Client: Ziff-Davis Publishing Co., New York
Agency: Partners & Simons, Boston
Creative Director/Copywriter: Jeff Billig
Art Directors: Don Easdon, Tom Simons
Photographer: John Huet
Former Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos art director Don Easdon helped create the eye-catching look of PC Magazine’s new business-to-business print campaign by Partners & Simons. In one ad, copies of the publication soar above a deserted beach awash in moody blue light. Another execution shows the magazine being “absorbed” into a person’s head. The copy reads, “If you’d like your ad seen and read, consider that nearly 7 million people get into each issue. And each subscriber stays there for about 3-1/2 hours.”
“[The campaign is] something the magazine needed to revitalize itself . . . with buyers,” said Easdon, who first rose to fame in the 1980s for his work on a Wang Laboratories campaign, one of the first mainstream ad efforts for high technology on a national scale. Easdon has freelanced at Partners & Simons for the past few months.
Appearing through year’s end in Adweek and Advertising Age, the campaign portrays PC Magazine as “a big, important business magazine,” said creative director Jeff Billig. The stylized art direction attempts to “take it beyond the trade technology feel [and] make it more like a branding tool, not just a tactical book,” Billig added. -David Gianatasio
Client: Dunkin’ Donuts, Randolph, Mass.
Agency: Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer/Euro RSCG, New York
Creative Director: Ron Berger
Art Director: Raul Pina
Copywriter: Bill Lawrie
Producer: Sherry Lubbers
Directors: Matthew Brady, Jay Wesley Jones
Having bid adieu to pitchman Fred the Baker, Dunkin’ Donuts has broken a series of richly shot TV commercials in which the product is the star. The spots sport the tagline, “Something fresh is always brewin’ here,” and promote the quality of the chain’s coffee, doughnuts and new Dunkin’ Danish. “With the retirement of Fred, we wanted to assure the customer that we will continue to focus on the high-quality, fresh products that have built the brand,” said Eddie Binder, vice president of marketing at the company. “At the same time, we want to present a new, more relevant Dunkin’ Donuts.” The total spot TV buy was estimated by the client at $8-10 million. A radio component is running concurrently. -Judy Warner
The spots will be tagged, according to market, with specific product offers.
Client: Advanced Micro Devices, Sunnyvale, Calif.
Agency: Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, Boston
Group Creative Directors: Mike Sheehan, Dave Gardiner
Art Director: Tim Foley
Copywriter: Marty Donohue
Producer: Scott Hainlain
Director: Sam Bayer
Consider the last TV commercial made by Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos for Advanced Micro Devices: a cliff-hanging, 60-second drama that features a harried worker trying to download a report to his demanding boss and escape before a tractor trailer plows through the street-level office. The challenge was to create an ad that was bigger and better than the original. Among the suggestions, according to Hill, Holliday’s Tim Foley and Marty Donohue, was a follow-up spot that features the harried worker and the overbearing boss. Instead, AMD bought a 60-second, James Bond-inspired ad titled “Diabolic,” which shows a villain plotting world domination. The plan goes awry, however, when his computer slows down. Even his soldiers lose respect for him as the good guy and gal destroy the evil empire by using a computer powered by the new AMD chip.
The ad promotes the client’s newest microprocessor, the K6 MMX, and targets PC-buying consumers. The media buy, in markets with a concentration of Fortune 500 companies, includes prime-time, local news, sports and business programs.
-Judy Warner
