Seeing The Car Of Your Dreams With Your Eyes Shut
by Nahp Suicide
BMW have come up with an innovative way of making sure viewers remember their latest ad: they are imprinting the firm’s logo on people’s retinas.
A new advert for the car manufacturer, which has been previewed at cinemas in Germany, makes use of the phenomenon that occurs when you look at the sun. As when you view anything bright enough, when you close your eyes an ‘after-image’ can still be seen for several moments afterwards.
When the flash goes off during this special ad for BMW’s motorbikes it just seems like a regular flash from the bike’s headlights is shown on screen. However, even though the brand is never consciously seen during the ad, thanks to a heavy duty photographic flash which is shone though a stencil behind the cinema screen simultaneously to the headlight visual, when the audience closes their eyes – as they are told to at the end of the spot – they are startled to see the clear afterimage of the BMW logo on their eyelids. This puts a whole new spin on the phrase “branded for life!”
Super Bowl Sunday: A Preview
A lot of people mistakenly believe that the holiday season ends once the New Years hangover has subsided. Not true.
This Sunday, millions of Americans will gather with friends and family for parties in front of their big screen TVs. Theyll drink beer, eat junk food, watch commercials, wager their hard-earned money on ridiculous bets, and, if theyre lucky, maybe even get to see Tom Pettys nipple.
Oh, and theres also going to be a football game.
Its the purely American spectacle known as Super Bowl Sunday, and theres a good chance that youll be partying even if youre not watching the game.
Heres a little information to get you ready for the big day:
COMMERCIALS:
With an estimated audience of over 90 million, airing a commercial during the big game means big bucks for advertisers. Considering that 30 seconds of time goes for a whopping $2.7 million, companies pull out all the stops for the spots, which are often more memorable and more talked about than the game itself.
The New York Times posted a nice little Super Bowl commercial interactive feature covering the last 24 years
everything from Apples 1984 1984 through last years Emerald Nuts ad where Robert Goulet fucks with sleepy office workers.
Who doesnt remember that Doritos laundromat with Ali Landry, or the running of the squirrels, or the dramatic finish of Bud Bowl V?
Okay, the Bud Bowl was always stupid, but you know what Im saying.
This year's lineup includes the requisite multiple ads from Budweiser, as well as Coke and Pepsi battling to sell drinks that aren't Coke or Pepsi, Bridgestone tire spots featuring Richard Simmons and Alice Cooper, and a little T&A courtesy of Victorias Secret.
Which will be the big winners? Find out on Sunday, or just wait for the buzz on Monday.
GAMBLING:
The money changing hands this Sunday isnt just between advertisers and FOX, who is televising the game. Its also the biggest single day gambling event in the country, and Vegas is looking to set a record.
The game has sparked so much interest that many experts expect that the "handle," or amount of total wagers made, will shatter the Nevada state record for Super Bowl bets set two years ago at $94.5 million.
How high can the handle go? That depends on whom you ask. Chuck Esposito, assistant vice president of race and sports book operations at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, said that a number of factors could take this year's Big Game over the $100 million mark for the first time.
Of course, the only Super Bowl related gambling that Ive ever partaken in was the legal kind
you know, through the Vegas sports book.
Yeah, right.
I remember one year I was down over $200 before the stupid game even started. How is this possible? Because its the Super Damn Bowl, thats how.
Vegas sets lines for damn near everything
and your friendly neighborhood bookie will most likely take those ridiculous bets. So, if you want to bet on the result of the coin toss, or the jersey number of the player to score the first touchdown, or perhaps go with the over/under for the yardage of the first punt, youre all set.
If you cant get in touch with your bookie, theres always the crudely drawn block pool - or you can print this one, if you wish - that is required by law at any respectable Super Bowl Party.
In any case, the lesson here is to bring extra money, gamble responsibly, and hopefully go home with more cash in your pocket than you had when you arrived.
HALFTIME SHOW:
Who doesn't like Tom Petty?
THE GAME:
Ah, yes ... the game.
The 18-0 New England Patriots, entering the game as 12 point favorites, are looking to complete their undefeated season against the 13-6 New York Giants.
