eBay entered China through a $180 million purchase of Shanghai-based EachNet. Expedia owner InterActiveCorp paid $168 million for 52 percent of Chinese online travel agent eLong. Online retailer Amazon.com purchased Joyo.com for $75 million, and online job search leader Monster.com bought a 40 percent stake in ChinaHR.com for $50 million. Now, according to CNET, Yahoo is prepared to pay 1 billion dollars for a 35 …
Please Hammer Don’t Hurt Me
So I'm sitting here watching "The Today Show" when a commercial for Purell Hand Soap comes on, with MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" in the background. Then it occurred to me that I just saw him a month ago dancing in a Nationwide Insurance commercial to "U Can't Touch This" implying "Hey, you too can go broke if you spend all your record royalties on parachute pants. So get Nationwide." Clearly, using famous songs …
TYPESTRONG Before This Blog Thing Ends
Greg Storey of Airbag Industries wrote recently about how blogs are now being used to sell computers. Last night I came across a back-to-college commercial for Gateway computer. Nothing any of us haven't already seen already: ultra low cost computer systems complete with a free printer, after a fifty dollar rebate. Except this time I caught a slight difference in the advertising message: "...perfect for blogging or …
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Tune Playing In Pam’s Head: Freebird
Female First: Busty beauty Pamela Anderson has ditched a personal appearance at US pet store Petco's 40th anniversary convention this week, because she learned the chain sells live birds. Staff at the legendary pet store were thrilled at the prospect of bringing the former Baywatch babe on board for their celebrations, but they refused to bow to her bird-loving demands, reports PageSix.com. The actress-turned-animal …
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What Mercury Sounds Like
Ford Motor Company is offering four audio streams from their Mercury Radio page. VW was first-to-market with this technology a few years ago, but the German automaker discontinued its internet radio station last year. …
Alum Woos Gators
Adweek: The University of Florida has selected Fletcher Martin to provide the school's advertising following a review, the shop said. The university selected the MDC Partners shop in Atlanta from 17 agencies that competed for the account, all but two of them in Florida. There was no incumbent. This is the first time the university has hired an outside agency to provide general branding for the school. FM will create …
Febreze: The Great Unifier
New York Times: Think only politics makes strange bedfellows? Look what Procter & Gamble has wrought. The company long ago split up its advertising, with Tide laundry detergent now handled by Saatchi & Saatchi, Bounce antistatic dryer sheets by Leo Burnett Toronto and Downy fabric softener by Grey Worldwide. But now the company has put the scent of Febreze, its household odor freshener for fabrics, into all three …
Ries vs. Trout: Trout 1, Ries 0
Back in the 70's, Al Ries and Jack Trout collaborated on a book called Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind, which has been widely praised for its innovative thinking. These days, they've gone their separate ways, and each has a column out this week, where you can see their divergent points of view. Al Ries contributes to Ad Age regularly, and invariably the point of every column is "I told you so" and "If only …