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White Cyc Doesn’t Have Walls, Either

I’m not generally a fan of tit-for-tat advertising, probably because it’s usually found in political ads. But the latest ads in Apple’s “I’m a Mac” campaign are a brilliant response to Microsoft’s new and much-maligned (and not just by me) $300 million “Life Without Walls” work.

First up, “Bean Counter” skewers the idea that throwing $300 million at the marketplace will make people forget about Vista’s issues. Especially when that money could be spent do little things like fixing the operating system.

Second is “The V Word” in which PC (John Hodgman) buzzes out all mentions of Vista due to its “baggage.” Instead,…

Whither the Wackiness?

Riddle me this, mad men and women: Where did all the eccentric, crazy-haired, close-talking, mumblerific, mad genius (or is that “Real Genius”?) type creatives go? The ones who, as they pass you by, leave a faint whiff of patchouli followed by a not-so-faint whiff of BO? The snaggle-toothed nut jobs who wear ties with flip-flops and call every client “sugarbuns” regardless of if said client’s buttocks qualify for confectionary status. The kind of creative that the account folks grumble about; the other creatives alternately tolerate, envy and worship; but who can walk into a meeting and proclaim “here’s how I’m…

I Am Not a PC

Ever think you’d see this phrase: Crispin Porter + Bogusky just did a montage spot. On purpose.

Yeah, neither did I.

But a montage is exactly what they did for Round 2 of their $300 million campaign for Microsoft. See the spot below:

This spot comes on the heels of the two perplexing mini-movies featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates. Personally, I thought these short films were fairly funny. They just had absolutely no marketing value whatsoever. I love wackiness. I own the url wackinessensues.com (it redirects to my bio, which is appropriately wacky). But wackiness for the sake of wackiness just doesn’t fly…

A Moment of Silence for “The Voice”

Don LaFontaine, the man perhaps best known for “in a world” movie trailers, and arguably the most successful voice-over artist of all time, passed away yesterday afternoon (Monday, September 1, 2008) from complications from lung disease. He was 68. I wish I could say I had worked with the man, but I only came close once – until we found out just how (rightfully) expensive Don’s session fees were.

There are tons of videos about Don and some of his fellow VO artists (check out “5 Guys in a Limo”) on YouTube. Here’s one of my favorites:

In a world without…

Proud to Contribute. Maybe.

A couple of weeks ago I helped out a client with a rather substantial pitch. For reasons I won’t go into here, coming up with a suitable tagline was both more important than usual and also more difficult. So while my partner and I toiled away on overall concepts, I also banged out line after line after line. Hoping against hope that I could sum up the grand ethos of the would-be client in four words or less.

I did it in three.

Sort of.

The final tagline was a modified version of one I had submitted. A one-word change. And I…

Former Ad Guy Saves World with Karaoke

Almost.

Patrick Kirk (PK) Gillock is not the seventh son of the seventh son of the seventh son of the seventh son of the fabled art director who first put a client’s logo in the lower right-hand corner of the spread (only to be told by the client to move it back to the center of the page and make the wood nymphs larger). But he did follow his father’s footsteps into the industry. He just didn’t stay there.

After ten years as a graphic/web designer in Seattle working for clients like Microsoft (well, not exactly like Microsoft, I hope), PK gave…

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