December 21, 2011
Storytelling or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Advertising
By Sarah Lombardi, Captains of Industry
Before I started working at Captains, I had little to no interest in advertising. To say I thought advertising was all manipulation and brain-washing is probably not an overstatement. But COI’s emphasis on storytelling was, in part, what lead a film student like yours truly to accept a job at an ad agency.
Storytelling isn’t the only way to approach advertising, but it’s our preferred method. All the most recognizable brands have a story: Coca-Cola, Marlboro, McDonald’s. Love them or hate them, I bet you can think of a few recurring themes in their ads, and what those stories represent to consumers. How did these brands achieve this? Method, a design firm, describes these brand experiences as overtures, as in the music that opens an opera or Broadway musical. According to Method, overtures, in both opera and brand experiences, cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time. I highly encourage you to check out Method’s article, but I’ll give you the quick rundown if you’re one of those instant gratification types:
Show, don’t tell. Narration is a no-no. Could you do away with the “About Us” section of your website, and still have everyone understand your story?
Know what your story is about, not just what happens. The product is what your company sells, but the brand is what your company is about.
Empathize with your audience. Put yourself in your target audience’s shoes and develop the best understanding you can about what they do and do not understand.
Be honest. If there is difficulty in the customer experience, explain why it’s a necessary evil.
Level-set. Educate customers new to your product while respecting the regulars.
Make it worth seeing more than once. Add little details that the casual customer would likely overlook. Don’t worry; your best customers will notice.
In a lot of ways, your favorite brand is doing the same thing your favorite film does: connecting with you. Inside and outside of advertising, storytelling reigns supreme.
December 19, 2011
Camera motion catches up to camera size, using rollerskates.
By Mike Kennedy, Captains of Industry
We at Captains dig the folks at the M.I.T. Media Lab and their work.
I was recently emailed a link by a video equipment retailer whom we use for many of our equipment purchases.
The link was for a mini-camera dolly system developed over the river from us at M.I.T.’s Media Lab. The concept of the product and the story behind its creation is wicked cool.
Plus, it is a great example of what Captains has been saying for years: tell your company’s story in an engaging way in video form and release it to the masses via an online platform.
If you are interested in a new, low-cost, and effective way of adding camera movement to your own video projects, see for yourself. I want one now.
(Click the image)
Regarding cineskates declaration that “video quality is no long limited by resolution, but instead by stabilization,” I would add that with resolution and stabilization available to anyone, the ultimate deciding factor of video quality is story.
December 13, 2011
Sexy lady vs. sexy robot: no obvious winner makes us all losers
By Sarah Lombardi, Captains of Industry
I know this is going to sound unbelievable, but there have been a few occasions where sex was used in an ad to sell a product. Crazy, right?! Not only that, but ads that take the “sex sells” approach generally feature young, good-looking models. Unless of course, they feature young, good-looking cgi models.
Global clothing retail conglomerate H&M recently admitted to using a computer-generated “model” body to display how its clothes are supposed to 
look by interchanging various real-life models’ heads onto a digitally created body.
I repeat: not only is the model not a real person, but the human-like body is not even human. Only the head depicts a living, breathing woman. I could ramble on about how naughty it is that the fashion industry continues to portray unrealistic ideals of women’s bodies and shame on them for giving America’s young ladies eating disorders and so on, but that argument’s been made a million times and nothing has changed. I’m going to go another direction here.
Digital technology is not the all-purpose problem solver that companies seem to think it is. According to Time, “H&M defended their technique by explaining that they designed a body that can better display clothes made for humans than can humans, similar to mannequins in department stores.” Excuse me, what? No, H&M. Sorry, but mannequins are used in department stores because no one will stand around Nordstrom for days at a time in the same pose without blinking. Also, why the hell would I buy your clothes now if I’m essentially looking at a 3D paper doll rendering of how they’d look on a non-existent body type? Why don’t you just have one of the characters from The Polar Express model for you next?
December 12, 2011
Are deeper voices more convincing? You be the judge.
By Ted Page, Captains of Industry
In a recent study*, researches asked people to listen to voice recordings of US presidents as well as unknown males, with the voices manipulated to change the pitch to be higher or lower. The results were clear. People made all kinds of positive judgments about the men with lower pitched voices – they were more likely to get the vote. Less likely to be perceived as involved in a scandal. More dominant. More attractive. You name it. Lower voices won across the board. Not content to let one little research study determine the truth, we at Captains invite you to make your own vote based on these two recordings. The scripts are identical, but the voices have been manipulated to be higher orlower. Vote today and we’ll announce the results in a future post.