This game is a rematch of the final game of the regular season in which the Patriots came back late to win 38-35 to remain unbeaten.
I feel that the key to this game is that the playoff experience of the Patriots cannot possibly be matched by the streaking, yet inexperienced, Giants team.
Oh, who the hell am I kidding? I'll just be watching for the commercials.
crispy wishes good luck to all of his friends who are Patriots and Giants fans, but wishes even more that his Eagles were there.
Or even the Pakcers, because they're awsome.
Theyll Remember It For You, Retail
Ever wondered what emotions look like? Scientists believe they do, and theyre using it to see why people like Pepsi. Neuromarketing, described as a quantitative way to test the subconscious effectiveness of advertisements, is a scary idea that marketing professionals hope will trick your mind into wanting things.
Neuromarketing uses state-of-the-art technologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), magneto-encephalography, and more conventional electroencephalograms (EEGs) to observe which areas of the brain "light up" when test subjects view, hear, or even smell products or promos.
The technique has been around for a couple of years; most of the brain imaging technology was invented in the 90s. But it looks like researchers have either perfected the technology or at least their pitch for it; theyre grooming it as a replacement for focus group studies.
"Emotions cannot necessarily be accurately described," says Gemma Calvert, head of the Multisensory Research Group at Britains University of Bath and director of neuromarketing consultancy Neurosense in Oxford, England. Using brain scans, she says, "We can see the discrepancy between what you say and what your brain says, and reduce the margin of error."
According to an article in Business Week , several corporations have been impressed with the University of Bath studys findings. Nike, Wrigley, and Colgate-Palmolive are going to start using the research, even though it seems like the studies have thus far only been used to make obvious conclusions.
Advertisements for popular "alcopop" vodka beverage WKD from Torquay, England-based Beverage Brands elicited vigorous brain responses, while ads for the Red Cross and reliable old Tetley tea produced much less reaction.
I wish I knew how much they spent to come to that conclusion the article only says it costs under $200,000. I could have told them that people are more interested in alcoholic beverages that taste like candy than tea or an ancient charitable organization for way less.
Accusations that neuromarketing is a pipe dream and junk science abound. But beyond the question of whether or not it actually works, some wonder if its potentially harmful. Gary Ruskin of the watch dog group Commercial Art unsuccessfully lobbied members of Congress about the alleged risks of neuromarketing in 2004. He worried how neuromarketing could affect political campaigns. At the time, nobody cared. Now, neurology experts sound alarmed. In the Sept, 2007 issue of the medical journal Diagnostic Imaging, one expert warned that searches for the brains buy button could yield troubling results.
"With new imaging technologies, researchers are able to conduct experiments that have the potential to predict behavior, consciousness, and pathology," said Judy Illes, Ph.D., director of the neuroethics program at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics. "These types of experiments raise ethical concerns about how to handle the sensitive data and how much individuals want to know-or want other people to know-about their mental state."
Earlier this year, a Stanford University mapped the brain activity occurring in the run-up to making a decision to buy or not buy something. The study weighed the pleasure that buying something new caused against the pain of having to pay for it. The study, which no doubt had marketers salivating, concluded that finding the buy button is a ways off.
Yo! Advertisers Rap
TRUE FACT: No matter how mundane, or even disagreeable, the product or idea in question is, even the most stalwart can be persuaded with logic swathed in a slammin' rhythm. Everything is better when it comes with a rap song.
Bill Gates knew this years ago. As he sat atop his desk in 1985, looking all young and saucy with his tousled hair and his glasses off, perhaps he dreamed of a different career path, penning seductive slow jams to woo the ladies. Perhaps, though he dreamed, he knew that his lot in life had no room for side projects. Instead, he sought to release his clandestine desires through other outlets; time, however, had other ideas --curdling his grooves with the bitter sarcasm and irony of love lost, until they became something like the 1990 MS-DOS-hawking gem I came across yesterday:
Perhaps the heart of this story falls along the divide that exists in subsequent geeks everywhere -- MCs Lars and Frontalot (and dare I say Kanye West?) and the like to the left; Insouciant Hoarders of Elite Indie Minutiae to the desk of an oddly Michael Cera-esque Steve Jobs on the right. If anything, it would help to explain the Microsoft-sponsored rhymes that followed for years to come. (Don't copy that floppy, anyone?)
