:: adgruntie :: Choking on tinsel

+ When it's time to stop blaming agencies and start looking within. A nice article that specifically takes a look at Nedbank of South Africa- but discusses some issues that are relevant to a lot of other companies as well.

Good advertising requires intelligent input from the marketer. When the marketer looks to the agency to solve its problems without rolling up its sleeves and mucking in, the advertising product is rarely on target. Only good companies get good advertising.
I personally do not believe companies should necessarily change ad agencies when they fall short of their goals.
It is always the advertising that gets the blame. Management rarely has the balls to look inward and ask itself whether it has the right people looking after its communication programme. Maybe it should change those people first and not fire the agency...
There was a time when companies had an inhouse advertising professional who could interpret what management wanted, investigate if it is possible, fight if it is off target, and only then pass the brief on the agency.

Unfortunately this tactic of companies passing the buck happens too often. When the internal model is broken there is nothing that an advertising agency can do to repair that. These companies just get themselves stuck into a bad cycle that isn't good for moral, or for business.

+ The Turtles sue Applebees over "Happy Together". "Two of the group's members, Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, have sued the chain and its advertising agency, FCB Worldwide Inc., arguing their reputation was compromised, the pair said the lyrics changed "from those of a sweet love song to a crass paean to shrimp and steak combination plates," according to papers filed in Los Angeles federal court on Wednesday." Apparently the agency got permission to use the song from the song's publisher but not from The Turtles themselves, who are the owners of the orignial master copy and copyright holders.

+ The Scotsman reports on Campaigns list of top ten worst celebrity appearences in TV ads.

+ Coke's holiday ads (created by McCann Erickson in Spain) get a C- from Lewis Lazare of the Chicago Sun TImes.