The latest spot from Microsoft has been unleashed on an unsuspecting populace. The good news: it’s (a bit) funnier than the last spot. The bad news: it’s still brain-dead stupid. According to a Microsoft spokespersyn, there’s to be a whole series of these spots (Oh, the Humanity! The Horror!) and we’ll just have to wait for them to do the ‘reveal’ as to what in the HELL they’re on about.
Did you ever wonder why Microsoft and marketing both start with “m” but just don’t go together? I’m just not quite certain if Microsoft has an aversion to marketing in the same way that, oh, say, Oprah has to Governor Palin. But if this latest excursion into television advertising is any indication, I’d say that “Microsoft” goes together with “marketing” like “Congress” goes with “bi-partisan cooperation.”
Let’s recap: On the one hand, you have Microsoft, probably The Most Successful Computer Company Ever.™ On the other hand, you have Apple, the Little Company That Could. Read the rest of this entry »
We’re on a lot of lists. And we get some of the strangest things you’d ever expect – or not expect – to see in your mailbox. As a marketer, I’m always interested to see how others are using direct mail to market their products and/or services. As a pragmatic conservative, I like to look past the marketing, and look at what they’re trying to say with their promotion. Sometimes, there’s a logical disconnect between the product and the marketing. Think of it as a “cognitive dissonance,” where the message and the media contradict each other. This makes for some rich, visual irony in many situation. Case in point, The United States Postal Service, and their efforts to promote direct mail with their Deliver magazine. Read the rest of this entry »
If you wanna learn something about marketing, look no farther than national politics. People don’t really elect politicians. The elect their perception of who the politician is, what they perceive he or she stands for, and how well the image they project resonates with the perceptions the public has of them. So, when you think about it, what you’re really doing is listening to the stories the candidates tell. You vote for the story you like better – or more specifically, not just the story, but how good a job the storytellers do in selling the story.
In politics, the story – the narrative is everything. The candidates want to control their own story. At one time, the media was both a conduit for enabling the candidate to get their story to the public, and a watchdog that monitored the candidates story for veracity. Today, the media has largely put both those roles in the background, and taken on the dischordant roll of kingmaker. Read the rest of this entry »
I never met Don in person, but I had the opportunity to work with him on some TV spots, and I know his wife, Anita, well. (She’s from my hometown of Shreveport, LA, and my Dad wrote the arrangement she used of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to go to the Miss American pageant, as Miss Louisiana.)
By all accounts, everyone that knew Don called him a great guy. My cousin (who visited Don and Anita in California a bunch) tells me he was witty, with a wicked sense of humor, and not at all pompous or distant in the way that celebrities can be. I can attest personally to the fact that he was generous to a fault, and was willing to “put his money where his mouth is” when it comes to causes he would support.
It’s hard for me to think about Don in the past tense. While there are other voiceover artists that mimic’d Don’s style and delivery, there will never be another Don LaFontaine. My heart and prayers go out to Anita and their kids in what must be a very difficult time. Please keep them in your prayers.
In a world of advertising, where too few voiceover artists have the ability to create a distinctive sound, Don LaFontaine will be missed.
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