Normally, I wouldn't have even brought this up as news -- it's just science. But it seems to be making news all on its own nonetheless. That the heart of a geek burns funky fresh is as true now as it's ever been, marked most pointedly at the moment by a certain current cheeseburger ad featuring a Jamie Kennedy-meets-Beastie Boys power duo spitting double entendre rhymes in order to build a mental link between toasted rye bread and a bite of especially spicy (if not quite Rubenesque) ass. One might argue that there's nothing particularly geeky about cheeseburgers per se, but the commercial itself is nothing less: true to the form of its MS-DOS predecessor, it is set in a classroom, only this time wacky professors and doo-wop dancers are traded in for higher learning of Van Halen proportions. And by proportions, I mean 36-24-36. And therein lies the problem.
See, it seems that some people don't know how or when to pick their battles. Eager to squelch the carnal, carnivorous desires of lonely teenage boys everywhere, hordes of angry good samaritans are inciting a national outcry to pull the ad.
The fast food chains Carl's Jr. and Hardee's have pushed the bounds of good taste before with TV ads featuring Paris Hilton, Hugh Hefner and a woman riding a mechanical bull while chomping a burger. But their most recent ads featuring a teacher who dances on her desk and touches her backside while rappers in the classroom talk about her "flat buns" has apparently gone too far.
CKE Restaurants Inc., the chains' parent company, will edit the character from the ad after receiving loud complaints from educators.
"It is unbelievably demeaning to every one of them to promote a television advertisement showing a young teacher gyrating on top of her desk while boys in the class rap about her body in order to sell hamburgers!" Tennessee Education Association president Earl Wiman said in an Aug. 31 press release.
Welp. We must really be doing great if this is the most offensive thing we have to worry about, am I right?
My little sister, who has more common sense and a better sense of humor than a good deal of adults, knows all the words to that damn commercial. She will shout the whole thing at random, and a couple days ago she called me up just to ask if, in anatomy class, I got a "butt-minus." Even though the correct answer is dial tone, it doesn't make it any less hilarious. Of course, we seem to be in the minority here, and it wouldn't be a true trivial outrage if our own little city didn't weigh in heavily, making the whole thing that much more especially fascinating to me. I can't help but wonder if so much of the hostility is rooted in the bitter rivalry that comes with being the birthplace of regional favorite Jack in the Box, who started selling flat-bunned sourdough burgers years ago, but deep down I know it's just the kind of knee-jerk "outrage!" reaction that makes San Diego the greatest voice of the nation.
From Kate Steuernagel, Chula Vista: Those of us who've worked years trying to break out of a stereotype and to educate our young women to do the same are again being discounted by Carl's Jr. Haley, the executive vice president of marketing, is out of touch with what sells burgers. I, for one, will not allow my 13-year-old son to buy anything from Carl's Jr. (his favorite burgers) until someone there gets a clue.
From Candy Caplan, San Marcos: My 16-year-old son and I saw the Carl's Jr. commercial – a frolicking, scurrilous female teacher enticing a group of teenage boys – as we watched the Padres-Dodgers game on Channel 4. Disgusted is the best word to describe our reaction. As the mother of three young people who try to balance their worlds of technology, media, politics and a rapid-fire, changing world, I could only shake my head at this Carl's Jr. debacle of an ad. Carl's Jr. should make a public apology and help us lead America's children to places of pride, responsibility and good judgment.
I thought I heard more sirens than usual last night -- the waaahmbulances must be running full-tilt. Personally, I think someone's just bitter that it's not Diamond Dave doing the ogling. Not that I blame them, because who can argue with that guy? But naturally, the only positive or even neutral -- "Why do people take trivial things like commercials so seriously?" -- feedback comes from denizens of the nefarious "downtown" area, a bacterial hotbed full of dastardly young liberals getting their Lulz by blighting the cozy little city's good name with their irreverent defiance. (Which I guess is why I moved there.)
