December 1, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

BusinessWeek reports on the big push the radio industry will make next year to promote HD radio. If there's anything the radio industry can do successfully, it's to get airtime for itself:

In its largest advertising campaign ever, the broadcast radio industry plans to give up airtime next year valued at more than $250 million to promote a new technology—high-definition or HD radio—that enables listeners to receive hundreds of new stations with niche formats, from Washington Post Radio to Spanish oldies, BusinessWeek.com has learned.

The first directive will be to educate consumers about HD radio and why it is different from regular AM and FM radio. The spots will also promote how these new programming formats can be tailored more deeply in specific genres, says Peter Ferrara, chief executive of the HD Digital Radio Alliance. "We also want people to know there will be no subscription fees, unlike satellite radio," he says. "People have enough monthly expenses, from cell phones to Starbucks."

I agree with Ferrara's point about monthly fees, but I just bought a new car, and it didn't come with XM, Sirius, or HD comaptibility built-in, and I think that'll be the key to pushing the new technology--to make it easy to access. I don't know who'd rush out to buy a new radio that's HD compatible. Besides, right now my priority is to find a way to plug my iPod in without one of those cheap FM transmitters that sound like crap.

December 1, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

I show you this product not because I'm particularly fond of tidying up. No, I like Dirt Devil's tagline, "Fight Dirty" alot. Whatever the sweeper's charms, the tagline is poetry in motion.

December 1, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Omnicom swooped in on another creatively-driven agency. This time, it's 180 in Amsterdam.

Founded in 1998 by Managing Partners Alex Melvin, Guy Hayward and Chris Mendola, 180 Amsterdam is one of the most awarded independent agencies in the world. In 2004, 180 Amsterdam was recognized as the world's third most awarded agency at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

"Led by an outstanding management team, 180 is at the leading edge of international creativity. We are delighted to welcome 180 to our portfolio of award winning, world-class creative agencies," said John Wren, President and CEO of Omnicom Group Inc.

December 1, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Steve Rubel warns anyone reliant on page views for income to rethink their business model before it vanquishes.

The page view does not offer a suitable way to measure the next generation of web sites. These sites will be built with Ajax, Flash and other interactive technologies that allow the user to conduct affairs all within a single web page - like Gmail or the Google Reader. This eliminates the need to click from one page to another. The widgetization of the web will only accelerate this.

This is a dirty little secret in the advertising business that no one wants to talk about. Media companies love to promote how many page views their properties get. They've used the data to build equity. They will fight it tooth and nail to protect it, perhaps by not embracing interactive technologies as quickly as they shuld. But that's not going to stop the revolution from coming.

December 1, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

created by The Ad Workers Local in Milwaukee

[via Tom Monahan's blog, Before & After]

December 1, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

December 1, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

ValleyWag keeps us informed on the latest Valley Speak. Today's term: Rollup.

At least half a dozen groups, including private equity groups and entrepreneurs such as Ross Levinsohn, are establishing funds to acquire -- or roll up -- internet media companies. Here's the logic: internet advertising is booming; established media and internet companies can't buy everything, because they have a hard enough job integrating the units they already have; the public offering route is still closed because of excessive regulation; venture capital partnerships typically invest at an earlier stage; and some internet entrepreneurs have profitable businesses, impatience for some personal financial return, and no obvious exit. Which is where the rollup funds come in.

December 2, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

In an interview in today's New York Times, Hamish McLennan, new CEO of Y&R Brands and Ann Fudge's replacement, talks about the challenges that agency faces:

Q. What is your perception of Y&R’s place in the industry?

A. Generally, it’s going well. We’ve got $800 million in global revenue. What’s happened in North America over the last three years was a disappointment. People know Y&R as an iconic agency that stood for great people, great thinking, over the decades. It’s not good for anyone if it fails, and it won’t. The most important things in the next two to three years are how we can capitalize on opportunities as they come up in new media, diversify our offering, become more aggressive in new business and invest in our talent.

December 3, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

Ad Age examines a celebrity-backed promotion designed to provoke the over-60 crowd into visiting the candy aisle more often.

Coinciding with the 30th Anniversary of Elvis's death next summer, Hershey will shimmy onto the shelf a limited-edition peanut-butter-and-banana-creme variety inspired by the rock 'n' roll legend. And the rollout will be accompanied by a significant promotional outlay.

The push comes as part of Hershey's effort to regain momentum for its brands, which have lost share to Mars during the last three months. Sales for Reese's -- No. 1 in the chocolate category -- fell slightly during the last year to $412 million. And while many retailers question the appeal of the new flavor itself, the power of the pompadoured pop star is expected to bring attention to the item in stores.

December 3, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Carmichael Lynch has been making some great TV for Tractor Supply Co., the largest retail farm and ranch store chain in the United States.

The spot above uses dramatic pause, or silence, to a degree rarely seen in a commerical.

These spots also show respect for the audience. Ranch hands and others in need of Carhartt bibs like to laugh too!

December 4, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 6 Comments

Not sure if you need to be a subscriber to read the whole thing, but Adweek has an interesting report on the McCann creatives who underwent basic training in order to fully understand life in the US Army so they could work on their new account:

By his second day of basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C., Craig Markus had had enough. A day earlier, Markus—lead creative on McCann Worldgroup's U.S. Army account— and 55 of his colleagues had been greeted at the airport by drill sergeants who barked commands and demanded prompt compliance. Now, he was on his second day of 4:30 a.m. wake-ups, followed by push-ups, sit-ups, marching and drills. The Army wanted to make sure that the New York ad executives fully grasped the line they had presented to win the account last December: "Army strong."

"It was incredibly humbling," says Markus. "Every person I meet in the Army is truly amazing—what they're offering to this country, the sacrifices they're willing to make. These are the people you want fighting for you whether you agree or disagree with the fight."

The self-described patriotic liberal says some peers have reacted negatively to his working on the account. They equate selling the Army with selling cigarettes. Or worse. As leader of the free world, he answers, the U.S. needs a strong Army, even in peace time.

December 4, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Randall Rothenberg dropped in on Peter Arnell and lived to tell his Ad Age readers about it.

Mr. Arnell has been unquietly unmaking the concept of marketing services ever since he burst into view in the late 1980s with such out-of-the-box ideas as fashion ads that didn't feature the products, city-inspired in-store installations and architect-designed teapots.

It's all of a piece. "Da Vinci, Jefferson, Michelangelo -- where would they be on an org chart?" Mr. Arnell, characteristically bluff, told me recently in his book-lined office overlooking Prince Street in Soho. "Ben Franklin founded the post office, invented electricity, even created a typeface. What's he?"

Since, Rotherberg leaves Arnell's rhetoric unanswered, feel free to sound off in our comments.

December 4, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Ad Age looks at how many consumers choose to interact with brand websites. The numbers are pretty outstanding, at least in the examples given.

Corporate and brand websites -- once derided as "brochureware" in a digital marketing world that quickly moved to sexier applications -- are getting a rehabilitation of sorts as their traffic numbers vie with those of many consumer sites in the web's long tail.

Such package-goods marketers as Procter & Gamble Co. and Unilever don't sell many products directly online. Their low-cost, low-involvement brands tend not to generate much search. Yet the websites of P&G and Unilever now reach nearly 6 million and 3 million unique visitors, respectively, in the U.S. each month, according to ComScore Media Metrix.

The artcile goes on to point out that monthly web audiences for P&G and Unilever brands now easily swamp the audiences of many magazines, cable and syndicated TV shows where they advertise.

December 4, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

"We're turning Interpublic into a real company."

So says Michael Roth, CEO of Interpublic. Ad Age has the full report on what Roth said today at a media-industry conference.

December 5, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Om Malik is a playa. A pimp daddy.

Online video, gaming, data centers and virtual work - they were part of my larger vision of GigaOM network.

Today, we took the next step forward and launched NewTeeVee.com, a site devoted to online video, and other technologies that are reinventing the video experience.

The new site has a section called "The Stars", where one can read about an attractive young woman eating a praying mantis in order to get her friends to attend church, among other sordid topics.

December 5, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Microsoft is launching a new product, Office Accounting 2007. As part of the launch party, the software company is conducting a competition for the best small business idea in the country. The winner of this contest (which ends Jan. 30, 2007) gets free retail space in New York City for one year, $100,000 of start-up funds and free software and tools to run the online aspect of the business.

Strawberry Frog worked with Microsoft to develop this promotional campaign.

[via Susanna Hammer]

December 5, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

Still one of the funniest videos ever made about the ad biz, courtesy of the now out-of-business Elvis & Bonaparte Advertising in Portland.

By the way, someone recently registered ReachFrequency.com just to post this video by itself. It's a bit mysterious.

December 5, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Grey/San Francisco is behind this new anti-binge drinking campaign from Youth Ledership Institute.

The campaign's Unhappy Hour blog dispenses facts like: 70% of college students binge drink before doing really stupid things to themselves and/or others.

December 5, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to USA Today, The Wall Street Journal is tightening its belt.

The new design will shave three inches from the width of the paper, the equivalent of about one column. The new front page will have five columns instead of six, with the "What's News" summary of the previous day's news flush to the left side of the paper.

Moving to a more standard width of 12 inches, the width of USA TODAY, will save Dow Jones (DJ), the newspaper's publisher, about $18 million a year and also allow the paper to be printed in more locations, making it easier to produce and deliver more widely.

December 5, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

Boy, if you thought DraftFCB was up shit's creek before, you ain't seen nothing yet. Because the key client decision-maker at Wal-Mart who gave the account to them has gone--after 9 months on the job. From Ad Age:

Ms. Roehm's departure comes a little more than a month after the retailer handed its account to Interpublic Group of Cos.' DraftFCB and its media partner on the pitch, Aegis Group's Carat.

Her role in the review was closely watched as well as her willingness to get personal with agency executives vying for the account. Most notable was her spin in the Aston Martin of Howard Draft, chairman-CEO of the DraftFCB.

Would you have any respect for a love-'em-and-leave-'em marketing person like this? I mean, this chick told the 3 other agency finalists they lost the pitch right after they all walked out of an Eagles concert together.

December 5, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

ValleyWag points to Jason Calacanis' new deal with Sequoia Capital. More importantly, they take time to explain what it means.

This is further evidence that Sequoia is investing seriously in an area that Silicon Valley venture capital has typically avoided: media. Used to be that VC firms demanded proprietary technology as a pre-condition of investment. But the success of venture such as Youtube has shown that user interface and speed of execution can be more important than technology in providing some kind of sustained advantage. The investment by Mike Moritz, Sequoia's most influential partner, in Popsugar, the gossip site for women, suggested a shift. The embrace of Calacanis confirms it.

No doubt, The Zero Boss will be happy with the news.

December 5, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 8 Comments

Scott G thinks people responsible for making bad ads should be blackballed from the industry. He fails to mention there would be no one left to hire, but I digress.

