I confess: I have better taste than you

No, not YOU! You have great taste! You're reading my blog! Don't be silly.

I'm speaking to those other people, the ones who smell like Old Spice. The ones who can't discriminate between a great story and its shallow, more expensive sequel. Yeah you guys. (No, not YOU dear blog reader. You know who I mean by now, right?).

Yes, I have better taste than you. I like independent, cerebrally thrilling and ironically funny movies. The movies you like will never become cult classics and you don't even know why that sucks. I like design where form follows function and melts your soul with beauty. You think the name of your company is a headline and and that nothing stands out if it's not bolded, in quotes or in a starburst. You don't even know that quotation marks aren't "attention-getters."

It's not just me that has better taste than you, the reader of this blog has better taste than you, too. Lots of people do! Alas, there are more of you than us, which is why mainstream stuff, by definition, isn't very deep. It has to please the masses and go with the flow. For the most part. Thank God, once in a while someone breaks out of that mainstream mold.

For example and more evidence of my fabulous taste, I love the Old Spice campaign starring Isaiah Mustafa. He is stunning to behold and plays the role perfectly. Hilarious concept, great filming, groundbreakingly communicative and social, that campaign actually got me to almost buy some Old Spice for my son. Almost. Until I smelled it. Oh well. Still, I'm a huge fan of the ads now and their sales have gone way up because of people like you, which is cool for them. 

Maybe it had run its course already. Maybe Weiden + Kennedy hadn't thought past the year's brilliant campaign. Maybe people like you were disappointed that they didn't get chicks any easier while wearing Old Spice. 

I don't know the reasoning, but Fabio happened.

I finally clicked the "New Old Spice Guy Fabio" ad tonight because it's stalking me. They've spared no expense with the Facebook ads, apparently. I was hesitant because I'm neutral at best in my opinion of Fabio. He doesn't do it for me but I thought maybe they could really dig into the cheese factor. So I watched some of the commercials. They're like a bad mix of Sprockets and Hans and Fronz skits on Saturday Night Live. Are you kidding me? *Sigh. They sort of, brought the concept of Isaiah's ads along but Fabio can't carry it. He's dropping it left and right. Choppy. Confusing. Cheap. What is happening in this one??:

I wish everyone out there had great taste like me and you (yes, YOU this time!!) – then we wouldn't have to waste our time on sub-par stuff unless being sub-par made it cool.

3 examples of excellence in social media + advertising

In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes. ~Andy Warhol

Do you think social media is cutting-edge? Think it hasn't gone mainstream yet? Think again. Three brands that are making positively brilliant use of social media in their advertising strategies happen to be three of the most white-bread, mainstream, non-exciting brands ever. These brands might make you think of childhood in middle-class middle-America, but they wouldn't make you think of cutting-edge social media campaigns, would they? Think again, again.

The beauty of social media is the conversation. Twitter turned five last week. Five years ago, there was no way these middle-weight giants would be taking consumers' chatter and turning it into national commercials AND publicly mentioning these consumers by name. These middle-of-the-road brands are playing the game perfectly and running a great race. Most importantly, it's real. 

Take a look at some of these commercials, and then go tweet something about your favorite brands. You never know, you might get your 15 minutes of fame thanks to a Twitter mention via a television commercial that plays on YouTube and goes viral internationally. It could happen. 

Wheat Thins. Surprising tweeters in their real life, bringing the brand to them.

Agency: The Escape Pod

Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. Making a commercial out of a tweet, as artfully as possible with a lightning-fast turnaround.

Agency: Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Old Spice. Holding conversation with real tweeters with "The Old Spice Guy's" surreal machismo.

Agency: Weiden + Kennedy

Another Unexplained Facebook Mystery • 23/365 •

I excitedly went to Stella Artois' Facebook page to watch a behind-the-scenes teaser for the "Crying Jean" commercial that will air during the Super Bowl. It stars Adrien Brody, who I love, and is all smoky-beatnik-jazzy-moody, so I just had to see.

While on the topic of Stella Artois, I wondered about the making of the brew itself, so I went to the "info" tab. Info tabs are much easier to find on business pages than on personal profiles lately. Facebook keeps moving stuff, coming up with new stuff, giving away our personal stuff, and stuff. Sometimes it's a great improvement - other times I just get confused. For some reason, on the info tab, Facebook has created a section to list the url of your ... Facebook page? Yep. WTH? 

Why on earth would anyone need that right there, when they are already on the page itself? I think I just have to get used to not having every mystery solved when it comes to Facebook. Live comfortably in uncertainty, very Zen. Facebook is teaching Zen lessons. Nice.

When did kids start buying auto insurance? • 16/365 •

Did I miss where kids started buying auto insurance plans? Are they whining and asking their parents to go with the "cool" insurance agency? Just how much say do children have in the insurance buying process? None that I know of. Auto insurance is a serious business, pretty boring and mandated by law. I asked my kids which company they preferred once, and I actually got an answer. They had definite opinions. Isn't it remarkable that they even know the names of insurance companies? It's the advertising. It seems to target children and teenagers more than adults. It entertains more than it informs. Personally, I find it impossible to make a buying decision based on the advertising, fun as it is.

Have fun with these commercials from three of the top auto insurance companies. I'm waiting for them to come out with the "auto insurance happy meal deal" where they give a free toy with every purchase, and maybe a lollypop or a sticker just for getting a quote. Just don't make the free toy something distracting to Mom or Dad while they're driving, okay insurance peeps?