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Agencies In Strange Places: Tenth In A Series
What are creative wunderkids, Gale Venosdel and Chris Rock, doing in Springfield, MO? Zagging, when others have zigged, that's what. Other entries in this series: Memphis, Greenville, Lincoln, Bozeman, Coeur d'Alene, Burlington, Omaha, Venice Beach and Bend. …
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Get Ready For Oz Fest
USA Today: The hottest potential endorser coming out of the 2005 World Series is not a pitcher, catcher or center fielder. It's manager Ozzie Guillen of the victorious Chicago White Sox. Managers and coaches almost never outshine players on Madison Avenue. But sports marketing executives are jumping on the bandwagon of Guillen, the rollicking, 41-year old "Wizard of Oz" who's threatened to retire after leading the …
Software Bullies Treading On Thin Ice Again
Pollstar: Fighting an addiction is tough, just ask Microsoft. Already under close scrutiny for its antitrust habit of pulverizing competing companies into so much dust and dirt, the software giant was recently admonished by a federal judge for distributing a proposal to potential clients outlining an exclusivity deal that would prevent competitors from entering the personal music player playground. In was described …
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WWE Eats Its Young
Random Culture and MIT Advertising Lab point to World Wrestling Entertainment's move to get viewers to skip commercials. In an unusual maneuver that one media agency executive described as a dangerous precedent for advertisers, World Wrestling Entertainment has started pushing viewers to its Web site during commercial breaks in "Monday Night Raw" on USA Network. Rather than halting the event when USA cuts to …
Retired But Still A Target
The New York Times: For a 47-year-old advocacy group, AARP is acting a lot like a for-profit corporation these days. Look at the products it has in the wings for next year. There is an investment fund aimed at people over 50, the first such product it has developed on its own. There is a consulting service to help companies develop their own products for the 50-plus crowd. There is a "seal of approval" program in …
Liberating Content From Behind The Registration Gate
BugMeNot.com was created as a mechanism to quickly bypass the login of web sites that require compulsory registration and/or the collection of personal/demographic information (such as the New York Times). I had never used this tool until moments ago. I'm impressed. On their site, they point to the anti-registration reasoning behind the service. -It's a breach of privacy. -Sites don't have a great track record with …
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Forbes Lives In Fear
Danny G. sent me the much maligned Forbes article on blogs last night, and at first I thought it was some sort of Onionesque spoof. There's a lot of that going around these days. Anyway, sorry to say it's no spoof, just shoddy thinking masking as journalism. Web logs are the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective. Their potent allies in this pursuit include …