from Shoewawa:

Fancy a Bloody Mary?

Sometimes we have to show you a shoe simply because it has a great name. That’s the case with this, the ‘Bloody Mary’ from Russell & Bromley. It’s perhaps not worth the £145 price tag when you can get similar styles for much cheaper (check out the January sales), but it does have a certain 1930s charm about it. And come on! It’s called ‘Bloody Mary’, and everyone could do with one of those this time of year! It comes in two other colour schemes too, we're fancying the black and silver.

from Think Secret: With iPod-savvy Windows users clearly in its sights, Apple is expected to announce a bare bones, G4-based iMac without a display at Macworld Expo on January 11 that will retail for $499, highly reliable sources have confirmed to Think Secret.

The new Mac, code-named Q88, will be part of the iMac family and is expected to sport a PowerPC G4 processor at a speed around 1.25GHz. The new Mac is said to be incredibly small and will be housed in a flat enclosure with a height similar to the 1.73 inches of Apple's Xserve. Its size benefits will include the ability to stand the Mac on its side or put it below a display or monitor.

Along with lowering costs by forgoing a display (Apple's entry-level eMac sells for $799 with a built-in 17-inch CRT display), the so-called "headless" iMac will allow Apple's target audience -- Windows users looking for a cheap, second PC -- to keep their current peripherals or decide on their own what to pair with the system, be it a high-priced LCD display or an inexpensive display.

from Chicago Tribune: Illinois and Wisconsin residents with valid driver's licenses who take delivery of a new 2004 or 2005 VW Golf, Beetle or Beetle convertible through March 31 will get a free "In the Car" insurance policy that's good for one year. The policies exceed the minimum requirements in both states.

The policy is underwritten by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.

VW attempted other novel promotions last year, such as offering Golf buyers a free iPod and Jetta buyers a free mountain bike. But neither generated much interest, as both had soft sales last year.

Golf sales were down 45 percent in November and more than 18 percent for the year, and Beetle sales were down 60.7 percent and 27.6 percent respectively. VW also announced production cuts on Golf in Germany because worldwide demand is soft.

By Casey Ross of Boston Herald: Starbucks Coffee is not only popping up on every street corner, it's springing from the roofs of Boston's taxicabs as well.

A holiday advertising gimmick placed atop cabs in recent weeks has been fooling Hub motorists who continually mistake the ad for a Starbucks cup left on the roof.

The coffee ad, a creation of Clear Channel Taxi Media, is a "venti''-sized Starbucks cup magnetically connected to the roofs of about 100 cabs citywide. It is the first advertisement of its kind in the nation.

While the rooftop ad has received significant praise, some drivers say it is so effective it actually creates a maddening distraction from people who point, beep and yell when they see it.

It's a real pain for the driver,'' Meister said. People will stand in traffic and yell, "Hey, you left your coffee cup on the roof!"

image care of The Sand Trap

PC Magazine has named blogrepreneurs, Evan Williams, Meg Hourihan and Paul Bausch of Blogger, along with Ben and Mena Trott of Six Apart, as 2004 people of the year.

Blogger and Six Apart—each boast more than 1 million registered users. Blogger was created in August of 1999 by Evan Williams, Meg Hourihan, and Paul Bausch, who all then worked at Pyra Labs in San Francisco. After surviving the Internet bust, Blogger was purchased by Google in 2003 and continues to flourish today.

Husband and wife Ben and Mena G. Trott founded Six Apart Ltd. in 2002. Based in San Mateo, California, Six Apart makes Movable Type, a weblog publishing application that installs on your Web server, and TypePad, a hosted weblogging service.

from USA TODAY: Vonage, the No. 1 Internet phone company, will unveil plans Tuesday to offer subscribers a wireless Wi-Fi phone that can make calls over the Internet at homes or at public Wi-Fi hot spots. For Vonage subscribers, the phone could amount to a kind of limited-use cell phone that would cost nothing extra.

Vonage will offer the phones to its 400,000 subscribers, who typically pay $24.99 a month for unlimited local and long-distance calls. Those customers plug a regular phone into an adapter linked to a broadband Internet line. Vonage turns the calls into data that zip across the Internet before being converted back to voice at the other end.

Now, Vonage wants to take the service a step further with Wi-Fi networks that let people surf the Internet wirelessly. With a Wi-Fi phone, they could make Internet calls from home without the need to run wires to the broadband line. Customers could use the phone number of their existing Vonage service or a new one for no extra fee.

Subscribers also could use the phones at public Wi-Fi hot spots that offer wireless Web access. Fee-based hot spots are sprouting in coffee shops, hotels and airports. Huge swaths of some cities, and entire college campuses, are becoming free hot spots.

Cuervo and Ginger is a joint marketing effort from Schweppes and Cuervo.

The fashionable t-shirt above is available for free when you register. A good idea for the college student who hates doing laundry. But I believe the brands offer something more valuable here. The real offer is a memorable idea--one that can be easily repeated when faced with the daunting task of ordering for four at a crowded bar.

Thanks to for Preshrunk for the pointer.

from CNN/Money: McDonald's, the world's number one fast-food restaurant and second-largest buyer of chicken, is studying whether to switch its chicken suppliers over to the least-cruel slaughter method, the animal rights group PETA said Tuesday.