"Silly Girl" in Kansas City sees the problem differently:

Are you fucking kidding me? You will never be anyone in this business until someone has a backstory on you about "that one time you fucked up big".

I reject Scott's argument and substitute my own: don't hire people who haven't made mistakes or taken risks (even seemingly stupid ones like suggesting a Pepto-Bismol bottle dance).

December 5, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

When I first heard about the ad below, created by the right-wing Move America Forward organization,

I was reminded of this poster, created for the relatively liberal Bill Maher's book When You Ride Alone, You Ride With Bin Laden.

YouTube is clearly demonstrating an ability to get all sorts of issues out to the public. It's not just for silly viral videos anymore.

December 6, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

I firmly believe that advertising and marketing professionals need people out in the media who provide checks and balances.

So I was privileged to talk with consumer advocate David Horowitz of FightBack.com on a new Hot Mic podcast on Radio Talent Zoo.

We talked about some big issues in the advertising industry, including "loyalty" programs, consumer-generated content, privacy, the Super Bowl, pharmaceutical advertising, customer service, and the time he was held hostage live on television. He has some very provocative things to say.

Give it a listen. I hope you enjoy it. David even sent me a handwritten note thanking me for the interview--a very classy move.

December 6, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

Take it for what it's worth. Speculation is leaking out about Julie Roehm's quick departure from Wal-Mart. From Mediapost:

One source says that during the pitch process for the Wal-Mart account, a lot of "gratuitous gifts" changed hands, raising eyebrows inside the company. Wal-Mart has a very strict policy about gratuities. While many executives in the ad industry wouldn't flinch at the worth of the things Roehm may have pocketed during the pitch process, Wal-Mart management felt otherwise.

In addition, almost immediately following the awarding of the account to DraftFCB, the agency took out a full-page advertisement in Creativity magazine touting the Cannes Lions Awards that depicted two lions mating, with the smug caption: "It's good to be on top."

This did not create a roar of approval at corporate headquarters. The copulating couple caused quite a buzz inside the company as executives questioned Roehm's judgment, says a source.

I'm sure we'll hear more on this, from sources both anonymous and not.

December 7, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

More stories about Julie Roehm and the future of the Wal-Mart account pop up today. Brandweek addresses the future of the account, pondering this:

Whether the remaining management team will stick with Roehm’s decision in late October to hire DraftFCB in New York to replace GSD&M in Austin, Texas, and Bernstein-Rein in Kansas City, Mo., as Wal-Mart’s main ad agency. The review in which DraftFCB was victorious was marked by controversy because Roehm was seen socializing with CEO Howard Draft prior to giving him the account. The other competing agencies—which included Ogilvy & Mather and The Martin Agency—did not get as much face-time as Draft did.

And Lewis Lazare goes heavy on the adjectives and adverbs, sparing none to describe Roehm:

Sadly, Roehm might be the most glaring example in recent memory of a particularly repellent type of executive that has infested the advertising and marketing world on both the client and agency sides. She is a creepy version of a particularly crafty scam artist who sails onward and upward on wave after wave of ill-deserved hype, while using some savvy political skills to sell themselves to others who are perhaps even more clueless.

And as if the marketing woes weren't bad enough, Newsweek reports on Wal-Mart's dismal holiday sales:

It's turning into a blue Christmas for Wal-Mart. While many of its rivals ring up healthy holiday sales, Wal-Mart is struggling. In the critical shopping month of November, the nation's largest retailer suffered its first decline in same-store sales in more than a decade. And December isn't shaping up to be much better. Wal-Mart recently warned that sales at stores open at least a year will either be flat or up to only 1 percent this month.

December 7, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 8 Comments

I've been contributing to AdPulp for almost two years now, and most of the time, I post things so hastily I'll usually have to go back and fix an error or two.

Such is the world we live in, always pressed for time. As a result, I'm noticing more careless writing in the world. And being a copywriter, nothing bothers me more when clients do it:

I don’t mean asking for changes such as modifying an odd word or sentence, adding appropriate technical info, or moving some paragraphs around. On the whole, those are OK. I’m talking about instances when the client looked at what I wrote, opened up a new Word document, and began re-typing.

Clearly, it’s the one bugaboo that writers have to put up with more than art directors. Because clients can often ask for idiotic suggestions in designs or layouts, but they can’t whip out Quark or Photoshop and make it happen. Everyone, however, knows how to use a word processor.

Read more in my new column on TalentZoo.com.

How do you handle it when clients just want to go and re-write everything you've done? Should we really pay attention to the explosion of bad grammar seen in all forms of writing today?

December 7, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

Perhaps it isn't a shock, but it's still news. From BusinessWeek:

The radio industry won't want to hear this. Advertising dollars are shifting online faster than analysts anticipated. In fact, advertisers will soon spend as much money on the Internet as they do on the airwaves, according to a newly released eMarketer study.

By 2007, online advertising will bring in 6.8% of the total and, by 2008, it will bring in 8.1%—putting it well over radio. By some estimates, online ad spending will overtake radio even sooner. Forrester Research anticipates online advertising will bring in $17.4 billion this year—that's a billion more than eMarketer's estimate and would be roughly 6.2% of the total, putting online advertising much closer to overtaking radio.

I still think radio is a good medium for local advertisers, who need mass audiences cheaply, but radio stations and their programmers need to take drastic steps to improve the programming so listeners will want to tune in. I don't know if that'll happen to any large degree.

December 7, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

Once again, from BusinessWeek (you can tell I read it a lot), a closer look at shops in Amsterdam, which are gathering momentum with global clients:

Why Amsterdam? The city's openness and bicycle-to-work lifestyle helps attract talent, as do a vibrant design scene and a cosmopolitan mix of people. "Amsterdam allows us to be in touch with the world without being swallowed up by any particular culture," says Brian Elliott, a founder of StrawberryFrog. One hallmark of Amsterdam TV ads is little or no dialogue, so nothing gets lost in translation. For instance, Wieden + Kennedy's "happiness factory" spot, running in scores of markets worldwide, conjures an animated fantasy world inside a Coke vending machine—with no words.

December 7, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 3 Comments

Well, on the very same day I post about bad writing (see "Righting The Writing" below) along comes this ad from the "Center For Consumer Freedom" (read: a lobbying group for major food and tobacco manufacturers) which is reacting to New York City's recent vote to ban trans-fats.

The ad states that trans-fat, apparently, is the same substance as "margerine."

Did they mean margarine?

As for the relative merits of an ad created by an organization funded by fast food companies, Kraft, and Coca-Cola opposing a ban of trans-fat...well, you can decide that one for yourself.

December 7, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 3 Comments

You read that right. Adweek is reporting as of 5:30 Thursday night:

Just weeks after hiring DraftFCB in one of the year's most closely watched reviews, Wal-Mart is splitting with the Interpublic Group agency and plans to put its $570 million ad account back in play "based on new information that has come to light in the past two week," said client representative Mona Williams.

Wal-Mart has not decided if the new competition is open to all comers or just finalists from the fist review, Williams said. The process will be completed by the end of January.

Ouch.

I wonder how many people DraftFCB already hired to service the business.

December 7, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 7 Comments

You know, I simply cannot comprehend shit like this-- This must-read article in Friday's New York Times says quite a bit about Julie Roehm and her conduct:

While some of the details are in dispute, several people briefed on the matter said that Wal-Mart dismissed Ms. Roehm and a lower-ranking marketing colleague, Sean Womack, after deciding that the pair had a personal relationship that violated the company’s strict ethics policy, which forbids fraternizing with subordinates.

Ms. Roehm acknowledged that her style and ideas did raise eyebrows at Wal-Mart. “I think part of my persona is that I am an envelope pusher,” she said last night. “The idea of change in general can be uncomfortable for many people, and my persona as an agent of change can prompt that feeling.”

And it just gets more bizarre:

She was spotted taking a ride in an Aston Martin owned by the chief executive of one agency, Draft FCB. At another time, she was seen riding in a BMW convertible with the president of another, GSD&M, according to people familiar with the matter.

And she attended a September dinner given by Draft FCB at the Manhattan hot spot Nobu, during which she lavishly praised the ad agency and appeared to suggest it had the upper hand in the contest more than a month before an official announcement of the winner was due.

One agency executive familiar with the Wal-Mart agency search, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Wal-Mart executives were “gagging and spitting and turning green” over the Nobu dinner because of the strict Wal-Mart rules that prohibit employees from accepting gifts of any kind — including drinks or meals — from a supplier or potential supplier.

After learning of such incidents, and the suspected relationship, Wal-Mart fired Ms. Roehm and Mr. Womack around noon on Monday in terse meetings at the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.

I'm speechless. Really. This chick must have some Jedi mind-trick shit working for her. And what kind of self-aborbed nitwit says things like "My persona as an agent of change..."? Can someone explain how Corporate America dumbasses fall for this nonsense?

Unbelievable.

December 8, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Danny G just ripped off ten blog posts in a row.

Dude, I've only been traveling for two days!

Once again, it's nice to have colleagues you can count on in this, or any, endeavor.

December 8, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to The New York Times, Yahoo is looking to a strong woman to resurrect the company in its time of need.

On Tuesday, in an attempt to compete better with faster-moving rivals, the company announced a restructuring of its operations into three business units. As part of the reshuffling, Terry S. Semel, the company’s chairman and chief executive, tapped Susan L. Decker, 44, to run the unit that arguably faces the biggest challenge: reducing Google’s lead in Internet advertising.

“It would be difficult to find a job for which she is not intellectually capable,” said Geoff Ralston, Yahoo’s former chief product officer, who left the company in April. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of challenges for her. But she is one of the clearest- thinking minds at Yahoo.”

Rob Solomon, a former senior vice president at Yahoo who is now chief executive of SideStep, a travel-oriented search business, added: “I was always in awe of her brilliancy. Any time I interacted with her, she didn’t need much explanation. She understood things quickly, and then she would start tearing through the numbers and seeing where the opportunities and the risks were.”

December 8, 2006 by Shawn Hartley | Permalink | 0 Comments

Google has finally integrated their radio advertising platform, driven from their acquisition of dMarc Broadcasting, into their AdWords program. A beta program is currently underway and ads are being run in several markets.

AdWords audio brings the same bid-based advertising to radio networks and offers targeting by demographic, location and station type. The AdWords systems also allows ad spend tracking via the same interface which has made Google AdWords one of the dominant Pay-Per-Click providers. Interestingly enough, Audio Ad buys can be segmented by the previously mentioned targeting but targeting by a specific station is unavailable as Google will not reveal station call signs.

Any AdPulp.com visitors using Audio Ads or have heard them in their markets?

December 8, 2006 by Matt Bergantino | Permalink | 0 Comments

Big, boring corporate websites, such as Unilever and P&G, attract a bigger audience than prime time TV shows, according to Ad Age:

Such package-goods marketers as Procter & Gamble Co. and Unilever don't sell many products directly online. Their low-cost, low-involvement brands tend not to generate much search. Yet the websites of P&G and Unilever now reach nearly 6 million and 3 million unique visitors, respectively, in the U.S. each month, according to ComScore Media Metrix.

