Author: AdweekMedia

"Give Me Back That Filet-O-Fish" is the famous jingle sung by Frankie the Fish in those McDonald’s TV commercials. If you can’t get enough of the jingle (and the many parodies it inspired), there is now a way to listen to it over and over again, other than watching YouTube. Actual wall-mounted Frankie the Fish gag gifts are now being sold online and at retailers like Kmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, and major drugstore chains. Created by Gemmy Industries, the Frankie replica is motion-activated and plays the original McDonald’s jingle. But here’s the best part: The product also includes a "club remix" of the song. It’s a gift that just keeps on giving.

—Posted by Elena Malykhina

In everyday life, a tissue is a Kleenex, an adhesive bandage is a Band-Aid, and a photocopy is a Xerox. Lots of us use those brand names as shortcuts by habit, but the folks at Xerox wish we wouldn’t. They fear brand dilution. (And they’re not alone. Check out our earlier post about TiVo.) Now, Xerox is targeting Hollywood in its campaign to keep its trademarked name from being used as a noun (as in, "Xeroxes") or verb ("to Xerox") in movie and TV scripts. The marketer ran an ad in this week’s Hollywood Reporter reminding the creative community to "use Xerox only as an adjective to identify our products and services, such as Xerox copiers." Xerox doesn’t want to go the way of aspirin, escalator and zipper, which have lost their precious trademarks in the past because the marketers didn’t defend them from common usage, according to our brother blog, THR Esquire. It’s part of a larger effort from the marketer to protect its name against the dreaded genericide. I’ll contemplate the issue further as I Scotch tape some Q-tips together while sipping a Coke from my La-Z-Boy.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

Google surprised everyone by running a TV spot on the Super Bowl, one that was pretty well-received. Apple, a current rival of Google on many fronts, pulled off a similar sneak attack during Sunday night’s Academy Awards show with its first ad for the iPad. Since the goal was to create demand for a totally new device, Apple stuck close to its playbook. It didn’t introduce any new characters or celebrity announcers. Instead, it was a glossy demo of all the neat stuff that the iPad does. Which is maybe why the spot, by TBWA\Media Arts Lab, has gotten a ho-hum response in the blogosphere. "What’s remarkable about the ad is there is nothing remarkable about it at all," Chris Matyszczyk writes in CNet’s "Technically Incorrect" blog. "It’s very neat, but very standard communication from Apple." Matyszczyk points out that Apple posted similar—perhaps even the same—footage of the iPad on its Web site during the introduction. (Google, incidentally, had also run its Super Bowl ad on the Web months before.) YouTube commenters also seem unimpressed. One points out that the ad was pretty much the same, save for the soundtrack music, as a 2007 ad for the iPod Touch. (Note: a TBWA\C\D rep could not confirm if this version was an official ad or a similar one from Nick Haley.) Does it matter that Apple’s ad was sort of meh? Probably not. Whatever the ad’s merits, the device looked pretty cool. Rather than thinking "Apple is slipping," most people watching the ad likely instead thought, "I want to get me one of those."

—Posted by Todd Wasserman

The Mad Hatter has taken over the front page of my newspaper, and I don’t know what’s more unsettling—the kabuki-faced Johnny Depp staring at me before I’ve had coffee or the Los Angeles Times orchestrating another six-figure sell-out. Today’s ad for Disney’s 3-D Alice in Wonderland is superimposed over real news copy under the paper’s iconic masthead, taking ad sales a step further than the in-bankruptcy company has ever done before. (And that’s saying something.) A closer look shows the "advertisement" tag over the picture of Depp’s colorful character. The four-page Alice ad wraps around the outside of the regular paper. The Times has found itself in ethical hot water on numerous occasions recently as it tries to cater to Hollywood studios that want clutter-busting ad opportunities. For instance, HBO’s True Blood bought its own front-page wraparound this summer, also under the Times logo, but its vampire images weren’t mingled with news copy. And last spring, an ad for NBC’s cop show Southland appeared as a faux story on the front page. The latter example caused a staff furor and an executive shakeup. Each time, the line gets blurrier between content and commercial. That’s by design. And readers have to be on their toes to separate the two because the Times, as a spokesman tells The Wrap, is just getting started. Caffeine, please!

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

After getting some hurtful comments for pointing out similarities between that State Farm-sponsored OK Go video and the Honda "Cog" ad (yes, I know, they both ripped off Rube Goldberg), I’m loathe to cover similar ground. But hey, somebody has to, right? Mullen’s new campaign for online retailer Zappos, breaking this Monday, featuring puppets mouthing the words of actual customer-service calls from Zappos employees—doesn’t it seem a bit familiar? Yes, I’m thinking of Amoeba’s mid-2000s ads for movie ticket site Fandango. Recall, if you will, that those ads also showed puppets (in this case, crude ones fabricated from brown paper bags) synched with the voices of consumers explaining why they liked the service. (The campaign eventually evolved to spoof Bollywood musicals.) Now that I’ve spoiled the party, let it rip, commenters! Just don’t be crank yankers about it.

