A quick exercise

Write down the five international agencies you most want to work for. Then go to Creativity's list of the most awarded agencies of 2009. How many agencies were on both lists?

[Ed. - h/t to AdPulp.]

Selling sport: Under Armour, the Colorado Rapids, the USATT, Arena and Nike

Before I was in advertising, I worked in gyms. Over the course of six years, I worked at the towel desk, at the front desk, in membership sales, and finally as a certified personal trainer. I have a special passion for athletic marketing. And a special frustration when it goes wrong.

Like Under Armor's audacious new line, "Under Armour is Football." I saw the flagship spot during a college football game, and when the game came back on, I couldn't help but notice that both the teams had Nike logos on their jerseys. Ouch.

Or the long-running Colorado Rapids tagline, "Experience The World's Game." Apparently the team hasn't noticed that Americans give absolutely zero weight to global opinion.

Or the United States Table Tennis Association's continued insistence that the best way to increase participation is to point out that table tennis is a game that anyone can play. So they put out publications featuring elderly and disabled athletes and then wonder why young, athletic men and women don't gravitate to the sport.

What do I like? A print ad for Arena swimsuits, which I first saw on the SCAQ blog and have reposted here. You want to be a monster in your next open water race? Wear an Arena suit. Simple. Insightful. Powerful. And so cool.

And at the risk of being obvious, I like Nike. From their relationship with Oregon football to the Live Strong line to Nike+, they have defined the meaning of athletics for two generations of Americans. They're a big brand that is still relevant to the cutting edge. And that's a pretty amazing thing to pull off.

Advertising is like a drug. But better because it doesn't mess up your liver.

The most interesting thing I've read lately is Wired"s "Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why." In modern double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trials, Big Pharma is getting beaten by sugar pills at an increasing rate. And it's not just new drugs that can't find a way to make the cut.

Some products that have been on the market for decades, like Prozac, are faltering in more recent follow-up tests. In many cases, these are the compounds that, in the late '90s, made Big Pharma more profitable than Big Oil. But if these same drugs were vetted now, the FDA might not approve some of them. Two comprehensive analyses of antidepressant trials have uncovered a dramatic increase in placebo response since the 1980s.

What happened? Wired hypothesizes it's advertising.

Part of the answer may be found in the drug industry's own success in marketing its products. Potential trial volunteers in the US have been deluged with ads for prescription medications since 1997, when the FDA amended its policy on direct-to-consumer advertising. The secret of running an effective campaign, Saatchi & Saatchi's Jim Joseph told a trade journal last year, is associating a particular brand-name medication with other aspects of life that promote peace of mind: "Is it time with your children? Is it a good book curled up on the couch? Is it your favorite television show? Is it a little purple pill that helps you get rid of acid reflux?" By evoking such uplifting associations, researchers say, the ads set up the kind of expectations that induce a formidable placebo response.

Is this an indictment of the pharmaceutical industry or a testament to the power of the mind? Probably both. But mostly, it's a reminder that the ad game is scary powerful and not really a game at all.