On The Ground Looking Up

Louis C.K. On Corporations

I took this snippet out of a long conversation that Louis C.K. did today with the Reddit community. I found it to be a very interesting perspective on corporations vs individuals.

Big companies do a lot to help people view them as less than human. I heard a speach by Noam Chomsky who said that corporations are like super humans. They cannot be hurt like a human can and they never die. They are not succeptible to scrutiny or accountability. this makes them more profitable. If companies want to enjoy these benifits to some degree they have to live with what else comes with being not human. you miss out on compassion, forgiveness, comraderie, empathy, trust, all kinds of shit.

-Louis C.K. 12/12/11

Don't Recycle Plastic And It Will Come Back To Haunt You!

Shanghai wants you to recycle or your dreams will be hunted by the plastic bottle monster your parents told you about when you were a kid.

Well maybe they didn't tell you that story (my hippy parents mentioned it many times I am so sure!) but it still creates for a powerful image.

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The Hidden Pursuaders Are Still Getting Press

This time via The Economist regarding Martin Lindstrom's latest, Brandwashed. And in this article I learned the following 3 things.

• The average American three-year-old can recognise 100 brands.
• Girls Intelligence Agency employs 40,000 American girls (some of whom are as young as 8 years old)to act as “guerrilla marketers”.
• The “male grooming” industry is valued at $27 billion

Read the review for more on how we are all being pursuaded, often without knowing it.

 

When You Make It On An Infographic, You Have Really Made It

@Dan_Rosenberg found this one and sent it over, thanks Dan!

The Evolution of an Advertising Executive which if you look at the lower right hand corner you will notice the Guerrilla Marketing Plan mention with a familiar little character that may or may not have gotten us a bit of attention a few years ago. Which leads me to ask the question, if you make it to an infographic, can you really say you have made it?

Originally seen here.

NBC Goes "Guerrilla" For The Cape In NYC

I was sort of surprised that this did not get a little more pick-up in the trades, so I ended up finding out about this from my dad when he said "I hope you didn't do this one..." . It seems that NBC made a deal with NYC Parks to put 30 capes on 30 famous statues that are installed NYC parks, in addition to the capes, there is a podium explaining why the person depicted in the statue was a hero and how Vince Faraday, the fictional character featured in the new NBC show is also a hero.

The statues seem to receiving mixed reviews. Some people think they are interesting, especially when the capes alone adorned the statues, before the podiums arrived. With the cold weather and snow covering NYC, it seemed an artistic endeavor to keep our history warm, once the podiums arrived, that warmth seemed to evaporate.

Some of the statues and podiums have been vandelized as well, which is expected when you create marketing that blurrs the line between what should be sacred or 'unbranded' and what is acceptable for branding. According to an inside source (ok, my father again), the Eleanor Roosevelt statue's cape is in tatters and the podiums have been knocked over and moved.

The NY Daily News covered it here, citing a few of the concerns.

The company paid $120,000 to NYC for the chance to create the campaign, and with the price of production, installation and upkeep, the total is probably double that or more. The image of the statues, covered in capes is quite compelling, I think the podium tying it so blatenty to the show is where I could see people having issue with it. Then again NY is a town where people love to complain, so you can't do much in the way of creative marketing without a bit of backlash.

 

9 Creative Uses Of Branded Body Modification

Golden Palace got in the game early with a series of body branded spectacles.

...and wink media was born. 

The Yankees did not pay for it, but the cultish fans delivered it.

CokeTat

Sports Illustrated does some band-branded body paint.

Hoping this is fake, but if not I pray he at least got health insurance out of the deal.

PETA goes naked for it's anti-fur hat campaign in the UK.

Miller Lite chose obvious beer drinkers for their own body painted brand marketing.

Good placement but what happens when his chest hair grows back?

UPDATE: Click here for a ridiculous collection of brand Tattoos on bodies. Alcohol may have been involved. 

Tinkering With Perception

Finally getting around to watching Rory Sutherland's '09 talk at TED - Life lessons from an ad man. A great bit of entertainment and whimsy that actually delivers some great messages about how to think about our lives, culture and brands and how perception can be altered instead of necessarily altering the things in our lives.  Definitely worth a watch.

The Emotional Focus Testing Of Film

Caught this segment from On The Media this past weekend about MindSign, a Neuromarketing company that focus tests specific segments of film (or product communications for that matter) for their emotional power. As they discuss, one could even take the dailies and test specific takes. A very interesting approach to the creative process, it is both fascinating/scary. If you have a few minutes, take a listen.

Astroturfing 101

Well it seems that Adweek picked up the story of corporations in the classroom that was started by that other troublemaker with the same last name as me. There certainly is a bigger issue here about transparency and honesty regarding corporations and education that needs to be discussed and I am glad that it was picked up by a trade with importance to our industry.

LINK: Adweek: The True Story of a Bogus Blog