Surely not

Stop shouting

Ever noticed how the ads are always louder than the programs on TV?

Of course you have!

Well a company called SRS Labs has just developed a clever little gadget that equalizes the volume difference.

Which should hopefully put an end to all those loud 'n shouty ads.

Read all about it here.

Advertising or entertainment?

I went to the AFL Grand Final on the weekend and I saw I type of advertising I'd never seen before.

A live performance by a childrens choir.

The Qantas Choir to be precise.

They were billed in the program as being a part of the pre-match entertainment.

But they weren't entertainment at all. They were an ad for Qantas.

They performed the song that features in Qantas advertising.

During their performance a huge Qantas jet flew low over the stadium.

It was quite beautiful to be honest. But it was anything but entertainment.

How are Qantas allowed to get away with this sort of stuff.

And why do the AFL allow it to happen.

I don't have a problem with the performance. I just want it clearly labelled as a sponsorship message. Not a performance by a childrens choir.

Look who's eleven

Happy birthday Google. Boy those 11 years sure went past quickly!

Inspirational dust

The freak red dust storms in Sydney this week proved too good an opportunity to let pass for agencies.

The Thursday newspapers featured several topical ads. Like this one for Omo by Lowe.

Sadly none of them were anywhere near as much fun as this snapshot which mysteriously appeared on our Wunderman blog on Wednesday morning.

Thinking inside the box

Fledgling Canadian agency Zulu Alpha Kilo found an interesting way to get their name out there while also demonstrating their creative abilities.

They put themselves in a white box.

Not just any white box mind you. There's was the size of a small bedroom and it was placed in a prominent public square in Toronto.

Posters across the town raised awareness. Driving people to the white box to submit their questions and problems to the agency staff within.

Reminds me a bit of the Yahoo Big Chair in Sydney a few years back. Although I think it takes that idea a step further.

Certainly beats most agency self promos I've seen. Click here to see some of the questions submitted and a couple of nice videos.

Balloon man

Never thought I'd see the day I wrote a blog post about someone who makes animals out of balloons.

But I'm making an exception for Jason Hackenwerth because he is the most awesome ballon sculpter in the world. Ever!

I'd love to use some of his work in some of my work one day. I just need the right sort of idea.

Click here to see more of his amazing work.

Did you know?

Going viral ain't easy

If there's one expression the social media gurus love to sprout it's 'you can't create a viral video.'

Of course we all know that. At least I think we do!

Well according to recents stats released by YouTube it's harder than you might think to get a video to actually go viral.

Which should not come as a surprise given 20 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute.

Look at these stats:

A video has a 3.1% chance of getting over 1000 views.

0.3 percent chance of getting over 10,000 views.

And 0.001% of getting over 100,000 views.

Of course agencies that create videos that they wish to go viral use seeding and social tools to get people to watch and share their video.

But based on the stats above you'd have to say that the chances of getting a video to go truly viral must be getting harder and harder.

Show me the money

It's been reported on TechCrunch that Twitter is seeking investment funds from venture capital firms.

No surprise really given Twitter doesn't appear to have any obvious or substantial revenue stream.

What did surprise me though was the valuation put on the company. One billion US dollars!

Obviously a large perecentage of that billion is the brand that has been built.

But how did they determine a valuation of that magnitude? Especially given it could be years before Twitter turns a profit.

If it ever does.

Just think about how quickly Facebook outgrew MySpace then imagine what would happen if a better cooler Twitter alternative came along.

Of course I could be completely wrong.

But having lived through the dotcom bust I can't help having a slight feeling of deja vu.

He's right you know

Experts unlimited

I first got involved with digital media around the time that Rupert Murdoch first spoke about the Information Superhighway.

As you can imagine a lot has changed since then. In fact a lot has changed since as recently as last year if truth be told.

It really is a great time to be in the advertising/comms business with a new possibility created almost every week.

Mobile apps are a great example.

The Apple App Store is only about 18 months old. Yet apps have become so commonplace that AdAge are now promoting app workshops.

I wonder if they ran television advertising workshops back in the day? Doubt it.

Which for me highlights one of the problems with the contemporary ad biz. Snake oil salesmen.

Internet Evangelists. Social Media Gurus. SEO Specialists. And now App Experts.

For every new technology or innovation there will always be people looking to make a fast buck.

Sadly it's not from the technology itself but from their self proclaimed proficiency with it.

A film about Heroine

Never thought I'd see the day where the launch of a typeface necessitated a promotional film. Kinda cool though. Don't you think?

More info on Heroine here.

