HELLO

spoof images

2011-09-13T16:10:00.001-07:00

Spoof!

doodle art

2011-09-13T15:19:00.000-07:00

Ronald McDonald is having a midlife crisis.

2011-09-13T15:01:00.000-07:00

article
Ronald McDonald is having a midlife crisis.
His floppy shoes, painted-on smile and flaming-red hair may be a harder sell to today's kids who are trading in their dolls and trucks for manicures and mobile game apps at ever younger ages. He also seems out of step with McDonald's Corp.'s new efforts to appeal to adults. The 48-year-old spokesclown has fallen flat in new ads this year, according to Ace Metrix, a group that tracks TV advertising.

And the government is getting strict on marketing unhealthy food to children. That has both marginalized Ronald as more of a mascot than a product pitchman and landed him in the middle of the bigger debate about food makers' responsibilities in stemming the rise in childhood obesity.

McDonald's says it is proud of the food it offers and that Ronald teaches children to be active.

Critics say it's time to hang up the yellow jumper.

A group called Corporate Accountability International plans to ask Ronald to retire at the company's annual meeting on Thursday. They say Ronald encourages kids to eat junk food, contributing to a rise in childhood obesity and related diseases such as diabetes.

The group, which campaigned against the Joe Camel cigarette mascot in the '90s and complained about Ronald as a role model at McDonald's annual meeting last year, has stepped up its campaign. The group has taken out full-page ads Wednesday in the Chicago Sun-Times, New York Metro and four other papers to call for his head. The ads, signed by more than 550 health groups and professionals, carry the headline, "Doctors' Orders: Stop Marketing Junk Food To Kids."

What follows is an open letter to McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner, that says in part, "We ask that you heed our concern and retire your marketing promotions for food high in salt, fat, sugar, and calories to children, whatever form they take — from Ronald McDonald to toy giveaways."

McDonald's defended Ronald against the group's attack at last year's annual meeting and is adamant that it has never considered retiring or even downplaying their smiling mascot.

"It's totally unfounded," said Marlena Peleo-Lazar, the company's chief creative officer, who describes Ronald as "a force for good."

Ronald, the world's most famous clown, had humble beginnings with a paper-cup nose and scraggly blonde wig. First played by Willard Scott in 1963, he dispensed burgers and fries to delighted children and flew around on a magic hamburger. "Goofy and clumsy" is the way McDonald's describes the early incarnations.

A decade later McDonald's created standards on makeup and mannerisms for Ronald, so the actors who portrayed him could present a united front. Around that time, they also created McDonaldLand, home to Grimace, Mayor McCheese and an array of other characters.

(McDonald's, for the record, views Ronald as a real person. "There's only one Ronald," Peleo-Lazar said in response to several questions about how many actors portray the smiling clown.)

Around 2004, McDonald's christened Ronald as a "balanced, active lifestyles ambassador," and stuck him in commercials where he trained for the Olympics. He got workout clothes. He got a tuxedo. He moved from McDonaldLand into the real world. New commercials show him as an active, athletic clown who plays soccer, shoots hoops and encourages kids to visit McDonald's Happymeal.com website. There's barely a mention of burgers and fries.

While other clowns have faded, Ronald has endured. He's been immortalized as a Beanie Baby, a bobblehead and a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. Even now, Zagat says he's the most popular fast-food mascot, beating out Jared the Subway Guy.

"It would be tough to walk away from him," said Nigel Hollis, whose company, Millward Brown Optimor, calculates that McDonald's is the fourth-most valuable brand in the world. "It would be almost as if the Geico gecko disappeared, or the Aflac duck."

But Jack McKee, vice president of sales and marketing at Ace Metrix, said new Ronald McDonald commercials have failed to entice test audiences. His company surveyed 500 people about each commercial, he said.

"It's really remarkable how often I saw the word 'creepy'" in the survey comments, McKee said.

Replies Peleo-Lazar: "For everyone who may feel that way, there are more who feel the opposite."

