The car, the city, the conceit

The way to stop waste from building up in the street is not to enforce a litter ban. It is to change what it is that they are dropping, into something that is not waste, something that becomes productive. Of the many stirring, puzzling and fantastic things that Zeitgeist was exposed to at yesterday’s LS:N Global Trends briefing yesterday (who presented the above insight), one of the more thought-provoking things was the above commercial, played during this year’s Super Bowl extravaganza in the US. It’s a bold, powerful advertisement, and rightly pointed out as a return to the more glorious days of advertising. There is a problem with it though, one of cognitive dissonance.

As we know, the US auto industry, with its epicentre in Detroit, had to be bailed out by the Obama administration. More recently Chrysler themselves thought the problem might be a more macro one of people being unable to drive. As with the initial example, the thinking in this commercial has the wrong end of the stick. The problem was not the global recession and the short-term devastation it wrought. The Economist wrote in January that “The car industry can produce 94m cars a year, against global demand of 64m”; this clearly has to change. The long-term problem though, unfortunately, is simply that the US auto industry makes low-quality cars. In terms of quality, they are subpar relative to other countries. This is partly why the country saw such an influx of Japanese models during the 1980s. The hysteria of Japanese cultural domination (evident in films like Blade Runner) was such at the time that popular fiction author Tom Clancy dramatised the whole affair, setting the Japanese auto industry’s invasion of America as the first step to all-out war in the novel Debt of Honour.

Last year was the first time when, around the world, more people lived in cities than in towns. Ipso facto, this means there will be less need for cars, as distances travelled on a regular basis become shorter. Car manufacturers make more profit from larger models than the smaller ones that will increasingly come to dominate the marketplace. Even Aston Martin is getting into the race for convenience in the city. Making the most of this dramatic shift will be of the utmost importance if the industry is to survive. That, and not using brilliant creative to make up for a lower quality in manufacturing.

How to master social media, the Conan O’Brien way

Conan the Television Host, a Harvard alum who back in the day wrote many an episode of The Simpsons, found himself at the centre of controversy last year, a victim of NBC and its admiration of Jay Leno. When the latter’s contract on his 11.35pm nightly show expired, Conan, who had been waiting in the wings for so long in the 12.30am talkshow slot, finally had his dream come true when he took over the coveted Tonight Show spot, which in the US holds a nostalgic place in many people’s hearts, as well as being a significant place for advertisers to plug their wares for a young demographic with money and time.

As Oscar Wilde once said, however, “When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers”. After much dithering, NBC decided to bump Conan off the Tonight Show and return Leno just six months later. Conan was not impressed. A significant part of his fanbase felt motivated enough to rally in protest about the move, both online and on studio lots. After having his fun running up costs on the show and being paid $30m to leave, Conan transitioned to Twitter, which he used intially to promote a tour. He currently has 1.8m followers. After months of pithy and hilarious tweets, and rumours of courting by Fox, O’Brien eventually revealed he was transitioning the lesser-known network TBS.

After a saucy, Paris Hilton-esque ad debuted promoting the new show last week, Conan O’Brien and his production office bombarded YouTube for 24 hours straight yesterday, live from their humble abode in Southern California. This included an aerobics class at 4am PST given by bears, a puppet show (see below) and many, many other bizarre things. This all in aid of his new show, which launches early next month. The stream incorporated tweets and Facebook mentions, and periodically staff (mostly interns), would put questions asked over the platform to various members of the production office.

In his continuing dedication to exploiting all that social media has to offer, Mashable reported recently that the first guests to be on Conan’s new show may be decided by a popular vote on Twitter. Throughout October, a giant blimp has also been plaguing the East Coast of the US, emblazoned with the word “Conan”, that, of course, you can check into on Foursquare to earn a badge. Unnecessary, but inspired and fun. Three words which might well be used to describe the institution that is Conan O’Brien.

Dieselling out

Zeitgeist will never, ever buy anything from Diesel. That said, it has enjoyed some of its advertising over the years, not least of which the Global Warming Ready campaign, which generated oodles of almost entirely favourable press coverage. An example ad is featured above, as exotic parrots find a new home in Venice’s Piazza San Marco.

Last week, brandchannel ran an article excoriating the new Diesel campaign. The manner and style of the article alluded to a writer who was alternatively, angered, frustrated and depressed by such moves, and backs up these emotions with a spot-on justification for what is wrong with the ads, all of which are featured in the article. The campaign in question is based on the insight, Zeitgeist supposes, that a great many people do not purchase sneakers for anything that might ever hope to be called physical exercise. Hence the copy “Not made for running. (Great for kicking asses)”. This could have been executed very well, with annoying bosses, ex-boy/girlfriends, parents etc., all in line for their humorous comeuppance. Instead the campaign is for the most part far too generic, if anything targeting overweight people. Of the series of advertisements featured in the brandchannel article, only one [see below] caught Zeitgeist’s eye as barely escaping the baseness of its peers; vaguely humorous, subversive and irreverent. Your thoughts?

Serving up a winner – How timely context enhances a message

Two brands, both alike in dignity, in fair Wimbledon, where we lay our scene. Those lucky enough to be at this year’s Championships at SW19 witnessed a record-breaking feat; the longest tennis match ever. While an exhausted John Isner and Nicolas Mahut – it would almost be a disservice to label either of them as not winners – were convalescing in ice baths with IV drips and (no doubt) comely women at their sides to mop their sweaty brows, it was not just John McEnroe that paid attention to the importance of the match, which ended 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68.

KitKat came up with a simple but brilliant execution for a print ad that ran soon after the match – the principle image being a terrifically distressed tennis ball, along with the final scoreline – that was perfectly on-brand and in sync with its proposition “Have a break”. The second, more amusing exploitation of the match was by Durex, with the end-line “Take pleasure in coming second”. See the ad below. (UPDATE: The video has now been “removed by the user”. Zeitgeist can’t seem to find it elsewhere online. If, good reader, you know where to find it, please let us know.)