13567: BHM 2017—Truth Initiative.

Okay, it’s technically not a Black History Month moment, but Campaign reported the Truth Initiative is turning smoking into a social justice issue by comparing Big Tobacco’s targeting of Blacks to racial profiling. The concept was hatched by 72andSunny, which adds layers of hypocrisy and deceit to the propaganda. Plus, it’s not even an original notion—simply type “Newport” into this blog’s search field to see. “We hope young people will help us spread the word,” said Truth Initiative CEO and President Robin Koval. “When you see a social injustice, when you see tobacco being advertised up to 10 times more in black neighborhoods, call it out. We’re always looking to get young people to engage with us whether sharing our hashtag or coming to thetruth.com to enroll. The way we’ll stop this is by getting young people engaged.” Hey, wait until the young people gain awareness of the discriminatory exclusivity happening at White advertising agencies like 72andSunny. It’s bona fide social injustice—and that’s the truth.

Truth turns tobacco advertising into a social justice issue

By Alison Kanski

In the new #StopProfiling campaign, Truth Initiative accuses the tobacco industry of profiling African-Americans and people in low-income communities.

The Truth Initiative has made smoking not just a health issue, but a social justice issue in its new campaign #StopProfiling.

One thing the campaign is capitalizing on is the recent surge in protests and renewed focus on social justice issues since Donald Trump’s inauguration. In the past, many of its campaigns have been more lighthearted, like a campaign showing smokers are less likely to get dates on Tinder, said Robin Koval, CEO and president of Truth Initiative.

“We felt that there is a shift in the cultural mood right now,” Koval explained. “Young people are feeling that they want to make a statement about this country and that they care about all the things going on. We know young people care a lot about social justice issues. It felt like a good time to pivot a little bit and take a more serious tone in our advertising.”

The campaign, which began Sunday, takes aim at tobacco’s advertising tactics. The campaign focuses on tobacco’s targeting of African-Americans and people with lower incomes. In two videos featuring comedian Amanda Seales, the campaign points out that black neighborhoods have up to 10 times more tobacco advertisements and low-income neighborhoods are more likely to have tobacco retailers near schools.

“Some people might say, ‘Isn’t the tobacco industry just targeting their best customers? Isn’t that what all brands do?’” said Koval. “It’s not as innocent as that. That’s not just marketing, that’s singling people out and that’s called profiling.”

Along with the videos, which premiered during the Grammys on Sunday night, the Truth Initiative is running a robust digital campaign for #StopProfiling aimed at young people from 15 to 24 years old. The initiative used the MTV Video Music Awards last August to kick off another campaign called #Squadless.

“We like to use these tentpole events where you can aggregate lots of young viewers in a single moment and start to generate awareness,” Koval said. “We’re igniting the spark on a major event like the Grammys, but the real power is in all of our finishers, the people who follow and engage with us afterward.”

The initiative took over YouTube on Sunday with the campaign and promoted the hashtag on Twitter Monday, Koval said. The campaign will also include work with influencers on Snapchat and Twitter.

Truth worked with several agencies to help create the campaign: Ketchum for PR, 72andsunny for advertising, and Assembly for media planning. This campaign is an extension of Truth’s Finish It campaign, which began in 2014 and aims to make this generation of young people the generation that ends smoking.

“We hope young people will help us spread the word,” Koval said. “When you see a social injustice, when you see tobacco being advertised up to 10 times more in black neighborhoods, call it out. We’re always looking to get young people to engage with us whether sharing our hashtag or coming to thetruth.com to enroll. The way we’ll stop this is by getting young people engaged.”

12490: Truth Hurts.

The truth is, this Truth video sucks—and it shows how hackneyed White advertising agencies like 72andSunny love hip hop.

There’s an old advertising line sometimes attributed to David Ogilvy that reads, “If you’ve got nothing to say, sing it.” A variation on the line reads, “If you’ve got nothing to say, sing it. If you’ve got less than nothing to say, have a kid sing it.” Contrived crap like the Truth video inspires another twist: “If you’ve got nothing to say, sing it. If you’ve got no talent and you’re culturally clueless, have a hip hop artist sing it.”

12399: Showing Truth Takes Integrity.

Adfreak reported on the latest advertiser and White advertising agency to jump on the liberal lifestyle bandwagon: Nikon and McCann New York with a video featuring gay fathers with their daughters. It’s always annoying to see such inclusive campaigns coming from White advertising agencies where exclusivity thrives.

McCann New York is a particularly pesky firm. Despite the agency’s iconic “Truth Well Told” tagline, the truth regarding its diversity is not fully, clearly or well told. The agency has elevated executives for the stereotypical diversity-committed roles—and even publicly praised its Chief Diversity Officer for bringing change to the organization—yet there is never open and transparent sharing of the transformation. On the flipside, there are plenty of examples that demonstrate McCann’s cultural cluelessness.

The Lewis family showed the honesty and courage to reveal their truths. Why doesn’t McCann exhibit some integrity and do likewise? Hey, producing open-minded advertising trumps diversity.

