What women want- what men want?

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Heineken's Amsterdam agency TBWA/Neboko have produced one of the most watched commercials on Youtube. Up less than three weeks, it has over 3 million hits and it's not even in English. It doesn't need to be- the stereotypes are universal.



What it says..what it means? Woe is us!

Nicoclean- Now here's a face cream- yikes

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TO Streetwalkers-"We bring the Topic, where the topic is hot"

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If you've been walking a little bit north of GBC, say Jarvis between Gerrard and Carlton, you might have seen these women walking on our snowy streets with signs posing the question, "Should prostitution be legal?"

Apparently CFRB wants to talk, and it wants us to notice and talk about their latest guerrilla campaign.

The campaign is an example of place-based, or ambient advertising, advertising that reaches prospects wherever they happen to be--preferably in the right environment to be receptive to the message. According to Melita Kuburas of Media In Canada, "In case you were wondering, the street walkers were paid, and they were asked to set their own wages."

The creative director of the project, Martin Beauvias of Zig says, "I would call that micro-media. You get to talk to 1,000, 5, 000, maybe 10,000 people, but the spirit of the campaign is, we bring the topic where the topic is hot."

Frankly, these days if there is anything that can heat up Toronto, I'll be happy.

Good things come to those who wait.

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In the early 1900's when every beer company was claiming their beer to be pure, adman Claude Hopkins had a different approach. When he was handed the account, Schlitz beer was ranked at number 5. His scientific approach included a visit to the brewery to watch and learn about the brewing process. Every brewer's process was pretty much the same, but who knew about the brewing process?

Hopkins believed in what is called Reason Why copy, the idea that you needed to give a consumer a reason to buy your product. While others proclaimed their beer was pure, Hopkins told the story of how Schlitz was purified and he proclaimed the bottles were, "Washed with live Steam!" In no time Schlitz sales skyrocketed.

Hopkins' approach became known as the "preemptive claim," one that established a product's uniqueness. It didn't have to really be unique, but if you claimed it first, it was yours.

Hopkins took something that every company did and made it his selling feature. But what about when your consumers perceive a product as having some kind of problem. Can you make that problem an asset?

Well, yes you can. A little spin and some creative ads will do it.

In the early 90s Guinness was facing losses in Pubs. The times had changed and no one had time for the long wait for the head of a Guinness to settle. Cue the spin doctors to spin a tale of the virtue of "The Wait"

They told us it takes 119.53 seconds to pour a pint and that there is a right way to pour one. They created a ritual, a story, a reason why you should wait for a Guinness. We are creatures of habit, and rituals may just reassure us in an uncertain world.

The ad above cleverly places the different glasses to show the evolution of the wait. Even more effective are the numerous ads that extol the virtue of the wait.

Check out the Tipping Point



And if you want to see how they made the commercial, see
The Making of the 20 Million dollar Tipping Point commercial.



On the subject of waiting, this week was an important one, one that many of us have waited 8 long years for- CHANGE! Good things come

No Whoppers today!

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Just eight days after the launch of the sacrifice 10 Facebook friends for a Whopper campaign, the Whopper Sacrifice application has been disabled by Burger King.

According to Facebook, they did not shut the application down. They required Burger King "to remove its functionality for violating users’ expectations of privacy. Normally, no notification is sent when a user removes a friend on Facebook. However, the Whopper Sacrifice application posted a feed story letting others know the friend was being sacrificed for a Whopper before finalizing the removal."

However, the Burger King Web site continues to blame Facebook. Whoppersacrifice.com, says, “Facebook has disabled Whopper Sacrifice after your love for the Whopper sandwich proved to be stronger than 233,906 friendships.”

If you were dumped or if you want to rant you can always send one of Burger King's angry grams http://www.angry-gram.com/index.php or just visit to watch an angry Burger rant.