Of all options for influencing the online influencers, brand websites rank highest both in consumer acceptance and marketer control, he said. But most brands still don't fully capitalize on their websites by offering video, blogs or other elements of online communities.

Man, it will be cool when they do. I've worked on some corporate sites and it is amazing how much traffic they get. Thing is, corporate sites are typically overseen by corporate-type people. And you know how that can be.

December 8, 2006 by Shawn Hartley | Permalink | 0 Comments

Visa recently launched FanWithAPlan.com, a community-based sports-themed site initially target to the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Whistler, BC.

I'm a bit curious about the future-focus of the site by looking towards 2010. Could it have more impact coinciding with say the college football bowl season or the Superbowl? But none-the-less jumping into anything involving sports and travel is sure to draw some eyeballs.

My suggestion to Visa would be to send the AdPulp.com crew on a ski/snowboard trip to Whistler and have us document the trip...

December 8, 2006 by Shawn Hartley | Permalink | 0 Comments

AdPulp readers, I need some help finding a Nintendo Wii for a client. Just the basic $250 Wii Console. No fancy extras, no fancy bundles, no premium gray-market pricing.

For your troubles, a rare, limited edition AdPulp.com t-shirt, and a promotional plug for you or your agency.

drop me line on the tips line (tips@adpulp.com) if you can help me out and we can work out the payment details.

December 8, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Some Hard Rockin' Indians

Los Angeles Times and USA Today both have the story...

The Seminole Tribe of Florida is buying the famed Hard Rock business, including its casinos, restaurants, hotels and huge collection of rock 'n' roll memorabilia, in a groundbreaking $965-million deal.

The Seminoles were the first U.S. tribe to get into the gambling business in 1979. More recently, they had partnered with Hard Rock in successful hotel, gambling and entertainment complexes in Tampa and Hollywood, Fla. They now have the ability to expand their gaming interests nationally by partnering with a well-known brand, experts said.

"Our ancestors sold Manhattan for trinkets," says Max Osceola Jr., a tribal council representative present at the press conference in the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square. "We're going to buy Manhattan back, one hamburger at a time."

I like that. One hamburger at a time. These people are patient and quite possibly wise.

December 9, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 2 Comments

Each article takes its own tack on the news:

Ad Age: "Unruly Julie and the Scandal That Rocked the Ad World"

The New York Times: "Rocky Return to the Roots at Wal-Mart"

The New York Post: "Draft Exec Out in Cold After Wal-Mart Move" (the new biz head of DraftFCB is leaving for Digitas)

December 9, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

According to China View, pop star Mariah Carey is worried fans could confuse her with American porn star Mary Carey.

Mariah Carey filed suit Friday in Los Angeles to prevent the star of movies such as "Double Air Bags 11" and "Boobsville Sorority Girls" from trademarking her similar-sounding stage name.

The adult film actress, whose real name is Mary Cook, said Friday she would not be intimidated by the international superstar and will continue her trademark application.

December 9, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Taco Bell ordered the removal of green onions from its 5,800 restaurants nationwide after tests suggested they might be responsible for the E. coli outbreak that sickened at least three dozen people in three states.

The fast-food chain said preliminary testing by an independent lab found three samples of green onions appeared to have a harsh strain of the bacteria.

"In an abundance of caution, we've decided to pull all green onions from our restaurants until we know conclusively whether they are the cause of the E.coli outbreak," said Greg Creed, president of Irvine, Calif.-based Taco Bell.

[via Breitbart.com]

December 9, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

BusinessWeek asked Roxanne Quimby, who founded Durham, NC-based Burt's Bees about innovation.

The innovation came in the way that I marketed Burt's Bees rather than the way it was manufactured. The products were good enough to eat. The skin is the largest organ of the body and anything you put on it ends up in your bloodstream. If people are conscious about what they eat, then they ought to care what goes on their skin. A lot of products are made of chemicals. Ours are made from Mother Nature, and we drove home that point. At our product demos, we had our trainers squeeze out the product and eat it. No one had thought to do this before, and it made a big impression.

December 9, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Bally, 1968
35.5" x 50"
$680

December 10, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

Here's an issue that branding gurus don't address all that often: Brand names, ones with long histories, that simply get bought or licensed and used by unrelated companies.

The AP reports on a new iteration of the Montgomery Ward brand:

Five years after Montgomery Ward went out of business, its brand name has been revived on the Internet and there's even a 21st-century version of the Wards holiday catalog that was standard fare in American households for decades at this time of year.

But Direct Marketing Services Inc., the catalog marketer that acquired the Wards name out of bankruptcy in 2004, insists it is faithfully carrying on a legacy that dates to 1872 when Aaron Montgomery Ward established the first mail-order business.

"People are always open to believing that however wayward one got, even for a retailer, given proper management you can go back on the right track," said George Rosenbaum, chairman of Leo J. Shapiro and Associates, a Chicago-based retail consulting firm. "Wards was a good enough name, so there's probably a good amount of hope or willingness to believe that they've come back."

Have you run across any products that are branded with names you thought were long out of business?

December 10, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 3 Comments

The Chicago Tribune, which I think rarely publishes interesting stories about the ad world compared to the Sun-Times' inimitable Lewis Lazare, ponders the immediate future of DraftFCB:

DraftFCB needs to act quickly to restore its reputation, say public relations experts who specialize in crisis communications.

If Draft and his team determine the agency did nothing wrong, they should write a strongly worded letter to Wal-Mart and make it public, sending copies to their clients, prospective clients and employees, advised Robert Dilenschneider, head of the Dilenschneider Group in New York.

"They've been fired. They have nothing to lose," he said in an interview Friday.

If Draft concludes the agency did cross a line somewhere, he should express outrage and remove the people involved, Dilenschneider said. Draft also should ask Wal-Mart to reconsider its stand that DraftFCB won't be allowed to bid in the new competition for the giant discount chain's account.

"They shouldn't wait until Monday. They should do it today," Dilenschneider said.

December 10, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

The New York Times looks at a strange wintertime activity on the shores of Lake Erie.

The strongest winds and waves come in winter, just before Lake Erie freezes. Waves up to 10 feet have been surfed, but the largest swells are usually chest-high. Instead of curling into a vertical wall, the waves are round like haystacks, and they collapse onto the shore like soggy paper.

“Surfing Lake Erie is basically disgusting,” said Bill Weeber, known as Mongo, 44. “But then I catch that wave and I forget about it, and I feel high all day.”

Cleveland surfers are not playing around. Many of the roughly 25 committed surfers here work nights all year to keep their winter days free for surfing. Mr. Weeber quit his job as an advertising art director and makes less money as a summer landscaper. He moved his family closer to the beach, to spend more time on the waves.

December 10, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

As if you needed any more proof that Wal-Mart and its travails reverberate throughout the ad world, this week's Ad Age has 5 stories related to recent events:

In Bentonville, Buyers Abide by Stringent Code

Draft Dealt Staggering Blow After Strutting Like A Champ

Sam's Successors Share Blame For Wal-Mart Shame

As Wal-Mart Reopens Review, Windy City Ad Community Lets Out A Groan

Pushing Envelope Julie's MO--Not Wal-Mart's

Here's a interesting bit:

In fact, Advertising Age had decided that DraftFCB, thanks to the boldness of its model and the Wal-Mart new-business coup, was going to be this publication's Agency of the Year, a decision that would have been officially announced in our Jan. 8 issue.

Now, all that has changed.

December 10, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 3 Comments

For 32 years, until Julie Roehm walked in the door, Kansas City's Bernstein-Rein took the lead on the Wal-Mart ad account.

This fascinating article in The Pitch (a local KC publication) traces the history of the account:

Walton had chosen Bernstein-Rein for one reason: a simple ad he'd seen for the now-defunct Milgram Food Stores. It featured "Janie from Milgram's," who did nothing more in the commercial than list that week's deals. Walton knew that as his company went national, he wanted commercials that looked as if they'd been produced by a local store owner. When Walton arrived at Bernstein-Rein, he had one request: "I want Janie."

Agency co-founder Bob Bernstein wasn't immediately impressed by Walton. Bernstein, who's now 66, recalls telling Walton that actress Janie Fopeano wasn't for hire. "You can't have Janie. She's under contract."

After Walton got in his pickup and headed back to Bentonville, Arkansas, the first thing that Bernstein did was call his accountant. "Check this guy out," he said. "Find out if he's for real."

The rest is history. Maybe Bernstein (or GSD&M, which also did work for Wal-Mart) will get another shot and keep some of the business now that Roehm's gone. At the very least, they know how not to push the ol' envelope.

Like I said, it's a great article, worth a read.

December 11, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports on the adoption of social bookmarking services by The New York Times.

The New York Times unveiled a new service today that allows readers to quickly post stories that they find on the newspaper's Web site to Digg, Facebook and Newsvine.

It marks the first time that the country's third-largest newspaper has added a news-sharing tool to its Web site, allowing readers to develop conversations and post comments about specific stories. Readers will be able to add headlines and a small portion of text to the social media sites by clicking on the logos of Digg, Facebook and Newsvine. Those logos began appearing next to The Times' stories this morning in the same box as the print and e-mail tools, although they're initially hidden until users click the "Share" link.

December 11, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Dreamhost is an innovator in its space. They have a robust referral program, where people can earn serious cash for recommending their services.

Now they want to hook up non-profit organizations with FREE web hosting.

In order to prove your non-profit status we need to receive one crucial piece of documentation. This is an official United States IRS letter indicating tax exempt non-profit status under the appropriate sections of the tax code. This is often called a 501(c)(3) determination letter.

Once the above information has been received we'll configure your account appropriately and you'll be happily hosting your non-profit selves, forever!

This is great PR for Dreamhost and I'm certain they'll pick up some related (paid) hosting business from this move.

December 11, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to Los Angeles Times, non-Jews looking for healthier food options represent one of the fastest-growing sectors in the kosher market.

The country's largest manufacturer of processed kosher foods is trying to grow by offering kosher options in line with today's gourmet trends — flavored olive oil, wasabi horseradish sauce and whole grain noodles — as well as appealing to non-Jewish shoppers who buy kosher food because they believe it is cleaner or like the dairy-free options.

"It's not your bubbe's matzo and gefilte fish anymore," said Jeremy Fingerman, president and chief executive of privately held R.A.B. Food Group of Secaucus, N.J., which acquired the Manischewitz brand in 1998.

All of Manischewitz's factories are overseen by rabbis, who regularly inspect products, ingredients and machinery to ensure they meet all kosher specifications.

December 11, 2006 by Shawn Hartley | Permalink | 0 Comments

Nike's new golf ball, Juice, was kicked-off with slow motion video of the ball being launched at 200mph at everyday objects.