* Tique, C. et al, “Voice Pitch Influences Voting Behavior,” Evolution and Human Behavior (forthcoming)
High Pitch:
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Low Pitch:
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Script:
Hi. I’m Burt Caldwell, and I’m running for President. I’m a family man, I have a dog named Barney that I take hunting, I drive a pickup, and attend church every Sunday with my wife and twelve children. If elected, I will bring America back to the values that made our country what it is today. Hard working. Virtuous. Clean cut. And always wearing a tie. I will instruct our police to finally enforce laws against jaywalking. I will criminalize the use of profanity in public that could offend the elderly. And I’ll make Canada our 51st state. I’m Burt Caldwell, and I approved this message.
December 8, 2011
What advertising should be
By Jean Levasseur, Captains of Industry
Here’s something you don’t see every day – a Hollywood superstar endorsing a product in television commercials for free. Will Farrell apparently likes Old Milwaukee beer so much that he agreed to star in three commercials. The commercials below are nothing special, but do feature Farrell’s brand of humor and obvious star power, and will no doubt drive a ton of sales in the local Davenport, Iowa area, where they are running.
It’s hard to take most star advertisements seriously, because you know deep down that they probably only did it for the money. They don’t really believe in the product. But if Will Farrell is endorsing the beer for free just because he likes it, then I’m willing to give it a try.
Anyone know where they sell Old Milwaukee in the greater Boston area?
December 7, 2011
Wear a helmet. One day, you might need your brain.
By Anna Sternoff, Captains of Industry
I got a lesson in follow your passion last night. At a super fun event thrown by Fringe Union in Somerville, Mass I met my first ever bike lawyer. Nope, he doesn’t ride around on a two-wheeler fueled only by the power of his legs and legal intellect; he actually represents bicycle riders who have been wrongfully harmed. Confused? You’re not alone, which is why Josh Zisson, aka “the bike lawyer,” started bikesafeboston.com. Turns out bicyclists have all kinds of protections under the law, and Josh—an avid biker—wanted to help them out.
In an amazing example of knowing your audience, Josh created business cards that promote his services, function as an accident report, AND give you a run-down of your rights. How’s that for ya? To wrap it all up, they are ridiculously well designed. Josh has already distributed about 3,000 of these bad boys, so keep your eyes peeled. He’s also doing a California edition, and is hoping to expand into Washington State as well.
I love this idea for several reasons:
a. I am sure Josh loves being a lawyer, but he is an amazing example of someone who took his work life and something he loved and mashed them up into a business/passion sandwich.
b. He understood that in order to raise awareness of his work he had to get his name out there. And given that subway advertising for lawyers is a little, well, lowbrow, he developed something practical, good-looking and just plain kick-ass
c. I only learned to ride a bike about three years ago (youngest of four. The TV raised me), so I probably will need Josh’s advice pretty soon.
December 5, 2011
Crowdsourcing America
By Alex McKee, Captains of Industry
Lately we’ve been doing quite a bit of campaign work that centers around influencing policy in American government. And at first glance the work seems inspirational, compelling, and most agencies would consider it a point of pride. I mean this country was founded on Democratic ideals and the belief that the decisions affecting American quality of life should be made by the people! That’s how is SHOULD be…
The problem facing us today is that the system that we created in America is broken. And seemingly, the ability of an individual to enact change has been revoked, by rules, by partisanship, by political lobbying. Our freedom to do what’s right is being taken away by the very government that we as the American public put into power (and have subsequently allowed to spiral out of control). We are shackled to a system of representation that is broken. Americans are standing idly by and watching this system lose more and more value with each passing day. No longer is government doing what’s “right” for the people. Our government is openly abusing our trust and exploiting our reliance on the democratic system.
Now let’s flip the scenario. What happens when a client sees a de-valuation in the services being rendered by their agency? They put the agency up for review. They look for more effective models of operation. They turn directly to the people for the best solution and explore things like crowdsourcing. In short, they take the power back!
American civilization is more advanced than ever before. Look at what the internet has done to big business…it has put the power back in the hands of the consumer. In this day and age we have the technology and willingness to directly affect change as an individual, and this ability should be applied to political policy. We have evolved beyond the lies, the false promises, and the hired bullshit. Our voting system is outdated, antiquated, and flat out broken. So why do we still rely on it? Screw it! The American public needs to take a stand, as a collective, and make the choices to do what’s “right” for us, for America. Why don’t we blaze a new trail and abandon the “system” that simply isn’t working. Let’s take a page right out of the crowdsourcing manual and let the best ideas rise to the top (without partisan filters). After all, isn’t that what Democracy is really all about?
December 2, 2011
Friday Candy: The Ugg Vaccine
Happy Friday!
November 29, 2011
Stomp like an elephant, sting like a bee.
By Sarah Lombardi, Captains of Industry
Humankind has a pesky habit of creating overly-engineered solutions to simple problems. It’s a little thing we do. Take the world’s first billion dollar home, or Fruit Roll-Ups. Do we need these things? No. But we make them anyway because we think they fulfill a need of some sort.
