Carroll Trosclair's Blog
Posted by Carroll Trosclair
A South Korean advertiser is testing the power of blank space in its ads, a novel idea that’s bound to be frowned upon by writers and ad designers.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Hyundai Card and Hyundai Capital, a financial firm associated with the Hyundai Motor company, has paid $2.2 million for all the ad space in three subway stations and four trains on a new subway line. It is leaving most of the ad spaces blank, except for a small logo. The only message is carried in the corner of huge white panels at the entrance to the stations. It says: "The world is flooded with too many ads. For a short while, we want to leave it empty for you."
The company has tied up the ad space for three years, but has not decided yet how long it will use blank ads. It reportedly is considering using the space to display art in the future.
The idea is not likely to catch fire in North America, but it might encourage a little more simplicity in some of those billboards where the old seven-word rule has been forgotten.
Posted by Carroll Trosclair
- Jack Avrett (1929–1997)
- Charlotte Beers
- Chuck Fruit (1946–2008)
- Clarence Holte (1912–1993)
- Don Logan
- William "Bill" Sharp
- Bob Wright.
 |
Posted by Carroll Trosclair
Football games were once events that you attended to see football and perhaps a marching band. No more. The NFL, with the help of advertisers, has turned its games into multi-ring circuses, without the elephants. They’re all about high decibels, video, smoke and fan showoffs.
Fans are treated to:
- Rap singing which they couldn’t understand if they tried
- A continuing stream of local commercial announcements
- On-field awards for teachers and other honorary folks
- A few memorable and even more forgottable singings of the National Anthem
- Announcers screaming into microphones to introduce players
Then there’s the inevitable halftime contest in which a sponsor's customer can embarrass himself trying to catch a football shot from a gun at 30, 50 and 70-yards.
That may be followed by a football passing contest. Two unknown guys see who can hit a target the most in a few seconds.
Occasionally, NFL teams spring for a real musical halftime show, but they’re more likely to invite kid teams to entertain fans by scrimmaging a few minutes.
Fans are also encouraged to entertain themselves by painting their bodies, dressing wierdly, smooching, shaking their booties or flexing muscles for the big video screens. Some "official team" advertiser is usually willing to provide a prize.
Even the cheerleaders are sponsored, but there’s not enough room on their costumes to display the names.
Maybe the caliber of the entertainment is purposely limited so that it does not halt the rush to the hot dog, beer, soft drink, popcorn, peanut, pizza and nacho stands. At $7 a beer, there's big money to be made there.
Television viewers are spared some of the stadium antics, in payment for being bombarded with network commercials and the "put some points on the board" commentaries by teams of has-been players and coaches.
 |
Posted by Carroll Trosclair
We need to get away from the subject of advertising occasionally to maintain a fresh perspective on that business and see its end result at work. Excuse enough? Cruising through Connecticut is a good way to refresh the mind these days.
For starters, Connecticut is a beatiful state, which you realize soon as you enter the Merritt Parkway from New York and then flow right into the Wilbur Cross Parkway, both part of Connecticut Route 15.. The parkways take you most of the way to Hartford, where the new Connecticut Science Center was opened in June 2009 amid much promotion.
Our visit there inspired the article New Connecticut Center Proves Science Can Be Fun. Lots of kids having plenty of fun and hopefully learning a lot about geology, astronomy, the environment, etc. Great place to take the kids, or grandkids.
We didn't get to take a balloon ride, but the directory of balloon operators in the Connecticut Vacation Guide was impressive and descriptive enough to remind us of a similar ride over the Temecula, California wine country. The Connecticut hills, valleys and fall foliage provide spectacular views for the balloon riders. See Connecticut Hot Air Ballooning.
The Connecticut wine industry is relatively young. However, 19 of its wineries have put together a wine trail that offers not only the usual tastings and seminars, but also many other activities to make the winery-hopping an enjoyable experience. See Connecticut Wine Trail Features 29 Wineries. The wine trail brochure. directory and map is an effective advertising tool, but we're supposed to be forgetting advertising for a while.
Posted by Carroll Trosclair
United States agencies won about 23 percent of the Grand Prix and Gold Lion awards at the 2009 Cannes Advertising Festival. However, they fared surprisingly poor in Film categories designed for television commercials, winning only one of those eleven awards.
That one Gold was won by the JWT (J. Walter Thompson) agency in New York for a pair of controversial spots made for MTV. The two commercials ridiculed senior citizens in an effort to get young people to vote in the 2008 Federal election.
One spot shows an elderly couple having trouble understanding airport security officials. The other portrays an elderly man unable to find the right button to answer his phone. Both spots end with text saying "Old people outvote young people 2 to 1. Choose or Lose."
Ridiculing Old Age
Ridiculing old people, and hinting that most of them have dementia, does not make either commercial the finest 30 seconds in the American political process. The spots would probably have been shamed off the air as racism or sexism if they had portrayed other segments of the population in that manner. Where is AARP when we need it?
The awarding of a Gold Lion to the commercials does not speak very highly of the Cannes judging criteria.
"Incredibly Crass"
Neither does an Internet video produced by The Viral Factory in London for Diesel Product Service, a British clothing firm. Even the agency said, in submitting the entry, that the video was "incredibly crass" and we might ad "tasteless." But then it boasted that the video had "achieved over 14 million views" on the Internet.
Cannes cheapens its many great Lion winners by putting the MTV and Diesel Product entries in the same Gold room with them and by encouraging similar submissions in the future.
