Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist in the tech sector with a popular following thanks to his A VC blog, thinks Apple brand is bruised and on the road to worm-ridden. I am afraid to upgrade to a new version of iTunes because it might make my music and video unusable or it might brick my iPhone. I am afraid to upgrade to Leopard because it might brick my MacBook. I have a brand new iPhone sitting right next to me on my …
Publicis Gets Its PR On
This month's Fast Company has quite the puff piece on Publicis and its assorted ventures, including Digitas, Droga5, and how it's all coming together. Here's a choice nugget you may not have known about Digitas and its CEO, David Kenny: Kenny has focused on transformative, systemwide initiatives since arriving at Publicis. In May, he rolled out a digital production company called Prodigious Worldwide, which uses …
Why So Ugly?
Rob Walker discusses the absense of a design imperative in MySpace's offering. When I first looked at MySpace, my reaction was: “What a mess. It’s just (visual) noise.” In fact I think I reacted to it much like parents reacted to some of the music I listened to when I was a kid: That it wasn’t music at all, just noise. Now what’s interesting about that to me is that, from my point of view, it most certainly was …
Booze Barriers Fall
According to Stuart Elliott, WNBC-TV in New York is daring to run spirits ads. The decision is a small but significant sign of changing attitudes toward advertising of products that many consider contentious. From 1948 until 1996, no TV station or network accepted liquor ads although distilled spirits were advertised in newspapers, magazines and billboards. Today, hundreds of television stations and networks carry …
Anomaly Loses A Client, But What About The Products?
Although I'm very fuzzy on how the compensation models are set up, I've been intrigued by agencies like Anomaly that have pursued other means of revenue than writing ads. This story in Adweek mentions that Anomaly has lost Virgin America, but because of the unusual business arrangement, things sound complicated: Virgin America's split with the incumbent will take effect in January, said Jason DeLand, a partner at …
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Give Caribou A Coffee
BarbaraLippert of Adweek likes the new Starbucks spots from Wieden + Kennedy. "Ski Lift" is abstract, but still warm. It features cool, switched-on music ("I Love NYE," by Badly Drawn Boy) and even offers a little breather when it comes on, like staring inside a snow globe, or, um, taking a coffee break in a cozy, welcoming café. Given that Caribou Coffee is a Starbucks competitor in several states, I find this …