Jar of Mayonnaise

Cantaloupe

Bunny

Birthday Cake

Jello Mold

Ice Sculpture

Gumball Machine

Lava Lamp

December 11, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to Adweek, DDB has hired former Saturday Night Live writer Matt Piedmont as an executive producer on Anheuser-Busch's Web entertainment venture, Bud.tv.

"Matt's experience on SNL and in filmmaking is ideal for the speed and savvy we need for doing content for Bud.tv," said David Rolfe, production director of content at DDB in Chicago, in a statement.

Bud.tv is a multichannel Internet network in which the St. Louis brewery will produce and distribute entertainment content for the Web. DDB has been tasked with lead agency responsibilities for the network, including production management, marketing and promotion and content creation. Bud.tv is expected to launch in early February 2007.

December 11, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Business 2.0 says social networking site LinkedIn is reaching its tipping point.

"For many, it's become irresponsible to not invite business associates into your LinkedIn network," says Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School who specializes in sociology and strategy. "When that kind of cultural inflection point occurs, which is what LinkedIn is going through now, that is when things really begin to take off."

Here's my LinkedIn profile.

December 12, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 8 Comments

I actually prefer to buy CDs and load them into my iPod instead of buying them on the iTunes Music Store. I may not be the only one who's doing that.

Here's an interesting story from The New York Times that takes a look at the numbers of iPods sold vs. the number of songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store:

At any given point, the cumulative number of songs sold by the iTunes store has generally been about 20 times the cumulative number of iPods sold, according to Forrester Research, the technology consulting firm. That ratio has recently crept up to roughly 22 to 1, as 1.5 billion songs have been sold. The figures were compiled from public statements by Apple.

“IPods are not sitting around generating dozens and dozens of transactions every quarter,” said Josh Bernoff, a principal analyst for Forrester Research. “People buy a certain number of songs, and then they stop.”

Of course, that doesn't account for other online music services and all the swapping of mp3's going on illicitly.

So what about you? Do you buy your music from iTunes? How do you use your iPod?

December 12, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

TNYT looks at São Paulo's radical, but righteous, move to eliminate outdoor advertising from the city.

Imagine a modern metropolis with no outdoor advertising: no billboards, no flashing neon signs, no electronic panels with messages crawling along the bottom. Come the new year, this city of 11 million, overwhelmed by what the authorities call visual pollution, plans to press the “delete all” button and offer its residents an unimpeded view of their surroundings.

The law is “a rare victory of the public interest over private, of order over disorder, aesthetics over ugliness, of cleanliness over trash,” Roberto Pompeu de Toledo, a columnist and author of a history of São Paulo, wrote recently in the weekly newsmagazine Veja. “For once in life, all that is accustomed to coming out on top in Brazil has lost.”

December 12, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

Okay, I'll make this ad-related in a minute...

...but how insane is it that airport security wouldn't let Troy Smith bring his Heisman Trophy on the plane????

Now, here's my question for all you award-show winners: Has anyone had trouble carrying a One Show Pencil on the plane? Or a Cannes Lion?

What about your oversized portfolio cases or unusual photography equipment? Do you get any extra scrutiny? Has anyone from the TSA rummaged through your book looking for liquids and said, "Oh, Ogilvy did that 20 years ago"?

See, I told you there was an ad-related connection. I know I ship all *my* Lion stautettes home.

December 12, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to David Segal of the Washington Post, volunteer Wikipedia editors remove over 100 entries a day from the community-based encyclopedia.

The Shiny Diamonds, a spunky band from Canada, make music they call "mind-blowing thrash folk." Last week, the lads and their songs were tagged with a less flattering description: "non-notable."

This was not some hasty, capricious opinion, either. No, this was the official verdict of a squad of stern-sounding editors at Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, which recently began the process of booting an entry about the Shiny Diamonds off the site.

In Vancouver, B.C., where the band's lead singer was reached by phone, the news hit kind of hard.

"Dude, I don't know what they were thinking," said Tim the Mute, which is a stage name and the only name he would give. In mid-sentence, Tim's cell phone went dead and a few minutes later, he sent an e-mail.

"I urge whatever Internet-snob wiki-geeks who deem our band 'non-notable' to look at their own lives," he wrote. "The Internet is about sharing and the point of Wikipedia is that there's room for everything."

Of course, that's far from true. Wikipedia does not make room for everything. The several thousand unpaid volunteers who write and edit Wikipedia spend a lot of energy ensuring that people, bands, companies, and everything else meet what it calls "notability guidelines."

December 12, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Tom Asacker wants to know more about me. Actually, he wants everyone reading this post to know more about me.

Normally, I pass on the meme thing, but Tom Asacker is not your normal blog pal. We've spoken on the phone!

So, withough further ado, Five Things You Don't Know About Me...

1) I'm essentially a very private person, although I do court fame.

2) I'm a walking paradox. See number 1.

3) I'm passionate about music. For me, it's the art with the most heart. And while there are many writers I admire like Zora Neale Hurston, Howard Zinn, Jim Harrison and Ken Kesey, I tend to find inspiration more often in the musicians I encouter. For instance, I've been moved greatly by the live performances of Warren Haynes, Jerry Garcia, Carlos Santana, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Jerry Joseph, Derek Trucks and many more—Yonder Mountain String Band, Leftover Salmon, The Meters, Widespread Panic, Donna the Buffalo, Steve Earle and Jim Lauderdale, to name a few.

4) Before she retired to Florida, my mom worked in advertising. She was a planner. One of the first on the marketing services side of the agency business. She specialized in cause-related marketing, and we actually worked together on a promotion in the late 80s when I was on the client-side at American Rivers, Inc.

At any rate, I've noticed that people often take up their parents' occupations. I did, but I resisted as long as I could. When my wall of resistance came crashing down, as false edifices are wont to do, I just so happened to be living in Wieden + Kennedy's shadow. Of course, I did not know it. How would I? I was just a 29-year old English major in search of something meaningful to do for work. And I certainly did not think "meaningful" and "advertising" could be properly combined in a sentence, much less in an occupation.

It was Janet Champ, Wieden's ace copywriter on the Nike womens' line, that opened my eyes. In her work, I saw that it could, in fact, be done. Add to that my mom's lofty ambitions to do good and you can begin to see why I'm the insanely idealistic person that I am.

5) Speaking of...I'm backing Cleveland Congressman, Dennis Kucinich, for the Democratic nomination for President in 2008. As I did in 2004.

I'm going to help him take South Carolina, the state where I live.

--

Now, to keep the meme alive it's my turn to pick five bloggers and ask them to share things about themselves in their very own public forum. Drumroll please...

1) Holly Burns, quite possibly the best writer in the entire bloatosphere.
2) Spike Jones, from Brains on Fire, the Greenville, SC identity firm.
3) Spencer Sloan, the hilarious Atlanta-based verison of Jason Kottke.
4) Lareghearted Boy, who takes the term "prolific blogger" to new heights.
5) Kyle Bunch, the man who decides if you're an A- B- or C-list blogger.

[A NOTE] My choices above are ambitious. The only person I chose that I know personally is Spike. I've cooresponded with Kyle, but not the other three. I simply admire their work (from afar).

December 13, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

I've often thought that the tipping point for Kmart's descent into retail irrelevance came because of "Rain Man." When Dustin Hoffman's character said, "Kmart Sucks!" at the end, the audience in the theater I was in clapped wildly.

Merlot, it appears, has suffered the same image breakdown, thanks to "Sideways" when Paul Giamatti exclaims, "I'm not drinking any fuckin' Merlot!"

But wine is big business, and makers of Merlot are confronting this perception because sales did, in fact decrease after "Sideways" came out. The New York Times has more:

The movie gave shape to an inchoate movement away from American merlot in the marketplace, and spoke the truth in caustic terms: namely that most merlot produced in the United States is not very good. As a result, the anti-merlot trend accelerated. Fewer people bought it, and producers bottled less of it.

Read more if you're into wine. You'll find a few recommendations that might make you a hero at holiday parties this year.

December 13, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Washington Post reports on the federal government's oversight activity as it relates to one of the marketing industry's hottest segments.

The Federal Trade Commission yesterday said that companies engaging in word-of-mouth marketing, in which people are compensated to promote products to their peers, must disclose those relationships.

The FTC said it would investigate cases where there is a relationship between the endorser of a product and the seller that is not disclosed and could affect the endorsement. The FTC staff said it would go after violators on a case-by-case basis. Consequences could include a cease-and-desist order, fines and civil penalties ranging from thousands of dollars to millions of dollars. Engle said the agency had not brought any cases against word-of-mouth marketers.

Meanwhile, Jason Calacanis is willing to pay $100 for information on Digg and Netscape users being paid to promote stories on the social bookmarking sites. It should be noted, Calacanis just reinvented Netscape in Digg's image. It should also be noted that he no longer works for AOL, Netscape's owner.

December 13, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Sony launched a fake blog via their promo shop Zipatoni. When will brands and their agencies learn? You simply can't screw with the swarm.

Here are some of the comments I pulled from the fake blog:

You guys are awful. It's obvious that Sony is resorting to fake publicity like this in an attempt to compensate for their failure of a console. Posers like you shouldn't be allowed to play games.
Comment By raven_65 At 12/13/2006 10:21 AM

This website violates US Federal Law and can be reported to the FTC at http://www.ftc.gov. No matter how many times you delete this comment it will not cease to be true. You can also contact Jim Talent, the senator for Missouri, at http://talent.senate.gov/ and let him know what you think about companies in his great state trying to violate and circumvent laws designed to protect children from unacknowledged advertising.
Comment By AGENT SMITH OF TEH EFFTEECEE At 12/13/2006 8:30 AM

you greedy, corporate, money-grubbing jerks should burn for this.
Comment By pissedoffps2owner At 12/13/2006 8:59 AM

Go to Z.i.p.a.t.o.n.i.com and read about their 'B.u.z.z M.a.r.k.e.t.i.n.g' S.e.r.v.i.c.e
Comment By gtpunch At 12/13/2006 11:00 AM

December 13, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

St. Paul Pioneer Press reports on the growth of the fair-trade movement.

Bluejeans made from cotton bought from impoverished African growers at above the market rate are making their debut in Europe. Their French manufacturer, Rica Lewis, bills them as the world's first jeans to be created from 100 percent fair-trade cotton.

The fair-trade movement aims to support small farmers in developing countries by buying their products at a fixed price that cushions them from fluctuations in global markets and provides them a better living. From coffee, produce and tea, the gamut of fair-trade products has expanded to include apparel — first cotton basics like socks, underwear and T-shirts, and now jeans.

Currently, only 100,000 of the nearly 3 million pairs that Rica Lewis makes annually carry the Max Havelaar seal certifying them as free trade.

December 14, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 3 Comments

The New York Times takes a closer look at P&G's increasing embrance of viral videos that venture into subjects that the marketer wouldn't have previously embraced, like one that discusses menstrual cramps:

The campaign started with small classified ads in newspapers around the country, which all carried the same eye-catching headline, “Men: Are You Suffering From Menstrual Cramps?” The ads directed readers to a Web site (menwithcramps.com), created by Kirt Gunn & Associates in New York, an agency that specializes in interactive campaigns.