Has Burger King got anything to rant about? Hardly

In eight days 82,771 people dumped 233,906 friends, each of whom received notice that they were worth only 1/10th of the cost of a Whopper-- about 37 cents. The campaign and it's cancellation were widely covered in newspapers and of course social networks.

Porn industry seeks own stimulus- What's in a Headline?

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Is it me or are some headlines just too funny for words? Recently MSNBC featured this headline, "Porn industry seeks own stimulus...package: Adult industry titans say economy has made Americans go limp."
OK so now the porn industry is going through hard times and is asking for a $5 billion bailout because "the economy has made America's appetite for sex go limp."

What's in a headline or a subject line?

A lot- I admit, I did go read this story. With a headline like that I had to.
It reminds me of subject lines in spam. Sometimes some are just so funny you almost want to click them but you know better. My all time favorite has to be this one, "Grow an Anaconda in your pants" It's just so ridiculous but, I admit it- it cracks me up just thinking about it.

What will you sacrifice for a free burger?

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Once upon a time there was Subservient chicken where we could tell a chicken what to do and where to go. Behind this subservient chicken of course was Burger King who were trying to tell us that we could have it our own way.

My favorite was the meme spawn Subservient President created by MoveOn. Oh what fun to make the president do things as if he were our own subservient chicken. But alas subservient president disappeared. Burger King still has their subservient chicken online.

But what has Burger King been up to lately?

Well, would you believe they are trying to to get themselves into your Facebook? They have created a Facebook application called the "Whopper Sacrifice."

All you need to do to get a coupon for a free Whopper is sacrifice 10 friends by removing them from your friends list. It will even display for all to see on your feed who you sacrificed for your free Whopper. I suppose if you are a young starving student with hundreds of Facebook friends, you might consider dropping a few. How would you feel being sacrificed for a burger?

Sorry fellow Canucks, no sacrificing friends for Whoppers in Canada.....yet! But here's something for you Go back to http://www.subservientchicken.com/ and try a few of these out on old Subservient. According to Wikipedia:

"There is also an easter egg in the program: if you type Crispin, the company name, into the box, the creators, will pop out from behind a sofa and walk off.

When told to perform sex acts, take off his mask, or do anything the Subservient Chicken considers offensive, the chicken walks up to the camera and shakes a scolding chicken finger in disappointment. When told to eat food from rival fast food chain McDonald's, he approaches the camera and places his finger down his throat, when told to eat Burger King he has a more positive response. If he is told to 'join PETA', he performs the same action as when a 'dizzy' command is typed in. The chicken responds to the command "smoke" by smoking, but when told to "smoke a bong" he waggles his finger scoldingly. If told to "choke" he attempts to strangle himself. When commanded to do anything with the word "me" in it, he approaches the camera and looks at you, turning his head a few times. When told to take off his costume, the chicken shows that he is stuck inside his costume.
When "taco bell" is typed in he performs a dance with a lady in a red jumper who appears from besides the camera."

Sick of the chicken? Try asking Stewie of Family Guy to do a thing or two. http://www.stewielive.com/

Rose Petals - Cans of Smokeless Tobacco -What's the dif?

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Once a sacred place, advertising space is now available on the front page of the New York Times for between $75,000 and $100,000 depending upon the day. Some would say it's because newspapers are becoming more flexible, but the truth is there is a serious advertising slump and newspapers and magazines are hurting. It's about Stayin Alive.

We have seen user generated content online and on TV, but who'd have thought Playboy would be using it. Their January edition celebrates Playboy's 55th anniversary and the 75th anniversary of Skoal.

Yeah Skoal- smokless tobacco. Twelve pages and the back cover are dedicated to advertorial content gathered from Skoal's site Skoalbrotherhood.com. It includes jokes and of course the best looking Skoal models of the past.


Where once there were rose petals now there are cans of Skoal!

How romantic--NOT!!

Mouth Cancer- No kidding...

Virgin: Selling Sex and Nostalgia

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The fashions have changed, the technology has changed, but what about the message?