Guilty Pleasure: Art of the Title

Art of the Title is the most thorough (as far as I know) high quality online catalogue of one of our most underrated art forms: The Movie Titles. Check out titles from Vertigo to Alien to Iron Man and more.

The movie titles try to make do in the difficult space between what you really want (the movie) and the penance of reading the names of the behind-the-scenes players. Over time designers have evolved its purpose to explain the movie's essence and sell you what you're gonna get for the next 2 hours, while quickly getting the hell out of the way of the show.

Give a round of applause to these real american heroes, the movie title makers.

Asterisk Advertising

Consumerist notes amusing "Badvertising" such as this slightly misleading sandwich board in LA. I'd say this is a fitting metaphor for our ongoing deteriorating relationship with people: the ubiquitous "*" and "small print" to lure in the sheep only fuels escalated Hactivism (financial service brands and auto dealerships take note).

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Another one to grow on from a Consumerist reader. Funny how ad lies incite passion and inspires people to recall "a similar experience when..."


If anybody has other example photos, send links, I could use them for an upcoming deck.

Black Sheep of Advertising: P.T. Barnum

Ad for P.T. Barnum circus, 1879 (click to enlarge).

From "Twenty Ads That Shook The World" by James B Twitchell:

"Today, we use the term hype. In the nineteenth century it was called humbug. Humbug was part of a new lexicon that included words like hoopla, ballyhoo, bunkum, flimflam, claptrap, and codswallop. These were the new words to describe a new form of uniquely American entertainment: the media-made confected event, high on promise, low on delivery, and probably costing something. As the actress Tallulah Bankhead once remarked after a rather disappointing but much-hyped evening at the theater, "There is less in this than meets the eye." This was exactly the kind of media-made event that P.T. Barnum first mastered."

Black Sheep of Advertising: BluBlockers/Joe Sugarman

"In 1971, Joe left an ad agency to form a company in the basement of his home to market the world's first pocket calculator via mail order. He soon became America's largest single source of electronic space-age products. In the late 1980s, someone loaned him a pair of sunglasses which blocked out blue light and ultraviolet rays. The concept was not new; it had been around for 50 years, but was used by less than 1 percent of the market."

And the rest, as they say, is history. Joe saw an opportunity and named the product, BluBlockers.

Direct marketing was his forte (check out his copywriting books), and because he felt he needed a bit of time to tell the brand story, he helped pioneer the 30-minute infomercial on cable TV. BluBlockers were wildly successful for years and in 2006, Dr. Geek helped rekindle the flame:


Suck to Success is a process. As Joe says, “I failed at practically everything I tried, but I never gave up. I just knew that one of these days I’d make it if I just hung in there...The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity."

Black Sheep of Advertising: Ronco/Ron Popeil

"But wait, there's more!"

How did Ron Popeil build an empire on the kind of advertising that, technically, defies every single rule of "good" advertising? Well, that's just it...you're concerned about finesse and refinement!

The key rule he disregards is "less is more"...in fact, for Ronco, "More Is More". And more is good. These spots are dense with so much information and stimulation for the brain, they just never end.

Secret Sauce Revealed: Ronco taps into American propensity for MORE, excess, the unbeatable bargain. Look at it this way-we don't care that the BK Stacker is sub-par dining, we only care that there is 3 honkin' layers of meat, cheese, onions and mayo, and 2-for-1, too, plus a side o' fries for only .25? Oooooweee, I'll take 2 orders!

Ronco is offering more than the cheezy gadget, he's offering unbridled abundances, all-you-can-eat, 5-in-one, all for the low-low price of next-to-nothing!

Ginzu Knife II


Ginzu Knife I


Mr Microphone


Armourcote II

Black Sheep of Advertising: Mentos, the Freshmaker

Secret Sauce Revealed: Repitition breeds comfort, protagonist "conflict" to overcome against 'the man'...the final frame is a subliminal "Fuck you" and middle finger to those who hate on a playa. Just brushin' that dirt off my shoulder.

