What's Better, Faster or Slower?

By this time, almost all of us have seen at least one of these commercials, and I don't know about you but I love them.  The werewolf(posted above) has to be one of my all time favorite commercials.  For the longest time though, I've wondered if they were truly just kids being kids, or if they are scripted.

After doing some research I was able to find out that they are a little bit of both.  

These ads have really set a path of advertising for AT&T for some time to come, and in my opinion, it is because of the simplicity and realism of them that make them such a huge hit.  That's why I was actually a little nervous while researching them. I didn't want to be disappointed and find out that they were all child actors and scripted situations.  Well, it turns out that geniuses over at the advertising agency empire BBDO, just film a lot of different children for a lot of different hours till they strike gold.  The agency will film five different groups of four kids in one day. Throw in the main man, Beck Bennett, as the kid's moderator and you have got yourself a recipe for success.  Every once in awhile Bennett may have to throw a scripted question at the kids to get the ball rolling and let the kids bounce off of each other's energy. For example, the girl in the "candy island" commercial(below) may have been prompted to say it "but then suddenly they're all sparking to this idea.. What we ended up with was nothing like what we had on paper. And look at 'Werewolf'  There's no way you could come up with anything that wonderful. That's Diana going nuts in her own head."

Well now that I know that these awesome commercials aren't scripted, I was curious to learn more about the brains behind these gems.  Turns out BBDO has roots back to 1891 with George Batten's Batten Company.  Later in 1928, through a merger of BDO (Barton, Durstine & Osborn) and Batten Co. the agency became BBDO. Since then, their philosophy of "The Work The Work The Work," has gotten them clients such as PepsiCo, AT&T, Campbell's, HBO, Mercedes, and so many more major companies.  They believe that "At BBDO, the Work encompasses every kind of creative content that can touch the consumer and reinforce the brand." 

Batten opened his one room ad agency, with one employee and no clients, in 1891 and by 1894 Batten's is the first agency to install in-house printing. Between 1906 and 1918, Batten's moved to a 5000 sq/ft office, expanded to 50+ employees, acquired the Hammermill Paper Co. and Armstrong Cork Company(who is  now their oldest client). In 1918, Mr. Batten passed away, making William H. Jones the president of Batten's.

In 1919 The Barton & Durstine agency opens January 1 at 25 W 45th St., with Bruce Barton as president and Roy Durstine as secretary- treasurer. In August, Alex Osborn joins the agency, rename Barten, Durstine & Osborn.

Less than a decade later, in 1928, the companies merged forces and made the empire that is still known as Batten, Barton, Durstine, & Osborn, or BBDO.

Between 1928 and 1957, the company underwent a lot changes with management, from Durstine leaving and opening his own agency to Jim Jordan being president(who started in the mailroom), and in 1947 it was Osborn who was responsible for the idea of "brainstorming". 

In 1960 BBDO picked up accounts with Chrysler and PepsiCo, and it was here that the "Pepsi Generation" was born.  In fact, BBDO is not only reponsible for the success of Pepsi Cola, but for introducing the concept of a product being identified by it's customer's attitudes and lifestyles, rather than othe product itself.  This is major in itself.  Look at products today.  Many of them to this day still use this tactic.  Apple plays to the "hip" crowd.  Subuaru plays to families and uses love as their motto. GoPro is for those who live on the edge and outdoors.  The list goes on and on.

To this day, BBDO, continues to revolutonize advertising with gems such as their AT&T TV spots, or their infamous Snickers ad in 2010 featuring Betty White(which happened to win them 

the "USA Today SuperBowl Ad Meter" award.

So from 1891-2013, BBDO has been winning the advertising race, revolutionizing it along the way. I guess if you ask them what's better? They would definitely agree with the young Miss Diane and her werewolf theory, that being faster, is always better.

Branded by a "Swoosh"

As I sit here and recap the opening weekend of the 2013 NFL season, not only can I not help but think about how awesome my fantasy football teams did this week, but all the product placements and advertisements as well.  So many commercials for so many brands that we have all come to know and love.  Take a look at this picture:

Chances are that right off the bat you were able to identify a handful of those logos or brands and relate it to something.  Either a commercial you've seen, a world event, or a personal experience.

To me that's pretty amazing. Especially considering that this picture is pretty outdated and a lot of these brands have changed their look or image.  However, there is one on there that has never changed and stayed the same.  The Swoosh.  The iconic symbol was developed by Caroline Davidson in 1971 and is supposed to symbolize the wing of the Greek goddess, Nike.  Nike was the Greek's personification of "Victory", and that is exactly what the company Nike has come to be known for.

I'll just give you a brief history lesson of Nike but if you want the full scoop, please go to the official Nike website and read.  It is pretty interesting in my opinion History and Heritage of Nike

In the 1950's a successful track coach in Oregeon by the name of Bill Bowerman, had not only experimented with different track surfaces and rehydration drinks to benefit his athletes, but also came up with the idea of an athletic running shoe. At the time, the concept he had in mind, was as foreign as moon shoes and the big shoe companies all laughed at him.  So he began cobbling them on his own instead.

Meanwhile a track runner, who also earned his MBA in finance, by the name of Phil Knight was earning a job with Tiger Shoe Company based out of Japan.  Bowerman was one of the first people Knight tried to make a sale to, but instead ended up with a business partner.  It was now that two pushed the idea of Bowerman's shoe to Tiger Shoe Company.

In the 1960's the pair formed Blue Ribbon but soon discovered that having full time jobs, and trying to run a start up company, was too much to take on alone.  Enter Jeff Johnson, the first full time employee of Blue Ribbon Sports. It was Johnson who designed brochures, prints ads, etc for the company and even came up with mail order system.

The 1970's can be held responsible for the birth of the name Nike(thought of by Johnson) as well as the birth of the infamous Swoosh(designed by a graphic design student, Caroline Davidson).

  And that is where our history lesson ends for today(but please feel free to refer to the previous link for the full history).   

I want to stop there, not because the rest of the history isn't important, but because it was the swoosh that caught my attention this past weekend.  In 2012, Nike became the official maker of all NFL jerseys(replacing Reebok). It is also the same year they pumped out this awesome "my fast is faster" commercial 

NIKE COMMERCIAL
I loved this commercial when it came out and I still do.  I really enjoyed the "Nike Sparq Training" ads as well.  Nike has a way at tugging at your emotional strings, and they know how to do it very simply.  Their commercials are very straight forward and to the point.  Here are these top caliber athletes, using Nike products, training like animals.  Now for me, being a strength coach and an athlete myself, these commercials "pump me up".  They make me want to go train and use their products. However, there was no "My better is more better" ads or "just do it" ads on opening weekend.  Or if there was, they didn't air it often cause I didn't see it as I continued to not move from my couch watching game after game.  For me this was strange, to be the ultimate provider/sponsor of the NFL and not have a commercial.  Then I started to notice a swoosh here, and a swoosh there.  One on Kaepernick's jersey and another Crabtree's sideline gear.  As soon as I saw this swoosh, I instantly thought, "NIKE" and all of a sudden those plain old sweats the guy on the IR was wearing, looked a lot "cooler"

They say a good brand is "in for the long haul".  That it taps into emotion and that it knows itself.  Well in my opinion, if any one company has done these things, it has been Nike.  I live probably 90% of my life in athletic clothes, and I almost always have that little swoosh somewhere on me.  You see, Nike doesn't need to run countless ad time and time again, because they have branded countless people like myself with that always relevant little swoosh.  And because of that, the Nike swoosh is always on display, always circulating.  In essence, we are paying Nike to advertise for them.  Well played Nike, well played....