Controlled-atmosphere killing, or CAK, is a USDA-approved method of slaughter that is described by animal welfare experts as "the most stress-free, humane method of killing poultry ever developed." The CAK method puts the birds to sleep quickly and painlessly.

According to the animal-rights group, McDonald's (Research) said some of its EU suppliers are already using CAK technology and a feasibility study for the U.S. will be ready this summer. A PETA spokesperson said McDonald's is the first corporation to seriously consider CAK technology and they are hopeful that McDonald's will spur an industry-wide shift.

McDonald's is "committed to animal welfare leadership and to working with our suppliers and recognized experts on animal welfare issues" Anna Rozenich, a spokeswoman for the fast-food restaurateur said.

from Promo Magazine: Last year Kraft signed a marketing alliance with South Beach Diet creator Dr. Arthur Agatston and in October began putting "South Beach Diet Recommended" tags on several products, including Boca Burgers, Kraft Fat Free Singles cheese slices, some Oscar Mayer deli meats, Planters assorted nuts, and Light N' Lively cottage cheese.

Now, with the help of 141 Worldwide in Chicago, Kraft is saying "Life Is Better On The Beach" in a new promotion backed by a sweeps and 14-page, coupon-laden booklet with qualifying purchase.

CLEVELAND (AP) -- The maker of the Dirt Devil is recalling about 20,000 Sweeper Vac battery-powered upright vacuums because they can overheat and start a fire.

No injuries have been reported, Royal Appliance Mfg. Co. said Tuesday.

The recalled vacuums were made in China and have "Dirt Devil" and "Sweeper Vac" printed on the front and model number M083000 and plant Code J printed on a silver plate on the back. They were sold from November 2003 through November 2004 for $30 to $40.

Royal Appliance, based in Glenwillow, said customers should stop using the product and contact Dirt Devil for a free replacement.

The Dirt Devil recall hot line is 800-805-9536.

from LA Times: Minnesota Atty. Gen. Mike Hatch sued Capital One Financial Corp.'s bank unit Thursday over the ads for its "No Hassle" credit card, which promote a supposedly fixed annual interest rate of 4.99%.

Customers who miss a payment deadline or exceed their credit limit can end up with annual interest rates of as much as 27%, Hatch said at a news conference. About 40% of the card's users will be paying higher rates within two years, he said.

One "No Hassle" television ad features barbarian marauders catapulting a man for using a rival credit card — illustrating that interest rates for other banks' credit cards will change arbitrarily, while Capital One's rates won't. Fine print saying "Subject to change without notice" flashes on the screen briefly.

Time for a little "audience participation" segment while David is on the road (and perhaps to silence the naysayers who wonder what I actually do as 'Publisher' - see, I'm doin' somethin').

Anyway, it seems the majority of our audience is involved in the ad industry in some aspect. The question to you; What do you see shaping up in the ad/marketing industry over the coming year? We are looking for all things related to our industry whether it be interactive, traditional print, self promotion or even changes to other industries which may effect what you do.

Drop your viewpoints in the Comments and frame it with general respect to your position if you desire (agency-creative, agency-account management, client-side, etc).

If you want to moderately protect your privacy, drop your comments directly to me via email (shartley -at- gmail -dot- com) and I'll periodically add your anonymized comments to the conversation.

Fire away.

from Lewis Lazare: We don't know why, but 52 years ago someone apparently thought it necessary to prove that glamorous actress Marilyn Monroe would still look fab even if she were dressed only in something as homely as a potato sack.

Now the Idaho Potato Commission is hoping to piggyback off that memorable pic with a new image of its current spokeswoman and fitness icon Denise Austin. Life-sized blow-ups of the Austin photo will soon be posted in supermarket produce aisles.

from The Boston Globe: Beginning Monday, office-supply superstore Staples Inc. will not be running ads on Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc.'s ''The Point," a nightly news commentary spot that has been criticized by left-leaning advocacy groups as conservative propaganda.

Framingham-based Staples declined to pinpoint a particular reason for pulling its ads from the show, other than to say it routinely considers factors such as ratings, demographics, customer concerns, and marketing strategy in deciding whether to continue to advertise on a television program.

frame from a current Staples TV spot

Company spokesman Paul Capelli denied that the move was politically motivated.

''We're an apolitical company," Capelli said. ''Our decision was misrepresented as being politically motivated. We advertise with a variety of media outlets, and we don't necessarily share the same views."

from USA TODAY: The maker of Samuel Adams beer is planning a $7 million expansion of its Cincinnati brewery.

Boston Brewing Co. said Thursday that the project will be completed by September and will allow the company to brew about two-thirds of its Samuel Adams beer in Cincinnati — about 800,000 barrels a year, up from 600,000 now. The company has another brewery in Boston.

Jim Koch, founder of the Boston Brewing, said the purchase of the former Hudepohl-Schoenling brewery seven years ago and the newly announced expansion were especially meaningful to him because his father once served as an apprentice brewmaster there. It is the last remaining brewery in Cincinnati, which once was home to dozens of beer-makers.

