P&G is still searching

by | Nov 13, 2005 | Advertising, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Procter & Gamble Advertising

There has been a lot written in the trade press about Procter and Gamble, one of the worlds largest buyers of advertising, looking to improve their haul at creative awards shows. Quite frankly, this isn’t difficult to figure out. P&G is famous for testing- testing and committees introduce the CYA (cover your ass) factor that kills “award winning creative” instantly.
Now, while we have soldiers dying in Iraq, the idea of using Marines in an attempted comedic P&G TV spot for “Tide to go,” a stain removal pen is an insult to the military and to those who have sons and daughters overseas.
The spot goes something like this:
A Don Rickles type drill Sergeant is yelling at a line of five “Marines” and one has a red stain (metaphorical blood?) on his shirt- one Marine slips the other the pen- he eliminates the stain- which seems to confuse the DI- and the spot finishes with the DI yelling at the camera- in a pleading voice, for you to go to tidetogo.com to win a trip to the Martha Stewart Apprentice finale.
What is P&G thinking? The days of “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.” went away a long time ago.
As our young men and women are dying in Iraq, tying something as inane as a spot remover to people who are about to risk their life for their country, seems about as stupid as tying your product to a convicted felon (I don’t care if she has her own tv show). How this helps to engender trust and lust for this product, I don’t know. All it does is disturb me. Maybe it’s because I spent time in the military, maybe it’s because I believe that advertising should be interesting, stimulating, entertaining, intelligent. This is not.
It’s certainly not a “big idea” or an “award winner.”
As to the concept in general- it has no chance of having any kind of legs- this DI isn’t “Mr. Whipple” and even if he was, “Mr. Whipple’s “ day’s are long gone.
If P&G was smart, they’d pull this stain of an ad faster than their stain remover appears to work.

What do you think?

[note- update 20 Aug 08] The spot I saw is not available on YouTube- but a newer one is- where they identify the stain as catsup and eliminate the pleading at the end:

How to get a job here- or in any other ad agency.

by | Nov 13, 2005 | Advertising, Careers in Advertising, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising

We review a lot of portfolios. We meet a lot of people. We don’t hire very many.
The reason all these people don’t get hired is generally, they aren’t prepared to get hired.
My first question is always- before I look at the work- do you want me to be nice- or do you want the truth?
Truth almost always wins, and many times, I lose.
In this day of self-actualization and self-esteem coddling, it’s not the best way to win friends and influence people even if you give “constructive criticism.”
So- I turn to my friend Sally Hogshead’s blog for: 83 things I wish someone had told me while I was learning how to be creative.
I’ve added a few in the comments-
But, if you are looking for a job in advertising here in Dayton, or in the big city Mecca’s these suggestions will do you well.
As to knowing what work is good enough to put in your book- I quote my hero’s at Chiat Day- “Good enough is not good enough.”
Good luck.

Blogosopher class 2

by | Nov 12, 2005 | Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Marketing & the Web, Web strategy

The Next Wave will host our second Blogosopher seminar Friday November 18, 2005.
Information about the course is on www.blogosopher.com
Register now for maximum savings- and to reserve your seat.

This course will teach you how to use a blog to maximize the number of hits to your website- and to build relationships with your clients.

The first class was well received- the next one will be vastly improved thanks to class feedback- and a reorganization of the material.