The Whigs: All Growed Up on Letterman

The Whigs played Letterman last night. Not only was it an intense performance, but now I've got something to show people to get them into The Whigs. Seeing a band perform makes them much more approachable. Also, The Whigs live shows rock faces off so the effect is even greater.

My favorite part is when Parker almost eats the microphone during his rock yell towards the end.

Sketchbook Cover

WOM rhymes with VOM.

NYT ad column today features a company called 888.com who is paying London taxi drivers to talk about their brand.

If I discovered I was being stealthily marketed to by a cab driver, I would be pissed off.

As the managing director of Taxi Promotions says, “The driver can choose what he wants to point out,” Mr. Moses said. “It’s not a hard-core sales talk; it’s sort of a subliminal talk.” Subliminal? Really? What an ass. Does this guy think people are fucking stupid? There's no way cab riders won't see through this crap.

And what about the guy who wrote the article. As far as I can tell, the only opposing view point he can find is that maybe people won't want their ear chatted off by a shilling cab driver. There's no discussion about disclosure, how people might react or whether or not this is an effective tactic. I think this would be some juicy territory to explore.

Not only does this cheapen human interaction by making it a "subliminal," paid advertisement, but it weakens the image of the brand once people figure out what's going on. Yet another reason why advertising, at it's worst, sucks donkeys.

All Kinds of Awesome.

Found this video blog on Vimeo by Davey. He describes it like this: "Armed only with an ipod and a Canon PowerShot, Davey picks a location and a pop song. Then Davey records an improvised dance."

Simple, fun and surprisingly lacking in Macarena-ness.


Davey Dance Blog -39- E.U. PARLIAMENT - Europe "The Final Countdown" from Pheasant Plucker on Vimeo.

Delayed Reaction: I hate Fox and Dodge's Media Buyer

It's been almost a week since the college football bowl season ended and I'm still harboring a grudge against Fox. Their coverage of the BCS games was abysmal.

Fox's announcers clearly didn't follow college football very closely throughout the season. Every comment smacked of something they read on the Internet forty-five minutes before game time. It was like that scene from the "40 Year Old Virgin" when they're playing poker and talking about sex. As soon as Steve Carrell's character opens his mouth it's clear he's never even touched a boob.

Fox also threw in a commercial break whenever possible. Change of possession - commercial break. First down - commercial break. Lint on Jim Tressel's sweater vest - commercial break. Those bastards stretched out a Sugar Bowl rout to over four and a half hours. What a bunch of dicks.

My contempt for Fox pales in comparison to my hate for Dodge's media buyer. I will NEVER even think about buying a Dodge because of you. No one gives a shit about your Event to Remember or Event of a Lifetime or whatever the fuck it is that Dodge does at the end of the year.

You played that spot over and over and over again. How many times can the audience watch two Dodge salespeople trotting through a dealership talking about great deals on shitty cars before people begin dousing themselves with molten cheese dip to numb the pain. Mix it up. Maybe you could exercise a bit of creativity. Or, how about making two or three shitty spots so I don't have to watch the same one over and over again.

The whole thing reminds me of the Howard Gossage quote, "Advertising...is a multibillion-dollar sledgehammer to drive and economy-size thumbtack."