Archive for August, 2006
Click on the image to the left for a lesson in management.
Jaime and I finalized the team today– or at least my small portion of it, anyway. J.D., of course, is still hanging in strong. Jason once was a part of it, but now he’s gone; as of today Chris is slotting in to take his place (and not a moment too soon). Jose, whom I’m adopting from Jaime, is going to be a rock star (truly). And Chava is really quite hairy.
Just from the photos, I can tell we are so very, very fucked.
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Thursday, August 31st, 2006 at 10:17pm
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Ad Monkeys, Ad Jungle | add this post to del.icio.us
Technorati Tags: Advertising, Creative Team
I alluded to “hush-hush” news at Dieste Harmel & Partners earlier but I couldn’t say anything at the time (employers tend to be picky about such things). But since the official press release was delivered to my in-box today, I guess I can spill the beans here on Adverb, get it off my plate, and get back to working on all my “get everything out the door before the Labor Day Holiday” mad rush of projects.
The news is, Aldo Quevedo is no longer Dieste Harmel’s Executive Creative Director. Instead, he’s our new President and Chief Creative Officer, meaning the patients are now in charge of the asylum. (And we couldn’t be more excited– or medicated.)
Tony is stepping up to the role of Chairman and Warren is filling Tony’s vacated role of Chief Executive Officer.
And of course someone needs to fill Aldo’s old Executive Creative Director slot, so we have some changes there, too.
We’ve re-jiggered the accounts, breaking them out into two “super groups” to be headed by two different E.C.D.s, complete with full teams of Creative Directors, Writers and Art Directors under them.
One super group will be led by Javier Guemes and the other group– the one I’ll fall into– will be led by Jaime Andrade.
On top of that, since Jaime will now be busy doing Executive Creative Director-ish things, I will be absorbing his team and accounts, giving me two groups to manage and some fun new stuff to work on, like Bud, Bud Light, Sierra Mist and Pizza Hut (in addition to my current roster that includes Gatorade, 7-Eleven, Chiquita, Interstate Batteries, Titan Insurance, Ziegenbock and Tequiza).
Jaime and I worked together when I first joined the shop and I couldn’t be happier with the way things have worked out with the new structure.
Things will be extra-special-busy for the next few months as we have several productions lined up within my original group, several productions on-tap within my new add-on group and, oh yeah, a baby to have sometime at the end of October or early November.
But, like my dad says, “if it wasn’t hard, they wouldn’t call it work.”
Speaking of which, time to get back to it.
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Thursday, August 31st, 2006 at 12:20pm
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Ad Monkeys, Ad Jungle | add this post to del.icio.us
Technorati Tags: Advertising, Dieste Harmel, Aldo Quevedo, Jaime Andrade, Javier Guemes
The presentation went well. Of seventeen concepts presented, nine continue to live and will be developed further (which means taking them to scripts). Once we see which ones work or don’t work structurally, we’ll cull the list down a little more here internally. Then we’ll turn them over to John who’ll give them the once-over for costs (resulting, oftentimes, in another internal cull). The ones that survive the internal cutting will be framed and boarded. If the percentages hold up as they usually do, I expect to be in Chicago in early September presenting six concepts.
From fourteen pages of ideas to -> seventeen concepts presented to -> six scripts to be boarded up to -> two or three that will likely be shot. When I think of the process, I like to imagine myself living in Sparta, tossing the weak children over the cliff’s edge– except with even more wailing and gnashing of teeth.
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Wednesday, August 30th, 2006 at 10:44am
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Ad Jungle | add this post to del.icio.us
Technorati Tags: Advertising, Gatorade, Television, Process
I promised a follow-up to the entry I made after Snakes’ (on a Plane, fool) opening day. Here it is. Sorry for the delay, but work and life got in the way.
I don’t want to discuss the movie or its performance as much as I’d like to write a few words about the bloggers who talked it up. Specifically, the bloggers who sang the movie’s praises simply because they saw the Studio’s blogger-outreach as one of the Seven Signs of the Collapse of Marketing As We Know It™ (and, lo, they rejoiced in it). And specifically-specifically, their reaction after things didn’t turn out so well.
The first thing that pops into my mind that didn’t immediately happen within the marketing blogger hype circle was any sort of deep reflection into what Snakes failing to live up to their expectations meant for the school of marketing they preach. I mean, c’mon, Defamer can instantly see and dissect the ramifications (even if half in jest) but the marketing blogger clique can’t?