Koch is from Cincinnati and is a sixth-generation brewmaster who founded Boston Brewing in 1984 in his kitchen after earning degrees at Harvard University.

from Washington Post: A Washington consumer group held a press conference yesterday urging food marketers to voluntarily quit promoting junk food to children. Center for Science in the Public Interest, which regularly weighs in on nutrition issues, outlined voluntary guidelines calling for a complete halt to promoting soda, caffeinated drinks and sugary drinks; foods largely devoid of nutrients, fruits, vegetable and whole grains; foods high in fats, added sugars or salt; and large-portion products.

The advocacy group also asked food companies and television stations to stop advertising junk food on shows with more than a quarter of the audience under age 18 and to halt the use of toys, games, contests or other incentives to promote nutritionally poor foods. That would mean no more toys in kids' meals at fast-food restaurants unless the meals were more healthful, the group said. It also urged food companies to limit cross-promotions with movies or television shows and to completely stop marketing unhealthful food in schools.

"Clearly, parents bear the primary responsibility for feeding their children a healthy diet," said Margo G. Wootan, the group's nutrition policy director. But, she said, "parents are fighting a losing battle against food marketers," which have more than doubled their marketing spending in the past 10 years to $15 billion. Every day, children see about 58 commercial messages from television alone, and about half of those are for food products, the group said.

"By narrowly focusing on advertising and marketing, CSPI misses the point," the Grocery Manufacturers of America said in a statement. "Effective solutions must incorporate sound nutrition, increased physical activity, consumer and parent education and community support."

When I'm not making blog entries here, I'm at work promoting blogs and other conversational media tools to ad agencies and marketers. I've suggested more than once that conversational media represents a new source of revenue for marketing services firms. Now, that "theory" can be put to rest.

MWW Group, the nation's 11th largest public relations firm, announced the formation of Blog 360, a new specialty practice with focused expertise in blog marketing.

Blog 360 will work with clients to develop proprietary blogging strategies, from creation and marketing to sponsorships and advertising, geared to increasing relevance among target audiences.

According to their press release, blogging provides a unique and highly effective platform to connect with key constituents and audiences who are more difficult to reach via traditional marketing and public relations.

Thanks to Adfreak for the pointer.

from NY Times Magazine: In Elizabethan England, there were sumptuary laws to prevent members of the rabble from dressing above their station. This was never really effective, but to understand how truly futile it is these days for the upper classes to try keeping the masses in their sartorial place, you need to know what a chav is. ''Chav'' -- the champion buzzword of 2004 in Britain, according to one language maven there -- refers to something between a subculture and a social class. Experts disagree about the slang term's origins, but the unofficial definition sounds rather condescending or even cruel: a clueless suburbanite with appalling taste and a tendency toward track suits and loud jewelry.

In any case, there's one aspect of chavness that almost every description mentions right away: Chavs love Burberry. The most popular element of the chav uniform is the Burberry plaid cap.

Of course, when a huge and decidedly not upper-crust class embraces such a signifier, its meaning is completely altered. Sounding thoroughly unamused, Stacey Cartwright, a Burberry executive, argues that this chav business is just a trivial tabloid story. Besides, she continues, ''the caps that the so-called chavs wear are actually counterfeit products; they're not our products.''

Thanks to CMO Magazine for the pointer.

America (The Book), the satire by Jon Stewart and the staff of The Daily Show, was the hottest book in the four weeks before Christmas, according to sales data collected for USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books. In the five weeks after Thanksgiving, Stewart's parody of a textbook outsold Bill Clinton's memoir, My Life, 7 to 1.

For further evidence of the power of fake news, USA TODAY reports that Jonathan Klein, who was appointed in late November as chief executive of CNN's U.S. network has decided to can Crossfire and its bow-tie wearing conservative pundit, Tucker Carlson. Carlson got into an on-air tussle last fall with comic Jon Stewart, who has been critical of cable political programs that devolve into shoutfests.

"I guess I come down more firmly in the Jon Stewart camp," Klein told The Associated Press. Klein said he wants more substantive programming that is still compelling. "I doubt that when the president sits down with his advisers they scream at him to bring him up to date on all of the issues," he said. "I don't know why we don't treat the audience with the same respect."

Neville Hobson, a Brit living in Amsterdam, points to GM's new FastLane blog.

Hobson writes, "This is the first 'mainstream' Fortune 100 company (as opposed to technology-related) to venture into the blogosphere with an executive leadership blog. A tremendous step.

All the elements you'd expect to see in a blog are present - comments, trackbacks and RSS feed.

Welcome, GM!"

According to GM, "The FastLane blog is where you can come to read the latest, greatest musings of GM leaders on topics relevant to the company, the industry and the global economy, and -- most of all -- to our customers and other car enthusiasts. We look forward to an open exchange of viewpoints and welcome your ideas and feedback throughout 2005."

GM has also adapted Charlene Li's blogger code of ethics.

1) We will tell the truth. We will acknowledge and correct any mistakes promptly.

2) We will not delete comments unless they are spam, off-topic, or defamatory.

3) We will reply to comments when appropriate as promptly as possible.