The ads generated some discussion on blogs, Web sites like rollingstone.com and even a segment of “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.” Next came the fake documentary, also created by Gunn, which presented a mock tale of how male cramps affected the course of history. Gunn also put up a second Web site, under the name of the faux institution supposedly studying the syndrome, the MacInnes & Porritt Institute (macinnesandporritt.com), which sought volunteers for its research.

Maybe it's just me & my media habits, but it seems the only time I ever hear about these viral sites is when I read articles about virals--on marketing blogs and in newspaper articles like this. Am I alone in that?

December 14, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

The world's wealthiest man is getting his groove on. First he hangs with The Secret Machines at a Zune release party, now he's kickin' it with the digerati.

According to Steve Rubel's report, Jeremy Zawody, Michael Arrington, Liz Gannes, Niall Kennedy, Chris Pirillo, Molly Holzschlag, Evan Williams, Shaun Inman and others were in the presence of Bill Gates for a an hour yesterday.

Here are some of the questions they asked him, and his answers:

Q) Do you despair at the number of Macs in the room?

A) We're happy about it. We sell a lot of software for the Mac!

Q) What's on your Zune?

A) All of the U2 stuff plus a lot more musicals than you might expect - for example, Wicked.

Q) Microsoft has fully embraced blogging in its communications. You have met with bloggers on a few occasions too. Why do you think other execs have not given bloggers the same level of access Microsoft has?

A) It's natural we would put more energy into working with bloggers. We're just an R&D company ... We need lots of feedback. We need to be very transparent in what we're doing. It's a more intimate relationship than most companies have. Other CEOs may be afraid they will be too stuffy or confrontational. It's not as critical for them. Some should do it more. Its just a choice.

December 14, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Ad Age reports on further blurring of "the line" that has long separated ad agencies (above-the-line) from their country cousins in direct and promo shops (below-the-line).

In a move it hopes can reverse its slumping new-business fortunes, Publicis Groupe's Leo Burnett Worldwide is taking direct/interactive sibling Arc Worldwide under its corporate umbrella.

While Burnett executives are cautious not to label the move a merger, CEO Tom Bernardin said, "Consider Burnett and Arc as one entity, albeit with two facets."

Sounds to me like someone's reading the writing on the walls. Crosstown rival FCB is now merged with a marketing services firm. Burnett can play that game too.

December 14, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Paul Farhi of the Washington Post laments the loss of Tower Records.

There's no doubt the Internet is a superior transactional medium for getting music. But saying so assumes that the transaction is all there is. It values ends over means, destinations over journeys.

For a long time, Tower was a great journey.

December 14, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Online Media Daily reports that Sony released a statement yesterday acknowledging that their alliwantforxmasisapsp.com blog was phony. They have yet to admit how lame the stunt was.

What I always wonder in these situations is where was the agency's head? Was it their idea? Did they counsel vigorously against it?

The article brings to light a possible answer. This comment was made by a person claiming to be a Zipatoni executive:

"Please know that we approached the client initially with this scenario (the backlash) and they said 'who cares if people find out? As long as it is funny, we do this stuff all of the time,'" the poster wrote.

The site has been removed from its server and will no longer offend gamers.

According to a report in Wired magazine, Sony's PSP has been in hot water before over fake viral promotions. Last year, the company was criticized for hiring graffiti artists in major cities to paint murals of kids playing with the handheld. In some cases, angry artists painted their criticisms over the ads, writing "Get out of my city," and "advertising directed at your counter-culture."

December 15, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 4 Comments

Troubled Chicago conglomerate Draft FCB is planning to open up "an offshoot that would, if all goes according to plan, become a separate, independent full-service shop that would be part of the same parent holding company, IPG," according to Lewis Lazare of Chicago Sun Times.

Lazare says the new agency is being created to handle accounts that present problematic conflicts of interest resulting from the merger of Draft and Foote Cone & Belding, specifically the giant drug chain CVS and telecom's Qwest.

The new shop also is expected to incorporate all -- or aspects of -- other IPG assets, including direct marketing shop Zipatoni, a promotional marketing and advertising shop.

December 15, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Network World reports on the difficulties faced by offsite workers and their managers.

IBM’s efforts to create a flexible work environment have been so successful that 40% of its 330,000 employees work from home, on the road, or at a client location on any given day. But a few years ago, the company realized that as its staff became more distributed, employee morale was weakening.

In the region Dan Pelino inherited in 2002, barely half of IBM workers surveyed by the company said they thought morale was good. Employees felt they lacked a strong connection to their peers, they were missing out on mentoring relationships, and institutional knowledge wasn’t being passed down within the company, says Pelino, who today is general manager of IBM’s global healthcare and life sciences business. Internally, employees joked that “IBM” stood for “I’m by myself,” he recalls.

The predicament IBM faced is common among companies that strive to provide nontraditional work arrangements. How do you offer flexibility without sacrificing corporate culture?

The article goes on to offer some potential team-building solutions, but I'm wondering if you have any direct insight into this issue that you'd care to share.

December 15, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to Los Angeles Times, the legendary label that once featured A-list recording artists like Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Tony Bennett, Miles Davis, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen is rising from the ashes.

CBS Corp. plans to revive CBS Records — a vestige of the glory days of the now-troubled music industry — with an eye toward the Internet age.

In contrast to the lavish excesses of the music business of the 1970s and 1980s, the new incarnation of CBS Records, to be unveiled today, will start out small. CBS plans to sign a handful of songwriters.

CBS has signed its first three artists: P.J. Olsson, a recent Grammy Award nominee who previously was signed by Columbia Records; new artist Will Dailey; and independent rock band Señor Happy.

"I jumped at the chance" of being signed by CBS, Olsson said in an interview. "I like the fact that they are not starting the largest record label around, but a cool label that could market artists in a different way."

December 16, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

This is really only tangentially related to advertising in the sense that we are constantly shown happy/safe/it's-all-gonna-be-alright imagery from insurance companies in their advertising.

But I didn't know this: Insurers now keep records on the history of your home and use that info to deny you coverage. MSN MoneyCentral has more:

Insurers increasingly are using a huge industry database, called the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange or CLUE, to drop or deny coverage based on a home's history of claims or damage reports.

Insurance companies are terrified of rising losses from water and mold damage. So a single report of water-related problems may be enough for insurers to shun your home.

Now, if you had a history of filing dubious claims, that's one thing. But here's the kicker:

But the company that operates CLUE, ChoicePoint of Alpharetta, Ga., said that the database collects damage reports as well as claims. The information stays in the database for up to five years, said James Lee, ChoicePoint's chief marketing officer.

ChoicePoint, of course, is the data-collecting behemoth that has a penchant for selling your personal information to criminals.

Should you care? If you plan on selling your home, hell yes you should. The article tells the story of one couple who has had trouble securing coverage after being dropped by State Farm:

The Garders say they have been told by their real estate agent and others that they may have a tough time getting a good price for a home that's already been rejected by many insurers.

"You are totally blackballed," said Jan Garder, 49. "They should not be able to hold a consumer hostage like this."

December 16, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Kansas City sheep hater, John January, wants ad guys and ad gals of this land to remember why they got into the ad game. That's right, for the love.

I think we can't help but love it. I think we ended up in advertising because we have always loved it. Didn't you like commercials when you were a kid?

Don't stop loving advertising. Don't stop believing that good work is best for client and audience. Don't stop taking time to appreciate the effort of the craft.

I'll add to John's premise: don't stop criticizing.

Critics can be seen as negative within the pollyanna culture of brand champions, but their presence is usually a sign of a healthy company.

December 16, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Reflecting on recent turmoil in the executive suites at AOL, Newscorp and CBS Interactive, John Battelle sees an industry grappling to find itself in the brave "New Media" world.

Here's what he believes the big guys are thinking:

1. Interactive is now a very important, profitable, and growing business.

2. We can't afford to not view this as strategic to our future.

3. We need someone running theses sites who is not an interactive "cowboy," it's time to grow up and treat it like any other major piece of our conglomerated business.

4. Therefore, I need "one of my own" running these businesses, and I expect them to deliver just like the folks who run my radio, TV, print, and/or other major asset groups.

5. "One of my own" is someone who lives and breathes my world - the world of Very Large Media Companies that Own A Boatload Of Intellectual Property Assets and have Massive Investments In Huge, Controlled Distribution Networks.

Battelle, of course, is a former magazine editor and publisher, now deep in the middle of an important "New Media" play.

In his post, he ponders how "Big Media" execs will juggle their "Old Media" responsibilities, while simultaneously investing in new "Social Media" projects. It seems to me, experts in logic are needed--men and women capable of holding multiple, competing ideas in their minds. People who can play poker with one hand and chess with the other.

December 16, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Wall Street Journal is reporting that four major media companies--News Corp.'s Fox, Viacom Inc., CBS Corp. and General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal--might join to create a video web site able to compete with Google Inc.'s YouTube.

Nate Anderson wonders if the Big Guys can properly design such a site.

In their own attempts at creating Internet delivery services for their TV shows, the networks have often done a nice job—if you like slick, Flash-using, plugin-downloading sites with tons of splashy graphics. Splashy graphics are great, but users want the sites they frequent to be functional first. Could a consortium of TV networks really bring themselves to design a quick-loading, low-graphics, fast-streaming, light-on-the-ads site that looks like Google or YouTube? It's tough for marketers to allow, since it can make the brand look less stylish, but some clean and simple design will be needed for such a site to get off the ground.

December 16, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 4 Comments

Crain's Chicago Business takes a closer look at the city's advertising scene.

You can tell by the title of the article that the perception is it ain't too good there: Dream of Chicago ad revival is dashed:

The city's ad agencies, decimated after years of losing headquarters and major accounts, seemed poised to regain their fizz when local player DraftFCB Group aced out Madison Avenue in winning the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. account.

Instead, Wal-Mart's sudden removal of Draft from the $580-million account has delayed the road test of a new industry model — a leading-edge attempt to combine direct marketing with traditional advertising — that promised to revamp Chicago's competitiveness as an ad center.

After booming in the 1990s, ad industry and related employment in Cook County dropped nearly 15% during the three years ended in 2004. While the slump mirrors national trends, industry globalization has hurt Chicago more than New York, despite Chicago's proximity to packaged goods, auto and other industries that formed the backbone of the ad business here.

Any AdPulpers in Chicago wanna weigh in on this? Is it really that bad up there?

December 17, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Staples has sold 1.5 million Easy Buttons--an artifact from the brand's advertising--to date. How does this happen in a culture where people skillfully avoid advertising in all of its hideous forms?

Rob Walker of The New York Times Magazine explores the topic.

