Journal

BABC.com – The Adventure Continues

Brian Flatow — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:33:24 +0000

This week I visited the very fancy offices of a lawyer that was recommended to me. We spoke about some of the scenarios that would allow us to advance our cause of buying the Pabst Brewing Company and discussed how cool his view of Central Park is. We are also talking to several investment bankers to help us navigate these uncharted waters. Funny how many people want to talk to you when you tell them over 6,000,000 people have pledged over $210,000,000.

Buy A Beer Company dot com Update

Brian Flatow — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:47:10 +0000

Well, we started this at Thanksgiving and weren't really sure if we'd still have the site up past Christmas, but the response has been incredible. We've had coverage on CNN, TheStreet.com, Springwise.com and a whole bunch of cooler blogs from all over the world. Google returns 1.6 million search results. We've even had an inquiry from the SEC. But what's really cool is the 400,000 or so people who have pledged $5, $10, $15 towards this cause. So where do we go from here? Michael and I are trying to find time to sit down with a case of PBR's and figure it out. Stay tuned.

Let's Have A Beer ... Company

Brian Flatow — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:39:59 +0000

Michael Migliozzi (of Forza Migliozzi) and I were talking about how we thought crowdsourcing produced crappy work. But we thought there must be a way to put it to good use. So we decided to try and croudsource the $300,000,000 the Pabst Brewing Company was asking for. And so buyabeercompany.com was born. As of this morning we've had over $100,300,000 pledged – over a thrid of the way there. It's not over yet, folks. We're thirsty for beer and evidently, we're not alone.

http://buyabeercompany.com/

TweetFreak'n All Over

Brian Flatow — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:48:45 +0000

Last week I was one of TweetFreak's "Five to Follow" and did a cool Twitter Q&A with Brian Morrissey of Adweek as the "Twit of the week." I'm not sure it's good to be a "twit," but it's gotta beat being a twat.

Zappos and Amazon

Brian Flatow — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:02:18 +0000

I got lots of calls yesterday and this morning about what I think about Amazon buying Zappos. First off, it's great for Zappos and people who love Zappos. It's pretty simple from where I sit. Before Amazon came along Zappos had investors that were looking to get a return on their investment sooner rather than later. That's the business they're in. Amazon can see the greater value of Zappos over the long haul and will give them the money and resources to accomplish their long term goals as opposed to insisting they get more profitable, more quickly. Congratulations, Zappos.

We're All a Bunch of Whiners

Brian Flatow — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:18:02 +0000

In his blog Ignited executive creative director Mike Wolfsohn lamented that Zappos didn't spend enough time looking at his RFP. This set off a shit storm of comments from the typically anonymous commenters on Adweek, AdAge and others – including Ad Contrarian where in case you missed it Aaron Magness had an incredibly articulate response.

I'm the last person that wanted to see Zappos go into review. Do I wish the process was a little more under control? Of course. But Zappos was, and always has been, upfront with us and all the other agencies who made the decision to participate in the review. No one was forced into it.

But with that said, this post is really meant to point out that as an industry we love to whine and feel sorry for ourselves. And I'm including myself in this because I've certainly been guilty of it.

Well, I'm here to say get over it folks. Express your opinion. Do it constructively so people will take you seriously. Stop posting anonymous rants that make you and the advertising community as a whole look like whiney babies.

That's my whiney rant for the day and I'm all whined out now.

TV is Dead.

Brian Flatow — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:51:46 +0000

No really, our cat TV died.

It is with a heavy heart that I share the news that our beloved cat TV passed away last night. She leaves behind her long time cat companion Radio.

TV was a part of our lives for 12 years here at The Ad Store. Like everyone else at The Ad Store, she had to pull their own weight and was quickly put to work dispatching the mice that had set up shop in our 30th Street offices. TV proved herself an excellent mouser, while Radio proved himself an excellent eater. But TV didn’t seem to mind as long as Radio was there for her to cuddle up with at the end of a hard day’s work.

