Profiles in Client Courage: Dos Equis

Haru Sasaki, who read our post about Tony Sinclair, alerted us to a fictional spokesperson who absolutely rocks. That would be The Most Interesting Man in the World, spokesperson for that very fine Mexican beer, Dos Equis. His signature line?
“I don’t always drink beer. But when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.”
That’s a line that [...]

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Let’s Hear From the Clients Out There

Hey, there, Clients.
Are you thrilled with your current agency or agencies? Or do you have the sense that something’s missing? What are you looking for that you’re NOT getting right now?
The marketing world is in rampant change. Are agencies out leading the way or lagging far behind?
Go ahead and let ‘er rip – you can [...]

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Shallow End, Deep End

Are you shallow?
Didn’t think so. So how come so many brands are content to be shallow?
For instance, Tanqueray’s current fictional spokesperson, Tony Sinclair.

At first glance you think he’s a smart embodiment of the cocktail culture that reveres a good gin. Uh, nope. Watch his commercials, go to “his” web site, and [...]

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Our Friends at TriMet Win an Award

We salute TriMet for their recent ADWheel Award 1st place for the WES collateral piece we created together. The ADWheel Awards are given by the American Public Transportation Association, and the award show will be held in San Diego this year.
We love it when our clients win an award within their industry, because it means [...]

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Mr. Kawasaki’s Cool Idea

Under the category of constant inspiration I have filed the name Guy Kawasaki. His most recent brilliant idea is Alltop, a site that aggregates other sites and blogs and sorts them by topic and then gives you the most recent entries for those sites.
Here’s how Alltop explains it in their FAQ:
We import the stories of [...]

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Oh, Man, Not Another Fable

Yeah, looks like.
Once upon a time there was a smart young prince named Palm and he invented the most wonderful magical devices, things that no mortal had ever seen before. He even invented Treo, essentially the first smart phone, which all his subjects loved. But a wicked witch cast a spell on him and caused [...]

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You Gotta Serve

Chrysler won’t have a fuel-efficient car till 2010. Unless maybe they have Nissan build one for them.
GM is scrambling to shake off its truck addiction. So is Ford. The big three are desperately scrambling to be relevant – and, quite possibly, to survive.
Scrambling to do what Toyota and Honda have been doing for years, which [...]

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Building a Brand vs. Wearing a Mask?

While watching the Beijing Olympics this weekend I saw one of the newest adverts from United Airlines, “Two Worlds,” which lives within the family of TV spots they’ve been making for the past 2-3 years now. Perhaps you have seen it; the visual style is certainly memorable.

This whole series United has [...]

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The Cowardly Lions

Interesting.
The latest issue of Creativity magazine, published by Advertising Age, is their annual awards show issue. It’s a summary of the major award shows, who won which, and then a tally of awards by agency and creative director.
Kind of silly, frankly. Not that I’m against awards–I love it when we win them. I just [...]

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What’s the difference between invention and a lie?

Spirit Mountain Casino’s Buck and Simon

Here’s a perfect example of the old approach to branding – the failed, broken model we’re all trying to avoid. It’s the fabrication of a “brand image” designed to attract customers, much the way bait attracts coyotes into a trap. And it has nothing to do with the truth of [...]

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