Search results matching tag 'Celebrity'

President Sarkozy dans le mer*d!!!

822535 — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:45:00 GMT

In the truth is stranger than fiction dept, French satirical investigative journalism weekly “Le Canard Enchaîné,“ has outed holier-than-thou French president, Nicolas Sarkozy for violating copyright laws.

In a stunning display of hypocrisy, the presidential department of audiovisual services produced 400 unauthorized copies of the 52 minutes documentary “A visage découvert : Nicolas Sarkozy“. This while President Sarkozy, just happens to be the one pushing the HADOPI law, which would disconnect the Internet service of an alleged copyright pirate after three allegations of infringement.

This isn't the first time he's been connected to copyright violations, either. His party had to pay €30K for using a song at a political rally without authorization. If he were subject to his own law, which is in effect a three strikes and you’re out provision, President Sarkozy would be having his Internet disconnected the next time he pirates something.

I wonder if Carla has checked her CD collection recently?

Celebrity

1919324 — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:51:00 GMT

A while ago I questioned where all of the celebrities were in online advertising, the question still stands – where are they? Using celebrities is a number one tool in your marketing tool box for brand endorsement and attracting attention. If print, outdoor, radio and TV gets Cheryl Cole, why can’t we in display ads? Over to you L’Oreal.

There’s now't so barmy as politics!

822535 — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 15:53:00 GMT

I was a bit gob smacked to read that Tony Blair is likely to be the next head of the European Union… A job that The Times says, no one wants him for. Which means he’ll probably get it. Over here in America, they love him. That’s why Bush gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, rather than JK Rowling, ‘cos Tony doesn’t go in for witchcraft. Mmm, I wouldn’t be too sure about that.

Anyway, the funniest bit was this… Meanwhile, Blair is said by some to have had some reservations about the presidency post, chief among them that he would earn less money than he does now giving speeches and other private work, and that the job would involve a lot of bureaucratic grind. But he would still earn about £250,000 a year with generous EU tax allowances, have a staff of at least 20 and a splendid Brussels residence.

Excuse me, but isn’t he rather busy at the moment bringing peace to the middle East from his permanent suite in the King David Hotel? And what about his two million pound a year job as an adviser to J.P.Morgan?

As described in The Telegraph at the time… Sources close to the bank said Mr. Blair would not need to have an office on Wall Street as he would be called upon "as needed" - and would give much of his advice over the telephone. He might occasionally attend a board meeting or go on visits to parts of the world where the bank had major interests.

Wow, sounds like being on the board of one of the agency holding companies!

Take your Olympics and shove it!

822535 — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:06:00 GMT

Everyone over here is shocked that the International Olympic Committee had the unmitigated cheek to award the 2016 Olympics to Rio, rather than Chicago. Rubbing salt in the wound by eliminating Chicago in the very first round of voting. Wankers!

But, I’ll make you a bet right now that most Chicagoans are breathing a great big sigh of relief. ‘Cos based on just about every other host city, the citizens end up paying for it for years after the event has been forgotten. From what I’ve read, the costs for London to host the 2012 Olympics have already tripled, and we’re still three years away from the opening ceremony! Your children’s children will be paying for this long after you’ve gone to that big agency in the sky. Montreal’s 1976 Olympics left the city with $2.7 billion of debt that it finally paid off in 2005. That's almost thirty years.

Why cities want this dubious honor is beyond me. The whole thing has grown into a travesty of the Baron’s original dream. It is now a commercial, nationalist, jingoistic joke, stuffed with all kinds of events that are merely a vehicle to sell more swoosh emblazoned junk to kids who can’t afford it.

Make it all amateur again (are there any left?) And cut out all the sponsors. But, you say, then the host cities wouldn’t be able to afford to build all the different venues… Exactly. So you go back to the original events, running, jumping, throwing a big rock, and naked men wrestling. And you do it on the sports field of the local secondary modern. You make a profit selling tea and renting deck chairs.

Oh, and you can Tweet about it!

Old celebrities never die, they simply appear in bad TV spots!

822535 — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:24:00 GMT

With the news today in the US that the latest Burger King gross out campaign from the frat boys in Boulder is once again relying on the use of celebrities to push stuff that will probably kill you, only serves to make me once again wonder if this stuff really works.

