Posted 8:01 PM by Gene

If it's Sunday it must be Big Double-A-Scribble Time:

1. We try not to wish ill on people but given that an ad agency is in the middle of two big stinks makes us grin. First, Burger King: obviously the people there thought that if we insult our customers hard enough that will result in glowing profiles in AdAge and The Paper of Re-CORD! Alas "six quarters of declining sales" gave it the heave ho; its advertising was SO bad even a CRAINIAC couldn't defend it. Second is -- I'm tired of hearing about it too -- the MASS COUPON COMPANY. You'd think that CEO would have been happy enough screaming, "I WAS AT THE SUPER BOWL AND YOU WEREN'T!!!!!" But he seems to have been so embarrassed by his deluxe seating he's taken to blasting this agency. Ultimately the fault for bad ads rests with the executives who use them as an excuse to schmooze in Hollywood, and lord it over their inferiors.

2. The unspoken implication in this story about how Diet Pepsi fell behind Coke is that Indra, America's most PC CEO, was responsible. She could hardly have not been, after the Pepsi-logo laughs, the Tropicana redesign botch, the Gatorate goof -- but she will NOT lose HER job because she has so exceptionally insinuated herself into American business that it would seem un-PC to fire her.