Sheila, The Laptop Hunter

I'm an admitted Apple fanboy, so I am preconditioned to hate these new Windows "Laptop Hunters" ads, but this one with "Sheila, the filmmaker" are particularly shitty:

While I would normally admire that they are trying to sell the product based on its actual strengths and not just have a bunch of fake hipster models using slang to talk about how Windows is 'da bomb', I don't this time because of two major problems.

Problem 1: Why would an alleged filmmaker be buying a laptop to make films on? She picks up the Macbook and says the line about it only having 2GB or RAM, like that is a laughable stat. Well, guess what, no respectable filmmaker would choose a laptop to be their main computer. I'm a graphic designer, which requires significantly less computing power than motion graphic programs require and even I know not to work solely on a laptop if I actually want good performance.

Problem 2: Why is Windows trying to sell laptops? Answer: because they are getting pretty scared of how well Apple is continuing to do, so they are throwing money at the problem, even if they aren't advertising their specific product. If they can effectively sell more HP laptops, they won't make any money from that sale (unless you count the fact that the user will undoubtedly eventually spend money on a Windows product), but neither will Apple. It is kind of like having an oil company spend money advertising SUVs. They aren't going to make money from the sale, but SUV drivers will spend a lot of money on gas, and, even better, they won't be buying an alternative fuel car, which is their real enemy right now. It is just kind of generally gross to spend money advertising someone else's product just to harm a competitor. Hey windows, why don't you spend that money trying to make a better product instead of just stealing everything Apple did with their last OS?

_arry _ott--

Background: I'm fairly neutral on the Harry Potter phenomenon. I haven't read the books, but my wife loves them, and whenever the movies come out, I check them out and think they are entertaining. Not awesome, but pretty good for what they are. If I were 12 years old, I'm pretty sure I would think they are awesome.

I have to give the powers-that-be behind Harry Potter some real credit for the posters and billboards for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Not just because they are nice looking, but because someone must have fought some serious battles to get these things out there. I can just hear the heated argument of some movie studio executive: "You can't even read the name of the movie! How do expect someone to see your movie when all you can read is "-arr- -otte"? And why doesn't every poster have Harry on it? He's the lead character!!!! People don't know who this blonde guy is! This is going to kill our box office numbers."

Additionally, a lot of times its seems like you see interesting teaser artwork like this on some movie blog, but you never see the really cool posters in the wild. For example, I only saw the posters for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button poster below on the left on the internet, while I saw the one below on the right in theaters. Apparently the studio felt that the backward type was a bit too much for the physical world. Anyway, kudos to you, Harry Potter people.

Refresh Everything

I know I'm not the first person to notice the unfortunate similarities between the new Pepsi ad campaign and Barack Obama's presidential campaign, but I feel compelled to weigh in on it. It is pretty obvious that it is an obvious imitation of the Obama campaign. Pepsi denies that any similarities are intentional, but come on, an all caps san serif HOPE with a red white and blue circular logo for the 'O'? You aren't fooling anyone.

The campaign is pretty lame all around. The logo itself is pretty bad. The different variations for regular Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, and Pepsi Max are supposed to represent a smile, a grin, and a full blown laugh, respectively. But why even have it relate to the old logo if you are going to change it so much? It kind of looks like they just ripped off their own logo. Although, I guess I have to give them a little credit for having the balls to go with something that feels so unbalanced, I also have to condemn them for going with a logo that is pretty uncomfortable to look at. I don't mind the new font they use for the word Pepsi, and it is kind of nice that they went all lowercase, but that smile thing seems like it probably worked a lot better in concept than in reality. Almost every time I see the logo I just see the high-priced ad agency in some conference room pitching it, and using words like 'hip' and 'urgan' and 'internet age' and 'viral marketing' and all of those other words that nobody in the those target demographics actually use, but everyone else think they use, and all of the executives sitting there just thinking it is great. I kind of don't want to know how much they spent on the facelift.

So why HOPE? What does Pepsi have to do with hope? Do I have hope that there really is a delicious beverage out there? I understand that these huge food and beverage companies need to come up with new slogans on a regular basis, but can you at least have it have something to do with what you are selling? Pepsi makes a drink. Shoot some pictures of "urban" people with afros and the latest fashion accessory, throw some semi-hip slogan on there (like "I'm Lovin' It"...because "I'm Loving It" wouldn't be urban enough) and call it a day. Don't try to make it seems like you are changing the world with your popular new black president (who has confirmed he is a Coca-Cola man, by the way). It's just lame.

The part that really makes me cringe is that in the bottom right of all of these ads is a little logo that kind of looks like a refresh button on a browser with the line "refresheverything.com". I can also see the ad agency getting to the 'refresh everything' powerpoint slide and being like "its a reference to the internet, all of those in the "blogosphere" are going to love it. I hesitated to even go to the website because I didn't want to give them another unique visitor, but I had to...kind of like how I end up seeing all of M. Night Shyamalan's movies, just so I am properly informed on why I hate his movies. The Obama ties really hit you over the head once you get there. They have all of these requests for your suggestions on how "Mr. President" should "refresh America". Again, Pepsi, you aren't accomplishing anything. You make beverages. Making a refreshing beverage isn't going to stop the war, or end global warming, or fix our health care system. It is going to be tasty. And the whole 'upload a video' thing is so old. Note to everyone: you aren't YouTube. Just because you are asking people to upload their own video doesn't make you 'viral', it just makes you look like a huge corporation trying to cash in on the popularity of YouTube.

While the fact that Pepsi has so blatantly tried to steal some momentum for Barack Obama's popularity is super lame, it is the pathetic attempt to join the new marketing strategies of the 21st century that really makes this whole campaign contemptible.

(train station photo from this flickr page)

Nugnutts

Has anyone else seen this "Nugnutts" ad campaign by McDonald's? Doesn't it seem ill-advised? First off, it sounds way too much like "numbnuts" which isn't a good thing. Then the next thing you might think of is testicles, and that REALLY isn't good when the ad is for something that is very similar looking to said part of the male anatomy. It is another one of these ad campaigns that makes me immediately picture the pitch: "It'll be super hip! It sounds like urban slang!". Who thinks these things will catch on as phrases that people say? Like I'm going to go to McDonald's with a friend of mine and I'll order chicken nuggets and he'll be like "Dude, you're a Nugnutt too? High Five!". Seems unlikely.

Shake It!

Usually, I dislike it when an internet ad disrupts the page you are trying to look at (like when ads pop up over content, or when there is one of those ads that pulls the corner of the page down). But this one is very clever. Give it 20 seconds or so.