Author Archives: Campaign Outsider

What’s Up with the News Corpse – Er, News Corp – Ad?

by Campaign Outsider

Well the Doc opened the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

Rupert Murdoch has just split his News Corp empire in two: 21st Century Fox, the entertainment division, and the new News Corp print/publishing division. Wall Street sort of loves it, the New York Post really hates it, but most important – what do you think?

– Pieface

Dear Pieface:

Well you’ve certainly come to the right place to find out what I think. But before we get to that, let’s take your other points in order.

First, the News Corp empire is indeed split, as was officially announced in a two-page newspaper ad this week. Here it is from Monday’s New York Times (must’ve killed Murdoch to fork over major six figures to his arch-nemesis, eh?):

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So there you have it – print and publishing on the left, complete with a new News Corp logo; entertainment on the right, complete with the updated 21st Century Fox name.

(Also new: Murdoch’s beleaguered News International has been rebranded as News UK. As Mark Borkowski wrote in The Guardian, “[a]t News Corp we are now witnessing a methodical detoxification of the brand, to allow it to function at its best once again.”)

As for Wall Street . . . well, this Reuters headline says it all:

A sign is seen outside News Corporation building in New YorkFree of newspapers, 21st Century Fox shines

(Reuters) – Wall Street rewarded Rupert Murdoch’s move to create a separate entertainment company, giving 21st Century Fox one of the richest valuations in the media sector on its first day of trading.

Investors had waited for Murdoch to split News Corp, giving its cable, movie and equity stakes in pay-TV assets their own spotlight away from the publishing division.

In the first day of trading as separate entities, “[s]hares in the new 21st Century Fox entertainment operation gained over 2 percent on Monday, or $1.1 billion dollars in market value, from its opening price.”

Shares of News Corp, meanwhile, fell 3 percent.

That’s reason number one the New York Post hates the split.  Reason number two is that the tabloid will have to survive on its own without the entertainment division floating its clockwork annual losses, variously estimated at anywhere between $15 million and $110 million.

Finally, what does the old Doc think about all this?

Well, it’s possible the Murdoch just fell out of love with the print side of his medialith (just jettisoned wife #3 Wendi Deng knows the feeling).

It’s also possible that family and financial advisers finally prevailed upon Murdoch to kick the papers out of the nest to see which ones fly.

That sound you hear is the Post, flapping its arms frantically.

Yo.

What’s Up with the New Apple Ads?

by Campaign Outsider

Well the Doc opened the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

Apple has always run breakthrough ads promoting its breakthrough products. But we think its latest campaign is kind of  . . . meh.

What do you think?

– Adam and Eve

Dear Adam and Eve,

The new Apple ads have, as the saying goes, fallen pretty far from the tree, yeah?

A little history is in order here.

In the beginning, there was the 1984 ad that ran during that year’s Super Bowl broadcast. (Yeah yeah – the Doc does know there were Apple ads before that one, including this 1983 spot featuring Kevin Costner. D’you know that?)

 

That spot launched the Super Bowl Adstravaganza – one-off commercials designed mostly to profit from the promopalooza around the Big Game.

After that came a variety of other campaigns, most notably the Mac and PC series. Representative samples:

 

Same themes as the 1984 ad, right? Apple gives you freedom, individuality, personality, uniqueness.

Accent on the you.

Now consider the current Apple campaign. Here’s one of a series of double-trucks running in newspapers like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and today’s Boston Globe:

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Body copy:

This is it.

This is what matters.

The experience of a product.

How it makes someone feel.

When you start by imagining

What that might be like,

You step back.

You think . .  .

 

And yack yack yack.

Oh, yeah – here’s the companion TV spot, titled “Our Signature”:

 

What’s wrong with this picture (tube)?

It’s all about them – all we we we. Just like the last graf of the print ad: “We’re engineers and artists. Craftsmen and inventors. We sign our work. You may rarely look at it. But you’ll always feel it. This is our signature. And it means everything.”

And all this time we thought the customer meant everything.

Plus, Designed by Apple in California? Is that supposed to make us forget the Third World manufacturing that produces this stuff?

