This is Your Baseball On Drugs

Minutes after Barry Bonds tied Hank Aaron's record of 755 home runs, this commercial from The Partnership for a Drug Free America aired.

Oh, the irony.

Product Placement Loops the Loop

Product placement has been all the rage for movies and television these days. That was until "Janet Jackson's left raisin shot that horse in the face." That's why Fox show The Loop takes product placement to new heights.

As funny as this is, it could become a reality. If the revolution won't be televised, product placement needs a new home. That means some brands might sell their souls to other brands in the form of product placement. It might even be successful.

In fact, the Stride Gum they mock in the show is a real product, and they're really promoting it through product placement. Like the man said, "There's a new whore in town, and she likes gum."

Rancher Dwayne Rides Again

Another Mighty Duck has been spotted.

A while back Goldberg the goalie was spotted hocking Castol. Well, now his cowboy companion, rancher Dwayne, is saddling up for Holiday Inn Express. The man atop "Crusher" is none other than Ty O'Neil, who played Dwayne Robertson in The Mighty Ducks 2 and 3 - even though they really should have stopped after the second one.

However, it's nice that Ty didn't stop after departing from the Ducks. But I hope he's not taking career advice from that rodeo clown.

Goldberg the Goalie Rides Again

While watching a commercial for Castrol GTX High-Mileage engine oil, I saw a familiar face peaking from a car window. It was a blast from my past - Goldberg the goalie.

For those not in the know, Greg Goldberg was the overweight and overly timid goalie from The Mighty Ducks, played by Shaun Weiss. Now he's the barely visible star of a engine oil commercial and I love it.

Honestly if I was casting this commercial and Goldberg walked in, he'd be hired on the spot. No questions asked. However, I think this is where I'm supposed to make some joke about former child stars. But I'll let Goldberg slide.

KFed Follows KFad Into Advertising

Brittney Spears' ex-husband and nickname encroacher Kevin Federline will star in a SuperBowl spot for Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.

The 30-spot parodies Federline's sugar-momma seperation woes by illustrating a fall from dancing in rap videos with hot women to working at a fast food joint. All this to hammer home the point that "Life comes at you fast." Speaking of hammer, Nationwide also used Fabio and M.C. Hammer in previous spots to convey the same message.

TM Advertising in Dallas, TX is the agency behind the spot, which Nationwide says shows Federline's sense of humor. I think Federline didn't want to be broke like the Hammer and needed money after the departure of "his baby momma."

The guy is all over my territory. First he Bogarts my nickname. Now he's all up in my advertising.

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.

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.

World Series Commercials

It's not exactly the World Series of advertising like the Superbowl, but the fall classic features some big brands rolled out new campaigns. Here are some of the noteworthy new spots.

Dodge Nitro:
The new spot for blocky-looking Nitro shows the behemoth SUV blowing some dude's hooptie sky-high. The tone and attitude in the commercial are reminiscent of the ads for the Dodge Caliber. Snarky and in your face. Overall, it's pretty funny, but the vehicle is pretty funny looking so the jury is still out.

US Postal Service:
I can't remember a TV campaign from the USPS since a gentleman named Lance Armstrong went postal in France seven times in a row. The new spot shows a conversation between a package headed for Japan and a lamp, which was coincidentally made in Japan. They chat, make nice and also make you laugh.

CitiBank:
After years of success with their identity theft commercials, Citibank turns to a guy who acts like Borat's older and more toned-down cousin to promote its rewards points. Along with Victor, his little Napoleon Dynamite friend, he goes to outrageous lengths to show you how Citibank is "Rewarding. Very, very, very rewarding." It's a little odd, but it's not exactly an offer out of left field.

Advertising Like No Other

I should be in bed. Instead, I'm here at the computer so I could see the new Sony Bravia commercial right when it came out. I'm totally geeking out right now.

So after all the anticipation and excitement, I finally saw the new spot. Just like the movies, the sequel wasn't as good as the original. Don't get me wrong. It was good, but the original was fantastic.

Regardless, those darn fools from Wieden + Kennedy, London and Sony did a great job with the spot and its promotion. They hyped it up and got idiots like me to stay up and watch it - and there must have been many others watching because the download moved at dial-up speed.

Just go watch the spot; it's worth your time. As for me, it's bed time.

Jousting on the Construction Site

Saw this commercial, entitled "Joust", for Stanley's Fat Max Tape Measure during the weekend's playoff baseball games. It's absolutely phenomenal. It shows the benefit, even if it is way over the top, and I'm sure Stanley loves that the product was the hero.

Good for Stanley and Mullen for putting the commercial on the Web site. Any commercial your company feels is good enough to air on TV, should also be on your Web site. It's inexcusable to not provide eager consumers with the branded content they want. They actually want to watch your commercial. Most people watching TV don't want to see your spot. Take a lesson from the Stanley, not to mention the Snapalope, and give the content to the people!

Brand: Stanley
Spot Title: "Joust"
Agency: Mullen
Chief Creative Officer: Edward Boches
Group CDs: Jim Hagar, Jason Stinsmuehlen
Art Director: Bob Gates
Copywriter: Jeff Baxter

13-Year Old Playboys Resort to Identity Theft

The new commercial for the video game Test Drive Unlimited bears striking resemblance to the Citi Bank identity theft commercials, which have been running since 2004.

