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United Airlines broke Dave Carrol’s guitar. He spent over nine months trying to get the airline to take responsibility and pay for the damages; they refused. So he took to the interwebs and created this incredibly catchy and entertaining video “United Breaks Guitars” with his country music band Son of Maxwell.

The video currently has 12,559 comments, 5-stars by 19,750 ratings and 2.3+ million views.

When will companies learn that poor customer service + internet = horrible reputation destruction? It took the man more than a year to get completely rejected by United claims, write the blog post and create the video. Which means United had a year to make things right, they had a year to pay $1200 to fix the guitar that the airline workers broke, they had a year to make Dave Carrol a fan of United.

How hard is it to train your employees to be nice to your customers? How difficult is it to do right right thing?

According to United’s Twitter the airline contacted Dave, donated $3,000 to Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz 4 Music Education 4 Kids and is working with Dave for some positive songs. Too late? What do you think?

I don’t know what he is singing about and I don’t care. The video is brilliant and the song makes me smile.

but hilarious.

New campaign for Hardees’ about their new Biscuit Holes. Check out the spots below and the campaign site NameOurHoles.com to help the Southern/Eastern fast food chain come up with a better name for their Biscuit Holes.

A vs. B

Survey

Munching

I am not a violent person. However, I would like to physically harm who ever created the pop up people that talk on websites.

Dear Merchant Circle,

Please disable your the popup lady who tries to sell me on your package deals.

Thanks.

To experience the annoyingness for yourself – click here.

What ever happened to category exclusivity in TV spot breaks?

An explanation for any non-media readers out there – typically when you place a buy at both the local and national level, you will be granted category exclusivity for the spot breaks you purchase and any good media buyer will demand it. Meaning that within the a two minute and thirty second commercial break those other four :30 spots you’re running with will not be one of your competitors.

Your competitors could be in the next spot break, they could be in every one after yours, but they should not run in your break and certainly not after your spot in the same breaj. Sometimes it happens, rotators get stuffed in any aavails and when inventory is tight mix ups are bound to happen. But these days it seems as though category exclusivity is totally done with.

MTV seems to do this the most – a two minute break just aired three direct skin care competitors, one after the other.

Local news ran a competitor car spot in the same break they announced a program feature was sponsored by another local dealership of the same make. (Car dealerships are a bit more flexible in that two makes can run in the same break as long as they don’t directly compete – BMW and Chevy can share a spot break because people shopping for a Chevy would not then turn around and buy a BMW).

I’m surprised with the amount of inventory that this is even happening, but media companies and reps are too focused on making money to stay afloat. Unfortunately, its hard for a media buyer to track what other spots are running in the spot break as invoices only contain the date, time and rate of your own spots. Unless you (or god forbid) the client happens to catch it, you’ll never know.

Do you think exclusivity is a thing of the past or will it come back when stations don’t have to whore themselves out to stay afloat?

The Dollar ReDe$ign Project is asking folks to redesign US currency in an effort to encourage the US government to redesign the US currency and stimulate the economy. The Project was put together by Richard Smith.

While I do not understand how pretty new money will boost the economy, I enjoy checking out the submissions sent in. All of the designs are available for viewing here, you can read more about the project here and here.

These are my favorite submissions

By Michael Ross

By Richard Smith

By Michael Tyznik

Outdoor is just not as creative as it should be. Very few brands take advantage the possibilities of outdoor which is why I appreciate the out of the box thinking on this campaign by Agency V out of Paris, France. But it falls short in execution.

Polo Match. An endless list of equipment.

What do you think? I don’t want to skew your opinion so I’ll let you know my thoughts after the jump…

Ok, I’ll try and be nice, but here is what I find totally wrong with it.

Maybe its lost in translation, but to me equipment just seems like the wrong word here. I think they’re trying to say that all these items which would normally be considered “upgrades” come standard on the Polo Match. To me I think equipment and its more along the lines of the parts of the car (like the engine) and that list would obviously be pretty long.

