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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…

Sticky Sweet Nectar of the Midwest Gods

So my wife and I celebrated our five-year anniversary last night just as you might expect – by watching TV through half-closed eyes minutes after putting the twins down for the evening. Having burned through all of our DVR’ed shows, we were forced to watch television in real time. Suddenly, it was 2004 all over again. Only without the bitter presidential…oh, never mind.

Then, as we watched a truly odd ballet-teaching couple search for a vacation home in Aruba on “House Hunters International,” the following word from a sponsor appeared to confuse our eyeballs:

Yes, you saw that correctly. The Corn Refiners…

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…

Forget the Super Bowl

Are you like me? Are you excited about the hot-spicy-hot advertising we’re about to see during two weeks of political conventions?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

See you on the other side,

Fox

Jason Fox gets paid on occasion to write words that, unlike this post, actually persuade people to do something. He even, at the risk of alienating potential employers, pontificates on politics on a more appropriate forum.

I Am Not a Citizen of the World

Isara.orgCall me a jingoistic troglodyte if you must, but I don’t watch the Olympics to foster a feeling of global connectedness deep within my bosom. With apologies to Visa, I was not chanting “Go world!” as I watched Michael Phelps win by one one-hundredth of a second over Milorad Cavic or Jason Lezak track down smack-talking Alain “I Learned Nothing from Mimes” Bernard in the 4 x 100m freestyle relay. I wanted the USA to win. Period.

You know, “USA! USA! USA!”

So why is all the advertising so New World Order? I’m taking back my apologies to Visa – I…

Hair is Fine

Steffan Postaer, currently Chairman and Chief Creative Officer at Euro RSCG Chicago (and the guy of whom you were jealous when you saw those Altoids ads back in the day), has written a new book entitled “The Happy Soul Industry.” The book is, in Steffan’s words “a modern fable about God and advertising. God looks for an advertising agency in order to market Heaven! As you might imagine, all Hell breaks loose.”

To help market the book – because even books by ad people about advertising don’t just spontaneously sell themselves – the publisher had the idea of taking a simple-though-profound question…

The Karaoke Marathon is On

Isara.orgAs I wrote a couple of weeks ago in this post, former ad jockey and all-around stand-up guy PK Gillock is attempting to break the Guinness record for karaoke singing. He’s doing this for charity and not merely to be a nasty fellow. Since his charity earns money just by using their site as a search portal, why don’t you drop by Isara.org right now and do your part.

Assuming you’re reading this on August 1-2, 2008, watch it live right here.

Later,

Fox

A Kansas City native, Jason Fox currently lances freely as a writer, creative director and thumb model in Dallas, Texas. His…

Jason Fox – A Fox of Jason

King of SnacksI have found the best tagline ever penned in the history of penned taglines. Or typed. Or texted, if such a thing has happened yet (I can see it now: Bud Lite Pwns Mllr! Woot!). Beyond “Just Do It.” In a different league than “When E.F. Hutton Talks, People Listen.” Light years ahead of “The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection” for it has, indeed, achieved said perfection.

Are you ready?

Are you really ready?

Honest?

Okay then.

The brand: Snak King.

The tagline: “King of Snacks.”

That’s right, Chachi. Just in case you couldn’t tell from the company name that they consider themselves chip-based royalty, their tagline…

You Know, For Kids

[rant]

Well, the marketing folks at “Gossip Girl” are back with another tweenerporntacular campaign. Using excerpts from reviews as headlines. Ooh. Provocative. Yippee.

I don’t care that it’s effective. In fact, I’m more upset about it because it is. It’ll get more kids to watch a show with no redeeming social value whatsoever. Great. I know, I know. “If you don’t like it, turn it off, dude.” Shut up. Seriously, just don’t give me that argument or the one about parents needing to keep tabs on what their kids are watching. Yes, I can turn it off. Yes, I’ll be doing my…

What Advertisers Can Learn from “The Dark Knight”

Why So Serious?Like most of the planet, I managed to go see Christopher Nolan’s magnificent epic “The Dark Knight” this weekend. This sequel to 2005’s “Batman Begins” set box office records, raking in $155.34 million dollars domestically, breaking the $151.1 million dollar record set by the massively inferior “Spiderman 3″ in 2007.

Now, with the semi-provocative title of this blog, you might expect a list of possibly humorous lessons people in our industry can learn from the Batman. Well, not today.

I’m giving you one genuine lesson we can learn from this movie, and it’s this: Quality attracts the biggest audience.

I hear the objections…

Former Ad Guy Saves World with Karaoke

Isara.orgAlmost.

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…

I Am Not Search Engine Optimized

I have three websites of my own. The first, jasonfox.net houses my sweet oeuvre of possibly familiar work (squint just right). A spin-off of this site is my bio, whoisjasonfox.com. It’s chock-a-block with fun facts about my life, at least three of which are 40% true. And then there’s my own blog The AdHole (adhole.com), which includes stuff similar to what I’ll be ranting about here, along with more esoteric things like reflections upon Fat Albert and the proper way to sharpen a shiv. It’s good times.

Now here’s the crazy part: I have done nothing to get these sites high rankings…