Google’s G1 Is Finally Ready for Its Close-up

With Much at Stake T-Mobile, Publicis Break Consumer Effort Behind Buzzed-About Smart Phone

SAN FRANCISCO (AdAge.com) — Up until now, the buzz for the T-Mobile’s Google-branded smart phone has been mainly in the press and blogosphere. Starting with a campaign breaking today, the carrier has to convince consumers.

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McCain Is a Ford, Obama Is a BMW Brand Study: Voters Find Both Candidates Resemble Starbucks

Campaign Trail

Barack Obama is James Bond and John McCain is Jack Bauer. While that might make a great tagline for a rocking action-movie spoof, that sentence has nothing to do with a movie and everything to do with the way American voters view the presidential candidates.

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GOP Strategists Say McCain Using Right Tactic, Wrong Ads

Attacks Are Fine, but Current Targets Are Irrelevant

Campaign Trail

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) — With poll numbers suggesting that Sen. John McCain’s attack advertising on rival Sen. Barack Obama is backfiring, some Republican advertising people and strategists on and off Madison Avenue are wondering if the McCain campaign is using the right tactic but the wrong attack ads.

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Exclusive Shopping Websites Catching On Marketers See Lucrative Niche in Membership Concept

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Those elusive, engaged consumers — those who are actually still spending — are a marketer’s dream. So where are they hiding? Well, a slew of new members-only websites that clear excess designer merchandise at steep discounts contend they can be found there.

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Lying Politicos McCain and Obama Should Take the Oath

We’re Heartbroken That Fabricating Big Lies From Nominal Truths Has Become Standard Operating Procedure

Garfield’s AdReview

Admittedly, we surrendered to the sick pleasure of Mr. Straight Talk Express revealing himself as just another cynical, self-serving politician, but we’re correspondingly disgusted with Mr. Change We Can Believe In, who has revealed exactly the same thing.

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As Goes the Stock Market, So Goes McCain GOP Attack Ads Fall Flat as Economy Sinks and Obama Continues to Rise

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) — Once left for dead in the primaries, the GOP team is struggling to right itself even as it is vastly outspent by Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign. Now, however, there may be no time for a comeback.

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Ad Age Marketer of the Year Candidates

Video Preview: A Look at Our Finalists Apple, Coors, McCain, Nike, Obama, Zappos

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Advertising Age’s Marketer of the Year ceremony will be part of the CMO Choice Awards on Oct. 16, to be held during the ANA conference in Orlando, Fla. In these six video previews, Ad Age staffers explain why each marketer — Apple, Coors, Sen. John McCain’s campaign, Nike, Sen. Barak Obama’s campaign and Zappos — is worthy of the top honor.

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What ‘Facial Coding’ Analysis Says About McCain, Obama Ads

A 3 Minute Ad Age Video Report

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — A marketing research system that studies the emotions expressed by facial muscles has been used to analyze presidential campaign ads. The system is the subject of the new book, “Face Time,” by Dan Hill. Mr. Hill heads Sensory Logic, a consulting firm that has been using “facial coding” methods to study second-by-second consumer reaction to TV commercials. Its clients are normally large marketing corporations.

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Creativity Weekly Top 5 Hovis Loafs Through History, Diesel Celebrates With an SFW Dirty Video, Mario’s Evil Twin Shakes It

Watch the Spots

In this week’s episode of Creativity’s Top 5, courtesy Creativity-Online.com, Google distributes Earth Water by Tetra Pak to keep Advertising Week hydrated; Stockholm’s Fi and Goodby get Mario’s tubby evil twin to shake it; Hovis and agency MCBD loaf through history; “Dexter” becomes a cover boy; and Diesel promotes its anniversary with the dirtiest clean video ever made.

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Ad Club Honors David Droga’s Global Water Project

A 3 Minute Ad Age Video Report

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — In late 2006, in response to a challenge from Esquire magazine, David Droga came up with the idea of branding tap water to raise money for UNICEF. Called the Tap Project, it at first involved 300 New York City restaurants asking patrons to pay a dollar for their tap water. The program then went national and, next year, will go global. Last week, the Advertising Club of New York honored Droga for his work.

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McCain Winning Search-Ad Race Has Gained More Traffic Online With Important Keyword Purchases

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — John McCain may not know how to use e-mail, but his campaign apparently knows how to use search. It’s one technology area where the Republican seems to be besting Barack Obama.

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MPG: For Voters, Presidential TV Debates Matter

Poll Finds That Among the ‘Undecided,’ Matchup Will Influence Their Final Decision

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The Maverick really needs to be in Mississippi tomorrow night. Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain’s decision to skip tomorrow night’s debate with his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, at the University of Mississippi could be a huge mistake, according to a new study by Havas media agency MPG and CNN’s Advertising Sales and Research Group.

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McCain Picks Bad Time to Cede Battleground Suspends Campaign Just as Obama Ramps Up Spending

Campaign Trail

John McCain took a bold step and suspended his campaign to go to Washington to help resolve the country’s economic crisis. On the one hand this move is consistent with his “country first” brand, but on the other hand a total suspension of his campaign may jeopardize his party’s chances this fall.

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Ad Agency Diversity Hearing Goes Sweet and Sour

A 3 Minute Ad Age Video Report

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — What a difference two years can make. At the first hearing of New York City Council’s Civil Rights Committee on ad agency diversity-hiring practices in 2006, no agency executives deigned to show up. But at the second hearing this week, no less than the new 4A’s President Nancy Hill led a supplicant coterie of top agency officials into the council’s chambers. Their public interaction with Committee Chairman Larry Seabrook was a sweet and sour affair that mirrored the contentious history of the issue.

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The Debate Debate: Is McCain Putting Country First or Running Scared? And Does Obama Run Risk of Looking Like a Typical Politician?

Campaign Trail

I’m fully aware that McCain is weak on the economy. I’m also inclined to agree with Obama’s assessment that the next president will have to be able to juggle more than one crisis at a time. I just think John Q. Public might be inclined to buy McCain’s storyline on this one.

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‘Meatnormous’ Master Bogusky Pens Diet Book

Creative Behind BK, Domino’s Campaigns Now Urges Restraint

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) — From the guys who coined “Meatnormous,” introduced the Quad Stacker and unveiled the Double Croissanwich filled with “meat and cheese and cheese and meat,” now comes … a diet book recommending smaller portions.

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McCain Foods Hits the Campaign Trail Spud Peddler Cashes In on Namesake Politician’s Run for Prez

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) — McCain Foods, a Canadian company that has languished in American freezer aisles for years, has decided it’s time for a change — at least in frozen potatoes. Its new ad campaign clutches the coattails of presidential candidate John McCain and will hold on through early November, issuing a series of tongue-in-cheek election-themed messages.

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