You may have picked up the fact that even though I do most of my work out of New York, I actually live in Idaho, which is a beautiful state with more mountains, rivers and wilderness than any state, with the exception of Alaska. And even though it's no longer full of Nazis, outside of somewhat liberal Boise, most people would vote for Genghis Kahn if he was a Republican...
So, lots of shock and horror around here with the news that Republican Senator Larry Craig was arrested and pled guilty to soliciting gay sex from an undercover cop in an airport men's room. Particularly as he was big on "Family Values" and had voted for every gay bashing bill that ever came before him.
Now he's protesting it's all a mistake and he isn't gay. Which isn't the point. What's pissing most people of is that like so many other right-wing do-gooders in Washington... He's a hypocrite. Anyway, his career is over, so he can now cruise as many public toilets as he likes and no one will care... Except his unfortunate wife.
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You have to love the news today that when a British artist was denied US backing to paint a portrait of President George Bush he decided to make an 'alternative' version - from images of porn.
Now Jonathan Yeo, has caused a stir in the US, where Republicans have attacked the work for being in poor taste.
A GOP spokeshack said: "This picture is very distasteful. Why would anyone want to make a picture of the President from pornographic material?" - Hello, excuse me. Is this Republican spokeshack deluded, or just from Texas?
The best bit is where Jonathon describes the problems he faced getting the raw materials for the portrait. "It was more complicated than I thought. To get the right skin tones for a man in his 50s, the healthy, tanned and airbrushed bodies of the top-shelf magazines were no good.
"I found more niche publications like Readers' Wives and naturist magazines captured the cooler tones required. And for the hair I eventually tracked down some German magazines that don't necessarily follow the Hollywood wax route."
Jesus, makes you wonder what kind of book stores this guy hangs out in. But then, it turns out he is the son of a former Tory back bencher! So... Say no more, wink, wink, etc.
Over here, one of the toughest businesses to be in is providing Internet services, particularly to the consumer. And with the news today that EarthLink is beginning to implode after being one of the first companies in that particular space. For more than thirteen years the company has persevered through the painful transitions of the Internet service provider market, growing a respected dial-up access business, then fighting, more successfully than many, to survive the transition to broadband and the onslaught of huge competitors.
But the past few years have been rough (they lost $16.3 million in the last quarter), and when axe-man CEO, Rolla P. Huff, took the helm in June, it was apparent things would need to change. Today they did. EarthLink announced it would be cutting 900 jobs -- about half its workforce -- and closing offices in San Francisco; Orlando, Fla.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Harrisburg, Pa.
More cuts may follow, and the company will also "substantially reduce its presence" in Atlanta and Pasadena. As part of the restructuring, EarthLink will also buy back $200 million of its stock. "We see this as an important first step in unlocking the underlying value that we believe is in our company," Huff said. "These changes get our cost structure in line, but there is much more to do." In other words, there's a lot more blood to run over this particular dam.
There is virtually no limit to the kinds of blogs you stumble across as you cruise the BlogoSphere. Tons of crap, but a surprising amount of good stuff. Here's one that definitely worth a peek... It's called "The Lord God Almighty's Weblog." The CEO with 6.6 potential customers. Very well written and very amusing. I don't want to give too much away, but it's well worth a visit. You should check it out. Although I'm sure Mrs. B and Russell probably know all about it. Come to think of it, it might be Russell doing it. That guy has far too much time on his hands.
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There's no telling what those Kiwi's will get up to after a few pints of "Leopard Piss." (That's the locals name for New Zealand's best selling beer, Leopard Lager) So you can either admire or cringe at the nerve of the "Cinderella" Ad Agency in Auckland. They just ran a campaign for "Hell" pizzas that showed Adolf Hitler making a salute with a slice of the cheese pie.
After locals protested, the company has replaced Hitler -- with Pope Benedict XVI saying Hell is real and eternal!" The agency also raised a storm of controversy among Catholics and others last year with its campaign for seven pizzas named after the seven deadly sins. To advertise its "lust" pizza, the company mailed condoms to potential customers. "That was the most controversial ad campaign that we've ever done," the agency president said. No kidding!
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If you need further proof that American politics is even more screwed up than British politics, (but you always suspected that, didn't you?) Then you have to love the news today that Rudy Giuliani, the ex mayor of New York, who's milked every possible association with New York while running to be the Republican nominee for the US Presidency, has picked his high powered ad team to head up his multi million dollar effort...