Through the years, Ronald has also been the face of Ronald McDonald House Charities, which provides free or inexpensive housing for families who must travel to get medical treatment for a child. He still shows up as often as ever at camps for sick children and charity events.

Nick Guroff, a spokesman for Corporate Accountability International, said while that's a worthwhile charity, "to use that as their excuse for marketing junk food to kids is sort of having their burger and eating it too."

are mascots outdated article

2011-09-13T14:57:00.000-07:00

article

More than a decade into the 21st century, it is safe to say we are living in a brave new world. Television, perhaps thepièce de résistance of last century, has given way to computers and, in turn, desktop computers and laptops may soon give way to tablets and smartphones.

This rush of technological innovation has had a profound impact on the way restaurants do business. With so many powerful tools like Facebook and Twitter, it is only natural that restaurants have updated their marketing strategies by pouring money into social networking and cell phone promotions. But despite leveraging every new thing at their disposal, restaurants have stuck to at least one stalwart of 20th century branding: the mascot.

Just don’t call it a relic.

In fact, don’t call it a mascot—some brands consider it an insult.

“Mascot? Jack? He might take offense to that!” This was the reply of Jack in the Box spokesman Brian Luscomb when contacted for an interview regarding mascots. Luscomb was being light-hearted, but the chain takes Jack very seriously, his ping-pong-ball head, party hat, and hand-drawn facial features notwithstanding. In fact, even in the context of a brass-tacks interview, Luscomb referred to Jack as the company’s founder and revealed that he—Jack—has a reserved parking space in front of the Jack in the Box headquarters in San Diego.

“It’s for his car,” Luscomb says matter-of-factly.

If it seems as if Luscomb and Jack in the Box in general are taking things a bit far, it’s important to note that Jack was integral in helping Jack in the Box survive its infamous E. coli disaster of 1993, when tainted meat killed four children and sickened hundreds of other customers. Reeling, Jack in the Box started the “Jack is Back” campaign in 1995, giving a voice and the distinction of founder to a character that had previously been confined to company packaging and the drive-thru menu.

“We were definitely reinventing ourselves, and he was a key piece of that,” says CMO Terri Graham.

It would be impossible to figure out the extent to which the “Jack is Back” campaign helped Jack in the Box weather the E. coli disaster, but the fact that the brand called upon Jack in a moment of crisis suggests how powerful a marketing tool restaurant mascots have been in the industry.

Sixteen years and a slew of technological breakthroughs after the “Jack is Back” campaign, the question is whether mascots still have a place in a 21st century marketing strategy.

The answer, Graham says, is “absolutely.”

“What you’re trying to do is emotionally connect with guests,” she says. “With brand perception, there is a rational side and an emotional side. The rational side focuses on the service we provide. But the emotional side is where we really connect, and we’re able to connect through Jack’s personality.”

The key word is connect. Perhaps the main strength of mascots has been their ability to go where companies can’t or CEOs shouldn’t: birthday parties, store openings, baseball games, and so on. In the computer age, where connection happens as often on Facebook as it does face-to-face, mascots must now make the rounds online.

“The beauty of technology is that it gives Jack opportunities to communicate out to guests,” Graham says. “It also allows us to continue to bring him to life. That fact that our customers can see him and feel his personality is very effective. So we absolutely use these vehicles as more opportunities to communicate with our guests.”While the terrain has changed, the role mascots play in a restaurant’s marketing scheme—that of communicator in chief of the company—has not. Jack, for example, has a Facebook page with more than 350,000 fans and a Twitter account with almost 20,000 followers. He is also there to greet visitors to the Jack in the Box website (“Hi, I’m Jack. Welcome to my web page thing.”).

And having a mascot makes “driving” these “vehicles” a lot easier.

“With social media you have to be engaging and have a one-on-one voice,” says Beth Mansfield, director of public relations for Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, whose mascot is Happy Star.

