Hotcards, Full Color Printing In The Nation

Not all print advertising has gone green

Green printing and green advertising tend to go hand in hand, which makes me think that Harley-Davidson probably wasn’t worried about finding an eco-friendly printer for their latest print ad campaign.

The campaign, which was launched both in print and online, is based around a philosophy that can roughly be summarized by the copy, "Fear sucks. Screw it, let’s ride."

Carmichael Lynch, the Minneapolis ad agency behind the campaign, conducted ‘road research’ in the development of the concept, hanging out with Harley owners and asking them what was on their minds.

The results are a campaign that confronts the issues of the day, such as economic downswing and political conflict, with the rebellious, defiant attitude that biker culture is famous for.

The campaign, which includes both traditional print media, and apparel printing, stands in stark contrast to the rest of the ultra-enlightened green advertising industry. Although Harley-Davidson doesn’t come right out and say it, the ads are obviously making a statement about rising fuel costs, encouraging riders to ignore the expense and environmental impact in favor of a screw-you rebel attitude.

It’s a smart move by Harley. After all, as fast as the green wave is rising, the backlash of eco-ennui is rising to meet it. It’s nice to imagine that everybody cares, but plenty of folks are sick of the buzz, and the average go-your-own-way road warrior probably falls into this category.

However, every ad campaign is a bottom line masquerading as a life philosophy, and Harley’s subversive, anti-green strategy is trenched as much in recovering from recent layoffs and a 12.8% drop in U.S. retail motorcycle sales, as it is in re-gifting a sense of freedom and fun to biker culture.

So, at a time when green advertising and green printing have become de rigeur, is an anti-green campaign suicide, or the perfect marketing plan? With the Harley ad scheme stretching on until June, it will be interesting to see what kind of numbers the bike company posts in the next quarter. Have they hit the nail on the head, or have they gambled on an outdated philosophy of un-mindful thinking?

Popular viral video has its roots in print and print design.

Hidden away behind most great marketing campaigns, there’s a great printer. And hidden away behind every great printer, there’s a whole host of equipment and print media required to do the job.

But the people and equipment behind marketing campaigns don’t always get a lot of attention, which is probably what UK-based company Clustarack had in mind when they created this viral video:

Echoes of the writers strike in Hollywood

Are the screenwriters back on strike? Nope, this is an image from the opening scene of this week’s episode of House, MD – you know, that show about the angry doctor?

In this scene, the nursing union is walking a picket line outside the hospital featured in the show. Everything from color scheme, to font design, to the white space left for union strikers to write in their slogans, is a match to the writers’ union print collateral. They’ve even got the same red t-shirts! No corners cut on apparel printing here.

So what’s going on here? Is this the showrunners making use of leftover print materials, running out their retainer with union printers? Or are the folks over at House making a statement?

I’ve also got to wonder if a union printer did the printing for this fictional union strike. After the writers strike, are Hollywood and the printing industry best buds? I couldn’t see a union bug on the ‘nurses’ signs, but you never know…

Bringing indie design to the world of baseball hats.

Ball caps are funny things. Traditionally, they’re utilitarian, keeping the sun out of our eyes when we play or work outside. As a fashion statement, they’ve evolved to the level of high art – if you’re a sports fan. My dad has a collection of over 100, representing every pro sport, and all his favorite teams, and even players. Which is just great, for sports fans.

Unfortunately, if you’re not a sports fan, but you still dig the style, your design choices are limited to vintage trucker, or ultra-trendy name brand. Many artists, graffiti artists in particular, often hand draw or paint designs onto blank caps, but the right style of blank cap can be hard to find.

All in all, ball cap style and design is a deeply personal, and sometimes even touchy issue. As web designer Matthew Carpenter points out on his blog: “getting a great baseball cap is a painful, tedious process.” And he’s right, the question is, why?

Ask your printing and pre-press questions here.

Beloved Hotcards readers! Here on the blog, we usually talk about news in the world of print, design, and advertising. But sometimes, it’s nice to get back to basics, right? If you have any questions about the printing process, or about what you need to do to prepare a project for printing, ask them right here, on this or any other post’s comment thread.

Maybe you’re wondering about the printing process, in general. Maybe you have questions about putting together a print campaign, or about direct mail marketing. Or maybe you’re dying to know more about a particular printing product – from palm cards to catalog's to apparel – the answers are all here!

Every week, we’ll try to answer a couple of questions in an effort to make the whole printing thing as transparent as possible for you, our wonderful customers.

Remember folks, no question is too basic, too broad, or too complicated. Unless you’re an expert, printing can get confusing, and that’s why we’re here to help!

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Read the previous post for part one of this series.

Odds are not everyone is going to overthink the bit of sign printing discussed in the last post quite to the degree that I have. In fact, as good as that copy is, it’s not the kind of copy that’s designed to really catch anyone’s attention. Rather, the slogan, in all its skillfulness, is probably striving to avoid drawing too much attention to itself by being utterly apolitical.

