MonKeyArtAwards

And The Hits Just Keep On Comin'

Dear Edwina, here's another to add to the "shiner" pile:

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We Took A Real Shiner To These Ads

The Fault, Dear Oscar, Is Not In Our Stars, But In Our Advertising… No. Wait. Seth MacFarlane? Perhaps The Fault Is In Our Stars.

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Copywriters? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Copywriters

In “an effort to increase engagement,” USA is asking viewers to submit their own taglines for Pych’s seventh season marketing campaign.

Click here to view the gallery of submissions

And yes, most of them are bad, but all you need is one good one, right? Not to mention they offer insight into what viewers consider the show’s most compelling attributes - which is apparently pineapples.

And, most importantly, all of the submissions are free.

The take away message: hiring copywriters is not a value for money proposition. 

The Men Who Photoshopped America

Dear Edwina,

The History Channel’s new show, The Men Who Built America features one of London’s greatest landmarks sitting on the banks of the Mississippi. Would you believe the famous Battersea Power Station (Help!, Pink Floyd’s Animals, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, etc.) was dropped right into the middle of the art? And, no one caught it!

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America, Fuck Yeah!

NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt says: “We’ve taken a few first steps toward a turnaround over this past season and now we’re seeing a real opportunity to accelerate that process. We’ve got a lineup of new shows that will really get people to sit up and take notice. And with the Olympics … we’ve also got the tools we need to give our shows the kind of launch they deserve.”

Hey, Charlie! Go Find Your Own Dry Lakebed - We Were Here First!

If You’re Like Us, You're Delighted To Be Living In A World Where The Phrase “Bullet To The Head” Is Invariably Followed By LOL

We came across the 64^th Primetime Emmy Awards key Art on Deadline Hollywood, along with this comment by Mr Explosion:

"If you filled in the white glow with pink and red, it would look like Emmy is taking a bullet to the head. That could make a great crew shirt for the Walking Dead if they win an Emmy this year LOL."

The Truth In Advertising Is Out There

Following the Federal Trade Commission’s announcement that Skechers will pay $40 million to settle charges that their Shape-up shoes advertising was deceptive, CBS is revising their fall launch campaign by putting quotation marks around the word “comedy."

Hi! We’re USA And We Aren’t Anymore Interested In Content Than You Are!

One Of These Is Not Like The Others

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Der Weiner’s Schnitzel

If you’re like us, you were under the impression that The Refinery came up with the winning concept for the Mad Men Season 5 bake-off. However, according to an article in the New York Times:

Matthew Weiner, series creator, said the image is “a nonverbal representation of where my head is at and where the show will be.”

As usual, Mr. Weiner said, he discussed his idea for the image with Linda Schupack, executive vice president for marketing at AMC, part of AMC Networks, who brought it to life in creating the campaign.

The image suggests “Don Draper’s ongoing struggle to define who he is to himself and to those around him,” Ms. Schupack added.

Larger version at IMPAwards

As Seen On TV

If you’re like us, seeing ads like the one below makes you wish Annie Leibovitz had never done that Sopranos shoot …but at least NBC got Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin to do another photo shoot. Maybe Len Fogge could get the guys who do the fake posters on 30 Rock to do the real key art for the show.Click on image to enlarge.

NBCULater!

From Deadline Hollywood:

NBC’s new marketing president Len Fogge, who joined the network from Showtime last summer, is reorganizing the network’s marketing department, with just under 10 of the department’s 150 employees getting laid off today. The highest ranking among them is 26-year NBC veteran Jim Vescera, most recently EVP and creative director of NBC Entertainment Marketing, who sent out an internal good-bye note last night. Insiders described the process as “fine-tuning” as Fogge looks to tweak creative direction and eliminate redundancies created by several of regime changes at the network over the past decade. It includes the cutting of some positions and reconfiguration of others. Fogge’s former Showtime colleague Richard Licata, now head of NBC’s publicity department, is expected to do implement similar reorganization next week, with also under 10 department staffers expected to be laid off. The moves come on the heels of the new NBC administration’s biggest marketing and promotional campaign to date for midseason musical drama Smash.

Spoiler Alert: Don Didn’t Jump, Peggy Pushed Him

TMI In The Great Outdoors

Dear Edwina,

I’ve passed this billboard every day for the past week or so and I still can’t tell what it’s about. Why are the men’s neckties all drifting up but the woman’s hair isn’t? Doesn’t it seem like overkill to have a $ in “House” and then have another $ in “Lies”?! And what is going on in the background? Please hurry and reply… I’m parked in a red zone.

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Dear Red Zone,

Having consulted IMPAwards, it’s obvious the problem is that the billboard art cropped out the desk with the legal pad on it as well as the all-important floating ball point pen. No doubt these items would have cleared things up for you. Or maybe those two dollars signs would have been less annoying if the E’s were euro signs and the L was a British pound symbol (HOU$€ OF £I€$). Or maybe if the copy had said something like, “OMFG! Sharks!!!”