And, not one of the shops he's chosen is based in New York, the so-called capital of American advertising. Instead, he's going to use the usual collection of Republican consultant attack dog agencies based in Dallas, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Virginia. The same guys that threw racial and sexual advertising at African American Democratic candidate, Harold Ford, last time around.
But what can you expect from a guy who claims he spent more time at "Ground Zero" than the police and fire fighters. Yet according to a recent article in the New York Times, during that period, he actually spent twice as much time attending Yankee baseball games, whilst all the poor buggers at "Ground Zero" were digging up the remains of their comrades. What a wanker... But having lived over here for so long... I wouldn't be surprised if he gets elected!
Let's just suppose for a minute that I had an agency (God forbid!) And a new Marketing Director arrived on the scene at my largest client... I would immediately resign the account. After all, why spend a few short months trying to impress the new guy/gal that you are the best thing since sliced bread... Get it through your thick head... The minute they walk through the door, you're toast.
The perfect demonstration of this is the news today in the US, that career-search giant Monster.com has begun a review of creative chores on its global ad account. The move comes three months after Monster.com hired a lady by the name of Joan Blackwood as chief marketing officer. She had been with technology firm Computer Associates, in N.Y., as svp, worldwide marketing. She also served at Bank of America. And began her career as a copywriter (Oh, bloody groan) Which means she is obviously VERY creative!!!
This creates an inescapable situation. My advice? Cut your losses, don't piss away dumpster loads of money entertaining the new MD at the finest watering holes you can quickly melt down a black AmEx card in... You have more chance of being struck by lightening than you have of holding on to the account... But go ahead, blow a ton of money defending it. Miracles do happen... But hardly ever in the ad biz!
When I was in the UK in early June, there was a lot of talk about how Facebook is rapidly catching up to MySpace in the social networking arena. Particularly in the marketing and advertising space. And, I have to admit, I use it in preference to the overly "Yuppiefied" LinkedIn, and the extremely juvenile "MySpace." Which apart from the fact that it's graphics really suck... It belongs to the "Wizened of Oz," and I wouldn't use anything he has his Antipodean paws in.
Anyway... The news today is that the largest social networking site in Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand is, San Francisco based, Bebo. And now Bebo has cut a deal with Microsoft and plans to launch a new Microsoft-powered instant-messaging program this fall, which is reputed to be a first in the social networking racket.
The deal signals early, if niche, support for a Microsoft plan to build a business around letting other sites incorporate its Windows Live Web services. Which only goes to prove, you should never buy a two year start up for billions, when you can buy it two years from now for trillions.
The name might not be as familiar to everyone on that side of the pond, but New York hotel magnate, Leona Helmsley, otherwise known as the "Queen of Mean," finally kicked over the traces and has gone off to run "Hotel Hell" somewhere way, way, below.
She was 87, so had a pretty good run for her money... Not to mention that she lived it in the lap of luxury, apart from the two years in the slammer for tax evasion, which was probably in a "Country Fed" establishment.
Anyway, I once had the misfortune to pitch for the Helmsley Hotel account on behalf of an un-named agency I was freelancing for. She showed up two hours late for the presentation along with her entourage of lackeys. She treated everyone like shit and was busy dictating stuff to her personal secretaries and making phone calls throughout the meeting. Quite possibly one of the rudest people I have ever met in business... And believe me, I've met a ton of 'em.
Needless to say, we didn't get the account. Life is too short to deal with people like that... And her Grand Finale just happened... Sorry to be cruel here, but she will not be missed.
There's a Guy over here on TV by the name of Jim Cramer... He's supposed to be a financial wiz... At least that's what NBC calls him when they promote his ranting, screaming, going red in the face show on CNBC called "Mad Money." He's also the writer of several books about how to get rich in the stock market... Obviously by following his advice.
Personally, I've always wondered about, if these people were so good at making money, why don't they just quietly make a few gazillion dollars by keeping all that red hot information to themselves and not spreading it around... Well here's why... An article in the current edition of Barron's shows that over the last two years, in a booming market, Cramer's recommended stocks rose 12 percent, compared with a 22 percent rise in the Dow Jones industrial average and a 16 percent rise in the Standard & Poor's 500 index.
You'd think if the guy was such a financial genius, he could do better than that, wouldn't you?
