That's more than watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

There is no way of knowing how many independents and Republicans watched. But it's worth noting that John Kerry received 59 million votes in 2004.

Now, this is the kind of marketing one-upmanship I like to see.

It is tradition for General Mills' Wheaties to put the athlete of the moment on its box. Heck, it's almost a right of passage for the best athletes who are known to put the framed Wheaties box amongst their trophies.

But Kellogg swooped in and signed Olympic hero Michael Phelps to emblazon his Gold Medal body on boxes of Corn Flakes and Frosted Flakes.

Wheaties put Phelps on a box back in 2004. But, clearly, this is the bigger year.

Wheaties this year signed Gold Medal gymnast Nastia (that's a tough first name for a kid to grow up with) Liukin and decathlete Brian Clay.

I thought I was the only one doing this, but last night on Jay Leno, comedian Bill Maher said he liked to toggle between MSNBC and Fox after a speech to compare the commentary.

At MSNBC, host Keith Olbermann was all sports analogies about how Senator Clinton had hit it out of the park. After Michele Obama’s speech, Olbermann said her speech was “pitch perfect.” Over at Fox, Fred Barnes, Bill Kristol and Fortune’s Nina Easton wouldn’t give the Democratic speakers a half a break, focusing almost entirely on Hillary Clinton not talking more personally about Obama, or specifically endorsing him as a commander-in-chief.

As a frequent watcher of MSNBC and Olbermann, I can’t recall the last time Olbermann had a negative riff about Obama or any of his staff. His tirades, often entertaining, have long been entirely directed at President Bush, Hillary Clinton and John McCain.

Chris Matthews clearly misses his old friend Tim Russert. Matthews and Olbermann not only have no chemistry, but it is pretty clear they’d both rather be hosting with Russert, or with anyone else.

Check this exchange:

I have e-mails into MSNBC spokespeople to ask a few questions about their policy on running campaign ads within news programming if there are no real ad buys behind them (thus, making them video-press release), as well as a question about whether Olbermann should be made to go public and direct about his candidate preferences this election. No answer on either question yet.

It is odd, since MSNBC guest and new host of her own show Rachel Maddow makes no bones about which candidate she is backing: Obama. Likewise, Fox’s Sean Hannity, as clownish as he is, has made no bones about who he is backing. He, in fact, calls himself a surrogate for John McCain, as he nightly takes one cheap-shot at Obama after another. Bill O’Reilly, on the other hand, bristles at being called anything but an independent. Olbermann possibly feels sheepish about fessing up his politics given that he sees himself as a foil to O’Reilly.

Politico reports that there is such unrest in MSNBC ranks that a shake-up is possible. In the end, ratings and ad revenue will prevail. One thing is certain, though, the cable channel misses the steady hand and competent coaching and refereeing of Tim Russert.

There has been talk this week of even having McCain name his veep choice on Thursday, the day Barack Obama is giving his acceptance speech in Denver.

Here is the newest McCain salvo, aimed at taking Obama on over the issue of how dangerous Iran is.

www.factcheck.org hasn’t yet weighed in on the ad. The Obama campaign issued a point by point breakdown of the ad copy, though, and referred to it as “crossing a new line into dishonesty.” The Associates Press offered this analysis: “The ad is misleading because it states that Obama said Iran is "tiny" and "doesn't pose a serious threat" without noting that Obama was comparing the threat Iran poses today to the Soviet Union, the nuclear-armed adversary of the U.S. during the Cold War.”

Another issue: The Campaign Media Analysis Group told The Wall Street Journal that there is emerging evidence that the McCain is not actually buying air-time for these ads, but merely producing them for the news networks to run as they have so much time to kill in between speeches.

If that’s the case, Tapper pointed out accurately, they are more like video-press releases that the networks are airing instead of ads.

But Senator McCain handed the Obama campaign the equivalent of John Kerry’s “I voted for it before I voted against it” sound-bite four years ago.

Asked how many houses he and his wife owned by an interviewer, McCain couldn’t come up with the answer, and said his staff would have to get back to the reporter. Huh?

