Today's Ad Madness Transportation Region match-ups are coming to you from Motor City USA, beautiful downtown Detroit! Seriously, I hear parts of Detroit aren't so bad.

1) Volkswagen "Think Small" or This One
vs.
8) Greyhound "Leave the driving to us."

In the age of the tail fins and rampant consumerism, the iconic Doyle Dane Bernbach print campaign to introduce the VW Bug made it possible to buy a small car and be happy about it. It embraced what was seen as a negative and, with a clever, self-deprecating soft sell, spun it all into a big positive. In doing so, it not only created a counter-culture icon, but changed the face of advertising. On the other side of the fence, the folks at Greyhound managed to make an 18 hour bus ride from Cincinnati to Birmingham, surrounded by a who's who of mental illness seem like a good idea.

Winner: Volkswagon in a walk.

4) Fed Ex "Fast Talker"
vs.
5) Avis "We Try Harder"

These days we take overnight delivery for granted, but half of our staff at CurrentMarketing remembers when overnight delivery meant getting in your car and driving a package where it needed to go. (The other half of our staff doesn't remember life without Cable TV, but we tolerate them, even if they don't know the difference between Green Day and Morris Day.) In 1982, affordable overnight delivery was a fairly new concept and using motor mouth John Moschitta to communicate the speedy nature of the service was a stroke of genius. Avis faced a different challenge. For most people, being second isn't a selling point. It is something you don't even admit behind closed doors. For Avis, it was a legitimate reason for a consumer to give them a shot: "We're #2. We try harder." Brave…and successful.

Winner: Avis by a nose.

3) Isuzu "Joe Isuzu"
vs.
6) Saturn "A Different Kind of Company. A Different Kind of Car"

This is a battle of diametrically opposed forces. On one hand, you have Joe Isuzu, the stereotypical car salesman...making outlandish claims to sell a car. With counterpoint subtitles to tell the real story and reinforce the positive attributes of the automobiles, they made for funny, clever spots and made a second tier carmaker memorable. With Saturn, you had just the opposite. A car company that wasn't looking to "take you for a ride."
With no haggle dealerships and a warm and fuzzy connection with its customers that included annual owner reunions at their plant in Spring Hill TN, Saturn set themselves apart not with claims of a superior product, but with a superior relationship.

Winner: Isuzu. You have my word on it.

2) Chevrolet "See the USA in your Chevrolet"
vs.
7) American Tourister, "The Gorilla"

OK, so putting an ad for luggage in the transportations division is a bit of a stretch, but we couldn't have a list without a monkey ad, and this one is a classic. Watching a gorilla "go ape" on a suitcase was funny as a kid and it is funny now. On the other hand, you have Dinah Shore espousing all that is great with America. Less than a decade removed World War 2 and with the Interstate system just a few years away, America was ready to hit the road and Chevy gave them the push they needed. Car companies continue to go to the patriotic well, from "Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet" to "This is our country," but this campaign did it best.

Winner: Chevrolet. They just don't write jingles like that anymore.

Monday: smoke 'em if you got 'em. It's time for the Vice Region. Everything from cigarettes to chocolate. Stay tuned.

Hi. My name is Jim and I'm addicted to March Madness. There… I said it and I've taken the first step to recovery. For 3 weeks every spring, I have a lot of trouble thinking about anything else. I'm not proud of it and my wife's not happy about it.

So in keeping with the theme, I've put together an Ad Madness tournament, pitting 32 of the best ad campaigns of all time. Over the next 4 days, I'll break down each region's matchups and pick a winner. Next Friday, I'll narrow things down and pick a winner for the tournament.

Like Jimmy V used to say, "This tournament is about one thing: survive and advance." I've tried to limit entries to one campaign per product. (You could to a whole tournament with just Coca-Cola campaigns.) Just like in the tournament, with a limited number of spots, your favorite ad might not make the big dance. Feel like I've made an unforgivable omission? Did I give your favorite ad the shaft? Want to just lash out while hiding behind the anonymity of cyber space? Drop me a line and tell me all about it at jimdoesntcarewhatyouthink@yahoo.com.

So with that, let's take a look at the first round matchups in the Food & Drink Region, being played in Des Plaines, Illinois, home of Ray Kroc's first McDonald's Franchise:

1) McDonald's "You Deserve a Break Today"
vs.
8) Burger King "Have it Your Way"

McDonald's is the 800lb gorilla in this tournament. Over the years, they have created an entire world of advertising characters led by the redheaded harbinger of high cholesterol himself, Ronald McDonald. They have one of the most recognizable icons in advertising, the golden arches. Their campaigns consistently have smart copy and catchy jingles. (I can still tell you how to make a Big Mac, and that jingle hasn't run in years.) On the other hand, Burger King comes into the tournament with a recent history of scattered campaigns, none of which seemed to gain any traction. (Hootie in a cowboy outfit anyone?) But in the 70's they had a rock-solid campaign with a solid point of differentiation, that they would make your burger the way you wanted it.

Winner: McDonalds in a rout.

4) Coca-Cola "Have a Coke and a Smile"
vs.
5) Maxwell House "Good to the Last Drop"

Mean Joe Greene faces off against The Wicked Witch of the West in this huge first round match up. The Joe Greene spot is a perennial favorite on top ad lists. It not only makes use of a huge sports icon of the time, but gets beyond the pigeonhole of sports marketing with a warm and fuzzy end that makes non-sports fans say "awwwww." On the other side, we have an ad that you just couldn't make today. Ten seconds in, the husband takes a cheap shot at his wife's coffee, in public no less. The pained look on the wife's face is so sad you have to laugh to keep from crying. (And you can almost here her thinking "You think it tastes bad now, wait until I add antifreeze to your mug tomorrow, you bastard!) Fortunately a 500-year-old Margaret Hamilton comes to the rescue with a cup of Maxwell House that makes everything better. And isn't that how every ad should work?

Winner: Coca-Cola in a nail-biter.

3) Wendys' "Where's the Beef?"
vs.
6) Life Cereal "Hey Mikey"

Wendy's had the catchphrase that was on everyone's lips and this ad made them a force in the burger wars. As much as I love a commercial featuring a pair of kids with speech impediments (something think you couldn't get past a focus group these days), not even Mikey liked his chances here.

Winner: Wendy's

2) Pepsi 'Pepsi Cola Hits the Spot"
vs
7) California Milk Processor Board "Got Milk?"

This is one of the best jingles in advertising history. (Pepsi-Cola hits the spot Twelve full ounces, that's a lot Twice as much for a nickle, too Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you.) Pepsi takes a 2 seed in the tournament, but they get matched up against the minimalist genius of the milk moustache and the and the 2 word poetry of "Got Milk." Bottom like: The ubiquitous milk campaign has perfected the celebrity endorsement and anyone who remembers the Pepsi jingle is in their late 60s and probably doesn't read many blogs, so…

Winner: Got Milk?

Tomorrow – The Transportation Region

It's every creative professional's worst nightmare: when the ideas just won't come. You stare at a blank computer screen and every time that cursor blinks, you're one second closer to the deadline...and you've got nothing. Zip. Nada. Squat.

When I get in this funk, I'm a big fan of letting the Universe do a little of the creative "heavy lifting" by using a word or phrase, chosen at random, as the guide to my problem-solving. It's not a new idea, but I first read about it in Roger Von Oech's book "A Whack on the Side of the Head." (If you haven't read his series of books, you should. They're very quick reads and have been tools I've gone back to over and over again for inspiration. Check him out.) Here are his thoughts on the subject:

Read the rest of this entry »