J. Kevin Ament
Friday, July 9, 2010
I’ve never watched more than a few minutes of a professional basketball game, and probably couldn’t name ten guys currently playing in the NBA. But I flipped to ESPN last night to see how the network would handle being downgraded to just one more media channel broadcasting Team LeBron’s message to the world. Would they bring anything Twitter, Facebook, and blogs worldwide could not? Sadly, not really.
J. Kevin Ament
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
I know a high school English teacher who refuses to use red pen when editing her students' work. "It's like bloodletting, all that red ink on paper. It weakens writers," she says. So she bisects her students' sentences in blue, convinced the color, not the cutting itself, does the damage.
Similarly, employees from cubicle to corner office play a "track-changes" version of pass-the-patient with nothing but the best intentions. More often than not, what starts as a second opinion leads to a few minor stitches for a split infinitive, then escalates to invasive surgery as personal styles and legal hedging trump purpose. At the end of the procedure, the writer's left with a Frankenstein's monster of crowdsourced pieces and parts that no longer effectively communicates or resembles anything remotely human.
Rachel Newman and Kevin Ament
Thursday, March 25, 2010
In a time when brands must move comfortably across contexts to extend their relevance and engage consumers, Lady Gaga's mind is prime real estate. Her latest brainchild, a 10-minute long mini-film for "Telephone," is a product placement hotbed. Miracle Whip, Virgin Mobile, Diet Coke, HP, Polaroid, Wonder Bread, and the dating Web site Plenty Of Fish all co-star, shaped by the artist into a surreal mashup that confirms the importance of brand to our cultural dialogue.
Rachel Newman and Kevin Ament
Monday, February 22, 2010
In case you haven't heard, MTV updated its logo. "Music Television" has gone the way of, well, music television, which the channel hasn't featured for nearly a decade. In its stead, peering out from a double-amputee M, isn't this generation's Lauper or Jagger, but the "personalities" from MTV's latest reality trainwrecks. The company claims the logo, historically dynamic and malleable, now more accurately reflects MTV's evolution from music-centric content to a broader expression of contemporary youth culture; that it's more honest about what the company has become. Perhaps that's true. But considering the fossil record of MTV programming, a spray-tanned Snookie framed in leopard print signifies neither evolution, nor intelligent design.
Manon F. Herzog and J. Kevin Ament
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Every year, in the weeks leading up to Super Bowl, we learn whose ads passed network muster and whose didn't. This year, CBS generated lively debate by green-lighting Focus on the Family's pro-life spot, while rejecting an ad from gay dating site ManCrunch.com. Much has already been written about CBS's implied endorsement of one "life choice" over another. But few question why slow-to-evolve CBS failed to capture a fraction of the value its platform created for either organization.
J. Kevin Ament
Monday, February 8, 2010
Last year, the economy in free fall, I expected both Monster and CareerBuilder to forego the silly punchlines and offer a clear message of help and hope to the millions of unemployed Americans watching the Super Bowl. I was disappointed. This year, the jobless number nearing 15 million, I tuned in certain they'd finally get it right. That the employment experts would share their most inspiring success stories: The father of four who, laid off after 15 years at the same company, found new opportunity through Monster. Or the young college grad who, thanks to Careerbuilder, discovered an obscure field to which she could apply her highly specialized degree. Instead we got beaver-fiddling and tighty-whities -- proof these job search emperors have no clothes.
J. Kevin Ament
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Recently, Slate's Ben Sheffer presented Apple's case against Gawker's Tablet Scavenger Hunt, suggesting the web pub's Valleywag blog may be inducing Apple employees to violate trade secret law. But to measure the potential loss for Apple solely in terms of trade secrets is to overlook a much larger violation not just to Apple, but to the customer as well.
J. Kevin Ament
Monday, August 17, 2009
Dim Bulb’s Jonathan Salem Baskin wrote recently that rather than battling for the right to more broadly advertise mature and adults only-rated video games, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) would be better served investing in developers willing to challenge the gaming status quo. I share his hope that the industry will evolve beyond its current incarnation, and I too have written that the user-controlled sadism found in popular first-person games requires a different rating consideration than comparable subject matter in movies and music. Participants in this debate, for censorship and against, find common ground in calling for parents to better educate themselves about their children’s entertainment choices and take greater responsibility for their purchases. A few changes, however, are complicating matters.
J. Kevin Ament
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The TED conference began in 1984 with the simple goal of bringing the top minds of the Technology, Entertainment and Design industries together for short, thought-provoking talks with their peers. The for-profit, invitation-only gathering was largely unknown in its early years outside of the small community of innovators who spoke at and attended the annual conference. Twenty-five years later, a very different TED announces TEDx, independently organized local events designed to share recorded TED talks with and capture new inspiration from a global network of community leaders. The brand’s evolution is a case study for what our institutions of higher learning should be doing: leveraging digital strategies and new technologies to create global resonance for content traditionally constrained by bricks and mortar.