This is obvious red-meat to the Obama campaign, and too good to let go. The ad:

The effect of the ad is too make the first real cut at McCain exposing the Senator as a super-rich guy, not so much the brave POW. But it also works on a second level the Obama campaign had better be prepared to defend: reminding voters of Mccain's almost 72 years. The whole ad and issue gives the Obama campaign Rovian deniability that it is exploiting McCain's age and his habit of confusing facts and countries when he's on the stump. But it's there.

Obama’s ad efforts, though they have moved more pointed in their attacks on McCain in the last ten days, have simply not been as well executed as the McCain ads. This one, though, may start to change the scoreboard.

Not kowing how many houses you own is just the sort of event, like John Edwards' expensive haircut, Kerry's soundbite hell and Dan Quayle's spelling shortcomings, which will hang around kitchen tables until November.

For the second time in two days I am writing about how the interests of ad executives can run divergent to the interests of their work for clients. It’s a good thing to be able to write about.

Ad Age Creativity noticed that Crispin Porter+Bogusky chief creative officer Alex Bogusky and chairman Chuck Porter have penned a new book, “The 9-inch Diet.” Having lunched with Bogusky, I first thought the title referred to the waist-line of the hunky and talented Brad-Pittesque Bogusky.

Thanks to www.bofunk.com for the above photo.

But check out the ad copy surrounding the book: The book will focus on "proportion distortion," how our plates and average serving sizes have increased over the past few decades to secretly forge a nation of fatties….the catalog compares the book with Fast Food Nation and The Portion Teller: Smartsize Your Way to Permanent Weight Loss… and the catalog says "With years of experience manipulating the masses, two of the best tricksters in the industry explain how you as a consumer are being duped, and how you are actually a part of the conspiracy to make you fat."

The irony is that the agency has made its name in recent years with its Burger King work, though it is also launching a campaign for Microsoft now, and continues to do ad work for Volkswagen among others.

I spoke with Bogusky last week about the book. He describes the apparent disconnect between is diet book and his BK business as "maybe a bit of creative tension." I asked him about the practice of fast-fooders like BK of constantly up-sizing meals. "Burger King doesn't want people to eat too much, or to get fat," says Bogusky. But, he adds, there is an expectation on the part of the consumer to associate volume with value.

The nine-inch diet has a lot to do with the size plates Americans use. He happened on the issue a few years ago when he tried putting away a new set of plates in an antique china cabinet, he told me. "They didn't fit at all...and I thought, what's going on here." What went on was the super-sizing of everything from french fry serving sizes to plates.

The timing of the book, set for a January release when New Year’s diet resolutions are fresh and not yet hopeless, might be better now-- on the heels of the latest report saying we are more obese than ever. Bogusky says there is a possibility that it will ship by November.

Earlier this week, I blogged on the irony [in my mind anyway] of ad agency Modernista!, which handles Hummer ads [and has also done work for Businessweek], also doing ad work for a gun control organization.

It makes me wonder if the fictional ad agency in AMC's Mad Men, Sterling Cooper, will take on an effort to convince people that smoking is unhealthy.

I’m looking forward to reading Bogusky's book, because I am interested in the topic, and because I somewhat know the guys who wrote it. I don’t know if they will divulge some of the intell they have probably soaked up over the years: some of the research on fat, salt, portion sizes and fast-food pricing that Burger King and McDonald’s live by?; or the fact that the fake sweetener Nutrasweet in soft drinks that makes people think they can drink all they want is actually an appetite stimulant?

But it should add to the national dialogue about how America got so fat.

When Jerry Seinfeld starts appearing in Microsoft Windows ads, will the fact that he always had a Mac on his desk during the iconic TV series figure into the work created by Miami ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky?

As reported by The Wall Street Journal today, Microsoft, frustrated that its Vista operating system becomes less and less attractive with each passing week, is turning to an ad strategy that will feature the uber-successful comedian Seinfeld, and even company founder Bill Gates.

