Catch Up Lady

Gucci my ass... fake Gucci ad buy riles the neutral country

Apparently the creative side of the advertising industry is not nearly as challenging as many of us are led to believe.  Just look at the ad at left. 

The man in the picture is no Gucci model, my friends.   That man is a swindler (a liar! a crook! a con artist!), who called up SonntagsZeitung, a large Swiss weekly, and  booked a 2-page, $50k spread of HIMSELF in a "Gucci ad", and then billed the whole thing to Gucci. Because the ad was booked close to press time, the paper did not vet the ad, and low and behold it was nothing more than your average citizen with a bottle of Gucci perfume photoshopped over his arm.

[Now let me tell you, my Fucci (fake Gucci) alarm bells went off when I saw the ad.  Your average consumer may think this guy looks like a Gucci model, but this quasi-creepy looking, no chiseled-chin-having guy with a 5 o'clock shadow didn't fool me! (for long anyway...hehe).]

SonntagsZeitung's rival paper, Blick, ran the damning heading, "Schwindler fälscht Gucci-Inserate!" Yeah!! What's up now?!!  (Via AdFreak)

Catch Up 2.0

Big shout out to my dear friend over at Vividblurry for redesigning my blog banner.  I know we'll all miss the old ghetto banner, but I think this is really a positive thing for all of us. 

The banner is one of the final steps in my overhaul which has also included an updated blogroll and some category refinement. 

Thanks to all of you for reading, and keep the great comments coming.

EDIT - If you have a mac, you may still see the old banner. This means you need to clear your history and your cache and reload!

Milk mustache emoticon :{ ), the face of a new generation?

MarketingVox reports that the GotMilk campaign is going  viral with its attempts to make a milk mustache emoticon popular among teens and young adults.  : { ) Anyone?

Unfortunately, for most of us, emoticons are hard to make, and outside the smiling man :) , the REALLY smiling man :D, the sad man :(, and the REALLY sad man :,(, they are not widely used.  Premade emoticons on IM and message boards are more frequently utilized, as they give you dozens of options at the click of a button, and do not require you to remember a series of random symbols. 

Forgetting the fact that I think the emoticon itself resembles a screaming person, I have trouble envisioning a situtation in which teens would actually discuss milk and then using the emoticon.  When would teens insert said icon into conversation without looking like big ole dorks?
"brb, gotta go get some milk :{ )"
"omg, i love milk!  lol!!11!! :{ )"

Unless the icon turns into a small photo of Beyonce in a bikini with a milk mustache I fear this is going to be an uphill battle.  Are we witnessing the limits of the "it will go viral because I say so" theory? 

How to dig yourself out of a rat infested KFC/Taco Bell

By now everyone's probably seen footage of "Taco Hell" - a late night video of rats running amuck all over a KFC/Taco Bell in Greenwich Village.  When the cats are away, the mice huge, giant sewer rats will play. 

Looks like politicians aren't the only ones completely vulnerable to real-time viral videos.  Within hours after the footage was taken it was all over YouTube and AdAge reports that over 1,000 bloggers had mentioned the story.  Newspaper articles were written world the round. 

Considering I work for a company that specializes in online brand protection, promotion and intelligence I don't need to read the whole AdAge article to know what Yum Brands (owner of Taco Bell and KFC) is in serious trouble.  Here are a few quick steps to getting out of said mess, (or rat infested restaurant as it were):

Step 1: Recognize the magnitude of the problem early on.  Online buzz is like a brush fire, and can spread from YouTube to blogs to mainstream media in about 2.2 seconds

Step 2: Have a plan.  Crisis communication in this day and age MUST involve an internet component.  When all hell breaks loose you need to know where you're going, not be picking up the phone book to find a consultant.

Step 3: Come out swinging on the consumers' home turf (in this case, the internet).  Look at Jet Blue's CEO looking all heartfelt on YouTube (seriously, appearing to care), and take some notes.  These sort of responses will (at least for the short term) win ink because of the unique approach, in addition to the content of the message.

Step 4: Flood the market (on and offline!) with good press.  (But, let's NOT use the fact that Taco Bell is now e-coli free as a talking point).  Word of mouth brand promotion is effective, you want one of those voices out there online to be working for you.

Step 5: Ketchup.  Load it up.  All that crap tastes better with ketchup.

Words & Pictures has a slightly different take on how YUM could recover.  One hint, it involves the Chuck E. Cheese mascot...

EDIT: My friend who lives in NYC shared this with me today, "By the way, that combined Taco Bell/KFC is about 50 feet from my house.  In a typically prescient moment, I walked by it  and actually shivered the night before the story broke.  Something just felt wrong.  All of this is to say, Al Gore:: Global Warming as Laurie:: rat takeover in taco bell.  Stay tuned."