4) We will link to online references and original source materials directly

5) We will disagree with other opinions respectfully.

As I mentioned in this space yesterday, "The game is on."

Dear Brandweek,

Your article, "Kellogg Wakes Up Eggo with New SKUs, Design," (Brandweek, Dec. 13), contains a factual mischaracterization of Pillsbury Waffle Sticks with Dippin' Cups.

Pillsbury Dunkables Waffle Sticks with Syrup Cups, as our product is now called, do not contain 30% more fat than Eggo Original French Toaster Sticks. Eggo Original French Toaster Sticks have six grams of fat per 90-gram serving. Pillsbury Dunkables Waffle Sticks with Syrup Cups have six grams of fat per 122-gram serving. Accounting for our larger serving size, we actually have 30% less fat per gram than the Eggo product.

John Luedke
counsel, General Mills
Minneapolis

Across the country each week, more than 1.6 million people who are not on newspaper subscriber rolls are being delivered copies that did not cost them a cent - but they are still being classified as paying customers, an analysis by The New York Times has found. The papers, which are typically paid for by advertisers, are delivered by small and large dailies across the country, including The Miami Herald, The Wall Street Journal, The San Jose Mercury News and The Boston Globe.

The unsolicited deliveries were made possible by rule changes the newspaper industry approved three years ago. The new rules allowed so-called third-party sales - which the industry once shunned - to be counted as part of a newspaper's total circulation. Without them, many newspapers would be losing circulation at a far higher rate. In the industry as a whole, circulation has been falling for a decade or more.

Martin Cortez points to this outdoor board placed by Champaign, IL-based hip hop label, Up A Notch Records in the name of a fictional parents organization, Coalition of Responsible and Attentive Parents (C.R.A.P).

The label then encouraged a student group, Urbana Champaign Hip Hop Congress to deface their media placements, which was quickly done. Whether members of the student group feel like pawns, easliy manipulated by the savvy guerilla marketers at the record label, is not know at this time.

Hot chocolate lovers can stop in to their local Starbucks this Thursday from 4:00 to 5:00 pm for a free sample of Chantico drinking chocolate, the beverage chain's latest creation.

According to Starbucks, the name “Chantico” comes from the Aztec goddess of hearth and fire. Chantico was said to provide homes with warm comfort and heat for cooking.

For the Aztec culture (circa 1200-1521 A.D.), chocolate was a luxury item and often used as currency.

According to Promo Magazine, Amstel Light, the largest selling imported light beer in the US, has signed once again to sponsor the U.S. Freeskiing Tour. This is the third time Amstel Light has sponsored the tour.

The brand will also sponsor the Amstel Light Free Skiing Sweepstakes, each week for 13 weeks ending March 18. Two grand-prize winners will get two universal adult ski passes for one of any 200 participating U.S. mountains. Entrants can play at Amstellight.com.

Tour events will air on NBC, Fox Sports, OLN, HDTV and in syndication.

According to Brandweek, New York-Swiss luxury watch brand TAG Heuer has named Uma Thurman, tennis champ Maria Sharapova and Nascar star Jeff Gordon "brand ambassadors" in the next evolution of the "What are you made of?" campaign.

The three join Tiger Woods in representing the brand. In addition to being featured in print and outdoor ads, the ambassadors will participate in new product development and public relations.

Holistic Communications, Marin, Switzerland, handled the campaign, which also includes direct mail and the Internet. Fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier lensed the images. The budget was not disclosed but represents a double-digit increase over last year's spend, said TAG Heuer NA president/ CEO Daniel Lalonde. According to Lalonde, the company grew by more than 30% last year.

The campaign, which will break in March issues of fashion and lifestyle magazines, represents a broadening of the TAG Heuer brand position from sports inspired to sports, fashion and glamour. Ads will run in Elle, Esquire, GQ, Vogue, W, Details, Tennis, Golf Digest and Travel & Leisure Golf.

from The New York Times: Against the backdrop of the Macworld Exposition in San Francisco this week, a series of legal actions filed by Apple Computer over the last month highlights the difficulties of defining who is a journalist in the age of the Web log.

As part of a lawsuit filed by Apple in Santa Clara County Superior Court on Dec. 13, the company obtained a court order allowing it to issue subpoenas to AppleInsider.com, PowerPage.org and Thinksecret.com. The three Web sites published or linked to information on what they said was a future Apple audio device that was code-named "Asteroid." The subpoenas are aimed at getting the operators of those sites to disclose the sources of the information that was reportedly leaked.

An attorney representing AppleInsider and PowerPage asserted that bloggers ought to be extended the same protections as mainstream journalists, who have traditionally been given some latitude by the courts in protecting the identities of confidential sources.

"Apple does not seek to discourage communication protected by the free-speech guarantees of the United States and California Constitutions," Apple said in the suit. "These constitutionally protected freedoms, however, do not extend to defendants' unlawful practice of misappropriating and disseminating trade secrets acquired through the deliberate violation of known duties of confidentiality."

from Houston Chronicle: Ken Lay is a 21st century defendant, and he's willing to pay up to 12 cents every time somebody figures that out.

Not only is he telling his side of things on his own Web site, but he's paying to make sure major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and AOL list his site first when you search for his name, Enron and related terms.

