Uhhh-MER-ka!: The Right Time?

Above is an excellent example from Dodge of a recent slew of American Pride focused ads. Some others include the Walt Whitman Spots for Levi’s and the American Made Jeep ads. Although we haven’t seen this strong of American Made focused advertising since the end of World War 2, is it the right time to bring it back?

I feel I would be one to give a resounding yes. With the economic woes, environmental disasters and looming threat of guerilla attacks makes me feel a greater connection to my country and the people around me. The new advertising isn’t saying just, “Buy American” its positioning these brands to have the same attributes that our country has been historically known for: innovation, youth & freedom.

Yet I’m curious what others think? The right time or not?

ATT Hurts Apple Customers. . . Again

It appears, via twitter, that the general consensus is AT&T’s new data plan is terrible. With the recent release of the iPad, Apple customers were lead to believe that with the 3G model they would get a relatively low cost unlimited data plan. After all, with the launch of the first iPhone, unlimited data was free standard which was bumped up to around 30 dollars a month with the release of the 3G model. Now AT&T is not only capping the amount of data in a two tiered plan, they are only extending the limit to 2gb well below the relative standard of 5gb that was expected.

The question that has been floating around for quite some time is, is this effecting sales of the Apple devices and (more importantly) is this effecting the perception of the Apple brand negatively? One thing is for sure, if and when apple allows multiple carriers for iPhone and iPad there will be a mass exodus of consumer from the AT&T carrier.

The Rise of Wanky: Here to Stay?

Recently, within a few product categories, there has been a rapid increase of the wanky ad.

First evident in TBWA’s Starburst followed by Crispin Porter Bogusky’s VW & Burger King and now with Wieden + Kennedy’s Old Spice stealing the show with their latest slew of “Smell Like A Man, Man” ads. The question is are these ads shifting pop culture or vice versa has a new generation of dry humor, evident in the target market, given way to wanky ads to grab attention? The viral pop culture success of Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man could Smell Like” proves that this advertising, whether or not sparked by the target market, is at the very least able to spread quickly when the target’s sense of humor is imbedded in it.

The question is, is this a passing fad or a method of cutting through the clutter that will continue to prove successful?

Ad of the Week: Target

One of the more interesting experiments, as of late, in advertising is the attempt to make traditional more conversational. It brings up the question can a TV ad truly be conversational?

While watching the finale of Lost, I saw three excellent examples of being conversational through tv. They were a series for Target by Wieden + Kennedy. They simply featured an aspect of Lost and tied it to an everyday product including this one with the smoke monster. The reason I feel it is conversational is it’s making an ad to specifically speak to a target audience of Lost fans in their visual language. Paired with their tagline “Life’s a moving Target.” it creates a meaningful link to their target that makes one feel like Target understands me. It was so successful in fact that already the next morning there was a few great Target ad spoofs including this one featuring a kiss between Kate and Sawyer.

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy