Take CP+B FearlessQA... Add Two Young Talents = An Attention Getting Idea. Brilliant!

Here's an idea. Without a question it's a smart, easy and simple concept... and successful in terms of getting attention, BRILLIANT! 

Introducing: The FearlessQA Drinking Game.
 
Every week for the past few months Alex Bogusky the Crispin Porter + Bogusky family have hosted a webcast called FearlessQA, part self indulgence and definitely one of the greatest teaching tools for me and great learning any "Student of Advertising" has access to (I have been lucky enough to have screened every episode "live" during lecture classes) and what's better than learning about advertising and communications then with Alex Bogusky, CP+B staff, and recently from outside partners in the advertising, design, publishing areas and even environmental activists.


I was sent a Twitter "following you" message from @FearLessQaholic at about 2:30pm EST on Tuesday March 2nd and was one of the first people they were following, by the time I was ready to post this article they now have 280+ followers and countless retweets of their original message.

At first there were a few Twitter followers who began asking questions about "who" and "what" was this about, I gather after the few bogus "Bogusky" websites, Twitter and Facebook accounts... was this a legitimate "follow". I guess if you add to that the magic of "Crispin" buzz, was this a new and unique way to get the agency press and following. I mean are there any better agents of "buzz" then CP+B.


The game and site are the master mind of a couple of young creatives from Dallas named Mark Bielik (copywriter) and James Hoke (Art Director). I sent the boys a few questions about the concept and will update with their responses.

Here's what Mark and James have defined the game and site as:

"... how about doing body shots off your coworkers as you learn a ton about advertising with bogusky and friends. We have always been a fan of FearlessQA  (and drinking), so it only seemed natural to put the two together. After weeks of work and thousands of slaughtered brain cells, the FearlessQA drinking game was born. 

They started to promote the game once the Twitter account went live and soon after they were followed by FearlessQA as well a hundred followers, a bunch of retweets and even a pat on the back from the man himself... @bogusky. 

On the The FearlessQA Drinking Game site they have listed various "reasons" to take a drink... everything from whether Rob Reilly or Andrew Keller are hanging in the background... if someone swears (I suggest maybe a double shot if someone other then Alex swears)... if a book is held up... and if Alex talks about his t-shirt. All elements a frequent viewer will understand.

Mark and James added, "hey, we work hard in advertising...our livers should be no exception".
Great work guys, I wish you all the success in the future and hope to update their story again... and again.


Should be fun... except my college has an "open bottle" policy on campus. Damn!

Bon Chance.

UPDATE: Hello Alex... Hire Me.

Hey, I wanted to update you on Chris Kahle. Remember he is the former Publicis Vancouver copywriter was asking Twitter users to contact Alex Bogusky in the hope of landing his dream gig at Crispin Porter + Bogusky.


This young and VERY talented creative from Vancouver who created a very interesting and unique effort to get Cripsin Porter + Bogusky attention.

As a point of interest, as of May 17th the Twitter effort has raised $48 for the James Lee Foundation (in memory of one Canada's great creative and inspired minds who tragically was taken from us almost 2 years ago) and $29 for MS Society (a personal charity of interest to me).

There has been some interesting back-and-forth on this effort.

Some kind... others not so kind.

From Denver Egoist:

Twitter Spammer

Here at The Egotist we applaud innovative, new methods creatives are using to crack into great agencies—especially if they’re finding a way to do it with new media, like Twitter. The tactic Canadian copywriter Chris Kahle has chosen, however, is just plain fuckin’ annoying. He’s got a campaign going asking the public to Tweet Bogusky and interactive CD Jeff Benjamin at CP+B with a message about hiring Kahle in their Boulder office. Same level of irritation as Viagra spam, dude. If you were betting, would you put money on him landing a job from it?

Comments:

steve · May 13, 09:03 AM

On the one hand, I don’t want to bug the CP+B guys. On the other hand, money to charity just for hitting cmd+c, cmd+v, return is pretty tempting.

Scott Fassett · May 13, 09:37 AM

as annoying as it may seem, aren’t you guys just giving his tweet thing some relevance by making a post about it. D’oh! I just helped his cause by writing a comment.

— Chris Mackintosh · May 14, 08:26 PM

The Egotist is claiming this is like getting Viagra emails or getting calls during dinner…. um, and I thought I was new to twitter. How many bunk tweets do you get a day? Tons. I only follow around 150 tweeps and I get plenty of junk coming across the tweetdeck. Big deal if I get an @ reply suggesting I hire someone. If I was in CP+B’s position, I’d look at this and think, what a creative way to try to stand out from other resumes. Depending on his book I’d say he’s got a good shot at getting hired

I gotta say when you got a portfolio that sings... well let it sing. His stuff is brilliant.

