:: adgruntie :: World Series, boycotts, recall, and awards

Before getting into the nitty gritty, I'd just like to post a WELL DONE RED SOX! Perhaps this is the year they break "the curse". It's been a crazy AL playoff series, and I'm sure the World Series will be just as intense. Shame that the fans in Boston flooded the streets around the stadium last night though- well not so much the fact that they were on the streets but the fact that probably 80% if not more were just drunken college students - which can lead to trouble. I was fasinated by the fact that FUX stayed on it for so long- seemingly in the hopes that something tragic would happen. Typical of that station. And also a point to FUX network- when you're covering a playoff game (or anything for that matter), you should not cut back into it in the middle of play. There were a few times that they ran ads rather than returning to the game, which is just bad. It's an example of how not to do things- content/programing is king- not the ads. Shame we'll have to contend with their crappy coverage for the World Series.

Ok, enough of that...on to the ad news:

+ PSFK reviews Adland's blog list. And, whey hey, this site ended up on their favorites list with a favorable review too. "Frequent posts about marketing and advertising by the caffeinegoddess. Varied and sprinkled with a good dose of attitude. Well worth subscribing to the RSS Feed." How loverly. Cheers guys!

+ Czech ad agency takes top honors at award festival - Leo Burnett Advertising Prague was named agency of the year for the third time in a row at the Golden Drum Awards in Slovenia. They won a Gold Drum for Association of Librarians of the Czech Republic- Crime and Punishment print ad, Silver Drum for Greenpeace -The National Anthem television spot, and Bronze Drum for hairdressing salon James Hair - Marilyn poster. Congrats. See the ads and other winning ads here.

+ Ad use of "recall" flawed?-

Mr. Heath, author of The Hidden Power of Advertising, said "recall" -- the dominant metric used to measure the success of an ad campaign -- is flawed. He said the recall test, in which consumers are asked if they've seen an ad and what they remember about it, incorrectly assumes that ads work best when consumers process and retain the details in an advertisement.

"Advertising can work without attention being paid, without using a rational message, without argument or reasoning and without being recalled," Mr. Heath said yesterday at a forum of the Association of Canadian Advertisers.

Mr. Heath said that when people watch television, they go into what he calls a state of "low attention processing" -- a relaxed state where they can be particularly susceptible to emotionally driven, brand-building advertising, even if they don't remember seeing it.

He said consumers tend to choose one brand over another because of emotional factors, not rational ones.

Mr. Heath said that to produce great ads, agencies and marketers must stop pretesting them with focus groups and just trust their own judgment. He said ads should never be pretested unless they're in final form, with full editing and music.

+ Revolution Magazine reports that Agency Glue London has developed the online drive to support the launch of a through-the-line campaign for McCain Oven Chips, along with a TBWA\London television commercial featuring Singleton in a spoof infomercial.

The McCain's brand, which is 25 years old, is pushed online through "the McCain home of 1979" website. Visitors to the site can explore the house and interact with different elements to find out more information about the brand and play games. Interactive elements include being able to look in the cupboards, turn on the radio, peek in the freezer and watch TV. The site also hosts a viral game, accessed via the oven door. The ChipGrabber game puts users into the role of mum. Players are tasked with trying to keep their ravenous family from pinching piping hot oven chips before the rest of supper is ready, with a chance to win £25,000. Other features on the site include an interactive Slinky, the McCain TV ad, a quiz and a ViewMaster gallery of classic 1970s images.

Chinup.co.uk states: "This year McCain is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Oven Chip. Launched in 1979, the Oven Chip transformed the national dish, for the first time offering chip-lovers a healthier and more convenient alternative to the hand-cut, fried chip. The McCain home of 1979 website celebrates the way we used to live - the music, the décor, the toys and games which were part of our everyday life."

+ Burger King Bars Ads from TV Show Discussing Kerry. Reuters reports:

Hamburger chain Burger King said on Wednesday that it would not run its commercials during a controversial program about U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry to be aired by Sinclair Broadcast Group .

Sinclair on Tuesday backed away from airing a documentary critical of Kerry's Vietnam War-era record, but said it would show portions of that film in a special program that discusses allegations he betrayed fellow veterans with his antiwar activities.

Burger King's move suggests advertisers may not be assured the new program's format averts political controversy.

There are already boycott emails circulating on the web. Boycott Sinclair Broadcast Group lists out advertisers along with contact information. I'm not sure where they got this list of advertisers though. According to the site, there have been "100 advertiser pullouts, with more coming in daily."