Saturday, August 31, 2013

11407: The Pitch Non-Review Addendum.

While seeking content for the latest non-review of the third episode of AMC series The Pitch, MultiCultClassics discovered the winning agency is a Black-owned enterprise. The Pitch Q&A featured Heavenspot President Chevon Hicks, whose shop bills itself as “a socially-powered digital creative agency.” Hicks doesn’t appear to have spent a lot of time in traditional advertising agencies, with career moves at Universal New Media, Sony Online Entertainment, Attitude Network and MGM Creative Advertising.

This also demonstrates how The Pitch is not reflective of the real advertising industry. After all, a digital agency run by a non-White person would almost never be allowed to compete against a White shop for a mass market account. Kudos to Hicks and his teammates.

11406: The Pitch Petered Out…?

Did anyone catch AMC series The Pitch on Thursday night? Besides an Advertising Age interview with the nondescript client featured in the second installment, there appear to be no reviews or online posts for the third episode. Perhaps the Labor Day weekend prevented people from providing commentary. Or maybe folks are trying to be polite and not publicize the embarrassing mediocrity. More likely, viewers aren’t bothering to tune in. Hell, the fan site hasn’t even posted at all this season. However, the AMC blog claims 295 people voted in the poll that asked, “Which agency should have won?” It’s a safe bet that the two agencies and client have a total of 295 employees, give or take a handful of supportive kin. MultiCultClassics will continue to review The Pitch without actually watching the show—but it’s growing increasingly pointless if no one else cares to watch either.

11405: Gun Culture Is Clueless.

The advertising for gun culture is ridiculous, with its mindless machismo and celebrity endorsements. Check out this campaign inviting idiots to vote for their favorite We Are Weatherby ad—and enter for a chance to win a Weatherby® Mark V® rifle. It’s the Marlboro Man packing heat.

Friday, August 30, 2013

11404: Dunkin’ Runs On Racism…?

From FOXdc.com…

Dunkin’ Donuts criticized for ‘racist’ ad campaign

By Associated Press

BANGKOK - A leading human rights group has called on Dunkin’ Donuts to withdraw a “bizarre and racist” advertisement for chocolate doughnuts in Thailand that shows a smiling woman with bright pink lips in blackface makeup.

The Dunkin’ Donuts franchise in Thailand launched a campaign earlier this month for its new “Charcoal Donut” featuring the image, which is reminiscent of 19th and early 20th century American stereotypes for black people that are now considered offensive symbols of a racist era.

In posters and TV commercials, the campaign shows the woman with a shiny jet black, 1950s-style beehive hairdo holding a bitten black doughnut alongside the slogan: “Break every rule of deliciousness.”

Human Rights Watch said it was shocked to see an American brand name running an advertising campaign that would draw “howls of outrage” if released in the United States.

“It’s both bizarre and racist that Dunkin’ Donuts thinks that it must color a woman’s skin black and accentuate her lips with bright pink lipstick to sell a chocolate doughnut,” said Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch. “Dunkin’ Donuts should immediately withdraw this ad, publicly apologize to those it’s offended and ensure this never happens again.”

The campaign hasn’t ruffled many in Thailand, where it’s common for advertisements to inexplicably use racial stereotypes. A Thai brand of household mops and dustpans called “Black Man” uses a logo with a smiling black man in a tuxedo and bow tie. One Thai skin whitening cream runs TV commercials that say white-skinned people have better job prospects than those with dark skin. An herbal Thai toothpaste says its dark-colored product “is black, but it’s good.”

The CEO for Dunkin’ Donuts in Thailand dismissed the criticism as “paranoid American thinking.”

“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” said CEO Nadim Salhani. “We’re not allowed to use black to promote our doughnuts? I don’t get it. What’s the big fuss? What if the product was white and I painted someone white, would that be racist?”

Salhani said that the Thai franchise of Dunkin’ Donuts operates independently of the American operation and that doughnut sales have increased about 50 percent since the campaign was launched around two weeks ago, which he attributed to curiosity about the new advertisements.

“Not everybody in the world is paranoid about racism,” said Salhani, a Lebanese expatriate in Thailand who said his teenage daughter was the model featured in the campaign. “I’m sorry, but this is a marketing campaign, and it’s working very well for us.”

11403: Annie The Chicken Queen TGIF.