And don't forget these spots are universal use for any country, any language. Can't knock that hustle.

Suck to success.

Black Sheep of Advertising: Ch-ch-ch-Chia Pet

Ch-ch-ch-Chia!

Black Sheep of Advertising: Head On

"Apply Directly to the Forehead!"HeadOn is logging some heady growth rates -- 234% from 2005 to 2006. And for the first half of 2007, the brand looks to be on track to double sales. HeadOn ranks No. 9 in the external-analgesics-rubs category and logged $6.5 million in sales last year, up from just $1.9 million in 2005, according to Information Resources Inc. That's not including Wal-Mart, who is "one of our biggest customers" said Dan Charron, VP-sales and marketing at Miralus Healthcare, the marketer of the headache remedy.







Miralus' ActivOn, for joint pain, launched in 2006, has leapfrogged past HeadOn, topping out at $5.5 million in sales and jumping to the No. 6 spot in the $278 million external-analgesic-rubs category. Within that category, Head-On is stealing share from such brands as Icy Hot, which was up just 4.4% in 2006; Bengay, which was down 2.5% last year; and Aspercreme, down 12.6% in 2006.

Black Sheep of Advertising: Tom Vu

Another entry in my series on advertising's classic "suck to success" stories (as Seth has termed it).

Tom Vu ruled the late night infomercials in the early 90's by selling secrets of real estate fortunes from aboard his yacht, in his stately mansion, luxury cars, while surrounded by gorgeous bikini-clad babes.

Secret Sauce Revealed: This was a Diddy video for the real estate set (the original "Tea Partay"!) And with this simple set-up, Tom Vu embodied the immigrant-up-from-poverty, rags-to-riches American Dream. But note Tom's clever exploitation of unmentionable American fears of immigrant success. His schoolyard taunts from his yacht are intentional and directed square at the middle masses, and most advertisers wouldn't even dare go there. Frankly, I can't hate on a dude getting paid off of deep-seated prejudices of foreign invaders hacking our American system, and getting richer than us.



Classic quotes from Tom:

"Are you man enough to get off your lazy American ass and go to Vu’s seminars?"

"A lot of your friends will tell you, 'Don't come to the seminar. It's a get-rich-quick plan.' Well, tell them, It is a get-rich-quick plan because life is too short to get rich slow."

"There's two kinds of work in America: hard work and smart work. Which one are you doing now?"

"This is not a country club! This is my house!"

"Today I'm gonna show you how to drive a sports car. First, you need a lot of money!"

"Don't listen to your friends. They're losers!"

"Do you think these girls like me? NO, they like my money!"



Tom Vu often told the story of how "three little words" inspired him to achieve his success. The 3 words were revealed only after you paid for and attended a day's seminar. Those 3 magic words were: "Don't Give Up". Pearls of wisdom, indeed.

Black Sheep of Advertising: SalesGenie.com

Figured I'd take Seth and my discussions public and take a look at Salesgenie.com post-Superbowl.



I quote from USA Today (who ranked Salesgenie.com's SuperBowl ad dead last creatively):

"The sales-lead website generated more than 10,000 new customer subscriptions by late Monday, far more than the 700 it said it needed to break even on its ad cost. "Our ad wasn't supposed to be funny or clever," InfoUSA CEO Vin Gupta says. "It was supposed to bring in subscribers, and it's been successful beyond our wildest dreams. We're already working on next year's ad."

It ain't exactly a pillar of creativity...but one has to ask: "well, didn't it work?". And if it worked, well, to again quote that statesman Bishop Don "Magic" Juan, "Don't hate, congratulate."

I do agree with Seth, though, that surely there is a CHEAPER MEANS TO GET THESE SAME RESULTS...AFTERALL, SALESGENIE SUPPOSEDLY CHAMPIONS SMART AUDIENCE TARGETING. "I don't work hard. I work smart," proclaims Pierce so smugly.