I love the Rolaids campaign... not even close to big love I have for the Titleist ad... and the Lotus Awards piece, well last year at the ADCC Awards took my breath away. Brilliant!!!

Check this Chris Kahle's portfolio out. It sings.

PS: I am sending my Tweets tonight.

http://www.thisischriskahle.com/

Hello Alex... Hire Me.

They say that desperate times call for desperate measures.

We've already seen one unemployed copywriter willing to bare all to grab attention in his quest for a job. We even had a desperate plea from a filmaker/creative wanting David Droga's attention... fail.

Now, a former Publicis Vancouver copywriter is imploring Twitter users to spam Alex Bogusky in the hope of landing his dream gig at Crispin Porter + Bogusky.

The basic idea: Chris Kahle will donate $1 to charity for the first 200 people who send Twitter messages to Bogusky urging him to hire Kahle.

The message is to include a link to Kahle's site, where he's penned a "Dear Alex" (and interactive creative director Jeff Benjamin) letter that says he can't shake a recent visit to the shop's Boulder, Colo., headquarters. "Where normally I'd be playing free-association drinking games by myself and inventing new words to rhyme with smegma, now I just think of you guys." Touching. I have no doubt he'll get dozens of people to pass on his message—several already have—but I'm not sure this is going to fly. For one thing, Bogusky has already said he doesn't read his Twitter replies. More important, this effort is enthusiastic but comes up a bit short in subtlety.

It's funny that ad people can see a new media vehicle and immediately leap to the idea that the best way to use it is to bombard someone with messages. Sadly, it was a reason Alex left twitter in the first place. Now he is back, or is he? Remember that recently Current's Jordan Kretchmer, whose TwitteRFP led some shops to carpet-bomb him.

Okay, now if I can only get Alex to extend me the first "CP+B 50 Year-Old Internship Program" I open to any ideas... send me your thoughts.

Copywriter Self-Promo That Works...

Here is a Self-Promo for copywriter Lawson Clarke that was sent to me by a recent grad Jett Landicho.

I tell my students when it comes to self-promo... “make sure it has impact, make it real, make it memorable, make it worth the time somebody will spend with it”. In this case it does. All around.

Lawson pays a fun retro homage to the Burt Reynolds Cosmo Centerfold from 1972. The work within his portfolio samples are great. I love the way the site interacts and informs... most of all it hides very little... in terms of talent.

Personally, I love the "Star Spangled Banner" as the site loads... my imagination ran wild looking for some sort of rising.

In 1972, Burt Reynolds shared a late-night talk show couch (in a totally non-sexual way) with Helen Gurley Brown, author of Sex and the Single Girl and editor of Cosmopolitan.

At some point in the evening, Brown challenged Reynolds to pose for a nude centerfold (shown above) in her magazine, and he agreed. Here is in all his bearskin glory, cigarillo barely held aloft by his smirking lips. Later he would write the whole thing off as a joke - and really, just look at it and there's no reason not to believe him - but he'd also write the entire period off as a blur.

Now it got my attention, I want to hear the response Lawson gets to the site. A female colleague asked if I found it a bit sexiest, you know "the girlie icons etc..."... I said get a grip lady.

Thanks Jett.

Thanks Lawson for letting it all hangout for us to see great work.

Take a visit: http://malecopywriter.com/

Dear Mr Droga and Others There is a Talent Pool

There is a vast talent pool of young and hungry creatives looking for a break. Some are more creative then others then there is...

Meet Sean Norman Stewart.

Is he some kind of film guy (I gather this from his website that doesn't really enlighten us with details)... comedian... copywriter... adguy... hmmmmm! (Note: AdGuy is a coveted title even if it's self-proclaimed)

Not really sure actually what he is, but like many a creative before him, Sean has decided that a video cover letter to an agency might land him a gig.

In this case, the agency in question is Droga5. Yes, the highly creative and cutting edge thinkers.

The 24-year old's video is heavy on the irony (cliche) and light on the substance. Sean rounds off his pitch with the promise that hiring him will "maximize your partner's pleasure in bed." Great, sexual innuendo Hmmmmm.... (see your lecture notes on that).

Sigh. Kids today... there's no reasoning with 'em.

Sean? I wish you luck, dude. Totally.

Check out Sean's website.