JetBlue launches 'Gift Guide'

JetBlue Airways is launching a holiday gift guide spoof to persuade customers to fly with them instead of other airline companies.

The comical gift guide includes things that customers would need in they chose to fly with another carrier. This includes a "knee jockey," basically a bra for your knees, that holds up your knees during flights so they don't get beat up by the seat in front of you. This illustrates JetBlue's feature of having more legroom than competitors. Other unique 'gifts' can be found here.

The gift guide is, of course, "a joke," said John Amato, president of New York-based Show Media, the ad agency that worked alongside JetBlue to create and execute this idea.

This type of radical advertising is no stranger to JetBlue, a company familiar with wrapping busses in giant advertisements and passing out ads from New York town cars. Their campaign will no doubt be noted by all who are exposed. I think it's a fantastic idea and I'd love to see more ad companies taking after JetBlue's creativity.

Dockers wants you to want khakis

Dockers is starting a new campaign called, "wear the pants." The mission is to bring khakis back and market them as "versatile" and "masculine." Dockers, a unit of jeans company Levi Strauss, is aiming to put some life back into the market for their golden pant wear. The global marketing VP and the mind behind the campaign, Jennifer Sey, wants to bring men away from their jeans and back to khakis.

"The brand certainly hasn’t gone away," Sey says. "But the category’s been in significant decline. ... Men are replacing their khakis at about half the rate of their jeans . . . [With the new campaign, we are aiming to position it as] a well-loved and essential item rather than [how it’s perceived now], which is [a pants that’s sold] at a commodity price point, for the most part. We want him to fall in love with khakis again."

BrandWeek has more on the story here.

With new colors, styles, and slimmer, more modern fits, we'll see if the khaki movement progresses. It sounds like Dockers might might a concoction for success, but only the future will tell.

The Power of Blog

Whether your interests lie in fashion, politics, pop culture, sports, cars, or any other mainstream American interest like lion taming or mahrang fruit harvesting, you can find them all under one internet umbrella:

Blogs.

There are tons of them. And although in my opinion some can be utterly shallow and ridiculous, I'm glad that every single one of them is around. Because whether or not it is professional and educated writing, each blog attracts readers. And readers are one thing that we don't have enough of in this tech-slave age. Perhaps that magical bound item called the book will make a turn around.

Blogs like Perezhilton and TMZ present gossip over everything that's happening to the six-figure community inhabiting the golden state of California. I've always been confused as to why our society seems to idolize the actors and actresses who, by career description, are never seen behaving as their true identities on the big screen. So I personally don't feel the draw to the celeb gossip category. But that's just me.

Some of my personal favorite blogs are the food and cooking ones. Blogs like Chez Pim and Chocolate and Zucchini are great for finding recipes and deciding what to buy for the kitchen. Tips and ideas on these two are helpful for both the aspiring chef and the hungry apartment-dweller.

And maybe all this information you pick up on will spark the need for...well, another blog.

Just don't make it about Britney, please.

H1N1 vaccine pushed by government

The federal government Monday launched a new PSA to urge Americans to get vaccinated for H1N1. The PSA, called "Together We Can All Fight the Flu" has seven different 30-second commercials and three different radio spots to look out for. The message will also be displayed in online banner ads and outdoor ads.

Produced by Merkley and Partners, New York, the campaign is created as a joint effort between the Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. The PSA is aimed at hard-to-reach populations that may underestimate the severity of contracting H1N1. AdAge has more on the story:

http://adage.com/article?article_id=140923

According to the Centers for Disease control, 22 million Americans have been infected with H1N1. Of that number, nearly 4,000 people have died because of the swine flu. The TV spots feature the highest priority groups for the vaccine, including pregnant women, children, and young adults.

The Department of Health and Human Services is hoping that these ads will connect with viewers and spread the message about the importance of getting vaccinated.

Sony picks Anomaly over Fallon

Anomaly will be taking over Sony Europe's $80 million advertising account. This was announced by Ben Moore, Sony Europe's VP of communications, earlier this year. Sony Europe will move on from their partnership with Fallen in their creative department. The famous "Balls" spot for Sony Bravia was created by Fallon, but Sony has now decided to change direction with Anomaly.

"We have enjoyed a highly successful relationship with Fallon during the last six years. ... During that period, however, the marketing landscape has changed ... now is an appropriate time to take stock and review our agency partnerships," Moore said.

AdAge has more on the story:

http://adage.com/globalnews/article?article_id=140954

Anomaly has remained in the shadows until now, but Sony handpicked the little-known agency to leap into mainstream creative work. As for Fallon, this is a huge blow to their business.

The future is looking up for Anomaly and Sony Europe. As they start their journey together, keep your eyes peeled for new creative material coming from their direction.

'Twitter' most popular word of 2009

A study confirms that the most popular as well as the most used word over the past 11 months is "twitter." This study, performed by Texas-based group, The Global Language Monitor, tracks linguistic trends. They then count the number of times these words appear on the internet and in other media.

http://www.asylum.com/2009/11/30/twitter-most-used-word-2009-then-obama-H1N1-stimulus/

Following twitter, the next words in the popularity progression are "Obama," "H1N1," "stimulus," and "vampire." The most popular name, unsurprisingly, is "Barack Obama." He is closely followed by "Michael Jackson."

This is a great feat for the quickly-developed twitter network. So, in respect to the brevity of twitter posts, I'll end this celebratory post here.

Branded iPhone apps a work in progress

In a world that revolves around technology being at your fingertips, advertisers are finding that using iPhone apps to promote brands is more difficult and less effective that originally thought. This was confirmed by a study for AdAge by Porter Novelli and partner Crimson Hexigon which examined several branded apps and the resulting online chatter.

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=140867

The study looked at apps released for Dunkin' Donuts, Pizza Hut, Whole Foods, and Barnes & Noble. The apps range in complexity and utility, but created little impact among them. Crimson Hexigon believes that a large part of this ineffectiveness is due to the growing ocean of available iPhone apps. The clutter within the world of apps makes it more unlikely for consumers to even come across these interactive promotions.

Parting the sea of apps is no easy task. There are roughly 255 branded apps on the market today. This, to advertisers' dismay, is insignificant compared to the 100,000 total apps on the market today. In addition, consumers are likely to assume branded apps aren't relevant to them and dismiss them completely.

More refining will undoubtedly be done in perfecting the art of the branded app.