Life After ‘The Pitch’: A Convo (Barely) with Conversation’s Founder

Well, this was somewhat interesting. If we can go all the way back to a few weeks ago, our scribe Bob Marshall, in one of his weekly, epic The Pitch recaps, recapped the battle between NYC-based shop Conversation and Charlotte, NC-based BooneOakley for PopChips. Well, let’s fast-forward to recent times and tell you that we were pitched the opportunity to see what happened after the fact with this one particular episode.

According to the folks at Conversation, “the ‘Year of Pop’ website actually happened , and while we aren’t pursuing “The Greatest Viral Video Ever” we are still integrating user content in our campaign for [PopChips].” Great, but while we expecting something more matter of fact via a little Q+A on what’s happening from said episode’s star and Conversation founder Frank O’Brien, what we got was this:

So, how has life changed for Conversation after The Pitch?

It’s been nuts. We’ve had to increase our security detail because of all the screaming fans outside our office every day. Now we know how John, Paul, George and Ringo felt (only it’s been even crazier than that). David’s working on a new t-shirt line and Alex has been gone for a while since being out on tour with DJ Pauly D. We’re trying to fit time in for President Obama, as well. We didn’t even know he was a fan of the show (Biden too), but he has been BEGGING to stop by. Maybe we’ll squeeze him in sometime this fall.

The Popchips concept has somewhat shifted away the “Greatest Viral Video Ever” concept. Any particular reason why, and where are we at now?

See, that’s the thing about “The Greatest Viral Video Ever.” See, it’s beyond normal comprehension. All you know is that you really want to eat popchips right now. Or maybe, just maybe, it’ll pop up at the end of the year and you won’t even know that throughout the entire year, every movement, every action, every word that you spoke, was actually part of “The Year of Pop.” You’ll just have to wait and find out.

Do you see yourselves with Popchips on a continual basis moving forward?

I was a fan of popchips before we took on the assignment. So I’m with popchips 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – eating, sleeping, breathing popchips. I actually keep a bag of the Sweet Potato flavor under my arm at night. And because of the visibility that “The Pitch” has brought us, popchips will forever be with us. It’s like Sting said: “Every breath you take, I’ll be watching you.”

Read more about this at: http://www.mediabistro.com/agencyspy/life-after-the-pitch-a-convo-barely-with-conversations-founder_b34757

Flintstones Day

Yesterday, September 30th marked the 50th anniversary of the Flintstones cartoon. This was brought to my attention when I visited Google’s homepage and saw that they had put up a Google Doodle featuring a Flintstones theme. Yes, I know that it would have been better if I’d discussed this post on the day of the anniversary but it just couldn’t be done I was taking the GRE. The design is below.

Upon further research I discovered that the Flintstones were not a children’s cartoon when they were first aired. The Flintstones were actually an adult sitcom much like The Simpsons and Family Guy. I know what you all are thinking right now, how does this relate to Inside That Ad? Well, Winston Cigarettes were the largest sponsors of the Flintstones back in the 60s when the show was airing.



The first T.V. spot above had both an actual commercial and a sponsor identification segment, which is really cool, at least for an ad guy like me. I also loved the seamless way they integrated the cigarettes into the storyline of the loveable Stone Age couple. But the Winston Cigarettes only sponsored the show for the first two seasons. When the third season got started Winstons was replaced by Welch's fruit juice as the main sponsor according to the Winston Wikipedia article. Miles Laboratories was the alternate sponsor to Winston Cigarettes. Miles is behind the Flintstones chewable vitamins.




From what I can dig up the spots were created by Hanna-Barbera productions but the primary ad agency for the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, which owns Winston Cigarettes is the William Esty Ad Agency who is also behind the famous jingle, "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should," I believe.

Anyway, what do you guys think?

Best,
-A.B.

It's Complex Cover

I saw the above cover page of next month’s Complex Magazine issue and I thought to myself I have to write a post on it. Why, you ask? Because when I saw Nicki Minaj’s picture in another blog that I follow I figured she has to be on my blog too. Well and the other reason is there is a large disparity between the number of posts I write discussing print ads compared to television spots.

One of the biggest issues I wonder about when looking at a beautiful celebrity in a magazine is how much the image was photoshopped. This beautiful rappette doesn’t need any retouching in my opinion. So, how much retouching was done to this image in your opinion people? Please leave comments below.

By the way, the image was taken by Lauren Dukoff, and from what I can tell, she’s an extremely talented photographer that works primarily with celebrities and major magazines. Let me ask you guys something else. Should I include a link to her site or is that just giving free advertising? For now, I will link to her Web-site until you, the readers voice your opinions.

None of the other blogs I read never mention who was responsible for the creation of the cover. Since it is this blog’s job to inform its reader of who done that ad. I’m mentioning the photographer.

Below is a short behind the scenes interview with Nicki Minaj, the subject and not the photographer of the cover.

Best,
A.B.

Go Humans Go

Go humans go is the main theme for the new campaign by Quaker Oats, a division of PepsiCo. The campaign is intended to provide you with a lift. I am guessing they mean a boost in energy? The campaign will appear in three different media vehicles which include: television, print, online, outdoor, promotions, and events. Supposedly using Quaker Oats products will make you feel good about yourself. Apparently, we need advertising's help in feeling good about ourselves in these poor economic times.

Here is what I want to know, since when does Quaker Oats qualify as a replacement for good, old-fashioned ice cream? When someone is dumped by their significant other or feeling down about anything they go for pint of Ben & Jerry's not Quaker Oats.

But again, this is just my opinion.

This Quaker campaign is worth over $100 million dollars and is being handled by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco. OMD, is handling the media part of the campaign, both of these agencies belong to the Omnicom Group of agencies.

PS: My source for this post was the following NY Times article.

Best,
A.B.