The Internet is Just a Fad

Bailout fun

Here's how I read it - outside of the stupid political horse trading and grandstanding - oh, and if you don't want my take then read this one over at Clusterstock - Dear Hank and Ben - HERE'S THE SOLUTION

What if you recently learned that Vegas was struggling to pay some of its bills.   And with some further investigation, you discovered that the Casinos had created a game (let's call it Nevada Hide 'Em) in which Gamblers (they didn't know they were gamblers, they thought they were just regular people) were slightly tricked/sold (all in good fun of course) into playing the game that the casinos knew all along was very risky and that they didn't have the real money to actual pay out.  Lots of gamblers lost a lot of their money in this rigged system they really didn't know much about.

All of a sudden things started spinning down into a spiral and the Casinos were begging for the government to help them.  Alas, the government rolled up its sleeves and actually worked over the weekend and came up with a plan to help the casinos stay in business.  Hooray!  For it would be catastrophic if these venerable institutions, the casinos, actually folded or had to embarrassingly file for bankruptcy.

Wait a minute, the government is using tax dollars from the gamblers (more of the regular people's money) to help the casinos save face?  Those same casinos who built the games to trick the gamblers into playing with their retirement funds in the first place?

If we're writing a plan for the government to help somebody out, should we be propping up the casinos?  You think the casinos will have learned their lessons and will fly right now?  How's that working for the airlines?

How about weighting the odds in favor of the regular folk? 

Ploughing Money into the Abyss

Happened over to Adverganza this morning to catch up on the ad business fluffle, and of course Catherine Taylor's commentary is spot on.   She comments on W+K getting let go from Starbucks brand business.  See W+K's big idea for Starbucks was to do more brand TV spots.  With folk like Renny Gleeson over there, I'm not sure how this kind of stuff happens for their biggest clients.   

(BTW - If you have some time and are questioning the tangle between agency, social media and brand; watch Renny's presentation from last year)

Directly below that post is commentary on the next iteration of the MSFT campaign "I'm a PC".  I'm even less interested in this effort than the Jerry S stuff.  This continues the legacy of hammering away on the crooked nail.  Rather than actually engaging anyone, just tell us you are a regular okay company with lipstick, rouge and some collage of semi-famous people that use PCs.  Doesn't Apple have PCs too?  (PC is personal computer, right? what am I missing with this?).  Why directly show the unkempt character that has beaten MSFT to a pulp over the last 2 years?  Sean Siler's email pops up on the ad, so taken a step further, I sent an email to Sean to start the conversation.  Well, he's out of the office and makes it clear that he's an actor.  (see the picture of the screenshot above)  Another swing and a miss; Come ON!  

Marketing Strategy Decay isn't Funny

See, the thing is, advertising is fake

For those of you starting to think that Microsoft is actually getting somewhere with those new TV spots you've seen; you're wrong.  See, the thing is, advertising is fake.  I know, huge revelation, but if you have to spend $300MM on ads, it probably isn't true.  Systemic decay is still rampant.

Lipstick meets pig to borrow a very popular phrase these days.

So you really buy that because J and B say they are ordinary (and are depicted as regular guys) in an ad campaign, that MSFT is now relating to the common man/consumer?  Stop.  There is a script that was written and re-written 48 times, there are cameras at every angle, there is lighting, there is makeup, there's a set.  This is Faketown.

Fundamental flaw here.  Do, don't just say with script and actors.  The rest of the brand needs to be able to live up to this.

Jerry and Bill - Less Interesting

So, another installment of J&B appeared on the scene last night and in "the blogs" today.  Just the guys being ordinary with a regular family ala Paris and Nicole in the Simple Life.   Oh, the utter wisdom of positioning it around the iconic dinner table; oh the American ideal of the nuclear family.  BTW, hasn't this shot been done by hundred movies and shows?  The Nutty Professor for one?

It's dense with dialog and leaves a bunch of open possibilities for plot lines.  All I can say is the pay off better be pretty good, because it's trite nonsense so far.

 

Even the media buy is formulaic.  Thursday night is traditionally really important with inflated, imaginary viewer numbers eaten up with a spoon by the the huge silly movie opening buys.

Here's a great line from Rob Mortimer at www.ad-pit.com.

 “Bill Gates should be shot in the knackers with an air rifle”… that would be cheap publicity too.

Rob was commenting at Rob Campbell's post that included this "... this commercial cost MILLIONS OF DOLLARS to make … the belief that the World laughing AT YOU is still ‘positive’ is so stupid that it almost defies belief."

Why buy $3MM of ad time when you could have just launched this series on YouTube.  Oh, that's right, you wouldn't want to drive views over there would you? 

Irrelevent MSFT Jujutsu - Round 1 Bill and Jerry

You're now in the cage and this is your first move? After being beaten to a pulp of the last few years from a snarky punk in a hoodie now married to the cute little girl from ET (oh, and some pretty innovative products); you drag out the Emeritus and the original Snark? You said you were coming; you showed up with some hardly funny drivel and said zilch (overtly and in context). Advertising about nothing. I guess that's one way to go about spending your money?

A little insight for your planners at CP+B. We've moved on from that Costanza sensibility. Authentic is the new sizzle. We actually find and read stuff like the memo from Bill (through Gizmodo) about the interface and how much it really sucks. Straight from the Emeritus himself. Imagine what he really says about Vista to the wife? Pillow talk between Bill and Melinda about Vista's launch being a a tad premature, general delicious (intended irony of the not purchased company that owns that utility online?) mind melding and Shoe Circus would have been on target.

Gates and Seinfeld could not be any less relevant. Some arguments have suggested things like it started a bunch of conversation (using over-bloated TV $$ for WOM on how confusing the spot was); it will evolve (leak from Webster the Adv guy) and here through TechCrunch; oh, and this beauty from Andrew Frank at Gartner, well written, but that IT advertising is all about shareholders communication. Is that right? Shareholders? This is a balance sheet game now? Get the multiples up?

Ballmer couldn't give a crap about shareholders (no offense; just he's an insecure sort that can't stand getting his ass handed to him daily by Jobs and the Google). He's a little more "shock and awe" than a keenly aware counter puncher.

So maybe that Yahoo! offer was all just a switcharoo get-press-ruse too? M&A is all about good PR spin for a repositioning an ailing anemic moose. Throw an offer out there, knowing that it would stir up the Jerry vs. Icahn struggle and you'd come out looking like surgically sharp shrewd business machine. Aloofing your way into missing an opportunity. Failure all around.

Jujutsu expresses the philosophy of yielding to an opponent's force rather than trying to oppose force with force. Manipulating an opponent's attack using his force and direction allows jujutsuka to control the balance of their opponent and hence prevent the opponent from resisting the counter attack.

. . . a warrior should be able to adopt in combat to facilitate victory. These include: an all-encompassing awareness, zanshin (literally "remaining spirit"), in which the practitioner is ready for anything, at any time; the spontaneity of mushin (literally "no mind") which allows immediate action without conscious thought; and a state of equanimity or imperturbability known as fudoshin (literally "immovable mind").

Fudoshin is not what's going on here. Saying nothing really is saying nothing. Relieving oneself in the wind comes to mind.

Of note, I've been on the fence of late and considering switching all together from the MSFT dinosaur. Despite the work systems and legacy there for many many years. Steve, Bill, Jerry and Alex, I want to like you; I really do. Maybe this is just some Orwellian mass focus group testing between the "Stupid Snark" concept and the "Mojave Project" concept?

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