It’s difficult, and unfair, to pass an opinion on ads I haven’t seen yet. But, going in, I’m suspicious of the strategy of using Seinfeld, 54, to attract new users and would-be Mac users to Vista and thus PCs.

One doesn’t have to look very hard to find the foil to this strategy. It’s the Apple campaign for Mac computers. Quick: name the two actors who play in the ongoing story in Mac ads

in which the cool guy is the Mac and the older nerd, refugee from The Office” is the PC.? Certainly, a few readers of this blog can, but I’d say 99.9% of consumers can’t. [It’s Justin Long as Mac dude and John Hodgman as PC shlub). They do know, though, that those ads are for Mac and that they are entertaining. In fact, the Mac ads have a slight air of having been written by Seinfeld writers. They are that well done by TBWA/Chiat Day.

Using celebrities in lieu of a really good original idea is dodgy business. You know what brand of car Tiger Woods flogs? Buick. During the time that Woods has touted the GM brand, it has fallen bigtime in sales and popularity. Celine Dion was famously hired and then quickly cast aside by Chrysler after the automaker paid her about the same amount of money Microsoft is paying Seinfeld--$10 million. Gap dumped Sara Jessica Parker in 2004 when the actress was at her zenith, because the ads tested so badly. I’m struck by the irony that CP+B’s most successful work to date, for Burger King, has been grounded on original ideas and use of the iconic “Burger King,” not celebs.

One of the few exceptions I can recall, from my childhood, was Paul Masson being given a leg up by iconoclast actor/director Orson Welles, and the Miller Lite ads of the 1970s taking off by using professional athletes and coaches.

But make no mistake…Miller Lite was the star of those “Tastes Great. Less Filling Ads.” The ever changing casting of those TV commercials, pairing unique sports figures, was part of the fun and narrative.

Seinfeld’s advertising for American Express

has been very successful. But consider that it doesn’t take any expertise to spend money on a credit card. Many people have caught on to the idea that you can pretty much do anything with a Visa card that you can do with an AmEx. Choosing between a PC and Mac is a much bigger deal for anyone. That decision is usually based on a combination of the consumer’s own usage experience and reading tech-advice articles, blogs etc.

Microsoft is specifically trying to get people to give Vista, which had initial glitches, to reconsider it. It is, in a way, a relaunch of Vista.

This from the WSJ article: “Microsoft's immediate goal is to reverse the negative public perception of Windows Vista, the latest version of the company's personal-computer operating system. Windows is Microsoft's largest generator of profit and revenue, accounting for 28% of the company's revenue of $60.4 billion in the year ended June 30. The software has sold well, and Microsoft retains an overwhelming share of the market for operating system software over Apple. But Apple's computer sales have been rising, and Vista is dogged by the notion that it has technical shortcomings and is hard to use. Apple's latest Mac vs. PC ads take swipes at Vista. Microsoft says early problems with Vista have been largely alleviated.”

And in my experience, re-launch is a word that should be stricken from the imaginary dictionary of marketing terms I keep in my desk.

Re-launch: To spend great sums of money on veterinary bills on a crazed horse that has already been severely injured while escaping from a burning barn. While the horse is being prepared to race another day, much money is also spent repairing the barn whose design will be changed again just when work is completed when a new chief stable director [CMO] is inevitably named.

Seinfeld, though it stopped producing shows in 1998, is the mother of all syndicated comedies. Today’s twentysomethings are just as apt to have seen every episode in re-runs as boomers and thirtysomethings are to have seen them in first-run. Too, Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures Television, which distributes "Seinfeld"is about to send a 60-foot Seinfeld trailer around to campusus to promote re-runs.

And to think, the first college I attended had neither cable-Tv or the Internet.

You gotta like the irony. Boston-based Modernista! Ad agency is probably best known for doing the Hummer advertising for GM. Now, you could superficially think that there is a healthy cross-section between Hummer enthusiasts and pro-gun consumers [ By that, I mean consumers who generally side with the National Rifle Association on issues of gun legislation]. I have no direct knowledge of the link, but I’m thinking there is some correlation.

