Normally, the simplest idea is the best idea. But sometimes an idea can be too simple. When that's the case, it's necessary to have a great director lined up. Which is precisely what TBWA\CHIAT\DAY\SF did, when facing this quandry. They wisely chose Reginald Pike's Brian Lee Hughes to make their latest spots for Adidas. …
Introducing Brand-Filtered News
I didn't have to scroll far in Benetton's blog to find something totally unrelated to their core business. After President Bush and his wife visited a shrine in New Delhi, India, Hindu priests conducted a purification of the shrine. Not because of the Bush or his wife, who (like everyone else) removed their shoes before entering, but rather because of the bomb-sniffing security dogs that accompanied the US President …
The Hook
It's All Advertising picked up on Crispin Porter's podcast, an audio effort from Katie Kempner, VP of Agency Communications at the Miami shop. An archive of shows is available from Webmasterradio.fm. In one episode, Kempner discusses yogic flying with Interactive CD, Jeff Benjamin. Benjamin apparently used his knowledge of yogic flying to woo Alex Bogusky's assistant. The podcast carries advertising. [UPDATE] It …
Citibankers Up A Creek
Boing Boing is running a customer service horror story about Citibank. Citibank customer Jake Appelbaum tried to withdraw cash with his ATM card on Saturday night in Toronto. The ATM machine rejected the transaction and urged Applebaum to contact his financial institution. When he did, he discoverd his problems were part of a much larger fraud crisis at the bank. The supervisor informed me that there had been no …
No Qualms From BMW’s Writers
From The New York Times: Nobody had to pay author Karin Slaughter to put a BMW in one of her books: it's what the protagonist, Dr. Sara Linton, drives in five Grant County crime novels. In the acknowledgments for "Indelible" in 2004, Ms. Slaughter wrote, "I've had Sara drive a BMW in every one of these books in the hopes that the nice folks over in Munich will thank me with a shiny new 330Ci." Ms. Slaughter never did …
Digits Piling Up
From USA TODAY: Media and entertainment conglomerate NBC Universal Monday said it would acquire iVillage, operator of a network of websites for women, for $600 million in a bid to bolster its Internet strategy. The deal, expected to close in the second quarter, underscores the ambitions of established media companies to establish a presence on the Internet as the medium develops into a bona-fide alternative to …
Writers Guild Resists Advertainment
From The New York Times: A Hollywood union is stepping up its campaign against the embedding of brands and products in entertainment and, as they say in the movies, this time it's personal The Writers Guild of America, West, is making fun of the interweaving of sponsors' wares into films and TV shows with a so-called viral video that is scheduled to appear this week on a union-sponsored Web site. The video mocks Tyra …
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Finally, A PDF That Pays
From Kottke: 37signals has published their latest book, Getting Real, as a PDF download that they are distributing themselves. After more than a day, they've sold over 1750 copies at $19 apiece: If you do the math, that's ~$33,000 in sales in one day. I don't know what the advance would be on a book like that, but they've got to be approaching it, and if/when they reach that figure, the profit margin on subsequent …