9/11/11 is past us, and I am sure we are all a bit relieved as it is not a joyful day in any means, and it comes with many hurtful memories atop of fears of repeat attacks. When flipping through the great New York Times memorial issue, I paused to reflect on the way brands chose to walk the very delicate line of mixing honest sympathy with a hint of marketing message – all the way to a blunt in-your-face sales message hidden inside the memorial post. Here is a selection of the ones that grabbed my attention the most:

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It may seem like the perfect blog entry for our ‘Brand Atmospheres’ blog, even though some of you may have already learned about this in a past edition of Wired magazine. You might have noticed that i took a couple of days off to rejuvinate while visiting a client up north. A part of the long weekend was trying to play catch up with magazines of past months, and this is when I came across ‘Flogos’. The image below explains it quite well: Flogos are foating logos, way above in the sky, created of soap-based foam formulations.

An interesting idea that can surely be used in very smart ways. Excited to see where marketers will take it. I guess we will see, if weather permits.

The latest issue of Creativity Magazine features a replica of the ‘sticky-flags-to-bookmark-certain-pages-idea’ that I wrote about in April, when I gave kudos to Domino Magazine for introducing this engaging and fun tool.

For a magazine like Creativity, which is all about fresh ideas, it is rather sad to be recycling someone else’s idea. It is another great example of the ‘Me-Me-Me’ attitude of a lot of advertising creatives, and creatives in general, burying the lack of concept under a great pile of Wow-factor, even if it is an idea that is ‘borrowed’ from someone else, and even if it does not make half the sense in its new, adopted, environment.

Looking through the magazine’s special Awards edition, it sheds light onto why so much advertising does not make any sense anymore, although original in all sorts and forms. The center of the magazine has a chart detailing how many awards which agency, which Ad, which CD, et cetera has scored ‘this season’. This is the target audience, this is the market, this is what’s on the mind of Creative Directors out there. You, the consumer, definitely come second. (I wrote about the decline in Advertisings’ messaging a while back as well.)

On a positive side note, and to give Creativity some Kudos as well, the ‘Peel ‘n Taste’ experience I wrote about yesterday, see below, was featured in the very same issue of the magazine.

Domino Magazine, ‘the guide to living with style’, did something quite interesting in their current issue. An ad insert features sticker flags (think post it-flags) with different categories on it. It engages the readers to utilize their content as a shopping inspiration while leveraging their advertisers’ buys. On top of that it promotes their online registry and web site in general once the flag is removed. Quite a lot of marketing tasks fullfilled on one single page. And above all, it transforms a passive experience into an extremely engaging active experience. Bravo.

As I received an announcement of a dubious creative award show, the Dubai Lynx, I was surely intrigued enough to open the link. I found out that it is Dubai’s 1st International Advertising Festival and that the winners have just been announced, well, or in the few sections that actually did have winners. Needless to say I did not spend a long time looking over the winning entries, yet this outdoor campaign promoting ‘Natural Colors’ stood out to me. Yes it is strange to have gradient hair, but the concept of a dye-cut billboard surely deserves some attention.

Is it because the copywriter was not in touch with the folks in the art department? Most likely so. Either way it surely made me smile when I received it in the mail, and it might do the same for you, and that’s worth something.

Sure we all prefer Starbucks to McDonald’s drip coffee when we are at an airport. At home, many of us prefer to support local coffee shops instead, but why would one respond to the latest Starbucks campaign, MyStarbucksidea.com, asking to give Starbucks Corporate clever ideas on how to make them a better company. The incentive? You have a shot at seeing your idea being put to work. Not enough of an incentive, at least not for us. For Starbucks it might work, given the vast subscriber base, but would it be too much to ask for a couple of prize-incentives, like $100 Starbucks gift cards for the entries that are translated into the stores? Leaves a bad taste in my mouth, one of free labor.

I’ll keep going to get my good taste at the bean brewer next door instead, where I get free coffee for being loyal and I can tell the guy behind the counter if I have a great idea.