Finally, A Smart Gas Price Ad

First, let me note that Matt, our Senior Copywriter/Associate Creative Director is drinking brandy a smoking cigars somewhere on a beach in Florida. And Alicia, our Jr. Copywriter/Training Course Developer has been in the ER for the past four days. So, I've been left alone in my office holding down the Renegade copywriting fort for the past few days, listening to Tears for Fears and other classic 80s artists to keep what's left of my sanity. So I apologize for posting only two blog entries this week, but somebody likes it when I do "billable" work.

Anyway, the spot featured in this post is at least six months old, but it's new to me if I haven't seen.

Because soaring gas prices are a hot topic, we'd been batting around the idea of recommending gas comparison spots to our clients, but didn't want to fall into a schlocky, "Gas prices got you down?" And the old, "For less than the price of tank of you gas you can..." also seems like an obvious way to go. It was a moot point, though, as many of our clients are now thinking about back-to-school concepts anyway, so we tabled that discussion.

But an extension Chevrolet's reduceuruse.com campaign fell into my lap during ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball, and I have to give kudos to Cambell-Ewald for their ingenius Gas Pumps Hate Us ads for Chevrolet.

Basically, in each of the three spots I've seen, a person pulls up to a gas pump and the gas hose takes out it's frustration with the gas-saving automobile by sabotaging it when the driver steps away, deflating a tire, locking a door from the inside or unhooking a tow hitch. "Gas Pumps Hate Us" simply appears on the screen followed by a note stating, "9 out of 10 cars Chevy sells get an estimated 30 mpg hwy or better."

Some have criticized Chevrolet, because in the age of hybrids 30 mpg isn't really that good anymore. But if you say something mediocre is actually really good enough times to enough people, the general public will eventually believe it. Just look at Nickelback. But I'm not one to talk, as just in time for the high gas prices of summer I traded in a Cavalier for a Blazer, because it's free to me if I don't have to pay for it.

Regardless of Chevy's fuel economy statements, the spots are still brilliant and uniquely tap a vein thought that is already in the forefront of consumers' minds. Unfortunately, I couldn't find more of these spots on any sites I didn't have to be a member of to view, so if you find anymore of these gems or similar concepts, please pass them along.

--Captain Awesome, Copywriter

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Friday Ad Haiku: Streaming Media

Youtube, Sirius Satellite Radio, watching TV on Web, downloading anything and everything. That's the kind of stuff that can make your T-1 line run like it's 24K. So, to the ADHD officemates who can't live without the newest Justin Timberlake video playing 24/7, this Friday Haiku is for you.

Friday Ad Haiku: Streaming Media

Been uploading to

The ftp server for

Almost half an hour.

Could you stop streaming

Mr. Belvedere for the

Next five minutes? Thanks.

--Captain Awesome, Copywriter

Last Week on the Friday 5-7-5: 4th of July Sales

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If This Were Advertising

(Click photo to enlarge.)

Here's a picture of the G-8 summit leaders I found in yesterday's Baltimore Sun. I thought, That's a poorly orchestrated picture. Then I realized, it looks poorly orchestrated, well, because it is. It's not an advertisement where all of the "right" looking people are put in the proper places and where there's an equal balance of gender, ethnicity, ages and body types. Perhaps I've been working in advertising for too long, but here are a few things I'd change if this were actually an ad:

1) Everyone's face would look like (Oh, I only had my lunch break to work on this, so I neglected to look up all of the names of the particular world leaders in the picture, but apparently neither did the guy who wrote the caption.) the guy on the far left--actually happy to be there, although he might tone down the smile just a little.

2) Dmitry Medvedev (the third guy from the left) would not look like a ski jumper.

3) George W. Bush would look less like his boat is listing to the right.

4) The 4th guy from the right would be LOOKING AT THE CAMERA! (unless this were the cover for an alt. rock album.)

5) The only woman in the photo would not look like she's about to tip over, unless of course she was leaning on a "buddy." In which case she'd have a forearm leaning on said buddy's shoulder and would not have her shoulders slumped forward.

6) The UK's Gordon Brown and friend on the far right, I'm okay with them, because at least they're interacting. "Pst, that guy's about to take a picture. Pat me on the back and look like you're laughing at something I just said."

7) And you probably don't put the five-foot-tall Russian guy next to Canada's at least six-foot-tall Stephen Harper.

Now let's talk about diversity.

8) White, white, white, white, white, Japanese (notice how he's near the center--nice placement), white, white, white. Okay, if this were an advertisement, you'd have at least one African-American! (Or for the sake of an international summit--African.) And you'd also have someone Hispanic or Latin American. Now the European Union could shout, "But hey, Spain is part of the EU!" True, but it only counts if the Spanish guy is actually in the picture! Once again he could be, but thanks to the lazy caption guy, that could be Taylor Hicks shaking hands with Jamie Farr for all I know.

9) You'd also have more than one woman. With 9 people in the photo, you'd probably have four or five and at least one would look like the Go Daddy girl, the blond from Battlestar Gallactica or 7 of 9.

10) If this were an ad for AARP, your age group would be pretty on point, but they'd all be playing tennis or walking on the beach. Otherwise your group would fall somewhere between the cast of The Office and the cast of The OC.