—Posted by Todd Wasserman

Americans in the lower 48 states who experience seasonal affective disorder might be interested in the latest doings from Tropicana in Canada. In January, the Pepsi brand and its agency, BBDO Toronto, visited the northern town of Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, which experiences weeks of darkness during the depths of winter, and brought the sun—or actually, an artificial, electric-lit facsimile of the sun—to incredulous, grateful residents. Footage from the event is being used in a campaign breaking this week in Canada that’s built around the theme, "Brighter mornings for brighter days." Though the stunt is a bit reminiscent of Juan Cabral and Fallon’s Cristo-esque work in Europe, it seems a better positioning than what Tropicana has going in the U.S., which might be summed up as "Weirder packaging for confused consumers."

—Posted by Todd Wasserman

We come across brand logos every day—in stores, in advertising, on the products we use. But would you be able to recognize a brand simply by its colors? That’s the point of The Brand Quiz, created by brand asset management firm VYRE Unify. The quiz asks you to guess 21 different brands. But here’s the catch: You only get to see its colors along with a couple of cryptic clues. There are no logos or brand names provided. I scored best when I encountered colors that I see in logos on a daily basis, like Starbucks, for instance. Now it’s your turn. Take the quiz and see if you’re a brand guru.

—Posted by Elena Malykhina

Guys, do you remember the first time you unzipped in a restroom somewhere and noticed that the proprietors had installed one of those changeable advertising placards at eye level, right above the flush handle? Chances are, you thought either: a) What a great marketing idea!, or b) Damn it, can’t I just take a leak in peace? Well, if you answered "b," stop reading now.

  If not, take a seat. In what its creators are calling "the newest niche in effective billboard space," the Wow Toilet Tank Co. of Westminster, Calif., is selling a clear toilet tank that permits the insertion of advertisements and marketing messages of your choice. Setup is easy! Simply remove your existing water tank and replace it with the Wow tank—which, for $89.95, comes compete with plumbing parts and water-saving flush valves "that actually help the product pay for itself." You can drop in your own ads, or better yet, turn the old commode into a revenue-generating machine by renting out the space. The Wow Toilet, its makers assure us, is perfect for hotels, bars, restaurants, schools, theme parks, theaters, airports and more.

  Of course, there’s always the chance that some humorless member of the public might get angry about the further intrusion of marketing into private space. But don’t worry. The Wow Toilet Tank comes with "dual key locks on the lid for security."

—Posted by Robert Klara

The low-rent indie crowd who attend the Spirit Awards—also known as Oscar’s liquored-up, F-bombing cousin—might actually clean their own houses, so this sponsor stunt might not be so far-fetched. Some unnamed celebrity (and maybe a bunch of them, if the drinks are strong) will use the new LG Electronics Kompressor Vacuum on the "red" carpet (it’s actually blue) at Friday’s show. They’ll be sucking up sand, which is kind of an inside joke because the awards, in their 25th year, have moved for the first time from the beach in Santa Monica to downtown L.A. This event used to be a relaxed affair in the middle of a Saturday afternoon with the Pacific Ocean steps away. Now, it’s surrounded by concrete and traffic, and somebody has to do housework. It’s for a good cause, say the press materials, with LG donating cash to Project: Involve, a Film Independent program that nurtures cultural diversity in filmmaking. Stars who hit the swag lounge will get one of the vacuums, and loads of other Dooney & Bourke, Flip Video, Fage Total Yogurt and AMC Entertainment goodies for free. Put it this way, if they take the vacuum, at least they’ll already know how to use it.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

For the life of me, I can’t think of one good reason why ABC wouldn’t want this ad for adultery matchmaker service AshleyMadison.com to air during Sunday’s Oscar telecast. I can think of a whole bunch. Let’s start with the fact that the commercial sucks and blows at the same time. (Yes, it’s possible, and no, that’s not a sexual pun.) It purports to have an Avatar theme, but only the women, not the guy, are wearing blue body paint. So, the guy’s sleeping with someone who’s not his wife and not even his own species? The brand message, if you can call it that, is completely muddled. I say, if the cheating bastard is dumb enough to bring his mistress to his own bed, he deserves to get caught. The implication is that AshleyMadison would help him with that. How? They book hotel rooms and cover tracks? The service, which is jumping on the rejected-ads bandwagon to generate attention (thanks a lot, GoDaddy and PETA) points out what it calls the hypocrisy of an award show honoring movies that include adultery (Up in the Air, Nine) while turning down a paid spot from a marketer that thrives on it. Oh, the pseudo outrage. Look here for another lame stunt the brand pulled around the Super Bowl. As for this ad, maybe ABC just knows a horrifyingly bad campaign when it sees one. Good catch, network suits.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

