Des Temps

Author: MHB

  • Windell Middlebrooks

    the champagne of spokesmen.
    the champagne of spokesmen.

    Best. Name. Ever. The actor who plays the beer deliveryman for Miller High Life is Windell Middlebrooks. He grew up in Texas and has a BA+MFA in Theater. Wondering if it’s a stage name. I’m having name envy.

    He gets mad love in Milwaukee and in a small rabbit hole of WTF!? he threw out the first pitch at a Brewers game, introduced by his real name, yet in character and costume.

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    Riding the wave of our brokeass economy, Miller is doing a :01 Super Bowl spot in lieu of a :30 (or so they say). A grand way to position the brand as a friend to the millions who’re feeling the pinch – and without being a cloying drag. Better still, both the scripts and acting are brilliant. And best is that the ‘outakes’ stretches long, dumping you into a Dada sandbox, which is just fine with me.

    K9GwHnU2ESEHT to AS

  • Smarten Up, Open the Market Up.

    I’ve been watching heaps of brand strategy presentations this week, some of which I think are top shelf.

    Below is what Adrian Ho from ZeusJones learned from the structural shortcomings of advertising. And what he decided to do about it.

    Strategy: beyond advertising

  • Sexy Time

    We are pleased to announce that our dude Derek Lo
    aka The Big Asian has been dubbed 2009’s Sexiest Man in Advertising. Should you wanna grab his chain, he spins them records round and round every Friday night at Happy Endings. And he might be wearing a crown.

  • (we like) Soap In Our Eyes

    We’re drafting a GLBT transmedia narrative with the Emmy-winning sudser Peter Brash. So in order to smarten up on soaps, I’ve been reading the writings of our pal Sam Ford.

    While at MIT, Sam’s studies focused on the worlds of soap operas and professional wrestling – two highly sophisticated narrative structures that are all too often looked at askance.

    These two worlds provide an unparalleled on/offline space for fan immersion into narrative. One of the best examples I’ve ever seen is described below, cribbed from his thesis As The World Turns in a Convergence Culture

    The most interesting of these interactive extensions…launched in late March 2007. Brad and Katie, two characters on As The World Turns who host a (within text) show called Oakdale Now, decided to have a contest where viewers would write in explaining why Brad and Katie should come to their home and help them complete their least favorite household chore….

    Brad and Katie then choose one of the entries for a cash prize and would also go to their home to do the chore, with the cameras rolling. The twist, though, is that the contest was actually opened to ATWT viewers, with the winning essay getting a $5,000 cash prize and a visit from Brad and Katie to do the promised chore, with the actors actually coming out to the winning fan’s home in character.

    The show aired them doing the chore as a segment filmed for their Oakdale Now show, making one of the fans—and their home—part of the narrative world. As opposed to the other interactive forms of content, this Oakdale Now contest [actually] invited viewers to become part of the narrative.

    a7eRzOLP1gEcontent gets relevant @1:47

    Fiction intermixing with Game Show, Reality and News Magazine structures. Note that Brad says they got 25,000 entries. Pure Genius.

  • Mimic Drink

    Our pal Sorry I Missed Your Party tipped us to the fact that:

    MillerCoors is discontinuing Sparks due to government concerns that it was too popular with teenagers and its energy and booze combination was dangerous…
    I guess I understand that it’s important to protect our impressionable youth; they are our future, after all. [But] lets be honest – has anyone ever actually enjoyed a Sparks “responsibly”?

    Drinking Sparks created the Fun Dipesque byproduct of an orange tongue. Such markings of use are an advertisers dream. Alas it’s the U21 set who derived the most pleasure from it.

    No surprise that the bev was the brainchild of a marketing firm – McKenzie River. These are the same folks who hired rappers in the way back to shill for St. Ides – one of the first marketing moves into the rugged hip-hop space, presaging 50 and Vitamin Water. Impressionable lad that I was, the Crooked I was my first 40.

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  • The Year of the Elephant

    Happy 09 to our friends and lovers.
    Been off in the nether regions of narnia.
    Now back in our fighting chairs.
    We Will Win.

  • Ring The Alarm

    Today is one of our favorite techgeek events, the ITP Winter Show @ NYU. And I’m wondering when somebody will invent the personalized car alarm. Dear Reader, can you tell me if it exists?

    In an audio landscape where people tune out car alarms, why not use unique sounds you know are yours – with changes and customization as easy as a ring tone? If mobile phones can work as car keys, surely this alarm can be realized.