The new Burger King effort has has NASCAR driver Tony Stewart professing his love for “Whoppers.” No surprise there as the average NASCAR fan is certainly a whopper, if not a gargantuan, and that includes his misses. Apparently the TV features Stewart teaching other celebrities how to endorse products. One of them is Eric Estrada!!! That’s right, the guy with five hundred teeth that used to be in CHIPS five hundred years ago when your box had an eight inch screen, and everything was in green and black.

Still, every time I’m over in the UK, when I put the telly on as I empty the hotel mini-bar, I see people I thought had died in the eighteenth century, and they’re endorsing everything from knickers to knick-knacks. I’ll bet “Our Enery” is still flogging stuff. The only person I know older than him is Sir Cliff. But he’s got that picture in the attic you're not allowed to see!

Gaga gets it! And puts online consumers first.

1323563 — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:19:00 GMT

I’ve noticed that I generally start a blog post apologising for the many celebrity references, and not talking overtly about advertising, but I guess brands can actually learn a lot from the rich and famous, who are of course brands in themselves, and digitally some of the most forward-thinking there are. Step forward Lady Gaga, a current obsession of a couple of IABers, not just because she has good music and clothes, but also because she’s a fan of… online video! In a recent interview with Newsweek, Gaga spoke about the structure and look of her performances, which are tailored to suit the online viewer:

“I like to watch my performances sometimes. I'm always trying to improve on choreography and the stage shows. I like to watch the lighting. I often argue with my lighting designer on the show; as much as I like to light the show for the room, it's important to light the show and design the sound for YouTube. In truth, lots of my fans can't make it to my shows in Israel or Germany or in Paris, so they go online to watch them.” Whether you like her or not, Gaga is quite the artist, and I’m guessing others probably don’t have quite the same vision when they’re choreographing their stage shows. But what a refreshing view, to recognise that most of us now look to the internet to access entertainment.

It’s not just the delivery method, it’s also the space you’re working with that matters. The IAB has been saying this for a while but it really is essential to tailor your ads or content for the medium, the device and the frame of mind of the consumer watching it. Whether content has been filmed at Glastonbury in HD, or an ad produced in the vast plains of Africa, your viewer needs to appreciate the theme and message even on the small screen – when you consider that videos are played online on an even smaller screen, sometimes providing the same content on all devices will not be relevant. This is an important creative consideration, but is still not right at the top of the agenda when producing videos online – many are still not bespoke for the medium.

Follow the IAB on Twitter.

HELP!!

2201767 — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:55:22 GMT

OK so i've started a new job with a company...and one of our tasks is to find new clients who are looking to use celebrities in any up and coming ad campaigns!

I don't know where to start!!! Has anyone got any suggestions?!??!

It’s the Fourth of July… Raise a glass to George!

822535 — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:14:00 GMT

So, here I am in the USA on the fourth of July. And even though I’ve lived here for a great many years, for a long, long time, I saw no need to become a citizen. I finally gave in five years ago and became a US national… For two reasons. First, my wife discovered that if I kicked the bucket, my estate would pay more in taxes if I was not a US national…

What she doesn’t realize is that I have already blown all my money on sex, drugs, rock & roll. But by the time she realizes that… I will no longer be around. Ha, fucking Ha… Now don’t get me wrong here, she won’t be left short… But “Toy Boys” are out. The second reason was so I could vote for anyone with half a brain other that George W. Bush for a second term… A lot of fucking good that did me!!! Anyway, the point of this particular rant is… It’s the two hundred and seventy first birthday of George III… Ha, and all Americans think it is Independence Day.

Yeah, the one that commemorates the date the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776… Sorry guys, you are wrong… It was actually signed on August 2nd, 1776. Which shows how much the ex-colonials know about this ***. Mind you, back then they didn’t have Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and all the other crap people need these days to know what fucking day of the week it is.

