Charley Pride Turns 70

Everyone made a big deal about Willie Nelson turning 75 yesterday. But you know who else just had a birthday? Dallas’ own Charley Pride. Did anyone notice? Zac did. Here’s the lead of a wonderful profile of Pride that Zac wrote for the June issue of the “print product”:

Charley Pride turned 70 on March 18. You should know this. Everyone should know this. When Johnny Cash hit that milestone in 2002, his record labels past and present staged a yearlong celebration. Virtually every album Cash had recorded up until that point was reissued, with previously unreleased songs included on the discs and glowing essays tucked into the CD booklets. Willie Nelson got the same treatment as he approached his 70th the next year. It was the proper way to celebrate the lives and legacies of two country music icons.

Charley Pride should have been treated to a similar celebration. He’s a country music icon, too. But RCA Records, his home for two decades, let March 18 pass without comment. No bonus tracks were unearthed. No appreciative treatises about his long and illustrious career were written. Nothing.

I don’t see any point in making folks wait till June. So we’re putting up the whole story now. Go read it.

photo by Allison V. Smith

Local Company Provides Excuse To Link To Sweet Trailer

It is my understanding that 7-Eleven customers and fans can get their hands around Iron Man this month in advance of Paramount Pictures’ new movie release in theaters May 2. In addition, I have been told that, to support this motion picture promotion, 7-Eleven® stores in the U.S. are offering cool, 3-D 22-oz collectible Slurpee® cups and special straws with detachable miniature figures of Iron Man and his nemesis Iron Monger. You may be interested to know that The Iron Monger cup includes 24 actual frames from the Iron Man movie to create action-packed graphics—something never done before. As well, Amp Energy Freeze is the new Slurpee flavor highlighting the much anticipated film, courtesy Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment. Participating 7-Eleven stores also feature this month a life-size, 6-foot-4 standee of Iron Man. And, I may have taken all that from a press e-mail just so I could link to this new Iron Man trailer, because, let’s face it, if you aren’t pumped to see this movie, you don’t have a set.

Sandra Crenshaw to Protest Tomorrow at Wick’s House

Just a few minutes ago, Sandra Crenshaw sent the following e-mail to officials at Henry S. Miller, the Highland Park Department of Public Safety, and Dallas City Hall:

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Los Toros Are Coming

A soccery FrontBurnervian sends along a this item of FC Dallas’ latest attempt at stoking the fires of fandom. At least, I assume FC Dallas is responsible for the viral-marketing-inspired campaign, rather than a bored superfan. It’s a take-off on the anti-Church of Scientology vids making their way across the Internet of late. Check out Los Toros’ message, if so inclined.

Why Broadcasters Hope Super Tuesday Decides Nothing

It could be a much-needed bonanza for Belo and other multi-station owners in Texas.

Trinity Fight!

I’ll confess: I didn’t really read this Bruce Tomaso piece from a couple of days ago. I just looked at the possible logos for the Trinity River project. They’re OK, I guess. Can’t say I was blown away by anything. I’m no graphic designer, but I think I have an idea for something a little more eye-grabbing.

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Kimberly-Clark Really Cares About Your Behind

Are you paying enough attention to your bottom? More importantly, are you being considerate of your seat? Kimberly-Clark, makers of Cottonelle, is expected to spend nearly $100 million in an ad campaign this year to raise awareness of our collective kindness to our collective bottoms. (So says Adweek.) Included in that campaign is a touring bus called the Cottenelle Comfort Haven, which includes yoga tips, comfort products, and chair massages. Those massages are for your back and neck, I assume. But then, we all know what happens when you “assume.”

Re: Downtown Sale

Trey, since you mentioned DallasCEO, this seems like a good time to ask folks to check out a great column in the December issue by Spencer Michlin. It looks at hits and misses in the advertising-billboard game, and applauds one particular billboard off North Central Expressway for Troy Aikman Ford. Only problem is, Aikman Ford said earlier this month–just after we went to press–that it would close its doors soon. Pesky monthly deadlines.

South of the Border Stories

Dallas advertising exec Robert Whitt is a cool guy. I know because I’ve been reading his book, Expat: Survival of an Expatriate in Latin America. There are some hilarious stories, like the time a competing publisher bribed customs officers in Mexico to switch out logos on ads in one of Whitt’s magazines before the page proofs were sent to the printer, causing an uproar from the violated clients. Good stuff.

Phantom Tollbooth

Do not ask by whom the toll is paid. It is paid for by Maxwell House. At least, that’s what one Plano-living FrontBurnervian reports. He said the George Bush Tollway had one of those electrical construction signs, the kind that inform drivers of lane closings and the like. Yesterday he noted that the sign read, “Free tolls, 7am - 9am, brought to you by Maxwell House.” Smart.