The Famous Gay Dads From Instagram Are Now Starring in This Sweet Nikon Commercial

Taking their photography game to the next level

By Alfred Maskeroni

Gay couple Kordale and Kaleb Lewis gained unexpected stardom by posting a photo of themselves and their daughters getting ready in their bathroom for the day ahead.

The Instagram snap went viral, with many people lauding their obvious love and care for their daughters while others, well—they were less than enthused, because they live in a bubble, under a bridge or somewhere in the past.

Well, now the Lewises have their first commercial deal. They teamed up with Nikon for an endearing look at their family and explain their experience of viral fame.

“This is us every day getting up at 5:30 in the morning and getting our daughters ready for school—and it was a simple innocent picture,” says Kaleb. “Kordale was just like, ‘I’m just letting ya’ll know what I have to deal with’—and the next thing you know, it went viral and I’m still amazed like, ‘Why’d this picture go viral?’”

The spot comes off as a well-shot home movie, but is still a delightful glimpse into this modern family’s life. And meanwhile, here’s the photo that started it all:

12379: Google To Tell The Truth.

Advertising Age reported Google—in a demonstration of greater transparency—will start telling advertisers when their video ads are actually being viewed. Yes, but will Google tell advertisers when their video ads are actually worth being viewed? Add some truthfulness to the transparency already.

Google to Tell Brands When Their Video Ads Are Actually Seen

Search Giant Will Report Viewability for Some YouTube Ads Later This Year

By Tim Peterson

Google is getting more transparent with advertisers about whether consumers are actually watching their online video ads.

Google will start telling advertisers and publishers to what extent their digital video ads are being seen, the company announced on Tuesday. Specifically the search giant, which also owns YouTube, will say what percentage of an advertiser’s or publisher’s video ads were at least 50% in view and for at least two seconds in keeping with the Media Ratings Council’s standard.

This viewability reporting will be available to any campaigns served through Google’s DoubleClick ad-technology system, including its ad exchange, but advertisers and publishers will need to use Google’s DoubleClick reporting tools to view the stats.

Video is at the foundation of Google’s efforts to move brand advertisers’ budgets from traditional media like TV to digital channels. And at the foundation of digital is viewability—or at least Google wants to put viewability at the foundation.

Right now online advertising’s foundational metric is whether an ad was served. From there advertisers can see if people saw the ad, clicked on it, watched it, etc.

“Viewability is really table stakes,” said Neal Mohan, VP-video and display advertising at Google.

With display banner ads, Google has already allowed advertisers to pay only for those that are viewed. Asked if it plans to do the same with pre-roll and mid-roll video ads, Mr. Mohan deflected and said that Google plans to roll out more viewability solutions throughout the rest of this year.

As part of that 2015 viewable video ads roll-out, Google plans to extend its viewability reporting to YouTube ads bought on a reserved basis or through its NewFronts package called Google Preferred, which compiled the top 5% of YouTube channels into 14 packages for advertisers to buy.

Later this year Google also expects to start telling advertisers the average amount of time that an ad was viewable on YouTube and whether people are listening to the ad or whether it’s muted or playing in a background tab.

Google also offered a peek at how it’s private video ad exchange business Google Partner Select is doing. Seven months ago, Google announced the program that automates the sale of online video ads through private auctions. Through Partner Select, advertisers can bid on a single publisher’s video inventory and buy ads against full episodes, live sports and news streams and short clips in real time that aren’t available for purchase anywhere else.

Google has added more than 30 TV networks and premium publishers and over 20 advertisers to sell and buy online video ads through its Partner Select program. Companies selling ads through Partner Select include Fox News, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Food Network, Hearst Television, Rolling Stone, Us Weekly and Men’s Fitness. And advertisers buying that private inventory include BMW and Allstate.

Mr. Mohan declined to say how many campaigns have run through Partner Select or what percentage of the average participating publisher’s digital video inventory is sold through the Google-run private exchanges.

In keeping with the viewability theme of Google’s Tuesday news, Google claimed that people on average watch in full 74% of the video ads that are sold through Partner Select.

12304: McCann Bristol Sucks Balls.

Campaign reported McCann Bristol produced a recruitment video seeking creative candidates with balls. Big balls, in fact. The video goes on to qualify the type of balls required for the job. Of course, the White advertising agency backpedals, claiming the offer is open to men and women. Sexism aside, the contrived and clichéd message does succeed in clearly indicating that McCann Bristol is not an innovative powerhouse. And that’s Truth Well Told.

McCann Bristol looks for young creatives with ‘big balls’

By Gurjit Degun

McCann Bristol has created an online recruitment campaign that offers young creatives the chance to earn £100,000 in one month.

The light-hearted ad emphasises that the perfect candidate needs to have “big balls”. The animation features sentences in white on a black background, with the occasional words in red.

It asks for people with the “balls to back yourself, balls that say ‘I can create great work anywhere on any brief’”.

The agency is looking for candidates with five years’ experience.

The “100kinoneday.com” video explains that the salary of a top creative has been offered to give the candidate “a taste of the big time before you’ve earned it so you’ll want to keep earning it”.