The former chairman's computer-literate litigation team is making use of "sponsored links," which appear prominently in searches for a word or name in an Internet search engine. It's one of the ways the search engines make money and one of the ways Web sites can be sure they'll be noticed.

The cost for Lay and others depends on two things: how many people actually look at his Web site and how many other sites want to be seen in connection with the same keywords.

Put the search words "Enron scandal" or "Ken Lay," or even this Enron reporter's name, "Mary Flood," into any of the above search engines and one of the first things you will see is www.kenlayinfo.com. If you hit on Lay's Web site from there, then Lay pays between roughly 5 cents and 12 cents.

"I want people to understand Ken Lay's position. I said that if we were going to do a Web site at all, do it so people can find it," said Lay's Houston lawyer Mike Ramsey.

Marketing experts say it's a smart move.

By Bryn Mickle and Kim Crawford of Flint Journal:

FLINT - Tony J. Young wasn't about to lose his car again.

His 2003 Ford Mustang Coupe had been stolen before, so when it happened again Thursday morning, Young grabbed the rear spoiler and held on as the thief hit the gas.

Clutching the back of his dark gray Mustang, Young managed to call 911 on his cellphone as the car raced down snowy Flint streets.

"I wasn't letting it go again," said Young, 35, of Swartz Creek. "That car's my pride and joy."

Mustang love, however, nearly got Young killed.

His mother, Diane Gilmore of Swartz Creek, said she thinks Young would be better off with a different car.

"He's got to get rid of that sports car. Everybody wants it," she said.

Marketing guru, prolific author and blogger, Seth Godin, says, "If I were the CMO of Verizon, I'd fix the call centers. I'd fire people with a lousy attitude who aren't afraid to share it with a customer. I'd reward the great ones (like the installer who came to my new office last week) and figure out how to get every one of their thousands of people to understand that THEY are the marketing department. And I'd shut down the outbound phone spam center immediately.

Until that happens, the CEO is the CMO, no matter what the title says."

Which reminds me how important it is to do work for companies that make products or offer services you actually believe in and use.

Just days after the Center for Science in the Public Interest called for a voluntary ban on non-nourishing food advertising, Kraft Foods has announced its readiness to comply.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the nation's biggest food manufacturer, said it plans to curb its advertising of Oreo cookies, regular Kool-Aid and other popular snack foods to children under 12 as part of an effort to encourage better eating habits.

"We're working on ways to encourage both adults and children to eat wisely by selecting more nutritionally balanced diets," Kraft senior vice president Lance Friedmann said in a written statement.

Kraft said it will replace the advertisements with those featuring healthier foods for children.

USA TODAY reports that beer, the most popular alcoholic beverage in the United States, has an image crisis. While it is still the nation's favorite alcoholic beverage, it continues to lose ground to wine and spirits.

Beer Marketer's Insights, a trade publication, estimates beer accounted for 59.5% of the alcohol market in its peak year, 1995. That had fallen to 56.7% in 2003.

"We believe there is an overall image crisis with beer," says Smith Barney Citicorp analyst Bonnie Herzog.

As baby boomers age, they are more willing to buy wine and spirits. And wine and spirit companies are successfully targeting younger drinkers with advertising and promotions.

"Our wholesaler contacts have told us through a survey we conducted recently that beer has lost its 'sexiness' and 'appeal to young consumers,'" Herzog says. "We continue to believe the road ahead is a long one for the beer industry."

Six Apart, the company that makes Moveable Type, has been making news of late. They purchased Live Journal for an undisclosed sum. Then I noticed Rick Bruner's pointer to this valuable treatise, available from Six Apart.

Six Apart Guide to Comment Spam

This document describes how malicious or unwanted comments ('comment spam') affect weblogs, the techniques spammers use to abuse weblogs, and the tactics that can be used to prevent and defend against these attacks. Also included is a review of the strengths and weaknesses of each tactic, instructions for implementing them on your weblog and ones which we recommend for the best protection.

from The Telegraph: Enter Karl McKeever, one of Britain's leading visual merchandising consultants. His job is to advise stores on how they can maximise sales by fiddling with the shelves, tweaking the lights and chucking out the clutter. Over the past decade, he has worked with Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's and dozens of other big names on the high street – and now he has agreed to act as my guide around the sales.

"Triangular balance is used everywhere and it's very effective. It works on the idea that your eye will always go to the centre of a picture," says Karl. "Here, they put the biggest, tallest products with the highest profit margin in the centre of each shelf and arrange the other sizes around them to make it look attractive. When you look at the triangle on the shelf, your eye goes straight to the middle and the most expensive box." Once you've seen the most expensive (and, usually, best value for money) box, it's harder to plump for the cheaper bottle.

Nice angle

Shelf psychology is crucial to customer manipulation, says Karl, and it's in evidence again over the road at Boots. Here, the layout is more like an old-fashioned high-street supermarket, where impulse buys are the weapon of choice. Karl gestures towards the umbrellas placed right by the door, the sweets by the till.

