If you’ve been reading the papers or watching TV, it would be hard to have missed the debacle that is one-third of what was once Detroit’s Big Three, Chrylser Corporation. There’s a lot at play here – the ObamaNation putting it’s thumb on the scales to tip them in favor of the unions (in a REAL bankruptcy, union contracts are immediately held null and void, as are pension funds and other benefits), the idea that bond holders should head to the back of the line, the giveaway to Fiat (they aren’t BUYing anything…just taking what’s left of Chrysler as a favor).
What amazes me, however, is that the media – on both the left AND the right – is confused about why Chrysler (or let’s get real: The Treasury Dept.) wants to can almost 800 loyal ChryslerCo dealers today.
First, a couple of disclaimers – my wife and I both drive Jeeps, I’m a big fan of the Wrangler, and I used to work for an agency that did ads for car dealers, exclusively.
Congressmen, pundits and TV talking heads are all up in arms about the dealer bloodletting, claiming there’s no reason to kill off dealerships, and that “fewer dealers means fewer sales.”
Apple made their big yearly announcement today, coming down off Mt. Cupertino with the word from on high of new MacBook Pros and new iPhones. While the announcement was something of a mixed bag – a (very) few surprises, a lot of nice, new features, and one or two that didn’t make it into the products – overall it made for a pretty savvy media/marketing event. Nobody but Apple (even in the absence of Steve Jobs) can whip the faithful to a frenzy, not to mention get some serious ink by the mainstream media, like Apple can.
Earlier today, I read an editorial by marketer Laura Ries that reflected on the popularity of the iPhone. She offered that she’d originally believed that the iPhone would fail, because “convergence” is generally a bad idea, but owned up to the fact that the iPhone has been a success in spite of – not because of – it’s blending of a cell phone and a PDA. She then cited reasons she believed the iPhone took off (here’s a clue: “marketing”), and finished up by admonishing Apple to “keep it simple” and not continue to add functionality and features to the iPhone.
With all respect to a marketer that usually hits it out of the park, analysis-wise, I think she’s got a swing and a miss here. Here’s why… Read the rest of this entry »
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, then you know I love Jack in the Box ads. (I admit it…I’m a fanboy.) The latest Jack ad has attracted the attention of the media – specifically Bill O’Reilly. Here’s the ad – sans editorializing on my part. It strikes a little too close to home right now…and I’m too busy laughing.
In what seems like a lifetime ago, I was given the nickname “Captain Digital.” Back when I began blogging, I put everything under this blog’s banner. Eventually, I realized it would be better (for any number of reasons) to refocus this blog to cover just marketing, advertising, and design, and relocate all my political and pop culture posts to another blog, and thus, www.captaindigital.net was born.
When I first created a visual look and feel for Captain Digital, I wanted to evoke a 1940’s style cartoon look. While that worked well as far as the original goal, the reality was that working with the color halftone pattern was a major pain. Nice idea – not worth the extra effort to pull off the look of a Ben Day pattern. Add to that a desire to remake Captain Digital’s image into something just a wee bit more modern and hip, and you have a need for a image refresh. Problem was, I really didn’t have time to work on it. I tried an intermediate step of using a modernized cartoon version of the original, but there were some things I wanted to fix – in particular, I felt like losing the helmet would be a good idea. So As of today, we’ve got a new version of Captain Digital. The old/original drawings will be retired, as I can get to it.
As you can see, the character’s costume has remained fairly consistent. I made things a little more consistent as far as the colors go, but the biggest change is getting rid of the helmet (and replacing it with a headset), and the addition of a little facial hair (which is more consistent with what I really look like (would that I could trade bodies with Captain Digital – he’s in MUCH better shape than I am).
When you get a chance, click on over to the CD blog and check out the new look and feel. I’m hoping that it will reinforce the content with a more consistent visual style.
That’s the word that General Electric has coined for it’s public education campaign regarding their efforts to change health care for the better. Or not. GE is waging a huge public relations campaign – and an even more expensive lobbying effort behind the scenes to change both health care and energy policy at the Federal level.
