Cup of Java

Pop Matters- an interesting site I came across. Reviews and opinions on music, books, tv, films and more.

Ad news stuff
New campagin for Coke- For years there's been the battle between Pepsi and Coca-Cola. Last year we got bombarded by Britney Spears (and soon Beyonce Knowles) hawking Pepsi. Now get ready for Coke to fight back and try to take back the youth market. Starting during the "American Music Awards" on ABC, Coke will break the first of more than a dozen new spots. The concept behind these new spots is Coke (not the sniffing kind) celebrities in their "real" life. The new spots star Penelope Cruz and Courteney Cox Arquette (and hubby David) and singer Mya. "All of the commercials close with variations of the new tagline, “Coca-Cola...Real,” a reference to the soft drink’s classic slogan, “The Real thing.” Other commercials focus on regular people caught in “bonding” moments. In “Science,” two young men sharing useless trivia meet two cute girls near a Coke machine. The ads were carefully tested with consumers who want brands to be “genuine, authentic and real,” Chris Lowe, chief marketing officer of Coca-Cola North America said in a statement."

Bringing back an old idea in the age of TiVO- "Envisioning the possible demise of the traditional 30-second television commercial, a number of advertisers have banded together to buy six prime-time hours on an American broadcast network this summer to present a variety show that will contain no commercials at all. The advertisers, which so far include Pepsi-Cola and Nokia phones, aim to create what the program's producer, Michael Davies, called "a contemporary, hip Ed Sullivan show" for the youth-oriented WB Network. The program will try to highlight the companies' products in creative ways, like building them into a singer's performance or a comedian's routines."

First there were ads linking doing drugs to supporting Terrorists. Now there are ads linking driving and SUV to supporting Terrorists. "The two ads are already generating controversy even before they begin airing. A group opposed to U.S. reliance on foreign oil are behind the 30-second ads, which their creator said are intended to be humorous parodies. One commercial features a child's voiceover connecting the dots between a man filling his gas tank and terrorist training footage. The closing statement: "Oil money supports some terrible things. What kind of mileage does your SUV get?" The other ad features talking heads commenting about their SUVs. One person says, "My kids think it's cool." Another says, "I helped blow up a nightclub." Click here to view the commercials via the KCRAChannel.com The Detroit Project was created by Americans for Fuel Efficient Cars, a group co-founded by Huffington, film producer Lawrence Bender, environmental activist Laurie David, and movie and TV agent Ari Emanuel. The $50,000 cost of creating the ads was covered by thousands of individual small contributions. Major donors contributed the $175,000 to buy air time. The ads, written and directed by Scott Burns, who was part of the creative team responsible for the "Got Milk" campaign, will air this Sunday on "Face the Nation" and "Meet the Press." "
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The funny thing about this is earlier this evening while watching something on tv (I don't remember the show or channel), there was an ad with Cameron Diaz and Gwenyth Paltrow doing a "candid" spot talking about how using low energy lightbulbs and switching to a hybrid type car would help lessen the US dependency on foreign oil. Sadly the ad might have been slightly more effective if it wasn't completely obvious that they were reading off cue-cards. ;)