“It’s much easier to have that one voice be Happy Star instead of the marketing department of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s,” Mansfield says. “If we signed our Facebook posts ‘from the marketing department,’ that would be a little awkward.”

Unlike Jack, Happy Star does not feature prominently in Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s television spots (nor is he recognized as the brands’ founder, though his face is modeled on CKE founder Carl Karcher). Mansfield says this is because the brands are not primarily “engaging with people through television to have a conversation.”

“On TV we’re looking to tell people about a product and get them in the door to buy that product,” she says. “Social media is far more personalized. It’s about creating a relationship with your fans.”

Wienerschnitzel, which has 350 locations (mostly in California), is using its mascot, a friendly chilidog named “The Delicious One”, in a similar way. In its 50^th year, the brand uses TDO as the face and voice of its Twitter and Facebook accounts, but has chosen not to use him in television advertisements commemorating Wienerschnitzel’s half-century in business.

“The spot’s we are running now are black and white and use footage and pictures from years ago,” says Tom Amberger, Wienerschnitzel’s VP of marketing.

With 500 million people on Facebook, mascots should have plenty to keep them occupied without going on television, and CKE and Wienerschnitzel’s similar strategies suggest that mascots are far from obsolete in the Internet age. It suggests, on the other hand, that their role in restaurant marketing strategies may start to grow.

This seems especially likely as mobile technology becomes more sophisticated and gives businesses increasing access to consumers. More so than the Internet and especially TV, the telephone has a tradition as a personalized communication device, and using it effectively as a marketing vehicle might come easier for a mascot with a tailored personality than a complex brand.

“The Robin from Red Robin fits easily in an app,” says Liz Goodgold, founder of RedFire Branding. “But look at it the other way: If you don’t have the Robin, then you just have hamburgers.”

If the Internet has strengthened job security for restaurant mascots, not everyone is happy about it. Critics denounce how restaurants use mascots to sell their brands to impressionable children. Industry analyst Clark Wolf sees them as a marketing tactic that is out of step with a new era of corporate responsibility.

“The purpose of mascots in the restaurant industry is the same as Joe Camel: to create a connection and sell small children bad stuff,” Wolf says. “I look forward to the day when it’s illegal or more highly regulated.”

That day may be far off, but in the meantime, Wolf says, restaurants should restrain themselves, if only because he considers marketing a mascot a bad investment in a slow economy.

“It’s misspent money and in direct conflict with good, long-term business practices,” he says.

Still, even a staunch critic like Wolf sees a use for mascots in a responsible restaurant brand. In transforming Ronald McDonald from a peddler of Happy Meals to a global philanthropist through the Ronald McDonald House, McDonald’s has found a way to leverage the power of the mascot for the greater good, Clark says.

“Ronald McDonald is a great example of a brand striking a balance,” he says.

But the clown’s effectiveness in raising money for charity underscores mascots’ general effectiveness as pitchmen. The fact that mascots make it easier to leverage emerging technologies only adds to their value and suggests they will remain crucial to restaurants in the near future. Finally, there is their allure for that all-important segment of the quick-serve industry consumer base.

“As long as restaurants want to appeal to kids,” says marketing analyst Joel Cohen, “mascots will play an important role in their marketing.”

How many get their own parking spots, however, remains to be seen.

fast food slogans

2011-09-13T14:53:00.000-07:00

slogans

Finger-lickin’ good
-KFC

Subway, Eat Fresh
-Subway

Have it your way
-Burger King

Now you’re eating!
-Pizza Hut

We do chicken right.
-KFC

We do it like you’d do it
-Burger King

Buy a bucket of chicken and have a barrel of fun
-KFC

Gather ‘Round the Good Stuff
-Pizza Hut

Sometimes you’ve got to break the rules
-Burger King

Makin’ it great again and again
-Pizza Hut

There’s Fast Food…Then There’s KFC!
-KFC

The Home of the Whopper
-Burger King

Yes, Virginia there really is a Colonel Sanders
-KFC

Nobody does chicken like KFC
-KFC

Fast Food for Fast Times
-Burger King

It just tastes better
-Burger King

It takes two hands to hold a Whopper
-Burger King

Your Way Right Away!
-Burger King

This is a Burger King town
-Burger King

Heinrich Kley

2011-09-13T14:44:00.000-07:00

HENRICH KLEY

Heinrich Kley was born April 15, 1863, in Karlsruhe, Germany, and studied art with Ferdinand Keller at the Karlsruhe Akademy and with C. Frithjob Smith in Munich. He started out as an illustrator and a painter of murals, focussing on portraits, still lifes, animals, and landscapes.

