Whassup in 2008?

One catchphrase that I never thought would come back, besides use by Michael Scott in the Office, is Budweiser's "Whassup" slogan. It has indeed resurfaced again, this time with political relevance as a promotional ad for Obama.

The video visits the Whassup guys 8 years after their debut on TV and shows what they are up to now. One just lost his house, one is in Iraq, one needs health care, and one is watching his stocks drop. This is obviously trying to reach out to all of the different issues in the election.

The Effect
So far the video has over 2.5 million views on YouTube. It has circled around on numerous blogs and was featured in the Wall Street Journal today.

Will this have any impact on how people vote? Probably not. It is more so a clever way to bring back a catchphrase that died out 7 years ago. There have been thousands of political videos on YouTube parodying other videos, songs, and movies. This is just one of the more well done and creative spots.


On a side note, I hate when companies or individuals representing their company shout out their personal opinion on politics via their blog or twitter. Below is a humorous video promoting Obama. Here is a humorous article favoring McCain from The Onion.

Olympic Commercial Roundup: Gold Medallist

Well, the Olympics are over. Victories came not only for Phelps, but also for a handful of companies with distinguished commercials. So, in the spirit of the Olympics, here come six of the best commercials. We're awarding two golds, two silvers, and two bronzes, because hey, why not? Let's start off with my favorite, the Clydesdale training video by Anheuser-Busch.

All Tomorrow's Ad Campaigns

With traditional TV viewership down, ad agencies have no choice but to go back to basics. Billboards, subway ads, and in-store ads are second only to online advertising in terms of budget growth.

NYT poses the question of "pervasive versus intrusive". My worry is different: how fun/clever can print ads be? Video gives time to develop a story, there is an audio component, the ad can be complex. In cartoon form, the Budweiser frogs would be pointless, it's all about hearing the croaking. "Mamma mia that's a spicy meatball" isn't funny unless you hear someone saying it in a funny voice. Etc...

But hey, prove me wrong, advertisers! Let's see what you can do.

Advertising vs. PR

With the daily increase in ads that I see and the news of NBC locking up over $1 billion in ad revenue for the Olympics, it got me thinking -- is advertising worth it?

Many ad campaigns have generated a considerable amount of public appeal, but they fail to do the one thing they are supposed to: increase sales.

Some notable campaigns:

- Got Milk campaign. Hugely popular and famous campaign. Did milk sales increase? Nope. They continued to fall year after year since the campaign.

- Yo quiero Taco Bell. Remember that campaign with the dog? Massively popular and parodied, but it didn't increase sales. The agency behind the ad campaign was also fired.

- Whassup? Arguably one of the most popular ad campaigns in the last 20 years, but sales of Budweiser have been declining steadily. They went from 50 million barrels in 1990 to less than 35 million in 2000. Bud Light has been doing well without the Whaasup campaign.

I'm not saying that advertising is never effective, but I believe it is widely overspent and often irresponsibly. Advertising should be used to defend a brand and keep it relevant.

PR should be used to build the brand. Often times companies try to build a brand/product through advertising alone.

More thoughts on this to come. For a more in-depth look at advertising and PR, check out this great book.