You know the economy has slowed when you see Andy Richter working for a pest control company.

I should say I was on a long run the other day and towards the end of the run I came across a house which was undergoing a standard pest control review. The Andy in question was using a stick of some sort to place poison under the gutter of a roof….anyway as I jogged by I saw the Andy in question and I nearly stopped for a autograph.

Of course this was not the Real Andy Richter but it was a complete look alike which tells you how tuff the economy has problem become for impersonators.

Back to the run – as I turned to look back and confirm that it wasn’t the real Andy Richter I wondered how is the real Andy Richter doing, how are the B and C stars of the 90’s and the 00’s doing. It’s got to be tuff for some of them. Remember when Desperate Housewives became a hit? 

A little known fact about one of the Desperate Housewives stars was she was basically broke when she did the shows pilot. Rumor had it she was weeks away from selling Lancôme at Macy’s.

So as the economy continues to sputter remember how everyone in the world is actually effected by the slow down. Even a guy like Andy Richter might be finding it hard to find a gig.

Dave Dabbah
Founder
www.drivethirst.com
dave@drivethirst.com

Big Brands Can Have Fun Too – by Dave Dabbah of www.drivethirst.com

One of my favorite things about marketers and ad execs today is the recognition that Humor works in advertising and marketing programs. 

A few year’s back I ran a black sheep campaign which promoted an email marketing brand.   Using a Black Sheep campaign to sell software would not have been green lighted 20 years earlier by most management teams and trust me, there are still lots of companies who would have shot the concept down before I said “Sheep.”  

Still, I really find most of today’s advertising to be refreshing and fun. Even the Big Brands have gotten into the act. While it’s true some companies have gone to far on the road to a Comedy Central award….I can say that most large companies now know when to say when it comes to the use of Humor and bold images.

AT&T has done a real nice job weaving images with promotions which keep their brand fresh. It’s one thing for a company with little brand recognition to run a campaign with bold images, however it’s whole other thing when you take a brand like AT&T which is so well known that I’m sure some baby’ first couple words some place included “The New AT&T.”    

You really have to respect the ad agency, the marketing team and the execs at AT&T for running such a diverse campaign that they recognize multiple messages and campaign tracks are needed to keep the brand fresh. 

Dave Dabbah

Founder

www.drivethirst.com

dave@drivethirst.com

Before we dive into the review of the dog house lets get the credits out of the way. To start I’d like to give credit to team over at Saatchi & Saatchi and the execs and Penny’s for rolling this commercial out. The commercial was actually directed by the Emmy award winning Bryan Buckley.  If your not familiar with his work that’s ok because you really have to be a ad junky to actually know who directs these things. Still you’ve scene his work if you saw Ellen’s Amex commercials or the classic Bud commercial with Will Ferrell which made its way around the at least 35% of the internet.   

See It Now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twivg7GkYts 

www.livemoo.com    (bottom of the page)

And now for the actual review:  Brilliant, I’m giving this AD 4.5 out of 5 Mouses. I’ll get into why it didn’t get the highly coveted complete 5^th mouse later.

The commercial is flat out one of the best professional pieces of online commercial works I’ve scene in years. What makes this commercial work is the witty writing, high quality production, comedic value, understanding of the medium for which it was to be distributed, not overly hawking products and actually being able to pull of a full plot in less then 5 minutes.  

The internet is famous for funny, but effective plot development is actually a rare occurrence.  The commercial weaves plot from the very beginning to the end.  Beware of the DogHouse quickly dives into satire when a husband attempts to give his wife a duel bag vacuum cleaner. Our hero quickly goes into shock as his wife proceeds to walk him outside to the dog house, once in the dog house he is thrown into the underworld of husband hell.  From the second our hero enters the dog house he is educated on how he wronged his wife and is shown the errors of his ways while he’s forced to due laundry and eat quiche for dinner.  The question of how do you get out of the dog house is answered cleverly when we he sees a picture of a happy wife wearing a fine piece of jewelry.  Social Media Note: No mention of Penny’s and no verbal mention of Jewelry is made and by the way I’m sure you can still buy a duel bag vacuum at Penny’s.   

