How Many Cognitive Anthropologists Does It Take To Make A TV Spot?

I know, I know... I'm supposed to be on blog sabbatical. But I came across this and it's just too good to pass up.

CP+B just broke 2 new TV spots for Applebee's. This post is not about the spots. It's about the credits for the spots. Apparently it took more people to create this thing than Gone With The Wind. Below are the credits for the two spots. (If you think I'm making this up, here's the proof.)

• Worldwide Chief Creative Officer: Rob Reilly
• VPs, Executive Creative Directors: Steve Babcock, Mark Taylor
• VP, Creative Director: Allen Richardson
• Creative Directors: Dave Swartz, Scott MacGregor
• Associate Creative Directors: Rich Ford, Brandt Lewis
• Senior Art Director: David Gonsalves
• Integrated Head of Video: Chad Hopenwasser
• Senior Integrated Producer: Aaron Kovan
• Integrated Producer: Annie Turlay
• Food Shoot Production Company: MJZ
• Food Shoot Director: Irv Blitz
• Executive Producer: Franny Freiberger
• Production Supervisor: Sabrina Mossberg
• Live-Action Production Company: Moxie Pictures
• Live-Action Director: Jared Hess
• Executive Producers: Robert Fernandez, Lizzie Schwartz
• Head of Production, Producer: Roger Zorovich
• Line Producer: Laura Heflin
• Director of Photography: Dariusz Wolskio
• Postproduction: Plus Productions
• VP, Executive Producer: Idalia Deshon
• Integrated Producer: Andrea Krichevsky
• Editor: Logan Hefflefinger
• Assistant Editors: Chancler Haynes, Chadwick Schultz
• VFX Artist: Adam Nix
• Finishing Company: Method Studios
• Executive Producer: Robert Owens
• Music Company: JSM
• Executive Integrated Music Producer: Bill Meadows
• Composers, Arrangers: Joel Simon, Jordan Lieb
• Sound Design, Mix Company: Lime Studios
• Sound Designer: Sam Casas
• Assistant Sound Designer: Matthew Miller
• Animation Company: Buck
• Visual Effects Company: Method Studios
• Visual Effects Editor: Claus Hansen
• Assistant Visual Effects Editor: Krysten Richardson
• Visual Effects Producer: Colin Clarry
• EVP, Group Account Director: Danielle Whalen
• VP, Account Director: Scott Sibley
• Content Management Supervisor: Ted Morse
• Content Supervisor: Greg Paige
• Content Manager: Derek Effinger
• Assistant Content Manager: Alex Kirk
• Business Affairs: Lisa Gillies
• Talent Consultant: Michelle Thompson
• Cognitive Anthropologists: Andrew Teagle, Kaylin Goldstein, Amelia Hall
• Traffic Manager: Megan O'Rourke

The gig had seven Creative Directors and four Content Managers. Hard to see how they scraped by with only three Cognitive Anthropologists.

The 5th Anniversary Edition

Today marks the 5th anniversary of The Ad Contrarian.

Against all odds, the blog is still alive, readership is still growing, and it hasn't cost me any accounts. All this is very gratifying.

I am rewarding myself with a sabbatical. I'm going to take the month of July off and I'll be back in August.

For all the blogoholics out there, I'll be posting stuff from years past that I think is either still relevant or entertaining.

Have a good July and I'll see you sometime in August.

Sidewalk Psychology And The Z-Man

There was an interesting piece in Ad Age the other day about people exhausting their ability to pay attention to all the nonsense on Facebook.

Zuckerberg predicted a few years ago that each year the amount of stuff each of us would post on line would double. Apparently this is called Zuckerberg's Law. The writer believes that in this prediction lies the downfall of the Facebook empire. He believes that we can't handle a doubling of useless information and at some point the signal-to-noise ratio will become unsustainable.

Whether this is true or not, I have no idea. I would like to think that the author is correct. But I have to say I have been powerfully impressed by the average person's capacity to consume moronic crap.

The author says...

"How is it that Mark Zuckerberg, obviously a smart fellow, cannot... be aware of the limits of consumer cognition and human attention spans? How could a guy so brilliant not understand that his increasingly overshare-y Facebook is diminishing our collective capacity to focus on the stuff we really might care about in social media, let alone advertising messages?"

The part about advertising messages is the part I'm interested in. Here's the thing. I don't think Zuckerberg gives a shit about advertising messages.

I think he has people around him who do; I know he has shareholders who do; and I'm positive he has clients who do. But I think he could care less.

I don't think he gives a moment's thought to the effectiveness of advertising on Facebook, except insofar as it might interfere with the user experience.

The idea that somehow Zuckerberg sees Facebook as an advertising medium, and that he factors the needs of advertisers into his decisions seems delusional to me. I have never met the man and I am certainly no expert on his personality, but everything I've seen tells me that on his list of top 10 things he wants Facebook to be good for, advertising is number 11.