Catch Up Lady on Political Mavens

I am now a guest blogger on Political Mavens.  From the site,

With two prominent political parties in America, there’s a prevailing belief that being bi-partisan is synonymous with being disloyal and weak. Opinion makers continue to preach the need to choose sides — and stick with your choice no matter what. Such is not the thinking man’s way.  PoliticalMavens.com is for thinkers.

Look for my left-of-center take on all political and election issues related to the world of marketing and Web 2.0.

80s Brick Cell Phone makes a comeback, Gordon Gecko rejoices

Beyond Madison Avenue brings my attention to a untapped, re-emerging market that my friends and I have joked about for years - the 1980s style cell phone. Made popular by Zack Morris on Saved By the Bell and other 80s/90s icons, this functional, yet stylish phone makes a statement without saying a word. 

The 80's Brick Cell Phone FY8850 , "Features 1980's look and feel complete with huge battery and long external antenna. Includes color LCD screen, polyphonic and MP3 ringtones, speaker phone and long battery life. True to its root, this cell phone does not have headset, USB connection or car charger jacks."  BYM notes that the phone is currently sold out. 

Luckily, I still have an original 80s cinder-block sized cell phone, complete with an over-the-shoulder battery back.  My sister found them at her office just in time for an 80s Prom Party (see photo at right).  I'm sure Verizon will have no issue reconnecting it, especially because they handle my current-century problems will such finesse and ease.

Second Life, just when you thought it couldn't get any dorkier...

Stop the presses!  Apparently  Second Life, the popular virtual online world, recently suffered its first terrorist attack.  The attack targeted an American Apparel and Reebok outlet stores, and responsibility was claimed by the Second Life Liberation Army.  SLLA is crying out for "democratic decision making" in Second Life according to AdRants.  I'm serious.  You can't make this shit up.

Apparently there have been smaller scale attacks, such as the flying penises attack on "wealthy Second Life land owner" Anshe Chung during an "in world" CNet interview.  (You can see video HERE - explicit content). 

Tila Tequila - 1.7 million friends does not a good single make

Tila Tequila, of 1.7 million-MySpace-friends-fame dropped her first single this weekend entitled I Love U, which was produced by Lil Jon.

So, does having 1.7 million friends on MySpace do anything for you in the real world?  Time will certainly tell, but as AdRants puts it, "Oh wow. Just listened. She might be hot but that song sucks."

I do however find the pop culture MySpace references like, "who the fuck is this bitch on you page/with her big ass tits up on your top eight," apt.  (I had to listen to the snippet on her page twice to get that down right, my ear drums are bleeeeding.)

GM edits robot ad, "America is officially insane"

Despite early statements by GM that they would not change their controversial Super Bowl Robot suicide ad because it was, "a story of GM's commitment to quality. It is not intended to offend anyone," the Lansing State Journal reports that GM has in fact edited the ad in question. 

The article reports that, "Now, instead of suicide it tries out entry-level jobs stocking shelves and parking cars and even has bad dreams of cars in the scrap yard before waking up."

New Media Strategies, an online brand management firm that tracks online buzz, ranked the spot as one of the least liked ads of the Super Bowl - with 46% of online buzz about the spot being unfavorable in nature as consumers reacted to the suicide aspect, as well as the fact that the ad does not treat the issue of domestic auto industry layoffs sensitively.  The ad cost more than $5 million to air.

The ad was edited under pressure from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.  As AdRants commented a few weeks ago, "America is officially insane."

Red Cross goes all Karl Rove, nothing motivates like fear!

We have nothing to fear but fear itself people.

In the most Rovian move since, well the last creepy thing Karl Rove did, this Red Cross billboard was spotted in Western New York - urging all of us to prepare ourselves, because we really don't know when the next terrorist attack will be.  (Though the Red Cross of Greater Buffalo seems to know: November 9, 2009 as seen on the billboard, as well as February 26, 2008, January 18, 2009 AND October 7, 2010 according to the website.  Fine print indicates the 11/9/09 attack will be biochemical...I think we need to get some intel agents over to the Red Cross stat, this could be the big break that Bush is looking for!)

The site itself is pretty innocuous after you get past the shock of it all, and provides basics on how to make yourself a survival kit, get trained in First Aid, and make a plan to follow with your loved ones in case of an attack.  Once everyone in the greater Buffalo area stops WIGGING OUT over this fear mongering billboard, I'm sure they'll get themselves all ready for the big day - which, bt dubs, I would put Vegas odds on NOT occurring in Buffalo, NY anyway (no offense). 
(Via Boing Boing)