8 Comments

  1. Insane Laurel,

    There is a company in so much trouble it is almost funny. Maybe the job is to replce the person who wrote the copy for the ad?

    j

  2. Bleeding hearts not bleeding brains. This quote from Anton newcombe seems somehow appropraite:

    “… I was very much interested in opening a clear channel of communication – with everything, at once, on different levels. Can’t be defeated, can’t be stopped. Function aside, let’s destroy the design. Malus maleficarum – do you study Latin? Well f**king eat my shit, my ass will not wipe itself. That’s what everybody can have for supper.” He takes another drink and politely offers the bottle. “They’ve been very bad children.” – Anton Newcombe (The Brian Jonestown Massacre) 2005.

  3. John, I doubt they even realise. An interesting aspect of franchising is getting the franchisees to write job descriptions for the franchisor company – it ensures buy-in and agreement on what can and can’t be done to help. Wonder how long before we see the consumer writing the job descriptions?

    BurnyourPC – another Anton Newcombe quote ” “Look at the box. It says ‘written by Ondi’. How do you write a documentary? You don’t. I’m not taking issue with any particular pixel or frame or sequence, but taken out of context, I can cut your words with this tape and make you say anything I want to say. It’s just lies – lies that were written into the narration. Courtney read a script. They were not his words. It’s fascinating. “

    That was his comment about Dig! and it’s appropriate. Marketing managers don’t write the script anymore. It’s now a documentary. WE create the content, the reviews the brand, the ads, the ..whatever. The marketing company just puts their logo on it. He’s implying the whole thing was a mashup too.

  4. Laurel, I couldn’t agree more that objectivity is a theoretical concept and that the best anyone can ever hope to achieve is a degree of verisimilitude. I happen to love the sad clown archetype that Ondi paints of Anton. I also believe that anyone who’s likely to connect with his art probably has the mental capacity to realise that 2hrs of footage from over 1,500hrs worth of tape is going to be almost exclusively representative of the directors p.o.v (subjective narrative).

    The thing I love about the real documentary fascists, like say Bashir, is that these people are actually deluded enough to think they’re getting away with something.

    They’re wrong.

    Everyone’s accountable.

    It all comes back to the fact that brand = trust like you were saying. I mean, I wish Bashir all the luck in the world finding his next tell-all, behind the scenes, celebrity doco. He’s shafted himself because everyone’s aware of the hatchet job he did and his brand now = untrustworthy which = shit. Beautiful isn’t it?

    On the whole seek marketing job Ad thing, I think business’ should be more concerned with the brand experience they’re imparting to potential customers and less concerned with the volume of exposure they’re getting. The walls have ears is a great article on brand impact. It’s dealing specifically in an aural medium but the principles are analogous I think. All an Ad like this tells me is that business’ are prepared to spend a great deal of money imparting a negative brand experience to consumers.

  5. Hi there

    I actually came across the same ad and posted a blog entry on it as well. I wasn’t really sure where I stood on the issue but after reading your entry I think it’s helped clarify it for me.

    The brands that will win are the ones that embrace the online community and look at ways they can enhance the online experience. Guerilla tactics are short term, risky and often transparent.

    If brands bring people along for the ride rather than shoot bullets from behind a grassy knowl, then the outcomes are obvious.

  6. Howdy Vando thanks for posting. I’ve been building a bit of a case study around Coke and its forays into ‘sublyminal’ advertising – deliberate mispelling, it has something to do with Sprite (put Sprite into wikipedia to see more). The link on your blog to the zeromovement.org is amazing… I’m teaching this week a course on anti-brand, anti-advertising and anti-marketing all coming from the consumer and Coke really heads the top of the list, the poor loves.

    Hey lets set up our own media agency, focussing purely on managing co-creation of marketing into social networks and online communities! What do you think? No clue what the name would be but looking at “They’re a bunch of advertising wankers pretending to be a grassroots movement,” from anticoke, we could have the tag line, “not just another bunch of advertising wankers”. heh. works 4meh. And just Gonzo enough to appeal to “st00pid clients” (re yr other bloglet)

  7. Thanks for those links!

    I blogged a while ago about the difference in response by Mentos and Coke to the DietCoke/Mentos explosion videos. Mentos gave out thousands of packs of mentos and “tickled pink” statements, Coke said “we don’t think this is part of the ‘brand personality’ of coke” So now, when I talk to companies I try to ascertain if they are “mentos” or “coke” in their response to consumer created content.

    Really though, have a look at Sprite in Wikipedia. The Sublime/Subliminal ad thing is the heart of their ‘guerilla’ marketing strategy. Placement in online games such as the Lost one. And the World of Warcraft China ads. Only problem is, subliminal implies the consumer is stupid and unobservant. We have sooo not yet felt the full force of consumer indignation on the ‘net. These little anti-brand campaigns re: Coca Cola and Macdonalds (SuperSize Me) are only the tip of the iceberg. We Media have the infrastructure, services (YouTube) and the will to really crush a brand if they/we choose to flex their/our muscles. How irksome to pay a fortune for print media advertising inside a newspaper when an anti-brand article takes pride of place on the front page denoting that thousands of videos were created in response to a campaign gone wrong, with the top videos reaching 2 million viewers plus each.

    Honesty, ethics and transparency will be the only way to feed media to consumers who have sharp teeth. Gonzo marketng by the Clue Train guy is a starter model for what I’m talking about.

    BTW If I had any idea how to set up such an agency, I’d absolutely do it. Do you know what would be involved? No? NVM, a little thing like having zero clue won’t stop us. Wow! We can be the ZeroClue Agency. 😛 In the interests of transparency, ethics and honesty, of course. heh.

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