Advertising

If you thought that Hillary Clinton's increasingly directionless campaign did not have some further reservoirs of self-immolating malice to draw upon, please disabuse yourself of the notion. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Exhibit A: a new television spot being run in Texas in advance of that state's primary on March 4th. The conventional wisdom is that, simply, Team Hillary needs a clear victory to even stay in the race. So here's the spot, titled "Children":

To place that in context, here's one of the final ads from Team Bush in 2004, "Wolves":

How astonishingly depraved: after eight years of fear-mongering, a leading Democratic candidate embraces the Rovian playbook. They're not even being subtle about it.

Vote for me or your children die.

Kenneth Cole on blogging :
So why have I jumped on the blogosphere bandwagon? Well, throughout most of my adult life, I have been a reasonably successful, designer, businessman, parent, and philanthropist but I've always been a frustrated activist. This venting arena is the perfect venue for personal expression and for encouraging genuine change (not to mention taking some of the pressure off of my pharmacologist). Over the last 25 years, through my Company and personal pursuits, I've attempted to be topical and relevant to our ever-changing society and raise social awareness, but the fact that you're reading this is proof of how the world is changing. I realize that my monologist approach of the past is as appropriate as wearing socks with sandals - today's must-have is dialog. Sure, I can always help you with what you wear but now you can help us all be more aware.

I am a huge fan of Kenneth. First because I am a shoe whore and I LOOOOOOOVE his style, especially his boots. I used to have a pair of boots of his that I basically wore down to the bone. They just felt like butter and I haven't been able to find a pair like that, although I might actually go out and buy this pair to wear with jeans. Although, OMG, I am totally feeling these, these, these and these as well.

As I said, if there are shoes involved, I am there. And don't get me started with the handbags ... yes, yes, I know ... the truth is, I am really shallow deep down inside.

Yet it's the company's history of ad campaigns that totally rocks my world. As with the Benneton fashion house, Kenneth Cole the fashion designer and company has never shied away from voicing their politics. And grock knows we need that in a realm of culture and society not necessarily oozing with consciousness raising and committed activism.

Who can forget, for example, the "We All Have AIDS Campaign"? How about the infamous black and white posters that just stopped you on their tracks with slogans like : The Homeless Got What They Deserve. And, of course, there's the t-shirts. I am totally feeling this one.

So when I received an email from David Hershkovits, one of the publishers of Paper Magazine asking me if I'd be interested to blog for KC, I was more than flattered. Smelling salts and an EKG were involved in my efforts to say yes.

I have to give a huge shout out to Ron Mwangaguhunga of The Corsair blog fame for this opportunity. We've had blog crushes on each other since forever and it was he who recommended to David to work with his team. The other team is composed by the fine people of Electronic Artists, the company that manages the blog.

So without further ado, let me give you a looky of one of my posts (featured on the front page of the blog).

Presented without comment, although I find it interesting that Australians use the term 'migrant' and not 'immigrant'.

This from the website :

Before you begin:

The following game is not real - it is a "Mock-Ad".

It is a 'what if' response to a challenge issued by Adnews to Amnesia.

The brief : How to change the 'negative' public perception of Migrants in Australia.

Amnesia's response is a 'part viral, part digital media campaign'

It is designed to hit at the heart of the matter and challenge perceptions in an interactive manner - we are using tested viral techniques and a game mechanic. "Mini-games' as a delivery format crosses all ages and genders and also has a suprisingly large percentage of female and older players making it perfect to carry a message.

The game is designed to appear tasteless (at first sight) in order to provoke a response by any person who has strong feelings either way - but the result of 'kicking a migrant' delivers the "real" concequnces both to our Economy and the social impact. Try it and see...

Go to the game.

Alright, I'm amused. The publicity agents for Equinox, an upmarket chain of gyms, email over, breathlessly, as follows:

It's been politics, politics, and more politics lately (with a little NY Giants thrown in) [Ed. note: Yes, that's what we do], so I thought you and your readers might be interested in a very different type of NY event: Equinox's scandalous - almost pornographic - nuns ad is coming to the city this week for 3 days only.

Have you seen the controversial print yet? It features a group of sexy nuns sketching a nude male model in a figure drawing class, a la Michelangelo's David. Some people are in an uproar - I personally think the whole thing amusing (but hey, I'm a liberal New Yorker)

Now, speaking merely for myself, I'm a big believer in the idea that the world needs more sculpted, naked flesh adorning the public space. What's amusing to me is that what is obviously, transparently, a ploy to garner free media - and what better way is there to do that than mixing religion and sex? - has seemingly aroused the ire of the usual suspects.

Memo to Bill Donohue: The reason people run campaigns like this is precisely to cause the reaction you infallibly deliver.

Memo to advertisers: Want press? Hire some models, dress them in ecclesiastical garb and leave one of them naked - no nipples or genitalia, please, since you're not nearly daring enough to risk condemnation from the Four As. Proceed to write steamy press release congratulating yourself on being all edgy, daring and shit, while all the prudes - in New York City, sure, whatever - supposedly froth. Bingo, get press.

If you are a blogger who is looking into making money out of your online publishing, there are a number of blogs you ought to read on a daily basis, one of them being TechCrunch. There's much to learn from Michael Arrington's blog, especially if you were brought up to believe that an Arts & Science education was better without having a couple of business courses under your belt. Boy ... do I have regrets.

Anyhow, yesterday Michael posted a bit about a new commercial project going beta, Political Base. Here's a bit of what Arrington had to say :

The site, which focuses on local, state and national elections and other political matters, is timed perfectly to take advantage of the 2008 presidential elections and the estimated $4.5 billion that will be spent on advertising to promote candidates and issues.

PoliticalBase is a structured Wiki that encourages research and debate. Users can edit most of the text but can’t change the underlying database structure. That allows the site to slice and dice data for comparison purposes (something that can’t be done with the free-for-all Wikipedia) but still gives the site’s community the ability to create and edit content.

It is said that Google Ads is run by algorithms that are turning everything Google into the closest thing to a web powered 'artificial intelligence'. I think they actually have a good act going there and that they do have some level of editorial control over what ads go in and out of a web property, just the same way they've become keen at editorializing the GoogleNews front page.

If not, how would you explain such 'on topic' advertising for "republican ass biters"?

I complete agree with Ross Mayfield : Advertising is not Democratic.

This past weekend whilst the technology blogosphere was drooling over the iPhone, a post by one of Google's advertising account planner in the health category created the effect of rubbernecking in front of a car crash. And I mean it when I say it was ugly. Ugly in a "We Do Evil* As Long As There Is Cash Involved" kind of ugly.

In Does Negative Press Make You Sicko?, Lauren Turner wrote :

I am working right now in like 100 different things and have the TV playing in the background. I know I am witnessing a successful ad campaign when every single time I hear ... Bahamavention... I stop whatever I am doing to see what crazy lunatic ad the ad company Fallon/Minneapolis has cooked up for the Bahamas Tourism Board campaign.

Not everybody is happy with the campaign. Me? I think it's pure advertising genius. It will certainly win them an award next year.

Now, If I could only get a Bahamavention of my own ... le sigh!

Michael Rogers of BlogActive commissioned an ad response to Ken Mehlman's race baiting crapulence targetting Harold Ford Jr.

Yes!

Hey Ken. Call me.