The Responsible Marketing Blog » advertainment

It worked with Darth Vader. Why not Ferris Bueller?

Patrick Byers — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:11:29 +0000

Volkswagen’s “The Force” Volkswagen commercial was a huge hit with nearly 50 million views since its Super Bowl release last year. Here it is, in the unlikely event you haven’t seen it:

Now, a 10 second trailer featuring Matthew Broderick has the internets abuzz wondering if a Ferris Bueller’s Day Off sequel in the works.

With over four million views in three days, the video has gone viral. Rumor has it there’s no sequel, but instead it’s teasing an ad for the new Honda CR-V. Some enraged Ferris fans are dropping f-bombs, threatening to key Hondas, and shouting “SAVE FERRIS” with all caps on.

This is a small vocal minority. I loved the movie. Saw it at least three times and can quote as many FBDO lines as anyone.

This is a tempest in a teakettle. And for all the Honda haters out there–this ad will help a whole new generation of fans will learn to appreciate “one man’s struggle to take it easy.”

That’s my take. What’s yours?

–

Update: The rumors are true. Here’s the new ad:

The Most and Least Responsible Super Bowl ads

Patrick Byers — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 08:07:52 +0000

Once again, the Super Bowl was indeed super, but how about the ads?

A few ads brought sustained belly laughs, others brought groans.

But which were responsible, and which weren’t?

For review, visit my Super Bowl XVIII ads page.

Cast up to five votes in following polls.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

If you’d like to weigh in on any of the ads, please comment below.

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Super Bowl XLIII ads

Patrick Byers — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 08:04:55 +0000

Here are all the ads from Super Bowl XLIII, all assembled on one page for your review.

Review the ones you missed, then cast your vote for Most and Least Responsible Ads of Super Bowl XLIII.

Enjoy.

THE ADS

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If you can’t beat ‘em, sponsor ‘em

Patrick Byers — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:11:54 +0000

With nearly 109,650,000 views-to-date, Judson Laipply‘s Evolution of Dance is the most popular video in YouTube history.

He’s back with the official sequel, Evolution of Dance 2—this time presented by Saveology.com and powered by PeopleJam.com.

I’d never heard of PeopleJam or Saveology before today. My bet is you never have, either.

Considering most viral videos attempts fail, attaching your brand to someone like Laipply is a wise move. Instead of spending big bank creating videos that aren’t funny, authentic or effective, why not seek out the people that have caught lightning and bottle and leverage their success?

What do you think?

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Three fun marketing videos for the holidays

Patrick Byers — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 09:44:09 +0000

Happy Holidays!

Here are three entertaining holiday-themed marketing videos for your viewing pleasure:

View Happy Christmas from AKQA on YouTube.

View View Simon’s Sister’s Dog in “Fed Up” by the RSPCA on YouTube.

View “Marketing Tips for Tough Times” by S. Claus on YouTube.

Enjoy.

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Seven entertaining Thanksgiving ads

Patrick Byers — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 07:30:13 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I happened upon some entertaining Thanksgiving advertising this week. Here are a few of my faves:

View “Turkey and butter, 1956″ on YouTube

View “Talking with your mouth full” on YouTube

View “Woman vs. turkey” on YouTube

View “Turkey ‘Terror’ ad” on YouTube

View “A DeNiro and Crystal Thanksgiving” on YouTube

View “Snowboarding turkey” on YouTube

View “XBox Thanksgiving” on YouTube

So, do you have a favorite?

Comment below to share.

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When deceptive ads aren’t so deceptive

Patrick Byers — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:05:51 +0000

I enjoy marketing that rewards you for paying attention. Ads that leave you guessing. The double entendre. Cultural, historical and sports references meant for the few instead of the many.

And I appreciate a well-executed spoof, as long as it’s done responsibly.

With that in mind, I’d like to introduce you to Derrie-Air Airlines.

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Here are a few excerpts from “Fake Ads Don’t Fly” featured in this month’s issue of Marketing Management:

Philadelphia’s two major daily newspapers caused a stir recently by publishing print and digital ads for a fictitious airline, all of which were designed to measure the power and reach of such ads to readers across media platforms.

In early June, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News published full- and partial- page ads for Derrie-Air, a fictitious environmentally friendly airline purporting to offer fares based on passengers’ weights. According to the Inquirer, the ads appeared 21 times in sections of the Inquirer, 15 times in the Daily News, and on the Philly.com home page.

The ads contained no disclaimers, but one on the Web Page to which readers were referred in the ads said, in part, “The Derrie-Air campaign is a fictitious advertising campaign created by Philadelphia Media Holdings to test the results of advertising in our print and online products and to stimulate discussion on a timely environmental topic of interest to all citizens.”

Nevertheless, the lack of full disclosure in the ads prompted concerns and complaints from some journalism veterans who maintained that the ads were deceptive and could compromise readers’ abilities to trust the newspapers’ editorial coverage.

The effort, however, did yield intriguing results, according to the Inquirer. The ads for Derrie-Air, drew a 1.25 percent click-through rate for the online version, compared to a national click-through average of 0.05 percent.

