Stirling McLaughlin’s Cabinet of Internet Curiosities

Copywriter Kate Lummus and I (along with invaluable support and insight from Misplaced Planet’s Shaun Boyle and Benni Pierce) created a TV spot that we had hoped would send us off to Southern France for a week of all expense paid, sunburned, glory.

Well, that didn’t happen Continue reading ‘Yes we Cannes? Sadly, no.’

About The Author - My name is Stirling McLaughlin. I am married. I am an Art Director, Designer and Illustrator. The opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer. I have lots of ideas. I have a baby girl named Nika Bean. I live in New York City. When I was in college, they put me on TV because I wore a mask and yelled at people. I have a reality show that I wil be starting… any day now. - See My Portfolio

When I first saw the new Macbook Air, I was immediately reminded of the first generation Ipod Nano. As you may recall, the original Nanos where so small, and so lightweight, that people would put them in their pockets, forget they had them, and sit on them. I remember visiting a Mac store not long after the Nano was introduced and seeing a long line of people at the genius bar with half an ipod in each hand.

I wouldn’t expect the same thing to happen with the Macbook Air. For one thing, modern pants technology does not allow for people to put full-sized laptops in their pants pockets. However, I wouldn’t be surprised to see companies like Marware coming out with some sort of rubber-skin-laptop-protectors. If all else fails, you can always use a Manila envelope.

About The Author - My name is Stirling McLaughlin. I am married. I am an Art Director, Designer and Illustrator. The opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer. I have lots of ideas. I have a baby girl named Nika Bean. I live in New York City. When I was in college, they put me on TV because I wore a mask and yelled at people. I have a reality show that I wil be starting… any day now. - See My Portfolio

Something fishy is going on over at Myspace. Apparently the once red hot social network site has been, well, compromised.

As a Facebook convert, I rarely check my Myspace account anymore. Recently, when I have logged on, I’ve been greeted by numerous suspect messages and comments. What is most alarming is that these messages aren’t coming from nameless fictional teenage girls (we’ve all grown to see through those) but from my own, real, flesh and blood, friends who’s accounts have been hacked.

These messages have been becoming increasingly frequent. This morning I got a message from a friend of mine asking me to ignore any messages coming from him about classmates of ours having been murdered. I didn’t ask questions. I just went to my preferences and deleted my account.

Myspace had better do something about this problem, and soon. In the meantime, for anyone not trying to screw me with a false coupon scam or bogus sex site, you can find me on Facebook.

About The Author - My name is Stirling McLaughlin. I am married. I am an Art Director, Designer and Illustrator. The opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer. I have lots of ideas. I have a baby girl named Nika Bean. I live in New York City. When I was in college, they put me on TV because I wore a mask and yelled at people. I have a reality show that I wil be starting… any day now. - See My Portfolio

Much to the dismay of my coworkers and more specifically, my office mate, I am known to wear flip flops to work in the Summer. In the Fall, perhaps even in early September, I push them to the back of the closet and they are replaced with more weather appropriate footwear. Perhaps L.L. Bean was thinking of me. Perhaps they felt bad for me. Maybe they wanted me to be able to wear Flip-Flops all year long! I can’t imagine any other reason why they would unleash these Shearling Flip-Flops on the world.

Shearling Flip-Flops? Really? Are there people out there thinking “I really want my feat to be warm, but I really love my new pedicure and I’d hate for it to go to waste!” Apparently L.L. Bean thinks so! They’ve bought prime real estate on the front page of CNN.com to advertise them!

Well, luckily there is still time before Christmas. If you hurry you may be able to snag a pair for yourself after you’ve gotten a pair for everyone else on your list. They will go perfectly with your Irish wool wetsuit!

About The Author - My name is Stirling McLaughlin. I am married. I am an Art Director, Designer and Illustrator. The opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer. I have lots of ideas. I have a baby girl named Nika Bean. I live in New York City. When I was in college, they put me on TV because I wore a mask and yelled at people. I have a reality show that I wil be starting… any day now. - See My Portfolio

Every year, dozens of tag-lines are lost to callous re-branding and creative changes. We’re working to change that by providing abandoned and abused tag-lines with new, loving brands.

Here are 15 of our greatest success stories:

Victoria Secret. Anything Less Would Be Uncivilized.

Is it live, or is it beef?

Dow Chemical, Rip. Mix. Burn

Between love and madness lies iPhone.

Why ask why? Try Viagra.

Depends Adult Diapers. For those who think young.

Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t. Paxil CR.

Wikipedia. You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers.

Only you can prevent Microsoft Office.

Timberland Boots kill bugs dead.

Syrup of ipecac, taste the rainbow.

Don’t you wish everything was made like Gatorade?

Like a good neighbor, Mexico is there.

Zanex. Think Different.

We’ve done what we can, but we could always use your help. Post yours below.

Remember, do it for the tag-lines.

-TTRP

About The Author - My name is Stirling McLaughlin. I am married. I am an Art Director, Designer and Illustrator. The opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer. I have lots of ideas. I have a baby girl named Nika Bean. I live in New York City. When I was in college, they put me on TV because I wore a mask and yelled at people. I have a reality show that I wil be starting… any day now. - See My Portfolio

Is it just me, or does the recent campaign for Lotus Notes 8 bear a striking resemblance to the serial identity for Cliff Freeman Design? I’ll let you be the judge.

