The Big Fat Marketing Blog

For the first time in a thousand years NASCAR’s royalty won’t be present at Daytona. Today is the start of the stockcar racing season–in fact, it’s their superbowl, the biggest race of the year, held in Daytona to honor the roots of racing right there on the beaches of northern Florida. But today there’s no Petty in the race, either as driver or owner. No DEI car. (That’s Dale Earnbhardt Enterprises for the uninitiated, the very soul of this series for the past 25 years, but since Dale Jr. left the team, they’ve been unable to compete.) No Wood Brothers, which, while not a team casual fans recall, has been in this event since 1950.

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I’m reading reports about the cancellation of gala, big-ticket events surrounding this weekend’s Super Bowl, a true sign of the economic apocalypse. Playboy and Sports Illustrated both cancelled what in the past have been some of the hottest parties taking place in the host city. Restaurants and strip clubs–both big attractions during Super Bowl week–are reporting sagging sales. And celebrity golf and poker tournaments have been abruptly cancelled this week because corporate sponsorships have disappeared. Analysts are predicting at least a 20% drop in revenues for Tampa associated with the Super Bowl, with less visitors and less spending this weekend. Hotel rooms are still available. And so are tickets–the official ticket site, TicketsNow, has hundreds if not thousands of tickets available, ranging from $1600 for the upper deck to $197,000 for one of two dozen unsold luxury boxes.

This is unprecedented. There seems to be little demand, and very little interest, in what’s usually the first major holiday of the year for Americans.

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I’ve noticed that everyone I talk to is depressed. Cranky, even. Everyone knows someone who’s out of work, and even those of us with jobs seem dissatisfied, and edgy. This happens every January in the midwest, I’m aware, about the time holiday bills start arriving, the sun disappears for weeks at a time and the temperature stays stuck at zero.

But this year is different. Ad agency superstars I know around town are anxious, unhappy with their jobs (hey, at least they HAVE them) and bitter about work, clients, food, music, sports, their friends and their sex lives, and not always in that order.

Hell, everyone’s already bitching about Obama’s lack of impact. The guy’s been on the job for less than a week!

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My new year was already ruined the other day when I read that LG Electronics is breaking a new ad campaign, conceived, developed and executed by Conde Nast. There are no external creative agencies involved, just the publisher using their connections to find a celebrity, create the ads and place them in their own publications.

Oh, and Conde Nast is doing it at cost. No creative fees.

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I was held up at airport security for an hour a couple of years ago because they suspected I had a serrated-edge razor blade in my backpack. Now, as a creative director, there’s no telling what might be in my bag at any given time, but i KNEW i didn’t have any razor blades (who uses razor blades anymore, besides Paulie Cicero in Goodfellas?). Turned out it was the foil wrapper from a stick of Wrigley’s Spearmint gum, which i had absent-mindedly folded into a tiny square while bored in whatever meeting I had endured that day.

I think of that story every time i open a package of Wrigley’s gum, but today I got something unexpected: a chance to win tickets to the NBA finals. And, better than a simple chew and win, this promotion puts a bounty on the heads of NBA players.

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Finally a pro sport is running a promotion to drive viewership of a broadcast game. Reebok designed the jerseys being worn in the Winter Classic hockey game, being shown on NBC on New Year’s Day. One of the jerseys is missing the Reebok logo; if you can figure out which player is wearing that “mystery” jersey, you have a chance to win at reebok.com.

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