One ad executive speculated in Brandweek that the gizmo’s success comes from its being an “elegant metaphor,” speaking to a yearning for solutions to the complexities of the modern world. Maybe. Although if you want to get all grad-studenty about it, couldn’t you also read the button as a satire that exposes and subverts lives already drenched in push-button solutions? Maybe the answer is less complicated: the Easy Button is simply the latest in a long line of amusing but otherwise useless geegaws like the Magic 8 Ball, Big Mouth Billy Bass and the Pet Rock. Which isn’t to say that its success isn’t impressive. Making a hit product, wherever it may fall on the spectrum of utility, is really, really hard.

December 17, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Poynter's E-Media Tidbits looks at McClatchy's purchase of local citizen media sites, Fresno Famous and Modesto Famous.

Fresno Famous was founded in 2004 by now 26-year-old Jarah Euston. The site is a community portal, with blogs, podcasts, Flickr photo galleries, and forums.

"Purchasing a strong franchise such as Fresno Famous gives The Bee another way in which to reach younger readers with information they seek," said Valerie Bender, vice president of custom publications for The Bee (a McClatchy newspaper).

December 17, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

If you think your local Target is beginning to resemble a Pottery Barn, it may not be your imagination. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports on a new lawsuit, and others over the years, that accuse Target of copying other retailers' products:

Williams-Sonoma, which operates Pottery Barn and other chains, claims in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday that a quilted Christmas stocking sold at Target stores contains "every distinctive element of the Pottery Barn Christmas stockings," right down to the snowflakes and blue sky.

More pointedly, the company says the stocking infringement is part of a "longstanding pattern of copying by Target of [Williams-Sonoma] designs for rugs, linens, tableware, furniture, lamps and other products."

December 18, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

The New York Times looks at Hip Hop mogul Russell Simmons' involvement with the diamond trade--an industry now under scrutiny thanks to a critical Hollywood film. “Blood Diamond,” directed by Harvard graduate Edward Zwick, depicts the violence surrounding the diamond trade in Sierra Leone in the 1990s.

Simmons entered the diamond trade in 2003 with the opening of his Simmons Jewelry Company, which is supplied by De Beers. An industry trade group recenly brought Simmons to Africa. Since his return to the U.S. he's been vocal in his support of diamonds.

Mr. Zwick, in a Dec. 11 interview with The Daily News, accused Mr. Simmons of being a public relations puppet for the diamond industry; Mr. Simmons retaliated with an open letter in The New York Post on Thursday, saying they were concerned about “the current wave of misinformation” about diamonds and that they had observed concrete examples of how the diamond industry “contributes to the overall self-empowerment of African people and communities.”

Diamond Facts, a World Diamond Council site, estimates that 10 million people globally are directly or indirectly supported by the diamond industry.

December 18, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Cingular Wireless, the nation's largest cellphone provider, has made a deal with MySpace.com that will allow MySpace users to access their profiles through Cingular phones.

Under the agreement, cellphone users will be able to go to their MySpace.com page to edit it, post photos and get messages. For example, a MySpace.com user could take a picture with their cellphone and then immediately post the image to their Web page.

The new MySpace Mobile application will cost $2.99 a month plus charges for data usage, Atlanta-based Cingular said.

[via USA Today]

December 18, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Clickz reports on Edelman's embrace of RSS feeds for advertising purposes.

The PR firm has linked with NewsGator to offer Edelman clients a product that pairs Consumer Generate Media, display advertising and the ever-popular Web widget. Deemed “Hosted Conversations," the just-released offering serves snippets of online discussions on specific topics into advertiser-branded ad units. The objective is to facilitate clients' participation and awareness of online conversations relating to their brands.

The NewsGator-powered product tracks media relating to pre-specified subjects, extracting nuggets from blog posts, mainstream media, and video and photo sites. The PR firm will pluck the highest quality content from those sources based on criteria set by its clients; the choice bits will then feed dynamically into the chosen advertiser-branded units. We're determining the "memes in conversation, who's saying the most interesting stuff," said Rick Murray, president of the me2revolution, Edelman's global media lab.

December 18, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 8 Comments

Tampa agency, Pyper Paul + Kenney, thanks to several recent account wins have brought the new agency's annual capitalized billings to more than $40 million in just a little more than two years.

"In markets like New York City and Los Angeles, there are plenty of large agencies with talented people at the top, but clients never know if they're going to get the 'C Team' working on their account after the pitch is over and the contract is signed," said Paul Daigle, president of PP+K. "At PP+K, we are uniting the most talented ad people in the Southeast under one roof, and rock staring it out for all of our clients. There is no 'C Team' at Pyper Paul + Kenney."

Clearly Daigle does not lack confidence. As for "uniting the most talented ad people in the Southeast," I think Crispin Porter, BBDO Atlanta, West Wayne, McKinney and The Martin Agency might have something to say about that.

December 18, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 4 Comments

The Chicago Tribune reports on the aftermath of DraftFCB's Wal-Mart win/loss.

Observers of the ad business had been waiting for a reaction from DraftFCB, which finds itself under the glare of publicity and seemingly in a vulnerable business position. Wal-Mart took back its account this month, even before DraftFCB had started work for the retailer, indicating that something had gone wrong during the pitch process.

In response, Draft on Thursday issued a memo titled "Truth and Trust" to staffers and select clients that seeks to end the rampant industry speculation and media coverage that have surrounded DraftFCB's wooing of Wal-Mart for its prized $570 million advertising account.

In the memo, a copy of which was obtained by the Tribune, Draft said the agency began a "careful and methodical review of how the pitch was conducted on our end" following Wal-Mart's decision to fire advertising chief Julie Roehm and, a day later, DraftFCB.

"As of this morning," he wrote, "we have completed this investigation, which has not uncovered any instances in which we violated either [DraftFCB or Interpublic] policy. It is important for you to know that--and equally important that our clients know that."

Good. Case closed. Right?

December 18, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

I just paid $79 for a Wall Street Journal online subscription. I resisted the Dow Jones clan for years, thinking to myself, "Who needs them, when there's so much free content available?"

At long last I had to face myself and admit I'm the co-founder and Editor of AdPulp, and this subscription is simply a cost of doing business. In other words, it's my responsibilty to read the WSJ. And share with you here some of that reading. Like this bit, for instance:

Indiana University's Kelley School of Business is trying to distinguish itself from competitors more effectively. Daniel Smith, Kelley's dean and a marketing professor himself, believes promoting M.B.A. programs requires a much different approach from selling mass-market products and services. "When you have an experience product like an M.B.A. program, the customer's risk is high because you can't test drive multiple schools and you can't change your mind once you make your purchasing decision," he explains. "That makes the brand extremely important as a trust mark that helps to reduce the customer's risk."

You see, it's paying for itself already.

December 19, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

Between the original "Postioning" authors Ries & Trout, it's easy to deduce who the smart one is based on their solo writings. Ries waxes moronic in Ad Age, but in a great column on Forbes.com, Jack Trout looks at the big issues facing America's largest retailer.

I've written in the past that once a brand has established itself in the value or price category, it is almost impossible to go up market and attract a group of customers that are already going for fancier brands. Wal-Mart is a mass merchandiser that clearly is all about "always low prices."

That's why people shop there.

Target played it perfectly. Rather than go head-to-head with Godzilla, they decided to offer mass with class, or department store type merchandise for less. They used unique designs and nicer store layouts to attract those folks that were a bit more up-market and tended to look down on the down-market, Wal-Mart shopper. Remember, when you walk into a Wal-Mart, you are telling the world you are a price shopper. When you walk into Target, you are telling the world you have a little more taste than a price buyer. When you walk into Neiman Marcus you are telling the world that you have a lot of money and a great deal of taste.

Like everything else in this very competitive world, trying to be everything for everybody just doesn't work. You are what you are in the minds of your customers and prospects, and leaving that position tends to generate confusion. Higher prices in a low-price store just suggests to your customers that you might be ripping them off.

I said it in my own way a few years back: There are two types of people in America: Wal-Mart people and Target people. But Trout nails it perfectly about Wal-Mart's current state of confusion.

December 19, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Coca-Cola has developed a holiday greeting campaign on YouTube.

At YouTube and The Coca-Cola Company, happiness is our daily mission. That's why we've created the Holiday Wishcast. No matter what you celebrate, holidays are about sharing happiness with friends and family.

[via Adverblog]

December 19, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Wall Street Journal reports that Wal-Mart allows not only unions at its stores in China, but Communist Party cells, as well.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, said employees have established a branch of the Communist Party at its headquarters in China.

The party branch was set up in the southern city of Shenzhen, where Wal-Mart runs its fast-expanding China business, Jonathan Dong, the company's spokesman in China, said. The branch, which was inaugurated Friday, follows the establishment of similar party organizations in five Wal-Mart stores throughout the country since August, Mr. Dong said.

Wal-Mart's acquiescence to the party cells -- a decade after it opened its first store in China -- reflects a stepped-up effort to ingratiate itself with a country that it sees as increasingly vital to its growth. The establishment of party branches follows a retreat for Wal-Mart in July, when the company -- which has remained largely union-free elsewhere -- acceded to pressure from China's All-China Federation of Trade Unions to allow union branches in its stores. The government-sanctioned union has quickly spread to nearly all of Wal-Mart's Chinese stores.

Of course, unions and Communist Party cells are the price of doing business in China. I simply find it noteworthy that a company so firmly wrapped in the Red, White and Blue would make such concessions. Perhaps, "wrapped" is the key word, for at its core, China has always been central to Wal-Mart's success.

December 19, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Lockhart Steele, Gawker Media's Managing Editor, is posting on ValleyWag.

In one post on Nicholas Butterworth, Steele addresses the cultural differences between Silicon Alley and Silicon Valley.

Internet industry life in New York City is different than in the Valley. People here don't listen to podcasts not produced by NPR, and they don't read Scoble. (If they do either, they aren't admitting it.) And the sine qua non press hit for your new webtacular isn't a TechCrunch profile; it's a story in the Times' Sunday Styles section.

December 19, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

1) Don't call someone a "cunt."

2) If you call someone a "cunt," make sure that woman's husband is not nearby.

3) If you call someone a "cunt" and their husband is nearby, act very apologetic and remorseful, and do something to rectify the situation.

4) If you call someone a "cunt" and their husband is nearby, and you don't act very apologetic and remorseful, and you don't do something to rectify the situation, make sure that the husband is not a public relations professional with a blog.

A Home Depot manager apparently ignored those rules. Click the above link for our friend John Wagner's full account of the story.

December 19, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 8 Comments

Market Watch picks up on a possible rough spot for Google as they seek to push beyond online ad revenue (their bread and butter).

Google Inc.'s nascent radio advertisement business, known as Google Audio, has run into an unexpected snag: it seems Google doesn't have access to enough radio airtime for would-be advertisers to thoroughly test out the initiative, an analyst said Monday.

Several news reports Monday claimed that Google is deep into negotiations to buy a large swath of airtime from CBS Radio. By doing so, Google could stave off the domino-like effect of the airtime shortage, which may mean delays introducing Google Audio to a much broader audience.

