Earthling

Note: The below is an archived entry from Earthling, formerly EarthLink's official blog. The blog itself has been decommissioned and is no longer updated, and comments are trackbacks are no longer accepted.

And it is weird.

Since grad school I've thought that one day I'd love to produce local or lower-tier cable advertising for television. I've seen some low-budget gems on local cable channels that you'd never see during a high-ratings show. There's often more creativity there than you'll see elsewhere, even if it is a little ham-handed. I've thought for a while that it would be very freeing to know that your small budget is yours to do whatever you want with, so long as you meet your advertiser's objectives. In the ideal relationship you can be as conceptual and off-the-wall as you like, as long as you accomplish whatever it is that needs to get done.

This is my theory for how local mortgage and used car and furniture chain ads get to be so strange. Anyone who's lived in the Greater Boston area in the past five years need only hear the phrase "I DOUBT IT!" and they'll immediately think Dean's Home Furniture. If anyone has a recording of a Dean's ad, please send it my way.

I'm jealous of Rocketboom because I think in a way that's what they've been able to do for TRM. TRM gave them a goal, and let them loose to achieve it the best way they see fit. So far I think that relationship has produced something that's enjoyable to watch and that sticks with you. Their enthusiasm for making content shows through in the creative.

Do yourself (and me) a favor, and look at today's installment of Rocketboom. Keep watching for an ad-like thing for TRM at the end. If you want to skip the Rocketboom and get straight to the ad, here's a link directly to it. But to get the full effect, you really need to watch both together.

As I've been telling you, EarthLink will be getting our own ad-like things at the end of Rocketboom the week of April 3. I have no idea what ours will be like; I don't know if Andrew and Amanda know yet either. I'm sure it will be different from the TRM ones, but hopefully will be made of similar strange stuff.

Judging by the comment thread, most Rocketboom viewers feel good about how the new ad turned out. If you have thoughts about it, please add a comment to this entry or join the discussion over on Rocketboom.

Update: Read more about Rocketboom's new ads on Blog Herald and Wearethemedia.com.