Google Street View

I love seeing clever technology being explained in a completely unexpected way. Which is why I really like this charming video from Google Japan. It demonstrates, as only the Japanese can, exactly how Google captures the imagery for their Street View.

What's the Crateman up to?

It seems like ages since the mysterious Crateman made an appearance in Melbourne.

Luckily he now has his own website so we can all keep up with his adventures.

Hell he even has his own Facebook profile.

If only he'd pop up on our skyline sometime soon.

I'm lost for words

I came across this poster on a Russian site called ADME.RU.

Certainly eye catching that's for sure.

But what's it an ad for?

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Believe it or not it's a poster for the 28th Bienale of Graphic Arts in Slovenia.

Yes I can't see a link either. Although I guess it is quite graphic.

Outstanding coverage

The Magazine Publishers of America have chosen the finalists for their 2009 Cover of The Year.

This Tina Fey Vanity Fair cover is one of my faves.

Click here to go take a look at the finalists.

The house of fun

I'm not big on Microsoft but I love this ad. Really sweet idea.
Thanx to Len for his tweet.

Excellent advice

Get your very own signed copy of this poster by Anthony Burrill here.

Welcome generation next

Douglas Coupland's long awaited sequel to Generation X has just been released. It's called Generation A. If that quote doesn't whet your appetite for it I don't know what will.

Thanx to Russell for his pic.

Help make a difference

Freedom of expression is something most of us take for granted.

Sadly this is not the case everywhere. The recent Iran elections being a particularly bad example.

Poster4Tomorrow is a design competition aimed at raising awareness of repression.

Click here to find out more.

The best 100 posters will be published in a book and exhibited in Paris.

And 5 of them will be added to the permanent collection of the Lahti Poster Museum in Finland.

Unhealthy debate

Cigarette advertising was outlawed in Australia many years ago.

So I was surprised to read this morning that tobacco companies in the USA are going fight changes to on pack health warnings because they infringe on their First Amendment rights.

For those of you not familiar with the First Amendment it's the one that guarantees freedom of speech.

Given cigarettes are a legal product I suspect this challenge will end up in the courts.

Where a bunch of legal firms will obviously make a great deal of money arguing a seemingly unwinnable argument.

What a pity that money couldn't be invested in healthcare and education programs.

Last word on the WWF

With his tongue wedged firmly in his cheek Jetpacks decided to jump on the do it yourself WWF ad bandwagon.

Click the pic for a better look. I kinda like it. What about you?

Smart thinking

More WWF from DDB Brazil

I wrote about the WWF scam ad the other day. Unbelievably there was a TVC as well. What the!?

Blank generation

There's nothing I love more than someone sticking it to The Man.

Jello Biafra has been doing it for longer than I care to remember.

Take a close look at the cassette above and you'll see what I mean.

Side one of cassette version of the Dead Kennedys' In God we trust EP was the EP itself.

Side two was intentionally left blank so that people could record whatever they wanted on it.

Back in the 80s when this was released the industry was claiming that home taping was killing music.

Of course we now know it was the industry that killed it not taping.

Which is why Jello's comment printed onto side two of the cassette is so interesting.

Tasteless scam

When is the scam ad problem at our industry award shows going to end?

I'm not talking about agency creatives taking an idea to a client and getting them to run it. That's initiative.

What I'm talking about are unscrupulous people who create work for clients they don't even have and enter it into award shows.

Not only is it dishonest. It also devalues the entire award process.

Which makes clients question the value of creativity. And that for me is a major problem.

Latest case in point are six people from DDB in Brazil who were awarded a Merit Award at the One Show for this print ad for WWF.

I think the ad's a bit tasteless to be honest and surprised it got a mention.

But not as surprised as the WWF themselves. Which is why they issued the following statement today:

"WWF strongly condemns this offensive and tasteless ad and did not authorize its production or publication. It is our understanding that it was a concept offered by an outside advertising agency seeking our business in Brazil. The concept was summarily rejected by WWF and should never have seen the light of day."

It's gone pretty quiet in cyberspace

Whatever happened to Second Life?

I'm pretty sure I posed that question a year or so ago. I think it's time to ask it again.

Remember the days when both the ABC's Four Corners and 60 Minutes did programs on Second Life?

Or how about the time when all the ad agencies were setting up virtual offices?

Not to mention all the brands setting up virtual stores.

And then it all went quiet. Very quiet.

I suspect the die hard Second Lifers are still there. Going about their virtual lives in peace and quiet.

But the rest of us moved on to Facebook and Twitter.

Which is a bit of a shame I think as I love the idea of a virtual self.

I guess you just don't need to visit a virtual world to have one.