So here's the thing: who gives a shit about Carl's Jr patty melts? (Or Hardee's patty melts, to all you Easterner heathens.) No one, it's just a damn sandwich. At least, it was until you thousands of losers started complaining about it. Now, like a gangster rapper talking shit with a gun cocked, it's a sandwich with publicity. It's a brilliant advertising technique, plain and simple, and all dates back to the original true fact: even the most boring item can generate interest the minute it busts a move. Case closed.
_DictionaryGirl_, as a matter of consequence, frequently busts a move. Despite this, she subscribes to the Elite Hoarders of the Mac Order. She is an enigma.
...And No One Else Wanted To Play
My trip through Canada has turned into more of a fact finding mission than anything else. Sure I'm doing the planned business and socializing but I'm also learning a ton about things I didn't know I didn't know about.
First of all, apparently due to drug advertising regulations a manufacturer can run ads with the name of the drug they are selling so long as they don't mention what it does. This makes for some extremely weird ads - like the one I saw before Superbad in a theater in Toronto. This particular ad was a solid 60 seconds of young girls jumping around and trying on clothes and the voice over saying something about "being your own person" or some crap. I couldn't figure out what it was for to save my life, turns out it was for birth control. There have got to be some insane advertising meetings specing these things out.
Also, if you have a mobile phone and want to use it for any kind of mobile Internet kind of things you are pretty much screwed. As far as I can tell there's no such thing as an all inclusive data plan in the whole of Canada and the providers are totally stoked on bending over the entire country. My US issued CDMA phone works here no problem - for voice, but won't connect to any kind of data network. This is possibly because data costs something like a hundred bucks a MB or so and therefore the networks have them super locked down. Sorry Canada.
Speaking of mobile phones, the folks over at Rogers have put in what might be the flat out stupidest feature I've ever seen. They offer the Sony Ericksson W810i Walkman Phone which, as you might guess from the name, is set up to play music. In fact it has tons of built in music playing software, which lets you play MP3s and things. Well, the smartalics over there at Rogers decided to hijack the "end call" button and make it connect, rather slowly I might add, to their own DRM filled music store instead. This is going to be especially interesting to follow, as Rogers is slotted to release the iPhone later this year.
Finally, not so much something I learned but a learning experience... I was walking down Queen West when I saw a store window display filled with a ton of books a good friend of mine had written. I instantly started smiling and pulled out my camera and started snapping photos of the window so I could show her later. This was all well and good until I noticed people inside looking at me rather oddly, and then processed that my friend Violet writes sex manuals, and the store was a sex book/toy shop, and the books in the window were giving/getting head, fetishes, and generally getting it on and I probably looked like a total creep. Luckily the staff was very understanding when I went inside to try and explain myself.
And yes, I just used the word "staff" in a paragraph about a sex shop.
Women's Bodies: Awesome! What Happens to Them: Offensive!
Clearly, the above billboard is completely awesome, and if I lived in Manhattan, I would go store all my shit with Manhattan Mini Storage. If I had no shit to store, I would go out and buy shit in order to store it there.
But apparently some people disagree.
The founder of the public relations firm Flatiron Communications, Peter Himler, said that if he were part of an advertising campaign, he would advise against using this particular issue, which is "so divisive," to promote a client's commercial interest. He said he found the billboard "in poor taste and shortsighted."
...
Passers-by had mixed reactions. "I have no problem with it," Claudia Citernino, 55, said. She added that it was not as shocking as a lot of other things one sees.
Indeed. Like, say, for instance this:
"Titties and food! Yay! And we make no apologies for it, either!" WTF? Only in a totally bizarro world do we think this sort of thing is unremarkable.
Or this:
"Hi, I'm a slut! Who eats meat! Hahaha, you know what we're talking about here!" Again, people: this is just so, so, gross.
Or even, y'know, this:
"Look at my panties!" Uhm, yeah. Right.
Porn, fine. Whatever. But for god's sake, if you want the unquestioned right to use women's sexuality to sell stupid unrelated shit, then let's not get all bent out of shape when someone uses women's right to their own bodies to do so.
Bitch_PhD wouldn't mind if the ad had said "your" right to choose rather than "her" right to choose, but y'know, that's a pretty minor quibble.
