But that’s just the way they like it.

Even the company’s website proudly proclaims:

“Dr. Martens have always been different. No other brand has been mutated, customized, f$@%ed up and freaked out like DM’s. Without asking or being able to stop it. It happened to them. They were just fascinated bystanders on a journey that has raced through every crevice of subculture, every twist and turn of youthful creativity and now, here, with a generation who have always had email, mp3s and downloads, it is as relevant and vibrant as ever.”

So perhaps it comes as no surprise that to celebrate their 50th birthday, Dr. Martens wanted to do something a little out of the ordinary.  The company asked 10 artists to create their version of a cult classic track that represents the spirit of the people who’ve worn DM’s over the past 50 years. Vanessa Marzaroli, a director at Blind, was invited to participate. Vanessa was asked to direct a video that did not include talent, but was given no other creative parameters or rules. So what did Blind and Vanessa come up with? A stunningly beautiful video that will surely give you goosebumps:

Does the video capture and represent Dr. Martens as the unique, remarkable, and extraordinary brand it is? Well, that’s certainly up for interpretation. But the haunting music, Cinematic Orchestra’s version of the classic “Lilac Wine” (made popular by early 90s crooner, Jeff Buckley), combined with the exquisite “moving visual poetry” is certainly poignant and beautiful to look at.

I handle several retail clients for CurrentMarketing, which means that even slight changes in the world of financing can rock my world from a creative perspective. Lately, we've seen serious changes take hold.

Gone are the days of promoting "interest FREE" or "0% financing" - welcome to the world of "No Interest if paid in full within 12 months, minimum monthly payments apply."  That poses a big enough real estate problem, right? Follow that with two paragraphs of disclaimer copy at 8-point type (minimum) and you can see the conundrum with creative for our retail clients.

In spite of the challenges newspapers are facing these days, the cost of a print ad in the local newspaper is still very expensive (that's another blog topic all together). Now we also have to consider the amount of costly real estate that must be left for financing and disclaimers, not to mention shrinking widths and heights to accommodate for increased hard goods costs.

So, the dilemma becomes how to explain to my client that the extra retail price point they want to include in an ad has to be cut to leave space for the disclaimer? Or how do I justify to my client that the space we've secured has to increase to allow for the additional copy requirements on financing?

We can't leave financing out of the equation, especially in a competitive division of retail, and the associated fees for espousing inaccurate financing offers can be steep.  We've considered moving budgets to other forms of advertising, but banks are also savvy and have imposed special requirements to all forms of promotion, even digital arenas.

What is the best way to handle the changing face of financing?  Any ideas?

Look at this blog entry. Now look at your blog. Now look back here. Is your blog as well written as this one? No. Can it at least be written in the same language? Yes. And if you haven't enjoyed the Old Spice The Man Your Man Could Smell Like spots, you should. Last week, a new one came out and it is as clever and well done as the "I'm on a horse" spot.

After the fifth or sixth viewing, I started wondering how the hell did they do that? It looks like most of it is real, meaning non-CG. The beach background and sky in the beginning were composited, but the dock, towel and prosthetic legs look real. Is the background real or on a soundstage? Probably real, but who knows? The sawdust kicking up on the circular saw looks CG to me, but it might be a rig. In any case, it's a fake, because this required more than one take to get it right, and you're not going to have your actor keep sawing planks off your set every take.

The "swan dive" is either real or they took a lot of trouble to make the move look fake (that would be going pretty deep, but considering the creative, not out of the realm of possibilities). The real mind blower is the transition at the end from shorts and barefoot to jeans and shoes.

Here's what I think: The camera is on a computer controlled track. The splashing water is CG. You can see between 22:08 and 22:09 he abruptly, but ever so slightly, changes position without motion blur, meaning there is a cut there. They probably stopped action shortly after he landed from the swan dive, then they placed the motorcycle on his mark, refilled the tank, then used a still from the take they wanted and positioned his body to make the transition as smooth as possible, then used the CG water to obscure the cut. The trees and rocks are blocking the sky, so you don't have to worry about the cloud continuity.

Either way, it is so skillfully done, that I applaud you, Old Spice. Your attention to detail is refreshing and astounding. But I'm still not going to buy your body wash. See the rest of the spots here.

