Ask Dr. Ads: Got A Top Ten For 2013?

Posted on December 27, 2013 by Campaign Outsider

DrAdsforProfileWell the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

I’ve noticed that a lot of media outlets have picked their Top Whatever Ads of 2013 in recent days.

There’s Adweek’s Mostapalooza featuring The Ten Most Sexist Ads of 2013, The 10 Most Epic TV Promos of 2013, The Ten Most-Viral Ads of 2013, and The Ten Most Watched Ads on YouTube in 2013.

Then there’s USA Today’s Top 5 ads of 2013.

Among many others.

Any way you can sort this out for us, Doc?

– H.D. Dromedary

Dear H.D. Dromedary,

We’re guessing you’d be most interested in Adweek’s 10 Best Ads of 2013, which slots this spot at #4 . . .

Read the rest at Ask Dr. Ads.

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NYT Mikhail Kalashnikov Obit Omits Most Important Fact

Posted on December 25, 2013 by Campaign Outsider

Mikhail Kalashnikov, father of the AK-47, is dead at the age of 94.

From the New York Times obituary by C. J. Chivers:

His role in the rifle’s creation, and the attention showered on him by the Kremlin’s propaganda machine, carried him from 24kalashnikov1-articleLargeconscription in the Red Army to senior positions in the Soviet arms-manufacturing bureaucracy and ultimately to six terms on the Supreme Soviet, the Soviet Union’s legislative body.

Tens of millions of Kalashnikov rifles have been manufactured. Their short barrels, steep front-sight posts and curved magazines made them a marker of conflict that has endured for decades. The weapons also became both Soviet and revolutionary symbols and widespread instruments of terrorism, child-soldiering and crime.

Actually, the obituary notes, an estimated 70 to 100 million Kalashnikovs have been produced.

What the Times obit does not note is that C.J. Chivers wrote the biography of the AK-47, The Gun.

Which makes his valedictory the most authoritative – and least attributed – obituary out there.

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Lousy Turnout For Midnight Mass At St. Mary’s In Brookline Village

Posted on December 25, 2013 by Campaign Outsider

churchThe hardworking staff, which is Jewish by attraction, has lived next door to St. Mary of the Assumption in Brookline Village for 25 years, during which we’ve observed – yes – 25 Christmas Eve Midnight Masses.

(For decades our mother, St. Agnes of 89th Street, would ask us, “Want to come to Midnight Mass with me, Johnny?” To which we eternally replied, “Happy to take you there, Mom.”)

But back to St. Mary’s: This year’s Midnight Mass seemed to be woefully under attended. We counted about 15 cars parked on the Linden Street/LindenPlace Triangle. Way less than previous counts.

So all those stories about Pope Francis’s rejuvenation of Cathaholics (tip o’ the pixel to brother Jim for that designation) – grain o’ salt, yeah?

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Native Advertising Isn’t All That Viral? No Matter – It’s Still Dangerous

Posted on December 24, 2013 by Campaign Outsider

Smart piece in Adweek about the virality of native advertising.

Native Advertising Wasn’t Really So Viral in 2013

New Sharethrough report shows how few sponsored stories popped 

Are we so sure that all this sponsored content is worth the anigif_enhanced-buzz-31485-1376581173-9trouble?

Native advertising distribution firm Sharethrough compiled a ranking of the biggest brand-produced sponsored stories from 2013. And what perhaps sticks out the most is that none of these stories seems to have really taken off on the social Web—which is the promise of the entire native ads movement.

As Adweek notes, “the top sponsored story on the list was from Harper Collins. It naturally ran on BuzzFeed: 17 Problems Only Book Lovers Will Understand. According to Sharethrough, the piece generated 715,267 social actions.”

But, Adweek also notes, “[it’s] pretty striking that not a single brand (at least among those tracked by Sharethrough) could crack a million shares or likes. Even more striking: the falloff is severe. In second place was a story by Blackberry on Cracked: 5 Real-Life Stories of Twins Creepier Than Any Horror Movie that generated 656,478 actions.”