Thanks to dnyree for finding the Popeyes commercial featuring Annie the Chicken Queen and a gospel choir. Thought it was part of the Love That Chicken! Chorus promotion, but it’s actually commemorating Love That Chicken Month! You’d think Popeyes would wait until Black History Month to celebrate. On the one hand, Deidrie Henry has to take the work when she can get it, but surely someone can find new roles for the actress. Jeezus.

11402: The Price Of Self-Esteem.

Forgot to mention that the Grand Prize Winner of the Love That Chicken! Chorus promotion will receive a whopping $1,000—and a lifetime of shame and ridicule as a bonus. The special site currently features a dozen contestants. Hey, Popeye’s should recruit Mary J. Blige to serve as a celebrity judge to select the champion.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

11401: More Annie The Chicken Queen.

Haven’t found an online version yet, but there’s a new commercial for the Love That Chicken! Chorus promotion featuring Annie the Chicken Queen and a gospel choir. Somebody owes Mary J. Blige an apology.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

11400: Google Has A Dream.

Google’s tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. looks kinda odd over “I’m Feeling Lucky.”

11399: Golf Channel Is A Putz.

From Advertising Age…

Golf Channel Has an Epic Fail on Anniversary of ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech

Tweet, Closer to a Nightmare, Quickly Deleted

By Alex Kantrowitz

In the summer of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. took the steps of the Lincoln memorial and, in front of a crowd of hundreds of thousands, delivered a speech describing his dream of a United States after racism’s demise. Today, exactly 50 years later, the Golf Channel took to Twitter and told its 200,000 plus Twitter followers to “Tweet your ‘golf’ dream,” using the hashtag “#DreamDay.”

“I have a dream that no man, regardless of creed, will ever bogey,” replied one of its followers.

The Golf Channel quickly deleted its tweet. “The tweet in question was not appropriate and was pulled minutes after being posted this morning,” a Golf Channel spokesman said by email. “The original intent was to celebrate this important date in history, and we regret that we failed to meet that standard.”

In an age of real-time marketing, where every brand’s social team aspires to post the next Oreo Super Bowl tweet, some run into the news of the day without regard for context. Not every brand fits every moment, and the Golf Channel learned this the hard way today.

Others took a more tasteful approach to commemorating the speech, which took place in the midst of the massive March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

The New York Times, for example, released its August 29, 1963 edition in scrollable format online. (Back then the news was always delivered the next day, although it was at least less vulnerable to disruption by Syrian Electronic Army hackers.)

A click on the pages, which were filled with coverage of the rally and the speech, zooms in on articles. On the right hand side of the screen, you can scroll through the all the day’s articles (including an advertising column, that tells magazines to specialize and stop trying to be “everything to everybody”).

NPR also put its @Todayin1963 Twitter account into overdrive to commemorate the march. The account, a special NPR project, tweets moments from the summer of 1963 as they happened. “For sale at the March on Washington: Hot dogs, soft drinks and other picnic foods,” read one. Another reports: “Folks who can’t find space near Lincoln Memorial are retreating to sit under trees nearby.”

Google used its homepage “doodle” to commemorate the day. A graphic of King speaking to the masses sits above the site’s search bar, with the words of the speech in the background. A click on the doodle takes visitors to the search results for the term: “I have a dream,’ speech.” One of the first results is a YouTube video of the speech, which you can watch the below.

11398: Cavalry The New Keystone Kops.

Advertising Age reported WPP’s Cavalry added more MillerCoors billings by snagging Keystone Light from Publicis Groupe’s Saatchi & Saatchi. The move would never have happened if Publicis Omnicom Groupe had been fully approved, as Omnicom is masterful at shifting unhappy clients to other sister agencies within the network. The new assignment for Cavalry covers creative and digital duties—which also shows that the Human Digital Agency is a farce. Finally, it must be noted that on the beverage totem pole, Keystone Light is barely a level above urine.

Cavalry’s MillerCoors Roster Grows with Keystone Light

The Economy Brand Had Been at Saatchi & Saatchi

By E.J. Schultz

WPP’s Cavalry has picked up more work from MillerCoors, winning creative and digital advertising for Keystone Light. The brand had been at Publicis Groupe’s Saatchi & Saatchi, which remains the agency for Miller brands, including Miller Lite.

WPP formed Cavalry about a year ago to handle creative and digital for Coors Light and Coors Banquet, as well as new products such as Redd’s Apple Ale. Coors brands had been at Interpublic’s DraftFCB, which lost the entire MillerCoors account, including Miller Lite, in May of 2012.