Throughout the commercial we see occasional flashes of the Jewelry, however most people wont figure out who the commercial is for until the very end and even then I think some people might not see who sponsored this ad. Really this is the only problem with the commercial. I actually think they did not promote the J.C. Penny brand enough at the end and that’s all I have to say about that. 

The use of wit and comedy weaved into a story about being in the dog house during the holiday’s for bad gift choices is a fantastic theme and in this dog house economy that we find ourselves in today I’d suggest bonuses for all those involved in this commercial.  Really, take care of people who do work like this.

Social Network Police -  I certainly don’t proclaim to be a member of the SNPD, but I can tell you that this commercial follows many of the un written laws of our new medium. When you actually go out and produce a video like this the last thing you want to do is over sell your products in the commercial. Second, and for me the most important rule is witty writing that actually captivates the audience.  I’d hate to spend 100k on high production value and not have solid writing holding the lights and audio equipment together.

Real Impact:

I’m a big fan of letting these commercials find me and this one happened to make its way in a sea of Twitter messages last week, it washed up on my Twitter beach last Tuesday.    Anyway, a few day’s passed and the Sunday paper arrived…having 2 small children, launching a new company and being a religious follower of the Minnesota Vikings  meant I wasn’t able to actually read the paper until nearly Monday, still I sat down to read the paper I actually came across a J.C. Penny Ad, and for the first time since I left the great state of Minnesota I opened up a Penny’s ad.  I’m serious that weekly ad never before made its way into my mix of the business, sports, travel and electronic ads before.  

The Close:

In closing, this ad set out to sell Jewelry, brand J.C. Penny’s in a new way and entertain the viewer. Well as fair as I’m concerned, they did all of that and more. 

Well it finally happened, my HDTV decided it wanted to relive the 1950’s and now has one of the finest black and white pictures ever.  Actually I should say it had one of the finest Black and White pictures until the following happened:

1. I read how easy it is to replace a color wheel “on the internet”
2. Called the TV manufacture who also said it was easy to replace.
3. Dateline – Turkey Eve- the part arrives and I decide to perform surgery on the tv. 

Needless to say it didn’t go so well. I now have what was a $3500 TV less then 3 years ago collecting dust. Sammy The 2^nd, the name given to my HDTV, really it’s just like one of those cabbage patch kids…my TV came with a birth certificate, name and born on date. At my house we celebrate my kids birthdays and Sammy’ The 2^nd born on date.  

It was 1:10am on Thanksgiving day when I officially gave-up. I knew Thanksgiving football would be watched on one of series of left over 20 inch TV’s from the picture tube era.  Should I replace Sammy 2^nd or should I brave BlackFriday, that was the question of the day.  After trying to turn the TV on one more time, I was hoping for one of those Macy’s day parade miracles,  I was forced to confess to the wifey that I should’ve just hired a repairman and that I might have lost Sammy The 2^nd.

Anyway I picked up Sunday’s paper on Thursday and started reviewing all the ads for TV’s.  I figured I would be cheap and just pick up an inexpensive replacement on BlackFriday, well I found a bunch of TV’s at low prices, or as Wal-Mart would say “dropping prices.” The issue is most of the Ads are for HDTV’s a little bigger then my computer monitor.

The 2008 Ads for HDTV’s have all the glitz and glamour of years past but once again the trend was on small HDTV’s at affordable prices. Did you know that one of the larger retailers had a local ad for 32inc TV’s ranging from $299 to $599.  However for mid size TV’s 37 to 42 inch in size I did not see any real incredible savings.  I think it would be very interesting to compare 2007 and 2008 BlackFriday ads for TV’s as I wonder if the cost per inch has come down at all for 42 inch TV’s?   

At the end of the day my situation remains unresolved as I’m waiting to hear back from a TV repairman. The hope is he can pump some life back into Sammy the 2^nd and at a cost significantly less then that of a new HDTV.  

Dave Dabbah

www.drivethirst.com

dave@drivethirst.com

Join us at: twitter/DriveThirst

Well some of the biggest news of the week actually came from the Wall Street Journal and it had nothing to do with business.  We’ve been told that years ago Michael Jordan lost in a 1 on 1 basketball game to a mutual fund exec. 

