Celebrity Endorsements.. the easy way out.

According to study by Ad Age "fewer than 12% of ads using celebrities exceeded a 10% lift and one-fifth of celebrity ads had a negative impact on advertising effectiveness."(Read the article here!) This is insane! Ad Age is positing that the consumer of today is different than the consumer of yester-year. That we as people don't look to celebrities to tell us what is 'in' and what isn't anymore.

It also speaks to bad creative ideas and also talks about how celebrities cannot simply be a cover up for bad campaign ideas. Instead of using a pricey celeb, it says that companies should shell out money for better and more creative campaigns that reach the audience.

I also look to the celebrities and think that their personal lives can interfere with how people perceive what they represent- even if it has nothing to do with that particular product.  However, that is the risk that companies take when signing a celebrity to be a spokesperson.  The article cites that Tiger Woods poor performance did not help Nike this year- but I think it was the negative focus on his personal life that hurt him as well.

Many companies use people because they carry great weight within our culture. Unfortunately, they only focus on the person and not the product.  This was cited in the article as well.

I don't understand how agencies can create an advertisement without focusing on the product.  That's what the ad is for!  It's all about making sure the consumer knows why they should pick that certain product- Why is it better than the competitor? Why does it stand out? What are the best features? Is it new? Is it a product extension?

Come on advertisers! Let's challenge ourselves! Not just use a celebrity as a lazy excuse for an advertisement when we can't come up with anything else..

Comedy Central's new look for a new year!

So I'm 9 days late on this, but Comedy Central has a new logo. And I am loving it! It looks so great! It's clean and crisp. Their old logo was the globe with the name written across it (very 90's)- and they had been using it for 15 years!  The new logo looks a little bit like the Copyright C with another backwards upside C eating it (very modern) and simple! It's great and I love the font as well.  All of the other fonts they are using are clean and easy to read as well. They are integrating the look all across the network's brands and shows which is smart.  I am a big fan of simplicity in logo design. That way it's recognized easily by the consumer first hand.

Here's a video about the new logo: Comedy Central New Logo

Product placement..

Product placement is a tricky thing. Many shows and movies have been called out for their use of product placement. Most recently, Days of Our Lives was blasted for their blatant and overt use of product placement. Days of Our Lives Story I know that Men in Black II was one movie that really utilized product placement as well. The reason I was writing about this tonight is because I have been watching some television tonight and after all of the commercials for Cougartown it kept saying that it was "Unbelievably Satisfying! Like Diet Dr. Pepper!" I thought it was weird that DDP was sponsoring a sitcom.  However, I had heard recently that Cougartown could be cancelled so maybe they needed the money. Here is the commercial if you want to see it. CougarTown commercial

So I watched Cougartown tonight for the first time. And one of the characters decided to be a golfer and he had to find a sponsorship with someone. He 'ironically' chose Diet Dr. Pepper. He said the name probably 5 times in 1 minute. His son said to him.. "Wow, is there a camera around here?"--Really? That's when he started talking about his sponsorship. Naturally he is wearing a Diet Dr. Pepper hat, shirt, and drinking the product.  I actually like Diet Dr. Pepper so I'm not trying to be rude.  However, I do think this was a pretty bad job by the marketing team.  It could have been much worse like Days of Our Lives. I think I was probably one of the only ones that realized DDP was going to be a part of the show tonight. I'm so glad I tuned in to see how it was used.

Starbucks logo Redesign!

(Thanks to Perez Hilton.com) This was the closest picture of the new logo I found today. I love it's simplicity and the fact that the name isn't splattered all over the logo anymore.  The plain green and enlarging of the character give the logo an even more upscale feel. I LOVE it! Nice job friends. Nice job.