If you’re in the retail game, Q4 is a game changing quarter. It’s also when the competition to garner eyeballs is the toughest. This campaign by JCPenny is my far the most brilliant one yet! Check it out.

Every once in awhile, marketers beautifully combine the medium’s location with creative to create brilliant advertising. The below billboard is one that sits outside the Las Vegas airport as you’re leaving the parking garage. It’s one of my favorite.

As I like to say, every time I return to Vegas Steve is always the first to greet me. It’s a good feeling. Amazingly, these two words and one signature pull on my heart strings more than any other billboard in the city.

Kudos Wynn.

I love the letter B. When I babysat, and the kids were learning the alphabet, every time we got to the letter B, I would stop, jump up, put my hands above my head and shout, “B is for Brandie.” The kids would giggle and join in the fun. I’m pretty sure that to this day all the kids I babysat for still say that whenever they come across the letter B

With my love for the letter B, I’m always on the lookout for giant ones whenever I am out or traveling. Surprisingly, I always manage to find one.

Although I posted this one to all my other social networks, I’m posting it here too because it’s my absolute favorite. I mean, how can it not be? There’s even B’s in the woman’s skirt! The logo is from a store called Beckley Boutique located in The Cosmopolitan hotel. Sadly, I’m not a fan of much in the store, but I wish I was! I also wish I had thought of this logo before them! I want to use it for my stuff!

While in San Diego, I walked by a very strange looking billboard during the day. An advertisement for Newcastle, the billboard had a tagline and then a ton of what looked like randomly placed bottle caps. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what shape or pattern these bottle caps made. After a few moments, we shrugged our shoulders and kept walking.

Luckily, we passed the billboard again at night. This time, the experience was different. This time, the bottle caps helped to create the shadow of a man reaching for the pint of Newcastle. Very cool. This time, we also noticed a small plaque below the billboard. On the plaque were directions to view the billboard at night. In addition, it contained a QR code to learn more about the making of the billboard, etc.

While the campaign was cool, there were two issues. First, both myself and friend never noticed this plaque during the day. It’s also too small to notice unless you were walking directly by the billboard vs. the other side of the street or driving. But, the worst offender? The QR code. While in theory, great. However, it wasn’t scannable!?!?! I’m not sure if it was because it was too far away (the plaque was offset from the sidewalk behind a fence), if my scanner just wasn’t working or if it really didn’t scan. Luckily, the plaque also contained a URL to (what I assume) was the same content behind the QR code.

The other piece? Besides me, in the fifteen minutes we hung out and watched people stop to check out the billboard, not a single person pulled out their phone to scan the QR code. Maybe they didn’t notice it. Maybe it was a hassle. Or maybe they just didn’t care. Either way, the piece was a great execution in Out-of-Home advertising, but fell a tad short in the digital arena.

I love this campaign from Dentyne. It’s simple, yet profound. If you think about how emotions are being “digitized” these days, this campaign is a good reminder of the “analog” goodness being left behind. Even with all our technological advances and upcoming innovations, nothing will ever compare to spending time with someone face to face.

Wow. I heard this song for the first time today and it struck me like an anvil to the heart.

Love is a crazy thing. It’s what drives us all, at least, it’s what drives me. From swimming to where I live to what I want to do with my life, love is the driving force behind it all. Ironically, it’s a driving force that is both “poison and wine.” With my acid reflux, it’s doubly ironic, because wine really does act like a poison.

There’s someone (or something) in all of our lives that we “don’t love.” But, in reality, no matter how hard we think we don’t or won’t, we always will.

Song Lyrics:

You only know what I want you to
I know everything you don’t want me to
Oh your mouth is poison, your mouth is wine
Oh you think your dreams are the same as mine
Oh I don’t love you but I always will
Oh I don’t love you but I always will
Oh I don’t love you but I always will
I always will

I wish you’d hold me when I turn my back
The less I give the more I get back
Oh your hands can heal, your hands can bruise
I don’t have a choice but I still choose you
Oh I don’t love you but I always will
Oh I don’t love you but I always will
Oh I don’t love you but I always will
Oh I don’t love you but I always will
Oh I don’t love you but I always will
Oh I don’t love you but I always will
Oh I don’t love you but I always will
I always will
I always will
I always will
I always will
I always will

The back story to the song as told by the artist:

Poison & Wine is a musical snapshot about the dichotomy of love – that while it can be the thing that destroys you, it can also be the very same thing that beckons and builds you. JP and I are both married have been for several years now – and we got to talking one day about what a tug and pull our individual relationships can be. The longer you know someone – and the longer you allow someone to know you – the more the light and shadows inside each person become more vivid. This song was our attempt at being as brutally honest about the dangerous and beautiful process of knowing and being known. (-Joy Williams, The Civil Wars)

I’ve watched this video about 20 times in the last two days and yes, I tear up every time… I’m such a sap It’s a brilliant commercial by Google. But, the underlying message is even cooler – technology has the ability to make your real world experiences not only better but it allows you to share them with whomever, whenever. In essence, it fundamentally changes how people think of the Internet. While, Chrome/Google isn’t the Internet, I’m sure they won’t mind people thinking they’re synonymous with it.

The web really is what you make it.