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News today that Steve Jobs has just exercised some long-held options worth at least $14.5 million. On Monday, the "Great Leader" exercised 120,000 options that were set to expire this week. Apple gave Jobs the options with a strike price of $5.75 a share, in August 1997 when he rejoined the company's board as part of his return to Apple. Because the stock was around $129.00 a share Monday, Jobs' total gain at the time of exercise was between $14.5 million and $14.8 million. Not bad, Steverino!
This is the first action Jobs has taken with his Apple holdings since last year when he gave back 4.6 million restricted shares worth about $296 million to the company. That was used to pay the taxes on the vesting of the 10 million-share grant they were a part of. Jobs has put the remaining 5.4 million shares of the grant, in his humongous piggy bank.
Apple gave Jobs the restricted shares in exchange for options that it canceled and which the company later admitted were backdated. The company's internal investigation into its past options granting practices found no evidence that any options granted in 1997 were backdated. Yeah... Big surprise!
Which I think means he gets a shitload of stock dirt cheap, and even though the company takes the hit for all this backdating of options shit... You Steve, are a God and above reproach.
I did a post yesterday talking about the effect the upcoming recession (and with world markets down again today, there's no question it's happening) would have on ad budgets and agencies profitability.
That's what makes today's Reuters story on BBDO, CEO, John Osborn so interesting. As usual, he warns that companies worried about a U.S. economic slowdown should think twice before cutting their marketing budgets, particularly when it comes to money earmarked for more unconventional types of advertising.
"Sometimes those experimental budgets do go," Osborn said, "However, I would urge our clients to do almost the opposite."
Well, what else is he going to say, and even though it's partially true, because when these companies come out of a recession, they have to spend a ton of money to catch up with their competitors who continued to advertise.
OK, nothing new there, but what I found interesting was that he was making a case that even if they cut down on traditional media spending, they should perhaps invest more in new media forms.
Partially because they are cheaper, but primarily, because they are more targeted. Which begs the question... If it's that much more efficient and effective, why wait for hard times to put most of your budget into it?
As I write this, the stock market has just fallen off a cliff, for about the third time in the last week or so. On top of that the housing market is in a hole and mortgage companies are declaring bankruptcy left and right... Seems to me that the economy is on the skids... And don't let the clowns on the various financial TV channels tell you it's a "Healthy Correction" or a "Buying Opportunity." None of them have a clue. Come to think of it... No one on Wall Street (and I guess in "The City) does.
Anyway, the point of this rant is to make sure everyone in advertising is prepared for the worse. It's a well known fact that when things get tight, clients slash their ad budgets. Yeah, we know it's short sighted, but it certainly gives the bottom line a one time swift kick in the pants.
And the CEO's sucking out millions in salary, bonuses, stock and all the perks they can dream up, love to demonstrate their "fiscal responsibility." Anyway, deep down they all think advertising is a crock of shit. Don't want to be a Jonah here, but believe me... It will happen.
Interesting piece in today's AdAge by Scott Berg, the head media guy at Hewlett-Packard, talking about how he is less than thrilled with mobile-web advertising. As he puts it so well... People use their phones to communicate and get information, nothing is going to piss off a potential customer more than being bombarded with a steady stream of unwanted ads.
"I have a number of concerns about the push technology. One of the big ones is there's going to be a huge backlash by consumers if we start to push text messages or voicemail messages, and that's going to lead immediately -- immediately -- to legislation against this type of activity." Damn right!
Much better, says Berg, to develop a strategy that ties in with distributors, resellers and others. In this way the mobile phone becomes a useful and appreciated tool for consumers at the point of purchase. All of this should be tied into search functionality, a very much different process on a mobile phone than on the PC.
So, I'm reading in the press here, the big news in Britain that someone is coming out next month with yet another "Lad's Mag." Usually these consist of lots of glossy pictures of naked women, sports cars, footballers, great places to drink and throw up, and a couple of short articles on how to pick up girls in bars, or what color jockey shorts to wear on a first date. Then the whole thing is wrapped up in a selection of crude jokes.
But now, there's "Short List." And it's going to be different, because according to the the publisher, Mike Soutar, this book will have "no nudity and no profanity." The reason given for this radical shift is... "We don't want to embarrass our readers!"
Bloody Hell, well that's definitely a first in the world of Lad Mags. Having perused a few dozen, purely in the interests of research I hasten to add, I would have thought the readership of these fine literary journals was well beyond being embarrassed by a bit of T&A!
George Parker
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