Throughout the month of May and into June, industry creatives and producers have been receiving emails that appear to be sent to them by accident from prominent advertising executives: Leo Burnett, David Ogilvy and Dan Wieden. The messages are addressed to their equally accomplished clients, the executives of major corporations including Nike, Volkswagen and even Hathaway Shirts. Their purpose? To tout the one-in-a-million ad concept that will make each company immortal—and to announce the call for entries for Oink Ink Radio’s popular annual <a href="www.oinkcreative.com/deadradio.php.>Dead Radio Contest.
The conversations are a fictitious, “behind the scenes peek” at the genesis of some of the best-known ad campaigns of all time, inspired by legendary agency-client partnerships from several decades in the 20th century. In the ’emails’, the recipients get to eavesdrop on the numerous ways the executives might have resisted their agency’s initial (and now cherished) concepts. For instance, a skittish Phil Knight of Nike rejects Dan Wieden’s “Just Do It” campaign in favor of the safer—and far less memorable—”Just Don’t Overdo It.”
In these irreverent exchanges the original idea is altered, watered down and sanitized beyond recognition. The result is an amusing parody of the negotiations that could easily derail even the strongest concept, or kill it all together—a familiar fate to even the most prolific, persuasive copywriters.
This year Oink Ink is taking a satirical approach in its search for entries by reimagining some of history’s greatest ads to show why “only one in a million will make history.” Oink is targeting copywriters around the world and inviting them to submit their best unproduced, unappreciated radio scripts to the 14th annual <a href="www.oinkcreative.com/deadradio.php.>Dead Radio Contest, giving them an opportunity to undo the veto of a nervous client or the brutality of a clueless committee.
For more information about the <a href="www.oinkcreative.com/deadradio.php.>Dead Radio Contest and to download entry forms, visit www.oinkcreative.com/deadradio.php.