The media has rendered its verdict: Despite receiving the message that it’s all about Oreo-style “real time marketing“, brands promoting themselves during last night’s Academy Awards (or “The Super Bowl for women” if you’re a sexist) did not measure up to their Game Day peers, despite paying premium prices for 30-second ad spots. They didn’t quite rock social media either.

The problem? On Twitter, at least, the content felt more than a little forced. We get it: spontaneous humor and topical commentary is hard; you really can’t fake it. Some examples:

We’re just saying: if we were nominated & had to remember a speech, we would probably write it on a #GalaxyNoteII. #GalaxyAtWork

— Samsung Mobile US (@SamsungMobileUS) February 24, 2013

Samsung tried hard to be on top of things but mostly came up empty-handed.

Congratulations to Christoph Waltz. #oscars twitter.com/StellaArtois/s… — Stella Artois (@StellaArtois) February 25, 2013

Not quite relevant to the brand, is it? Read more

Today we applaud the brilliant minds behind the coolest Facebook campaign in memory: Grey Poupon’s “The Society of Good Taste.”

The iconic Kraft condiment has long made snob appeal a big part of its brand–remember classic commercials like this one that ended with the tagline “But of course”? The selling point was similar to Fig Newton‘s “a cookie is just a cookie, but a Newton is fruit and cake” campaign, but better (we always thought the fact that Newtons’ own packaging describes them as “fruit chewy cookies” made the spots less effective.)

When the brand wanted a truly unique campaign to spread their snooty reputation online, they turned to Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the agency responsible for such iconic ads as the recent series starring a creepy Burger King mascot (an effort later dropped by the company).

Here’s how it works:

Read more