose :: good design :: good product

Maybe it's because I'm in need of something like this to neatly stash my recycleables. Or maybe it's because I love the simple design. At any rate, I think the ecopod e1 is a great product from an organization with an even better purpose. They're certainly setting themselves up well in being designed by BMW DesignWorks with the purpose of making recycling not so much of a chore while looking great doing so as this fits the trend reports of people trying to become more green as well as being attracted to products with aesthetic design.

And now that they're getting some good coverage by the online trend publications and in some of the blogsphere we'll look to see if they take off. Hopefully all this initial buzz is helping them with that. I read about it in trendcentral yesterday. In doing a little research, I found that it was covered by Springwise back in August and has subsequently been covered by bloggers like Inhabitat, uber gizmo and a few others.

I do see a couple initial drawbacks for ecopod however. The first drawback is that their name is being used by someone else. This can be a problem on a couple of fronts. For one, if they want to expand into the UK or beyond, there could be some confusion with a product they probably don't want to be confused with. Secondly, and possibly more importantly, if you conduct a Google search, the ecopod e1 home recycling center is not the first thing that comes up. As distribution is limited at this point, people are likely going to go online to try to find where to purchase one as they hear about it. It would be better for ecopod to be first in this case.

The second drawback is the limited distribution I just mentioned. According to a page on ecopod's web site, they're going to be in Williams-Sonoma beginning this month (December 2006). That's a good start. But hopefully they'll be able to expand and get it into a second retail store of some type soon. With Target's focus on design, it could be a fit there. It could also be good to get infront of those working on renovating their homes so Home Depot or Lowe's could be a great place as well. It might even be good to sell through design-focused boutique stores that carry products for the home/home furnishings given its price point.

Regardless of the drawbacks, I like this product quite a bit and I think it is perfectly positioned for success. Their distribution problem will solve itself quickly provided they don't have a contract with Williams-Sonoma making them the exclusive supplier for too long. The name thing can hopefully be worked out as well. Overall the ecopod e1 serves a very functional and good purpose, is designed beautifully by a company with a great mission and fits well with the mindset of a large part of the world's population starting to become more conscious of global warming and how they can become more friendly to the environment.

And, hint, hint, with Christmas coming up soon, it would make a great gift idea. In fact, I could easily see it fitting quite nicely in my place, hint, hint.

Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz, Oh What A Tired Idea This Is...

Alka-Seltzer is running a promotion now through December 22 asking bands, or those musically inclined I suppose, to remake their classic jingle and submit it for a chance to win $10,000 and possibly have the song appear in a TV commercial. According to Daily Candy, Cyndi Lauper is judging the entrants. Live tryouts are being held in Dallas, Philadelphia and Atlanta. Songs can also be uploaded at the web site. One online winner and the winner from each of the live events will win $1000 and become eligible for the grand prize.

Entrants are being encouraged to come up with their own song that incorporates the words, "plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is!" from Alka-Seltzer's famous jingle. Songs must be between 30-seconds and two minutes. So far they have 15 submissions posted. I wonder if that's all that have participated or if they think these are the best of the pack so far? And I'm even more curious if anyone has created a song or video that uses it in a negative light and they've not put it up.

I guess I understand what they're trying to do here, but why do so many brands try to force this? Remember McDonald's trying to buy their way into hip-hop lyrics? Well, I don't know if any known artists have done anything about it but there are some people are trying to get paid. My favorite of the bunch...

These guys have drawn 45,000+ views with their creation. I'll be curious to see if anyone picks this up at one of McD's agencies and tries to get them to do it in a commercial. And I wonder if they've been paid?

Anyway, back to the point... rather than try to force your brand on people and push consumer-generated content, why not work with what naturally bubbles up about your brand with consumers and encourage that behavior? Mentos did it and we all know how many of those videos have surfaced even beyond the deadlines of the contest. I guess what I'm saying is if your product doesn't inspire hip-hop lyrics on its own, then don't try to play here because your competitor's does. If your jingle has been dead for years, don't try to force it back to life.

All of the new opportunities brought to us via Web 2.0 are certainly exciting and nearly boundless. But a lot of what's going on here should be treated as a conversation between people with common interests and bonds. If there's a conversation going on around your brand that you want to leverage, then find a good way to enable that conversation further. And if you're NOT already part of a conversation, DON'T try to push your way into one. Nobody likes that guy. At least nobody that I know of.

HOOPLA, A Gritty Read. Really.

My copy of HOOPLA arrived today. Earlier than originally stated by Amazon. I only had time to flip through it quickly when I ran home for lunch. Now I'm looking forward to diving into it this evening. Curious to see if it really deserves to be called Hoopla. The apparent press release posted here as a comment equates it to the Bible or the Torah. And the VCU blog has a good post on it including posting an email from Alex Bogusky to the agency that is included in the book.

They certainly deliver on their prevailing sense of humor/attitude with the dust jacket. It's made of a black sandpaper. You can read what it says on the back in the pic below. Sorry it's a little faded. (click to pull up a larger image) I guess this also means the book is going to have to sit out on its own or I'll have to take the dust jacket off as I don't want to scratch up all my other books covers when I put it in my bookshelf. Interesting idea there Alex. Very interesting.

Music Video as Planning Metaphor?

Fidelity by Regina Spektor

As I watched this video I couldn't help but see a visual metaphor for planning. At first we must distill everything down to its most simple essence. Down to the black and white truths. Uncover the problem. Define the relationships very clearly. Nail the insight(s). And then once we have this all spelled out very neatly, we throw various vibrant colors all over it to present it to the creatives in an interesting way so that they can then work their magic and make it interesting for the end audience.