MarketingInsideOut.com

The creator of the famous anti-Hillary Clinton ad mimicking the famous 1984 Apple spot was outed this week on HuffingtonPost.com. Phil de Vellis, the creator of the ad, subsequently resigned from his job at a political interactive consultancy, Blue State Digital.

Vellis claims he made the spot on his own time, with his own equipment, and not at the request of the Barack Obama campaign, which is plugged at the end of the spot and for whom Blue State Digital works.

The ad was posted on YouTube on March 5, and has received over 2 million views and nearly 5,000 comments.

This is sure to be an interesting (and looooooong) political season.

You know the saying. Right? Truth is stranger than fiction.

Reading the coverage of WPP Group Chief Executive Martin Sorrell’s libel case is a bit like reading a Judith Krantz novel. When you see the phrases and language that is coming out in this trial, it’s hard to believe this is a real court case. It seems so fictional. Like a soap opera script. Every day there seems to be some new juicy tidbit for the media to chew on.

This has to be humiliating for all involved. And I can’t imagine it reflects well on the ad agency busines overall given the industry is already wrestling with its share of various other scandals and general questions as to the effectiveness of the agency model in today’s marketplace. The good news for Sorrell is that he apparently doesn’t come off anywhere near as bad as Howard Draft and Julie Roehm. Poll results via AdWeek 3/21/2007.

For everyone’s sake I hope this gets resolved quickly and the name calling ends.

(although this case has, by far, the most creative name calling I’ve seen in years)

I guess they figured that since they’ve been selling other companies’ music for years, why not start their own label. It’s been rumored for months and Wednesday it was official. Paul McCartney left Capitol Records, after 43 years, to become the first artist to sign with Hear Music, the label being created by Starbucks in partnership with Concord Music Group.

The announcement was made Wednesday during Starbucks’s annual meeting in Seattle. Sounds like the arrangement is a one-album deal with McCartney retaining rights to the master recording. McCartney said he was impressed with Hear Music’s push to use Starbucks’ 13,500 retail outlets as part of its sales plan.

The arrangement is the latest sign of how various retailers of all types are seizing opportunities to set up direct relationships with musical artists, circumventing the record labels’ longtime lock on talent.

Does anyone else find it ironic that McCartney started in a basement and ends up in a coffee shop?