George Washington had the right idea though, every Fourth of July, he gave the troops a double ration of rum. No wonder he became known as the Father of the Nation! Double ration of Boddingtons for me. Cheers/George

Farewell to the strangely familiar man in the mirror

1775632 — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:36:00 GMT

Anyone old enough remembers where they were when they heard that Kennedy was assassinated. In 1977 I was in a coach car park when people shouted – literally wailed – over the death of Elvis Presley. I remember the assassination of Lennon, Kurt Cobain’s ‘official’ gunshot wound to the head and the loss of Freddie Mercury. Last week I first heard the rumours about Michael Jackson whilst watching TV. My fears were soon confirmed via my fellow lost souls on Twitter. At least for Presley, his family had the dignity of learning the news in private, before it being announced to the global plebs by a local celebrity gossip website.

As with Presley and Cobain, once the news was out the media became preoccupied with stories related to the King of Pop’s career and conspiracies surrounding alleged addiction to drugs. Radio talk shows moaned with people lamenting Jackson’s loss. (The same chattering classes who years earlier phoned and texted radio shows to criticise Jackson’s penchant for sharing his bed with children).

Listening to the collective grief over the radio and watching the endless televised and YouTube footage of Jackson’s story, reminded me of the loss of Diana, Princess of Wales. Tales of her selfless devotion to charities and cruel marriage to Prince Charles were broadcast around the clock. We were told of a beautiful, simple girl thrust into the public gaze, hounded to death by commission earning freelance paparazzi press.

In Jackson’s case the stories related to a man with the child in his eyes. He was the reported protégé of a demanding father prepared to sacrifice his son’s childhood for the chance of family fame and fortune. Unlike Diana, Jackson’s image was far from perfect, his Dorian Gray face had been twisting and bending this way and that for years before our eyes. Nobody knew how he would die, but given his appearances in wheelchairs and displays of public mania, many suspected that the lifeline etched in his palm had always been short.

Just as with Elvis, Freddie, John, Kurt and Diana, the story of Jackson is destined to become a legend of a person who enjoyed external excess but was crippled by internal anguish and loss. A familiar tale that is the bread and butter hard luck story of just about every modern celebrity or Britain’s Got a Chutzpah wanna-be.

The day after Jackson’s death, in London, the Sony award-winning radio broadcaster, Nic Ferrari spoke to a typical middle-aged female caller who, within 45 seconds broke down into tears. “I am so sorry,” she said. “Are you crying because Michael has gone?” asked Ferrari. “I am crying because he was such a good man, so misunderstood.” “But you never actually met him”, replied Ferrari. “I know. It’s that I just feel that he was part of all of us. He was part of my growing up and what happened to him is a kind of morality tale – especially in these days of the world being what is.”

The lady hit the proverbial nail on the head. Jackson, Mercury et al, were not simply titillating celebrities. They transcended the level of casual entertainer to become spiritual kins people –providing a soul-partnership that was lacking in real life.

That depth of attachment to an audience is precisely the aim of brands wishing to paint perceptions of being more than recycled plastic: not just phone but a way of life… not just a running shoe but a training mentor. Not just a dress – a stylish statement about you. Not just a financial institution – a partner for your future…

Our planet is heaving with 65 billion people bombarded with visual perceptions of what constitutes success. In the face of overwhelming odds, most either capitulate to mediocrity, and celebrate the fact that they are honestly doing what they can and make the most of it or opt to take the easiest advertised route towards making any kind of impression on someone. This has made the pursuit of celebrity a key currency in the quest for recognition and self worth. Even Jackson himself – at one time one of the world’s richest men – craved greater recognition and regard, literally carving it out of his own public face.

Mercury’s passing away from AIDs and Presley’s death on a toilet evacuating the rotting excesses of his all-consuming consumerism were indicative of an era. Jackson too was definitely a person of the moment. His reckless spending on worthless trinkets was legendary. But perhaps just a lavish version of what most ordinary people do when depressed – go shopping for advertised branded items promising just a little bit of momentary self-esteem. His manipulation by more powerful authorities, including Arab sheiks who toyed with him as a play thing, magnified current divisions between the ‘haves’ and ‘once-hads’. His reported yearning for simple innocence, whilst questionable and definitely uncomfortable, was for older fans, tired of the double standards offered in adult life at least understandable.

Jackson’s death has seen shelves of his music at Amazon warehouses emptied overnight. Doubtless, his songs will now find a brand new market with teenagers revelling in 80s retro.