A Google spokesman, in an email, said "participating advertisers have access to a wide range of inventory including more than 700 stations spanning more than 200 metro areas. We will continue to make available more stations and inventory to an increasing number of advertisers next year."

December 20, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

WSJ reports on a media company's investment in the product it covers.

ESPN acquired national TV rights to the Arena Football League on Tuesday and also will have a minority stake in the 19-team indoor league.

The network will have a regular Monday night slot in which it will televise 14 games from March through June. The ArenaBowl title game in New Orleans will be July 29 on ABC, which also will show two regional season openers March 4 on Sunday afternoon.

ESPN also will have extensive multimedia rights in the five-year deal that includes everything from Internet to radio to publishing to international distribution.

"This isn't dating; this is getting married," AFL commissioner David Baker said. "They are officially an AFL owner.

"It is good for our fans," added Mr. Baker, who is 10 years on the job and has seen franchise values increase from $400,000 each to about $20 million. "We have extremely young demographics who generally turn to [ESPN] as the first place to find sports information."

December 20, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Brandweek looks at the anti-smoking forces move into the social media space.

The American Legacy Foundation's national smoking prevention campaign aimed at youth tackles social networking Web sites with the latest phase of the "Infect truth" campaign.

Starting this week, materials like truth wallpaper, branded bumper stickers and even ads that can be affixed onto the backs of cockroaches (fake ones, of course) are available for downloading through MySpace, Hi5, Bebo, Piczo and Xanga. Teens also can grab "Infect truth" wallpaper and case covers for their Sony PlayStation consoles—the first time truth has produced creative for the portable gaming device.

The combined reach of social networking sites exceeds 59 billion page views per month, and truth intends to tap into the viral magic of that medium with forward-to-a-friend technology.

"With declining funds, truth seeks to put truth messages in nontraditional, easily accessible and effective mediums such as digital media," Joseph Martyak, ALF's evp-marketing, communications, and public policy, said. "The tobacco industry spent more than $15.1 billion in 2003 marketing its products in the U.S. alone. We can never match that spending, so instead we stay ahead by being more cutting edge and going directly to teens in media and at places where they naturally gather."

I wonder if Martyak is aware of the fact that the median age of MySpace users is 35.

December 20, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Global Cool reports on Ikea's attempt to strengthen its corporate culture while improving quality of life for its workers and their communities.

IKEA staff will have no excuse for piling on the pounds over Christmas, as the Swedish homeware giant has bought each of its 9,000 UK employees a folding bike for Christmas.

The Polish built Raleigh bikes, that retail at £139, are being dished out to encourage staff to leave their cars at home when commuting to the stores in which they work.

In a further effort to deter car use, IKEA will be offering their staff a 15% subsidy on public transport tickets.

IKEA UK manager Peter Hogsted said: “We want to create a better everyday life for the many, and do what we can to make greener living possible. This is both for our co-workers, as well as our millions of customers.

“The bike is a fun present but there is a serious message. We all have a responsibility to do what we can to protect the environment.”

Surprisingly only 13 of the bikes that were handed out last Friday have so far turned up on eBay.

December 20, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

Done a while back and it still cracks me up. See all of them here.

December 20, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

In Southern California, Jiffy Lube locations got busted for not doing work that customers paid for. The above follow-up report, taken from the local news in LA, shows clips of a Jiffy Lube "apology" commercial and the reactions of some of the customers who got screwed.

It doesn't appear Jiffy Lube is all that interested in engaging its customers, as some who wrote to get refunds have not heard any response.

So much for all the "let's engage the customers" crap. Many brands simply can't be bothered with it.

December 20, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Paul Venables of San Francisco independent Venables, Bell and Partners is feeling the rush right now. His agency just won the Audi account.

The win defines his agency as big time.

According to Adweek, Venables said, "Nothing legitimizes an agency like a car, and there's no better car to get than a prestigious German car."

Meanwhile the 13-year incumbent, Havas-owned McKinney in Durham, N.C., bows out politely. Brad Brinegar, chairman and CEO of McKinney, said, "When McKinney won the account in 1993, Audi was on its way to being pulled from the American market. Since then, we have helped [Audi] rebound to become one of the premier brands in its category, growing 12 of the past 13 years. We wish the very best to the many friends that we made at Audi."

December 21, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Wall Street Journal breaks down some of the numbers involved in Maurice Levy's Christmas gift to himself, his firm and a savvy group of Bostonians.

Publicis Groupe SA's $1.3 billion acquisition of Digitas Inc., a Boston digital-marketing concern, will fill a major gap in the French ad-holding company's portfolio as it seeks to take advantage of the fast-growing Internet sector.

Publicis agreed yesterday to pay $13.50 a share for the company, a 24% premium to Digitas's stock price on Dec. 19. Digitas's shares were up 22%, or $2.42, at $13.35 as of 4 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading yesterday.

Digitas is one of the biggest digital-marketing concerns, and its financial performance reflects the sector's growth: The company reported a 36% increase in revenue for the first nine months of this year. Net income rose 13%.

December 21, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

St. Louis Post-Dsipatch has good news for those on wheat-free diets.

Anheuser-Busch Cos. may not be a name normally associated with health-food products, but beginning Wednesday the brewer is joining the growing ranks of companies seeking to meet the needs of consumers on gluten-free diets.

Anheuser-Busch will roll out the first nationally available sorghum beer, Redbridge, which will be available in specialty and certain grocery stores that carry organic and health foods as well as certain restaurants. Although sorghum is a grain, it does not contain the protein gluten that is found in wheat, rye and barley.

Redbridge, brewed in Merrimack, N.H., contains 4.8 percent alcohol per 12 ounce serving and is available only in bottles. The suggested retail price of a six-pack is $7.99.

December 21, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded, an advertising agency located in the heart of Copenhagen, Denmark sent us a neat Christmas message.

Click to view

December 21, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Bloggers are really going for this "Five Things You Don't Know About Me" meme. I did.

Given that interesting people are revealing interesting things, I thought I'd collect some of the responses here.

• Sean Patrick Ganann says, " I hacked into a government website once."
• Johnnie Moore says, " I cringe inwardly when people ask me to try something from their plate in restaurants. Please bear this in mind if you eat with me."
• Josh Hallett says, "For a few years in college I went by my middle name, Ridge. Not sure why......"
• Jason Calacanis says, "I miss working at AOL--no, really I do."
• Spike Jones says, "I’m adopted. I was picked out buy a fantastic couple when I was still just a pup and I’ve always called them “mom and dad.” I actually tracked down and met my birth mother three years ago (ain’t Google grand?), who lived about half an hour from where I grew up in Dallas. She’s fantastic and now all my “parents” are friends."
• Tom Asacker says, "My first job out of college was as a professional magician. I still do some card tricks and perform at my niece and nephew's birthday parties."
• Steve Rubel says, "I am an absolute neat freak. My office has no paper in it other than a thin Moleskine Cahier notebook which I use in meetings. My apt and office are both spotless."
• Ian Kennedy says, "I have over 1,000 hours of bootleg cassettes of the Grateful Dead in my garage. One of these days I'll get around to digitizing them. A reeeeally loooong rainy day."

December 22, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 5 Comments

According to USA Today, online purchases are creating a surplus of activity for package carriers like Memphis-based FedEx.

FedEx handled a record 9.8 million packages Monday as shoppers sought to get their Christmas presents delivered on time.

The number of packages shipped Monday was 63% more than FedEx handles on a normal day and was up 10% from the same day a year ago.

"This is a big, big day," says Matthew Thornton, senior vice president of U.S. operations at FedEx.

December 22, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Archie Comic Publications Inc. of Mamaroneck, N.Y. "plans to experiment with changing the way the characters look to make them appear more sophisticated."

The news has already drawn heat from loyalists in Web forums who have seen the new incarnations.

"Betty looks like one of the Olsen twins," wrote one contributor to Newsarama.com, a Web site devoted to comics-industry news. "I say if it's been good enough for the last four generations of kids it's good enough for today's ones," wrote another.

Sales of "Archie" aren't what they were in their heyday in the 1940s, one issue might have sold a million copies in a month. Now, a single issue of one of the comics sells only between 15,000 and 75,000 copies, while digests sell around 100,000 copies a month.

December 22, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

“The internet is expected to influence nearly half of retail sales in 2010.” -Jupiter

The internet has dramatically changed the way consumers shop. People are increasingly getting their shopping information – even for offline purchases – online.

Tech startup Nearby Now intends to profit from the info-rich shopping experience. They want to connect offline retailers with eager-to-buy consumers by scanning multiple store inventories and then directing consumers directly to the product they desire via texting.

WSJ's Startup Journal say some shoppers have found the services handy.

Kharlo Barcenas, a 24-year-old construction-project engineer, says he used NearbyNow's service to quickly locate an Oakland As baseball cap at the Eastridge mall in San Jose, Calif., on Sunday.

December 22, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

[via Room 116]

December 23, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

No wonder he likes chimneys. Courtesy of a bunch of auctions on eBay, you can see that Santa used to shill for all sorts of cigarette makers:

December 23, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

LA Times reports on the fashion industry's unconscious sourcing of raw materials.

Macy's has pulled from its shelves and its Web site two styles of Sean John hooded jackets, originally advertised as featuring faux fur, after an investigation by the nation's largest animal protection organization concluded that the garments were actually made from a certain species of dog called "raccoon dog."

"First these jackets were falsely advertised as faux fur, and then it turned out that the fur came from a type of dog," said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

Pacelle added that the issue is an "industry-wide problem" and its investigation demonstrated that retailers and designers "aren't paying close enough attention to the fur trim they are selling." He added that the issue is especially problematic when "the fur is sourced from China where domestic dogs and cats and raccoon dogs are killed in gruesome ways."

Raccoon dogs -- which are not domestic animals -- are indigenous to Asia, including eastern Siberia and Japan, and have been raised in large numbers because their fur closely resembles raccoon, Pacelle said.

December 23, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Promo Magazine breaks down some word-of-mouth numbers, revealing just how brand-centric our culture has become.

Americans make about 4.5 billion brand impressions a day just through conversation.

In fact, a mere 15% of the population makes 1.5 billion brand mentions to friends each day, according to new research on word-of-mouth marketing.

The study, conducted by research firm Keller Fay Group, is the first to estimate the daily volume of word of mouth in the U.S.

Keller Fay found that the biggest chatters, the 32 million outgoing consumers that the research firm calls "conversation catalysts," average 184 conversations each week, about 50% more chats than the average consumer. Those 32 million, who comprise 15% of the population, account for one-third of all word-of-mouth brand comments.

"This report provides compelling new evidence about the disproportionate impact that a select group of consumer influencers have in word of mouth, and highlights the ways these consumers spread information and insight beyond a narrow area of singular expertise," said Keller Fay CEO Ed Keller in a statement.

December 23, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

According to Google, "a year’s worth of search speaks to our collective consciousness." If this is true, our collective consciousness is particularly concerned with social networks.