Keystone Light, which is positioned as an economy beer, is considered part of the Coors family of brands, so the move from Saatchi to Cavalry was a consolidation move, according to MillerCoors.

In recent years Keystone Light campaigns had featured a laid-back, everyday-hero character dubbed “Keith Stone.” But the brewer ended that effort this year.

Keith “worked very well for our entry-level drinker,” MillerCoors Chief Marketing Officer Andy England said in an interview earlier this year. But “the challenge with Keith is that he was frankly more polarizing with our … 30-something regular guy.” To get closer to that demographic the brand has formed a partnership with tournament fishing organization FLW.

But Keystone Light has gotten relatively little measured media support lately. Spending fell from $8.5 million in 2011 to $309,100 in 2012 and less than $100,000 for the first six months of 2013, according to Kantar Media.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

11397: Annie The Chicken Queen Sings!

Thought Annie the Chicken Queen couldn’t possibly get any worse? Think again, honey! Check out the Love That Chicken! Chorus promotion. Annie sinks to a new low by singing about her chicken—and she’s out to create a chorus. GSD&M can’t be held responsible for this one, as the credits go to Campbell Mithun. Pitiful. Absolutely pitiful.

11396: Buy A Car Or We’ll Kill Kids.

Leave it to Leo Burnett in Brazil to use heavy-handed scare tactics to sell family rides.

From Ads of the World.

11395: Mapping Out Racial Segregation.

Check out The Best Map Ever Made of America’s Racial Segregation.

From Wired.com

11394: Flying Out Of Wild Wings.

From USA TODAY…

S.C. restaurant refused to seat black patrons

By Melanie Eversley, USA TODAY

Black S.C. man says Wild Wing Cafe refused to seat his group after woman felt threatened.

A black South Carolina man says a restaurant in North Charleston refused to seat his party of 25 family and friends and asked the group to leave after a white customer complained of feeling threatened, according to reports.

The man, Michael Brown, also known as Mike London, could not be reached but his Facebook post in which he gave details of this experience indicates the group waited two hours to be seated at the Wild Wing Cafe before a manager approached and later refused to seat the group.

The chief marketing officer for the chain of restaurants based in Mount Pleasant, S.C., said the manager involved in the alleged incident is on leave until an investigation can be completed. She confirmed the group had been offered an apology and meals all around and said the restaurant has a meeting planned for later this week with some members of the restaurant party.

“It’s not an us vs. them — we really join them in their concern,” said the chief marketing officer, Debra Stokes. “We have a zero tolerance of any kind. We have a diverse collection of individuals within our organization. We have always prided ourselves on inviting everyone into our restaurants.”

Michael Brown’s Facebook post has attracted the attention of news media in this country and overseas and the post had been shared about 3,000 times as of Monday evening.

Brown and his group arrived at the Wild Wing Cafe to celebrate his cousin’s last day in Charleston, according to the Daily Mail. The group waited “patiently” before being told a white customer was “threatened by us,” Brown wrote in his Facebook post.

Wrote Brown on Thursday on Facebook, “The manager looked me dead in the face and said she was refusing us service because she had a right to and simply she felt like it.”

Brown told WCSC TV in Charleston that the shift manager told the group there was a “situation.”

“She said, ‘There’s a situation where one of our customers feels threatened by your party, so she asked us not to seat you in our (sic) section,’ which totally alarmed all of us because we’re sitting there peaceably for two hours,” Brown told the news organization. “Obviously, if we were causing any conflict, we would have been ejected out of the place hours before.”

At that point, Brown said, someone in his group began to videotape the conversation. The manager became upset and refused to seat the group, Brown told WCSC.

“I said, ‘So, you’re telling me I have to leave?’ She said, ‘I have a right to deny you service.’ I said, ‘So you’re asking me to leave because you’re upset because he was recording you, after we’ve waited for two hours, and after you’ve already pretty much discriminated on us?’ And she answered, ‘Yes.’”

Stokes told WCSC that she had a “really good conversation” with Brown about the incident.

“He and many of his family and friends were there about a month ago, and they are regular customers of ours,” she said. “They were having a going-away party and they just didn’t receive the experience that they have come to know and love.”

Brown said the restaurant’s apology and offer of free meals are not good enough.

“This is not a situation where you can just give us a free meal and everything is OK,” he told the news organization. “It goes deeper than that.”

11393: Samsung Smart TV Is Dumb.

Can’t tell if this Samsung Smart TV commercial depicts an interracial family or a gay couple with Asian housekeepers.

