Cannes Lions Launch Creative Effectiveness Category In 2011

"Creative Effectiveness Lions will honour creativity which has shown a measurable and proven impact on a client’s business - creativity that effects consumer behaviour, brand equity, sales, and where identifiable, profit."

Cannes Lions Launch Creative Effectiveness Category In 2011 | Ads of the World

My Brand New Facebook Presence

Sifting through information for relevant bits can be a chore these days. To make things easier for my friends, I have created a Facebook page for this blog; and to go with it, a new Twitter ID.

The benefit I expect to immediately flow from this new approach is that my blog posts will not appear in your Facebook or Twitter feed by default; of course, you can opt in by going to the page and clicking the 'Like' button, or by following the dedicated twitter ID (@admanahmer).

Does this make things easier or messier? Please do let me know.

The State of the (Adveritising) Affairs of the State

Here's a comment Business Recorded carried on the Pakistani government advertising. No too wide of the mark, I would say.

Activists Spoof, Shadow Chevron Campaign

The NYT's Media Decoder blog calls them pranksters - but is this just a prank? See for yourself at the website environment activists have created to shadow the Chevron campaign "We agree".

The body copy of the shadow campaign goes: "For decades, oil companies like ours have worked in disadvantaged areas, influencing policy in order to do there what we can't do at home. It's time this changed. People in Ecuador, Nigeria, the Gulf of Mexico, Richmond, and elsewhere have a right to a clean and healthy environment too."

Caveat: Thanks to the proliferation of ICT, groups once operating in the margins now have the power to successfully torpedo mainstream communication efforts.

Harking Back to the Great Ogilvy

Here’s a pick-me-up that goes out to all you pen pushers out there: The world-famous aphorisms from the great Ogilvy, organized into an article aiming to capture the essence of his advice to copywriters. Thank you, Nathan Hangen, for this brilliant piece: David Ogilvy’s 7 Tips for Writing Copy That Sells.

Don't You Love Contests? Here Are Two for Presentation Pros

Don't you love contests? Apart from the prizes and giveaways, the participation itself can be rewarding. Here are two contests most advertising professionals should be eligible to participate in: World's Best Presentation Contest 2010, and Presentation Horror Story Contest. Good luck to any minded to take part.

Was GAP Logo Switch (& Aboutface) a PR Gimmick?

"It can be difficult to tell, but from a PR point of view you could certainly get worse coverage than having all the mainstream media report on how much people loved your brand and didn't want it to change. Any PR team would take that story over other types of negative coverage any day. So will we see more brands conveniently 'forget' about their brand equity in order to get their current customers to start caring more about the brand for a day or two?"

The GAP Logo Poll: Is Ignoring Brand Equity A New Marketing Trend?

Smell Like A Monster: Sesame Street's Grover is Also on a Horse!

See how Sesame Street taps - and multiplies - the power of the "I'm on a horse" meme unleashed by the Old Spice viral campaign starring Isaiah Mustapha: Smell Like A Monster: 'Sesame Street' Spoofs The Old Spice Guy (VIDEO): "

There Is No Sky!

The flight of fancy - to the orbit! Thank you AoTW, for sharing this ISS print ad from the past:
Lego: Taj Mahal | Ads of the World: