Hollywood wasn't the only place celebrating this weekend. Our hometown of Orlando shined Saturday night with Advertising's Elite stepping out for the Orlando Advertising Federation's ADDY Awards. Yes, I said the "elite". We at Red Rocket certainly do not think of ourselves as "elite"... cool, but not elite. Therefore, our little family of creatives missed out on the festivities Saturday night. Boy was that the wrong move. Much to our surprise, we awoke to the news this morning that our shop of coolness actually took home the coveted prize. Cool, huh? We thought so! What a way to kick off our 10th Anniversary Year! Now, you may be wondering what project of awesomeness took the ADDY. Yea, so do we, so if you find out, please let us know, because we're just dying to know over here!!!

Stay tuned as I go undercover to find the answer to our ADDY quandary. Whatever project won, you can be assured it was spectacular!!! I guess we need to branch out from just being cool and step into the world of the "elite"........

It's a slow start to the Monday after the big game, but not because of too many beers. My hangover is from big game hype overload. It's kinda like the feeling after the holidays have come and gone and and you're a little bummed because you never did get that Red Ryder BB Gun. I have that same feeling today after the lack of entertainment I really cared about.... the commercials. Now, don't get me wrong, there were a few that sparked my fancy, but not nearly the many belly laughs I was hoping for. For me, Anheuser-Busch seemed to come out on top, my fav being the auctioneer wedding. For my esteemed co-worker Alan, I believe it was the return of Robert Goulet in the Emerald Nuts Ad, however, his new favorite Goulet ring tone he discovered probably has more mileage than the actual commercial.

Even though the commercials left me wanting more, I have to be thankful for some great Superbowl XLI highlights.... The opening return for a touchdown by Da Bears.... (had to go for the Bears since I was eating and drinking on their fans dime :) the Prince halftime show (come on , it's Prince, enough said) the commraderie of friends gathering for yet another excuse to throw back some beers......but now, my greatest highlight is my new Goulet ringtone that let's me know my friends are calling..bring on Superbowl XLII!!!

It seems in today's world, we are overstimulated with brands, products and services leaving companies to ask, "How can we make a statement?" Over the years, guerilla marketing has evolved from a more cost effective way to advertise into a branding competition where the winner takes all no matter what the cost. Coming from a strong radio promotion background, we were taught as interns to get a station name out on the street. There was a certain sense of pride knowing you "stole" a particular event from a competitor or simply saw your banner on some street sign on the side of the road. If you made the evening news and your call letters were dropped, well, you hit the big time! But how much is too much? Now a days, crazy branding stunts have resulted in law suits, government involvement and sometimes even death. Most recently, the big Turner Cartoon Network Boston Bomb Scare. A branding stunt for Cartoon Network's series Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The stunt got out of control when the local bomb squad was called in and talks of "terrorism" spread. This stunt drew so much attention that the Mayor of Boston is threatening 2-5 years prison sentence for whoever installed a series of circuit board props around the city. Turner has since notified the other 9 cities in which boards were also placed.

So, this latest stunt leads me to ask... Is this really TOO much, or have we all become too PC and sensitive? I mean, if you subscribe to the old "any press is good press" then you have to push the limit at times, right? And Turner did what they set out to do, get people talking about their brand! It makes me sad to think that eventually marketing stunts will be so unethical in the eyes of the general public that we'll have to rely solely on prehistoric means of marketing and where is the creativity in that?