11392: Extra Corny Gum Commercial.

Sorry, but this Extra Gum commercial blows. Dad looks like a closet child molester. The spot should have ended with Dad discovering thousands of wads of gum stuck to the bottom of the dinner table—before beating his daughter senseless. Oh, and the commercial does a lousy job of communicating anything about Extra. Almost makes one long for the original sappy campaign with the “Extra, Extra, Extra” jingle.

11391: Running On Empty Souls.

This campaign’s net message: Runners are insensitive assholes.

Monday, August 26, 2013

11390: Bogusky’s Bullshit About Jobs.

Alex Bogusky continues his metamorphosis from adman to social and political activist with the Million American Jobs Project. The YouTube posting states the following:

Economics isn’t all that complicated. We can create a million new American jobs this year by simply looking for the Made In America label. If each of us takes a tiny fraction of the money we’re already spending and buys US-made goods, we’ll create [an] economic tidal wave. Watch the video, and then share it with at least two people. Boom, you just helped make a million new jobs.

Not convinced Bogusky is qualified to declare “economics isn’t all that complicated.” His plan to create American jobs requires eliminating overseas jobs, which could hurt U.S. companies that outsource labor. Other potential negative results include higher prices and lower consumer interest. And let’s not forget the already-underpaid foreign workers, who will likely be thrown into poverty upon losing their jobs. To top it off, Bogusky seems half-hearted himself with the proposition; that is, he’s only suggesting increasing your American-made purchases by 5 percent—so you can keep your Nikes and Apple products. Heaven forbid multimillionaire Bogusky might find the courage and commitment to emulate John and Maggie Anderson, who sought to jump-start the economy in 2009 by exclusively supporting Black-owned businesses for an entire year.

Additionally, how will the new positions be distributed? Based on Bogusky’s cluelessness regarding the dearth of diversity in the advertising industry, don’t expect any non-Whites to benefit from the Million American Jobs Project. Sadly, Bogusky has never realized diversity isn’t all that complicated.

11389: Diversifying Downward.

From The Chicago Tribune…

Diversity fades as you move up the corporate ladder

We’ve gotten content with workplace diversity, when much more work remains

By Rex Huppke

People in the working world love to pat themselves on the back for a job well done, even if it turns out the job isn’t finished. It’s a part of the workplace mindset — we see a problem, we address the problem, we say “hooray!” and we move on, often prematurely.

That’s what has happened with diversity in America. There have been great strides in diversifying workplaces — the glossy corporate photographs show inspiring mixes of races and genders, leading some to conclude: We did it. We diversified our workforce.

But then your eyes move up the corporate ladder, and the rich diversity fades into a lot of white men.

According to the Alliance for Board Diversity, white men filled more than 70 percent of the seats on the boards of Fortune 500 companies between 2010 and 2012. And DiversityInc Best Practices in June tallied minority CEOs at Fortune 500 companies: six black, eight Asian, seven Latino, and 21 women.

“We’ve been talking about diversity for 50 years, yet the progress in the form of representation has not changed very much,” said Tyronne Stoudemire, senior diversity consultant at Mercer, a global human resource and financial services consulting firm. “We admit the issue, we talk about the issue, but the work that’s behind it — people aren’t willing to roll their sleeves up and really get involved. We’re unconsciously incompetent.”

He gave a wonderful description of the problem. Imagine corporate America as a glass of white milk. You pour in chocolate syrup, but unless you mix it up, that syrup settles at the bottom and everything tastes the same.

“You’ve got to mix it up,” he said. “Organizations are diverse, but the diversity stays at the bottom. You’re not promoting; you’re not advancing.”

Frank Dobbin, a professor of sociology at Harvard University who has studied diversity programs extensively, agreed with Stoudemire’s assessment.

“We interview a lot of HR managers and top managers at firms, and we ask them how they’re doing on diversity, and they say, ‘Oh, good, 40 percent of our staff is female or minority,’” Dobbin said. “Then we ask how promotion up the ranks is going, and they’ll almost uniformly say, ‘Terrible.’”

Dobbin’s research has found that many diversity programs “don’t have any effect at all or backfire” at a cost of time and money.

He highlighted two typical approaches. One is to teach managers about their own bias, an idea most people tend to resist and one that implies that managers are to blame for a lack of diversity.

The other is to control managers by implementing strict rules regarding hiring and promotion. Dobbin said managers prefer to solve problems on their own rather than having to conform to specific guidelines.

