Crowley Webb Blog

Brian Moorman joins the M&T roster.

When he’s not pinning Bills opponents back on their own one yard line, or throwing touchdown passes to sneaky defensive ends, Brian Moorman is letting everyone know just how proud he is to be carrying a Bills Check Card. That’s because he’s part of the newest M&T Bank campaign for Checking Built for Buffalo. Back before training camp, we had the pleasure of engaging Brian in a photo shoot. M&T’s own Bob Moody and Brian Kasabula joined in the fun.

Mr. Moorman, the down-to-earth guy that he is, proudly displayed his Bills Check Card for in-branch posters, billboards, and even a life-size cardboard cutout. Following the photo shoot, the excited punter was heard raving, “You won't believe the hang time on this Bills Check Card.”

Joining Brian in touting Checking Built for Buffalo were Tony, Ed, and Robin, collectively known as the Bills Brothers. They gladly made trips from Rochester and Albany – as they do each Bills home game – for the opportunity to be immortalized in M&T Bank advertising.

 Rounding out the team was one Billy Buffalo, the larger-than-life Bills
mascot. Smiling the only way that’s physically possible for him, he too showed he was a Bills Check Card holder (though he has been known to encounter certain obstacles at the ATM with those giant hands of his).

In the end, our Bills adventure yielded Crowley Webb and M&T Bank some great new friends and an exciting new campaign. And the next time you see the two-time All Pro punter, maybe you’ll say, “Hey, it’s that guy from the M&T poster!”

Muldoon runs to victory.

Chris Muldoon is one of the Buffalo area’s top competitive runners and anyone who saw him defend his title in the 2008 JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge knows why. Not only did our 24-year-old copywriter win the 3.5-mile Challenge for the second year in a row, he shaved about a minute off his time – clocking in at 17:22 (that’s under 5 minutes a mile, for those of you without a calculator handy) this year despite 80° heat and high humidity. Chris trains about 70 miles a week on his lunch hours (we’re glad we put that shower in) and he was back on course the day after the Chase race.

Yeah, I’m a weirdo.

by Chris Muldoon

With the Corporate Challenge on Thursday, I thought it would be an appropriate time to dig up my all-time favorite campaign. If you know me, or have even been reading my articles, there will be no surprise that it involves running. It’s not a stretch to say that runners are very quirky creatures. Just ask my coworkers when I trot out in my tiny shorts every day during lunch. So Adidas’ “Runners. Yeah, we’re different” magazine ads hit home perfectly by not just depicting, but glorifying very specific and recognizable runner-isms. Many I can personally vouch for – lucky for you, I won’t go into details. When it comes to relating to the target audience, it doesn’t get any better than this.

Check out the series, created by Leagas Delaney. Just a warning though, you will see some muddy butt cheeks. But coming from people who take pleasure in oxygen depletion, is that really much of a surprise?

Running down a dollar.

by Chris Muldoon

In case you missed it, the Boston Marathon was held on Monday, April 21. It was much of the same for the 112th edition of the race – thousands of runners, excellent competition, and a lot of agony on Heartbreak Hill. But if you paid close attention, you’d notice this year included a groundbreaking detail. Ads.

Now, it’s not like the world’s oldest marathon was anti-commercialization all these years. They get big bucks from event sponsors (who, presumably, make big bucks from all the attention). But this year, for the first time, branded signs were posted around the course, including the starting and finishing lines.

While I’m sure there was a throng of outraged idealists, any way to increase the prize money for elite runners is OK in my book. If some knucklehead can win a million dollars by randomly picking numbers (I’m talking to you, Deal or No Deal) then surely someone who runs at a 4:50 per mile pace for 26.2 miles deserves a nice payday. So way to go, Boston Marathon. Now, let’s talk about Lance Armstrong getting a special finish-line tape for his 496th place finish.

You’re invited to commit petty larceny.

by matt low

Last night during game one of the World Series, Taco Bell introduced their brilliant new cross-promotion, “Steal A Base, Steal A Taco.” The premise being, if a player steals a base during the game, America (or you) is invited to steal a taco from Taco Bell.

You’re obviously not encouraged to literally “steal” the taco. They aren’t asking you to walk to your neighborhood restaurant with a weapon or some other tool of persuasion and demand a taco. It’s just a name for a deal in which they’ll give you seventy-nine cents of “beef” and flour tortilla if something happens in the baseball game that tends not to happen every game (most certainly not in a 13-1 blowout).

While watching the game, my thoughts drifted not to those people who were hoping a base would be stolen so they might receive a free taco, but to those who are such slaves to the notion of getting free stuff they were actually hoping a base wouldn’t be stolen lest they be forced to travel to a Taco Bell and actually consume the most dismal item on a mostly unnerving menu.

My guess is these people won’t be watching game two.