Microsoft Extends "I'm A PC" Campaign

Microsoft has extended their 'I'm a PC' campaign into the Web 2.0 world by inviting PC users to 'upload' themselves. I like the way Microsoft has opened up the campaign to its users' creativity—it's a nice extension to the campaign and brings in a great interactive element.

The key with any campaign like this is, will people participate? I think yes. The call for entries only requires you to finish an open ended sentence with whatever you like. The clips need only be 5 seconds long and low quality footage by the looks of their TV spots. Plus the chance to be in one of Microsoft's commercials that will circulate the internet and possibly national TV? I see a lot of PC using web celebrity wannabes 'uploading' themselves. Will you upload yourself?

Pepsi Is Smiling

In the past few months we've blogged about new logo redesigns for Applebee's, Walmart and Best Buy, and it seems that Pepsi is now joining in with a new, smiling, brand redesign.

Pepsi has evolved it's logo a number of times in it's history, but this latest move is pretty drastic in the grand scheme of identity evolutions. Where did the white wave in the middle of the pepsi logo go? Oh, it turned into a smile. Yes, a smile, at least according to Pepsi that's what it's supposed to be. Sorry, never would have guessed that if I hadn't read it in AdAge. Apparently the 'smile' will change based on what product it is on. I'm not a fan of the new 'smile' mark, or the new, unnecessary name change of Mountain Dew to Mtn Dew. I do,however, like the super clean new packaging of Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max, just not their new weird 'smiling' logos.

On the flip side, in this new age of digital media, where a brand's logo will be altered by consumers whether the brand likes it or not, Joseph Jaffe suggests in Join the Conversation that in this digital age, brands need to be more flexible with their brand standards. Part of me wants to scream no to that idea, especially when I see casual and prevalent use of drop shadows and badly set type, but another part of me understands the necessity to let go a little in this new media age. In that respect, I think this new approach from Pepsi is a nice step in that direction and works as a flexible mark. I just wish they hadn't messed with the wave, especially since no one is going to understand the new mark as a smile without some prodding.

What do you think? Do you interpret the new Pepsi logos as smiles? Do you think this new flexible brand approach will work?

Taking It in Stride on Friday

It's Friday, so I thought I'd give you something lighthearted to watch this afternoon. Maybe you've already seen some of Stride gum's ads. I just love the randomness of the lederhosen and the ram. Enjoy, and happy weekend!

Stride Gum - Parking Garage



Stride Gum - Office Park

Burger King Wants Everyone to Have It Your Way in Election 2008

Apparently not a week can go by without us mentioning CP+B. This time, I'm impressed. Their latest work for Burger King shows regular drive-thru customers ordering exactly what they want--no onions, can you cut the fries in half?--to symbolize the voice we all have, and use, every day. The voiceover then encourages us to have it our way while the screen reads "VOTE 2008." It's actually an engaging and thoughtful ad.

Keeping in Burger King style, they also have a Web site, haveityourway08.com, that supplies two Poll-a-rizer applications (one for Facebook, one for MySpace) that lets users take a questionnaire to see where on the political spectrum they fall. It then entertains by showing which "advisors" and "opponents" they might consider, and lets their friends see the results.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find the video anywhere yet. If I come across it soon, I'll be sure to post it.

Click here to read more about this effort from Burger King.

Happy Smurfday!

That's right. Smurfday. The little blue guys turn 50 today and in celebration the Smurfs have been touring around Europe all year, leaving little white Smurf figurines in arrangements all over each city they visit. Passers by are invited to take the figurines, decorate them however they like and enter them in the creativity contest online. Check out some of the videos from various cities and the fun (and abundant) white figurines set up all over the city. Such a fun way to celebrate a birthday!

Ride, Don't Drive For Our Polar Bears

Anyone even remotely paying attention to global warming knows that the melting of the polar ice cap is seriously threatening the world's polar bears. It's been one of the most publicized and earliest effects of global warming. Who doesn't love a polar bear?

The Environmental Defense Fund ran a guerilla marketing effort in New York encouraging riding the subway over driving to help stop the effects of global warming. It's a simple, but brilliant execution.



Check out Creativity for the credits.

(via ProductionQueen)

Mac Laughs Back At Microsoft's New Campaign

Microsoft recently responded to Apple's long time Mac vs. PC campaign with their own John Hodgeman look-alike and proud-to-be-a-PC spots. We blogged about it quite a bit when they first came out. Well, as these wars go round and round, Apple has now fired back with a couple new Mac vs. PC spots. The core difference between the Apple and Microsoft campaigns is that Apple's ads, while maybe a touch mean spirited, hit the nail on the head in their pokes on Microsoft. Plus they're funny. So funny I want to watch them again and again. Microsoft's ads, while nicely executed, already bore me. I immediately tune out rather than intently listen and wait for the punch line as I often do with the Apple ads. Check out Apple's new spot below:



Apple also responded to Microsoft's new Mojave Experiment spots with another new Mac vs. PC ad. Check it out here:

Our COO Is Using Us As Guinea Pigs

But we're okay with it, because we are Thanksgiving Pie guinea pigs. We all strode into the Creative Department this morning to see a homemade Sweet Potato Pie and rating sheet to greet us. Our COO apparently wants to test out his Thanksgiving Pie options on us prior to the Big Day. It's a thankless job, but we're willing to take it on and dive in, even if it is 9 a.m. I'm hoping for more to compare it to in the coming weeks. (hint, hint)

Pumpkin, Pumpkin, the Great Pumpkin!

Last Thursday we had a Creative Department excursion for a little creative fun and bonding between our art directors, designers and copywriters. We headed out to a local pumpkin patch, picked out our canvases and headed back to the office for some creative carving. Today, the rest of the office is voting on their favorites. Which one is your favorite?

Best Buy's New Understated Logo?

Yes, Best Buy seems to have jumped on the bandwagon of updating its logo to be cleaner and more modern. Similar to my post a few months ago about Walmart's new logo design, I can't say I'm a huge fan. They seem to have the same branding advisors as Walmart. Especially when the two logo shifts are eerily similar and only a few months apart. Can we now expect all brands to go mostly text with a little icon at the end? Is UPS going to downgrade it's shield to an afterthought like Best Buy's price tag is?

Granted, the price tag is a pretty lame visual conceptually, but its shape and bright yellow had equity. My biggest issue is that in the name of becoming 'clean' and 'modern' Best Buy has made their logo feel more generic. I was not a fan of their old font, old color or even the old shape, but I don't think this new logo is serving the brand very well either. It's lost most of it's visual equity in the transition. I agree it's cleaner and part of me definitely likes the new price tag, but as a whole it just feels so generic. I can't help but think there was something in between. The old font was terrible, so the new one is an upgrade, but wasn't there a way to do that without taking the whole logo as far away from the original as they have? What do you think?

Also check out Under Consideration's Brand New for further critique and a peek at their new store signage.