Yet another example of politics messing things up.

The Butterfly Effect, six degrees of Kevin Bacon, I don't know, but it is interesting that nothing exists in a vacuum.

For example, my friend Eric Myers (a hot-shot Comcast sales rep who I met following his dramatic belly-flop into home plate during a softball game) sent me an e-mail this morning as a possible blog topic:

"With the Democrats' nominee likely to be undetermined until LATE in the political cycle, both parties are likely to end up spending their advertising war chest in a smaller amount of time later in the calendar. Which unfortunately coincides with 4^th qtr,(typically the back to school, and Holiday run-up time) which is going to put a lot of extra inventory pressure (more than a normal political period) on the media outlets. Many smaller advertisers that are not typically planners are likely to get squeezed out by the politico’s and the bigger advertisers."

So in case you were wondering what real-world effect the drawn-out Democratic nominating process might have on a local business, there it is.

I guess no matter WHAT you do, there's no escaping politics.

And who among us doesn't love water balloons?

I found this on the Ad Broad ("the oldest working writer in advertising") blog.

A beautiful spot for Schweppes in Australia.

Same Point, Other Voices.

This post from The Toad Stool ad blog makes the same point we've tried to make about the Internet. That is, that you have to do more than just throw up a web site and wait for the traffic to appear. You have to let people know it's there. And, we might add, let them know a little something about you before they get there.

It features a commercial VW did in the UK to promote their new site. It just makes sense. Do good. Tell people.

Gratuitous sex.

To quote Adrants: "If you prefer things stiffly erect and throbbing with fullness rather than things that are flaccidly limp and not up for anything fun then Claussen is your brand of pickle." Hey, I didn't do the ad. I'm just repeating it.

Don't watch this just before you go to bed.

This is a very creepy, marginally disgusting anti-child abuse spot from Germany that I found on the Illegal Advertising site.

Honestly, the first time I saw it, I couldn’t watch the whole thing. It was only when I showed it to others in the office that I got through to the end ― and the payoff. The general reaction around here was along the lines of “Eeeewww!”

Which raises the question, I think, of whether you can go so far in showing something like the effects of child abuse that you force your audience to turn away ― and miss your message. There’s a fine line between shocking enough to make an indelible point and so shocking that people can’t bring themselves to pay attention.

I don’t know whether this crossed that line or not. I kind of think it did. But it’s damn sure unforgettable.

Clever? Desperate? Or just plain Stupid?

I'm going to go for a mix of Desperate and Stupid.

This actually appeared in the Washington Post Express this morning. Words fail me.

Except this one: Pathetic.

Hard versus Not Hard.

One of the things that drew me to hire Jessica Tree as an art director was a campaign she did in school for wood.

That’s right, wood. Particle board, actually, as I recall. It was a great campaign, and the fact that it was even an assignment is a testament to Brainco, the ad school where she studied after college. It certainly would have been easier to do a great campaign, as she said, for something like Play-Doh or fireballs. (I might add to that list, the ever-popular Wonderbra, a staple of spec ads.)

You know, something easy.

Doing a cool ad for fireballs, Play-Doh or Wonderbra (or hot sauce, a tattoo parlor, a bar or record store) isn’t all that hard. And, frankly, not really the kind of thing most of us do most of the time. We don’t most of us do a lot of full-page, four-color print ads or full-page, four-color spread ads all day either. But that’s what student books are full of.

Want to show me ― or anybody ― what you can really do? Show me a great 2 x 5 retail ad for a paint store or a half-page ad for a remodeling company. Maybe a real estate ad. Because if you can do something great with something ordinary (like wood, for example), you can do something great with something cool when you get the chance.