So, he is Modernista!’s newest work for www.stophandgunviolence.org, an organization I’m thinking is not exactly simpatico with the NRA.

The billboard, on the Mass Pike near Boston's Fenway Park, may be the nation's largest. Like the Southies in Boston say….I think the ad is a wicked pissah.

The agency also handles creative duties for Al Gore’s “We Can Solve The Climate Crisis” effort. I didn’t think it was possible to perfectly capture the stiff school-marm tone of Gore’s entire 2000 campaign in one ad, but this comes pretty close.

I have a question. Never mind “Where Have All The Flowers Gone.” I want to know: “Where Have All The Writers Gone?” It’s as if the idiots who have prescribed TV networks to jam three or four people into a 90 second cut-in, or give Larry King six people to talk to some nights, or fill the screen with three or four elements of running info and crawls are also advising ad agencies today.

Climate change, global warming, people making a difference….C’mon here. This stuff is ripe for talented writers telling compelling stories. This strategy of capturing Al Gore’s campaign voice [not even the voice of his Oscar winning documentary] is a loser for this worthy cause and issue.

Last year, there was an attempt to put the inferiority-complex laden Neanderthals into a TV series. It bombed. Indeed, it was unwatchable. Now, the cavemen will be integrated into ESPN’s media properties in roles as fantasy-football salesmen, as well as stars of a series of vignettes promoting the network's flagship "SportsCenter" program.

According the Ad Age article on the deal: ["ESPN is basically using an advertiser's icon to drive viewers to its shows," said Bill Koenigsberg, CEO of Horizon Media, Geico's longtime media agency, which crafted the deal. "It's very unusual, but for these two brands we think it's a perfect fit."]

We’ll see. The Geico cavemen have been one very successful leg in Geico’s advertising stool.

What fascinates me about the Geico campaign is that the cavemen, as memorable as they are, are only part of the effort. The other part of the campaign [all done by Richmond Va.’s Martin Agency] are the ads in which a celebrity appears with a real life Geico customer. Like this ad:

When I think of the most memorable ad icons--The Marlboro Man, Mr. Whipple, Charlie Tuna, Mr. Clean—I have no memory of the agency or the client saying: “Wow, this is too valuable a property to just waste on one brand!” I can actually for a minute imagine that someone would have had the idea of turning Charlie Tuna into a Saturday morning cartoon for kids. Let’s face it, Charlie could have been a character in “Finding Nemo.”

Memo to Geico, Martin and Horizon: The cavemen are a great and memorable ad property for the company and brand. But sometimes a duck is just a duck. Just let the cavemen be the cavemen.

Papa John finished its crop circle ad, and I think it looks pretty good. You have to be pretty impressed with the GPS technology that allows tractors to work with that kind of precision.

As of 4:53 today, the subject of "Papa John's crop circle" had 29,000 Google hits. I'll be looking to see how much TV pickup it gets. I'm betting a lot. And that's the definition of an ad that works.

The ad is cut into a wheat field near Denver International Airport.

Investors, however, though the company had crust spending that much money on the wheat, whose price has been climbing with other commodities. Shares closed down more than 5% today.

About this ad

in which Obama accuses McCain of taking $2 million in contributions from Big Oil and being in favor of a big $4 billion tax giveaway to oil companies, www.factcheck.org says this:

"Obama released a TV spot saying McCain's campaign got $2 million from "Big Oil" while McCain proposed "another $4 billion in tax breaks" for the industry.

The truth is that McCain's campaign has received $1.33 million from individuals employed in the oil and gas industry, not $2 million. Obama himself has received nearly $400,000, according to the most authoritative figures available. We find the $2 million figure is based on a mistaken calculation."

Furthermore, McCain is not proposing new tax breaks specifically targeted to the oil industry. He's proposing a general reduction in the corporate income tax rate, which Democrats figure would benefit the five largest oil and gas companies by $3.8 billion.

