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Consumer Packaged Goods

posted 02/23/08 by Rick Webb

Consumer Packaged Goods. An area where we do a lot of work. Marketing work. Internet marketing work. Take a look at left. That’s some of our consumer packaged goods work. Yeah. Awesome.

Here are some recent posts from our employees about Consumer Packaged Goods:

Steve is fine.

posted by Ryan McManus
Ryan McManus
Ryan McManus

Art Director : New York

topics: Photography, Strategy, Animation and 3D, Creativity, and Design

 on January 05, 2009 at 12:02 PM
filed under: Consumer Packaged Goods
Nick beat me to it, but I wanted to express my happiness about Mr. Jobs’ health letter, and tell Gizmodo to STFU. Seriously, what are they, shorting the stock or something? Can someone send the SEC over there?
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What to Wear? The Gap and the Median of Modesty.

posted by Ryan McManus
Ryan McManus
Ryan McManus

Art Director : New York

topics: Apparel and Footwear, Internet Culture, Boston, Fashion, and Creativity

 on July 17, 2008 at 12:58 PM
filed under: Consumer Packaged Goods
Noah
Noah Brier
Noah Brier

Head of Strategic Planning : New York

topics: The Networks and the Internet, Strategy, Social Networking and Community, Internet Culture, and Advertising

and I were just discussing Starbucks and books over lunch, and how buyers like Starbucks and Costco have this massive cultural impact on what books become “popular” and therefore what is considered the mean of popular culture. Think about it as maybe the WalMart-ing of pop culture, where corporate decisions have a major impact on our culture.
This led me to think about this idea I had way back in college about The Gap and its Old Navy offspring. These companies, whether they are aware of it or not, inadvertently set the median of modesty in our collective American fashion. They sell such massive quantities of clothing and are so utterly entrenched in every corner of America that teens and moms alike buy the same exact outfits across the country, setting up a standard for how “Americans” dress.
This is amazing, and I’m fascinated to know if The Gap is even aware of this consequential responsibility (some would say burden) to design and sell clothing that is setting up what the majority of the country sees as “modest”. Like, if they started selling fishnets and vinyl shorts, would there be an uproar? Are they pressured by some odd fringe lobbyist groups that try to maintain dignity in clothing? Do they get hate mail if their miniskirts are an inch too short?
Noah brought up a great point when I tried to make a parallel to McDonalds: McDonalds has the ability to alter their food in a way that would benefit the culture, but they have no economic incentive to do so. Sure, some pressure has led to things like the Yogurt Parfait and Salad Shakers, but by and large they have no reason to make massive infrastructure and supply changes for the (comparably) small PR benefit, even though it would be in the public’s best interest.
But The Gap, to Noah’s point, isn’t under those kind of considerations. Sure, if they started selling tarted up outfits they’d probably take a hit in sales, and see some outrage from fringe groups (Abercrombie and Fitch, anyone?). But The Gap can really set their own standards for what’s appropriate and what’s not, and what will sell and what won’t. I’m sure a lot of that is based on some idea of the average American’s sensibilities, but maybe it’s up to the designers.
Anyway, just a thought. I’d really love to know. Remember, The Gap, with great power comes great responsibility.
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Celebrity Candy

posted by Bruce Winterton
Bruce Winterton
Bruce Winterton

Partner, President : Boston

topics: Financial Services, Consumer Packaged Goods, Content, Agency Collaboration, and Brands

 on July 04, 2008 at 10:26 AM
filed under: Consumer Packaged Goods
The M&Ms Campaign spearheaded by BBDO continues to impress. The latest iteration I particularly like are the celebrity print ads. Bobby Flay, Indiana Jones, Kyle Busch. I hope they continue because it can become the next big iconic print campaign, like the milk mustache or Absolut Vodka.
A good sign is the latest iteration by Latinworks, Austin TX (good friends of mine Manny Flores, Alex Ruelas are the founders) featuring Wilmer Valderrama and discussed in the NYT. Ok, I wish it was someone with a bit more street cred like Carlos Santana but hey, it’s gotta start somewhere.
All of this is exciting, of course, because we were there at the beginning. We created becomeanmm with BBDO back in early 2007 and users started creating their own celebrity M&Ms, like The Donald to the left. Awesome.
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Time in a Bottle

posted by Bruce Winterton
Bruce Winterton
Bruce Winterton

Partner, President : Boston

topics: Media Planning, Mobile, Entertainment, Consumer Packaged Goods, and Nonprofit