“It doesn’t work to blame managers and tell them they’re biased or try to control them through bureaucratic rules,” he said. “That doesn’t make them happy, and in the end it’s not effective.”

Stoudemire offered his timeline of how the business world has handled diversity. From 1964 to 1988, the focus was mainly on compliance with anti-discrimination laws. From 1989 to 1995, there was a shift to things such as tolerance and sensitivity training.

That rarely led anywhere, he said: “I’ll tolerate you, but at the end of the day, I just want you to go away.”

From 1996 to the present, more of a business case has been made for diversity. Companies have realized not only that diversity is the right thing to do from a fairness standpoint; it’s also good for business, because diversity of workers brings a diversity of ideas.

But clearly, we’re still stumbling.

Dobbin said his research has identified some of the more effective ways to promote diversity up the ranks.

One of the best, he said, is the formation of a diversity task force. (The word “task force” can make any worker’s skin crawl, but hear him out.)

“They work very well because they give the job to the managers,” Dobbin said. “If I’m the CEO and I say I need six department heads to form a diversity task force that will meet once a month for a year and I want to see some results, there will be results.”

That challenge will lead to managers who better understand and appreciate diversity and will likely knock down some internal barriers in the process.

Another effective program involves mentoring, Dobbin said. Pairing up senior executives with management aspirants of all races and genders works because the senior people will want their younger counterparts to succeed. And again, this breaks down barriers that exist not only between people of different races or genders, but also between people at different levels of the company.

This is a tough issue, as evidenced by the fact that we haven’t figured it out. But it’s hugely important. Diverse workplaces are more productive, more innovative and better reflect the clients they serve.

It’s something companies must keep pressing on, if not for pragmatic reasons then certainly as a matter of fairness.

“People are looking for this big, enormous, aha moment,” Stoudemire said. “But it really is about treating people fairly, with dignity and respect, the basic things our mother and father taught us.”

You’re bringing a diverse array of people to the tree with the treehouse. Why not show them the ladder up?

11388: Annie The Chicken Queen Fest.

Has Popeyes and GSD&M lifted the ban on public access to Annie the Chicken Queen commercials? Catch the collection before the advertiser and its agency change their minds.

See Annie flip’n over Rip’n Chick’n.

Check out the Crawfish Festival and Annie’s headgear.

Annie gets wicked with Garlic Pepper Wicked Chicken.

And she bites Roscoe’s with Chicken Waffle Tenders.

However, krissychula is not amused.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

11387: The Crazy Ones Not Crazy.

CBS series The Crazy Ones—debuting on September 26—is billed as a comedy set in an advertising agency. Not sure if the title is paying homage to the Apple campaign that opened with the line, “Here’s to the crazy ones.” Regardless, it’s unlikely viewers will witness Apple-caliber campaigns being crafted on the show.

Mork on Madison Avenue might have been a better name for the series, as Robin Williams plays a lead role alongside Sarah Michelle Gellar. The program concept came from a creative director via Leo Burnett in Chicago, who inevitably pitched it to David E. Kelley. Leo Burnett employees, incidentally, were also responsible for the short-lived TNT series Trust Me, which focused on ad agency life as well. At first blush, The Crazy Ones mirrors Trust Me in its accurate-yet-embarrassing portrayal of our industry.

The agency, Roberts & Roberts, is led by the father-daughter team of Simon Roberts (Williams) and Sydney Roberts (Gellar)—which covers blatant nepotism. The key characters are White, displaying the exclusivity so prevalent in the field. The lobby image of Simon Roberts shows the self-absorbed egotism that still fuels typical ad firms. And the official trailer features references to sex as a sales tool, excessive living, clichéd celebrity endorsements, contrived client appeasing and more. The light bulbs are overdone and corny too.

The Crazy Ones is not crazy at all. Rather, it appears to be an unintentionally sobering depiction of the ugliness and warts present in the advertising industry.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

11386: 50 Years Of Denial For Adland.

The 50th anniversary of the historic March on Washington offers another moment to consider the progress made by the advertising industry in regards to the iconic message of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The agenda above headlined the event as follows: “March on Washington For Jobs and Freedom.” Yet fifty years later, Madison Avenue is still delegating diversity, dodging discipline and deferring the dream. “We shall overcome” meets “We shall overlook.”

11385: The Pitch Reviewed. Sort Of.

