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As the buzz over the DraftFCB/Roehm/WalMart scandal seems to finally be dying down it’s time to take one last brief look back and ask ourselves – what is the real problem here. And I’d say the real problem is that we’re idiots. Yes, we in the marketing/communications business are idiots because of the criteria we use to deem a new undertaking to be a success or a failure.

When Howard Draft and IPG decided it was time to merge the venerable advertising firm of Foote, Cone and Belding with Howard’s very successful direct response firm, Draft, it seemed like a ridiculous idea. And it was.

You can’t merge a general advertising shop with a DR firm and expect that both, vastly divergent, cultures will survive. So what happens when one culture – and one would assume it would be Draft’s shop since he’s taking the lead – emerges as the leader? Simple. The culture of the other shop is lost. And what a loss.

As someone who spent the majority of her career in general advertising firms with a brief stint in a DR firm, where I could never shake the feeling of being the proverbial round peg in a square hole, I could clearly see the handwriting on the wall. And so could many others. That was, until Julie Roehm came to the rescue. Because one woman’s decision to bring WalMart into the newly merged company was all it took to convince naysayers that Howard Draft had pulled it off!

And then we started to hear about improprieties. And then it all fell apart. Oops, guess the DraftFCB thing isn’t working – huh? Gee Howie – we thought you beat the odds, guess not!

Is that really how we determine whether or not DraftFCB will thrive or dive? Just one woman at one account?

And then we started laughing at them. How funny, Howard invited Julie for the ill fated Aston Martin “ride” – and the engine wouldn’t turn over. So shocking – a ride! But how scandalous would it have been for Draft to have picked Roehm up at the airport – in his Aston Martin? Am I missing something here?

OK there was that weird “party” at Nobu where, reportedly, Roehm was in rare form. Apparently WalMart does not permit “perks” of any kind and, according to Roehm, she paid for her drinks but did not keep tabs on how many California rolls she consumed. So they fired her ass! Oh please!

And most reports refer to the fact that at the Nobu party she was, in effect, key note speaker at a DraftFCB lovefest. Somewhat inappropriate considering her account was still in review. And there are those who swear she was seen sitting on the lap of, at least, one ad exec during the festivities. Give me strength! But still, it was those California rolls that robbed her of greatness!

When you look past all the nonsense one thing is clear – time is the only way to tell whether or not the Draft merger with FCB will prove to be brilliant or ludicrous. Regardless of what business is won or lost the business model must be tested over time. I, for one, am anxious to see how the future unfolds for DraftFCB. And, if they pull it off, I will tip my hat to Mr. Draft – he’ll have earned it if he can pull off this miracle!

Per my previous post, the whole Orville Redenbacher night-of-the-living-dead thing is just way too freaky. Every time I see the damn spot I get even more creeped out. And apparently a lot of people feel the same way.

Do creepy characters hawking food really entice anyone to buy? Is that why are there so many of them pushing edibles? I vividly remember my initial heebie-jeebies reaction to the Burger King campaign a few years ago (especially that spot where he’s in bed with that guy). However, I have to admit that after hearing my teenage daughter and friends talk about the spots, it became apparent that my reaction was irrelevant — they liked and related to the creepy crowned head. And fittingly so, teens were who BK was after.

As much as I dislike the King, BK has had sales increases (ten straight quarters of positive comparable sales growth according to the Nov 06 10Q). I prefer to credit subservient chicken or Chicken Sandwich World Championship between TC and Spicy. But who knows….

YET who the hell are they trying to connect to with the resurrected Orville? Not teens — they don’t care who Orville is/was. He’s not funny/sarcastic/flip/offbeat. And teens don’t do the bulk of the grocery shopping. Moms do. So, it will be interesting to see how Moms react to dead-man talking and if this effort (which cost a fortune) has any [positive] impact on sales. I highly doubt it.

