What's old is new again... Ping Pong

Within the brief spin of a few hours, I ran across 3 separate articles that mentioned something about Ping Pong. I thought that was odd. For me, Ping Pong harkens back to the 1970's basement or Nixon's Ping Pong detente.

Evidently, table tennis is all the rage among the smart set in NYC. Susan Sarandon, who has been the subject of the gossip rags for the past few days, is an investor in in a Ping Pong club in NYC called Spin. From what I can gather, Spin is like a more affordable, less snobby SOHO house that focuses on the classic table game. Spin's website describes its offering as " strikingly original artistic, athletic and social movement."

A New Take on Boring Butter Ads

A dance-off for butter? You gotta love it. I saw this delightfully silly, kitchy, entertaining spot last night and actually remembered the next day to look for it on youtube. Proof of its stickiness. I suspect the brief had something in there about saliency and breakthrough to overcome a horribly boring category.

As the choreographer for the music production said, "It's embedded in my head and I just can't get it out." The music director said using music like "Turn the Beat Around" harkens back to the days when popular music could drive story in a TV spot.
This is one of those instances when I wish I was the fly in the room when the agency presented the storyboard. It appears the idea was sparked by the reality dance craze we now see on TV.

I have to admit, I found the previous campaign, "The Buttertons," way to cheesy and unappealing. Bravo Unilever brand management for moving forward with the campaign!

Was the "get" always Megan Mullaly? She certainly would have high appeal and awareness among the "middle age female target" the brand seems to be going after. But the mainstream would know her more for her TV work and less for her Broadway and cabaret gigs. I remember seeing Megan at the Rose Room in the Time Warner Center in NYC, singing a duet with the grand dame of Broadway, Elaine Strich. It was magical. Great choice agency on your talent!

Coke's New Focus: Customer-Centricity

Today, AdAge writes about Coke's major marketing event where they lay out their vision for the next 10 years to analysts. Yep--they're going to 2020. Coke says they are reinvigorating their strategies by putting the consumer first--essential to making a connection.

"Our view on consumer connection now has to include not only earned media and PR but all the way into the store and shelf," said Wendy Clark, SVP of integrated marketing. "One hundred forty million people watch the top 10 TV shows in the U.S. And there are 140 million people that go into Walmart stores each week. Is Walmart a media channel? Yes. You have to include in-store activation in your connections thinking to create value for them and build brands."

AdAge reports, "Coke pulled out all the stops at the meeting, its first such confab since 1998. There was a dinner designed by Linton Hopkins, named one of 2009's best new chefs by Food & Wine, using Coca-Cola as a key ingredient." (that's an old move, but I guess it still works).

Speaking of pulling out all the stops--Ms.Clark wore a Coke t-shirt to present. What a cool signal to the analysts... wearing your passion.

New Spoof on Kraft's Miracle Whip Campaign

Colbert sends-up Kraft's Miracle Whip campaign. Snooping on the web, it appears this was a "paid-for" spoof. But how succesful could it be when the code to go viral won't work (I can't embed it!) When I've seen the MW ads on TV, I always thought "Bravo McGarry Bowen for taking the unexpected route to mayo advertising." But when ads get spoofed by comedians, it can be dangerous--even when it's pay-to-play. Remember all the Letterman spoofs on the old Beatrice campaign from the 1980s? I never tell anyone I was involved from a very junior distance on that one.

Anyway, I wondered if Colbert's staff writer, Laura Krafft, had anything to do with writing the send-up. Laura & I worked at Grant Jacoby way back in the late '80s. She left GJ to go on to Second City, Colbert and Emmy awards. Alas, Laura could not have written the segment. She left Colbert last year and is acting and freelance writing. (she was wearing funky glasses before Tina Fey!)

The new "word of the year"

By now, you may have read that the Oxford Dictionary has selected "unfriend" as the word of the year. The choice was made for it's "lex potential," and cultural currency. But a google image search on the word reveals--nada--nothing pops up! You're probably wondering, "what does this old pix of two old guys have to do with the word of the year?" Read on...

Christine Lindberg, Senior Lexicographer for Oxford said unfriend makes "an interesting choice for Word of the Year. Most “un-” prefixed words are adjectives (unacceptable, unpleasant), and there are certainly some familiar “un-” verbs (uncap, unpack), but “unfriend” is different from the norm. It assumes a verb sense of “friend” that is really not used (at least not since maybe the 17th century!).” There is now a debate raging among social networks whether the word "defriend" may have been the better choice.