J. Kevin Ament
Sunday, May 10, 2009
I took my first few Facebook quizzes today, one courtesy of the Food Network. Up popped this disclosure: “Allowing Which Food Network Personality Are You? access will let it pull your profile information, photos, your friends' info, and other content that it requires to work.” I won’t give the nice lady at Kohl’s my zip code at the checkout, but there I was sharing the keys to my digital kingdom with Food Network’s marketing department. In return, I got six disjointed questions and the laughable conclusion that Alton Brown is my culinary doppleganger. My compliments to the chef, but if I’m forking this much over, I expect some larger portions.
J. Kevin Ament
Sunday, April 26, 2009
On July 30, 1993, the Missouri river’s Monarch Levee buckled, flooding Chesterfield Valley, Missouri. The rising waters quickly submerged a 10x30 public storage locker a few miles from the breach, drowning 15 years of my family’s accumulated artifacts. 15 years of photo albums. Within hours, our Kodak moments dissolved in a toxic bath of runoff and gasoline. Gone forever.
J. Kevin Ament
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Microsoft’s laptop hunters are back. This time we follow Giampaolo, a tech-savvy Roman import with “really big hands” (heh... good one, CPB). He’s looking for “portability, battery life, and power.” Portability you say? In a laptop?
J. Kevin Ament
Monday, March 30, 2009
What’s the better recession strategy: being the pricier brand everyone wants, or being the more affordable second choice? Microsoft is betting the farm on the latter with its latest attempt to counter Apple’s I’m a Mac campaign.
J. Kevin Ament
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Advertising Age’s Garrick Schmitt recently wrote that “Data Visualization Is Reinventing Online Storytelling.” He celebrates the brilliant New York Times/IBM Visualization Lab and others for “turning bits and bytes of data... into stories for our digital age.” Admittedly, the Times’ work is groundbreaking, and I applaud Many Eyes and other “visual scientists” for their valuable work in helping us see complex data in clear, useful ways. But storytelling it is not.
J. Kevin Ament
Thursday, February 26, 2009
I used Wordle to generate tag clouds for both President Obama’s and
President Bush’s first addresses to Congress. They share a common
political lexicon, with the expected partisan differences, but a few
words in particular merit comment.
J. Kevin Ament
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Cher. Madonna. Prince. Charo. The club of one-name celebs has a new member.
Just call him Dunkin.
J. Kevin Ament
Friday, January 16, 2009
I never really liked that Lance Armstrong. The silly pandemic of me-too
rubber bracelets he inspired. The nude cycling fetish.
The bizarre attraction to pencil-top troll Ashley Olsen.
I just wasn’t a fan. But I’ll be damned if his iPhone app isn’t
saving my life.
J. Kevin Ament
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
This week Burger King introduced Flame, a “body spray of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat.” The companion website features a variety of backdrops and groovy love tunes that guarantee the perfect ambiance for nibbling the meat-lover in your life. The scent retails for $4 exclusively through Ricky’s and online.
J. Kevin Ament
Thursday, November 13, 2008
This morning, I brought my daughters' remaining Halloween candy into the office, determined to no longer spend three hours every night at home gorging on Kit Kats (the genius behind Kit Kat Dark deserves a shiv in the kidneys). Rather, I spent the last six hours at work gorging on Kit Kats.
J. Kevin Ament
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Regardless of the results Tuesday night, the biggest loser of the 2008 election was third party politics. Bob Barr and Ralph Nader certainly deserve respect, but neither could provide true third party legitimacy or offer a remedy for a two-party system that continues to corral diverse voters into one of two catch-all ideological tents. Obama and McCain had the star power, change message, and political climate to finally do so, but in the end they chose to offer American voters New Coke and Pepsi Clear when we desperately need the Un-Cola.
J. Kevin Ament
Monday, October 27, 2008
After witnessing the successful swiftboating of Sen. Kerry in the 2004 election, many pundits anticipated a flurry of
devastating 527 ads in 2008. Surprisingly, stricter regulation and admonition from both candidates have limited television play. The ads have not, however, disappeared completely. The most notable (and powerful) spots of 2008 linger online, and the liberal groups who produced and distributed them have learned from and improved upon the 527s of
elections past.
