Advertising Age - November 2, 2009

ADAGES
BY KEN WHEATON
Mtn Dew

When campaigns go to the crowds

Real London Fog adman
not happy about ‘Mad Men’

We received the following correspondence from Richard

Gilbert, whose book “Marching Up Madison Avenue,” was previously written about in this space.

Richard’s got a bone to pick with the creators of “Mad Men” and, instead of translating his frustrations, we figured we’d just run his commentary as is. Richard writes:

“I believe, quite strongly, that

AMC

Advertising Age should always advance editorial opinion, particularly when others are attempting to tell the story of our industry. The current well-acclaimed series ‘Mad Men’ is a perfect example.

“The show is, above all, slick and professional. It would be no less slick and professional if it were also cautiously accurate. Here, I think of this season’s opening episode that was devoted to London Fog. It was presented as a tired, 40-year-old company whose advertising was in trouble. Sterling Cooper was the agency and Don Draper, the creative lead in the show, has a business-saving ad for Israeland Jon Myers, owners of the company. [The ad] shows a nude model in a London Fog flashing the audience and the headline ‘Limit Your Exposure.’

“London Fog was not a tired, 40-year-old brand at the time, as it was launched in 1954 when it changed from Londontown Clothes, a Baltimore men’s clothing manufacturer, to its current brand title and rainwear emphasis. Gilbert Advertising handled the brand through the ‘60s and built a body of work that was acclaimed for its creative brilliance and brand dominance. London Fog’s 65% Dacron/35% cotton fabric was the soul of the rainwear industry, and in 1960 the company was at the beginning of its advertising ascendency.

“It is also questionable whether a warm, traditional, avuncular Jewish tailor like Israel Myers would ever be seen in the halls of a Sterling Cooper. From a chemistry, personality and sociological point of view, it was an impossible match. Further, in 1960, magazine censors would never accept such a ‘flashing’ image. We did an ad at the time for After Six Formals with a model unfurling the bow tie of a male model under the headline, ‘The next affair you have, make it formal.’ The New Yorker accepted the ad, but the woman’s hand had to go.

“The show’s producers claim that they did meticulous research, and they obviously did—on girdles, cigarettes, clothing, furnishings, art work, etc. But they seem to have done little or none on advertising for an advertising-themed show.

“All our ads were available, many in art-director annual collections. My memoir, ‘Marching Up Madison Avenue,’ was also in print [and contained] a lengthy chapter on the history of London Fog and its advertising. It is also personally depressing to hear from some of the incredible young talents who worked for me asking, ‘Do they have a right to do this?’

“Even more shameful is that ‘Mad Men’ concentrates on a decaying era of American advertising at a time when we were actually experiencing a great creative revolution led by the incomparable Doyle Dane Bernbach. The industry also benefited from an exciting infusion of new talent with Jewish writers and Italian art directors bringing refreshing humor, warmth, irreverence, entertainment and believability to the printed page and TV screen. ‘Mad Men,’ in truth, is locked in the ’50s, and by the early ’60s, the men portrayed were dinosaurs on their way to extinction.

“But give Matthew Weinerand his Emmy-award-winning writers credit. They’re turning those dinosaurs into rock stars.”

MAD MAN OR BAD MAN? That’s a Scotch fog, not a London fog.

opment to consumers. Last year, the Dewmocracy brands accounted for 25 million cases—or a couple hundred million dollars, according to John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest. By comparison, Coke Zero, a major growth engine and core brand for Coca-Cola, sold 96 million cases last year.

“It really is a good piece of business for a line extension, even in this big a category,” Mr. Sicher said.

When Dewmocracy launched in 2007, it involved an online game. This time around, Mtn Dew is using Facebook, Twitter and its private online Dew Labs Community to determine the flavor, color, packaging and names of the new products. Now, it’s also allowing consumers to select the agencies that will produce 15-second spots for each of the new flavors. Digital advertising and point-of-sale materials could also become a part of the mix. Once the flavors and advertising break in April 2010, consumers will vote to determine which flavor will become a permanent part of the Mtn Dew lineup.

Mtn Dew is adamant that the new effort will not impact its relationship with agency of record BBDO Worldwide, noting that it has been a part of Dewmocracy from the beginning and continues to play an important role in the process. BBDO directed a call for comment to the client.

Brett O’Brien, Mtn Dew’s direc-tor-marketing, said that the broadcast spots created by the selected agencies will be supported by a “robust media plan,” noting that marketing is a key part of the Dewmocracy process.

“If we’re going to have a dialogue with consumers and have consumers play a role in dictating the future of our brand, they’ve got to play a role in all aspects of it,” said Mr. O’Brien of the decision to let consumers select agencies.

Crowd-sourcing is a growing phenomenon among major brands such as Unilever and Amazon. Frito-Lay’s Doritos brand has run three consecutive “Crash the Super Bowl” campaigns, which ask consumers to vote on their favorite consumer-generated spot. The latest contest offered a $1 million prize if the winner topped the USAToday ad poll, which it did. But while contests like that have been decidedly gimmicky, a

From Page 1

Crowd-sourcing isn’t new, but it’s increasingly popular, with major brands turning to consumers to create marketing for all sorts of products.