But why did Crispin take this approach? Are they convinced that creepy sells? There are certainly a lot of examples out there. In my research on creepy spokespeople, I ran across this post “The Top 10 Creepiest Fast Food Mascots” which rated the Burger King as the #1 creepiest. Hummmmm??? That was Crispin too.

In my previous post, I mentioned that the advertising image was created based on how they streamed the water, but for the life of me I couldn’t envision how it worked. But this explains how they do it.

This video is awesome and was recently selected as the grand prize winner of the Circle Circle Dot Dot Contest promoted by YourTubeNEWS’ Jamie Kennedy and Stu Stone in association with Warner Brothers Records. The creator, Blunty3000 created the video in two days. Makes me want to go buy some Legos.

Someone (with a lot of time on their hands) took a bunch of prominent companies and reworked their logos to a Web 2.0 style — full of rounded corners, reflections and clean, light colors.

This spot is downright creepy. Digital Orville as ipod-wearing, dead-eyed zombie. In my book, the touted “breakthrough” technology that unearthed Orville isn’t ready for prime time. It looks very amateurish. Crispin does some out there stuff, but this is even freakier than waking up in bed with the King. Leave the dead buried.

A story in Monday’s New York Times about media saturation in the NYC market and elsewhere, particularly the growth in out-of-home executions creates food for thought about the potential pitfalls of messaging at every turn. Advertising is so pervasive today that you have to wonder if it’s becoming just background noise. Yankelovich estimates that a person living in a city today is exposed to 5,000 ad messages daily, compared with about 2,000 messages 30 years ago.

“Marketers used to try their hardest to reach people at home, when they were watching TV or reading newspapers or magazines. But consumers’ viewing and reading habits are so scattershot now that many advertisers say the best way to reach time-pressed consumers is to try to catch their eye at literally every turn…Ubiquity is the new exclusivity.”

Eggs, airplane seatback trays, elevator doors, restroom signs, turnstiles, even outpatient treatment rooms are fair game for advertising. You have to wonder how far this trend can go before consumers revolt. In San Francisco, a series of complaints led to the removal of ‘Got Milk’ billboards that emited the odor of chocolate chip cookies at bus stops.

I do like Guinness and when I saw this it caught my eye.

Clever idea.

You can only read it in the reflection of a dark beer in a clean glass. It says “Good Things Come to Those Who Wait.”

Provided you’re sober enough to notice it.

Created by: Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, United Kingdom

Wal-Mart has now purged itself of the Julie Roehm taint. At least that’s probably what they are hoping. From the AdAge article:

In announcing its new agency roster Jan. 12, the retailer did a 180-degree turn from the direction Ms. Roehm, the renegade marketer ousted in December amid murky circumstances, was trying to take the staid company’s marketing operation. Wal-Mart ditched both her media shop of choice and the creative-agency model she thought would help the retailer rebound from its woes…

“It’s pretty clear that Wal-Mart wanted to set fire to everything that Julie touched.”

One of the comments in the article I think was interesting was from Arthur Anderson, co-founder and principal at Morgan Anderson Consulting, “These days, you tend to think large marketers would go for large agencies, but the exception is proving to be the rule.” More and more large accounts are going to smaller shops, which I believe is a sign of clients looking for better service and more emphasis on creative thinking — which is too often put in a position of low priority for the larger agencies as a result of cost cutting measures.

But I don’t know what I think about Martin and Wal-Mart. Martin is a great shop. There’s no doubt about that. They’ve done wonderful, high-profile work for companies like Geico, Quizno’s and Miller Genuine Draft. But I question whether or not Wal-Mart wants a real change and if they understand what that really even means. And if they have the stomach for it. Much less the patience. It’s certainly not something that’s going to happen after the first TV flight or even in one quarter. I’d sure hate to see Martin put in a vise that forces them to lose what made them great.

A nice tribute ad to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968)

He would have been 78 this year and now gone now as many years as he lived. An amazing impact in such a short lifetime. Today around the country there were tributes and in Atlanta, there was an opening of a collection of his papers, including a draft of his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Hat tip to Erin for the suggestion.