Pitt's Chanel No. 5 Commercial Causes Confusion

Many of us have seen the new Chanel No. 5 commercial starring Brad Pitt. He is dark and mysterious, almost lingering on the TV. His voice drones on as though he is reading a children's bedtime story to a lover. Even the setting of the commercial makes the viewer wonder "What is going on here?" What is he talking about? I was mostly asleep by the time the commercial had finished. It ended up being one of those advertisements where no one actually knew what it was about until the logo came up on the screen.

Was Brad Pitt a good choice? It is true that he has been deemed "Sexiest Man Alive" twice. For a brand that relies on sexuality to sell, it was a good choice. To confuse the viewer though...

According to Ad Age, about a third of the views for this video come from parodies. Viewers saw this goofy video, then proceeded to create their own. Even SNL created a version on their show.

Although the copy was questionable, and the video direction, this commercial did what it was what it needed. It got the Chanel name out there in a funny way that interacted with its customers. There are more than 20 spoofs floating around the Internet.

But did this awkward move work out in Chanel's favor? Yes. Think about all the videos on YouTube that are parodies. How many Call Me Maybe videos by Carly Rae Jepsen are out there? At least 50 fan-made videos. Another that sticks out: Like a G6. Like It's Quidditch (the Harry Potter parody) has over 5 million views.

Dad always used to tell me, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

Read the Ad Age article here.

F Cancer Campaign Urges Women to "Touch Yourself"

At this point, with all the pink through Breast Cancer Awareness month, we are all aware of breast cancer. It's great that people donate and show their support, but what do people do about it? Mashable covered F Cancer's "Touch Yourself" campaign. It was launched in Women's Health and Men's Health magazines.

Does this campaign have the shock factor needed to get women involved? Sure. Many women are pleased to wear pink and show their support. People dye their hair, purchase brand name breast cancer apparel, and attend events. Even major sporting events show their support. For example, the NFL all decked out in pink uniforms.

The campaign plays on the sexual aspect of a breast exam to get women to do them. The campaign promotes early detection through self-breast exams. It engages women through the Facebook app, where they pledge to self-check. The clever play on words here (on their website) links to infographics on how to go about performing these self breast exams. After these women proudly make their pledge on Facebook, they are given the opportunity to share with their Facebook friends a card encouraging their friend to take the pledge. Some are educational, but others are funny.

Here are some of the popular ones:

But not only does this campaign cover breast cancer, but it gets everyone involved with a testicular cancer and melanoma self exam page. The campaign is based a lot on social media. Obviously the pledge is taken on Facebook. When you click Get Involved on the campaign's main site, it gives the options: Social, Digital, Physical, and Donate. You can tweet, post on Facebook, email, post on Tumblr and share videos all directly from the Social section of the website. You can submit a blog post and join the community in the Digital section. Physically, the give you the tools to host an event, start a chapter, buy a t-shirt, and even have "The Talk" with your parents. 

Follow F Cancer on Twitter: @letsFcancer and use #fuckcancer

As they say: Not just a great excuse to swear - a reason!

Read the Mashable article here.

If you would like to get involved or get more information, please email info@letsfcancer.com

eBay Institutes New Pinterest-like "Feed"

Courtesy of Ad Age

eBay has introduced a new user interface: a streaming feed of products. eBay will let users create profile-like pages by "following" categories. It will also include normal recommended items from the user's history and previous searches. It becomes social media in the sense that users can look at friends' profiles an get inspiration for their own pages.

Now is it too much like Pinterest? This streaming feed looks more like pins to any Pinterest user. Will people think eBay is copying the streaming feed giant? Probably not. Pinterest is set up so that streaming images take up the entire screen and go on for many pages. eBay is designed to do this once a profile has been created and categories have been selected.

From a PR standpoint, this is awesome! eBay is an online shopping giant, that is top of mind for most online consumers. The aesthetic that the Pinterest design offers is that ease of use factor. Everything is easy to see, it is easily manageable. Noticing the great feedback from Pinterest and the ease of use there, it was only a matter of time before other websites began these feeds. eBay may have struck gold.

To make this new feature work its best, eBay has introduced larger product images and better product-description pages. eBay has also made checking out easier. What used to be a four-step process is now streamlined into one.

Courtesy of facebook.com

Other than adding this new feature to their website, eBay has also announced eBay Now: a same-day delivery service available in San Francisco. This was in the pilot stage for a while and is now official. More cities are planned for this delivery feature and will be announced in upcoming weeks.

Facebook has introduced "Collections" as well. This is feature that allows Facebook users to click a "want" or "Collect" button on their news feed and can save them to a wish list. This is not yet running, and was only introduced last week. With only 8 like (myself included) the idea needs a bigger push. Facebook explains: "Major push forthcoming."

Read the article.

Placement of Heineken in New James Bond Movie

Courtesy of bourbonblog.com

"A Heineken. Shaken, not stirred," doesn't have the right ring to it. According to Ad Age, The placement of Heineken in the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, has caused quite a stir (not a shake).

Heineken paid $45 million to have James Bond drinking Heineken in place of his famous vodka martini. Great PR on Heineken's part, but the fans seemed to dislike the producer's decision to include the beer. There have been Facebook groups popping up and the use of a hashtag (#skyfail) on twitter to express the hatred of the product placement by producers.

The Bond movies are not strangers to strategic product placement. Pierce Brosnan's Bond once ordered a mojito instead of the famous drink, and got no backlash for it. In Brosnan's movies, Ford plays a huge role as well. Sean Connery's Bond movies placed Pan Am and Smirnoff throughout the movies.

With these Facebook groups and twitter hashtags causing a ruckus, it begs the question: Is all PR good PR? As a soon-to-be IMC professional, I see that even this bad PR can end up being good. Bringing any attention to a brand that it previously did not have can be a very strong motivator. Even though the brand may be shown in a negative light, it is now acknowledged by a consumer. Maybe the negativity brought the person to the dilemma, but after reading about the product, they don't care about the original problem.

As reported by Vanity Fair, spy movies are very expensive to make. The project had already been delayed by two years due to funding issues. With a promise of $45 million for one shot of Bond drinking a Heineken and the use of Bond in one ad seems hardly a bad deal. Product-placement has paid for many great movies and television shows and it is a great way to advertise by associating with an already established entity.

Here's a list of big success stories:

Wilson and FedEx from Cast Away

Manolo Blahnik in Sex and the City

Ray-Ban in Risky Business

Reese's Pieces in E.T.

Pepsi and Nike in Back to the Future

Red Stripe in The Firm

Junior Mints in Seinfeld

Bubba Gump Shrimp in Forrest Gump

Coca-Cola on American Idol

McDonald's in Pulp Fiction

In the end, everything is about money. As IMC professionals, we can never forget the power of strategic placement of a product.

Read the Ad Age article here.