For me, there is a runner-up word that I would have preferred to see win: deleb. As in dead celebs. Something that captured our culture voraciously this past summer with so many high profile passings.

Forbes just composed a list of the highest earning delebs over the past 12 months. If you search the word or image for "deleb," very little currently pops up. This is a word I think will continue to seed itself into culture. I would have never guessed in a gazillion years that two Broadway guys would rank #2 on the high rollers deleb list recently compiled by Forbes. As the iconic Broadway composers in the pix, Rodgers & Hammerstein, would sing, "Impossible. Things are happening everyday."

Yves Saint Laurent – $350 million
Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein – $235 million (combined)
Michael Jackson – $90m
Elvis Presley – $55m
J.R.R. Tolkien – $50m
Charles Schulz – $35m
John Lennon – $15m
Dr Seuss (Theodor Geisel) – $15m
Albert Einstein – $10m
Michael Crichton – $9m
Jimi Hendrix – $8m
Aaron Spelling – $8m
Andy Warhol – $6m

Re-Branding America:an Irishman's Perspective

"We will support the Millennium Development Goals, and approach next year’s summit with a global plan to make them a reality. And we will set our sights on the eradication of extreme poverty in our time.”

These are words that President Obama spoke at the United Nations last month. They inspired Bono to write an op-ed in last Saturday's NYTimes:

"these 36 words are why I believe Mr. Obama could well be a force for peace and prosperity — if the words signal action. "

Bono's insight into our culture is interesting as he cites our fatigue and malaise with the recession and wars. Interesting, the opinion that American can no longer afford to "pay" for the rest of the world, and"our bucks stop here" was voiced by Alec Baldwin on the Bill Mahr show last Friday. I'm amazed how artists are often first to give voice to a growing sentiment. Sometimes, their thoughts and art seem prescient.

Bono goes on to write that America needs to be rebranded, and that he believes Obama and the people who he has surrounded himself are trying to do just that.

"But an America that’s tired of being the world’s policeman, and is too pinched to be the world’s philanthropist, could still be the world’s partner. And you can’t do that without being, well, loved. Here come the letters to the editor, but let me just say it: Americans are like singers — we just a little bit, kind of like to be loved. The British want to be admired; the Russians, feared; the French, envied. (The Irish, we just want to be listened to.) But the idea of America, from the very start, was supposed to be contagious enough to sweep up and enthrall the world. And it is. The world wants to believe in America again because the world needs to believe in America again. We need your ideas — your idea — at a time when the rest of the world is running out of them."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/opinion/18bono

The New Century: The One That Crept Up on Us

I just discovered the musings of David Kamp of Vanity Fair and his provocative article, "The Summer of Death." Kamp asks why we became so involved in the passings of so many iconic figures this past summer. From Ted Kennedy and Walter Cronkite to Michael and Farrah, these were deaths that resonated beyond the mere People magazine cover. Kamp believes they were culturally signficant living links to past glories. The glories of the 20th century. Their passings are a wake-up call for us that time has moved on, as these icons pass from collective memory to wikis to be searched decades later. One of my memorable moments of this past summer is the shock I saw on a client's face when he learned John Hughes death was a leading blog post. He hadn't heard Hughes had died, until I told the story as part of evidence of the trend toward nostalgia. (the client was out of the country when Hughes died).

Kamp raises a very good question: how did it get to be the end of the decade so fast?I'm startled when my favorite radio station has a Saturday morning flashback from 1995. Or seeing a picture of the New Years Eve party I threw in 1999. At first blink, that doesn't seem all that long ago...

Kamp goes on to say the days of big, "shared" cultural moments that united us as a culture are over. He goes on to write that the uncertainties of living in the year 2009 creates the feeling in us all that this new century is on shaky footing. Gore Vidal also riffed and raged about in this territory this past week as well. Vidal says this is the end of the American Century. And when the new Empire, China calls in their loans--that seals the deal. But Vidal thinks we'll be better country, a better people when that day transpires.

Gee. Conjures up wistful feelings and the lyrics of "Twentieth Century Boy." Or to come full circle, how 'bout "Going to the Chapel." The lady in the pix above singing into the mic was Ellie Greenwich, famous songwriter from the bygone Brill Building era of pop hits.

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2009/10/summer-of-death-200910