It goes off a cliff from there – to 115,000 for the third-place story and etc . . .

Read the rest at Sneak Adtack.

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Did Michael Bloomberg Pay For A NYT Ad Praising Michael Bloomberg?

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Campaign Outsider

Saturday’s New York Times featured this full-page hagiographic ad about outgoing New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, courtesy of “Appreciative New Yorkers.”

Screen Shot 2013-12-21 at 1.47.36 PM

Turns out Appreciative New Yorkers don’t really exist, as the irrepressible Dr. Ads documented here.

So who paid for the ad?

Dr. Ads thinks it was Bloomberg himself.

The hardwondering staff, on the other hand, has contacted Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan and Corporate Communications VP Eileen Murphy to clarify the situation.

We’ll keep you posted.

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Ask Dr. Ads: What’s Up with the ‘Appreciative New Yorkers’ Bloomberg Brownnose Ad?

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Campaign Outsider

DrAdsforProfileWell the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

Say, that’s some magnificent ad on the back page of Saturday’s New York Times A-section, yeah?

In case you missed it:

Screen Shot 2013-12-21 at 1.47.36 PM

Is that a beautiful record of accomplishments for a man to leave behind or what, Doc?

– Mickey B

Dear Mickey B,

Yeah, whatever.

First thing – all those boldface l‘s in the ad above? They’re not there in the print version.

Not to mention the ad overall is the worst piece of typesetting this side of Shakers, Glendale.

Representative sample . . .

Read the rest at Ask Dr. Ads.

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Ask Dr. Ads: What’s Up with the Pantene ‘Bossy’ Ad?

Posted on December 21, 2013 by Campaign Outsider

DrAdsforProfileWell the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

I was reading the New York Times the other day and stumbled upon this full-page ad.

Screen Shot 2013-12-21 at 1.27.44 AM

Good question, yeah?

– Shining Strong

Dear Shining Strong,

This has been going on forever, hasn’t it . . .

Read the rest at Ask Dr. Ads.

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Extra! The Globe Out-Heralds The Herald! (Deval Patrick’s Crack Cousin Edition)

Posted on December 21, 2013 by Campaign Outsider

This defies the natural order of things, but hey . . .

Friday’s Boston Globe, Page One:

Screen Shot 2013-12-21 at 1.06.48 AM

Friday’s Boston Herald, page 16 . . .

Read the rest at It’s Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town.

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Public Editor Brands NYT’s Branded Content a ‘Delicate Balance’

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Campaign Outsider

imagesAs the hardtracking staff previously noted, the New York Times has been preparing to jump into the native advertising pool along with the rest of the sink-or-swim set. According to Advertising Age, the recently installed Times executive VP of advertising, Meredith Kopit Levien, gave a speech last month in which she laid out the future of the paper as a marketing platform.

“Native is a table stakes for every marketer and every publisher,” she told an audience at Sharethrough‘s Native Advertising Summit in Chicago. Banner ads, she added, are a “huge and important business” at the Times, but they will become more automated and standardized over time. Many publishers hope native ads will help counter the downward pressure on ad rates that’s created by those trends.

Yesterday the Times Public Editor, Margaret Sullivan, weighed in on her blog and on Twitter.

The tweet:

The post, from the Public Editor’s Journal . . .

Read the rest at Sneak Adtack.

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It’s Good To Live In A Two-Town Daily (NY/Boston Outgoing Mayor Edition)

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Campaign Outsider

A tale of two cities with longtime mayors on the exit ramp.

Thursday’s Boston Herald Page One:

 

Screen Shot 2013-12-20 at 1.20.04 AM

 

The inside story on 20-year mayor Tom Menino heading for the door.

 

Screen Shot 2013-12-20 at 1.21.02 AM

 

Down the road in the Big Town, 12-year mayor Michael Bloomberg is doing much the same thing as he leaves the corner office.

From the New York Times:

Screen Shot 2013-12-20 at 1.26.00 AM

 

File under: Exit strategic.

Future benefits TBD.

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