You may think that you are immune to impulse buys but in the rarefied and artificial environment of the store – with its straight lines, its bright lights, its bewildering bustle and its heady smells – our brains are surprisingly susceptible. The most profitable impulse buys and special offers are placed on aisle ends – and shops are designed to ensure you pass as many ends as possible.

"The aisle ends are the monthly engines of the business and the promotional calendar is driven by their performance," says Karl.

Thanks to Greedy Girl for the pointer.

Richard at Soft Skull Press is sending me a copy of Look Slimmer Instantly!, a book of poems by Jerome Sala, a former copywriter/creative director. Here's an advance peek...

Variations On A Theme By Charles Barkeley
by Jerome Sala

A poet is not a role model.
So this poem won’t
make you rich like me.
It won’t make you
rebound like me.
It definitely won’t make
you handsome like me.
It will only let you read
a poem the people at Nike
would have written for me
if I were a poet.
I’m not a poet. Period.
Now that’s all
they wanted me to say.

Engadget points to this hack, whereby one's iPod can be made to record high quality audio--something Apple does not want you to do.

The hacker says, "I suspect the next version of the iPod won’t allow booting in to Linux and/or this type of recording. Enjoy it while you can.

With all the podcasting people out there Apple should consider not crippling our iPods so we can all use iPods to record, Apple could do this now with a simple software update…or I guess I can keep booting in to Linux and never update this iPod or just buy a cheap recorder, bah."

Danny G., a copywriter called "insightful and irreverent" by Forbes Magazine, came to Chicago yesterday for an interview. He later treated this copywriter to a dinner at The Flying Chicken on N. Lincoln Avenue in Lakeview.

Danny G. has gained some notoriety recently for editorials he publishes on Talent Zoo, the Atlanta-based headhunting and media firm. I can assure you, he's more reticent in person than in print.

This morning I checked out his online portfolio, and I particularly like his "Yodeling Catfish" radio spot for Furr's Family Dining.

Someone should hire this kid.

Hugh MacLeod, the writer-guy who draws (sometimes raunchy) comics on the back of business cards, says brands are a place. "A place where something happens when somebody (not necessarily the customer) interacts with it:

-By interacting with Gerber, she becomes a better-informed mom.

-By interacting with The Wall Street Journal, she becomes more tuned into the world of capitalism.

-By interacting with Apple, she brings her entrepreneurial dreams closer to reality.

-By interacting with McDonald's, her busy schedule is made slightly easier by avoiding a lot of fuss over lunch.

-By interacting with Ralston Purina, she becomes more attached to her canine friend.

-By interacting with your brand, she becomes...?

And so forth.

Hence why I prefer to use the term 'Brand Geography', as opposed to 'Brand Architecture'.

You go somewhere, something happens, and then you leave. Hopefully something positive happens. The more glaringly obvious the transformation, the better."

I learned today that Court Crandall, one of the founders and principals of Los Angeles agency, Ground Zero, wrote the wildly popular farce on film, Old School. Mr. Crandall also has a children's book coming out care of Random House. And he runs one of the more creative places in the business on a day-to-day basis.

I bet he doesn't nap much.

Wal-Mart is many things to many people. For many, Wal-Mart is simply an affordable place to shop. And what could be wrong with that? For others, Wal-Mart represents all that is wrong with our out-sourced economy. Still others argue that Wal-Mart deteriorates the very infrastructure of a town center, and they vigorously fight the mega-retailer on land-use, zoning and economic fronts.

USA TODAY says: The world's biggest retailer's image has been battered in recent years by critics of its labor practices, its effect on competitors, its imported goods and more. Among the results have been lawsuits and resistance in some cities to Wal-Mart expansion.

Scott says the purpose of the public effort is to inform: "As long as what we're communicating is factual, there's no downside. If we put this out and people disagree with it or they want to discuss it, if what they're discussing are the facts, then we come out just fine."

Of course, if Wal-Mart truly wanted to encourage honest conversations, they would have built a blog (that allows comments) into their shiny new P.R. site. And what a hornets nest that would be.

I understand that to merely acknowledge criticism is a big-step for a cultish enterprise like Wal-Mart. But acknowledgement is not enough. This P.R. campaign smacks of corporate righteousness. Wal-Mart, by being on the side of the facts, is saying in explicit terms that its detractors are not.

from Brandweek -- In a no-brainer of a tie-in, supermarket chain Winn-Dixie is linking to Fox's upcoming film, Because of Winn-Dixie, with a new effort designed to reward those who fill shopping baskets ever higher.

This week, the Jacksonville, Fla.-based chain began offering free tickets to the movie for every purchase over $200. Those who tally up more than $250 also get a copy of the book of the same name. For $300, consumers get tickets, the book and a plush toy version of the dog in the movie, which is named Winn-Dixie.

The promotion runs through Jan. 30 and is supported with TV and radio ads. Fox's movie, starring Jeff Daniels and singer Dave Matthews, is set to open on Feb. 18.

The film is based on the book by Kate DiCamillo.

While we took Bill Gates for a Journey fan, it appears he may have more updated tastes in rock music. In a recent appearance with Trey Anastasio from Phish, the legendary but now defunct Vermont-based jamband, Gates said he had attended several Phish concerts in the mid-1990s dressed in wigs and sunglasses, in order to better blend in.