TV Says "No" to Pigfuckers
I can see why the Evolve advertising campaign for Trojan condoms could be considered sort of annoying, but Im dumbfounded at how it can be construed as offensive.
The ad, which debuted earlier this week, opens with a classy lounge full of cocktail-swilling swine unsuccessfully hitting on women. After getting rejected by a blonde at the bar, one pig scampers off to a condom machine, and is transformed into a sort of schlubby-looking dude who successfully chats up the babe who rejected him when he looked like the movie character Babe.
The way the woman instantly knows the dude is packing a prophylactic doesnt make sense exactly; did the pigs who made the unwanted advances try to woo women with promises of unprotected sex? Strangely, both the CBS and Fox networks have refused to air the ad, not for logical inconsistency, but for its alleged offensive content.
Fox said that it had rejected the spot because, Contraceptive advertising must stress health-related uses rather than the prevention of pregnancy.
In its rejection, CBS wrote, while we understand and appreciate the humor of this creative, we do not find it appropriate for our network even with late-night-only restrictions.
After watching the ad twice, Foxs supposition that it somehow stresses the prevention of pregnancy remains a mystery for me at least.
On the blog Pandagon, Amanda Marcotte notes that networks have no problem broadcasting spots for male sexual enhancement products, and suggests that the Evolve ad is getting heat for being too respectful to women, and not fearful enough of pro life letter campaigns.
The networks are cowering because theyre scared to death of anti-choicers writing in and bitching about the idea that sluts should escape their due punishment for having sex.
But maybe the agenda here is anti-women as much as it is anti-fun. Neither Fox or CBS had a problem with Trojans last campaign, which according to the New York Times, urged condom use because of the possibility that a partner might be HIV-positive, perhaps unknowingly. It seems like the TV stations think condom use is OK as long as sex is portrayed as disease-ridden and scary. If its something thats preventing a pregnancy from occurring during a bar hook up, apparently thats a problem.
Of course, if the pigs had evolved into men after, say, ordering a name brand vodka or pulling out an expensive cell phone, networks probably wouldnt utter a single objecting squeal.
Publishers Trying to Catch Your Attention
The New York Times takes a look at the story of first-time author Steven Hall and the lengths that publishers are going to in order to find the new hot best-seller. In the case of Hall, whose first novel, The Raw Shark Texts has been well-reviewed and compared to House of Leaves , his publishers have gone all out with pre-publication tours. These tours seek to woo and inform booksellers whose influence is conventionally seen as diminishing due to the increased importance of online vendors like Amazon.
In January, about two months before Mr. Halls novel, The Raw Shark Texts, was scheduled to hit the shelves, Canongate U.S., Mr. Halls publisher, footed the bill for four days of wining and dining, with Mr. Hall pitching his book in person to people who can help determine whether it sinks or swims.
Like a novice politician, Mr. Hall shook hands and talked patiently with booksellers both small and powerful, from an assistant store manager in Minneapolis to the head buyer at City Lights, the renowned San Francisco independent.
There were four long dinners on his schedule, plus a handful of media interviews, a book signing, three photo shoots and a meet-and-greet at Powells Books in Portland.
It was heady stuff for Mr. Hall, who before this had never left Europe. He was born in Derbyshire, England, outside Manchester, and now lives in Hull, a tiny, deprived, poor little city, he said.
In order to grab a piece of the diminishing book market, Halls publisher havent ignored the online world, of course. During the lead up to his publication date last week, Hall was given a blog on the influential Powells website.
Another new marketing tactic in the publishing world is the addition of what are known as book trailers. Just what they sound like, these cinematic teasers adopt the rhythm and style of movie trailers. While I can appreciate the art and intention behind them, I wonder if they wind up removing some of the mystery behind the books theyre trying to promote. I enjoy the not-knowing that happens when you start a new novel, and I feel like these trailers remove a little of that.
You can judge for yourself by watching a couple of my favorites:
Londonstani by Gautam Malkani
King Dork by Frank Portman
Fall Out Boy: Raising the Bar on Product Placement
Advertising: its the second-oldest profession. (Circa when the first-ever prostitute placed her first-ever Paleolithic Craigslist Erotic Services ad.) It comes in many flashy forms and makes anyone involved a lot of money, seeing as its the business of making money in itself. It also says a lot about whatever era its produced in, since as markets grow and evolve, advertisers are always looking around and analyzing the landscape to find out whats working better and what they can weasel their way into next. According to a recent article on Podcastingnews Dot Com, banner ads are totally out, and video ads are totally in.