If the candidates were bars of soap or baby powder, the government wouldn't let them get away with ad claims as far out as the ones they put in ads. Too bad we take soap and babay powder more seriously than the election.

According to AdAge, the McCain purchase includes network and cable spots. NBC Universal is airing 3,600 hours of Olympics coverage on its broadcast network and cable networks including NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, USA Network, Oxygen and Telemundo.

McCain has money to spend in August. He has to spend down his primary funds before the GOP convention, because he has opted for public financing after the convention.

I confess that I lost the thread last year in season-one of Mad Men. I loved the premise of an ad agency drama set in 1960. But there was one episode that, frankly, I found so utterly implausible that I lost interest. It was the episode in which there was a birthday party for Don Draper's daughter. At some point during the party, Draper went out to get the cake. Instead of coming back with it, he went on a bender, and returned much later, drunk, after the party was basically over.

I couldn't imagine the guy who would be that awful to his child. I know. Some of my friends with alcoholic fathers say I'm nuts and that the story line barely touched the tip of the iceberg. Call me sheltered, but I just couldn't imagine it happening.

After two episodes this year, though, I'm back in with both feet. This is easily the best looking show filmed in over a decade. The art direction and cinematography is gorgeous. One thing that stops me every time is when Draper enters a room in a beautiful suit. Seems like forever since I saw an agency creative director in a suit that well tailored.

Having worked at two ad agencies, I especially love the characterizations of Duck, the head of account services, and Pete Campbell, the young account exec. Then show's writers nailed these guys. And the kicker is that not only are they accurate for 1960 (I'm told), but they are alive and well today. Campbell?--I worked with that guy and he is an agency CEO today. Last night's episode in which Duck wants to dump the Mowhawk Airlines account and chase (on spec) American Airlines--I saw that happen to. Never mind that Mohawk is a paying and happy client, the point in the story is that Mohawk is not Duck's client. In agency world, account services chiefs are famous for trying to dump clients that aren't theirs for ones for which they can take credit.

I am pretty sure that the CEO I know today would, in fact, offer to take on American Airlines as a client days after his own father was killed in an American Airlines plane crash. That was a nice touch.

Glad the show is back.

Housing values are in the dumper. Jobs are being lost by the thousands per month. The stock market is a worse ride than a busted roller coaster. Gas prices are making us cut back on lattes. And the Presidential candidates are arguing over Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.

But Pabst Blue Ribbon has made the day for many beleaguered baby boomers. Schlitz is back.

Pabst, which has seen a revival of its own brew as a chic blue-collar brand, is recreating the old formula, using notes and interviews with old brew masters to make the pilsner again. According to the AP: ''We believe that Schlitz is if not the, one of most iconic brands of the 20th century,'' said Kevin Kotecki, president of Pabst Brewing Co., which bought the brand that dates to 1849 from Stroh's in 1999. ''And there's still a lot of people who have very positive, residual memories about their experience. For many of them it was the first beer they drank and we wanted to give it back to those consumers.''

The AP rightly reports that Schlitz was the top-selling beer for much of the first half of the 20th century. Recipe changes and a series of production problems made the beer..well…swill in the late 1970s. The company erred by not taking the bad brew off the shelves and people turned on the brand. Brewing stopped in 1981.

True Confessions. The first time I ever got smashed was on Schlitz during a Baltimore Colts/Oakland Raiders playoff game. I was 16. It was Christmas Eve, and I stupidly guzzled the stuff each time by brother and his friend sent me to the cooler to bring THEM beers. My folks still made me go to mass that night. It wasn’t a good experience for anyone. So, yeah…consider me a boomer who has a bit of nostalgic feelings for Schlitz.

In Milwaukee, where the beer has been launched, stores are running out of what they ordered, and they are taking names for special orders. It’s also available in Minneapolis, Chicago and western Florida, besides Milwaukee.

Schlitz was the top selling suds from 1903 to 1920, and the again between 1934 and 1950. Then Budweiser took over. Miller is brewing Schlitz under contract for Pabst on the East Coast, according to the new recipe.