AMC series The Pitch aired the second installment of its second season—and it looks like nobody cared. Advertising Age didn’t publish a review. AgencySpy didn’t bother submitting anything either, even though its crack writing staff is allegedly paid per post. MultiCultClassics, however, will continue to review The Pitch without actually watching the show.

Here’s what probably happened. A nondescript client challenged two nondescript agencies to come up with nondescript ideas to sell a nondescript product or service. The least awful agency likely won, although that is never a given on The Pitch. Then again, the same holds true in the real ad world, where accounts are awarded for reasons that go beyond whomever delivers the best solutions.

Here’s what else probably happened. Various participants said or did things that made them look stupid. This is definitely a given on The Pitch, as stupidity is pretty much a prerequisite for entering the competition.

11384: BP + Mad Ave = Oily Liars.

Advertising Age reported BP is running a campaign complaining about bogus claims from people and businesses that were never financially injured as a result of the 2010 oil spill ignited by the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Um, didn’t BP plead guilty of felony misconduct over their role in the tragedy? There are few things worse than advertising and PR executives writing scripts for criminals griping over alleged injustices. The agency-client meetings must feel like pathological liars conventions.

11383: Goodby Silverstein Sinking…?

Advertising Age reported Princess Cruises named Goodby Silverstein & Partners as its new lead agency. The cruise line has been handling its marketing in-house—and the company website looks like it was created in a shithouse. It’s unclear if the assignment involved a pitch, as the hiring of GSP appears to be the sole decision of recently appointed SVP of Marketing Gordon Ho. Ad Age noted that twenty-five years ago, Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein reached a major milestone when landing the Royal Viking Cruise Line account, besting mentor Hal Riney after a shootout. Today, GSP is in a titanic network, sailing off with a third-rate cruise account. Lower the lifeboats.

Goodby Silverstein & Partners Gets Princess Cruises Account

Marks a Return to the Category; Omnicom Shop’s First Big Account Was a Cruise Line

By Rupal Parekh

Twenty-five years ago, Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein got their first big break when they landed the Royal Viking Cruise Line account, which at the time spent $10 million, almost all of it print advertising.

Back then, it was a big deal—especially because they won the business in a pitch against Hal Riney, their ad mentor. Fast forward to today, and Goodby Silverstein & Partners is getting back into the cruising industry.

The Omnicom Group shop has been named lead agency for Princess Cruises and will be responsible for an integrated marketing push that launches in early 2014.

GSP was brought on by a new top marketer at the cruise line, Gordon Ho, who joined in June. He earlier in his career spent 18 years at the Walt Disney Company where he last served as executive vice president of worldwide marketing for its $4 billion Disney Studios Home Entertainment division.

“In looking for a new partner to help with our advertising and marketing growth, we wanted an agency with solid experience and proven results,” said Mr. Ho, svp-marketing, in a statement. “The team at Goodby Silverstein & Partners not only brought a strong reputation, but most importantly impressed us with their strategic thinking and the creative direction they presented to not just differentiate but distinguish the Princess Cruises brand.”

Princess has been handling the bulk of its marketing in-house though a few years ago it was working with California-based shop Ignited. The move to bring on outside advertising help comes not only as Princess is facing increased competition both in the form of promotions and new product offerings across the cruise line industry, but also as cruising overall has taken a PR hit as Carnival Cruise Lines has faced several high-profile mishaps.

“I’m not a spokesman for the industry but if you’re going to take your family to Alaska, it’s a great way to do it,” said GSP’s co-chairman, Mr. Silverstein. “In general, there’s a lot of things you can see on a cruise that you just can’t see another way. It’s a romantic way to see the world to be floating on the water. We live in places where electricity is everywhere and to be on the open water and have nothing but dark and stars—where else are you going to get that?”

He added that Princess hasn’t done “major brand advertising in some time, so we have a chance to reintroduce this brand to the travel industry and the world…with travel there are a lot of choices, and it’s our job in advertising to explain why our option is relevant.”

Friday, August 23, 2013

11382: Overreaction Of The Week.

Advertising Age’s Women to Watch China salutes 19 outstanding advertising and marketing leaders from Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong—and there’s not one Black woman or Latina in the bunch.

11381: The Richards Group Is Clueless.

The Richards Group—who originally ripped off the concept for the wildly exclusive “God Made A Farmer” spot for Dodge RAM—is now flaunting these lame print ads. The retro look recalls a time when minorities were only depicted in advertising as stereotypes or aunts and uncles.

From Ads of the World.