Paul Cottrell, the creative director at McCann Bristol, was in charge of the copywriting and art direction for the work. It was directed by Darren Finch and Steve Millington through Omni Productions.

It will be run on print and digital channels, and McCann plans to share the film on social media.

The competition is called 100k in one day in a playful nod to the small print in some advertising.

12222: Truth Not So Well Told…?

Adweek reported the $500 million U.S. Army account is going into review, and the incumbent since 2005—McCann Worldgroup—will be defending. Given that U.S. presidents are only allowed up to eight years in office, it seems strange for a White advertising agency to hold a governmental account with no time restrictions (besides the regular reviews, that is).

Also worth noting are two comments posted for the Adweek article:

johnnyglock

Biggest challenge? How about convincing young Americans to risk their lives on behalf of corporate multinationals who won’t take care of them when they come home no matter what they’ve done.

G’luck with that.

::

Jazmín Matz

Your comment couldn’t be more accurate. As publicists we are permanently struggling between selling with honesty or super selling through lies. I guess our compromise with people is not to lie to them, but with an account like this one, how could you not possibly be scamming people all the time?

Plus, a recent story from The New York Times detailing how cuts at the Army have hit officers particularly hard included the following quote:

“They recruit with all kinds of promises, whether it’s career benefits or something more amorphous like being part of something bigger,” said Beth Bailey a professor at Temple University who studies the Army. “They support families in a way that makes it a whole lifestyle. People become part of an insulated Army culture. For that to suddenly be taken away, I’m not surprised they feel betrayed.”

A comment posted for The New York Times article read:

Glen Scutt, Class of ’64 (Newark, N.J.)

When recruited, you are always promised more than will be delivered in the end (promise them anything, then give them a rifle!).

So what makes all the comments especially interesting? Since 1912, McCann has boasted the trademarked line: Truth Well Told. Fortunately, no one has ever legally challenged the White advertising agency on its claim.

U.S. Army Is Reaching Out to Agencies Again for $500 Million Account

McCann Worldgroup retained business in 2011

By Noreen O’Leary

The U.S. Army’s account is up for grabs again, a few years after McCann Worldgroup retained the business in April 2011 in a hard-fought battle.

The Army is about to issue an RFP for its global marketing business that is worth $500 million over the contract period. An Army rep said overall marketing spending on the business is $184 million to $200 million annually. The government’s pact is a one-year contract, which is renewable for four years, effectively making it a possible five-year working relationship.

An Army request for agency information in the mandated process first went out in June, and it’s expected a new agency contract will be awarded in March, 2016. It’s expected the Army is hiring an industry consultant to help manage the process.

McCann, which is being invited to pitch the business, has worked with the Army since 2005. It’s estimated the account generated revenue of $15 million to $20 million for the Interpublic agency.

The RFP covers general advertising, public affairs support and direct marketing to aid Army personnel acquisition and retention programs. At the time of the 2011 renewal, Worldgroup employed some 300 staffers on the Army account from 11 companies, including McCann Erickson, MRM Worldwide, UM (Universal McCann), NAS Recruitment Communications, Momentum, Weber Shandwick and Casanova Pendrill.


 The Army business last went into play during August 2010 and, aside from McCann Worldgroup, other review finalists were WPP agencies Grey and Y&R as well as McCann’s Interpublic sibling Draftfcb, now FCB.

9747: Microsoft’s Truth In Advertising.

To politely bash Google, Microsoft is running the ad above featuring the headline, “Putting people first.” Advertising Age just reported Microsoft canned 200 in its marketing department, including Chief Creative Officer Gayle Troberman. Putting people first indeed.

9129: McCann NY Shedding Old Mad Men?

Adweek reported on potentially deep layoffs at McCann Erickson NY, publishing a lame agency statement that read:

“As part of McCann’s reinvention, the agency has had to make some very difficult decisions. One result is that some employees will not make the transition with us. Protecting both individuals and the health of the company is a difficult balance. The decisions made were hard. But they were based on a clear strategy for the agency.”

Of course, the “clear strategy” is not being publicly defined, flying in the face of the company’s “Truth Well Told” slogan. But Adweek appears to be hinting at the reinvention plan with its stock photo selection featuring a mature executive who has just been terminated. Then again, BDAs are notorious for keeping their Old White Guys employed—although Universal McCann did have an age discrimination lawsuit pending.

8759: The Growing National Doubt.

At the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Saturday Night Live Head Writer Seth Meyers joked about the release of President Obama’s birth certificate, noting how people have become overly suspicious about anything they have not directly seen. In other words, skeptics demanded to view the document before believing the truth—and many still want to take a closer look to verify matters. Yet barely a week later, it appears that President Obama is in a similar scenario, with folks now insisting to peek at photographs to prove Osama Bin Laden was assassinated. In this age of Photoshop® manipulation, why would anyone trust a hard copy anyway? The Doubting Thomases could touch the alleged bullet holes in the late terrorist’s head and chest and continue to question reality. Can’t help but wonder how Madison Avenue has influenced our culture of skepticism.