Brilliant beer marketing

In a category rife with awful advertising, it's nice to see when someone gets it right.



Funny, relevant, memorable and it does a great job of bringing their theme to life.

I wonder if the folks in St. Louis and Milwaukee are paying attention?

Thanks to JLK Davis for the tip on this one.

The worst of the worst

A few weeks ago The Consumerist magazine invited its readers to nominate and vote to determine which commercials are the worst on television. A sister publication of Consumer Reports, The Consumerist is the perfect place for this type of competition because of its overall disdain for advertising and its readers heavy skepticism of businesses.

That having been said, this is one of the best lists I've seen in a long time. It includes the AT&T spot I ranted about last week, the incredibly horrible Summer's Eve Hail to the V spots, and this gem from Luvs, voted Worst Ad in America...



Creating spots this bad isn't easy. You have to come up with a horrible idea, convince the creative director, the account team and the client that it's really not that bad. Then somehow you persuade the songwriter's agent that money is more important than his dignity while finding an animator who has the sense of humor of a seven year old.

Congratulations to the folks at Saatchi for this well-deserved win.

Boring is boring

Over the past 30 years, the Toyota Camry became America's best-selling nameplate specifically because of its rock-solid reliability, uninspiring design and lackluster performance.

Now Toyota wants to change that.

According to this article in the New York Times, they're feeling pressure from others (read Ford and Hyundai) who have caught up in the area of reliability while offering products that are just a little more interesting.

So they're injecting "attitude" into their campaign with the slogan "It's ready. Are you?" and spots that feature smoking tires...

Maybe it's time someone told auto company executives, most of the country finds NASCAR boring. Just check out the ratings and attendance figures over the past few years. Putting the car in this context does not make my heartbeat race. And neither does a "reinvented" Camry.

I'm sure the Camry's a great car but sportier body panels won't make it more interesting, any more than dressing Mr. Rogers in a track suit will all of a sudden transform him into Usain Bolt.