Subway tattles on Domino’s and gets…

Domino’s recent ads (by who else) use two very powerful appeals. They first go right for the market leader (Subway) in a taste test. Classic strategy.

CP+B takes the results of that taste test – Domino’s 2 to 1 – and simplifies it in such a memorable way that not only do you like the spot, but the commercial reinforces the big point – Domino’s tastes better. Classic CP+B.

Apparently Subway wasn’t too pleased:

Domino’s response is good. Basically what Apple did when CP+B and Microsoft tried to combat the Mac vs. PC ads.

Which begs the question. Is it worth retaliating against the competition’s campaign? Of course there is no universally applicable rule (this is advertising after all), but I am going to argue ‘no.’

If your 5th grade crush suddenly fell for another guy, what would you do (scratch that – what should you do – logic doesn’t apply to 5th graders)? Go tell her the other guy is a douchebag (or whatever the kids say these days) and that she should like you. OR. Go do your own thing, hopefully impress her, and allow her to make up her own mind.

Show. Don’t tell.

No one likes a whiner, tattle tale or complainer. Even if you combat the other guy’s stance, you’re still reminding consumers of the competitor’s point in the first place. On top of that, your reactive campaign implies to the consumer that the other guy is better so we must attack him.

Now here is where the brave, I’d-love-to-have-you-as-a-client brands should listen up.

Be yourself – yet take chances. Impress by doing your own thing. Peak curiosity. Then start the dialogue. And by dialogue I mean listen to the consumer. Don’t sit their blabbering about how big and great your brand is. Make it about the consumer and their interests. Because after all – no one likes the brand that calls the other brand a douchebag.

Vagabond Linkage Crab Dribbles a Hologram Alex.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky wins Agency of the Year from yet another industry publication. Congrats Alex.

Alex and the boys kings' of the castle again

Two quotes I’d like to highlight:

“Our clients are really brave,” noted Mr. Reilly, co-executive creative director. “There’s a lot of guts out there, and in a bad economy to have this kind of bravery and the foresight to know that this is the kind of environment where it might help to scream a little louder.” Andrew Keller, who is co-executive creative director with Mr. Reilly, said: “A lot of our clients realize that the greatest risk is potentially not taking any risk at all. People don’t have to listen, they don’t have to pay attention anymore.”

I’ve been in advertising for a short while, and I can tell you the client/agency relationship is huge. Getting a client to buy into your crazier ideas is almost as important as the ability to develop the ideas in the first place. No genius escapes the agency doors without client approval first.

There’s a tendency, especially in America, to “root for the underdog until the underdog really starts to win,” said Mr. Steinhour. “When people hate on us … in some ways, we use it as a fuel.” Said Mr. Reilly: “There’s a knock on every agency … and certainly the agencies that are a little more high profile, the Goodby’s, the Wieden’s. What really matters is that the companies we represent are doing better than when we started with them.”

And for all the mud they sling, most critics would still kill for a chance to work with these guys. Felix, a blogger at the Denver Egoist, is a case in point. “Several of their recent ‘big’ ideas were recycled, either from themselves or other work,” he recently wrote, adding. “But I’ll still take a job at CP&B. I’m just mad … not insane.”

This succinctly provides a rationale for the Bogusky-hate.

Tyrus Thomas denies LeBron James’ Crab Dribble.

Kudos to Scott Van Pelt for belittling James’ Crab Dribble. One more reason James will never be better than MJ. Jordan never broke the rules to win.

Researchers unearth a massive ant colony.

Does political correctness stifle advertising?

Facebook kills the Whopper Sacrifice campaign, claiming they are not fans of free PR and adding enjoyment to peoples’ lives.

So I emailed this question a ways back:

I’ve recently been having cravings for Paul Reveres’ breadsticks, Whoppers from Burger King, milkshakes through extra long straws, and Penelope Cruz. But more than anything, as of late, I’ve been experiencing trouble with the ladies. I’m your normal proportional American guy, can you please explain my sudden cravings and lack of sustainable romantic relationships?

Thanks,

Starvin…for some lovin.
In DMI.

- – -
[My response]

Dear Starvin…

Your first few cravings are very normal. Regular humans cannot resist anything on that list, as they are all members of the Things I Like To Eat Club. They have only one ingredient: Deliciousness.

Anything in the Things I Like To Eat Club is to be savored and never taken for granted.

As for your second issue, I believe I have a solution for you. Many men become frustrated with the opposite sex, as today’s conventional wisdom leads men to think women want a certain type of mythical man who treats ladies right and isn’t a jerk.