The Citi Bank commercials are phenomenal. They are all nice executions of a great idea. So when another commercial uses the exact same idea with a similar execution and inserts their brand instead, it's bad news.

I know there are no new ideas in advertising. But you can't make a carbon copy of another ad and slap your logo on it. Acceptable ad recycling happens, but it comes in the form of taking bits and pieces from several ads and executing them with a new twist. Not being the guy who blatantly steals someone else's ideas.

So don't be that guy, or some twenty-something punk from Kansas might take a swipe at your commercial next. "Shoot." "Yeah, shoot."

DLP Believes In Elephants

It's a well-known fact that elephants make advertising better. DLP also knows this. That's why their new commercial, entitled "Believe," appears to feature an elephant for no apparent reason. J. Walter Thompson, San Francisco did the spot and must have let DLP in on the elephant thing.

With this commercial, DLP adds their name to the long and distinguished list of pachyderm lovers. GE loves tap dancin' elephants, Bombay Sapphire loves nimble elephants, Skippy peanut butter loves rappin' elephants and TheGlobalFund.org loves elephants in any room.

All these creative use of elephants make using an elephant to promote a Zoo seem so cliché.

"Let's All Discover" a Good Commercial

The Discovery Channel has made a huge resurgence with original programming, a big advertising push, and sponsoring the cycling team of seven-time Tour de France champion, Lance Armstrong. Original shows like American Chopper, Dirty Jobs, Myth Busters, and Deadliest Catch have transformed the network from science class to a satisfaction for curiosity.

Discovery's "Let's all discover" campaign supports and reinforces this transformation. The brilliant tagline, which truly captures what the channel is all about, comes from TM.

Schick Quatro "Off the Hizzy"

It seems like everyone wants to have a kooky, scientist guy in a lab coat use quirky pop-culture phrases to move product. The latest television spot to employ this tactic proclaims the Schick Quatro razor to be, "off the hizzy."

These findings come from what can only be considered factual and unbiased research from the Schick Shave Lab. You can see the commercial and Dr. Smooth on the site under "the studies."

Campbell's Chunky Soup Brings in 'Hungry Boys'

Just caught the new Campbell's Chunky Soup spot, "Hungry Boys," which features several Pittsburgh Steelers. Steelers' quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, was supposed to star in the commercial but a motorcycle accident hospitalized him days before the shoot.

Campbell's instead brought in Roethlisberger's Steelers teammates Jeff Hartings, Max Starks, Kendall Simmons, James Farrior, Marvel Smith, Charlie Batch, Casey Hampton and Chukky Okobi, along with Steelers "Team Mom" Elleanor Starks.

Roddick Battles Pong, Maria Feels Pretty

It's US Open time, and several advertisers have capitalized on the opportunity to fill the airwaves with some tennis themed spots.

American Express came out with a clever spot that pits Andy Roddick against pong. The campaign is nicely integrated with an online pong-like game and gets extra points for being old school.

Nike and Wieden + Kennedy also rolled out a new spot featuring Maria Sharapova. As Maria heads for her match with a scowl on her face, everyone she meets serenades her "I feel pretty" from West Side Story. She silences the tune by hammering home a winner with the typical monster tennis grunt. This spot is also integrated online with a nice mini-site and has been heavily advertised on ESPN.com.

Conan O'Brien Crunes TV's Woes at Emmys

Last night, Conan O'Brien hosted the Emmy Awards and kicked it off with a song and dance number. The tune was a parody of "Trouble" from the Music Man, which was rewritten to highlight television's declining ratings and viewership.

Although Conan's litle ditty didn't mention declining ad revenue, it did mention TiVo users skipping commercials and kids watching YouTube instead of television.

When the awards show celebrating the best in television leads off with a song blasting the medium, you know that the 30-second spot isn't what it used to be. Back east in Connecticut, Joseph Jaffe just did a little fist pump.

Good Morning America Features YouTube Videos

ABC has struck a deal with YouTube to feature popular videos on Good Morning America every Wednesday. GMA, as people who actually watch the show call it, started the partnership earlier in August. Yesterday, they featured Smirnoff's Tea Partay, which might have been the greatest thing ever had they actually made the Web site the video references.

Once again, viral videos made by advertisers now have an outlet to get some airtime on national TV. It's nice to see a network show some love to user created content instead of hate on it, like NBC. Funny how they ask YouTube to pull their Saturday Night Live videos off the site, then partnered with YouTube to make a NBC branded channel.

Travel Channel Sells Shows On iTunes

Back in late May, the Discovery Channel announced that its networks would begin selling their shows on iTunes for $1.99 a pop.

Three months later, the Travel Channel is finally following through. The Travel Channel has offered podcasts for some time, but they are just now actively promoting their shows on iTunes with TV commercials. The only two shows they are currently selling are Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Passport to Europe with Samantha Brown.

Get Your Whiplash the Monkey Swag

Apparently that "Little Monkey Dude" from the Taco John's commercials is quite the star. He's better known as Whiplash, and surprisingly, he's almost as old as me. But unlike myself, Whiplash has corporate sponsors and his own branded merchandise.

In case you were wondering, Minneapolis-based Kerker created the Whiplash TV spots for Taco Johns.