Many of the stars (and teams) featured in the now iconic ad are slumping, tragically. See what we mean after the jump.
Didier Drogba sustained several injuries and was only able to join his Ivory Coast team several games into the tournament, where he scored, in a loss to Brazil. Drogba’s team will now have to score at least 8 goals against North Korea and hope for a Brazil win over Portugal or it goes home.
Captain Fabio Cannavaro’s former champion Team Italy is being called an embarrassment after its Algeria result and then drawing against New Zealand. (New Zealand!)
Read ALL at Brandchannel.
Look, Philips Norelco wants you to make an avatar of yourself. A naked one. A shaved naked one. Also, something about making yourself look like a prepubescent child and saving the world.
You know what that hipster doofus should shave? That ridiculous thing on his chin.
See the whole matrix at Brandchannel
A while back I wrote at brandchannel about the kid who is being sued by The North Face for creating a spoof brand called The South Butt. Public Radio’s Marketplace show got around to covering the story and got a quote from the kid’s lawyer, Albert Watkins. It is the gold medal winner of awesome legal statements:
“This is about consumer choice, this is about a consuming public that’s smart enough to know the difference between a face and butt and not believe that somehow when they pick up a butt they’ve bought a face.”
Congratulations couselor, you are a great American.
One of the key characteristics of 3D, as used in Avatar, is “limited depth of field.” Essentially, this means that the figure onscreen in 3D pops out at the audience while the background appears out of focus. An attempt to focus on the background causes what some call “Avatar h3dache.”
For product placements though, the loss of a clear background means the elimination of countless placement opportunities for a wide range of brands. Cars logos, soda names, box graphics and any number of other brand identifiers will appear to be just a swirl of blurry color. Any attempt to distinguish them will be pointless. What good is a product placement that cannot be seen?
READ IT ALL
And there is another potential concern worth noting in the post-Tiger Woods/Charlie Sheen/Gilbert Arenas spokesman era. Where Cronkite posed a low risk for scandal, Freeman, despite his septuagenarian status, might be different. It’s well documented that the actor struggled with alcohol problems many years ago and quit drinking after “waking up face-down on the floor in the hallway in my New York apartment.” And Freeman’s recent car accident in which his female passenger was severely injured, prompted rumors that he had been drunk at the wheel. Might CBS be risking someday running a story about how it is dropping its spokesman because “he no longer fits with the network’s brand of integrity?”
Earlier: Morgan Freeman is new voice of CBS
Taco Bell has a new Drive-Thru Diet campaign running at the same time as the brand’s “Fourthmeal” campaign. Discuss.
MORE AT BRANDCHANNEL
I have Brandchanel all to myself today to run a special edition of the magazine’s Black Friday Live! coverage. Check it out. Posts should be along the lines of the below:
So you’re one of the strongest brands ever in the history of ever. How do you take an event that is already heavily branded (”Black Friday”) and co-opt and transform it to fit the needs of your own brand? If you’re George Lucas, it’s just another day:
“Dark Side Days at Star Wars Shop”
Get it!!??
Reated: The Droid, one of this holiday season’s hottest, most brand-loyalty creating products, actually, no joke, had to get trademark clearence from Lucas for use of the “Droid” name. And by “get” we mean “pay for.”
All branding professionals are just pedestrians in Lucas’ world.
Not your speed? Well, I can’t please everyone. Check it out anyway.
Happy Thanksgiving. For anyone interested I will be “liveblogging” Black Friday over at Brandchannel.
Andy Rooney is rolling over in his grave,
Also, to aid digestion, read this hilarious email correspondence:
From: Simon Edhouse
Date: Tuesday 17 November 2009 11.07am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Logo Design
You just crossed the line. You have no idea about the potential this project has. The technology allows users to network peer to peer, add contacts, share information and is potentially worth many millions of dollars and your short sightedness just cost you any chance of being involved.
From: David Thorne
Date: Tuesday 17 November 2009 1.36pm
To: Simon Edhouse
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Logo Design
Dear Simon,
So you have invented Twitter. Congratulations. This is where that time machine would definitely have come in quite handy.
It is good like rhubarb pie.