Great Moments In Philly’s Shamefully Hackish And Podunk Ad Industry: The Unveiling Of Philadelphia’s New Signature Brand
That’s it. No, really.
Back in the day, the ad industry was one of Philadelphia’s core creative economies, creating jobs and making waves nationwide; these days, it’s one of the major suspects in any Brain Drain argument, and the work put out by many of the still-existing local agencies would be downright laughable if it weren’t so awful. Case in point: When you were getting ready for Thanksgiving on Wednesday, the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau (PCVB) was holding its Annual Luncheon at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, whereupon Mayor Michael A. Nutter unveiled the City of Philadelphia’s new brand – “Life Liberty And You.” That non-plussing thumbnail you see above is what got rolled out that day. With creative handled by The Star Group — to their credit, they didn’t charge the city — the brand you see above will be implemented across a dizzying array of partnerships and materials, making sure that it consistently gets lost in a meaningless logo soup that no one will ever notice no matter what. And it’s a shame: Because while the design-savvy among us were gasping at the horrific 15 minutes it must have taken to design this unambitious piece of shit, the PCVB had lots of good news to report: a 68 percent hotel occupancy rate during a terrible year, loads of convention placements, the Army/Navy game signing back on through 2017, and the second-highest growing number of international arrivals at the airport. Nothing to sneeze at, right? But that logo? C’mon son.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
According to Ad Age: In 1843, Volney Palmer opened the first advertising agency in Philadelphia. And in 1868, Francis Wayland Ayer opens N.W. Ayer & Son in Philadelphia and implements the first commission system based on “open contracts.” His clients include Montgomery Ward, John Wanamaker Department Stores, Singer Sewing Machines and Pond’s Beauty Cream.
With few exceptions, it’s been downhill since then. What really amazes me is the depth of creative technology talent that exists in Philadelphia (including interactive graphic designers) and the inability or unwillingness to close the chasm that exists between the Internet and the rest of media; to understand the difference between the Message and the Medium, and simply deliver the most powerful campaign. I don’t think it would be that difficult to reclaim the creative and entrepreneurial spirit of Philadelphia advertising, but it won’t happen with the marketing-by-way-of-beauracracy “agencies” as they exist here today.
November 30th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Speaking of ads for the city, I wish they’d get around to changing up the “Dear World Champions… oh yeah, that’s us. Love, Philadelphia XOXO” billboard on 95 south a bit north of 676. The buses coming from New York go right by it, and I shed a little tear every time.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
designed by committee, im sure…
November 30th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Yeah… here’s what the final official stuff looks like:
http://www.phila.gov/CityRepresentative/LifeLibertyAndYou/
But yeah… design by committee strikes again.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Truth be told. The Star Group is not to blame. I know. I shamefully was part of the committee that bastardized the process. A search was conducted by Ed Tettemer. Multiple agencies submitted designs for a bigger initiative. Star Group won. Then…instead of being handed the contract for winning (like was promised) they were asked to donate their services because of the City’s bleak economic condition. Because they are one of the only “stand up” agencies in this market…they decided to support the city and help. (Remember…these are the guys who donated and created all that work for Ready Philadelphia that everybody else took credit for…I watched that happen too.) Star presented a committee of 40 of us multiple logos. City operatives (not the Mayor) dictated this ridiculous and pedantic design. Star recommended testing it. They did. Their suggested design won. And then the city operatives picked this shameful logo. Moral to the story….when somebody from the city tells you you won a creative competition…RUN!
November 30th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Al Waysrite, you’ve obviously had firsthand experience with this process, so you know it best. My only (and respectful) retort is: some of Philly’s 2nd-tier agencies have a habit of showing the client a huge mixture of good and bad work instead of just showing a small number of their best work. I left town 2 years ago, and have tremendous respect for Philly agencies like 160over90 and Red. Some of these other guys try to overwhelm clients with the quantity of work instead of the quality of it. And that will sometimes result in the client choosing a bad logo or campaign. If you tell your creatives “No, I don’t want to show this logo.” then the client can’t see (or choose) a bad logo. From my time in Philly, I’ve learned that this agency seems to have that issue.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:24 pm
@emilyg: If that billboard isn’t down by now, it will be soon. No worries, we are on it.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Ugh. That’s offensive.
I respectfully submit: http://is.gd/597wj or http://is.gd/597xs
December 1st, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I recall the old Philly campaign — “The City that love you back.” Once, on Amtrak to DC, I picked up a Philly brochure with that slogan on it sitting on the table in the club car and somebody had scratched out “..back” and had written in “…up the ass.” It was a perfect editorial statement.
December 1st, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Ooph. That is possibly the ugliest logo of the century. And it IS partly the agency’s fault.
I had a relative who worked at Star Group a few years ago, and eventually s/he had to quit because they forced everyone to bend over backwards to make a sale, regardless of how terrible the work became.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that place didn’t bother to fight for any good logos that they submitted for this project. Not because their employees lack talent, but because they won’t fight for good work. They’ll do anything to suit the clients’ demands even if it means attaching their name to something unspeakable (and I’m assuming this was pro-bono work anyhow?). They drove my relative insane!
For shame. What happened to the days when ad agencies fought for their work, with rationale and… passion?
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:57 am
That’s not a logo. That’s clip-art.
December 3rd, 2009 at 4:52 am
Can’t personally say what occurred during this particular process, but I will say that Star/MM usually show a bloated collage (of what seems to be the first-round work of poorly-paid grad students) to befuddled clients. Wouldn’t typically poke fun, but perhaps they deserve the criticism after patting themselves on the back, year after year, for sweeping trophies against tiny mom-and-pop companies at the NJ Ad Awards.
NYC Ad Guy, I’m with you. EDIT, people, EDIT.
December 4th, 2009 at 1:03 am
While I agree with drpug, that MM usually shows a bloated collage of work, and pays their talent poorly, I’m still having a hard time seeing them designing this logo. The piece looks like it was done on a PC by someone with a limited knowledge of design and typesetting.
I know these things because I used to work at M&M. And there really are some talented designers there. While these designers might not have someone with creative vision pushing them to do their best work, they at least know how to typeset a logo attractively.
And again, I agree with drpug—this agency really does need to EDITing more. But there’s no creative visionary there that will edit, let alone teach anyone else to EDIT. There are creative managers on each team, but they’re really production managers that make no input to the work. Art Directors and Writers don’t work together. And there’s absolutely no time to do anything of quality because everything is due in 24 hours. So, I found this agency to be more interested in quantity than quality. That’s why i left.
I can’t say as much about Star, as we weren’t allowed to interact with that part of the agency.
( i think our boss was afraid we would see what the outside world was like ) But I do know they had more time to think and design, and I used to see pretty cool work coming from them. So I would be even more surprised if they designed it.
I’m sure someone at City Hall (or Star/MM) has the real story regarding this abomination. Regardless of what that story is, I think we need to start a petition to kill it before it gets produced, and we start seeing it everywhere. I would be just another thing Philly had to be embarrassed about.