About The Author - My name is Stirling McLaughlin. I am married. I am an Art Director, Designer and Illustrator. The opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer. I have lots of ideas. I have a baby girl named Nika Bean. I live in New York City. When I was in college, they put me on TV because I wore a mask and yelled at people. I have a reality show that I wil be starting… any day now. - See My Portfolio

Today is BBDO New York’s Bring Your Kids to Work Day. Call me old fashioned, but there’s something really cool about seeing all of my coworkers running around after their children, while I do the same. By letting my personal and professional life overlap for a few hours, I’m reminded why I work so hard and what I’m working for.

About The Author - My name is Stirling McLaughlin. I am married. I am an Art Director, Designer and Illustrator. The opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer. I have lots of ideas. I have a baby girl named Nika Bean. I live in New York City. When I was in college, they put me on TV because I wore a mask and yelled at people. I have a reality show that I wil be starting… any day now. - See My Portfolio

When I first came to New York, I spent several years working in “sports promo”. You know those little ads at the top right corner of the USA Today’s sport section? That used to be my job! I would download pictures from a stock photo site, one player from this team and one from the other, and drop them in to ads designed to look like the they where about to eat each other’s spleens.

Unfortunately, any type of conceptual ad or headline was next to impossible to pull off. Usually it would end up being something like “Rumble in the Big Easy” or “Come On, Feel The Heat!” This was because we couldn’t't focus on any particular athlete. If someone became injured, or sucker-punched a fan, or killed a bunch of pit-bulls in a backyard dog fighting ring, we needed to have alternate images to swap out at the last minute. That way we wouldn’t run an ad that would garner bad publicity for the event, or show an athlete who wasn’t actually playing that night. On occasion, these changes would be made several hours after the newspaper’s “drop dead” deadline.During hockey season, we would occasionally have to go to our fourth or fifth alternate.

Fashion runs on a totally different time-line. Back in my sports promo days, I would look at people working on fashion and cosmetic accounts with serious envy. These people might be working four, five, maybe even six months in advance of their deadlines. By the time the fall season was here, the ads for the following spring season where already of being retouched and polished up. For an over worked, ulcered guy like myself, that sounded like a huge improvement!

Now, I’ve never worked for a fashion magazine, but its  easy to imagine that they work on a similar time-line. So I guess it isn’t so surprising that a coked-up jail-bound drunk with her career firmly in the crapper is gracing the cover of one of the nation’s most prestigious fashion magazines.

As I walked to work this morning past the ritzy section surrounding Carnegie Hall, I noticed a phone booth ad proudly displaying the September issue of ELLE magazine. There, in all of her freckled glory, was none other than Ms. Mean Girls herself, Lindsay Lohan. One might think that ELLE is taking risks by placing a human lighting rod like Lindsay on their cover, but I tend to think that decision was made a long time ago. Back before her May drunk driving arrest or her stint in rehab. Before her latest movie tanked or her July re-arrest. I’m talking way back in the salad days when the lovable star of Parent Trap was starting to show herself to be a true movie star.

Perhaps ELLE could learn something from the USA Today sports section.

About The Author - My name is Stirling McLaughlin. I am married. I am an Art Director, Designer and Illustrator. The opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer. I have lots of ideas. I have a baby girl named Nika Bean. I live in New York City. When I was in college, they put me on TV because I wore a mask and yelled at people. I have a reality show that I wil be starting… any day now. - See My Portfolio

http://blogging.at.work.hurts.us/

Enjoy.

About The Author - My name is Stirling McLaughlin. I am married. I am an Art Director, Designer and Illustrator. The opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer. I have lots of ideas. I have a baby girl named Nika Bean. I live in New York City. When I was in college, they put me on TV because I wore a mask and yelled at people. I have a reality show that I wil be starting… any day now. - See My Portfolio

Widgets are starting to show their potential as an effective form of interactive advertising. Widgets allow for a deeper level of interaction as apposed to traditional banner ads, by the fact that they are meant to be shared. Also, brands can endear themselves to influential blogger by allowing them to wear these widgets as a sort of badge of honor, or by providing them with a useful tool. Companies and websites are learning that providing widgets to bloggers and social networking sites can turn their fans into a sales force, or at least a media department. Seth Godin would be proud.

If you are looking for effective widgets, check out the one below from the Superbad site. Or check out that funky clock in my sidebar. Both are good examples. More companies are going to catch on, and then you can expect a flood of this kind of advertising. Most of them will be awful, but hopefully a few will be truly remarkable. Enjoy.

P.s. Sites that have widgets on facebook are seeing huge increases in traffic. Check out Quantcast’s recent report on the facebook effect.

About The Author - My name is Stirling McLaughlin. I am married. I am an Art Director, Designer and Illustrator. The opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer. I have lots of ideas. I have a baby girl named Nika Bean. I live in New York City. When I was in college, they put me on TV because I wore a mask and yelled at people. I have a reality show that I wil be starting… any day now. - See My Portfolio