Few things in this industry are more challenging than getting the public to pay attention to PSAs. We can market products, goods and services until the cows come home but it takes a truly talented team to create a PSA that gets noticed.

The Embrace Life PSA, created by the Sussex Safer Road Partnership with the help of Take2 Films, is one such PSA that left me speechless.

Maybe it’s the drama, maybe it’s the slow motion (most things are better in slow motion), maybe it’s because I’m not being sold something other than an idea or maybe I’m feeling sentimental today. No matter what it is, this one really spoke to me – and it didn’t speak only to me but also the 8,620,572 other people that have viewed it on YouTube.

Not only did this team get their message across that one small decision in your day, like choosing to wear your seatbelt, can affect so many, they did it with few words on a low budget. Without saying very much, they say a lot. They grab the public’s attention by tapping into their emotions without showing them something graphic or disturbing.

It just goes to show that it doesn’t take a big production or a lot of words to get your point across. With the right message, passion and teamwork, anything can get the attention you desire—even PSAs.

And yes, I always wear my seatbelt.

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

So waht does tihs say abuot garphic diegsn and cyporiwting? The mnid releis mroe on the sahpe of the ltteers tahn aynhtnig esle? I'm not srue, but lte's haer yuor thugohts bleow.

I leik picrtues betetr aynway.

I love clean, uncluttered design and I make no excuses for that preference. If you are a lover of cramming everything onto the page that you think your audience might possibly, just may potentially want to see, then my personal style isn’t for you.

When I interviewed at CM, the work in my portfolio reflected this direction. I even (cheesy as it was) compared my work to buying a wedding dress. Stay with me here…

When buying a wedding dress, the cleaner the dress, the more expensive it is. Dresses covered in beading, lace and other frou-frou are often cheaper. The clean dresses are more expensive because the material has to be impeccable - there isn’t any ornamentation to hide a flaw, thus making it more difficult to create the garment, which translates to a higher price-point. That is how I feel about cluttered design - it looks cheap. When the work is better edited, it looks more expensive.

Consider, if you will, much of the work found on TheDieline.com. A few specific favorites of mine are The Optimist Wine Bottle, Designer Philippe Bordonado’s work and Slice. All of these pieces specifically represent the sort of expensive look I believe clean design represents. These products may not be costly in reality, but they sure look like it.

The white space of the wine label would JUMP off the shelf at a liquor store. There are likely many designers who would shudder at the sight of the open space with a reverse claustrophobia, of sorts, as if they have lost something by not filling that space. The designer here has exhibited a grand amount of restraint in his work. The work of Philippe Bordonado is just beautiful all over. I mean, seriously… which would you rather have sitting on your counter at home, a bottle of olive oil with his design or Rachael Ray’s?

Now take a look at the Slice packaging. No frills here… it's straight to the point, uncluttered packaging that allows the product to be the focus. Even the product design itself is very purposefully thought out, nothing fussy at all getting in the way of the functionality.

My advice to all designers: Look at your work as if it's a compilation of accessories, from the logo to the copy to the color combinations you use. Take a final look at all of the accessories and remove 1 or 2 before letting the piece out of your sight.

For me, the 3rd Quarter ads were mostly a disappointment, but maybe that was just because my Colts were starting the slide down to defeat. I'm going to break it down this year into three categories: Horrible, Boring, Awesome. Very fine-grained, right?

Horrible

E-trade Milk-A-What Commercial. I admit that the baby Lindsey popping out with "Milk-a-what?" is pretty funny, but then I realize e-Trade is suggesting the male baby cheated on the other baby he's trying to hide Lindsey from. Baby hook-ups are disturbing, that's all I'm gonna say.

Both Beer Commercials. One with Lance Armstrong and one with floating beer . I'm very disturbed that during the Super Bowl's third quarter, both beer commercials that ran touted how few calories they have. It's beer dammit!  The fact that a low-calorie beer exists already offends me, but then to have the audacity to advertise it is a slap in the face. If you go out to get a beer and the first thing that crosses your mind is "I wonder how many calories this is?", you shouldn't be drinking beer.

Boring

Google's "falling in love abroad" commercial. You know how much fun it is to watch someone else surf the internet? It's not. So much so that I don't think I really can say much more about this one.

Round up's commercial was just .. meh. Did they even know they were showing on the Super Bowl? They literally did nothing cool or worth talking about the next day. Sure, their product was a bit animated, but they've done that before in non-Super Bowl ads too, so it was nothing new at all. Seems like a waste to me.