That’s why when I heard about the British scientist that solved two natural problems with a natural solution, it was like a breath of fresh air. Apparently elephants infringing on farmers’ territory is a commonplace annoyance in Africa. For obvious reasons, the farmers see elephants as a bit of a threat and vice versa, so it’s no surprise that often these encounters don’t end happily. The answer? Bees! Apparently elephants are afraid of the little buggers (they aren’t partial to stings. Not only do beehives keep elephants away, the honey provides an additional source of income for farmers.
This is the kind of smart, simple thinking that makes me question what other overly-fabricated solutions we have come up with as answers to natural problems. We are the only species known to adapt our environment to us, not the other way around, and we tend to flaunt this inclination every chance we get. What if we tried working with nature more often instead of against it? We’re so used to drilling for oil to power our mechanical horses that we don’t want to see an urgent need to find more natural alternatives, and that is going to come back and bite us in the ass some day. Soon. In fact, it already is.
It’s important to remember that nature was here first, and nature will be here long after we’re gone. Even the cockroaches.
November 28, 2011
Darren Aronofsky makes crazy-ass meth PSAs; world still terrified of Darren Aronofsky
By Sarah Lombardi, Captains of Industry
When I saw that Darren Aronofsky had been commissioned to direct anti-meth PSAs, I thought it was a bit redundant, considering he’s basically already done what’s essentially a feature-length anti-drug PSA. But I guess it’s not terribly convenient to sit through the full hundred minutes of Requiem for a Dream the next time a person is tempted to ride the nostril train to speedtown. So as an alternative Aronofsky has given us seconds-long chunks of anti-drug propaganda.
Requiem scarred me for life. I can’t even think about heroin without associating its usage with selling oneself to depraved underground sex shows. Aronofsky is the perfect person to direct these PSAs, and even though they might give me night terrors, they are scarily effective. Who else could so realistically portray the horrors of drug addiction without glorifying drug use?
This does make me wonder how anti-[insert dangerous noun here] PSAs from other great directors would look. What if Brian De Palma directed an anti-cocaine PSA? Picture Scarface, but 30 seconds long—a cocaine dealer sits on some bags of money, then gets riddled with bullets by a rival dealer. The copy at the end is something like, “Cocaine shatters dreams.”
While Aronofsky’s PSAs are very difficult to watch, they are also beautifully directed and they make you think twice about doing meth. I guess sometimes scare tactics do work.
November 22, 2011
Little Johnny, you’ve failed. Brought to you by Carl’s Jr.
By Sarah Lombardi, Captains of Industry
Remember ads on the inside of doors in bathroom stalls? Me neither, but in a similarly invasive grab for our attention, report cards may soon feature ad space, at least in Colorado.
Can’t say I’m surprised. It’s hard to think of a square inch of space that our eyeballs fall on fairly regularly that hasn’t been interrupted by advertising. I can see both sides of the coin on this one. On the one hand, yearbooks already have local advertisers buying space, so what’s the difference between looking at an ad in your kid’s yearbook versus on your kid’s report card? On the other hand, report cards can be rather sensitive family issues. Imagine Little Johnny coming home from school to see his report card sitting on the table. There’s a splashy ad on it for a local amusement park. Little Johnny gets his hopes up for a trip to this amusement park, but his grades weren’t up to snuff and his parents punish him by forbidding him to go to said amusement park.
But hey, what better way to get kids acclimated to the idea that everything—even education—has a price?
November 21, 2011
PETA: Mario vs. the Tanuki
By Jean Levasseur, Captains of Industry
On Wednesday, PETA announced that they thought the video game Mario was promoting fur garments, because of the Tanooki suit (the raccoon tail that allows Mario to fly). Their premise was that the tanuki is a real animal that is often treated brutally, and even skinned alive – something that I am all in favor of stopping. They even went so far as to make a lame but still amusing game in which the tanuki chases Mario to get his skin back. I was among the people thinking “Really PETA? You’re getting mad at Mario because he can use the raccoon tail?”
Turns out, PETA was joking about the Mario thing, in a PR stunt to get attention for the plight of the tanuki. And they were a bit surprised by the reaction.
“Mario fans: Relax! PETA’s game was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, a fun way to callattention to a serious issue, that raccoon dogs are skinned alive for theirfur,” a PETA spokesperson said in an email to PCMag. “We wish real-life tanukis could fly or swat enemies away with their tails and escape those who profit from their skins. You can help them by never buying real fur.”
I completely believe that PETA was joking around. Makes sense, now that I look back at it – the claim was so ridiculous it couldn’t be serious. But so many people took them seriously, myself included. Why? Because PETA’s brand is viewed as serious, radical, and maybe a bit crazy. This seems like exactly the sort of thing PETA would get in an uproar over. Now they’re trying to step away from that perception with a joke, and it didn’t work.
The lesson here for marketing departments is that when you step away from your established brand, people will be confused, and you may not get the response you expect.
If you want to chase Mario as a skinless tanuki, you can do so on the PETA website. Have fun!