Giant Helium Balloon

Summary: Ads for this year’s presidential campaign have been seen on TV, Internet banners, video games, and mobile apps. Interest in the 2012 election is extremely high, and brands are joining in on the fun. USA Today recently ran two articles (“7-Eleven, Boston Market, Maker’s Mark get political with ads” and “Pizza Hut, JetBlue, etc., try election PR stunts”) discussing brands that have jumped on the political bandwagon. Let’s take a closer look at the online campaigns run by Boston Market and JetBlue.

Boston Market recently launched a limited-time only menu item: Market Bowls. There are three options to choose from.

Summary: Agencies, for quite some time, have been shifting to specialization. From creative shops to crowdsourcing and to specializing in niche markets, many agencies have decided to ditch the general market pitch and hone in on a certain activity or audience. In this technology-driven market…

Summary: Our industry is full of people who have opinions. Nothing is wrong with that. In advertising, if you do not know how to state an opinion, or give a piece of your mind, then you are probably not going to last long.

However, the issue being raised here is the rise of the troll in advertising. The cop-out of staying anonymous while trashing someone’s work, or attacking someone personally, has gotten out of control. The way we craft messages is both analytical and creative, and that way has been attacked by many John Doe know-it-alls who refuse to back up their comments with their identity.