The negative response to this campaign is a little puzzling to me for three reasons:

First, how could anyone possibly believe the airline was real? It’s named Derrie-Air!

Second, how can these ads be deceptive if they aren’t even real? Nothing was being sold, so nobody was deceived into buying anything. In fact, if I was buying media in Philadelphia, I’d appreciate the publications testing their own media.

Third, if someone was upset about the price-per-pound approach to ticketing, a trip to the website would have disabused them of the notion that this was real.

Check out the FAQ’s—you’ll be rewarded for paying attention.

Do you think this controversy is much ado about nothing, or is it valid?

Why or why not?

Comment below to weigh in (no pun intended).

. . .

Special thanks to Outsource Marketing Intern Extraordinaire Jennifer Hillman for her assistance with this post.

Mad Men returns: Don Draper v. Roy Draper

Patrick Byers — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:15:29 +0000

Mad Men, the critically-acclaimed AMC series about Madison Avenue advertising men returned last night.

Twitter and the blogosphere were abuzz with talk about the show, and for good reason: It’s good.

My favorite Mad Men quote from last season:

Beatnik: “You’re in advertising… How do you sleep at night?”
Don Draper: “On a bed made of money.”

Reminds me of something my grandfather, Roy Draper, used to say:

There are two kinds of people in business:
Those that eat well,
and those that sleep well.

I prefer the latter.

My grandfather was an amazing man—the antithesis of Don Draper.

Still, I can’t take my eyes off the show: It illustrates how in marketing, commerce and conscience collide every day.

Do you have a favorite Don Draper line?

Comment below to share it.

How to launch a BMW over the Atlantic

Patrick Byers — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:00:49 +0000

First, you build a huge ramp…taller than the Space Needle.

And that’s really what “The Ramp,” a 35 minute documentary by Jeff Schultz (pictured above), is about. It’s an intriguing story about Oberpfaffelbachen, a small town in Germany that has fallen on hard times and determined they needed a common mission.

And the mission they chose was to build a giant ramp to launch a car from Germany—over the Atlantic Ocean—to America.

Sound crazy? Check out the trailer:

The link at the end of the video, takes you to Rampenfest.com, based on the name of the festival the town will throw to celebrate the launch. The only thing on the site is the documentary in a number of formats.

Of course, you may not have 35 minutes to view the entire documentary, and that’s probably okay since it’s really a mockumentary: The town, the people, and the ramp are all fictional—part of an ambitious viral campaign created by BMW to launch their new 1 series in the U.S.

Get it?

Anyway, as far as virals go, this is one of the better ones. The BMW doesn’t even appear until 15-20 minutes in, and it’s not the star of the show. It’s the people. And the ramp.

The cost of producing this video was a fraction of the cost of running a :30 second spot here in the U.S., but “The Ramp” has resulted in significant word of mouth for BMW and it’s new 1 series. Millions have viewed the video, and mainstream media like CNN has picked it up as well.

Do you appreciate the creativity and subtlety of viral campaigns, or do hate feeling like you’ve been duped?

Comment below to weigh in.

. . .

Inspiration for this post came from Conrad Saam. Thanks for the tip, Conrad.

Mad Men and AdAge: Where the truth lies

Patrick Byers — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:00:56 +0000

In Can subliminal marketing be responsible? I shared a faux subliminal ad that AMC was using to promote Mad Men, their series about a fictional Madison Avenue ad agency set in 1960.

For a number of reasons, I argued that for this show, subliminal advertising would actually be the responsible thing to do, even though subliminal advertising doesn’t work.

The Golden Globe®-winning series for Best TV drama and actor will be back on Sunday, July 27th (I can’t wait) and it’s DVD box set is being released on July 1st and AMC is going to make sure that the sleeper hit of last year gets a lot more attention this season.

Today, I received this in the mail:

At first, I thought Ad Age was simply doing a retro cover. Upon closer inspection, I realized MadMen had done it again when I saw the headline “Sterling Cooper Wins Kodak Projector Account” with a picture of the agency’s Creative Director, Don Draper.

I showed it to two members of my team (possibly the only two that don’t watch the show) and asked “What’s wrong with this picture?” Both thought it was just a retro cover.

Like the show, it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s fake. Sixteen pages intermingles real articles pulled from the Ad Age archives, along with an interview of Draper, “then and now” comparisons and lots more.

There’s a lot to like here:

It’s driving word of mouth

By putting a premium on creativity, it’s breaking through the clutter

It couldn’t be more targeted: Ad Age readers are people that will buy the DVD and watch the show

Some of the folks in this target are media buyers

Mad Men is a period piece, and this is loyal to and even builds upon that

Incredible pass-along value

This is an Ad Age issue that will be around for awhile (I’m sure by the time this makes it to our ‘idea box’ it will be dogeared)

Two quotes from a sidebar called “What They’re Saying…” you might find of interest:

Advertising is based on one thing: Happiness.

[Advertising] is most effective when it does its job, for whatever client, in an honest way.

The first quote is by Draper. The second is by John F. Kennedy.

So, which quote to do you agree with more, and why?

Comment below to weigh in.