Awesome

VW's punch buggy ad took me back to being a kid. Who DIDN'T play that game? Hitting people in commercials is funny, first of all (just look at the Dorito's kid commercial everyone is talking about). Then a few key strikes were the best: kid looks like he punches his grandpa in the crotch, pregnant woman punches her husband and the Amish dude punches the other guy in his buggy. But nothing, NOTHING beats Stevie Wonder punching Tracey Morgan and calling out "Red one." I'm pretty sure I have to go buy a VW now -- it is a miracle car!

And though there were no special effects, no flash, no jazz .. THE GRISWALDS WERE ON TV! To be honest, the commercial actually made me want to check out the HomeAway website (I did) and go back (I will). But just for the fact that the Griswalds were in the commercial made me sit up and take attention, and I hope to all that is holy that this becomes a series of commercials. I really see the potential for them to tell a small "Vacation" story across several months of spots.

What do Betty White, Abe Vigoda and Jim McMahon have in common?
They're all at least 25 years past their prime? Yes.
My mom would love to meet all of them? Yes.
They're all eligible for the senior citizens discount at McDonald's? Yes.
They've still got it? Definitely.

Quick recap of my self-imposed rules for Hyper-Bole:
- Not gonna review movie trailers.
- Not gonna review CBS promos.
- Not gonna touch the Tebow spot.
I can't guarantee the rest of my fellow Hyper-Bole bloggers will adhere to this stipulations. Just putting you on notice there.

Now that we've got that unpleasantness out of the way...my section of Hyper-Bole is gonna be short because the 1st quarter wasn't much to behold.

There are only two ways advertising can move me: humor or tears. Tell me a story that elicits either response and I'll at least take a hard look at the product. That being said, only 4 of the 24 ads in the first quarter deserve recognition:

1. Snickers: You can't pick up a bat and beat a pick-up football game with Rose Nyland and Tessio. I'm allergic to peanuts and I almost sent my husband out for a Snickers for me.
2. Boost Mobile: As a child of the 70s and 80s, I assume this spot is targeted at me. Bullseye. Only one issue - didn't see Refrigerator Perry. Ditka and his 'stache compensated well.
3. Doritos: The majority of the Doritos ads (and there were plenty of them) didn't impress me. I get it - they're addictive. But, the spot with the kid and his mom's blind date hurt my side. Maybe it's a gall bladder or acid reflux problem, but I pretty much tasted Dorito's after that spot.
4. Bridgestone Tires: Humorous payoff - bachelor party. Tearful payoff - saving the whales. Consider that a touchdown and extra point, rolled into one.

Honorable Mentions: Simpsons Coca-Cola spot and Bud Light T-Pain Autotone spot (only because I love the autotone effect)

Honorable Let's-Not-Ever-Speak-Of-Them-Agains: GoDaddy (Note to GoDaddy - there ARE women who handle tech too), Monster.com's animatronic beavers and Doritos' funeral spot

Jim Beatty spent the Thanksgiving holiday engaging in what his personal trainer calls "self hate behavior" by indulging in a balanced holiday diet of sweet potato casserole and Lifetime movies. He still found time to sop up some sweet internet marketing goodness, though!

His fave:

I'm a man, sure, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy thepioneerwoman.com! This site is perhaps the highest expression of the commercial blog concept. A semi-magazine in format, it seamlessly blends elegant design, great writing and knock-out photography with tasteful — even interesting! —advertising and promotion. For as long as it's been out there, I don't think anyone has equalled it for its sophistication. It's a gem and clearly takes a lot of hard work.

Today's delectable entree comes to us from James Deweese, aka "Jim Bag." Jim's our resident studio DJ (for those of you who don't know, that stands for disc jockey) and keeps us tapping our toes throughout the day. He tries to keep it a secret, but his favorite artist of all time is Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds. We've got your number, Jimmy D.

His favorite site:

Photoshop Disasters
As someone who works in photoshop every day, it makes me not only laugh, but it makes feel good about my limited skills when I see these crimes against visual communication. And the best part is that these aren't always jobs by people who spend all day "designing" in MSWord and PowerPoint. Some of these are high-profile, high-budget jobs; movie posters, world-wide catalogs, magazine covers, etc.