Thursday, February 15, 2018

Rhythm Nation

Okay, so where am I?

I took a break from the org chart and strategic planning to try and get some Taylor Swift concert tickets for the kid's graduation. It seems to a traditional to send the kid and her BFF to a Taylor Swift concert during graduation season. Last time is was at Staples Center and the capacity was only only 18,000. This time around it's at the Rose Bowl and its 100,000 seats. I think my chances are good.

All of this reminded me how I used to get concert tickets. Back in 1990, Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 Tour was all the rage covering 113 shows in Japan, Europe, and North America. Getting tickets then wasn't so simple. In order for you to have had the privilege of plunking down your money to purchase your tickets, you had to wait in a long line at Ticketmaster that was situated inside a record store (or was it TicketTron back then?) for several hours, often even overnight.

"What's a record store?" you ask. Well, that's a story for another day...

Yes, before the Internet and technology did everything but spoon-fed you dessert, small villages of music fans materialized the day before tickets for a major artist or group went on sale in your city. Imagine that? The scenes were like little pop-up Woodstocks. People brought lawn chairs and sleeping bags. Some brought guitars and boomboxes dotted the line. There was a strong likelihood that the smell of illegal cannabis would fill the air. Stories were traded and lies were told.

Now, you don't have to wait in these lines and you can still get lousy tickets even if you buy them a minute or two after they go on sale if you don't have your special AMEX or Citibank code to get the good tickets. However, most of the time it's Tap-tap-tap and you're all set, taking the easy way out in the process along the way.

Don't get me wrong, the convenience of buying online is unmatched and if you strike out at Ticketmaster, you can always go to StubHub (or another third-party ticket broker) and get the ticket of your choice, sometimes cheaper than buying them from the source. But convenience comes at a cost.

Yes, we had to endure the overnight cold and line cutters, but if you were close enough to the front of the line, there was a legitimate shot you would leave with some really great seats, marching triumphantly with your tickets already in hand. These weren't just any tickets you could print off in plain bond paper from your laserjet, but real perforated tickets with your event, venue, seat location engraved right there into the paper.

Sometimes you were booed out of jealousy by those still waiting in line and sometimes you were slow-clapped out of the door...the sound of hands supplying the fuel to lift your sleep-deprived legs to your car.

The camaraderie shared by music fans was something to treasure. All of us united with a unified taste and love of the same artist. This is lost today in the soulless, robotic online transaction. But on the bright side, I was about to get my kid her tickets without throwing down with the Swifties telling me that the haters are going to hate, hate, hate.

Back in 1990, my Janet Jackson tickets cost $22 each and what a lovely, enlightening date that turned out to be. Worth every penny. Twenty-eight years later, the tickets were five times that plus a hefty convenience fee charge. But once I see those pictures posted on my kid's Facebook, it will be all worth it.

----

Not that anyone cares, but here was the set list of songs played April 21, 1990:

1. Control
2. Nasty
3. What Have You Done for Me Lately
4. When I Think of You
5. The Pleasure Principle
6. Let's Wait Awhile

Intermission

7. State of The World
8. Black Cat
9. Alright
10. The Knowledge
11. Escapade

Encore:
12. Miss You Much
13. Rhythm Nation

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Monday, February 5, 2018

Dilly Dilly: Trying to Not to Punch the TV during the Super Bowl Commercials


Okay, so where am I?

I'm digesting the numbers from the Super Bowl and it looks like over 100 million people watched the big game again. I'm pretty happy because the taking the Philadelphia Eagles and plus six points was the steal of the year (uhhhhhm, hypothetically, because I would never gamble, of course). I have the DVR on fast forward trying to look at the commercials again and making sure I hear that Ram Trucks commercial properly.

I mean, was that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stumping for the truckmaker? Was the good doctors speech about about the value of service really being used as a voiceover to sell trucks? Really? Remember when MLK said "I have a dream that one day a recording of a speech I gave about redefining greatness as a function of your readiness to serve your fellow man will be licensed by my descendants for Ram to use in an offensive truck commercial.”

Wait? Whaaaaat? He didn’t?

In a season marked by President Trump battling the National Football League over kneeling during the national anthem, you would think that using MLK to sell trucks is the the wrong mistake. And given everything that is going on in the country right now centering on race, it seems that there too much emotion to go there. In previous years, this high-risk move might have worked. Today? Not so much.

Needless to say, Twitter was set on fire with criticism of the ad...here's a handful of sarcasm from the Net:
A little checking discovered that Ram Trucks did not release this spot ahead of time like many of the other companies who spent $5 million for thirty seconds of air time. They were clearly looking for the surprise element, but now they potentially have a big problem with people being irked, the King Center for one:
Fiat Chrysler said in a statement, “We worked closely with the representatives of the MLK's estate to receive the necessary approvals, and estate representatives were a very important part of the creative process every step of the way.”

Eric D. Tidwell, the managing director of the firm managing King's intellectual property, Intellectual Properties Management, said, “Once the final creative was presented for approval, it was reviewed to ensure it met our standard integrity clearances. We found that the overall message of the ad embodied Dr. King’s philosophy that true greatness is achieved by serving others.”

