Tag Archives: Wall Street Journal

What’s Up with Patagonia’s ‘Worn Wear’ Ad? (Blacklash Friday Edition)

by Campaign Outsider

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

Dear Dr. Ads,

I was reading the New York Times on (Black) Friday when I came across this full-page ad:

 

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That’s a real head scratcher, isn’t it, Doc? They’re saying we don’t want you to buy our clothes, we want you to . . . have bought our clothes.

Does that make any sense? What kind of business are these people in?

– L.L.B.

Dear L.L.B.,

Yeah, the Boston Globe ran the four-color version of the ad, where the jacket looks even funkier.

 

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So it was all about the Black Friday Worn Wear Party, which featured the documentary film Worn Wear (118,619 YouTube views).

 

 

Patagonia has launched The Common Threads Partnership (Reduce. Repair. Reuse. Recycle. Reimagine) that’s designed “to reduce excess consumption and give the planet’s vital systems a rest from pollution, resource depletion and greenhouse gases.” The website says over 60,000 people have taken The Pledge.

Kind of reminds the Doc of the Media Foundation’s annual rub-their-face-with-a-brick Buy Nothing Day, which is also tied to Black Friday. The  anti-consumerism group would try to run an ad like this in the ramp-up to Shopapolooza:

 

 

Uh-huh – what TV station in its right mind is going to sell time for that? Can’t you just see the conversation after the spot airs:

Retail guy: Are you out of your mind? I just spent $100,000 on your station telling people to shop like crazy the day after Thanksgiving, and then you turn around and tell them not to? What the hell!

Station guy: Oh, right.

Then again, as Peggy Noonan noted in her Wall Street Journal column this week, a sort of Blacklash Thursday movement has emerged.

There has been a nice backlash on the Internet, with petitions and Facebook posts. Some great retailers refused to be part of what this newspaper called Thanksgiving Madness. Nordstrom did not open on Thanksgiving, nor did T.J. Maxx or Dillard’s. P.C. Richard & Son took out full-page ads protesting. The CEO was quoted last week saying Thanksgiving is “a truly American holiday” and “asking people to be running out to shop, we feel is disrespectful.” Ace Hardware said, simply: “Some things are more important than money.”

P. C. Richard & Son ad:

Save-Thanksgiving-Page-740x900

Yo.

What’s Up with the ‘Heroic Media’ Anti-Abortion Ad?

by Campaign Outsider

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

Dear Dr. Ads,

I recently saw this Wall Street Journal ad from an outfit called Heroic Media.

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The website’s Frequently Asked Questions section says this about the group’s funding:

Our primary source of income is from individual donors. We also receive support from churches, organizations and foundations. We do not receive income from government sources.

No kidding.

What’s the scoop on this campaign?

– 19 Weeks

Dear 19 Weeks,

Funny you should ask, because the Wall Street Journal is one of the only mainstream media outlets to run the ad.

From the Christian Broadcast Network:

Media Outlets Reject Controversial Pro-life Ad

Three major U.S. newspapers are refusing to run a pro-life ad, calling it too controversial.

The ad by Heroic Media features a hand holding a 20 to 24-week-old pre-born baby.

Above the baby is a quote saying, “This child has no voice, which is why it depends on yours, speak up.”

Lifenews.com reported that The Chicago Tribune , USA Today, and Los Angeles Timessaid they feel the image of the baby is “controversial.”

The controversy stems from the ad not specifying “whether the child was alive or dead,” according to World Magazine.

Here’s a Heroic Media spokeswoman discussing the controversy:

 

The Chicago Tribune subsequently accepted an alternative ad with a different image (via Jill Stanek at LifeSiteNews):

heroic-ad_alt-baby2-Final-Draft-2

 

Okay then, yeah?

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.