Now that the value of a year of obsessive, overwhelmingly favorable internet hype buzz has been measured at a disappointing $15.25 million, or roughly the rate of return New Line could have expected if it had placed cartoon images of Samuel L. Jackson hugging pink pythons on the side of a Happy Meal box, the studios will spend this morning dismantling their Why Can’t We Come Up With Our Own Funny Titles Around Which Bloggers Will Construct Loving YouTube Parodies? think-tanks and redistributing the personnel to their Dreaming Up Projects In Which Will Ferrell Can Run Around In Circles, Causing His Swollen, Pale Belly To Jiggle departments. (”Monday Morning Box Office: Snakes On A Bomb“)
Instead of saying, “o.k., our thesis didn’t pan out; what does this mean,” what we saw was the marketing bloggers begin to spin– spin how the opening day box office returns were actually a rousing success. Mack Collier (the other Mack, thank you very much) over at The Viral Garden actually tried to show– using statistics only an Enron accountant could love, and only after taking some time to blast the mainstream media for “turning” on the movie– how Snakes on a Plane performed better at the box office than Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest.
Excuse me?
“But Mack (the ad monkey Simpson one), the only thing that matters is if it makes a profit– not how long it takes to get there.” Sorry, but simply turning a profit after an ever-expanding timeline isn’t a metric that allows Hollywood producers and moneymen to sleep easily at night. Besides, I could shoot Samuel Jackson reading from the pages of a phonebook straight into the camera, release it without any hype of any sort– Internet or otherwise– and it would eventually turn a profit (perhaps even faster than Snakes on a Plane did). If Snakes turns a profit (and I’m sure it eventually will) and the marketing bloggers claim victory, take it with a grain of salt.
“But Mack (yeah, the ad guy again), the momentum will build and it will do even better next weekend.” Oh yeah?
Football season started early as Mark Wahlberg’s “Invincible,” a Walt Disney tale about a real-life walk-on who signed with the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1970s, debuted as the top weekend movie with $17 million. The previous No. 1 flick, New Line Cinema’s “Snakes on a Plane,” lost altitude in its second weekend, falling to sixth place with $6.4 million, a steep 58 percent drop, according to studio estimates Sunday. (CNN)
All the “but… but… buts” do is simply put off the chance to look at what the disappointment means for “new” marketing, and I’m not sure we’ll have that discussion any time soon because so many people have swallowed their own Kool-Aid.
Joe Jaffe, to his credit, says, “I’m not sure I as much predicted it would be a smash as I hoped it would be, based on the exponential validation it would have lended to the still-young and oft misunderstood social media and new marketing worlds.” He then follows that statement up, though, with a series of “but… but… buts.”
Many of the marketing bloggers are way too heavily vested in proving the validity (nay, the superior qualities) of “new” marketing. They’re not marketing bloggers, they’re marketing 2.0 bloggers, and the problem with this is it precludes any sort of honest reflection on what was tried and what went wrong (though you’ll surely hear a lot about the third leg of marketing post mortems: what went right).
Look. I don’t want to see anyone fail, least of all people who work hard and believe in what they’re doing. But I’m also not going to sit here and blow smoke up my own ass trying to make myself believe this medium is more mature– or wields the power that comes from maturity– than it really is, especially when I’m charged with spending other people’s money in the pursuit of results.
The podcasts, RSS feeds and blogs that so engage the daily time and energies of the leading-edge digerati are alien or unknown concepts for most of the U.S. adult population. […] While marketing prognosticators and technophiles rush into the future, raving about the next big content delivery system or ad model, the fact is most Americans — notably adults with steady incomes — still get their content the old-fashioned way. (AdAge)
I’m not saying we shouldn’t embrace new media and new models; we should, absolutely. Experimentation leads to new, better ways of doing things (the creative revolution, anyone?). What I am saying is if you’re going to discuss all that’s right with the new world, be prepared to offer up some honest reflection on all that’s wrong with it when something goes badly.
Or, for god’s sake, if your only purpose it to perpetuate and participate in the blogger circle jerk of hype without offering up anything from the other side of the coin, put a freaking disclaimer up on your site somewhere so you don’t unduly influence a poor junior brand manager into doing something that will cost her her job when it goes south.
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Monday, August 28th, 2006 at 12:17am
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Ad Jungle, Ad Nauseam | add this post to del.icio.us
Technorati Tags: Advertising, Marketing, Snakes on a Plane, Hype
This colorful little slice of Dallas life originally appeared on Adverb v1.0 and was recently retrieved from Internet archives. Click on the image for a larger view.
How to become a living institution in Dallas’ West End in four easy steps:
Step one: glance down at your Bible and memorize the first three (and only three) words you see.
Step two: make one quarter of a turn so that you’re now facing (North, South, East, West).
Step three: tilt your head back and scream the Three Biblical Words you just memorized (”…FLESH OF ASSES!!…”) at the top of your lungs.
Step four: wash, rinse, repeat (for years and years).
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Sunday, August 27th, 2006 at 08:55am
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Monkey Town | add this post to del.icio.us
Technorati Tags: Dallas, West End
Now I’m just having fun. I’ve created a new Adverb Error 404 page.