What actually occurred was that the night’s most tone-deaf and abhorrent ad was born and the perhaps THE moral leader of the 20th century is made to shill for Dodge.

What you don't hear in all of this critical white noise is that Ram Trucks resonated with their base using the MLK voiceover. It's a well-known fact in advertising agencies serving the automobile industry that African-Americans do not buy trucks at the same levels that Caucasian-American do. So, the message selling trucks is almost always geared towards white Americans. 

Sorry for the truth here, so don't shoot the messenger...

Onto some of the other spots:

Toyota leads off its Super Bowl ad buy with a spot featuring Lauren Woolstencroft, a Paralympic skier, who has won eight gold medals. While I am pleased that Woolstencroft earned some publicity—her perseverance and determination are very inspiring—but again it makes me cringe on what and whom are used are used to sell cars. Seriously, it doesn’t any perseverance or determination to lease or purchase a Toyota...it takes somewhere between $199 and $499 a month for 36 months, plus drive off fees...


Wendy’s—unofficial corporate motto: “Our Food Is Meh, but at Least We’re Jerks on Twitter”—takes a page from Avis trying harder with direct shot at McDonald’s: “The iceberg that sank the Titanic was frozen, too,” says the ad. In your face, Mickey D's! I love a good fast-food feud as much as anyone, but I feel like Wendy’s would do well to mind that Old World proverb: “Restaurants that sell weird square hamburgers shouldn’t throw stones.”


Easily my favorite ad as Peter Dinklage lip-dubs a Busta Rhymes song for Doritos, and then is immediately bookended by Morgan Freeman lip-dubbing a Missy Elliott song in an ad for Mountain Dew. 


In my Class of 2017 Media Guy Hall of Shame Inductees column I took aim at T-Mobile for their endless and annoying audio cues. Now Bud Light is doing it with this “Dilly Dilly” nonsense. Don't get me wrong, because I'm not so ignorant to understand that this catchphrase is something of a phenomenon. These inexplicably popular ads also leave me inexplicably wanting to punch my TV as well.



Diet Coke Tasted Mango...I can hear the execs sitting around in the concept room. 
"We need to show everyone that it’s not just for your colleagues in accounting anymore!"
"How about we put a dictionary-definition millennial in front of a yellow brick wall and she can hold a can of Diet Coke Twisted Mango, dance awkwardly, and mumble to herself?"
"We can let the music play for 30 seconds over her inane mumbling and $5 million well spent! Right?!" 
I guess it did its job...I am now painfully aware that Diet Coke comes in mango. 



Here's what the real MLK speech sounded like on February 4, 1964:


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Friday, February 2, 2018

LEAKED: Your Guide to the Super Bowl Commercials and Betting Props

Okay, so where am I?

Before I get to the top Super Bowl commercials leaked before Sunday, I just want to say that I feel a huge measure of vindication. "Why?" you ask? Because of stories like this from Variety:
Madison Avenue Hopes Super Bowl Ads Won’t Get Trumped by Politics
Analysis: Big Game. Small Ads?
Madison Avenue heavyweights say they don't want their ads to play off politics or social issues in Super Bowl LII. Will the commercials be as memorable as in years past?
Last year, post-Super Bowl, I said to "Blame Trump" for all of the misguided ads built for the game to combat the President and his perceived (or not-so-perceived agenda). The ads may have resonated for the snowflakes, but those of us who spend money in big quantity on consumer goods were appalled. True be told, I am still a little salty at my colleagues in the advertising world who let these ads push forward. I'll run down the winners and losers (mostly the losers) next week after I digest them in the moment.

Currently, I'm scouring the prop bets for the Super Bowl on Sunday and pretty thankful I placed a few dollars on the Eagles early and got six points back (the current line as of posting is the Patriots -4). What does that mean? I means the New England Patriots can win by five points and I can still win my bet. I'm feeling good about this since the the Patriots have won five of these recently, all by less than five points. Easy money? Ha! Only Las Vegas, offshore books, and local bookies make money on the big game.

Back to the prop bets, I'm considering a few:

-The coin toss is a fun prop that even the most casual bettor can embrace. This bet is slightly more advanced than picking heads or tails, but I like it more as there are some fun trends to note and wager on. Regardless of which side of the coin is called on Sunday—and for the record heads has come out 24 times and tails 27 times throughout the history of the Super Bowl—the NFC has found a way to consistently win the toss over the last two decades. The team representing the conference has won 18 of the last 20 coin tosses. My Pick? The Team That Wins Coin Toss Wins Game: No (-103).

-Color of Bill Belichick hoodie (must wear hoodie for action)
  • Grey +120
  • Blue +140
  • Red +500
-Will winning team visit White House?
  • Yes -200
  • No +150
Total number of Donald Trump tweets during game?
  • Over 5.5 (-115)
  • Under 5.5 (-115)
I mean you can bet on anything, even the halftime show:
Click here for the complete Super Bowl LII Prop Betting List...but before you do, watch the Top 15 Leaked Super Bowl LII Commercials:




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