Click here for the real story.

Gates credits the band with his move from CEO to Chief Technology Officer. "Music teaches humility," said Gates, reaching for guru status.

Note: Because some days we just want to be The Onion

from NY Times: In the haphazard world of instant messaging and dashed-off e-mail messages, where "kk" isn't a typographical mistake but just the latest bit of Internet slang (it stands for kays, or O.K.), does anyone really care about style and grammar anymore?

Google does. Taking the stance that unorthodox usage and punctuation and slang create a less straightforward searching experience, Google's AdWords division, which is responsible for the contextual ads that appear alongside search results, insists on standard English and punctilious punctuation. Cater to teenagers hooked on text messaging? This is a world with no "dealz 4 u." To those who say, "Grammar schmammar, this is advertising, after all," Google might suggest: "Schmammar is not a word. Try 'Forget about grammar' instead."

David Fischer, director for AdWords, said: "We really focus on creating ads that at the most basic level have proper spelling and grammar so that they're clear to users. We really encourage clear, effective, to-the-point communication to searchers.

Google maintains an in-house style guide, which it says is a living document, expanding over time to include neologisms and pop culture references.

from Promo Magazine: The "Let Them Eat Cake" sweepstakes, which supports the recent launch of Baskin-Robbins ice cream cake treats and the upcoming world premiere of The History Channel's The French Revolution, puts a new twist on Marie Antoinette's infamous statement, "Let them eat cake."

Marie Antoinette, Queen of France

Consumers can log onto History.com/frenchrevolution to enter the sweeps. The grand-prize winner will receive a trip for two to Paris, including a one-day revolutionary art excursion to Versailles or a trip for two to London to see Les Misérables on stage and private instruction for 45 private lessons on Berlitz French and educational materials.

Five first-prize winners will receive the Berlitz basic French self-study programs and a three-day, two-night trip for two to the French Quarters in New Orleans, LA. Second-prize winners will receive The History Channel's French Revolution on DVD.

As part of the promotion, consumers can request a "verbal coupon" by visiting participating Baskin-Robbins stores and saying, "Let them eat cake" to a Baskin-Robbins crew member to receive a $2 coupon off a future cake purchase.

from USA TODAY: Smart, the Mercedes-Benz mini-car brand that evolved from a 1993 joint venture with watchmaker Swatch, definitely will launch a small four-seater in the USA in September 2006, but it might decide to sell one of its toy-like two-seaters here even before that, according to Smart CEO Ulrich Walker.

The U.S.-bound Formore isn't displayed at the Detroit auto show, however, because Walker says it doesn't make sense to show a car so far in advance of launch.

Walker says reaction from showgoers to the two-seaters on display here will help Smart, unprofitable despite selling 153,000 cars in 36 countries last year, decide what to charge for the Formore and what other model might be popular in America.

Typical price for a two-seater in other markets is about $14,000, Smart says.

Despite American aversion to small cars, Walker says, Smart should appeal because of distinctive looks and the 50- to 60-miles-per-gallon fuel economy of its small-displacement gas and diesel engines. Smart cars would be sold at Mercedes-Benz dealerships.

Forbes: Yesterday Adolph Coors said it would offer an additional $1.81 per share, or 6%, to Molson shareholders in order to head off growing resistance and a rival offer from SABMiller. Though the Molson shareholder is now getting a better than "equal" deal, no one seems to be toasting their good fortune.

Though Coors sells a lot more beer than Molson, Molson has traditionally been more profitable, and it is the Molson partisan who has expressed dissatisfaction with the alleged equality with Coors. Pressure on the dealmakers mounted, and London-based brewer SABMiller has swooped in with its own proposal.

Shareholders of both companies are scheduled to vote on the transaction Jan. 28. If it goes through, the combined Coors-Molson brewery would have sales of more than $6 billion per year. Colorado-based Coors is currently the world's 8th-largest brewer, and Molson is ranked No. 15.

SABMiller executives reportedly still think they can secure a deal with Molson. It has ample financing if the Coors merger falters.

from Scotsman.com: A war of words has broken out between Jamie Oliver and the makers of Heinz baked beans.

The celebrity chef caused a stir when he charged £7 for beans on toast at his restaurant Fifteen.

But the 29-year-old has now turned his back on the tinned pulses, saying they have no place in “a restaurant with integrity”.

Oliver blamed Heinz for what he confessed was a “publicity stunt”, and hinted that he was stupid to fall for it.

But Heinz hit back, saying it was not their decision to charge £7 for the snack, which was served up last autumn with olive oil, cherry tomatoes, red chillies, parmesan and ciabatta.

Thanks to Agenda Inc. for the pointer.

from USA Today: The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, which stars Bill Murray as a dissolute deep-sea explorer searching for a jaguar shark, may be slowly sinking on the box-office charts.

But an avid coterie of filmgoers are on a quest for the footwear equivalent of Zissou's elusive prey: the nifty Adidas-brand blue-and-aqua-striped training shoes sported by the oceanographer's team.

Shortly after the movie opened last month, bloggers began extolling the style virtues of the modified version of the retro Rom design, with fat canary-hued shoelaces and "Zissou" printed on the side.

