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If you’re like us, you like to fly under the under the radar when you’re out here on the World Wide Web.
That’s why here at monKeyArtAwards we allow, in fact, we encourage our readers to post their comments anonymously. We don't require an email address and we certainly don't expect anyone to use their real name.
That being said, let us now turn our attention to the concept below, shall we?
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If you’re like us, you're just dying to see what J. Crew’s new offices look like. Well, readers, look no further than right here.
One of the many copywriting crazymakers we count among our readership sent us an invitation to join the group Poster Children on Facefook.
Being vigorous fans of social networking and the reassuring physical distance it provides us from our fellow human beings, we were all set to sign up when we got distracted by an ad for colon cleansing over on the right hand side of the page.
After glancing over the member list, we think a better name for this group might be:
The very same barking mad account exec featured in our previous post was thoughtful enough to cc us on this letter he fired off to the LA Times in regards to Patrick Goldstein’s comment, "It's only fair to give Warners' marketing staff some credit here too…”
Mr. Goldstein,
As a former executive at one of LA's busier entertainment advertising agencies, I can make a strong argument in favor of credit for the campaigns you mention, specifically Four Christmases, belonging to the folks who lost their jobs at the previous "New Line Cinema". I was personally part of a team assigned Four Christmases in late 2007 and saw the delivery of title treatments and sketches to a rudderless marketing department handing out creative direction without a clue as to where or how the Studio wanted to market this property, before I was removed from the project when new, and soon to be fired, executives were brought on board the sinking NLC ship.
While I request anonymity, proof exists that whichever marketing department finalized Four Christmases, their work was pretty much done for them and all they had left to do was waste tens of thousands of dollars in hiring new agencies, demanding more rounds of creative exploration, and, as is the case in 99.99% of marketing campaigns in this business, cover their collective asses.
Sincerely,
James Ensor
And yes, all you poncy art school grads, despite the AE's request for anonymity, we know he is, in fact, that famous Belgian impressionist.
One of the many barking mad account execs we count among our readership asks:
Dear Edwina,
Please excuse any lapses into unladylike vocabulary that may follow, but how in the bloody hell is it that after firing a hundred plus people, and going out of business, i.e., being shut the fuck down, New Line Cinema continues to announce projects?
Like all good AE’s, our reader then followed up the question with an answer contained in this link to Patrick Goldstein's LA Times article.
Now imagine, if you will, the sound we made while reading, "It's only fair to give Warners' marketing staff some credit here too, since they are at their best when someone delivers them good high-concept material, be it a holiday comedy like "Four Christmases," a pre-sold concept like "Sex and the City" or a solid summer programmer like "Journey to the Center of the Earth."
If you’re like us, you thought the teaser for Fired Up was merely another sophisticated campaign aimed at discerning frat boys.
Turns out that the one-sheet is actually Screen Gem’s sly way of saying "FREDERICK UPPED." As in former Warner Bros senior VP of creative advertising Jim Frederick being named executive VP of marketing.
And don’t you just love that name “Screen Gems”? What better handle for a company that brings such gems to the screen as this.
If you’re like us, you know we’ve gone through the looking glass when Barry Diller starts sounding like a champion of wage apes.
Last week at Reuters Media Summit, Posh Barry opened up a can of whoop-ass on the leaders of entertainment empires for their pre-emptive layoffs.
“The idea of a company that’s earning money, not losing money, that’s not, let’s say, ‘industrially endangered,’ to have just cutbacks so they can earn another $12 million or $20 million or $40 million in a year where no one’s counting is really a horrible act when you think about it on every level,” Diller said. “First of all, it’s certainly not necessary. It’s doing it at the worst time. It’s throwing people out to a larger, what is inevitably a larger, unemployment heap for frankly no good reason.”
"No one's counting?" Really, Posh Barry, you forget that in this age of IRAs and 401ks, we wage apes are shareholders, too.
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Just days after NBC U posted a 10% increase in operating profit, mouth-breathing titan Jeff Zucker announced that he is laying off 500 staffers worldwide. "The leadership team of the company agrees that we must take steps now to prepare for these new economic realities.” Zucker was quoted in Variety by way of explaining NBC U’s pre-emptive layoffs in anticipation of diminished ad revenue due to a downturn in consumer spending brought on by people being laid off from their jobs.
We just read in Ad Age that a complaint filed in New York’s State Supreme Court on behalf of survivors of that trampled Wal-Mart worker claims that Wal-Mart "engaged in specific marketing and advertising techniques to specifically attract a large crowd and create an environment of frenzy and mayhem."
After releasing a slew of straight-to-DVD horror films last spring, Lionsgate rounds out the year with the truly horrific straight-to-DVD release of Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage. What better way to celebrate former Cheetos account exec Michael Rathauser moving upstairs at Lionsgate to senior VP of marketing for home entertainment than with a festive holiday cheeseball.