Attention, Observer Ad Reps

The next ad you sell may involve an unexpected occupational hazard.

Robert Bloom On Helping Companies, Well, Bloom

Advertising guru/marketing consultant Robert H. (”Call me Bob”) Bloom was greeted enthusiastically when he spoke at a Greater Dallas Chamber lunch today, with young hipster types embracing him like a rock god. Then again, he had some pretty smart things to say about growing your business. You’ll find them after the jump. (more…)

The Real Problem With the Whole Anti-Saggy Pants Campaign

A detail-oriented FrontBurnervian has a bone to pick with the “Pullem’ Up” billboards. (If you haven’t seen them yet, you can see them here.) Heck, it’s not even that much of a detail, now that I think about it:

Look, I know advertising takes grammatical license. Believe me, I’m as guilty as the next ad guy. But there’s a limit. I’d like to tell the creators of the “Pullem’ Up” campaign where they should stick their apostrophe. An apostrophe is commonly used to indicate omitted characters. Just what characters did they omit after “em”? It’s not just wrong, it’s embarrassing. If this is an example of their grammar skills, it appears they told some poor English teacher where to stick HER apostrophe a long time ago.

In’deed. For similar transgressions, check out this site. (And Tip o’ the Hat to the kind FrontBurnervian who passed along that link.)

Dirk Nowitzki Wants Me to Smoke. Or Not Smoke. Or Something.

I’m not sure what the point of this is, but if nothing else, I am even more fired up about the upcoming basketball season. We got our partial season tickets in the mail a few days ago. [Link props: the greatness that is The Basketball Jones.]

Re: Dallas Stars Billboard Suggestion

He’s rich, handsome, and his wife is hot. Isn’t it about time you saw someone punch him in the face?

Or just go with this headline from The Onion: Mike Modano: Is He the Tom Brady of Whatever It is That He Does?

Tom Bodett Won’t Leave The Lights On For You

The Richards Group radio campaign for Motel6 is one of the most enduring, and endearing, in modern advertising history. Tom Bodett tells how it happened here.

Pony Up: I Surrender

Trust me, I’m as tired of the topic as you are and I’ll try not to post about it again. But I did want to clear some things up from my over-the-top, poorly worded, hangover-addled post yesterday, especially for all of my new friends at PonyFans.com. First of all, I’ve long since known about and learned to embrace my inner dorkiness, but I appreciate everyone over at the PonyFans forum pointing it out. (Until now, I’d never before been called “Dillhole McGill.” So, um, thanks?) And I shoulda thought better of declaring my wife’s hotness in such a public shout-out. I was trying to be sweet and still think she is, but I’ll keep it to myself next time. And, I wasn’t the one with SMU elitist image concerns; that was an emailer. Finally, in a nutshell, my problem with the Pony Up campaign was and is this: On a billboard, a pony with an arrow next to it looks like it’s giving bad directions to the stadium. I should have left it at that.

That said, I hope plenty of SMU fans can find their way to Ford Stadium on Monday before the 3 p.m. kickoff against Texas Tech. What is a “Red Raider” anyway? And what kind of slogan is “Git Yer Guns Up”? (Don’t answer that, Trey.)

Pony Up, if you are so inclined.

About That Pony Up Campaign

An SMU/Knucklehead fan takes me to task for my inability to find the Pony Up song funny:

Get a sense of humor, dude. This has been sent around to a ridiculously large number of people: SMU fans, college football fans, SMU staff, teachers, students, players and coaches. And they are forwarding it. I have received it no fewer than seven times today. You are literally the first person I have heard that doesn’t care for it.

I am? That seems most shocking of all.

The Art of the Close

(alternate title: Where I Was Last Night)

The Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Luxury Marketing Council holds events every so often, where marketers can network and hobnob and learn from one another, and though they’d long ago made a group decision never to plan an event in July or August–it’s difficult to talk luxury when you’re sweating through your undershirt–the Council hosted one last night. What’s more, it was supposedly the highest-attended event yet. I was moderating the panel discussion, but that wasn’t the reason for the big draw. People wanted to see the panel of experts and the topic they discussed: The Art of the Close.
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“Pony Up” Needed to Hold Its Horses

This morning I stumbled upon SMU football’s new campaign. My simple question about a silly arrow led to much email, the majority of it agreeing with me that the Pony Up is confusing at best. And it’s not one of those ad campaigns that fosters enjoyable confusion. In fact, as the anonymity-requesting SMU-affiliated FrontBurnervian writes after the jump, the Pony Up campaign is bad, bad, bad.

