Got a Light, Bulb?

Anti-smoking ads are as plentiful as butts at a nicotine convention. And they’re often mocked by the intended target audience for trying too hard.

But this Thai anti-smoking campaign from Ogilvy has a core idea that grabs even smokers in the act.

It didn’t take graphs, spooky facts, scare tactics, or even riffs on classic cigarette ads, as some anti-smoking spots have done.  It simply highlighted an age-old tack of having those addicted warn others not to make the same mistake.  

The effect hits hardest when the audience sees the light bulb go off for the smokers – as these planted kids cause the smokers to simply warn themselves.

As we see it, this ‘advice to kids’ angle might be an interesting insight to help highlight a number of things adults do that they’d warn kids against doing.  Bike helmets, anyone?

So yes, kids say the darndest things.  And they also can cause us to question the darned adults we have become.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u-rhnV4l08

London Olympics a Non-Event?

Many advertisers don’t appear to be as hot with Olympic fever this year.

For example, the London Evening Standard thought they’d end up with a bunch of cash from media sales, but their eBay-style ad auction proved them wrong. The bidding war (or lack there of) surprised many when expectations came in lower than the score on a pole vaulter using a bendy straw.

As a result, there’s still plenty of room for outdoor advertising around London. So, if you’ve got an extra hundred million (pounds, that is) laying around, put it to good use.

Overall, the the games cost $15 billion, but the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) has only raised $2 billion in sponsorship gold.

For that $13 billion differential, they could buy out the real Olympic birthplace, Greece, post-default….

The LOCOG have also installed some tight rules to ensure non-sponsors don’t get in the games:
• Logos from non-sponsors are being covered up with tape in public places (including the ‘loo!’)
• Athletes are restriced from using Olympic symbols in blogging/social media (#freedom of expression?)
• “Advertising police” can raid any potentially unauthorized advertising areas and fine offenders 20,000 pounds

Like rampant parking meter maids, that’s one way to gain revenue. But whatever happened to love of the game…or Games?

http://www.businessinsider.com/london-olympics-advertising-restrictions-2012-5#heres-how-london-envisions-your-olympic-experience-10

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/25/london-2012-olympics-sponsors_n_1546466.html?ref=advertising

Oodles of Google Doodles

Google’s frequent Doodle homepages add a splash of sparkle to our web surfing. 

Would you have known Earth Day if Google hadn't transformed their logo in tribute?

Nice calendar reminder function, eh?  Bet you didn’t know when Frank Lloyd Wright’s birthday was either.  More indispensable water cooler trivia.

Google has created 300 Doodles in the U.S since ‘98 when their genesis was actually laziness and happenstance.

Their first Doodle displayed the Burning Man image, and told users the site

would be running unattended, like an “out of office” note.   But the

Burning Man bloop sparked a revolution, or at least a habitual bit of differentiation on the tabula rasa that is Google’s starkly simple home page. 

 

Now Google creates many Doodles commemorating events like the Venus transit, LEGO’s 50^th anniversary, and Robert Moog’s birthday – ya know, the guy who invented the electronic synthesizer.

Anyway, Google Doodles are fun, visual reminders about events or random facts you can’t live without.  Kinda like what Google gets you every second of every day, right?