http://adage.com/rss-feed.php?section_id=287 en-us 120 http://adage.com/rss-feed.php?section_id=287 http://adage.com/img/adage-logo-sm.gif http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=141955
Super Bowl! Football! TV commercials! God! Seriously, have you not noticed that Jesus gets as many plugs as the Monday night prime-time lineup?]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=141955 Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:00:01 -0500 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=141976
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Advertising Age's ad critic, Bob Garfield, found this year's Super Bowl spots to be a whole lot of meh. Garfield gives us his take on Anheuser-Busch's lack of laughs in its lineup, takes Doritos -- and its consumers -- to task for its user-generated spots and heaps praise on his three favorite spots.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=141976 Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:34:01 -0500 http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=141836
Walmart, hitherto often a purveyor of treacle and dubiously Walmart-centric vignettes, has found real life -- in equal measures excruciating and hilarious.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=141836 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0500 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=141704
New Target ads featuring Alan Cox are a sterling example of how colorful, witty, unusual, cheeky, intelligent advertising featuring a talented actor can be terrible at selling stuff to the people with the money.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=141704 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=141545
Having seen much of the ad and PSA campaign for the 2010 U.S. Census, the AdReview team has so many disconnected misgivings that the best we can do is blurt them out ad hoc, like someone coming out of anesthesia, or talk radio.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=141545 Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=141393
To begin the new year, Domino's bought millions of dollars of advertising to announce to the world -- are you ready for this? -- how horrible its product has been for the past 40 years]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=141393 Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=141254
Regrettably, in another down year for advertising creative worldwide, 2009 didn't yield exactly a bumper crop of nominees, but those actors and actresses who have been recognized for their performances are worthy, every single one.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=141254 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=140995
What campaigns did our resident ad critic bash for 2009? From Teleflora's ugly Super Bowl ad to AT&T's embarrassing response to Verizon, here's the worst of 2009.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=140995 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=140999 From the Expense-a-Steak online expense-report generator from Maloney & Porcelli to Post cereal's inspired move for good old Shredded Wheat, here are the campaigns our ad critic loved in 2009.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=140999 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=140894
In an editorial elsewhere in the issue this week, Ad Age rolls its eyes at Method's decision to pull its online-video ad "Shiny Suds" -- or at least the culture of grievance that spawned it. AdReview respectfully disagrees]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=140894 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=140745
One of the very best things about consumer advertising is that it isn't political advertising.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=140745 Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0500 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=140550
In the new Verizon commercial from McCann Erickson, New York, the iPhone is the newest resident of the Island of Misfit Toys..]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=140550 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=140115
Rhett and Link voluntarily produce spots for little companies that amuse them. One such was the Cullman (Ala.) Liquidation Center, an outfit that buys used mobile and modular homes, fixes them up and resells them. It certainly has no media budget. But it does have a commercial, shot on a shoestring by Rhett and Link, with no production gloss but plenty of moxie.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=140115 Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=139945
It's an anthem. A manifesto. A generational declaration of defiance. And the advertiser behind it is ... Miracle Whip. That is correct, the salad dressing/sandwich spread/middle finger to the Man. Or at least to the mayonnaise.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=139945 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0400 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=139754
Sarah Silverman is not the first to raise the question of whether the church is anachronistic and perverse. What's kind of new is bargaining with the Pope over his $500 billion crib.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=139754 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0400 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=139587
The hero of Kaplan Thaler's Wendy's campaign is undisputedly the hot, juicy, square, unfrozen, unreheated patty.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=139587 Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0400 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=139438
The Expense-a-Steak Headquarters stunt from Walrus, New York, for midtown restaurant Maloney & Porcelli's is one of the cleverest ideas we have seen in 24 years of AdReview-ing.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=139438 Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0400 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=139289
Tire maker BF Goodrich has introduced Nation of Go, a website, community and mobile app to plan road trips. Whether you are a seeker in the Jack Kerouac mold or just a sightseer in a Winnebago, there is a place for you at nationofgo.com. Your motivation is irrelevant to BF Goodrich. So what does it care about?]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=139289 Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0400 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=139144
Uh-oh. The online consignment crafts marketplace/community Etsy.com ran a contest seeking 30-second spots from the general Etsy-sphere. The results are positively remarkable.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=139144 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0400 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=138976
This just in: General Motors has some issues. Luckily, here comes the new chairman, Edward Whitacre Jr., with a boast -- and an offer -- designed to turn it all around.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=138976 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0400 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=138850
Putting aside the careless and amateurish art direction in the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's soft-drink PSA, the message is loud and clear. But it is also literally nauseating.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=138850 Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0400 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=138758
Embarrassing as this is to admit, AdReview is one of those irresponsible morons who talks on the phone and checks his BlackBerry while driving. But he has been chastened, thanks to a viral video produced by a regional Welsh police department, showing in horrifying detail the aftermath of a quadruple-fatal accident caused by a teenage driver texting behind the wheel.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=138758 Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:00:11 -0400 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=138605
It's hard to say whether the new spot for U.S. Cellular, titled "Shadow Puppets," is more clever or more charming. We only wish it were likely to sell cellular, which we fear it will not. This breaks our heart, because in many ways this ad incorporates the advertising values we most believe in.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=138605 Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0400 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=138490
Last week, we looked at the Famous Footwear campaign. This week, for a little change of pace, we shall look at the Famous Footwear campaign.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=138490 Mon, 17 Aug 2009 07:32:16 -0400 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=138360
Yikes. What do you get when you combine a banal and utterly generic media campaign that says absolutely nothing about your brand with a social-media element destined to generate no interest within ... whadyacallit ... society?]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=138360 Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0400 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=138130
Harry and Louise are back -- though, weirdly, this time they're fronting for proponents of the government's plan, the Pharmaceuticals Researchers and Manufacturers of America, and a group called Families USA. Nothing else has changed, however. It's still two terrible actors reducing complex issues ad absurdum.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=138130 Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=138007
Yet, lots and lots of beer advertising is content to tar all of us with the same brush, to reduce us to cartoon characters of masculinity. This includes a decade of Bud Light battle-of-the-sexes gags, Miller Lite's ill-fated "Man Laws" and Heineken's recent green-tinted Bud Light ad about guys squealing over a huge, built-in brewski fridge. So a thousand bravos to Droga5 and its spot for Foster's Victoria Bitter, an Australian beer ad that fills every bill.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=138007 Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:38:31 -0400 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=137864
Unhappy after United Airlines refused to compensate him for a broken guitar, Canadian musician Dave Carroll made a music video devoted to his customer experience.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=137864 Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=137733
The flawless integration of design, strategy and theme in the new Levi's campaign from Wieden & Kennedy isn't what makes it so special. What makes it special is that, more likely than not -- at least in the U.S. -- it will generate little more than a rolling of eyes on a mass scale.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=137733 Mon, 06 Jul 2009 08:19:21 -0400 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield) http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=137468
In the branded film "Cayman Went," there are ample opportunities to bludgeon home the Caribbean Paradise message, but director Bobby Sheehan resists.]]> http://adage.com/garfield/post.php?article_id=137468 Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400 bgarfield@adage.com(Bob Garfield)