MarketingInsideOut.com

He may be primitive, but oh so loveable. And by the look of the digs, quite a catch. The caveman from Geico is one of my very favorite ad campaigns and the Caveman’s Crib is an excellent, immersive extension of the concept.

This flash microsite is solid, fast and entertaining. It’s an example of great integration of the campaign in everything as you explore (and discover) each area. Check out the magazine on the table to see where they take things. There’s also a hint of a blog on the laptop. And don’t miss the answering machine in the kitchen.

I’m a big animal lover. I have 4 cats (3 of which were rescues that I nursed back to health and fell in love with) and an outnumbered beagle. All are fixed, healthy and a valued part of our household. But there are so many animals that aren’t as lucky. When I saw this campaign in AdRants today, it really caught my attention. It’s just what is needed to make people stop and think about pet overpopulation and all the animals that are euthanized as a result. Meant to herald the opening of a five-day-a-week, spaying-and-neutering “SNIP Clinic”, the campaign is generating a lot of buzz.

From the Louisville Courier Journal:

“Thousands of animals are having to be euthanized, and as a pet lover … that really upsets me,” she said. The ads may be “edgy” and “provocative,” she said, but “the story in all of this is that finally the Humane Society has gotten the public’s attention.”

View all the outdoor boards here. Created by the Creative Alliance of Louisville. This campaign for the Kentucky Humane Society breaks through the clutter and is memorable, edgy and fun. My kudos to the Creative Alliance and a gutsy client for approving it despite some who might give them grief for the sex sells approach.

Day 5…and it looks like the kidnapping is coming to an end.

This message is posted on the Diesel site today.

Official Diesel statement on Italian radio:

“WE WILL SHUT THE HEIDIES DOWN AT 23.00 CET”

“Today Diesel officially stated on the radio that they actually LIKE what we are doing but they ARE shutting us down. They want their collection back.”

I think this was an interesting stunt to watch in terms of the viral impact. Obviously it created a lot of attention. From the time the Heidies took over diesel.com last Monday (1/22) through Thursday (1/25), over 2400 blogs and news sites linked to it.

Apparently we won’t see monkeys this year during the Superbowl. Too bad. At least those spots were marginally entertaining. Unlike many of the spots from last year.

This spot and this one are running in the lead-up to the Adbowl on Feb 4.

So many dumb moments…so little time. Business 2.0 has their picks for the 101 dumbest of 2006.

Three guesses who’s at number one (and the first two don’t count.) Surprise….it’s Wal-Mart, but this time for hiring Edelman to create their “Candidate Wal-Mart” campaign.

“As a result, candidate Wal-Mart quickly becomes, well, the most popular politician since Spiro Agnew. By year’s end Wal-Mart suffers its first quarterly profit drop in a decade, sees same-store sales decline in November’s run-up to the crucial holiday shopping season, and suffers a series of public relations gaffes so stunning that it lands six spots in this year’s edition of the 101 Dumbest Moments.”

Six spots! Not a good year for Wal-Mart.

At number two: Northwest Airlines begins laying off thousands of ground workers, but not before issuing some of them a handy guide, “101 Ways to Save Money”. That’s cold.

Chuck McBride (heretofore to be known as Chuck McBlood) on Tuesday had a mock horror video delivered to Creativity magazine, apparently in reaction to news that he would be leaving TBWA Chiat/Day to form his own firm. AdAge calls it an innovative alternative to the standard-issue press release reassuring employees and marketer clients.

Notice the interesting use of a Clio.

Not really. But it’s set up to look like fashion label Diesel has been held to ransom by two wannabe supermodels. Check out the official site of Diesel (for the next few days anyway). It’s like a melding of lonelygirl15, MySpace and Big Brother.

In what appears to be an offbeat advertising campaign by Diesel.com, the girls have a permanent camera set up to stream live footage from the bedroom where Juan is tied up and almost naked.

Great story in the current Wired about how, Terry Semel Yahoo CEO and famed Hollywood deal maker (a guy who didn’t even use email), brought in back in ‘01 to fix Yahoo, just doesn’t get it. All the marketing muscle in the world doesn’t stack up to the Google boys’ engineering saavy, no-muss/no-fuss, quick-to-decide/quick-to-move machine. And Yahoo’s paying the price — both in terms of declining market share and sluggish stock price. Worth a read.

Darren Barefoot’s parody of Second Life. Be sure and read the copy. Hilarious.

In this post, he says he got a ‘proceed and permitted’ (instead of ‘cease and desist’) letter from Linden Labs. Great stuff!

Since it ran last week, the latest spot for Orville Rendebacher (i.e. the first PitchZombie) has been the topic of many a conversation. At this writing, there were over 1800 references via Technorati and 1700+ via Google blogsearch. Most people think the effort is creepy and disrepectful. Including Bob Garfield, who in a review today said:

The problem is, the stunt is wrong on at least three levels. It’s not only a bit grotesque for the audience but also unforgivably disrespectful of the deceased. It’s also not all that well done. Yes, Orville looks marginally more lifelike than the technically undeceased Peter Graves in his spot for Geico, but for all the time and money Crispin Porter& Bogusky spent e-resurrecting Orville, he still looks more like an animatronic Epcot exhibit than a live human being. The lipsyncing is awkward, and (for those of us old enough to remember) the voice is all wrong. For those of us not old enough to remember, it just looks like an ultracheesy commercial with a creepy nerd puppet.

A poll at AdAge asked: Was popcorn maker Orville Redenbacher right to digitally resurrect its founder in a TV spot? As of 1/22 at 7:30pm, 78% said no.

In response to all the scathing reviews of the dead-man talking campaign, both ConAgra and Crispin are saying the wave of public nausea is all part of the grand plan. According to an article in AdAge today, Deadenbacher’ creeps consumers but drives massive traffic:

When the marketer reanimated its namesake and founder in a spot launched during the Golden Globes, public reaction was swift and, seemingly, unified. The once-lovable grandpa was dubbed Orville Deadenbacher, scathing comments poured into an AdAge.com blog post featuring the video and the question being asked in the industry was: “What on earth was it trying to achieve?”

Buzz, apparently. Within three days of launching the ad, ConAgra claimed it had racked up at least 35 million PR impressions spanning broadcast and print media. And that doesn’t include the thousands of blog mentions.

Crispin, who are no strangers to controversy, believes that all talk is good. To their point–other than the last week, when has there been this much chatter about popcorn? ConAgra believes that as the campaign unfolds and the pitchzombie returns again and again, the ads will gain acceptance. We’ll see, but I can tell you not by me. I’ll buy something else. The King I didn’t like, but could deal with that campaign, since he’s not real. But Orville Redenbacher was a real guy. A nerdy one, but a real one. Breakthrough technology. Buzz or not. I still think it’s tasteless and creepy as hell.