It could be considered one of the worst beers that somehow still remains palatable but, like it or not, Old Milwaukee is a brand that goes beyond taste and taps into the souls of many Midwesterners.

“This is one of the quintessential old school American adjunct brews. It isn't great, but it is definitely drinkable.”

– FlannelAvenger, beeradvocate.com

“All that subliminal programming when I was a kid really paid off. OM is my favorite American Lager. Just a hint of hops, clean mouthfeel, goes down easy. This is a true American staple.”

– vikingstout, beeradvocate.com

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone without a favorite beer that gives them that warm fuzzy feeling inside, and tapping into that innate longing for comfort is a stroke of pure genius. Little would Old Milwaukee (seemingly) know that this insight would come not from an agency, but from a comedian who’s notorious for his faux-vertising antics on SNL.

Ferrell's decision to film and distribute the ads in Davenport is a solid tribute to the city who loves some "Old Mud." His subsequent commercials filmed in Terre Haute also offer a bit of a nod to the heartland of American culture. These free-of-charge, low-budget videos were all the idea and production of Ferrell himself, and even though Old Milwaukee is missing an opportunity by not having a YouTube channel, they're still creating quite a bit of buzz through the classic form of "You've gotta see this, it's hilarious," sharing. (Thanks @sarahleighbrich!)

Going home for the holidays is always a great experience - until I have to explain what I do. For some reason, the way an ad agency works and where the different people involved fall in place has always been a labor of linguistic love that I've never found the perfect answer to. Luckily, some brilliant minds over at The Big Orange Slide have broken down this conundrum into my favorite form of information exchange - the infographic. Enjoy!

What do John Galliano, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, David Sokol, Tony Hayward, Gilbert Gottried, Rebekah Brooks, and Charlie Sheen have in common?

They all damaged the integrity of their brands, intentionally or not, with actions that could have been prevented – or at least planned for.

Jonathan Copulsky of Deloitte presented his panel called Brand Resilience: Managing Risk and Recovery in a High Speed World at Social Media Masters in Atlanta on Friday to help spread the awareness of brand resilience. “If you’re not thinking about this, you’re fooling yourself. Not having a brand defense is as silly as not having a smoke detector in your home.”

Copulsky cited the free and exponentially frequent passing of information on all media forms as one of the major reasons for having a plan in advance. There’s nothing the media loves more than a juicy bite of brand mishap – it reveals the all too hidden underbelly of the beast that is supposed to have an impenetrable shell.

“Some of the worst cases of...

I watch a lot of reality TV. Hey, it’s a guilty pleasure that most of us willingly admit to. We like to see others embarrass themselves, overshare, over expose, roll over and let the world see their unkempt underbelly. We like it raw. So how well would a serious reality series do in your mind?

AMC, the network with highly lauded shows like Mad Men, is shopping big boy agencies such as DDB, Draft FCB, Mother, Leo Burnett, Mullen, and BBDO to participate in its brainchild neo-reality-documentary-expose called “The Pitch.”

Ad people have a lot of secrets to their genius brainpower. One of those is the “secret sauce” that goes into how you pitch to a new client. You know, bunnies jumping out of your PowerPoint slides or having your creatives assemble into a pyramid of power. These tricks of the trade are a signature to gaining new clients and essentially serve as the lifeblood of an agency. So why would any of the bigs want to share their golden fleece of insight and information?

With very few of the larger agencies actually “considering” joining the production, even with client prospects like Kodak and Yahoo, it’s questionable why the show didn’t consider going after smaller shops who had more to gain via the publicity and potential of gaining these blue chip clients.

On another note, will viewers really be that interested in how agencies ideate and strategize? The inherent drama necessary to substantiate a reality show is not something that always comes with the creative process, which I can see as being a major factor in the turn off for bigger agencies who have a brand of their own to uphold in the ad community.

Why...

Censorship has always been a hot topic. What is okay to say? What isn’t? And what about that all too familiar black box, blurred lips or middle finger? By the standards of some networks, you’d think primetime were more like Reading Rainbow while others have embraced the social acceptance of cursing and sexuality. Regardless of this change in thought, one entity remains shrouded in secrecy. But no longer!

It's a Cat on a Mission.

Meet Carlton, the new feline spokesperson for the vagina and all that is awesome (vaginal) about it. Launched only two weeks ago, Carlton’s PSA has racked up over 300,000 views on Youtube and has created some buzz on its content submission page where viewers are encouraged to submit videos of what they think is “vaginal.”

The brand behind the campaign, Summer's Eve, is not one without folly, having released an ad last summer in Women's Day that stunned consumers and the ad community with the idea that the first step to getting a raise is to be clean "down there." Enlisting the help of The Richards Group out of Dallas for damage control was a smart move, and even more proof that companies who make a misstep would do better to admit their mistake and rebound with a little humor to make light of the situation than try to sweep it under the rug.

Taking a...