Brand Central Station

From the Adclassix web site. I love that place.

Technorati Tags: Advertising, Magazine Ads, Classic Advertising, Dr. West Toothbrush

For all the celebratory hubbub surrounding Agency.com’s withdrawl from the Subway pitch, it doesn’t look like their lame documentary had anything to do with it.

I’m not sure which is worse spectator sport: watching Agency.com’s self-indulgent video or deleting all the RSS commentary from bloggers who are convinced (one way or another) that Agency.com’s pull-out was the result of that lame video.

This is absolutely brilliant.

Doesn’t make sense that if you want someone to understand what you’re saying, you don’t confuse them with multiple messages at the same time? How quickly we forget.

This piece from the Presentation Zen blog provides some great information on how (and why) clutter matters in your presentation. But there’s more here than meets the eye .

Television newscasts, QVC, the TV Guide Channel and a host of other channels have become visual wastelands – cluttering up the screen with logos, crawls, climbs and all sorts of other junk that just gets in the way. The presentation zen-master provides a useful link to a Jon Stewart piece on the same subject.

Technorati Tags: Presentations, Marketing, Sales, PowerPoint, Presentation Zen

According to this article from Editor & Publisher, traditional medias (i.e. newspaper and television) are still trusted more than web sites and blogs – based on research recently conducted by the British interactive marketing company, Telecom Express.

These findings seem to support earlier findings reported by HarrisInteractive and the PRSA Foundation. That survey, conducted last fall, found that American’s attitudes toward news sources skewed mostly toward television first and then print media.

What’s behind this general mistrust of online news sources? Judith T. Phair, president and CEO of PRSA explained:

“It’s easy to read the headlines in trade and business press about all of the hot ‘new’ media channels and start to believe that the traditional press is passé, but this survey confirms that despite some new entrants, Americans still use news, seek news and place their trust in the traditional sources.”

One can assume that a good bit of the mistrust stems from television’s ability to tie a moving, visual (and often live) image to their story while print’s long-standing history of serving in the public interest generally helps bolster its credibility. Web sites and blogs, on the other hand, are generally incapable of tying a live or moving image into a story and lack the history of “journalistic integrity” employed by more traditional forms of media.

This situation is not unique to media-rich markets like the US or UK, either.

A report on the American Press Institute’s Media Center provides an interesting look into how conventional media fares against other channels with regard to their respective credibility. The survey results were taken from a variety of other markets including Brazil, South Korea and Egypt (among others).

I didn’t go to school at the University of Texas (Hell no!), but you do have to appreciate the work they’ve put into this page. This is great coffee-break/lunch material for advertising junkies like me.

My personal favorite headline: “Springmaid sheets are known as America’s Favorite Playground.” – guess we better get that line trademarked.

PR Guru, Stuart Bruce, muses about Phil Gomes’ post on his first year at Edelman. Stuart, a principal at his own independent shop in the UK, talks about how small agencies often view larger ones and the people who work for them.

Is this all a case of fee-envy? Not likely. Stuart points out that there are lots of fantastic people who work at big agencies – and there are some real idiots. In a small agency, though, there is no room for “weak links.”

As a result, some small agencies are really good. Others aren’t.

I’ve always maintained that the size of the agency doesn’t really matter. It all comes down to the quality of people on your team. The idea of media “clout” whether it’s in negotiating paid media space (advertising) or getting stories placed (pr) is largely mythical. What’s not imagined, however, is the quality of experiences gained by people from working on a variety of account sizes.

Clout or not, big agency and big account experience can be quite valuable when it comes to thinking big and having the nerve to pick up the phone and make “the call” that needs to be made. On the other hand, small agency and small account service can help foster an ability to “make things happen” for very little money. That kind of resourcefulness should never go unrewarded, but so often does.

Do us all a favor today and try to spot (and compliment) someone who’s putting their experience to work for your benefit and say “thanks.”

Frederik Samuel’s blog has posted a series of posters for Smith & Wesson that are very cool.

In what could be a knock-out blow to the Montreal Gazzette’s E&O (errors and omissions) Insurance policy, the Regret the Error blog documents the trials and tribulations of a man from Quebec who has threatened to sue the paper for making him think he’d won a huge lottery jackpot when, in reality, he hadn’t.

The paper has apologized to both the man and its readers but makes the point that the alleged “victim” and his lawyer have spent their time presenting their story to other media outlets in the market rather than contacting the newspaper to make proper amends. According to Gazette Editor, Alan Allnut:

“There was, as far as we can ascertain, no effort to contact The Gazette prior to going to other media with the story.”

This story appears to be far from over.

From the “What were they thinking department?” – here’s a story about a restaurateur in Mumbia who, after reviewing all of the potential names and historical icons with whom to associate his restaurant, decided that Adolf Hitler was the man for him. His restaurant, Hitler’s Cross, opened last week.

It stands out, you can say that much.

Ads promoting the restaurant used pictures of the German leader, Nazi iconography and an extra serving of controversy. But today, four days after the restaurant’s opening, the owners have decided to rename the eatery.

According to this story off the Zeenews web site, owner Shakir Siddiqui said the decision was made after a meeting with the Jewish Society of Inda. The meeting was held following public protests by a variety of people including the German and Israeli Consul Generals.

A new name will be announced in a few days. Any suggestions? Send us your proposed name and we’ll post them to this site.

The Fast Company blog shares information on the opening of the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising in West London. You can find more information on the museum here (subscription required).

The museum’s web site can be found here (although there isn’t much more than a landing page right now).

Remember the Spirograph? Well, Scriptographer.com has come up with a plug-in for Adobe Illustrator that can create the same kinds of designs.

Cooooool.

The Hidden Persuader has provided this look at Levi’s new iJeans which features a pocket for your iPod. Now it will be even easier for my son to put his iPod in the wash.

Great.