Bored 'Boards

On my way to and from my family's Thanksgiving festivities in St. Louis, I had the opportunity to see hundreds of billboards along I-70. Sadly, most of the billboards are very bad.

However, there were two 'boards that caught my eye - not because they had a great message, but because they were from the Department of Student Life at the University of Missouri. KU and K-State have sports ticket sales billboards plastered along I-70, but I've never seen any advertising from a Department of Student Life.

The billboards were located on either side of Columbia and asked a simple question, "Bored?" and referred students to an online calendar of events in Columbia. So, anyone up for Stitch & Bitch tonight?

Barkely Makes Ad Age's Spots of the Week

The Kansas City advertising agency who brought you the Sonic Guys is getting more press for its work.

Those rocket men from Barkley cracked Advertising Age's spots of the week last week with a spot for Cellular One. The spot is called "Elf Ears for Phone Talk" and features some non-traditional plastic surgery.

YouTube Increases CBS Late Show Ratings

Yesterday, CBS put out a press release heralding the success of the CBS Brand Channel on YouTube. The channel is one of the most viewed and CBS attributes on-air ratings increases to the YouTube channel. It reports that ratings for the "Late Show with David Letterman" are up 5% and ratings for "The Late Show with Craig Ferguson" are up 7%.

The only thing more unexpected and exciting than the ratings increases is a national TV powerhouse vying to be the most-viewed channel on YouTube. Perhaps the traditional media are figuring out they must adapt to survive. Good for CBS for getting it, although it probably helps that their most-viewed clip is called "cat fight."

Great Work for Boring Clients

Some of my favorite commercials are for clients and products most agencies won't touch. The great Bob Barrie said, "Do great work for boring clients." So in that spirit, here are some great ads for clients who don't shill beer, cars or use sex to sell themselves.

Aflac - The Duck
Before this campaign no one knew what Aflac was what it did. The Kaplan Thaler Group changed that with one loud-mouthed central-continuity character. The Aflac name also became the product's identification as Kleenex, Chapstick and BandAids did in their fields. Highlights include, "Silent Movie" and "Berra at the Barber."

Rozerem - Your Dreams Miss You
OK, so using Abraham Lincoln, a gopher and an astronaut is a weird way to remind you that "when you can't sleep, you can't dream." Regardless, it's the best commercial for a prescription drug I've ever seen and it illustrates the point without a middle-aged man throwing a football through a tire.

Liberty Mutual - Responsibility: What's you policy?
This spot shows how a good deed comes full circle. It takes a while to get to the pay off, but it's beautifully phrased. "When it's people who do the right thing, they call it being responsible. When it's an insurance company, they call it Liberty Mutual." I call that a darn good commercial.

Smell-vertising in San Francisco

Apparently olfactory advertising is all the rage these days. There's been much ado about Kraft Foods' scratch-and-sniff ads in People magazine and now, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners is testing scent-sensations at bus stops in San Francisco. Goodby will place chocolate-chip cookie scented strips in bus stops as part of the "Got Milk" campaign.

I'd trademark the phrase "Smell-vertising" as the boys over at American Copywriter tend to do, but I think someone beat me to it.

KC Coffee Morning Part II: Electric Boogaloo

A who's who of Kansas City ad bloggers assembled this morning at Coffee Girls for a second round of caffeine and conversation. I know, if the group was so elite how did I get there? If you missed out, here's everything you need to know.

The roll call featured everyone's favorite Brazilian art director, Sethy G, JJ of American Copywriter fame, Andrew Purviance and Steve Hall's favorite blogger, Ariel.

The conversation mainly focused on important advertising topics including two Brittney Spears references, too many 80's music mentions to count and the best corporate karaoke session ever, which apparently has drawn the ire of U2's lawyers. Russel Davies was on to something when he thought this one up.

Back to Business

KFADvertising is feeling a little lonely lately. I keep getting voicemails saying, "You never return my calls" and text messages asking, "Are you avoiding me?"

Well, the blog has been neglected because in the immortal words of Crash Davis, "We're dealing with a lot of shit." But I got my eyelids unjammed and finally procured a live rooster to lift the hex - so I should be back in action soon.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, this would be a good place to start.

Remember, Remember the 5th of November?

Warner Brothers created an advergame to promote the DVD release of V For Vendetta on October 19 in France. You'd think they would have waited two weeks to release the movie on a date that was incredibly important to the movie. Remember, remember the fifth of November?

They missed a great opportunity to go on the offensive with a cool guerrilla and ambient campaign that promoted the movie. Well, at least the French still have that whole retreating thing down pat.

Via: Adverblog