However, Jackson’s core audience resolutely remains the middle-aged who recognise the notion of taking a second chance as a means of escape from the insanely ordinary or increasingly ordinarily insane. Like any middle-aged ‘once-had’ man he planned a final Don Quixotic lunge at life. In his case the plan was to try and balance his ridiculously unbalanced books, resurrect his former glories through no less than 50 full-on concerts that most half his age wouldn’t even dream of delivering. In addition to earning him $150 million, the gruelling gigs could have helped fill the deafening silence left after he left ’stage right’.

For the middle-aged audience Jackson’s greatest cache is nostalgia for a world that, like his Neverland ranch, perhaps never was, but in their minds, may possibly become.

So in the end, the immensely talented Jackson ended up another brand full of capacity but ultimately empty of fulfilling his complete promise. His death will no doubt make the ‘MJ’ brand even more evocative and so profitable to his under-financed (reportedly to the tune of $330 million) estate. In return his accountants can anticipate strong sales of books, movies and rights to his legend. Like Elvis, he may have left the stage but his name will still add digits on credit card payments.

The question of whether any brand – commercial, sports, entertainment, academic political or personal, should play on emotive issues to espouse the notion that happiness and worth comes from exploiting consumerism is a closed one – the answer is sadly resolutely ‘yes’. And arguably from a commercial point of view why not? Throw in highly publicised corporate social responsibility initiatives on the part of the brand, and any misgivings over-indulgence on the part of consumers even during a recession, become much more palatable.

Beyond the pop group, The Jackson Five, Michael Jackson’s hey-day was during the self-assured Eighties. Today for some, it may seem that the world is neither as certain of itself or united in identity and social purpose. In the UK at least, rather than offer employees genuine support during difficult times – far more valuable than money alone – many conceited organisations in one way or another, use the current recession as an excuse to cut jobs, slash pay rises and ‘rationalise’ or ‘streamline’ organisational structures.

Too many hard working cultural heroes like Jackson have been replaced by a society demanding more substance for less sustenance.

For many, values in every walk of life are different than during the 80s. Then, success and talent was rewarded. Today it is viewed as a threat against the status quo of blandness for all. Less jobs with more people chasing them is creating a society of over-qualified candidates being eventually remunerated as if they had no qualifications at all. Everything is accepted without question by workers because of the new mantra of “Well we could get it done for half the money.”

Unsurprisingly looking at the horizon that like Jackson’s appeal is neither definitively black or white, many- especially the young – turn to precisely what drove and eventually helped bring down the King of Pop – celebrity. Talented people walk as if zombies in the Thriller video, hand in hand, two-by-two with clearly talentless people towards an ark of promised respect, doomed to be sunk by a flood of demands for instant gratification and disposability.

No wonder as I listen to Jackson over my iPod and read the headlines of his family removing all his assets from the family home before the bailiffs get to them, I pause to reflect over and remember the man whilst contemplating the lyrics of one of his songs: “What have we done to the world, look what we’ve done. What about all the peace that you pledge your only son...?"

What indeed – and what can responsible brands and custodians of brand icons of every kind do to improve?

Scouse army holds Denmark to ransom!

822535 — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 01:57:00 GMT

The amounts of money paid in the US for sports sponsorship, is pretty crazy. Until you look at the money being splashed around in the UK for the privilege of putting your logo on a football teams strip. The news that Liverpool want Carlsberg to cough up the same amount of money – Eighty million quid – That Aon squeezed Manchester United for in a four year deal, smacks of extortion to me.

Not that I blame the teams for trying it on… If big dumb companies believe that having a three inch tall version of their logo on a players jersey is worth twenty million pounds a year, then they deserve to get ripped off. Still, I suppose it’s no worse than the British taxpayer being stuck with the billions destined to be shoveled down the black hole of the 2012 Olympics.

I did enjoy reading though, that Liverpool fans have forced Carlsberg to abandon ads and promotions in the Wizened of Oz’s Sun rag, ‘cos Liverpool fans refuse to read it. Plus they are currently demanding an advertiser boycott of the Dirty Digger’s Fox Soccer Channel. What with the current implosion of MySpace, he must be wondering where his next billion is coming from.