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Saturday, August 26th, 2006 at 05:26pm
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Site News | add this post to del.icio.us
In a crudely transparent ploy to thank those of you who link to articles here on Adverb, I’ve added a script to the sidebar that sends a link back your way. The script simply calls up the Technorati “most recent 15 incoming links to Adverb” API into the space below the “Music for Monkeys” playlist in the sidebar. So a thank you and a reminder: teacher says, every time you link your site to Adverb, an angel gets its wings.
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Saturday, August 26th, 2006 at 01:08pm
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Site News, Blogroll | add this post to del.icio.us
Technorati Tags: Technorati, Link Love
From: Mack Simpson/Dieste Dallas
To: Dieste-ALL/**restricted
Date: August 25, 2006
Subject: Juan Camilo, Rock Superstar
Some of you may know that Juan Camilo was a Dieste intern in 2005 and, because he handled everything we threw at him with amazing skill and a jump-in-and-do-it attitude, we invited him back again for 2006.
He’s once again performed outstandingly. From scripts, to print ads, to headlines, to taglines– and even managing to direct a series of radio spots– J.C. never once hesitated to dive in, learn all he could and contribute in any way needed for every project imaginable.
Today is the last day of his second term as an intern, here, and I hope you will all make the long, treacherous journey upstairs in order to pat him on the back and congratulate him on a job well done.
Let’s hope he does poorly in his classwork and fails to graduate so we can have him back again next year.
Thanks, J.C., it’s been a real pleasure.
–M.
—
Mack Simpson
Writer/Creative Director
Dieste Harmel & Partners - Dallas
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Friday, August 25th, 2006 at 04:12pm
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Ad Monkeys, Ad Jungle | add this post to del.icio.us
From: Mack Simpson/Dieste Dallas
To: Dieste-ALL/**restricted
Date: August 24, 2006
Subject: Jason Likes to Drinky-Drinky
It’s Jason’s last day, so let’s gather after work at THE GRAPEVINE (3902 Maple Ave) in order to give him a final (or so we hope) send-off.
We’ll be gathering as soon as we can (5:30-6:00-ish), but please keep in mind that since I’ll have Jason mounting boards and cleaning the matte room until 11:59:59 P.M., he might be arriving a little late.
And yes, for the good of humanity, we will be burning his god-awful, worn-every-day, green Merrill Lynch t-shirt.
This is a JASON TISSER event– in other words, Dieste Harmel & Partners is no longer sponsoring either Jason OR his drinking…
See you there.
–M.
—
Mack Simpson
Writer/Creative Director
Dieste Harmel & Partners - Dallas
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Thursday, August 24th, 2006 at 12:08pm
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Ad Monkeys, Ad Jungle | add this post to del.icio.us
I come from ranching stock. My dad was a real life, honest to god Texas cowboy and, as you might imagine, he has a colorful phrase for just about any human condition imaginable. (And his way with words probably contributed more than just a little to my becoming a writer.)
When things get a little hectic, he’s likely to say he’s “as busy as a one-legged man at an ass-kicking contest.”
Today I’m missing a leg.
We’re stitching together the Gatorade presentation for Monday, I need to go through another presentation that’s on-tap for Friday at 7-Eleven, begin creative development on 2007 Chiquita work, find a replacement for my art director, Jason, and get up to speed on two other large accounts my group will be taking on (more on that later as there’s quite a bit of agency news that’s currently hush-hush).
The good news is I have several long rants planned for this space– including delving into one aspect of the whole Snakes Down the Drain “thing” that hasn’t been touched on yet– but I simply have neither the time nor the energy at the end of the day to commit my words to paper electrons.
Expect brief (but hopefully interesting) nibbles and noshes for the next few days, at least until I can get a few things in my rearview mirror.
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Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006 at 09:11pm
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Ad Jungle, No Really, A Life | add this post to del.icio.us
I’ve just finished watching the second installment (of two) of Spike Lee’s “When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts” on HBO.
I laughed, cried and got incredibly pissed off.
Watch it. It’s important.
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Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006 at 10:21pm
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Ad Jungle, No Really, A Life | add this post to del.icio.us
Technorati Tags: Spike Lee, New Orleans, Important
I’ve just finished watching the first installment (of two) of Spike Lee’s “When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts” on HBO.
If you missed the first showing, catch it the very next time you can. If you don’t have HBO, rent the DVD, which will surely follow. If you can’t afford the DVD, check it out at the library. If you sit on an awards panel, simply mail your hardware to Spike now.
Arguments over nuance may arise as to his filmmaking, but it doesn’t change the fact that “When The Levees Broke” will become the most important thing you’ll watch on television in 2006. Everything else is absolutely trivial in comparison.
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Monday, August 21st, 2006 at 10:41pm
Mack Simpson
Entry Filed under: Ad Jungle, No Really, A Life | add this post to del.icio.us
Technorati Tags: Spike Lee, New Orleans, Katrina, Important
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