I opened the New York Times online and found the headline Switch to Ethanol Based Fuel Causing Outages. And just below is a GM livegreen, goyellow "we love ethanol" ad. Oops.
April 21, 2006
November 05, 2005
Hurry oops!
The December 2005 Road & Track (just arrived) has a two page four color Seiko ad. On the right is the standard one pager you would expect to see in GQ or Fortune or Time. Facing is a page promoting Seiko's partnership (Team Watch Partner) with BAR Honda F1. It includes a profile of BAR Honda driver Takuma Sato. The same Takuma Sato that left BAR Honda at the end of September. A lesson in the risk of long lead time print ads.
And now a lesson in why it is important to use an ad agency (and copywriter) familiar with your product and market. From the ad:
"B.A.R. Honda 007 is the team's current car, based on a carbon fiber and honeycomb composite structure with wishbone suspensions that feature pushrod-activated torsion sprin howa shocks."
Torsion sprin howa shocks indeed.
October 31, 2005
VW Micro Ads
Volkswagen has released 120 video ads into the wild. These are to real advertisements as a VW Micro Bus is to a GMC New Look/Fishbowl city bus. But in typical VW style, they're ... irreverant.
Next Saturday, when 300 channels of cable aren't enough and you don't feel like driving to Blockbuster and BitTorrent seems like too much work, surf over to vw.com/passat and click on "Launch the Minisite" then "View the feature films."
August 26, 2005
Auto art
From the Johnsonese Gallery in Chicago (second item):
"Fletcher Jones Imports is celebrating the opening of its new Infiniti dealership in River North. As part of the celebration, the Johnsonese Gallery has curated a contemporary art exhibit titled "Auto Motion" at the dealership.
"Auto Motion features four artists whose work exhibits as much excitement as the stylish cars on the showroom floor.
This Infinity isn't your daddy's Datsun any more. Great promotion.
April 26, 2005
Great ads
April 18, 2005 New Yorker ad for Mini.
Headline: Let's always be open.
Graphic: Rear shot of Mini Cooper S Convertible with two bumper stickers:
o He who dies with the most toys wins!!
o What would Ghandi do?
Just because you're successful in two different markets doesn't mean you're schizophrenic. But it helps.
Or not.
