A co-worker emailed a (YouTube) link to this brilliant Monster.com spoof. It was familiar because I posted it here in November, 2004. Certainly worth another look and another link. How much great stuff is getting a fresh look because of YouTube?
Tag Archives: advertising
George Carlin on mindless marketing blather
AdRants points us to a wonderful 4 min bit of a George Carlin performance:
“More than half of what comes out of your mouth in that client presentation is mindless, pointless, idiotic sounding, space-filling blather. Don’t you want meetings to be shorter? Aren’t you sick of fake words that mean nothing? Wouldn’t you rather be actually creating something rather than killing it with the boatload of words you throw at it before you ever show it to the client? Of course you would. So stop talking like an idiot.”
I’ve been working hard in recent years to do more listening than talking in meetings with clients. I’m not there. I still talk too much. But I’m making progress.
The experiment I’m dying to try is to record (audio) one of the client presentations. And then transcribe it. That is when we will see just how mindless and pointless most of our blather is. The simple truth is, we can’t hear how dumb we sound while we’re talking.
Apple ditches “Mac Guy” in new ads
Apple’s “I’m a Mac” campaign is almost perfect: It’s funny, memorable, and efficiently lays out the advantages of Macs over PCs. Its only defect: Virtually everyone who watches it comes away liking the “PC guy” while wanting to push the “Mac guy” under a bus.
Justin Long (the “Mac guy”) is out. The campaign’s other principals, director Phil Morrison and journo-humorist John Hodgman, are both returning for another round of spots.
According to Seth Stevenson, ad critic for Slate, Long is “just the sort of unshaven, hoodie-wearing, hands-in-pockets hipster we’ve always imagined when picturing a Mac enthusiast…. It’s like Apple is parodying its own image while also cementing it.” Of the polymathic Hodgman, Stevenson writes, “Even as he plays the chump in these Apple spots, his humor and likability are evident.” — Radar Online
I didn’t find the Mac guy ‘a smug little twit.’ Hmmm. I shudder to think what that says about moi.
Google (still) moving into radio
“Web search leader Google Inc. is hiring scores of radio sales people and is spending heavily in a bid to expand its position in the $20 billion radio industry. Google spokesman Michael Mayzel said this week that the company will begin a public test of Google Audio Ads by the end of the year. Advertisers will be able to go online and sign up for targeted radio ads using the same AdWords system they use to buy Web search ads.” — Reuters
Should Google buy Clear Channel?
Article in AdAge briefly explores that question. The phrase that jumped out of the story at me was, “automated sale of remnant ads.”
“Right now, through Google’s year-ago acquisition of dMarc, a radio systems company, it has been able to create an automated way to sell what is mostly remnant radio inventory, which remains unsold until the last minute. But, noted Mr. Bank, Google Audio is making several high-profile hires in the radio sales field in major radio markets. Now why, if Google Audio’s selling of remnant ad time is so automated, would there need to be so many high-priced radio ad sales folks.”
I’m pretty sure a big chunk of my salary for the past 20 years has come from acquiring and selling “remnant radio inventory.” Should companies that trade services for commercials on radio stations (we call it barter) be concerned about this? My guess is most station managers would rather have cash for his unsold commercials.
The Google-Clear Channel idea is an interesting one. CC has lot of stations and Google has figured some things out about advertising.