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Mustang Mania

Commuters who drive southbound on Central may recognize the billboard at left. It’s near the Knox-Henderson exit and is designed to get Mustang fans hyped for the upcoming season. (I am.) My qualm is not with the message: “We don’t tailgate. We boulevard.” It is not with the relatively new helmet design. (I’m still nostalgic for the old-school Pony Express days’ design.) No, I’m most confused by the arrow in the lower-righthand corner. It seems to be pointing up. As in, straight ahead. As in, “Hey, if you just keeping driving straight, you’ll get there.” Except the billboard is located past Gerald Ford Stadium for the drivers who can see it. The arrow needs to be a u-turn, or the billboard needs to be facing the other direction. Am I missing something?

Update: A couple of enthusiastic FrontBurnervians say the arrow signifies “Pony Up!” If so, I support the message but not the means. So it’s part of an ad campaign. Fine. But when you go putting arrows on billboards, people think you’re giving directions.

Bill Hill, R.I.P.

From sometime D Magazine contributor Spencer Michlin:

Bill Hill, a creative powerhouse in Dallas advertising for more than 50 years, died last Thursday. Bill looked and talked so much like the handsome hero of a cowboy movie that few realized that he was a native of Pennsylvania.

The legendary art director and creative executive began his career at Bloom Advertising in 1956 and later founded Levenson & Hill, where he remained active until his death. Along the way, he helped change the face of Dallas business, winning awards and building his agencies and their clients, but it’s for his teaching skills and gentle wit that he’ll best be remembered.

Bill gave me my first job in the business, taught me well, and made it fun. About a thousand other ad veterans are remembering him and saying the same thing today. Incisively brilliant but unfailingly gentle, Bill was the kind of mentor who allowed young creative people the freedom to learn by making mistakes. But he was always there to save your bacon (and the account) when you went too far, and he could make you laugh as he did it.

The famous ad man Jerry Della Femina once said, “Advertising is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.” This may no longer be true, but to the degree that it once was, it was because of people like Bill Hill.

RE: DRINK UP

In less celebratory news, The Richards Group lost the Music-Original category in the recent Clio Awards for its “Blue Video” for Fruit of the Loom. But, kudos for being nominated. As near as I can tell, The Richards Group was the only Dallas agency up for an award.

THE RICHARDS GROUP SCORES AMSTEL LIGHT

Adweek says Amstel Light picked The Richards Group for an estimated $20 million campaign. That should help make up for losing the Corona gig. I mean, $20 mil ain’t too shabby. Plus, some might say it’s a better beer.

RE: THE MISSING “U” BILLBOARDS

Ad campaigns that require over-explaining are about as effective as jokes that require the same: “See, the chicken is on one side of the street. For some reason, the chicken chooses to move, via walking or some other mode of transportation, to the other side of the street. The reason and thought-process behind such a decision–the impetus, if you will–is the area wherein the comedy resides. Ergo, ha. Ha ha, in fact.”

THE MISSING “U” BILLBOARDS

Jump for an over-explanation of the campaign from the firm responsible for it:

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RE: ODD BILLBOARDS

I admit it. It was me. Thanks for ruining the surprise. My wife and I won’t celebrate our third wedding anniversary for another five months, but I was building up the suspense. The big reveal: “Without U, things just wouldn’t make sense.” Now I guess I’ll just have to buy some stinkin’ flowers.

WHERE YOU MIGHT WANT TO BE TOMORROW NIGHT

At the Fairmont downtown. Why? For the Dallas Ad League’s 8th Annual AdRoast. This year, it’s Barbara and Stan Levenson who will be the objects of mockery and not-so-veiled jealousy. I’ve never been to the AdRoast, but I’ve heard from many who have that the evening is full of laughs, groans, and a suitable amount of gossip. Check it out.

ROEHM IS BURNING MAD

Julie Roehm, the fired Wal-Mart marketing exec accused of having an improper relationship with an underling discussed here previously, is firing back. She’s still suing Wal-Mart, saying:

“Wal-Mart is insinuating things about my personal life and pretending I violated some code of ethics with advertisers, all to distract from the reality that it didn’t want my form of progressive marketing.”

UPDATE ON THE JULIE ROEHM/WAL-MART SITUATION

A legal-minded FrontBurnervian checked out WSJ’s legal blog before I got a chance to today and passed along this item. Wal-Mart claims to have emails from former marketing exec Julie Roehm and her subordinate Sean Womack whom she allegedly had an affair with. Those emails include this one from her to him:

“I hate not being able to call you or write you. I think about us together all the time. Little moments like watching your face when you kiss me.”

She kisses with her eyes open? That’s weird.

PRETTY PENNEY

Advertising Age takes a closer look at the new campaign for JCPenney’s and I have to agree: That “Calendar” commercial is pretty sweet.