Steve Stoute on marketing (and Kodak)

I posted a few videos a week or so ago featuring music biz meets ad-man Steve Stoute, and the author of The Tanning of America. Extremely insightful guy.

In an article in the New York Observer he had this to say about Kodak's recent campaign featuring Rihanna and a slew of other musicians.

"Marketing? You call that marketing? You're trying to skip the entire process and just hire some celebrities to save your ass. That's the epitome of ridiculous. Marketing? Kodak?" He was nearly shouting. The commercials, he said, didn't convey the function of the product. "Can you imagine how stupid that is? What am I gonna do with a Kodak? It's not a smart phone. If I don't tell you why you need it, why would you buy it? Because Rihanna and Pitbull said so? Yeah, congratulations."

Now watch the ad for the iPad 2. You won't find any superstar recording artists, but you will find emotional reasons to buy one.