Beyond Urban Branding

Another wack Mickey D ad Whats wrong with McDonalds? Seriously, what are they thinking. Am I supposed to see this guy freestyling with a mic in the back seat while old folks head-nod to the beat is cool? There is no context...Is he in a taxi? Why does he have a mic? Wheres the DJ? I really thought this ad lacked a lot of creativity. I also think Mickey D's make a lot of dry ads directed at the African-American/Hip-Hop community. They really need to get out of the "Different World" TV show vibe and step up their ad game. This Def Poetry meets car freestylin' with old folks is wick-wick-wack! -Beyond Urban Branding beyondurban@gmail.com

Someone needs to call the executives at Taco Bell and tell them to get their money back from whatever agency did this "Box Rocks" ad. This Charles Barkley meets Dr. Seuss really sucked. I mean, CB is walkin' real slow, like he's injured. I'm not even sure he memorized the words. His delivery sucked. The rhyme sucked. It sounded so forced. I like Taco Bell and I might not eat it now, just 'cause I'm reminded of this horrible ad. OK, back to Tech Week. -Beyond Urban Branding beyondurban@gmail.com

This ad is amazing. Not in a good way. I'm amazed that it was made. I lost count of the stereotypes shown in this Metro PCS commercial. Who is this ad intended for? Are people from India supposed to be inspired to get on the Metro PCS bandwagon? C'mon son. So its not creative. Its culturally insensitive. We've got poor messaging. Add that together and you get a big fat FAIL. -Beyond Urban Branding beyondurban@gmail.com

Boost normally does solid ads when it comes to Hip-Hop. This however was just average. It actually kinda sucked. Why does it suck? Two words, Mickey Avalon. When the ad opens up you get a bangin' beat by Jermaine Dupri, he flows a bit. Then you see Young Jeezy flow (who was just coming up so it made him look extra large). Then they force fed Mickey Avalon into the ad and it was just funny. Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-Mickey. I'm just anti-Mickey in this ad. He is not connected to the Hip-Hop demographic. To close the ad with an outta place White guy just so you don't make your ad "too Black" is never a good mood. Not to mention there are so many White rappers and athletes that could have been used. We're not even going to mention Eminem ('cause its so obvious). But I'm thinking Ill Bill, Cage, MC Serch, Okwerdz, Copywrite, Everlast, Slaine- I could go on. The "urban" lifestyle lover, can see far beyond race. But you can't pla...

Simply stated, this ad sucks from top to bottom. I have no idea what executives at Taco Bell were thinking when they gave the green light to this ad. Here you have two White guys, dressed super goofy trying to rap their order. One guys beatboxing horribly (making rap beats with his mouth). The rap sucks. Its not even funny. Unless White guys rapping is funny. This does not appeal to lovers of rap. It does not appeal to lovers of comedy. It was poorly shot from front to back and whoever wrote the ad, should have known better. For those that don't know about beatboxing, here is what it looks like when its done right. Nobody out there can convince me that if you teamed a guy like this up with some quality writers, that Taco Bell could could not have done a much better job. What is the moral of the story kids? Take your brand and your demographic seriously when you use Hip-Hop in your ads. I'm sure this will come up again. -Beyond Urban Branding beyondurban@gmail.com

When DJ Hero was announced, I was juiced. But when this ad dropped, I lost bout 50% of my interest. A few posts back I talked about the importance of sometimes just letting an artist do their thing and letting your brand ride the wave. More often than not though, you can't afford to do that. I think ipod squandered an ad with Eminem like that once before. But this ad, it was just mediocre. I felt no connection to the DJ guy, the rappers or the artists (both of whom I really like). I think to tighten things up, they should have not gone the mashup route. They should have went with the "How could Guitar get better?" Then actually using a DJ for the first ad?? (hows that for original?). But alas, I'm sure the creative team asked the question "But WHICH DJ?". Fair question. Here is the answer: DJ QBERT, MixMaster Mike, DJ Kid Dragon, DJ Whoo Kid, DJ Kid Kapri, DJ King Tech- Mike Relm...I could go on...all day actually. But I won't. DJ Hero went out of their...

I knew when Old Spice dropped these ads, they would fail. I knew they would suck. The first issue is, the brand is Old Spice . The most obvious angle to me would be to frame LL Cool J the old school rap star as an old school artist who uses old school/traditional deodorant. The theme should have been on keeping tradition...Instead they tried to make something old (the positioning of the brand) mix with something new ("swagger") a new school term. They should have either went straight old school, or went with the new rapper like Souljah Boy or Plies (Lord knows he could use some deodorant) and pushed for a completely youth angle. They weakly mixed old and new and came up empty. I dont even know if they sell "swagger" anymore. Not sure I care either. For the record, I dont know ONE person who liked the ads, or bought Old Spice because of these ads. Anyway here it is: -Beyond Urban Branding P.S. I think using names like "swagger", "hyphy" (and i ...