Beyond Urban Branding

One of the true queens of fashion has passed. VOGUE: O ne of the five formidable Fendi sisters (Paola, Anna, Franca, Carla and Alda), who inherited  their family's fashion house  - has died in Rome, aged 79. FULL STORY  Many people forget that the Fendi brand permeated Hip-Hop heavily in its formative years. Rap  icons EPMD had a dancer named FENDI.... A lot of people forget that in the early rap days, a lot of rappers were teamed with dancers, and DJ's as crews to help get the party going. Fendi was a Hip-Hop dance pioneer. He was not a bboy. I am not a dance historian but his moves seemed to be a blend of strutting, locking and a little vogue dancing. Here is a slightly grainy clip FENDI DANCING

Great new Gatorade Ad using 93 Til Infinity classic by Souls of Mischief. I was truly happy to see this ad. Anyone who was a part of Hip-Hop in the 90's totally loved 93 Til by the groundbreaking Souls of  Mischief crew from Oakland.  WATCH  Original 93 Til Video  Now, super real crate diggers (people who study the root samples of Hip-Hop classics) might wonder, where did Souls get the beat from. Well, here it is Billy Cobhams Heather .  The reason ads like this work is because it get adults who grew up on Hip-Hop as well as old school jazz heads who appreciate the stylings of real keyboard players.  I wonder who got the check? Souls or Cobham ot did they split it. I gotta call Tajai from Souls. I'mma try to get an interview. 

E-40 has always been a giant in my heart. I'm from The Bay Area. But it has taken time for people to acclimate to his level. Now he is seen as a futuristic mogul OUTSIDE of Hip-Hop. In his latest genius move, Drive Time Credit Company uses his classic Choices and re-raps the lyrics. This one caught me off guard and I was happy surprised. Original E-40 Song Choices 

Anyone who travels a lot may have heard these words "Flight ABC is overbooked. We are offering a $$$ for anyone willing to give up their flight and book on a later flight". Typically this announcement is done while we are all waiting to board our flight, usually people just either look at the ground and ignore the request or others look around at each other to see who is going to jump at the offer. Usually there is someone who can afford to miss their flight, but it is rare to see someone jump up and take the first offer. The airlines often have to sweeten the pot to get someone to accept being bumped and flying out later. So I guess my opening helps point out what the first mistake made by United Airlines was on the ill-fated day when a paying customer was beaten and drag off the plane . For those of you who do not know what happened, let me sum it up. The week of April 10th United Airlines employees assisted passengers as they boarded the plane. Passengers played the ove...

First off, let me just say, I know this Sony ad is old and people do not understand why so many people are talking about it now. But the reality is when Pepsi went and did that Kendal Jenner ad, it opened the flood gates for people to start reminding the world of other companies major ad flops that impact race relations. For those who may have forgotten the ad, here it is a European looking person grabbing the face of a Black person as if to dominate. The tag line clearly sends the message "Look out Black, White is Coming". So that leads me to say "WHAT THE *@$!" How can an ad like this be forgotten? If you know anything about advertisements, then you know that this ad had to get the green light from multiple people. That means that there are multiple people at Sony who need race relation training. Now because this ad is a bit old, I am not going to sit around and break down all that is clearly wrong with it. I just wanted to take a moment and answer the q...

Often people ask us "What exactly is an Urban Shopper? How do you define an Urban Shopper". Truth is, that is a great question with about a million different answers depending on who you ask, Sure we can go with the traditional marketing dictionary definition of an Urban Community being a city or town where the community is often crowded with buildings, houses and people. People are often living very close to each other, streets are busy and the community landscape varies depending on state & city. Again, you ask many leaders in the marketing, social media world and many of them will have a different view of what is an "Urban Shopper". But for the sake of this article, our Urban shopper happens to be African American. Many of you have heard that song - the CLEAN version of Trillville song where they lyrics go "I'll follow that thing in the mall"....For some, these lyrics are flattering, being followed in the mall by a good looking guy or gal who ...

Not mad at the ad, but it was kinda soft. Could have been more than this. Nice try though.

Wow!! I love this trailer. I want this game. NOW!!