J. Kevin Ament
Thursday, October 2, 2008
My wife and I recently moved to Atlanta, purging in the process a quarter century of bric-a-brac to make room for our daughters’ plush menagerie and a growing empire of Disney princesses. I’ll muzzle the rant over sacrificing my memory-laden artifacts to their marketing-laden geegaws and turn to the catharsis brand we entrusted to haul away our history: 1-800-Got-Junk.
J. Kevin Ament
Monday, September 22, 2008
President Bartlet of "The West Wing" appeared at last night’s 60th Anniversary Emmy Awards, delivering an eloquent, bipartisan reminder for audiences to vote in the upcoming Presidential election. During this presidential race, pundits have said much about the power of Barack Obama’s words to move crowds, but little about Sorkin’s, and how his idealized American President inspired voters to reconsider the qualities they demand in a candidate for the country’s highest office.
J. Kevin Ament
Monday, June 2, 2008
Earlier this month I was discussing fad products in my Marketing class and brought up 80s icon Chia Pet. Immediately my senioritis-inflicted students burst into renditions of the now infamous jingle. That’s impressive name recognition for a brand that peaked in popularity when they were fetuses and sustains itself today only through nostalgic impulse buys and endless line extension. It got me wondering whether manufacturer Joseph Enterprises, with a little outsourced design help, could retrieve the Chia brand from the compost pile.
J. Kevin Ament
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
(Originally posted November 2007) Former White House Press Corps punching bag Scott McClellan cried victim yesterday, leaking excerpts from a new book confessing what most pundits and news junkies believed already: that as press secretary for President Bush, he lied to the media regarding the Valarie Plame leak investigation.
J. Kevin Ament
Friday, May 23, 2008
One of my earliest childhood memories is shuffling into my parents’ tiny bathroom at daybreak, mirrors fogged over with shower steam, to watch my father shave. He frequently ended this morning ritual by depositing a thick dollop of lemon-lime Barbasol on my nose.
J. Kevin Ament
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Maytag’s century-old brand owes much of its equity to Ol’ Lonely, a lethargic Mayberry gent in a blue jumpsuit and replica 40s policeman's cap. Created by Leo Burnett in the late 60s, the ad campaign’s clever premise - expert repair services you’ll never need – emphasizes the brand’s dependability promise.
J. Kevin Ament
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
It appears Baby Einstein isn’t the only company peddling products that may retard our children. On Tuesday, toy maker Mattel announced its second major recall in as many weeks.
J. Kevin Ament
Friday, August 3, 2007
It’s World Breastfeeding Week, and so continues the tired pseudo-debate between bottle and breast, exacerbated by fanatics who shame women who don’t nurse, and shadowy alarmists who claim government officials are “stepping in to make the choice for new mothers.”
J. Kevin Ament
Friday, July 20, 2007
Let’s role play. You’re a pharmaceutical company who (allegedly) covered up the dangers of your last billion-dollar drug, for which you’re mired in costly and reputation-damaging litigation. You’re eager to launch a new, ground-breaking drug you can legitimately claim prevents cancer, and you want to avoid a barrage of articles comparing your new rising star to its fallen predecessor. You also need to break through consumer hesitation to early adopt, given your less-than-glowing track record. The new drug vaccinates against an STD. What do you do?
J. Kevin Ament
Thursday, July 12, 2007
The word “commune” elicits images of patchouli-soaked hippies, eastern-Pennsylvanian craftsmen, or Manifesto-writing, gun-toting tax evaders in dire need of therapy and antiseptic. But if I’m reading the cultural tea leaves correctly, don’t be surprised if a new generation of communes pops up in the rural US, featuring sustainable agriculture, green technologies, and like-minded families committed to raising and educating their children together, beyond the daily influence of American consumerism and popular culture. Tomorrow’s commune is M. Night’s Village with solar paneling and no creepy monster suits.
J. Kevin Ament
Friday, June 29, 2007
Karl Marx said “Capital is reckless of the health or length of life of the laborer, unless under compulsion from society.” This is the premise of the noticeably slimmer Michael Moore’s latest exposé, Sicko, which pulls back the curtain on one of the most profitable (and, he argues, immoral) industries in America: health care.
J. Kevin Ament
Friday, June 22, 2007
Video Game maker Rockstar’s newest gorefest, Manhunt 2, got the axe this week by the British Board of Film Classification. The ban prohibits the game’s sale in the U.K. America’s Entertainment Software Rating Board followed suit, classifying the game Adults Only - a rating big boxes like Best Buy, Walmart, and Target refuse to stock. While Rockstar is no stranger to controversy (the Grand Theft Auto oeuvre is a perennial cause célèbre for parent and religious groups), they certainly weren’t expecting this level of backlash, and they’re racing to save what was sure to be a blockbuster. Is the content of this game really so much worse than past offerings?
Davis Thinking