See how they even Photoshopped in the ocean there? Nice.

11) And finally, a graphic artist probably would've cropped out or Photoshopped the markers on the ground, put there to ensure every world leader would be equidistant.

But there's reality and there's advertising reality. Now if only reality would take some notes.

--Captain Awesome, Copywriter

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Local Commercial Manages to Suck the Fun Out of a Career in Video Games

I know, I know: critiquing regional spots sandwiched between Judge Judy and Magnum, P.I. reruns is like picking on that fat kid in elementary school who pees himself during arts and crafts.

But c'mon:


Is it the fact that these guys appear to be game-testing in the Young Adult Fiction section of the library? Or the wormhole in the hairstyle time continuum they seem to have stumbled through with their Hazzard County mullets? Or, maybe it's the Carey Elwes stunt-double who throws out the obligatory "dude!"--you know, to really connect with the jobless, pot-addled 20-something demo...from the mid-80s.

If you put together an FBI profile on the guy who wrote this, I'd bet a hundred bucks (Canadian) that he's a white male in his 50s, drives/drove a Trans-Am, and works/worked in a mid-level marcomm job in the admissions division of an online "college."

And he listens to Hall and Oates.

Perhaps the strangest thing about the spot is the medical-sounding disclaimer in the call to action: "Not intended for residents of Texas and Massachusetts". I was half expecting for it to include "...or women who are nursing or pregnant."

Of course, the A/V slippage on this version is really just a bonus. The soundtrack plays like a Kung-Fu movie dubbed by Jeff Spicoli.

Yep. On these slow blog days, nothing tastes sweeter than that low-hanging fruit.

M.M.McDermott
ACD/I CAN HAZ ADVRTZNG!

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Under the Influence--48 Hour Film Project Baltimore

So nearly a month ago, I posted about the trials and tribulations of making a movie in only 48 hours, and the clash of creative minds that took place over those two days of writing, shooting and editing a film for the Baltimore 48-Hour Film Project. Although a lot of the equipment we used was borrowed from Renegade and many of the people involved in the shoot were Renegades, Renegade can't take all of the credit. A lot of friends, vendors, interns, and even people who found us through Craig's List, participated in a variety of ways from writers to cast to camera to post-production, and many roles in between. So the video below is not necessarily a "Renegade" prjoect, but a mix of talent and creative vision put together by our team.

It was directed by Ad Agency Confessional's very own Matt McDermott. (He also plays "Scratch n' Sniff Guy.")
You may recognize our Creative Director Little Kenny Bigtime as an extra. He was also part of the writing team and music supervisor.
Jason Bloom, a frequent contributor to the confessional, spent nearly a day editing the film and taking it from a bunch of great shots to an actual short film.
Noah Thomason, our Director of Production (who inspired this post here) handled the camera, along with another friend of Renegade, Joe Anderson of JoeNation.tv.
Jill Kaufman, one of our associate Creative Directors, was also part of the writing team and played the film's naughty devil.
Like most people, I wore a couple hats for the film, but my identity will remain a secret on the grounds that it may incriminate me.
Of course, we didn't list everyone involved here, but hey, that's what the credits are for.

Anyway, enjoy: Under the Influence by Team Renegade.




Some parts worked perfectly, some didn't, and others worked even better than we expected. Are there things we'd do over if we had the chance? Sure. But the audience laughed and apparently thought it wasn't too bad. Last week, we learned we won the Audience Favorite Award for our group, which had a few other professional teams and a few other comedies, so we're pretty proud of that.

Finally, you can click here to check out our production from the 2007 48 Hour Film Project, The Davidson Account. We do want to warn you, again, this film also wasn't a purely Renegade project, so it does get a little blue, and the language is not exactly safe for work.

Feel free to leave any comments with your thoughts on either film.

--Captain Awesome, Copywriter

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Friday (ish) Ad Haiku: 4th of July Sales

We practically let our cynical creative department intern take over the blog this week, but who really does any work around a holiday weekend? The guy who's still here after five the day before a three-day weekend. Have a nice time, Matt, editor, jerk. Anyway, here's Aditya's take on the Friday(ish) Ad Haiku--Cap'n A

More and more stores stay open on holidays, like Independence Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day...Arbor Day, to serve the most avid and deal-spelunking of shoppers. All June I've been seeing commercials featuring finger-pointing Uncle Sam cutouts, "I Want You to buy a new dining set!" and talking barbecue grills, "Have we got some HOT deals!" Please, just give me fireworks, but alas, despite hackneyed advertising schemes, my inner shopaholic still beckons. That dinet set is as good as mine.

So for your Friday(ish) Ad Haiku enjoyment: 4th of July sales.

Don’t use July 4th
To sell me stuff. Use real ploys,
Like mail-in rebates.

--Aditya Desai,

Cynical Creative Department Intern

Last week on the Friday 5-7-5: Viral Marketing

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Spell Check Be Workin'.

Little Kenny Big Time's MS Word spelling and grammar check function keeps it real.

Clkic fhoto ot lenlagre.

Previously: Web guy murders the the English language with memo. Humor ensues.

M.M.McDermott, CAD/Copyrighter/Proofreeder

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