In a January issue of US Weekly, CoverGirl will reveal their new spokeswoman. Ellen DeGeneres! Ellen will be joining Queen Latifah, Drew Barrymore and Rihanna as a cover girl for the drug store make-up brand. The image above is not one of the new ads for CoverGirl, it is a photo taken March 2007 for W. Though I would love for the ads to resemble this photo, it is not the CoverGirl style. I’m sure we can expect Ellen to be bright eyed, bushy tailed and with flawless skin in the new advertisements.
Grey Group is responsible for the CoverGirl ads and they couldn’t have picked a better celebrity to be the next cover girl. Ellen’s television show is very entertaining and successful and yet she still seems very humble. And, with her recent wedding to Portia de Rossi, it seems that Ellen will have a lot to smile about when posing for the new ads. Congratulations to Ellen!
This may be the fastest theater to DVD release ever! “Sex and the City” the movie is going to be released on September 23, 2008. Not even four months after it was released! Amazon.com has three versions available (Special Edition, Full Screen and Wide Screen) for pre-order. Consider my copy pre-ordered!
Unless you live in a cave, you know that the “Sex and the City” movie comes out today. I will be seeing it in an hour!!! But, I couldn’t help noticing the marketing that takes place during television shows that are targeted at younger audiences. Today, the Wall Street Journal featured an article specifically about this. Lauren A.E. Schuker states that now the show has been been airing a toned down version on TBS and these cleaner episodes have become a favorite of teenage girls who were too young to watch the show when it first aired on HBO. So, the producers of the movie have to decide if they want to market to this new group of fans who are not actually old enough to go see the movie in theaters without a parent (‘Sex and the City’ with your dad? AWKWARD!)
Where have these ads appeared? During shows watched by this new underage demo including “Gossip Girl,” “My Super Sweet Sixteen,” and “A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila.” Hmmm. I don’t know how I feel about this. When I was 16, my friends and I were also into the show. We just rented the DVD’s at Blockbuster. Then we could watch them over and over. Were we too young to watch the show? Probably, we couldn’t relate to it. But, were we old enough to understand the content? Of course. Did we enjoy the show? Obviously. It opened our eyes to the world of make believe adulthood. And, I can confidently say that if the movie came out when I was 16 I would have successfully snuck in to the theater. With that, though the movie shouldn’t be aimed at teenagers, it is going to attract them anyway. They are going to see it no matter what. Might as well break records with the amount of money this movie is going to make.
The most important thing that I learned while I was in New York City is that I can’t wait to begin my new job – where ever I end up. I would be absolutely thrilled to live in New York, but I don’t think I’ll discriminate against any major city. I just love the hustle and bustle of the big city!
Aside from the tourist activities we did, (we were on the Today Show!) I really appreciated getting the opportunity to visit the agencies. The first agency we went to was very small with only four people working there. It was completely creative driven and interesting to see how such a small boutique works. Then it was on to JWT, which was a complete 180 from the agency in the morning. JWT’s reel included ads for Macy’s, Stride gum, Halls and JetBlue. I’m embarrassed to admit that the ”Magic of Macy’s” commercials featuring celebrities like Martha Stewart, Donald Trump, Mariah Carey, Jessica Simpson and Usher are one of my favorites right now. What can I say, I’m a sucker for celebrities!
We also got the privilege of visiting BBH, which was amazing! They have such a beautiful space and the decorations are stills from ads or print ads. Everyone walked down the halls so slowly because they wanted to look at all the featured work. I got the impression that BBH enjoys taking risks in their advertising, and it pays off! On top of everything, it looked like the employees have fun while they work. Something I wasn’t so sure of at other places.
After BBH, the One Show set a few of us up to visit Grey Group. This is an agency that is recovering from a poor reputation. Grey’s clients include Captain Morgan, Dairy Queen, Frontier and E*Trade. Their comeback began with the talking/trading baby ad that premiered during the Super Bowl. It was a risky ad that went on the become the most popular ad during the Super Bowl. It topped many of the advertising lists compiled after the game.
My travel buddy and I also ventured to Wieden+Kennedy unannounced. This would have been better if we had set something up, but it was still great to see the space. We were only able to talk to the receptionist, but I immediately liked what I saw there. W+K would be a great place to end up…
This trip helped me figure out what is important to me in an agency, especially work space and attitude. The trip was creative advertising based, so I learned a lot about the “other” side of advertising. Though the people we met aren’t the people I would be working directly with, they still got me excited about my future career and the advertising world.
Well, I am in the city that never sleeps! I’m very excited! We got here yesterday and have been doing all the tourist-y stuff while we can. Today we went to the Yankees game and watched them beat the Mariners, very fun! Tomorrow starts the work we came to do. We will be visiting agencies, meeting people, attending the One Show and (hopefully) setting up some job opportunities!! I’ll write all about it when I get home.
