MacDonald Manufacturing Concern

New Sony Ad is Blowin' Up

Part of me thinks it's lame to release behind-the-scenes footage from a commercial shoot. But another part of me likes it when things blow up real good. And since it's being directed by Jonathan Glazer, the final product could still be  surprising even though we know the central concept.

For example, we have no idea what hushed, lo-fi acoustic track will accompany these ultra slow-motion explosions.

This is the Life of an Advertising Professional, Part III

You spend an inordinate amount of time in the back of cabs coming home from other people's goodbye parties.

Scarlett hearts. I hate.

Let me get this straight. Scarlett "hearts" Rbk?

Could there be a more pointless celebrity endorser than Scarlett Johansson suddenly signing with (or as they put it "heart-ing") Reebok? If you're going to spend millions on a celeb, why not pick one with at least a tangential relationship with the brand? I saw 'Match Point.' The closest she got to physical activity was being on the receiving end of an oily rub-down from Jonathan Rhys-Meyers.

One hopes this isn't the beginning of a trend. You know, Star hearts McD's, Britney hearts KFC, Courtney hearts Rehab, Tom hearts OTL8CoSInc. (Operating Thetan Level 8, Church of Scientology Inc.)

And c'mon Reebok, what's with the Rbk? Try pronouncing it. It's the sound a fourteen year old makes after downing their first bottle of Strawberry Boone's.

The Life of an Advertising Professional, Part II

Your first morning meeting is the rebrief of the rebrief.

Free Idea of the Day: Jake Leg

In our ongoing effort to serve the advertising community, we will occasionally post free ideas that are yours for the taking. This is Idea 1: Jake Leg.

Ever wanted to write a spot that makes fun of physical deformities, but held back because of your lingering liberal guilt? Worry no more. You can mock Jake Leg all you want because nobody gets it anymore.

Let us turn to the all-knowing Wikipedia:

Jamaican Ginger Extract (known in the United States by the slang name Jake) was an early 20th century patent medicine that provided a convenient way to bypass Prohibition laws, since it contained as much as 85% ethyl alcohol.

However it contained tri-o-tolyl phosphate, which is, in fact, a potent killer of certain cells in the nervous system in human beings, especially in the spinal cord. Large numbers of jake users began to lose the use of their feet and sometimes their hands. Lucky users recovered full or partial use, but for most, the loss was permanent. Some victims could walk, but the muscles controlling their feet did not work, and so they walked by throwing their legs high in the air and flopping their feet onto the ground. This very peculiar gait became known as the jake walk and those afflicted were known to have jake leg.

There you have it: Jake Leg. I look forward to seeing it in your next Hallmark commercial.

This is the life of an Advertising Professional.

You spend an inordinate amount of time staring at the back of someone's head.

Head On

If you haven't seen this dystopian example of television advertising, watch it now.

Seth Stevenson over at Slate basically nails the issue—head on, yo!—in his latest Ad Report Card. Note this terrifying question.

It really is sad when you think about the hard work that gets done inside advertising agencies. All the writing and rewriting, the late-night brainstorming, the mining of creativity from the deepest recesses of one's cortex. And then there's the casting, the directing, the high-budget locations. The question we must now ask is: Why bother with any of this? The HeadOn ad is more effective at reaching its goals than 99 percent of the ads on television. And it succeeds on the strength of a few, bare-bones tactics that most advertisers carefully shun:

People who work as advertising creatives often struggle with the question of whether or not their career is ultimately meaningless. This won't help that internal debate much. But hey, if it gives you a headache, I know exactly how to fix it.

Read the rest of the article here.

Logos 2.0

Famous logos redone in Web 2.0 style. In the future, will we cringe every time we see a soft, rounded gradiant? Just like we cringe when we look back at all the Cosby sweaters we wore back in grade school?

The Latest from our Manufacturing Concern.

This is one of the reasons why I haven't posted in over a year (besides that unfortunate six months in Riker's). I've been busy makin' the ads.

Title: Tested
Client: L.L.Bean
Director: Chris Milk
Music: Bibio "Bewley in Grey"

The Knights of Awesome

An artful blend of sci-fi, spaghetti westerns, kung-fu, and face-licking.