Visitors remember her as “the skinny one.” Or the “lovey” one. I remember her as the one who escaped to the basement of the building next door where I had to pull her out from under the boiler while she shredded my arms with her claws. We had that bond, though.

So, goodbye old friend. We hope you’re up in Heaven high as a kite on catnip chasing mice all day. You will be missed.

If you see Radio in our office over the next few days please be extra nice to him. He’s taking this very hard, as to be expected.

"Beer Wars" – Bring it on!

Brian Flatow — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:21:33 +0000

My good friend, and former mike's hard lemonade client, Anat Baron is launching her feature documentary on the beer industry. You don't have to be into beer to like it, but who doesn't like beer? Go to BeerWarsMovie.com to learn about the premiere and live event that's happening in 440 theatres across the country on April 16th. It's hosted by Ben Stein.

Here's the trailer:

Silly Rabbit, "Coraline" is not for kids!

Brian Flatow — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:58:18 +0000

I was just reading in AdAge about how Phil Knight swooped in to save Will Vinton/Laika Studios. Pretty cool. So Laika produces “Coraline” and instead of marketing it the same old way, Phil goes to his old buddies at Wieden & Kennedy. Also pretty cool. Well, in the interview Phil talks about how the distribution company, Universal Pictures' Focus Features, wanted to push this as a “kiddie film,” but Phil and Wieden said they had a better way to do it. “Wieden identified some 15 niche demographic ‘spokes,’ then set about courting the knitting aficionados, comic-book geeks, collectibles mavens, emo rockers, crafts makers and casual gamers.” And they’d do that “in concert with traditional Hollywood movie marketing.“ Again, sounds pretty cool.

So, are you getting the background here? Well, I’m not a knitter or a comic book geek or any of the other demographic spokes they identified – and by the way, neither are my kids. But make no mistake, my kids, and the kids of other parents I know, were bombarded with messaging for this movie. Do you know what this movie is about? It’s about a little girl who finds a passage to an alternate reality where her parents let her have whatever she wants. The catch is that instead of eyes, her alternate reality parents have buttons sewn to their faces. And guess what? If sweet little Coraline would like to stay in this fantasy world she’ll have to have her eyes replaced with little buttons sewn to her face, too.

The first time I saw any advertising for this movie was when I took my three little girls (7, 5, and 3) to see “Hotel for Dogs.” This is way G-rated. The trailer for “Coraline” comes on scares the shit out of them. Now I worked for Loews Theatres for a long time and I know that sometimes the pre-show trailers get mixed up so I chalk it up to a mistake. My kids only watch two TV networks with commercials – Disney and Nickelodeon. I start seeing these “Coraline” ads on the shows my kids are watching and my daughters are telling me how scary just the commercials are.

How many of the people from Wieden’s 15 spokes of gamers, emo rockers, etc. are watching Disney and Nickelodeon. Maybe more than I think, because a co-worker of mine, who could definitely fall into the “comic-book geek” category (no offense, Kris) came into my office to tell me she saw the movie. Ah ha, says I. It’s not really for kids. But, this co-worker goes on to tell me how the pre-show is all kids’ movie trailers and the theatre is full of kids and parents. Kids that she says are audibly disturbed by the movie and parents that are rushing to get their kids out of the theatre.

This pissed me off, because this movie was obviously marketed to kids. And this is obviously an inappropriate movie for kids.

A couple days later another co-worker comes into my office to warn me not to take my kids to see “Coraline.” It seems her little boy (6) was so scared by the movie that he had to sleep with his mother and woke up in the middle of the night feeling for his mother’s eyes to make sure they weren’t replaced with buttons!

So, what’s the real story here? Is it that Wieden & Kennedy came up with an innovative new way to market a movie? Is it that the studios humored them and said do what you like, but marketed this movie to kids anyway? I’d just like to know who is responsible for irresponsibly marketing this movie to young kids and scaring the shit out of them. Hello, Phil? Are you out there?

Originally posted on adstoreblog.com 2/20/09