Census data trends

Recent census data confirms that not only are there less marriages making it to the 25th anniversary, but also fewer couples are making it to their 15th anniversary. Overall, there has been a decline in the traditional nuclear family. This could be a result of divorce, but also may result from a trend towards single parenthood by choice.

Super Bowl Ads

I'm not a sports fan, so I spent Sunday evening doing laundry and catching up on my schoolwork. Upon my return home, I sat down in front of the TV and fast-forwarded through the Super Bowl to get to the commercials. As a proud Tivo subscriber, I was keenly aware of the irony of using the Tivo to watch commercials instead of avoid them.

I was also surprised at the extent to which my viewing of the ads was colored by a need to write something on this blog for class. I think that this awareness made me even more judgemental of the advertisements. I wrote down several names of advertised products whose commercials impressed me momentarily (Blackberry, Vantage Point, and something that looks like "Cheese" - I'm having a hard time reading my handwriting) but just one day later I don't remember much about the ads themselves.

As this was one of the first times that I watched Super Bowl commercials, I expected laugh-out-loud comedy, eye-popping visuals, and a genuine commitment to the continued evolution of advertising. For the most part, I was unimpressed. The Bud Light ads were sometimes momentarily amusing, but overall they seemed to be trying too hard. Fed Ex's giant pigeons were impressively rendered, but also conspicuously over the top. Of all the ads, only one made me press rewind on my remote; the preview for the upcoming "Iron Man" movie. This is a no-brainer for me, as I'm a huge comic book geek and this was the first time that I've seen a full-length trailer for the film. I watched the ad alone on my couch, my fanboy heart beating hard, s0 I can't say for certain if others enjoyed it as much as me. The woman next to me in my in my Monday night Political Communication class only looked at me blankly when I told her how excited I was about Iron Man.

I consider myself a rather jaded commercial viewer, so advertisers have to work hard to capture my attention. Judging from the ads that impressed me Sunday night, the best way for an advertiser to jar me from a commercial watching stupor is to introduce the element of suprise. The first ad campaign to surprise me on Sunday was the series of ads for the Terminator TV series. While the trailer for the program was entertaining enough, what really impressed me were the two times that the Terminator seemed to interrupt football commentary to attack Fox's robotic football mascot. The Terminator's sudden appearance recalled the notorious energizer bunny interrupting commercials for other products to keep going, and going, and going.

The other advertiser that surprised me was Bridgestone Tires. First, the Bridgestone folks served up some cuddly anthropomorphic forest animals, certain of their doom, screaming their heads off in the middle of the road as a car barrelled towards them. Fortunately, they were saved at the last minute by a quick swerve courtesy of Bridgestone tires. When the next Bridgestone ad came on, I smiled knowingly. "Here come those cute screaming animals", I thought. Bridgestone comepletely sideswiped this jaded commercial viewer's expectations by replacing the forest critters with shock 'n roll icon Alice Cooper, and the ever-annoying eighties fitness guru, Richard Simmons. Kudos Bridgestone, I can't say for certain if I'll ever buy Bridgestone tires, but the ad certainly made me aware of the company if only to write about it in my advertising blog.

As for the year's most buzz worthy commercial, early returns suggest that the giant parade balloon versions of Underdog and Stewie from Family Guy battling over an inflatable Coca-cola bottle garnered the most favorable reviews.

John Hegarty

John Hegarty originally pursued an education in the fine arts, eventually switching to graphic design at the suggestion of one of his instructors. Hegarty came of age in the cultural revolution of the 60's, and, influenced by the pioneering work of Bill Bernbach, he sought to bring creativity, wit, entertainment and accessibility to British advertising. He worked with fellow advertising legend Charles Saatchi at the firm Benton & Bowles and was a founding member of Saatchi & Saatchi. He was also a co-founder of 

TBWA, and served as creative director until he left to found Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) in 1983. 

Although Hegarty had considerable success before founding BBH, he cemented his place in advertising history with his 1980's ads for the jean manufacturer, Levi-Straus. BBH's 1985 Levi's 501 Launderette commercial not only proved successful in selling it's intended product, jeans, but also in influencing British pop culture. The soul songs that provided the campaign's soundtrack, including a version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" reentered the British pop charts. The stylized 1950's look of the ads sparked a British 50's fashion revival, and the underwear worn by the model in the launderette ad is credited with getting a generation of British men to retire their y-front briefs for boxer shorts. Other products represented by Hegarty and BBH include Audi, British Airways, and Johnnie Walker, and AXE bodysprays (known as Lynx in the U.K.).

Sir John Hegarty, knighted in 2007, is revered as an advertising legend in Britain.  BBH, with Hegarty as chairman, remains a force in British advertising today. The company remains true to its roots by retaining ownership of the firm (a 49 percent stake is held by Publicis), and has only 6 offices worldwide. BBH recently opened the first virtual advertising agency on Second Life, the popular internet-based virtual world.