Actually, I’ve heard several of these rumors over the years. Well earlier in the week the video finally surfaced?  The social media impact will most certainly be huge, I wonder how many times will Bloggers blog about it, how many times will people write about it and of the thousands of local sports casts how many will actually show the video during their 4,5, 6, and 11pm shows.   

The news actually broke earlier in the week, I waited until Friday to blog about it.

I wonder, what if this is just a commercial. Maybe it didn’t really happen and maybe MJ and Nike are just getting ready to launch a new line of shoes targeted at Mutual Fund CEO’s called….Grounded by Air Jordan.  

So, what will the social impact of this video surfacing mean to the shoe industry. Will thousands of middle aged basketball players take off early from work today and head down the local Dick’s Sporting Good Store or jump over to www.Nike.com  with new found inspiration?   

Finally thought on the subject:  10 years ago this would have been a huge story in the main stream press and while it will certainly gain notice, I wonder if the Jordan brand has begun to truly fade out of the social consciousness  of today’s society?  

Enjoy the Video:   
http://online.wsj.com/video/michael-jordan-takes-on-ceo-john-rogers/D9F05B60-A4A7-48A2-AB24-3668205CB34F.html

Dave Dabbah
The Drive-Thru Marketer
www.drivethirst.com
dave@drivethirst.com

With all the auto companies having such a rough couple months, I find of it kind of nice to be mentioning this new campaign. Beyond the use of Bourbon in the ad, Dennis Leary does an edgy voice-over, the graphics are powerfull, the messaging is right on target, etc. 

They really nailed the campaign, I’m still hunting down the :60 second spot. But for now here is a link to the :10 second version, no mention of Bourbon, but you can get a feel for the campaign.    

http://www.fordvehicles.com/trucks/f150/ 

Enjoy,  Dabbah

Dave Dabbah
The Drive-Thru Marketer
dave@drivethirst.com
www.drivethirst.com

A few day’s ago I came across a blog which Bribes you to Blog. Now this is a legit software company which has decided that every 5 blog posts = a free t-shirt.  

I’m wondering if we have entered into a new era in blogging or is this just a blip on the radar. I can tell you in the glory days of radio- Payola was famous, but I don’t recal ever paying anyone to call into a radio station, but maybe that’s how KROQ became “The World Famous K R O Q” 

Dabbah

Dave Dabbah
The Drive-Thru Marketer 
www.drivethirst.com
dave@drivethirst.com

When you decide to go out and launch a new company, you end up eating a lot of Drive-Thru food, trust me it’s true. So I’ve helped launch many start-ups and it seem’s I’m always speaking to a menu instead of actually sitting down and ordering a 4 course meal at some fancy restaurant.

As a marketer I wonder:

How many meals have I had over the years in my car?

What kind of impact does advertising have on my decision making?

Do I really believe a $6 dollar burger will taste like a burger I would get at TGIF?

Well, I can you tell you that those had clapping ads McDonalds is so famous for, you know the one’s which rolled out in the mid 80’s/90’s, those ads have had a long-term effect on my Drive-Thru decision making.   

What do you think?  How many meals have you had in your car?

Dave Dabbah

The Drive-Thru Marketer

www.drivethirst.com

dave@drivethirst.com

So I was sitting in a Carls JR drive-thru the other day. They changed the menu on me and I actually had a hard time finding the classic, “Western Bacon Cheeseburger Combo Meal.”  I found this be rather ironic as I was listening to John McCain rant about Joe The Plumber.  What was this all about, why had Sam, I mean John become so lost on my ears.  There was a time I liked what John stood for, but like the Drive-Thru menu at Calr’s JR, I had no idea who he was, what he had become, and why was Carls JR trying to sell me a triple western bacon cheeseburger combo meal for $9 bucks.  

Raw political opinions aside, clearly Obama’s messaging has been far better then Country First.  From the TV campaign to the innovative on-line messaging, he has tactically out gunned McCain.  But just for a moment lets separate the tactics from the message.  Clearly Obama’s message is far better, still I wounder with McCains messaging truly been this bad, how can he still be in the game. What is saying that works so well, why is he only 5% points behind in the poles.

What do you think?

Dave Dabbah – The Drive Thru- Marketer
www.drivethirst.com   dave@drivthirst.com