is Goodby responsible for killing Chevy?

Slow news day when story about a company wanting to change its branding hits the front page of New York Times. Or is it clever placement for a whip-smart campaign using free earned media, as Rohit Bhargava suggests it could be?

According to an internal memo leaked to the Times, Chevrolet wants you to stop calling it "Chevy." The memo was from GM to employees at Detroit headquarters: "We ask that whether you're talking to a dealer...or speaking with friends and family, that you communicate our brand as Chevrolet." "Swear jars" have been placed in hallways, and employees who let "Chevy" slip are expected to contribute a quarter. But, wait. Isn't Chevy one of the world's best-known product monikers, and longest lived? And isn't the trend away from proper brand names, to be more consumer-friendly and casual a la FedEx, KFC and The Shack? A GM spokesman who confirmed the memo linked the change to the recent switch from long-time ad agency Campbell-Ewald to Goodby, Silverstein (after a brief stopover at Publicis USA.) Could it be that smart cookies at Goodby "leaked" memo themselves, landing astonishingly good media coverage and generating heated convos about a brand that's been in the doldrums for years? They don't give out those Clio Lifetime Achievements for nothing.

UPDATE: Steve Hall of AdRants reports that GM has released a clarification that states the brand will not, in fact, urge people to discontinue the use of the word Chevy: We deeply appreciate the emotional connections that millions of people have for Chevrolet and its products. Pretty much plays out the way Bhargava predicted.

UPDATED UPDATE: The august Gray Lady devoted a Sunday (best-placement) editorial to Chevrolet vs. Chevy, ending with "foreigners will learn to love 'Chevy' the way Americans have ever since the company was founded in 1911." This is from a New York Times reporter? Or GM annual report?

hey, baby, now you can blow catcallers away

Last time I did jury duty it was for a street harassment case which I couldn't believe had come to trial. A young woman going to work at 7 am was walking up from the subway and as she passed a man coming down stairs, he leered at her, complimented her breasts, then reached out and grabbed them. It was summer. She was wearing a lowcut, summery dress. And fashionably high heels which didn't stop her from running after him, and screaming for a cop to do the same. Her moxie impressed me. If it had been me on those stairs, I would probably have collected myself and simply continued on the way to work, blaming the incident on my choice of attire. But the young woman in court asserted herself and as a result, the groper was jailed, which meant he wouldn't be harrassing women on subways for a while, or in public restrooms either, where it turns out he liked to lurk in closed stalls, a habit he cheerfully told us about when his lawyer made the mistake of putting him on the stand.

Another victim of street harassment reacted by creating a video game. Suyin Looui got the idea for "Hey Baby" after a guy on the subway came on to her, invoking a racial epithet. (What is it about undergrounds that breeds misbehavior?) "Hey Baby" is a new web game that takes aim at catcallers by arming players with weapons--and permission-- to blow them away. Only men can be killed. And only after they say something first. Their words can be benign as "God bless you" or overtly offensive. The player chooses to respond with "Thanks, have a great day" or by shooting, turning the man into a tombstone engraved with his last words.

A trailer for the game is on youtube. The first comment is "I find this game offensive" and I was surprised to discover that what offended the commenter wasn't that if a man says "Hey, Beautiful" that is license to kill him, but the fact that the weapons weren't real-looking enough. "What is this, 1998? Put some more work into those graphics, people! The gunfire should be louder. Why does the flamethrower not even make any sound?"

Seth Schiesel reviewed the game for the New York Times and was prepared to dislike it. "At first I found myself somewhat offended...a video game in which you play a man who can shoot only women would be culturally unthinkable, no matter the circumstances." But as he played on, it gave him "a visceral appreciation for what many women go through as part of their day-to-day lives" realizing that, "The men cannot actually hurt you, but no matter what you do, they keep on coming, forever."

That realization, according to its maker, an artist, is the point of the game.

guinness record of branded content

In 1951, when corporate off-sites took place in settings more luxe than chain hotel ballrooms, a dispute took place between Sir Hugh Beaver, managing director of Guinness Brewery in Dublin (are all CEO's over there knighted?) and a guest at a shooting party at his estate in County Wexford. The dispute centered on which was the fastest Eurpean game bird. No reference book gave a definitive answer.

The royal director decided to publish a volume of facts, intended to be sold to bartenders who could use it to settle pub arguments. The first Guinness Book of Records was published in August, 1955 with a plastic cover to protect it from beer stains. Despite skepticism from retailers, the volume became an instant hit. It reached bestseller status by Christmas the same year. Over a hundred million copies have been published worldwide in 25 languages. Over 3 million are still sold every year, the best-selling book under copyright of all time.