You won’t get bored watching these new Capri Sun ads, created by Ogilvy for a campaign dubbed "Disrespectoids." In each of the 30-second spots, children are transformed into an animal or an object when they "disrespect" a Capri Sun pouch. There are four characters: Balloona Luna, a girl on a swing who gives away her Capri Sun pouch, turns into a balloon animal, and floats away; Chewie Stewie, a boy who makes a dog chase his pouch and then turns in a chew toy; Sandy Mandy, a girl on a beach who buries her pouch in the sand and turns into a sand sculpture; and Sloe Moe, a boy who throws his pouch into a swimming pool and turns into a turtle. While the tone is supposed to be comical, there is something creepy about kids transforming into objects, especially in the case of Sandy Mandy. The sand sculpture (which resembles the little girl) blinks and then loses an arm as waves hit the shore. Perhaps my motherly instincts prevent me from laughing at this ad. Kids, on the other hand, might find it quite funny. After all, that’s who Capri Sun is targeting.

—Posted by Elena Malykhina

If you believe they put a man on the moon, you might be interested to know that the Sony Vaio laptops of today have more processing power than the first rocket to complete the 1969 moon landing did. Using that bit of information as a springboard for a teachable moment/social-media event, Sony and Intel have launched The Rocket Project, a program in which eight students and technologist entrepreneur Tom Atchison will attempt to use a Vaio computer to launch a 25-foot, 500-plus-pound rocket, though this one will go only to the stratosphere, not the moon. The crew is currently working on the launch, which is set for April 12. In the meantime, 180LA has put together this video to generate excitement. None of this, however, addresses the nagging question: If they can put a man on the moon with this stuff, why does my browser freak out when I have too many windows open?

—Posted by Todd Wasserman

Oooo, this salsa dancer might be as good to eat as she is to look at! Frito-Lay seeded a splashy new video on creative sharing site Vimeo.com. It opens with a luscious flower shedding its petals to reveal a salsa dancer, who mesmerizes us with her ability to slice together a medley of garlic, tomatoes and jalapeno peppers. It leaves you craving Tostitos chips dipped in salsa. For now, our Doritos Late Night All Nighter Cheesburger tortilla chips will have to do. Ahh, put the snacks away!

—Posted by Elaine Wong

The Brooklyn Chicago group OK Go first came to many people’s attention with its 2006 video for the song "Here It Goes Again," which featured the band members doing a cool choreographed routine on a bunch of treadmills. Four years later, few people know the band for anything but that video. Now, they’re back with a new video for the song "This Too Shall Pass" that, we might as well just say it, is a pretty direct ripoff of the famous 2003 Honda "Cog" ad from Wieden + Kennedy’s London office (which was itself of questionable provenance). Whether the band’s nonetheless engaging video will work the same magic as "Here It Goes Again" remains to be seen, but there’s an interesting backstory: Last month, lead singer Damian Kulash Jr. penned a New York Times op-ed that bemoaned the fact that OK Go’s record label, EMI, now frowns on using YouTube as a promo channel. (In fact, in 2006, the band released the video without the label’s knowledge.) "In these tight times, it’s no surprise that EMI is trying to wring revenue out of everything we make, including our videos," Kulash wrote. "But it needs to recognize the basic mechanics of the Internet. Curbing the viral spread of videos isn’t benefiting the company’s bottom line, or the music it’s there to support." Apparently, though, OK Go has found a way around this barrier. The latest video is sponsored by State Farm, the insurer. So, to recap: Here is a video from a band that rips off an old commercial but is, in fact, a commercial of sorts for State Farm.

—Posted by Todd Wasserman

Kimberly-Clark has so much confidence in its Kotex brand that it’s asking consumers to "Take the Panty Challenge." The point is, Kotex’s Ultra Thin with CleanSorb pads "break down heavy flow" so fast that you don’t need to worry about "leaks [that] might crash the party." The personal-care products maker has launched an online campaign that lets women record the brand’s effectiveness during their monthly cycle. For the dissatisfied, K-C is offering a rebate of $4 for the purchase of new panties. (You can even win a $100 panty shopping spree and take a quiz to see what kind of panty wearer you are.) An ad in this month’s Redbook magazine proclaims, "Join the undie ground party." (We just did.) "Protection and comfort. Now that’s worth celebrating!" (You got that right.)