Josh Rubin, 30, a New York-based software designer who blogs about eye-catching products on his site Cool Hunting (joshrubin.com), was quite taken with the unique sneak. "I liked the color combination — or 'colorway,' as it is called in sneaker design," he says. Rubin's site points to a petition signed by some 600 Zissou evangelists.

The film's director, Wes Anderson, has made an Adidas fashion statement before. In 2001, The Royal Tenenbaums caused a run on the red track suit donned by Ben Stiller.

"Wes Anderson likes our products, and we are fans of his films," Adidas spokesman Matt Martel says. No money is exchanged for such exposure, though the company gets to approve of any customizing.

A 2006 Cadillac DTS will be sworn into service this week to chauffeur President Bush in his second inaugural parade. The '06 DTS replaces a 2001 Cadillac DeVille President Bush had been using.

While boasting that the front end of the presidential limo gives the public its first look at the design adopted for the consumer version of the new DTS sedan that comes out this fall, Cadillac offered few other specifics.

The regular '06 DTS, which succeeds the DeVille in the Cadillac lineup, will be introduced at the Chicago Auto Show next month in McCormick Place.

Cadillac has provided a variety of cars adapted for presidential limo service since 1918, when Woodrow Wilson was driven in a Cadillac Town Car.

Source: Chicago Tribune

Sideways, the new film from Alexander Payne, won several Golden Globes last night. I'll leave the artistic judgments to more qualified voices, but allow me to point out how well this film markets wine, and specifically Santa Barbara County wineries like Firestone, Foxen, Fess Parker and Kalyra.

Actually, the lead character Miles, an ornery oenophile, disdains Fess Parker, but he adores the others.

Fox Searchlight does a seamless job of integrated marketing, making a map to all the locations in the film available for download from the studio's site.

For me, it calls to mind Jay McInerney's 1980s novel, Bright Lights Big City, and how fans of the book would frequent the bars of lower Manhattan looking to live the written experience for themselves. Of course, McInerney's publisher did not provide a map, but that was then. If the book was coming out today, they well might.

Last night on Food Network's "Iron Chef" Chicago's Rick Bayless of Frontera Grill & Topolobampo, went down hard to Bobby Flay of New Yawk in what many consider to be questionable judging. The secret ingedient for this episode was buffalo, and everyone knows Bayless can cook him some buffalo.

Chicagoist for one, was hoping to "see Bayless wipe the floor with Flay's pompous ass."

Sadly, it didn't happen that way.

from NY Times: Looking for new ways to expand their businesses, makers of the two top diaper brands, Huggies and Pampers, are both introducing lines of toiletries for babies and small children.

Pampers, made by Procter & Gamble, the No. 2 diaper brand in the United States with 30.5 percent of the market, is now rolling out a new line of Kandoo products, including flushable wipes and foaming hand soap, both intended to teach children aged 3 to 7 proper bathroom hygiene.

Both Kandoo products have ergonomically designed packaging with graphics that show children how to use them, and a frog cartoon character, which also appears in a new advertising campaign.

The ads are meant to convert bathroom hygiene "into something genuinely fun and empowering for children," said Merrie Harris, an executive vice president of Saatchi & Saatchi, the agency that created the campaign.

from Silicon Beat: Now that the use of RSS aggregators is really starting to take off, people are peering into the question of market share. Which aggregator is the favorite among users — and thus best positioned to generate a viable revenue stream? Some data is starting to emerge, though a lot of it is seriously back-of-the-envelope kind of stuff.

A couple of weeks ago, the Pew Internet & American Life Project released a report estimating that "5 percent of internet users say they use RSS aggregators or XML readers.'' That's about six million Internet users, and the number is probably higher because Pew only surveyed adults.

Bloglines, the most popular aggregator today, has an estimated 2 million users. That would seem to put CEO Mark Fletcher in a pretty enviable position once he finally starts "integrating highly targeted contextual advertising" into the service later this year.

Why is Bloglines so popular? Aside from being reliable and easy-to-use, our guess is that it has something to do with what Paul Graham said about Web-based applications in his recent book, Hackers and Painters. "The idea of 'your computer' is going away and being replaced by 'your data.' You should be able to get at your data from any computer. Or rather any client, and a client doesn't have to be your computer.'' As a Web-based application, Bloglines offers that convenience.

Writing in the current issue of Communication Arts, Sam McMillan looks at today’s ubiquitous Weblog. His oddly named feature, "The Blog that Ate the Internet" explores the blog spaces designers inhabit, and suggests several sites to visit in the process.

For those about to blog, Eris Free provides an incredible free resource. Click on the "linkware" menu item and you'll be directed to a screen full of templates Eris has created that can be deployed for your very own blog. A few button clicks is all it takes to select a template, customize it and get it up and running. Apparently over 6,500 bloggers have downloaded these templates and are now, thanks to Erin, sharing their thoughts with the world using one of her elegantly-crafted, functional templates.

McMillan also points to Speak Up and Design Observer, two sites featuring a community of designers who like to write. He also points to one of my favorite design sites, What Do I Know, by Atlanta designer Todd Dominey.