Times being what they are, listings are also available digitally. A website tells you how to compete for your own. But note that one of the original categories is no longer cited: "Uncontrolled Drinking." Current editor in chief, Craig Glenday, told the New York Times: “We’re not going to encourage that sort of thing today. That’s how people get hurt.”

Hats off to Sir Beaver and his prescient marketing move. But is it truly successful as branded content? Do consumers associate the purveyor of brew with best known arbiter of facts and factoids? I didn't until reminded of association by New York Times article. And Alan Wolk of the Toadstool blog observes that book's popularity is highest with kids too young to (legally) be target for Guinness. Still, selling millions of book objects these days is a feat to be marvelled at.

is the new york times becoming the onion?

Check out this photo of Hillary and caption. Front page of the NY Times. I kid you not.

mother of all media buys

You think media placement for your client is complicated? Don't go whining to Katherine Kinsella. With a budget of less than $8 million, she had to reach the entire literate world.

Her client? Google. On October 28, Google settled a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of authors whose works it scanned for its ambitious Book Project, an ongoing attempt to digitize every book on earth, creating the universe's most comprehensive (and searchable) virtual public library.

According to today's New York Times, Google agreed to pay $125 million to create a system by which customers will pay to read a copyrighted book, with Google and the writer both taking percentages. But before writers can be paid, they need to be found.

How to reach writers in every country of the world?

"We recommended print ads to reach writers. Because writers are readers," explained Kinsella, president of Kinsella Media, an ad agency specializing in notices for class action lawsuits. She advised the company at the forefront of digital space to concentrate its spending in analog media: newspapers, magazines, even poetry journals.

That meant negotiating space sales all over the world, except in countries where buys are prohibited due to US trade embargoes: Cuba, North Korea and Burma⎯oops, Myanmar.

"Some publications wouldn't let us buy space at first," laughed Katherine, when I spoke with her today. "Because they were afraid of pissing off Google. They didn't want to be on the wrong side of a company that big."



"Newspapers in Costa Rica, Brazil and Russia flat out refused our money," recalled Belinda Bulger, an attorney who worked with Kinsella on the project, "until they figured out the buy was legit because they saw the ads running elsewhere, in other countries or in competitive journals."

As challenging as the buy, was translating the ad into 70 languages."We had to figure out how to communicate words and phrases that don't exist in other countries and cultures," Katherine said, adding,"There's nothing we'll be afraid to take on, after this."

Print ads drive target to a website (also in your choice of 70 languages) that describes the settlement in excruciating detail, even down to defining the word "Book": a written or printed work…on sheets of paper bound together. (Hail from a bleak and paperless future.)

But if you're an author (I'm talking to you, Bob, Steffan, George) don’t get your hopes up for payouts to offset depleted 401Ks. Payment for each book is $60 and made only once, no separate payments for hardback and paperback. If you're the author of, say, an essay in an anthology, you've got (woohoo) five bucks from Google coming your way.

Sorry, ad copy isn't part of the settlement. Copyright is protected, not copywrite.

must ambient ads be omnipresent?

Nothing against practitioners of our fine profession, but do we really need posters under our feet for products in view on a shelf right in front of us?


Today's NY Times reports rapid disappearance of ad-free zones, citing several examples you might not have noticed:

*The airport baggage carousel. Adclaim Inc. of Irving, Tex., has ads at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and hopes to expand into entertainment-oriented cities like Las Vegas, Nev.; Orlando, Fla, and Miami. Local restaurants and limousine services especially like the location, said Hank Arendt, Adclaim's president. A 5-by-5-foot ad can be had for about $875 a month, he said.

*The cash machine in your neighborhood. The Electronic Data Systems Corporation of Plano, Tex., began testing talking ads on automated teller machines in the San Diego area in November. Such ads may one day play nationwide, with advertisers paying perhaps 40 to 50 cents for each shot at a newly flush customer, said Dale Dentlinger, director of product management at EDS.

*The local gas station. Rio Network Inc. of Raleigh, N.C., has installed television-like screens and speakers in gas pumps that gab as you fill your tank. The company's ads play outside 600 convenience stores around the country, with half the ads for products inside the store, said Louis Williford, president of Rio Network. His company gives grocers 20 percent of the revenues from advertisers, which average $300 to $700 a month per location.

*The rental car. A New Jersey company, Kallet & Grant Associates, is preparing to roll out cassette-tape ads that will play in Avis rental cars picked up at airports, first in Philadelphia and, if the test goes well, expanding nationwide. Along with an overview of the city, new arrivals will hear pitches for local restaurants, hotels and other vendors, said Geoff Grant, president of Kallet & Grant. He said his company would give Avis perhaps 10 percent of the take from advertisers, who will probably pay about $1,500 a month for spots in a single city.