Billy Johnson Jr. : Usher is working on what will likely be the biggest video of his career. As part of a Pepsi Challenge campaign that kicks off Tuesday, the singer will incorporate his fans in the project in two different ways. Beginning Tuesday through June 2, fans can submit photos of themselves to  PepsiChallenge.com . Usher will select a winner who will have the opportunity to meet him on the set of his accompanying short film to be released this fall. Usher asks entrants to, “Show me your world through your eyes in only a way that you can see it. The realer, the better. The more honest, the more creative.” Read full story

Is Jay Z going to hit his mark with Tidal? NBC 11's Scott Budman checks in with Adisa Banjoko on the Bishop Chronicles Podcast to cover that, VC funding and diversity in the Silicon Valley. LISTEN NOW: www.bishopchronicles.com (be sure to subscribe on iTunes)

Pharell Williams created a storm of controversy. I mean a few hours into the Grammy's it had its own Twitter account. While, I thought some of the ribbing was cute on the surface, what almost the entire planet missed was that his hat, was originally sported by Malcolm McLaren. Malcolm McLaren was an innovator of fashion, hip-hop and punk rock. EXHIBIT A: VIDEO WHERE MALCOLM ROCKS THE SAME HAT: BUFFALO GALS  Malcolm McLaren really touched my life. His album with the World Famous Supreme Team changed my life. Almost as much as Public Enemy's It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. It was more than Hip-Hop, it was defiantly African and, Latin and even a little rock and country. When I was invited to be part of the book The Boombox Project , part of my hope was that I could share Malcolm McLarens impact on my life directly to him. Sadly he passed before the book was released. Much respect to Pharell.

"My Limo" by Da Rich Kidzz K Mart really did a good thing. When I was a kid, they used to tease you by saying your clothes came from K Mart. So K Mart flipped the strategy, reframed ads around good clothes at a good price and HIT BIG with these ads. I love them all. Not just because they used all kinds of kids, but they let a Black girl with dark skin have a prominent role in the ad. Thats huge.  The sad thing is, a lot of super racist and bad comments flooded the youtube channel. Reminds you that everybody is not ready for diversity. But we are, and thats what matters. Great strategy, well executed....one of my favorite ad campaigns of the year. 

So powerful, this is it. This is why we get up, this is why we eat good, this is why we train, this is why we dream big. This is why we fight so hard on the field. I love this add!!!

This is so great. I have the original poster from the first Run DMC shoes.

This is easily my favorite Jay Z song. It is so powerful. As big as he ism I feel many of his more recent fans do not understand the depth of his lyricism and ability. Budweiser made a great choice in choosing him. Nobody in rap is as big ass Jay Z right now. Everything connected to him is winning. There is no better artist to be associate with. This ad is done crisp and clean. Nothing super flashy, just the feeling of almost being there...Feeling like you are a part of it...Solid....Somebody asked me if I think anybody will buy what he drinks cause of this ad. The answer, is YES! Here is the original version:

I know a lot about this trend. I was a teenager when it was unfolding. This was an amazing time. The cross-cultural dynamic of football and Hip-Hop has never been the same.

John Travolta in a Brazilian rum ad.

Resse's has been sticking with the urban feel for their commercials for a few years now. It must be working. The interesting thing is that they do small things to attract parents and kids to the brand. Its very subtle, but effective. They are sure to use kids of various races, so nobody feels left out. They always use an uptempo rap that chants the letters of the brand in creative ways. These guys pay attention. This one has a bit of a reto feel. All the haircuts are from the 80's. I suspect thats done to attract parents while the music and the editing and the cuts are meant for kids. Well played, Mr. Reese....well played.

One of the many songs where Nas mentions Hennessy. His shout outs to the brand go back to songs like Memory Lane which dropped on Illmatic on April 19th 1994. The connection between Hennessy and Hip-Hop is so old its hard to say what rap record shouted it out first (I will look into that). But since it did, man, nobody ever looked back. I feel deeply conlficted because on one hand alcohol abuse is so rapant in urban communities. On the other it is impressive to see somone like Nas, who truly started from the bottom get the attention of brands like Hennessy and see them acknowledge his role in the growth of their brand. Keep in mind, many MANY brands have gotten huge jumps in brand awareness, positioning, penetration, retention etc. from rappers loving their products they they NEVER batted an eye. I know this sounds silly, but, I'm happy for both of them.

This is easily one of my favorite ads of the year. It was written as cast brilliantly. Nothing more painful than to see a great actor with a bad script. The only thing worse is a great script, with a bad actor. I digress. This ad is fantastic. It plays of of the well known "book club" myth so many suburban moms use to get away from all the insanity that is motherhood. To see the kid play on that and flip it was masterfully done.