 on April 19, 2008 at 01:04 PM
filed under: Consumer Packaged Goods
Just saw a commercial on television for Zyrtec. A bad actress says “you know that song about time in a bottle?” She then holds up a bottle of Zyrtec. “Well, I’ve got time in a bottle with Zyrtec.” Then there’s some obscure reference about Zyrtec working faster than Claritin. Jesus. Seriously? Jim Croce must be turning over in his grave. And I’m sure the agency did not pay any money to his estate. Shame.
And last weekend I went to CVS to get a renewal of my Fexofenadine (I have really bad allergies), a renewal that normally costs me a mere $5 co-pay however this time the price, after insurance, was $47. I asked the pharmacist why it was so expensive and she said it’s probably because it’s now sold over the counter. She said that typically once they start selling a prescription drug over the counter the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies make a deal and up the price of the co-pay to encourage an OTC purchase. Pissed me off, of course. I mean it didn’t surprise me but it’s still fucking uncool. Now, the punchline, the OTC brand is Zyrtec. Ugh.
On their site they trumpet the benefits of moving from Rx to OTC. They actually have the balls to say that you will save money. And they also say you don’t have to wait around for the slow pharmacists, insulting. Christ. What a ridiculous system we have now. Here is the link: Zyrtec.com/switch_rx
If I could save time in a bottle, I’m sure the co-pay is only temporarily low.
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Sex, Science, and Kids' Toys

posted by Rick Webb
Rick Webb
Rick Webb

Co-founder, COO : Boston

topics: Media Planning, Rock and Roll, Metrics and Analytics, The Internet, and Alcoholic Beverages

 on September 05, 2006 at 01:30 PM
filed under: Consumer Packaged Goods

N.B. This post was from the last version of our site

Science, as we all know, can only be used for good or evil. But in the case of Axe cologne, we learned that science can also be used for the purposes of sexiness. This amazing discovery was made while we were making the Axe Lab site with the awesome people over at BBH and C-TRL Labs. If you’d like to know more about the sciences of mind control and stimulation, or just see a very nice site, check out Axe Lab.

In non-science news, we recently launched a site for Lego’s line of Bionicle toys with Curtis Birch and On Board Entertainment. Free The Band follows the story of the mysterious disappearance of popularly hairstyled band All-American Rejects and the involvement of the evil Piraka. Our Lego hats are off to usual suspects like Sean Drinkwater and Mike Ma.

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New Sites, New People, New Jobs

posted by Rick Webb
Rick Webb
Rick Webb

Co-founder, COO : Boston

topics: Barbarian History, Social Networking and Community, Strategy, Search, and User Experience

 on September 18, 2005 at 06:51 PM
filed under: Consumer Packaged Goods

N.B. This post was from the last version of our site

IT IS TIME TO GET YER MEATINS ON. That’s right. Ironic use of the browser shake. You know you love it. We’re not gonna tell you much about this just yet, you have to go dig. But we WILL say we did it with Mullen and those guys are pretty cool

The Birtney Spears Fantasy site is now fully live, and doing a good amount of traffic, coincidentally. Props to Elizabeth Arden and Goodby for the change of pace.

Oh, also, I don’t think I ever showed you the Virgin Mobile Parental Enlightenment Kit. We made this with Mother New York. It’s really funny. You’ll like it.

We’d also like to let you know that we’ve refreshed our job postings, and give a big shout out welcome to Liz Whittaker, our new Senior Producer, who starts this Monday. Liz is an old friend of many of us from our Arnold days, and it’s been a dream of ours to make her a Barbarian for years. This was the third time we tried to hire her, and bless her heart, she finally said yes. Maybe this means she thinks we might actually stay in business now.

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Fantasy...

posted by Rick Webb
Rick Webb
Rick Webb

Co-founder, COO : Boston

topics: Metrics and Analytics, Automotive, Nonprofit, Agency Collaboration, and Media Planning

 on September 02, 2005 at 06:50 PM
filed under: Consumer Packaged Goods

N.B. This post was from the last version of our site

So we’ve put a teaser up for a fun project we’re doing with Goodby for Elizabeth Arden and a certain pop singer. You should check it out. It’s kinda funny. Not our usual thing, exactly, but seriously, who can pass up Britney?

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The Cannes Grand Prix

posted by Rick Webb
Rick Webb
Rick Webb

Co-founder, COO : Boston

topics: Alcoholic Beverages, Barbarian Style Guide, Search, Internet Culture, and Nonprofit

 on June 22, 2005 at 06:43 PM
filed under: Consumer Packaged Goods

N.B. This post was from the last version of our site

We are pleased as punch to learn today that Come Clean, which we made for Method (the soap company) with Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, just won the Interactive Grand Prix at Cannes. We also won a bronze for our Virgin Atlantic “Dreams” banner, made in conjunction with Crispin, and got shortlisted for the Dr. Angus site, made for Burger King with Crispin. Whew.

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