Advertising Age - October 10, 2011

Natasha Bedingfield performs at the Best Buy Theater in New York’s Times Square at a MySpace event during kickoff of the eighth annual Advertising Week.

Didn’t get to as many events as you wanted? See all of Advertising Age’s coverage of
Advertising Week 2011 at AdAge.com/Advertising Week

Catching up with adland
over coffees and cocktails

ADVERTISING WEEK from p. 6

recession.

“We’re certainly concerned about
the economy, only because in many
parts of the world there’s not the con-
fidence level,” said Joe Tripodi, chief
marketing and commercial officer,
Coca-Cola. “Our business gets hurt
when the economy is down and people
don’t go to restaurants. We have a
huge fountain business, a huge restau-
rant business, quick-serve restaurants,
cafés and bars.” The beverage giant
predicts consumers could start gravi-
tating back to lower price points, and is
working with its restaurant partners
on different “ways to bundle the prod-
uct with food, to drive value for the
customer.”
Condé Nast CMO Lou Cona—
fresh off a trip from Europe where he
met with a bevy of chief marketers
and CEOs—said things look solid for
luxury advertising despite recent tur-
moil in the financial markets. “What I
have heard is—and I was pleasantly
surprised—is that many of them have
posted double-digit gains in their sales
year to date, and their expectation was
that they would end the year in very
positive territory.”
Mr. Cona observed similar bullish-
ness for the beauty market: “If I look
across the beauty business and some
of the early talks we’re having for
2012, we’re not seeing any wholesale
cancellation of schedules. We’re actual-
ly seeing some pretty robust requests
for proposals.”
Frederic Roze, CEO of L’Oréal
USA, likewise said he sees no slow-
down yet in the U.S. beauty market.
“It’s due to the polarization of the U.S.
economy,” with unemployment still
low among college-educated con-
sumers and high among others.

What’s common across all market-
ing sectors is that social media and
mobile will likely continue capturing
more ad dollars, according to people
who work in the realm.

LOUCONA

Condé Nast CMO says luxury advertising looks solid.

FREDERIC
ROZE

L’Oréal USA CEO sees no slowdown in U.S. beauty.

Get daily marketing and media news at AdAge.com

Protestors take over Wall Street
while Madison Avenue parties on

cry of Occupy Wall Street, but never did the twain meet. There was no noticeable picketing. The Michelin Man was not called upon to bow up on the ranks of angry 99-Percenters. It’s sort of curious when you think about it. After all, it’s tough to mount a full-on critique of the American business scene while ignoring the part of it that’s creating all the demand.

So why not occupy Madison Avenue?

I asked Kalle Lasn, founder of
Adbusters, the organization that
sparked the current wave of protesta-
tions back in July, whether he’d given
any thought to bringing the street
action to Advertising Week, then in its
final full day. His response said it all:
“When is that?”
Back in July, Mr. Lasn’s Adbusters
got things going with a poster in its
magazine that called for pretty much
what’s been going on in Lower
Manhattan the past few weeks: a con-
tinuous peaceful demonstration. It’s
become commonplace to call the scene
at Zuccotti Park carnival-like, but that
sells short this strange brew of different
classes and cultures, serious politics
mixed with playfulness and some
straight-up freakishness. On Friday at
lunch hour, I was greeted by the David-
Lynch-on-a-bad-day spectacle of a little
person with no arms and hands coming
pretty much out of his shoulders wav-
ing drumsticks while dancing to songs
of his own making—the choruses from
“Livin’ La Vida
Loca” and “We
Will Rock
You”—and wear-
ing only a pair of
filthy sweatpants.

Shaking that one off, I moved deeper into the camp. Sporadic chants rang out, but for the most part it was quiet. Protesters worked on signs and costumes and little art projects and mingled with visitors. In the middle of it all, hardhats and even some suits lunched, stomachs unturned by the detritus, the dirty tarps and sleeping bags piled high, the dog bowls and general grizzle of the participants.

The idea behind Occupy Wall Street was to crib from the Arab Spring and create what Mr. Lasn described as a “Tahrir moment,” named after the Cairo square where the anti-Mubarak protests were focused.

Since it began, the always-there demonstration has grown in both humanity and credibility, gradually winning over national media, thanks to clashes with police and more attention from public figures, even a shout-out from President Barack Obama. All the while it’s been sharpening its message. What began as an amorphous call for change has been shaped into a series of more specific calls for action.

Unsurprisingly, the choice to focus
on Wall Street has a lot to do with the
symbolic resonance of the place name
and the sheer excesses and lack of
accountability of the financial industry
that’s been on display over the past sev-
eral years. Mr. Lasn did, however, hold
out the possibility for advertising-
focused protest, just not right now.

“The movement is pure and idealistic. Down the road, once the messiness is over and the movement fragments, there’ll be myriad projects and ideas. That is the moment when the ad industry can redeem itself.”

dentally, announced this week that he sent the protesters some nut butter, some T-shirts and a bullhorn branded with Fearless, the name of his new company.

“It seems to me the advertising
industry is divided into two parts,” Mr.
Lasn said. ”There’s the selling of prod-
ucts, and there’s the selling of ideas. The
world will need these brilliant creative
minds to sell great ideas like the rein-
statement of the Glass-Steagall Act or
the banning of high-frequency trad-
ing.”
Because we were speaking the day
after Steve Jobs died, I asked Mr. Lasn
about his reaction. Though there’s no
reason to think of the very wealthy
Apple co-founder as particularly benef-
icent, Mr. Jobs, with his Zen cool and
array of fantastic products, often got a
free ride from people who are other-
wise very critical of brands.

“I didn’t burst out crying, but I had that pit-of-the-stomach feeling when news reaches you emotionally,” Mr. Lasn said. “I wondered why I was having this. I don’t care that much for Apple or Steve Jobs. Then it occurred to me: There aren’t too many heroes or people you can look up to.”