—Posted by Elaine Wong

Martha F***ing Stewart does not do dishes, and the Olsen twins make really lousy manual laborers. So says this skit from this weekend’s Saturday Night Live, where the cast parodied the CBS hit Undercover Boss with a less-likely-to-succeed show dubbed Undercover Celebrity Boss. Among the discoveries: Sir Richard Branson can’t really go incognito. Not with that ego. Or that hair. (Kudos, Bill Hader, for an impersonation well done.) Once SNL pokes fun at you, you’re part of the conversation, so CBS and its product-placement-heavy show must be thrilled. And the big ratings just keep coming. Sunday’s episode, where the CEO of White Castle made a mess of the square-burger chain’s assembly line, drew 15.1 million viewers and beat even the heavily promoted Jerry Seinfeld-produced Marriage Ref on NBC. Critics have called Undercover Boss emotionally manipulative, though viewers can’t seem to get enough. Next up: behind the scenes at Louisville’s historic racetrack Churchill Downs, where the CEO getting his hands dirty should really be something to see.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

Argh! BrandFreak gave up chocolate for Lent. (OK, we supposedly gave up chocolate for Lent, which is what we’ve been telling ourselves every year since our mother enrolled us in Catholic school at age 7.) Tempting us to break the fast this year is none other than Nestlé’s Wonka Exceptionals. For those of you who associate Wonka with children’s candies, the collection just got a whole lot "scrumdiddlyumptious," which indeed happens to be the name of the new candy bar we’re drooling over. Nestlé says it’s the first premium chocolate line for the entire Wonka brand, which includes delectables like the Wonka Chocolate Waterfall Bar and the Wonka Domed Dark Chocolate Bar. What makes it so darn delicious, and irresistible, is the use of ingredients like "scrumptious toffee pieces," "creamy white chocolate swirled in milk chocolate" and "rich, velvety dark chocolate topped with smooth milk chocolate drops." (Excuse us while we wipe the saliva off the keyboard.) BrandFreak had the pleasure of speaking with Janet the Planet (pictured above), the innovation manager behind the Wonka Experience. As we wrote in our Brandweek Q&A this week, Janet the Planet is her legal name. (She won’t tell us what it was before she changed it 12 years ago.) Even better, her husband’s name is Richie Rescue, or at least, that’s what he’s in the process of changing it to. Of course, this only happens when you’re talking with the folks at Wonka.

—Posted by Elaine Wong

I’m currently reading the book Nothing to Envy, an exposé of the famines and dictatorial control of citizens’ everyday life in North Korea, so these satirical complaints by putative Virgin Atlantic Upper Class customers come off as particularly jarring and pathetic, as well as witty and well-executed. The videos, from Young & Rubicam in New York, feature people who are afraid of not flying the airline. Executed in superb, Christopher Guest-like mockumentary style, the interviews get more and more outlandish. There’s the exec who is scared that if he doesn’t get that lie-flat bed on Virgin, he won’t get his six hours of beauty sleep. But he acknowledges that having 10 hours of sleep is "just unfair," though he declines to explain further. Another man claims that when he doesn’t get the aisle seat, he has to get on his seatmate’s schedule and, in a sense, become that person. A recent flight was particularly hard, since the seatmate was a 45-year-old woman with marital problems and a son away at college who doesn’t call. "Why doesn’t he call?" the man asks plaintively. "It hurts." Another man—a Napoleon Dynamite lookalike—is brought to tears recalling how a recent non-Virgin flight lacked a free massage. I suggest all these folks bring a copy of that book for the next flight.

—Posted by Todd Wasserman

April 22 is Earth Day, and in case you’ve got nothing suitable to put on your feet to go with those hemp pants, organic cotton tie-dye shirt and crocheted dread tam, the Earth Inc. footwear company of Waltham, Mass., has just the thing to help you take your ecological stand: recycled, biodegradable shoes. In what has to be a first, the Biostep line of sandals, sneakers and slip-on casuals uses post-consumer-recycled plastic bottles for the linings and recycled milk cartons for the insole boards. And it’s all held together with water-based adhesive. (Hell, even the boxes they come in are glue-free and printed with soy-based inks.) Millennial as all of this may sound, Earth Inc. actually started making eco-friendly shoes 15 years ago. "First we converted to using only water-based adhesives, then we began to use recycled soda bottles for our linings," says president Gary Champion. "Most recently, we introduced a biodegrable sole, which is really a huge breakthrough in the industry."

  No doubt. But—hey, wait a sec—how do you make sure the shoes don’t start to biodegrade while you’ve got them on? "Good question," says Champion, who goes on to explain that the soles are an amalgam of starch-based additives and non-starch polymers, which only begin to decompose during extremes in temperatures—like you get in a landfill. So, for everyday wear, you can stand tall with no worries. It’s just that you won’t be standing straight up. Another Biostep feature is a sole that’s inclined to 3.7 degrees, "which gives users gat-burning and toning benefits," according to the sales materials.

  Then again, you could just go barefoot.

—Posted by Robert Klara