This is America, though – as opposed to England, Australia or Macedonia where some of our readers reside (I kid you not) – you have a distinct advantage. We have the American Dream. Just look at Michael Phelps. All you really need to do – focus your energy into being very good at one thing, and your lady troubles will start to crumble away.

Many girls like guys who are really good at something, whether it be a sport like water polo or a hobby like making millions of dollars so you can swim in your lake of gold coins. Some may call these females jersey-chasers or gold-diggers, but really it is the result of millions of years of evolution (as so many things are).

Instinctually, females are in charge of raising the family. This is not a stereotype or a sexist viewpoint, but rather what the females in the vast majority of species do. The female at the very least will house the offspring for a duration of time, and then raise the offspring up until the point that the offspring is able to survive on its own.

The male can have differing levels of involvement, but at the very least, he will contribute his DNA to the offspring. So, it stands to reason that if you as a female have one guaranteed contribution from your male partner, you want it to be as good a contribution as possible.

Millions of years ago, when little miss primate roamed the earth looking for a mate, who do you think she felt had the better genetics? The primate who wakes up at noon every day, lives on his buddy’s couch and considers a 40oz from the local Kum & Go to be a complete meal – or – the primate who gets up early every morning to work out, eats his bananas three times a day and shows his testicular fortitude by competing against the other non-shmo primates in a television event broadcast to the entire forest?

Look at it from little miss primate’s perspective. When she becomes mama primate, she doesn’t want to deal with a baby primate who sniffs his own farts and asks if its ok to convert the extra downstairs tree branch into an apartment at the age of 25 so he can finally have a little independence. Mama primate is no fool. She wants the baby primate who can peal his own bananas and leaves the tree on his 18th birthday so she can watch primate Oprah in peace as soon as possible. Which papa primate has a better chance of providing primate Oprah sooner?

We can all succeed at some level at some thing. You just have to try. Armed with this knowledge you should have the motivation you need. The harder your work, the greater your skill level will grow, the more success you will achieve, the more little miss primate will say, “I’d like some of his DNA.”

- – -

Well, some scientist somewhere must have seen my hypothesis and gone to town, because a new study from Newcastle University found “Wealthy men give women more orgasms.”

What’s next? “Men prefer young, attractive women with exquisite culinary skill and a penchant for minding the step children.”

Twitter once again proved it’s mettle during the Hudson Plane Crash. I heard about it on Twitter before it hit the news (which obviously is proof enough).

So Twitter gets the news out there quickly. But it has unverified voracity. Regular news feeds have verified voracity (allegedly), but slow response time.

Hmmm….

Enter Yahoo’s new Frankenstein search engine: TweetNews. It basically listens to what is happening on Twitter (so the ‘hot’ stories are on top) and then provides links to major news sources. It’s pretty brilliant.

Our world may be a giant hologram. Um… Ok. The article was a bit above my head. But, good-on-ya to my hometown Fermi Lab for the contribution.

Awesome new Coke vending machine at CES.

New Burger King sandwich in honor of the Hudson Pilot.

The Curious Case of Forest Gump.

First Al Gore doesn’t get mentioned in the History of the Internet video, and now this!

I’d gladly defriend you Tuesday for a Whopper today.

I planned on not slurping CP+B with my next post. But they leave me no choice.

Honestly, I’m dumbfounded. This is the third “damn I wish I thought of that” Whopper site CP+B has released in less than a month’s time. Plus the Whopper Virgin fiasco.

The latest rendition?

http://www.whoppersacrifice.com/

Defriend ten facebook friends, and you get a free Whopper. A social experiment for those Whopper fanatics with onions. Not only is it an intriguing proposal, but the facebook app posts on your status that you love the Whopper more than the unfortunate friend, i.e. free brand exposure.

Slurp.

Want to eat like Alex?

Alex Bogusky freshly released book, The 9-Inch Diet, finally hits bookshelves across the web this week. The idea behind the book? If you eat less, you will lose weight. Genius!

The book (which I have yet to read) essentially says Americans – mostly because of restaurants – eat oversized portion sizes. How true. How often do you leave a restaurant with leftovers? It’s reminiscent of the old Seinfeld line. “It’s amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper.”

It’s amazing that the amount of food on your plate always just exactly fits in your stomach. Had the waiter grabbed a few less fries, would you have found yourself running for the fridge later that night searching for a late-night bacon-wrapped cheesestick? Probably not.

The 9-Inch-Diet is epic Bogusky. He boiled down a problem plaguing millions of overweight adults and insecure high school girls into a simple solution. Use a smaller plate.

Alex’s work exudes many talents. But his ability to condense situations into simple, easy to understand concepts that strike at the heart of the issue trump them all.

Hopefully Burger King and Domino’s don’t mind.