No news really - Ricky Gervais has some of the best observations of the daily routines in the corporate sphere and life’s absurdities in general. But seeing all of it once again in the original scripts is a truly funny experience. Burger King sure has used it very directly in its advertising but there most be lot’s of other angles to be drawn from this.
I have always been wondering what it is with retail and animals. It’s like if you run out of ideas use animals. I guess in this case it’s a retail manager that have been mesmerized by lack of sales in his consumer electronics outlet and have thought “what if we give out flyers on the street in front of the store” or even better “what if the flyers are delivered by a Tony the Tiger kind of guy”. Maybe if they’re selling to kids I can understand the craziness.
Or maybe it’s just my own distant memory of working in the Sponsorship department of Carlsberg where everybody from time to time had to dress up as an elephant to get the attention of TV-cameras. I kind of feel with the guy inside Tony the Tiger.
Spring is coming to Copenhagen. The car is in the garage and I’m on my bike again. There is no better place to hear what is going on in the real world than outside of the office. This morning the bridge to the part of the city where I work was up and I had 5 minutes of overhearing other people’s discussions. It included opinions about the weather (off course), the new best Thai restaurant, the weekends soccer results, a bands struggle to get their music out and even a discussion about a new TV commercial (yes, there are still a few people out there that notice what we do).
I’ve always found the discipline of creating names one of the very funny processes of advertising. It’s one of the rare chances to create something that will be associated with the product or service forever. Campaigns, communication platforms and taglines come and go but names are here to stay. Even though there is a bit of theoretical advice on the subject it’s always fresh, new and difficult.
The branding theories suggest three basic name categories. There is The Descriptive Name (e.g. Yellow Pages), The Associative Name (e.g. Budget Rent a Car) or The Freestanding Name (Apple) to choose from.
Whatever you might choose there are lots of silly names out there. I especially have a problem with a large amount of the associative names which often is just flat and pretentious superlatives. Adding a word like quality to the category you belong to is not a very inspiring promise for a brand.
Ever been sitting in the last minute with a presentation just missing those moodbords that shows let’s say Soviet Icons or German Teenagers.
Well help is out there within seconds with the montage-a-google . Just one of the many new wonders of Google. Constantly new features. Very nice.
