Out to Launch
Thursday, August 8, 2002
Every week new ad campaigns and websites are launched, and it’s hard to keep up with them all. This week Coca-Cola's “For Everyone” debuted during the hit Fox TV show, American Idol, a real-life Ronald MacDonald touted Jack in the Box’s new burger as “delicious,” and Verizon Wireless transformed the Beatles song, “All Together Now” into a new jingle. Find out about these campaigns and others you may have missed in this week’s edition of Out to Launch!
  • Every week new ad campaigns and websites are launched, and it’s hard to keep up with them all. This week Coca-Cola's “For Everyone” debuted during the hit Fox TV show, American Idol, a real-life Ronald MacDonald touted Jack in the Box’s new burger as “delicious,” and Verizon Wireless transformed the Beatles song, “All Together Now” into a new jingle. Find out about these campaigns and others you may have missed in this week’s edition of Out to Launch!

    The Coca-Cola company broke a new ad this week, entitled "For Everyone" during Tuesday's episode of the Coke-sponsored hit summer reality series, American Idol on Fox. The spot was created by McCann-Erickson, New York and inspired by a Coke commercial that ran earlier this year in Argentina. It combines more than 30 quick cuts of Coca-Cola packaging and iconography with summer and refreshment-themed messaging. Coca-Cola says the campaign symbolizes the strength of the company's global marketing system.

    Ronald MacDonald speaking out on behalf of Jack in the Box? Yep, Jack in the Box will use testimonial ads featuring a real-life person named Ronald MacDonald in the launch of a quality-improvement program dubbed "Our Best Burgers Ever." The effort is backed by a new menu, new packaging, and an ad campaign created by Secret Weapon Marketing in Santa Monica, CA. The No. 4 burger chain will begin selling three combo sizes with larger drinks and taquitos as part of a sharper focus on new product development.

    Nike's Jordan brand will soon break a new fall campaign, created by Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Ore. The ads will feature Team Jordan athletes, including Derek Jeter, Mike Bibby and Donovan McNabb. The campaign, entitled "Love," is centered on the love of sport, community and teammates. The ads will include outdoor postings in New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Philadelphia and will be followed by ads in September publications of Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Vibe and Slam.

    TV is set to run during sports programming including NFL games. The effort will peak around the Feb. 2003 NBA All-Star Game with the introduction of a new Air Jordan shoe.

    A/X Armani Exchange puts a new spin on the upcoming fashion season with its fall campaign, "Dancespace," which launches nationwide in September publications of Allure, Details, ELLE, InStyle, Interview, Jane, Lucky, Marie Claire, Maxim and Paper, among others. As fashionable young couples wearing Armani get down to the music at the Roxy nightclub in New York, special lighting captures details of the clothing and customized accessories. The campaign was shot by Maz Vadukul.

    7-Eleven, Pepsi's Mountain Dew and ESPN are teaming up for a promotion to support X Games VIII, which will be held Aug. 15-19 in Philadelphia. Participating 7-Eleven stores will offer collectible 40-ounce Slurpee cups and a 34-ounce refillable Slurpee mugs featuring top athletes competing in the 2002 games. Slurpee flavors being promoted during August are Mountain Dew and Mountain Dew Blue Shock. Extreme athletes featured include freestyle motocross driver Carey Hart, wakeboarder Tara Hamilton, skateboarder Mike Frazier, and BMX pros T.J. Lavin, Colin Mackay and Allan Cooke. Lavin and Cooke will also appear in Slurpee TV spots, created by Omnicom Group's GSD&M in Austin, Texas, to run on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC during the Games.

    Angostura rum has tapped Pedone & Partners in New York to repackage and promote its line of high-end rums. New packaging for the line of five rums includes a merman filched from the lore of the brand's Trinidad and Tobago roots. Three ad creatives were developed. One execution, for Angostura's 1824 rum reads: "Aged 12 years, not to be mixed. Quite comfortable alone." Another execution, for Angostura's 1919 rum, asks consumers to look for the 19's hidden within the creative.

    The 1968 Beatles song "All Together Now" has been transformed into an ad jingle. On Tuesday, Verizon launched a TV, radio and direct mail effort with the help of Draft Worldwide in New York, to tout "Veriations All" -- a package that includes all of Verizon's products and services at a discount and on one bill. The campaign coincides with the release of Veriations, which includes local, long distance, DSL and wireless on one bill. TV consists of 30- and 60-second spots, one of which will feature pitchman James Earl Jones. The campaign will run through October.

    The first four commercials of Virgin Mobile USA’s new advertising campaign premiered last Friday on MTV, MTV2 and VH1. The campaign, created by the San Francisco office of Leagas Delaney, consists of four 60-second commercials, including "Art Class," "Cheese Sandwich," "Fantasy Party" and "Maze." "Cheese Sandwich" showcases a prospective cell phone customer who is asked to choose between a common cellular service and Virgin Mobile. Using a cheese sandwich as a metaphor for the typical cellular offering, the prospective customer is tricked by a confusing sales representative into taking a bite, and is then told that she has to pay for the entire sandwich along with a load of other hidden charges. Exasperated by this experience, she runs away and walks into a Virgin Mobile retail location, where she enjoys tasty "pay-by-the-bite" pancakes while talking with a helpful sales rep - a direct reference to Virgin's pay-as-you-go service.

    Sony Ericsson’s first U.S. campaign combines guerrilla marketing with out-of-home, an approach that “gives the brand maximum bang for its $5 million outlay,” according to Marketing Director Jon Maron. The guerrilla campaign, per New York-based Merkley Newman Harty’s Interference includes "phone-y" tourists asking New Yorkers to take their picture with the T68i mobile phone/camera. Outdoor also focuses on the model with feature-specific headlines like "Screen calls the superficial way, by face" (for its video screen) and "See someone you like, save them for later" (for data-entry functions).

    The non-profit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has launched a provocative new campaign about the potential medical and legal risks of high-protein diets. A consumer ad, "Got a Beef with the Atkins Diet?" debuted on Yahoo! on Monday, August 5. An ad targeting primary care physicians with the headline "Could Prescribing a High-Protein Diet Put You at Legal Risk?" will debut next week on The Journal of Family Practice's website. Additional placements will follow. Both ads can be viewed now at the campaign's site.

    A new public service campaign will ask viewers to "imagine the power of one voice" as it seeks to combat racial injustice. The campaign begins this week under the sponsorship of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (model pictured), which is being built in Cincinnati. Created by Leo Burnett USA, a unit of the Bcom3 Group, and distributed by the Advertising Council, the campaign consists of three TV spots depicting different situations in which an individual speaks out against racial prejudice.

    Corrections: In last week's edition of Out to Launch, we erroneously reported that the Old Navy's Rugby Shirt campaign was created with the involvement of Boston-based ad agency Modernista. The agency is no longer involved with Gap, and is in no way associated with the Old Navy spots. The campaign was created by Old Navy's in-house creative unit and Dennis Leggett, VP/Creative Director, and directed by Matthew Rolston. We sincerely apologize for any confusion.

    Also, the illustrations for Wrangler's "Five Star Premium Denim" men's collection campaign were actually pictures featuring the Wrangler Western Cowboy Cut jeans which Two by Four, Inc., Chicago, IL, is the agency of record.

    -- This newsletter is compiled weekly by MediaPost staff writer Lindsey Fadner. Past issues are archived at the MediaPost website. Your comments, questions and submissions are always welcome and appreciated.