AMAZON: The online retailer turned to consumers this year for TV concepts, eventually awarding $20,000 to the winner, a photographer based in Los Angeles.

CAREERBUILDER: In May, CareerBuilder dropped Wieden & Kennedy. That same month it began promoting the HireMyTvAd contest. The winning ad could be shown during the 2010 Super Bowl.

CHEVROLET: In 2006, a contest to create ads for the Chevy Tahoe resulted in anti-SUV spoofs, but it did garner plenty of attention.

DORITOS: For three years running, the Frito-Lay brand has run a “Crash the Super Bowl” campaign featuring consumer-generated ads.

HP: To promote its Artist Edition laptops, HP launched the You on You Project this summer. It asked consumers to upload videos or remix a commercial using stock footage.

PEPERAMI: The Unilever snack brand dismissed Lowe, London, earlier this year in favor of a crowd-sourcing strategy to find new ideas for TV and print.

more troubling trend for agencies is emerging. This fall, Unilever’s Peperami brand dismissed Lowe, London, in favor of running a contest to find TV and print ad ideas. Just this month, two former senior managers at Crispin Porter & Bogusky launched Victors & Spoils, billed as the world’s first creative agency built on crowd-sourcing principles.

“Most agency relationships, they’re still the brand steward. They understand the brand they’re working with at an almost molecular level,” said Chick Foxgrover, 4A’s chief information officer. “It’s unclear whether [crowd-sourcing] will be a trend that takes hold in a universal way or whether it’s more of an experiment. … In general, there’s a lot of experimentation going on in agency compensation. This fits into the context of that larger conversation.”

Mr. O’Brien said the review will be promoted to indie agencies, indie film companies, universities and film schools, as well as via online messaging and word-of-mouth. BBDO handled advertising for the previous Dewmocracy product launches. This time, BBDO will work on an umbrella spot that explains the overall Dewmocracy program, while the selected agencies work independently on the launch creative.

“I don’t know … that they’ll

bring something different—certainly they may have a different perspective,” Mr. O’Brien said about the prospect of using a smaller agency or a film company, rather than a large, traditional agency. “It lets us get an interesting and unique perspective on the brand from people that aren’t living and breathing it every day.”

Asked whether the agencies tapped for the product launches could pick up more Mtn Dew business, Mr. O’Brien said he didn’t know, adding that “it’s certainly TBD.” PepsiCo has worked with small agencies in the past, especially in the digital space, and recently tapped Interpublic Group of Cos. digital agency Huge to handle a piece of business for brand Pepsi.

Mtn Dew has been one of the few trademarks growing in the carbonated soft-drink space, with volume up 1% in the first half, as the overall category declined 2.7%, according to Beverage Digest.

“[Dewmocracy] contributes to our growth. … The Dew fan is excited about engaging with new offerings from Dew. But it also attracts new people into the Dew fan base that say, ‘hey, this is something really interesting, let me give it a try,’” explained Mr. O’Brien. “And retailers love it, because it’s interesting news that drives folks into the stores.”

Nudist turns out to be corporate tool

Hey New Yorkers, remember that naked guy in running shoes eating tacos in Williamsburg? In September, you may have spotted his YouTube videos on Gawker or Huffington Post, or seen his bare speedy booty—he calls himself the World’s Fastest Nudist—firsthand in Union Square Park. The WFN isn’t a real New York wacko exhibitionist; he’s a marketing stunt courtesy of Zappos, the online retailer.

New York-based agency Agent 16 and production company Bullet are behind the WFN videos. His name is not even Donnie! He’s an actor named Kyle Overstreet. –KUNUR PATEL

”You’regoingto have
franchiseesthat
aren’tvery good at
managing
restaurants,[andthey
are] goingtofail.”

Send your “Mad Men”-inspired rants to kwheaton@adage.com.

Simmons survey of 25,000 adults said visits to Starbucks were down 4.5% for the year ended spring 2009, compared to a 1% drop for Dunkin’ over the same period.

“It’s the companies [like Dunkin’] who can afford to be proactive rather than reactive that are in a good position,” said Mr. Tristano. “To make some shifts or changes to the way they do things, cut costs and increase sales, it may be a luxury they have that other companies don’t.”

But it hasn’t been entirely good

Dunkin’

From Page 6

news for Dunkin’, which suffered several highly-publicized franchisee bankruptcies this year. “You’re going to have franchisees that aren’t very good at managing restaurants, [and they are] going to fail,” Mr. Tristano said. “That’s inevitable in a franchise model.”

However both Messrs. Travis

and Costello said that corporate relations with franchisees are strong, and they have both been devoting time for meetings with key franchisees over what’s working in the business—and what isn’t.

Of the changing competitive landscape, Mr. Travis said, “it’s sharpened our approach to the business.” As CEO of Papa John’s between 2005 and 2008, he helped establish the brand as a vibrant, even disruptive, third-place competitor. “I’ve got the highest respect for Starbucks and McDonald’s,” Mr. Travis said of the coffee market. “I think they’ll continue to do a great job and make us do an even better job.”