A true Black Sheep of Advertising, such as Ron Popeil, champions THRIFT ABOVE ALL ELSE. Black Sheep Orthodoxy typically endorses anti-advertising in lieu of more POP, or economy/weakened judgement effects of late-nite media flights, or :10-only buys, cluster flights of 2 or 3 :10 or :15 TV ads ganged up to pummel the senses and/or co-promote multiple products, strong mnemonic jingles and repetition (ie "you bet your sweet Aspercreme!"), or just plain smarter audience targeting with their media money.

It is somewhat ironic that SalesGenie didn't get their 10K subscribers more smartly than with this very mass blast at America during SuperBowl.

On an unrelated note...I've been working on a SuperBowl assessment and some of you may find the following figures interesting for SalesGenie.com:

SalesGenie.com Suprbowl XLI AftrBuzz
Social Media Metrix
v.Tue13Feb/4:40pm CST


Topline Highlights
Total Social Media =655,236 Views @ YouTube+MySpace+iFilm

@ YouTube
:30 Spot =224,023 Views @ YouTube
@ MySpace
:30 Spot =343,847 Views @ MySpace
@ iFilm
:30 Spot = 87,361 Page Views @ iFilm





Some of the online sentiment included: Fervent disapproval, Violated, Not relevant, Disengaged...

To quote a few respondents...
"Biggest piece of shit commercial ever.”
"Douche-baggery”
"umm... that was crap”
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…DELETE THAT BULL"
"i want my 30 seconds back..."
“poor"
”suckness
"positive side to this commercial? gives you time to run to the bathroom"

Of course, SalesGenie would say phooey to this mass sentiment...afterall, the 10,000 marks he needed were engaged enough to activate whether you liked it or not.

Black Sheep of Advertising: Lowermybills.com

Perhaps it is my checkered past and tough upbringing in the mean streets of schlocky advertising, but I am
just as fascinated by the lords of bad advertising, the black sheep like Ronco, Tom Vu, Girls Gone Wild and Head On who keep our economy going with their school-of-hard-knocks theories that, frankly, can be hard to refute at times.

NYTimes speaks to those shameless, but seemingly profitable guys at lowermybills.com (don't act like you don't know...those online banner ads with the hypnotizing dancing silhouettes).

The company, one of the Internet’s biggest advertisers, routinely festoons Web sites large and small with its ads, spending $74.6 million on them in the first 11 months of 2006, according to TNS Media Intelligence. The surprising success of the ads led LowerMyBills to a significant payday: the credit agency Experian bought the eight-year-old company for $400 million in 2005.

Internet companies like LowerMyBills are called lead generators because they take loan applications filled out by customers who click the ads and give them to actual lenders like Citibank, which pay them for the referrals. The company’s success hinges on buying lots of low-cost ad space on Web sites and then persuading users to click.

Matt R. Coffin, the co-founder and chief executive of LowerMyBills, said the company’s ad campaign represented a return to traditional advertising principles rather than an embrace of the latest conventional wisdom.

“Building a brand is often about being different, and we are always looking for new and innovative ways to attract the attention of consumers interested in lowering their bills,” he said.

When asked about what the ads have to do with home equity loans or debt consolidation, Mr. Coffin said: “Our view is that people are crazy about saving money, and when they do save money they are very happy.”

And there you have it. Simple creative brief if I ever heard one.

Jennifer Uhll, graphic designer and creator of the campaigns said her online advertisements for financial companies, including ones she created before and after she worked for LowerMyBills, typically earn around $4 in lender referral fees for each dollar spent on the ad. The average for most lead-generation companies is less than $2 earned for each dollar spent on Web ads.

Timothy Hanlon, a senior vice president at the Starcom MediaVest Group, a media communications firm, called the company a “bottom feeder,” but he added: “The last time I checked, advertising was designed to draw people’s attention. On that level, LowerMyBills succeeds with a gold star.”


An archive at Adverlicio.us logs the creative executions (surely these are going in your next presentation decks).
And a blog that (wtf?) tracks their creative executions, too!

As that great American poet, pimp and statesman Bishop Don "Magic" Juan states, "don't hate the player, hate the game."


via MIT AdLab and NYTimes