If you take a close look at the list, there are only 13 items, hardly close to “endless”.

Do any cars not come with AC or passenger side airbags?

Is a leather steering wheel and a chrome grille really considered important “equipment”?

What the hell does a multifunction computer do?

I’m 99% sure fog lights are standard on any car built since 2005.

The font looks huge and while I appreciate white space, it seems inappropriate when you’re trying to demonstrate that there are so many features there just isn’t enough room.

ABS (anti-lock brakes) seem like an important bit of equipment, why did they let it hide behind the bottom frame?

Via IbelieveInAdv

Meet Zack, the star of the most disturbing online campaign EVER created.

The premise is that Zack went to bed one night with “guy parts” and woke up with “girl parts,” although he remains a guy in every other aspect. Throughout the videos Zack only expresses mild confusion, never close to FREAKING out like most guys would be.

On his site, Zack16.com,  you can read his diary and watch the very professionally produced videos of this transformation.  Check out his diary entry from Day 9 where a copywriter had the time of his life crafting these beautiful and touching words -

It happened so fast. C’mon, I just was just dealing with my newly acquired girl parts. And I had no choice. They just showed up. I didn’t even get a 30-day money back guarantee. Then BAM! I get hit by the menstrual express. I didn’t even have time to give my new girl parts a pet name like “Fifi” or “Alexandra.” No, we had to rush right into menstruation.

In the Day 9 video you’ll see the Tampax vending machine – voila after 9 freaking days of girl parts, vagina, PMS and menstruation talk we finally get a product placement that lets up know who to thank for this this “viral” series.

So thank you, I am now scarred for life. Is this as contagious as swine flu? Can I wake up one morning with “guy parts” or is this a guy to girl only type of thing? Why doesn’t Zack seem more concerned? Is this some sort of super strength STD that I need to be on the look out for?  Or does this prove that you can “lose it” if you don’t “use it”? Why hell isn’t he freaking out?? If I think Zack is cute, am I a lesbian? Ugh, you may have made me feel better about “Menstruation Island” but now I’m questioning my sexuality. Gee thanks Tampax!

Didn’t viral used to mean it was low budget and at least attempted to look like it was consumer produced? I wonder what the bill was for this because I see a part two where Zack wakes up with robot parts! Or his Fifi meets another Fifi and we learn about transsexuals. Or we follow around a girl who wakes up with “guy parts” and dribbles out apologizes to for every stereotypical guy cliche and then shaves her new balls, sponsored by Gillette.

You can read more about it on AdAge or if you’re like me, you can curl up into a ball and cry over the state of advertising.

I was a Journalism major in college and while I was not of the uber-Journalism persuasion, I’ve always had a healthy respect for Jouranlists. Growing up I was always a news junkie; the world has always fascinated me, from politics and religion to trends and tragedy. While I didn’t pursue a career in Journalism, it still holds a special place in my heart.

It pains me to see the state of broadcast Journalism today.

Today as Iran erupts in protests over the disputed legitimacy of their recent Presidential election, Twitter streams are full of news with pictures and videos most of which  fails to get covered both nationally (CNN’s coverage has been lacking) and locally.

Very rarely do I watch local news, but I figure its 10pm and I could very easily tune in to the local news to catch up on Iran.  So while a very important Middle Eastern nation is going through a democratic uprising what do all three local news channels lead with for the 10pm news? A local middle school’s trip to China. Second story?  High school prank gone bad. I want the f’ing news, not my community weekly newspaper.

/rant

For news done right check out the #iranelection twitter stream, Time and the BBC.

UPDATE: I attempted to watch the local morning news – one station spent 30 seconds mentioning that the happenings in the rest of the world, using the a graphic of an Iranian woman putting her ballot in the box and no mention of the protests. The story followed an update about the Turkey stampede at the Del Mar Fair and was followed by a story about Kung Fu Panada being played at Viejas outdoor theatre tonight.

I give up. Back to the interwebs I go for my news.