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Comment on Playing Tag by Catherine Louise

Catherine Louise — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:44:32 +0000

I can’t argue with any of your “worsts” – Pontiac’s pulverization of Plato being the most rankling to me. For companies other than car makers, check out Seagate’s “Your On”? (Yes, spelled just like that.)

And as for haunted, how about United Airlines pre-9/11: “Fly the friendly skies”?

Comment on Out of the Woods by Dave J.

Dave J. — Wed, 05 May 2010 03:22:54 +0000

You can say whatever about the ad, the situation, a fs Tiger. But it gets Nike past a tight spot in their communications. If they were going to keep Tiger, they had to do something, they couldn’t ignore the elephant in the room.

Later the brand will be remembered for its loyalty, and the uncomfortableness will be forgotten. How many movies have we seen with the fallen star whom everyone dumps? I give kudos to Nike for doing the right thing, if poorly executed.

Comment on Out of the Woods by esther buchsbaum

esther buchsbaum — Mon, 03 May 2010 15:30:11 +0000

Tiger…. I HATE Tiger – I hated the ad – I found it disturbing – creepy and insulting quite frankly – how dare they think I would/could fall for that BS was my first thought – I hated Tiger even more at this point! Now…the bad news…the fact that this creative (I use the term loosely) would result, was completely predictable. Nike has more resources than running shoes! They probably spend trillions of dollars on all kinds of research – but all it is actually is a pile of common sense and some basic instinct relative to human nature. The masses were sure to buy in! Men would go “WOW” what a guy I wanna be more like him and women would begin to “feel” the remorse and think “gee maybe he’s not such a bad guy and he was so close to his Dad and all, that maybe his death pushed him over the edge…” blah blah blah – the same excuses and emotional traps women tend to fall into. They played on human emotion and biology and it worked! Men will continue to buy sports equipment and female sales probably went up. Makes me sick but it is what it is. Nike knew exactly what they were doing – the creative was anything but original, but it was tried and true. So for the little push back they received the good FAR outweighed the bad – my humble opinion!

Comment on Info on Infographics by admin

admin — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 19:12:55 +0000

Ah, but if they had only taken the train. The classic in your link show’s Charles Minard’s tracking of Napoleon’s 1812 Russian campaign. Prepared in 1869, it shows the losses in men, their movements, and the frigid temperatures they endured in their ill-fated march to Moscow. Like the campaign itself, this illustration worked better in the mind than on paper.

Comment on Info on Infographics by Dave J.

Dave J. — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 16:53:52 +0000

I love the magazine Wired for their infographics, or ‘infoporn’, as they call it. A quality graph also shows the cleverness of the presenter, as if they had solved a crossword puzzle.

But I also love a train-wreck. I can’t remember who (a professor, I think), but someone once showed me this chart as an example what NOT to do:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Minard.png

Comment on American Idol? by Dave J.

Dave J. — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:18:36 +0000

Well, thanks for taking on this case and putting a light on the darker corners of the room.

The whining and frustration of Mr. X is soo tempting to excuse, and even side with. Many on the web did.

As managers, we need to be prepared to take the pragmatic and less popular position…and make it our own. Your walk thru certainly helps.

Comment on All Cranked Up by admin

admin — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:51:15 +0000

Jujubes? This guy continues to impress me.

Comment on All Cranked Up by Wayne Turmel

Wayne Turmel — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:21:20 +0000

Thanks for the kind words about the show. I, too, found myself casting back over my career in my interview with Aubrey. We’ve all been asked to be good soldiers and march in directions we knew weren’t constructive. It’s all part of the joy of middle management. By the way, as much as I love Twizzlers, they are a close second to my true drug of choice, jujubes. Don’t let the weasels get you down.

Comment on Points of View by View From The Corner Office » » Houston, We Have a Problem!

View From The Corner Office » » Houston, We Have a Problem! — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:33:25 +0000

[...] but made it impossible to figure out what that demographic was. Also impossible to figure out was Saturn’s value proposition, which changed as the Division tried to go mainstream. Meanwhile, in a [...]

Comment on Where Ideas Go to Die: Five Ways to Kill a Good Idea by Solomon

Solomon — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:22:34 +0000

Hi Murray,
Great insights here!

When the topics ” How ideas die”
was taken up, the agency politics got into my mind in the first instance.

Here, you’ve noted very valid points to make a good ideas work: backed by correct data, a supportive colleague and a good presentation.

Even before we present the ideas to clients, some of the ideas die a silent death at the discussions in the internal debates.

The creative directors (here again… there are geographically specific problems which I’m trying to refer)role in deciding the ideas worth.

Should the process be transparant and democratic, or how it should be?

Solomon