According to new research from advertising service provider DoubleClick, viewers click the Play button on video ads more than they click on image ads. They also found that video ads are typically played two-thirds of the way through and video ad click rates are far higher than those of image format ads.
Online video ads are quickly becoming the medium of choice to drive both brand awareness and sales, said Rick Bruner, research director at DoubleClick. The results show that there are clear ROI advantages to placing video ads.
So, clickable videos are the new wave of advertising, eh? See, this is funny, because I was just checking out the new Fall Out Boy video down over on YouTube. (This was in the interest of social science and staying abreast of pop-cultural zeitgeists, mind you; nothing to do with some kind of raging girl hard-on for Pete Wentz or anything.) Its called Thnks Fr Th Mmrs, and the song is rife with kids-these-days modernity, from the top of its slick Kenneth Edmonds string-section production to the bottom of its text-message-overtoned title. But these things I knew from the album. The first thing I noticed about the video, however, (aside from the goofy monkey motif that Im not even going to bother touching on) was a sign at the start of the video that it is apparently sponsored by delicious deodorant body spray. Which struck me as... odd... seeing as this is a three-minute music video and not a soap opera or anything. I figured it was just that, a sponsor, but as I watched the whole video I was nearly plowed over by the amount of product placement packed into that little video. Cell phones, an SUV, the aforementioned body spray: brand names flash like wildfire.
Now I know rap videos can get a little bling-y with the name-dropping and the crossover clothing lines, and maybe Peteys been spending a little too much time chilling with Hova, but theres a difference between showing off the money you have and trying too hard to make money. This is the first time Ive ever seen a video that can't be interpreted any other way but as an extended advertisement, and I just dont know what to make of it.
I apologize if I'm harping too much on shameless product placement after G-Units awesome book series and all, but if Im going to give Fitty a hard time then I dont see why I should let F.O.B. off the hook. You want to run with the big rap bulls, you get the blogger horns. On the one hand, I almost dont know why this should be so upsetting. Sports stars triple their income on endorsements, and Wentz was primed to be a soccer star before trading in the Gatorade for a gallon of liquid eyeliner. Perhaps the same mentality is simply closer than one would think. Besides, between a clothing line and a record label and headlining the Honda fucking Civic Tour, Señor Wentz has never kept hidden his agenda of trying to be the richest boy in the business. Then on the other hand, it seems like such a slippery slope. Like I said, this is the first blatant ad video Ive seen, but I sincerely doubt it will be the last. Especially with the advent of interactive internet videos, as opposed to what you watch idly on TV. According to that DoubleClick article, Its an ad execs dream.
Whats particularly exciting about these types of campaign performance benchmarks is that they provide marketers with an important leap forward in measuring audience engagement and results that simply does not exist in traditional TV advertising, said DoubleClicks Marianne Caponnetto. The best standard data you get on audience measurement of TV commercials is limited to reach and frequency or specialized brand studies. However, online video metrics available today, like interaction rate, play rate, video completion rate and so on, give advertisers much greater insight into how consumers are actually engaging with the ads and their brands.
"Thnks Fr Th Mmrs" has been on YouTube for two days, and has received over 31,000 hits. If even one poor misguided kid went out and bought terrible cologne in the name of being more Wentzianly attractive to the emo ladies, then the advertisers have won, and believe me when I say thats almost as bad as the terrorists. Pete Wentz has a book coming out in the summer called Rainy Day Kids, and if he busts out and cross-references his own brand of mineral water in there, I swear to god I'm going to have an aneurysm.
That's it. Pete: youre on notice!
Recommended Related Viewing: Watch only at your own risk. I can't be held responsible if this video alone causes you to develop a strong distaste for Fall Out Boy. Or body spray. Or monkeys.
_DictionaryGirl_ can call out Pete Wentz all she wants, but everyone knows she would totally be at the Civic Tour in a heartbeat if she had the money.