By the turn of the century Kley’s interest changed to modern industrial life, including factories, blast furnaces, ship docks, industrial buildings, and machinery. One of his best-known oil paintings from this time period is "Tiegelstahlguss bei Krupp" (Crucible steel casting with Krupp).

He also did architectural paintings of building exteriors in Old Munich, Nuremberg, Bruchsal, Dresden, the harbor of Kiel, Paris, Ostende, and the island of Helgoland in the North Sea.

With his move to Munich he mostly gave up painting to concentrate on drawing with pen and ink. His work was imbued with his sarcastic wit, and he quickly became famous for his work that appeared in the magazinesJugend and Simplizissimus.

In 1937 the new Coronet Magazine in the United States published Kley's drawings in three consecutive issues, and he became wildly famous with American audiences. Three years later his work inspired the Disney artists who created the film Fantasia. According to Disney animator Joe Grant, both Kley and T.S. Sullivant (see below) were enormous influences on the look of the film.

*referring to his use of sarcastic wit in his illustrations

"Old McDonald Had A Farm" with The GiggleBellies - Award Winning

2011-09-13T11:56:00.000-07:00

*probably this song can be used for the video in the final response

*another idea might be changing the lyrics

Happy three friends

2011-09-13T11:01:00.000-07:00

HAPPY THREE FRIENDS

character making research

Happy Tree Friends - Flippin' Burgers

2011-09-13T10:55:00.000-07:00

*One of the design response that i'll be doing would be a short cartoon video that is something like the happy three friends videos. The approach would be something cute but at the same time, gross and sacarstic.

Jenny Holzer

2011-09-13T10:40:00.000-07:00

JENNY HOLZER
article
article

Jenny Holzer never signs her work. Her most prominent creations, glowing text-based installations fashioned over the last 30 years on everything from billboards and building façades to rock faces and crashing waves, are almost eerie in their anonymity, voices anchored more to their physical and social contexts than to any single, human personality.

Her truisms, deliberate clichés, and borrowed prose touch on subjects as disparate as consumer culture and torture, death, power, and love, and boldly feature on some of the world’s grandest stages - from a giant 1980s Times Square electronic billboard shouting ‘Protect Me From What I Want’, to the LED installation she created at the Reichstag, to poetry projected onto the side of the New York Public Library, and one of her latest projects, a stream of white-lit text scrolling across and illuminating the lobby of 7 World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan.

Jenny holzer is famous for her short statements, formally
called ‘truisms’. some are common myths while others
are just phrases on random subjects in the form of slogans.
the sayings include:

‘a man can't know what it's like to be a mother’,

‘men are not monogamous by nature’,

‘money creates taste’,

‘a lot of professionals are crackpots’,

‘enjoy yourself because you can't change anything anyway’,

‘freedom is a luxury not a necessity’,

‘don't place too much trust in experts’.

trustocorp

2011-09-13T10:14:00.000-07:00

TRUSTOCORP
Article

TrustoCorp is a New York based artist (or artists) dedicated to highlighting the hypocrisy and hilarity of human behavior through sarcasm and satire. TrustoCorp targets areas in the public domain typically reserved for messages of trust and authority and subverts them with messages of mayhem and absurdity hijacked from the visual style of our authorities.

* would be doing something similar to his works, in terms of highlighting the hypocrisy and hilarity of human behavior through sacrum and satire but i would be targeting on different fast food brands.