Wait a minute…what’s one got to do with the other?
Pay attention, campers, because I hope, by the end of this post, to have opened your eyes to how marketing – innocent little marketing – is being used as both a tool to change the hearts and minds of the public, and as a club, to force the government to support policies that will benefit GE financially. Read the rest of this entry »
Like cars? I do. Enjoy them while you can, because today we’ve taken one step closer to making them all obsolete. You see, the ObamaNation today sent out a decree from Barack Agustus that all the world’s automobiles shall be taxed, to the tune of $1,300, in order to force the big, bad automobile manufacturers to build vehicles that will deliver 34MPG by 2011.
Pause with me for a nanosecond while we consider this latest bit of lunacy.
First Obama becomes Marketer-in-Chief for Chrysler, cutting their advertising budget in half. Today, he set nationwide fuel economy standards for cars and trucks sold in the USA.
If Obamanomics dictates that it’s in the country’s best interest to get the Federal Government out of the car business, they’ve got a funny way of going about it. The absolute last thing the auto industry needs right now is the government telling them to improve fuel standards. Nice idea, higher mileage cars. Bad idea to put the government in charge, and worse idea to do it right now.
Not much more to say about this – for now, other than to wonder just what else the ObamaNation has planned for us.
They sure are good at campaigning, though. Pity the election is over.
Let me explain…about a year and a half ago, my family joined a (very) small Reformed Episcopal (a.k.a. “Anglican”) church here in Amarillo. I grew up in the Episcopal church, with the 1928 prayer book, the 1940 hymnal, and all the ritual and liturgy that the Church of England bequeathed to the Colonies back in the day. We found our church in kind of an odd way. When we first relocated to Amarillo, I wanted to find an Episcopal church. I found two – one that was pursuing the post-modern, cherry-picked theological, anything goes style worship favored by the main body of the Episcopal church in the United States. The other struck me as kind of old and stodgy. Neither had any appeal to me. So we went elsewhere. We landed at a “mega-church” – one of the many across the country that features a “praise team” (read: “Christian rock group”) and a sermon as their service. Not exactly what I was used to from a liturgical point of view, but at least we were in the pews…um…seats, every Sunday. Then my wife was approached to create a strategic marketing plan for a small Episcopal church. We checked out the church, and found a traditional church, using the “old” prayer book, the “old” hymnal, with a firm grounding in traditional Anglican theology. No gay bishops, same-sex marriages, or any other “if it feels good it can’t be wrong” kind of nonsense. We’d found our church home. Read the rest of this entry »
DETROIT (AdAge.com) — Chrysler wanted to spend $134 million in advertising over the nine weeks it’s expected to be in bankruptcy — the U.S. Treasury’s auto-industry task force gave it half that.
So if GM, which is wrestling with the possibility of a Chapter 11 filing itself, is wondering how much influence the task force will have over marketing, the answer is: plenty. However, transcripts from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Southern District of New York, where the Chrysler case is being heard, proved for the first time that the task force at least understands that advertising is a necessary expense — even if it doesn’t think Chrysler needs $134 million for nine weeks of car ads. (continued after link)
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So it’s come to this. Anything worth managing is worth MICROmanaging – at least in the ObamaNation. Read the rest of this entry »
Believe it or not, this is not a joke…I’m not kidding. It’s not hype. And it’s not make-believe. Now when you’re talking about Trillion-dollar budgets and bailouts, I realize that 1/3 of a million dollars is probably chicken feed, inside the Beltway at least. But to paraphrase Senator Everitt Dirksen (R-IL), a third of a million here, and a third of a million there, and pretty soon, you’re talking about real money. So how can I save the U.S. Taxpayers some major coin? Simple. Read the rest of this entry »
Seen the latest commercial from Microsoft? The spot claims to have found an “artist” who wants to find the right computer for video editing. I don’t wanna spoil the ending for you, but she chooses a PC over a Mac. Microsoft wants us to all believe that, in the words of Irving Berlin, “Anything you (Mac) can do, I (Windows) can do better.” Only one teensy, tiny little problem. It’s all a lie. Read the rest of this entry »
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