Apple used to be the most sure-footed of marketers. But this is a major stumble.

Yo.

Who Is James Reera? (II)

by Campaign Outsider

Yo.

Well the old Doc has been doing some gumshoe work on this Boston Herald ad, which we mentioned the other day.

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First, we dug up this obituary for Mr. Reera.

5e04782c-ea19-479f-9d9e-a7f5a677ad7dJames M. Reera, age 64, passed away Jan. 2, 2013. Jim was born and raised in Braintree, lived in Marshfield for 10 years before moving to New Hampshire, first in Holderness then to Thornton, and Ashland. Jim was a Vietnam War Air Force veteran. After joining the Marshfield Fire Department, he attained the rank of lieutenant, serving for 10 years and served as chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Association in the town. He discovered another calling as a tax accountant and financial advisor, setting up successful businesses in both Weymouth and Ashland, N.H., and managed them for many years.

But here’s what especially caught the Doc’s eye:

He inspired the doctors, his family and friends with the way he fought mesothelioma, a rare and virulent cancer of the lung.

At the same time, we checked into Priscilla Colburn, whose Facebook page revealed this:

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Closed-captioned for the farsighted: Priscilla Colburn Works at Lanier Law Firm.

The Lanier Law Firm? Here’s a press release from the Wall Street Journal last month.

The Lanier Law Firm Recognized for Winning Two of Texas’ Largest Verdicts

HOUSTON, May 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Two courtroom verdicts won by The Lanier Law Firm are featured among the top Texas jury awards of the past year in a special publication from Texas Lawyer, the state’s oldest independent legal newspaper . . .

In November 2012, The Lanier Law Firm won a $5.5 million verdict for a man who was injured while working at a trucking company in Lubbock, Texas. The verdict in Robison v. West Star Transportation Inc., No. 2009-546,118, ranked as the fourth largest workplace safety verdict in Texas during 2012, and No. 32 overall among the largest verdicts in the state last year . .

In June 2012, The Lanier Law Firm’s Larry Wilson secured a $2.2 million verdict against a drunk driver who caused a 2010 car crash that left a Houston woman severely injured and killed the woman’s friend. The verdict in Maxwell v. Wiggins, No. 2010-58026, represents the 10(th) largest motor vehicle verdict of 2012, and the 48(th) largest verdict in the state last year.

So No. 32 and No. 48 qualify as “Two of Texas’ Largest Verdicts”?

Seriously?

Kind of casts doubt on another press release from the Journal (by the way – what’s a news organization doing publishing press releases verbatim?) headlined “Houston Attorney Mark Lanier Recognized Among Texas’ Best Lawyers.”

Maybe Texas’ Best Ambulance Chasers, yeah?

You know the Doc will now be calling Ms. Colburn for further details.

Yo.

Ads ‘n’ Ends from the Doc’s Mailbag (Who Is James Reera?)

by Campaign Outsider

Yo.

Well the Doc opened the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out:

Dear Dr. Ads,

I am very concerned about the future of newspapers. According to the latest World Press Trends survey of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, in North America “[c]irculation was down by 6.6% year-over-year, and by 13% since 2008 [and] advertising revenues were down by 7.6% over 1 year and by 42.1% over 5.”

Really depressing chart via Marketing Charts:

Picture 7

Yikes!

So here’s my question: Seen any good newspaper ads lately that might cheer me up??

-Worried about News Corpse

Hey Worried,

You’re in luck – I just saw two, both on the same page of last Thursday’s Boston Herald:

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Close-up look:

Picture 1

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So why do I single these two out? (Actually can you single out two?  I dunno, but I just did.)

A couple of reasons:

#1 Because they have an element of intrigue.

#2 Because they could represent a new category of revenue for newspapers: Did You Work With ads.

Here’s what the Doc finds intriguing about the James Reera ad. Plug “Priscilla Colburn” into the Googletron and you get this Facebook post:

Picture 8

 

Hmmm. That’s just for starters. We’ll do some more digging here and get back to you guys soon.

Yo.