In the world of TV advertising, on the other hand, Obama’s ad copy folks are all about making us sit up and pay attention. In two new ads, one for West Virginia, and one for South Dakota, a voiceover by Obama concludes with the words, “I approved this message BECAUSE…”

Isn’t that neat? It made me react right away, because I’d never really heard anything like it before. We all know that the candidate voiceover of approval is necessary to the vaunted integrity of a campaign ad’s message, but it’s usually delivered as nothing more than a last-minute disclaimer, like “side effects may include…”

But in the case of these ads, the copy folks on the Obama campaign decided to turn that last-minute voiceover into a central aspect of the ad’s message. “I approve BECAUSE” – very nice technique for calling us out of TV ad-time stupor, and for encouraging us to feel a personal connection with the candidate, like he knows that the typical way of doing things in the world of ad copy is kind of lame and played out.

My name is Anne Stewart, and I approve this message because it’s fresh, surprising, and personable.

Obama Campaign Slogan Analysis

Let’s talk about copy writing. Most printed materials contain some copy. Not too much, because no one will read it, but enough to get the message across fast, and in such a way that it becomes indelibly burned into the collective consciousness.

Whether you’re engaged in the marketing of a product or service, or in a political campaign, the rules of good copy writing are essentially the same: be fresh and surprising, or expect the average consumer/voter to look right through your print collateral.

In the wake of the PA primary, and perhaps, inspired by Earth Day, the Barack Obama Presidential campaign has begun to churn out some fresh copy that dares voters to pay attention. During a speech today in Indianapolis, Obama took on the issue of the energy crisis, his podium fronted by a sign reading "Investing in Energy Independence."

This slogan defines the nature of nice print copy. Essentially, it tackles a sensitive issue - the rising cost of fuel - and makes it palatable to just about everyone. Here’s how:

Greenwash, or year-round commitment?

Another Earth Day, or “Earth Week” has come and gone. Begun in 1970, it represents the beginning of the modern environmental movement. When I was a kid, I can remember Earth Days at school being spent picking up litter in order to earn tickets to a lunchtime BBQ.

As I got older, I fell into the crowd of kids who felt generally cynical about the relative value of collecting cigarette butts from the teacher’s smoking area. However, in retrospect, I can see the importance of the yearly ritual. The banal futility of our schoolyard clean-up may not have staved off eco-crisis, but it instilled in me a very powerful sense that caring about the environment one day a year is really the LEAST we can do.

Today, all us little cigarette-butt picking kids are grown up, and that means that eco-consciousness has reached a near frenzy-point. It also means that Earth Day has become a paradise for companies eager to tout their green chops, hence the expansion of Earth Day into Earth Week. Earth Day might not be a major holiday, but this year, it sure got advertised like one.

Proceeds were donated, recycled products featured, and marketers recommended web campaigns over print advertising to save paper. What’s getting lost in the process? The fact that it’s not about selling our green efforts to the consumer, it’s about making those efforts.

Already, many consumers are becoming skeptical of the ‘green’ label, and companies who overhype their contributions risk being accused of ‘greenwashing.’ Greenwashing refers to a business’s focus on advertising their eco-friendliness, as a way to cover up their polluting ways. Branding expert Steven Addis was quoted in Ad Age, saying, “I call it the 95-5 rule. Five percent of somebody's business is green, but 95% of their PR is green."

Zing.

Few industries are more at risk of being accused of greenwashing than the printing industry. The service we offer is, by nature, heavily dependent on natural resources. As a printer, the onus is constantly on us to find new ways to do our job while taking our role as environmental stewards seriously. We might not be perfect, but we can make a consistent effort by running our business like every day is Earth Day.

Some days you feel like you’re saving the planet, and some days you feel like you’re just picking up cigarette butts, but the important thing is to never stop trying. That’s the only surefire way to avoid the stigma of greenwashing, and to make Earth Day into more than just a marketing ploy.

Proving once again that printing is always political…

When sponsors like Coca-Cola and Samsung began to design their print advertising for the Olympic torch relay, you can bet they weren’t expecting to compete with wave after wave of protest signs, posters and banners from activists demonstrating against the Beijing Olympics.

But that's exactly what’s happening. At each torch relay point, companies that thought to get some nice visibility out of the usually harmonious Olympic event are now being crowded out of the picture, wasting thousands of dollars in ad revenue, at best.

At worse, sponsored banner and poster printing is being not crowded out, but showcased next to, and implicitly aligned with, highly politicized print designs created by protesters.

Often, the images on display are incredibly graphic, showing scenes of torture, or altering the Olympic logo by replacing the rings with handcuffs or skulls. It’s nothing short of a public relations nightmare for print advertisers.

Candidates are campaigning to an international audience, whether they know it or not.

It’s a fact. The political decisions made by U.S. voters affect the entire world. Just as this election season has gotten Americans excited about politics again, it has been placed front and center on the international stage, with all eyes on the contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

According to the New York Times, folks in Great Britain are just as interested in the outcome of the election as we are here at home. Every primary, every debate, and every print/web/TV ad is under scrutiny across the pond. This attention makes me wonder how aware candidates are that they’re campaigning to a worldwide audience.