MacDonald Manufacturing Concern

Last Political Ad for Four Years. I Promise.

This "Choose or Lose" spot from MTV nicely summarizes what it was like growing up in Central Illinois. I think it also sets a record for "most number of discriminatory statements made in 60 seconds." I mean, this guy manages to offend homosexuals, black people, and the disabled. That's a record Andy Rooney would be proud of.

Go on, be a Hater.

You know what? I might have a bit of a crush on this ad.

Can't say exactly why. Maybe it's the bunnies wearing ear protection, the hammer-wielding penguins, the sun spitting explosive loogeys. Or maybe it's the fact that it's all done to a pretty little ditty sung by Garrison Keillor. At any rate, I'm crushing hard. I want to carry its books home from school.

The Axe Effect is, Apparently, Real.

Today's Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on Axe Body Sprays. I bring this up only because of this terrifying quote.

Ross Lovern, a 14-year-old spray user in New York City, says he and his friends decided to go to the drugstore and buy Axe after watching a commercial on MTV featuring a woman crawling all over a mannequin that had just been sprayed with the product. The ad, says Ross, made him think, "This is the perfect deodorant for me."

Don't get me wrong, I like the hyperbolic, sexed-up Axe ads as much as the next hetero, but who knew they actually worked? C'mon, don't we hear all the time that teenagers see through the marketing bullshit?

From now on, all my ads will feature humping mannequins. That's a promise.

Interviewing Skills.

This guy interviews a copywriter 25 years his senior and gives all of us a terrifying, but funny, glimpse of growing older in the ad industry. This post is just one of the reasons why I'll be celebrating my 29th birthday for the next five years or so.

I am a Productive Member of the Team.

WPP reports 4% revenue growth. [AdAge registration required.]

I estimate that I am personally responsible for approximately 0.00000000014253% of that growth—an increase of almost 0.000000042% over last quarter.

My conference call with investors will occur later today.

Doin' it Missy Style.

That'll teach Missy Elliot to go to some stranger's birthday party, drink Cristal, wear a trucker hat and eat pretzels.

The New York Times Discovers Blogs.

The Times has a good article on advertising weblogs today. Not surprisingly, I didn't make the cut. Perhaps that's because I've been doing this all of three weeks.

Oddly, that's all the time needed to be an expert on copulating horses.

Fenway Epic Update.

Stuart Elliot solves the mystery (and I'm using that term loosely) behind the Nike Fenway Park ad. [Registration required.]

In e-mail messages that began circulating after the commercial appeared, some baseball fans speculated that Nike produced the spot several years ago, then kept updating it while waiting for a Boston return.

That could mean the commercial was made last year, when Boston also lost to the Yankees; or 1999, ditto; or perhaps even 1978, ditto. (Nike did not exist in 1949, when New York also defeated the Red Sox, so it is unlikely to be that old.)

But the commercial was produced in October 2003, according to people present at the creation. It was shelved last year when Boston lost on Aaron Boone's 12th-inning home run, then revived last week with the minor modification of making "2004" the final year onscreen rather than "2003."

Bob Garfield Reviews the Latest Propaganda.

Enough nonsense for one morning. Let's at least to pretend to talk about ads. Bob Garfield reviews a couple of political ads that evoke 9/11 in this week's AdAge. [Registration required] What bothers me about the Bush ad is not so much the shameless milking of a 9/11 victim for political gain, nor is it the overly "sensitive" piano soundtrack working to pull the tears. What really bothers me is the fact that Bush totally looks like a moose when you shove a camera really close into his face. It's freaking me out a little.

The Horse Mating Mystery Continues.

I'm proud to annouce that MacDonald Manufacturing Concern is now one of the top six "horse mating" sites on Google. With your help and support, I know we can overtake the Animal Mating Zone for that coveted #1 spot.

[Meanwhile, search "Matt MacDonald" and this site doesn't come up for 12 goddamned pages. Are we sure this "Google" thing is all its cracked up to be?]