Tiffany Creates A Potential Monster

When I was in college, the must-have, baseline item for young women to say, “Yes, I am better than you” was the Tiffany heart necklace. I can remember a friend of mine lamenting that his girlfriend was less than hinting that she wanted one. From my ethnographic point of view, they were worn as badges of honor, a simplistic yet powerful status symbol.

Today, the WSJ ran a story announcing that Tiffany will be releasing a series of handbags this September ranging from a $395 tote to a $17,000 megabag.

Every bone in my body is telling me that this will be the thing to own for every woman age 12 to 25 this holiday season. I don’t know which design will be the most popular, but this “Bracelet Bag” in Tiffany blue looks like the one.

Adidas "Mega Diner" Spot = Nope

Right before the World Cup launch, the TBWA produced Adidas Originals campaign released the Star Wars Cantina spot, which featured the likes of Daft Punk, Snoop Dogg, David Beckham, and the Gallagher brothers. In effect, the ad emphasized the cultural permeation and malleability of the Adidas brand and products. In other words, everyone – no matter what corner of galaxy they may come from - finds it cool to wear Adidas.



Now that the World Cup is over and we have all retreated to our respective corners of the globe, Adidas launched the next generation of the Originals campaign, the “Mega Diner.”



Despite the catchy song in the background, which I think is from B.O.B who plays the cook in the ad, the actor placing the order has the worst accent and voice combination that I have heard on television.  (I have since been informed that the actor plays kid with a huge dong on an MTV show about a kid who has a huge dong.)  He sounds both snobby and puerile, like some prep school kid complaining that his parents won’t pick him up in their Bentley so can he flaunt their wealth to his friends.  Maybe he reminds me of too many people that I didn’t like in my youth, but this spot is just bad.

It’s a real shame too because the microsite built to accompany the campaign is much better.  Maybe, it's that the spot is too busy or the backdrop of the diner is too complicated to showcase a full line of products, but at least the microsite proves that the diner concept can work if you are showcasing a single design at a time.

This Dove Ad ___________

1) ... pissed me off. While my soon-to-be-wife and I were watching the most recent episode of Mad Men, I went into the other room during the commercial break. When she yelled, "It's back!" I dropped what I was doing and ran back to the room only to discover half way through the spot that it had nothing to do with the program and we had been duped.

2) ... is sort of well done. They got the style down perfectly, which is impressive. Then again SNL also had their Mad Men spoof which was great.



3) ... misses the mark. Pop culture guru Chuck Klosterman was the most recent guest on Bill Simmons' podcast and neither remembered the product. Yes, it's good that two of more technologically connected opinion makers are talking about the spot, but only the fact that it disrupted the expected flow of entertainment. They had no recollection that it was Dove. So, I would have to say that the spot does not fulfill its true intent.