Cell phones pop corn. False, but I still don't think it fits the failure formula.

So this video is hot right now. 8 million hits over the last 10(?) days. And it was on CNN this morning. They interviewed Scott Goodson of Strawberry Frog about it. He noted what we all understand in advertising: since its false, it will fail. It's true perhaps for that company, but I think they still helped out the whole bluetooth industry. I think its compelling content. We believed it because we're thinking it: maybe cells could pop popcorn. Maybe I should get that shit away from my head. So the video itself will fizzle, the company won't be remembered for posing the idea and they'll be the guys who faked the video. But the other makers are now primed to play up the fear and conversation going on. Let's see who steps up.

CareerBuilder, Monster get to work

If you're agency's got some hard working creatives, get them to work on making this into something. The clock is ticking. Go.
Maybe this guy, once he's out of jail, could be placed at a new job, and you could be the ones to show the before and after.
I saw it first from another angle at Agency Spy.

Award Shows are Relevant, Dammit! Vol 8

So, I went to the One Show Interactive last night, Nikon and MRM Worldwide won a gold pencil for its project Nikon Picturetown. It's a ripe example of compelling content. They said, who better to taut the product of experts and afficianados than the users themselves? So they gave away free cameras and said "let us and the world know how it well it works." It spread like wildfire, and the users became lifetime fans. It's another step forward for these clients, who first dabbled with their D80 project, praised by new marketing bloggers like Joseph Jaffe . So the relevant part is this: If more creatives win awards for community based thinking like this, then more creatives will present it. And if those presentations are for forward thinking clients like Nikon, than our whole industry will benefit.

PS All this award show talk will end soon, I promise, the season's almost over.

Award Shows are Relevant, Dammit! Vol 7

Just an update. All the greatness and forward thinking of McCann's Halo3 Believe, that was honored with the Grandy at the Andy Awards , also won Best in Show at the One Show. All previous arguments that award shows are relevant apply here as well.

Award Shows are relevant, Dammit! Vol 6.

McCann was the big winner last night at the International Andy Awards for their work with Halo 3 . We've seen the ads, with the diarama on an enormous, detailed scale. It flipped the video-game-tv-spot norm of pure action and explosions and made it eerily quiet. But what took it further was the interviews of "veterans." It put a human face, a whole story to these video game characters.

But back to the title of the article: awarding work like this is good for advertising. It was a multimedia, highly interactive, thoughtful campaign. It wasn’t a goofy commercial. Nor did users didn’t have to buy anything to get involved, but it was oh so engaging. So, if we award work like this, then creatives will strive to do more of it, more of it will get presented, and more of it will get made. It's the natural selection of compelling content.

Oh, and results. The release of Halo 3 rocked Spiderman and Harry Potter.

Missed Opportunity for NBC

So, I was watching Today show today. They have this thing "Where in the World is Matt Lauer?" It's a recurring segment where Matt flys to a new place every day (for a week, I think). And I watch, and I'd get involved, if they let me. BUT THEY DON'T. They gave a clue today to where Matt would be tomorrow. "This place is an anagram of a synonym of a homophone of a even prime number." Two, too, also, Laos (in reverse order of the sentence). Thats the answer. So how do I taut my knowledge? Maybe i could go to the site and put in my email (free data) or put enter some other sort of contest. But no. All they have is a Vote on places you think Matt will go. And you know what, as of today, Laos (on a list of over 200 Countries) has 19% vote. the other countries are between .5 and 1%. So that means of the 7182 respondents, 1364 answered the clue TODAY.
Missed chance to converse, since you asked me.

Award Shows are relevant, dammit! vol.5

More to come. I'm just getting the excitement started. I forsee another smart move by the Andy Awards to be more modern, making modern advertising the star. Can't say more.