Here are the top ten search terms on Google for 2006:

1. bebo
2. myspace
3. world cup
4. metacafe
5. radioblog
6. wikipedia
7. video
8. rebelde
9. mininova
10. wiki

Numbers 4, 8 and 9 are new to me. How about you? Did you search for Bebo this year?

[UPDATE] On Bebo's blog, Adam postulates on the reason for their number one ranking.

We think that this phenomenal achievement is due to the many brilliant Beboers who figured out that they can save a lot of typing by just entering "bebo" into their browser's search box instead of typing out the whole "h" "t" "t" "p" ":" "/" "/" "w" "w" "w" "." "b" "e" "b" "o" "." "c" "o" "m" thing into the address box.

I did not realize that entering a term (minus the domain extension) in the browser's address bar was a form of search. It makes sense, I just never considered it as such.

December 24, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Wall Street Journal takes a look at Plum TV, a startup television network focused on local television in high-end resort markets.

Plum TV broadcasts on six TV stations in some of the most exclusive resort areas in the U.S.: Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, the Hamptons in New York and the Colorado ski towns of Vail, Aspen and Telluride. Soon to come: stations in Sun Valley, Idaho, and Miami Beach, Fla.

Plum TV is trying an approach different from the traditional TV network by narrowly targeting the very rich on vacation.

Instead of scheduling its best shows in the evening to draw people as they relax after work, Plum TV expects its audience of wealthy vacationers to watch in the early morning and the late afternoon -- before and after their days on the beach or the ski slopes. The programming is a mix of local events -- figuring that viewers want to know what is going on in town -- and culture, politics, art, business and sports.

Plum TV's founder and CEO, Tom Scott, co-founded beverage brand Nantucket Nectars, which was acquired by Cadbury-Schweppes in 2002 for about $100 million.

December 25, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

If jolly ol' Saint Nick stuffed your stocking with an Amazon or Borders gift certificate, our friend George Parker has a word of caution of you.

Seems that last year, BBDO veteran Phil Dusenberry released a book of memoirs called "Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and Accidents from a Hall of Fame Career in Advertising."

That book has now been re-released in paperback, with a new title: "One Great Insight Is Worth a Thousand Good Ideas: An Advertising Hall-of-Famer Reveals the Most Powerful Secret in Business."

The catch is that you have to look closely at the paperback's cover image on Amazon. Only down at the bottom, in tiny type, are the words "Previously published as Then We Set His Hair On Fire."

Already, one Amazon customer felt duped, and posted this review:

Mr. Dusenberry owes me $14.95. I bought the book twice. Dusenberry titled his first book "Then We Set His Hair On Fire" which I read and loved. Then when I happened to stumble across "One Great Insight Is Worth A Thousand Good Ideas" I was ecstatic that there was a new read by Dusenberry. It arrived and in tiny print at the bottom of the cover it reads " Previously published as Then We Set His Hair on Fire." Why would you change the title so quickly? I still respect Dusenberry and his insights but I don't need both copies. I'm not very happy with his choice to rename his book a year later. It's ironic that we advertising people are criticized for being deceptive and manipulative in order to garner sales... Dusenberry illustrates this very well. Bad move on your part, Dusenberry. I would love my $14.95 back so I can go buy Ogilvy's book. That money could have been used to apply to the VCU Adcenter.

Consider yourself forewarned. I suppose there's more money to be made, and book sales to be had, convincing people that "one great insight" and "the most powerful secret" make for a better purchase than does a title suggesting that it's a book of gin-soaked reflections on the supposed good ol' days in advertising.

December 25, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Some intelligent people are discussing "the de-portalization of the Internet." The image below--care of Edgeio--is a graphic representation of the changes currently underway.

Fred Wilson, a.k.a. "A VC" says:

Back in the first Internet era, it was all about amassing as large an audience as you could on your website. But the first Internet era was at time when consumers weren't that comfortable with vastness of the web and they wanted a safe clean place where they could experience the web easily and comfortably. Today most consumers are comfortable with the web and all of its complexity. They simple type a search query into Google, Yahoo!, or some other search engine and off they go.

So if you buy that the web has been de-portalized, what do you do if you run the largest portal in the world? I think its pretty simple actually. Yahoo! needs to offer its users and customers (advertisers) the ability to get the same experience they get on Yahoo! all over the web. They need to stop thinking about keeping their audience on Yahoo.com and start thinking about serving their audience wherever they are on the web. They need to stop thinking about selling ads on Yahoo.com and start thinking about selling ads all over the web.

To use the visual metaphor above, Wilson is recommending that Yahoo! move out into the foothills. Wilson is concerned with Yahoo!, but every business that relies on internet traffic for revenue needs to consider the fast changing landscape. For instance, when AdPulp launched just over two years ago, Adrants was the major player in this space. Adrants still maintains its peak position (like Yahoo!), yet now there are literally hundreds of other advertising-focused media properties competing for mindshare.

December 25, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 3 Comments

Wonkette unearthed a "super-secret advance copy" of the gun lobby's latest propaganda piece.

As the GOP learned last month, and you need some Grade A propaganda to get people riled up again. Let no one accuse the NRA of shirking its duty. Freedom In Peril: Guarding the 2nd Amendment in the 21st Century, is a spectacularly beautiful graphic novel. Here, for example, is one of the biggest threats to the white suburban hunter: dirty hippies and their evil sidekicks: the dynamite-carrying owl, sinister pig, angry Wall Street bull, dire wolf, terror chicken and Land Lobster.

[via Rangelife]

December 26, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Lewis Lazare reports that former Bears coach Mike Ditka--a man with many business interests--has started a record label.

The label's first release contains Frank Sinatra songs performed by crooner John Vincent.

Chicago's DiMeo & Co. was tapped to assist with marketing, Web site design and CD label design.

December 26, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Thanks to this latest development from Verizon, cell phone users on their network are now primed to be distracted not just by calls, text, games and the mobile web, but by banner advertising.

The New York Times has the story.

Beginning early next year, Verizon Wireless will allow placement of banner advertisements on news, weather, sports and other Internet sites that users visit and display on their mobile phones, company executives said.

The development is a substantive and symbolic advance toward the widespread appearance of marketing messages on the smallest of screens. Advertisers have been increasing the amount they spent on mobile marketing, despite lingering questions about the effectiveness of ads on portable phones.

December 26, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

The Wall Street Journal reports on the potetnial downside for recording artists who license their songs to commercial enterprises prior to official release of their music on disc.

John Mellencamp's 21st studio album, "Freedom's Road," isn't due out until next month. But his record label is already worrying that one song, "Our Country," may be suffering from overexposure (thanks to the Chevy Silverado ad that uses the song as its soundtrack).

Executives at Mr. Mellencamp's label, Universal Republic Records, worry that with the ad saturating television broadcasts for nearly six months before the release of the new album, some fans could sour on the song.

"Exposure is one of the most valuable assets there is these days," says Universal Republic President Monte Lipman. "But when you hear the song in the context of a commercial, it doesn't do it justice."

The Indiana singer-songwriter's last studio album, 2003's "Trouble No More," sold just 180,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That is a far cry from his two biggest hits, "American Fool" and "Scarecrow," both of which have shipped more than five million copies, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

Universal Republic has sold 39,000 digital downloads of "Our Country" via the iTunes Music Store and other outlets, according to SoundScan.

December 26, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Fast Company is rehashing some old articles to make up a year end feature called, "Top Ten Creative Minds of 2006." Rosemarie Ryan and Ty Montague of JWT, profiled in June, made the cut.

It's a long piece, so I'll just offer one small bit that I like. It's about Montague's first meeting with Kimberly-Clark's new president of North American Family Care, Mark Scott. Montague related his philosophy of advertising as postmodern storytelling--how good campaigns shatter a narrative into a million pieces, then scatter the fragments across TV, print, the Web, the street, anywhere.

According to the Fast Company account, Scott said, "I'd like one of those, please!'

December 26, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

On Christmas Eve, Mark Cuban, founder of HDnet and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, published a lengthy piece on his blog about advertising opportunities in high definition television. In route, he takes shot at the momentary darling of media planners everywhere.

HDTV is the Internet video killer. Deal with it. Internet video won't replace TV. It wont even complement TV offerings. It will flourish in the office. It will be a fun way to share personal content privately or publicly. It will be Community Access TV.

Sure internet video is the hot sexy thing now. But where do advertisers get the greatest value? From putting their TV ads on the net? By creating 10 second spots for pre or post roll and showing them on PC monitors? Or by creating commercials in HD that look beautiful on the brand new HDTV that millions of homes just installed and are excited to see new programming, including commercials on?

While Cuban pitches, Om Malik's NewTeeVee interviews Amanda Congdon, a broadcaster with web cred and a new deal with ABC.

Meanwhile, there's a new Amanda on the vlog scene. Her name is Lindsay Campbell.

December 26, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

George Parker is the most pissed off ad blogger we know, but Bill Green can get peeved too.

Here are some selections from his list of "12 or so things that bothered me this year."

2) Cellphones + drivers.

3) Chillabrations, ‘Fash’-ons and anything blinged, pimped or ‘phat’-ted.

4) No Geico cavemen sitcom.

5) Non-drunk racist celebrities who aren’t really racist.

6) Drunk racist celebrities who aren’t really racist.

7) Drunk with power world leaders.

8) Change agents, rock stars not named Slash and new media cheerleaders.

Do any of these resonate for you? They do for me.

December 26, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

LA Times looks at the popularity of Santa Ana-based lifestyle brand KR3W.

"KR3W's smoking," said Steve Carlson, general manager of Central Coast Surfboards in San Luis Obispo.

"Each time I look at a new season line from them, I'm like, 'Whoa, doggie man. This one's testing me out.' "

KR3W's appeal is linked to the popularity of its skaters and what Carlson calls an "urban crossover attitude" that attracts young suburbanites. Its edgy punk styles struck a chord with young shoppers as tight pants became the uniform of a growing number of skateboarders over the last few years.

"There are definitely a lot of pros that are rockin' that look," said Laurie Bergthold, marketing director for the International Assn. of Skateboarding Cos. in Mission Viejo.

And nonpros.

"That's all I wear," said Garrett Gundy, a 13-year-old Foothill Ranch resident who wore snug black KR3W pants that bunched at the ankle at Etnies Skatepark of Lake Forest recently. Garrett said he had half a dozen pairs. "You can see your board better than you can in baggie pants," he said.

December 26, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 4 Comments

Maybe they have to pay out lots o' life insurance for all those spontaneously combusting drummers, but as a huge fan of This Is Spinal Tap, I can't help but be bummed out about this. Why Ogilvy has to do this to a good song, particularly by using it in a completely humorless way, I don't know.

I mean, it's such a fine line between stupid and clever, isn't it?

December 26, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 1 Comments

From reading the trade press, you'd think every marketer was falling over themselves to get on Second Life, thinking the site's popularity is exploding. But over at Valleywag, Clay Shirky parses the claimed numbers of "residents" and "logins" and finds huge discrepancies. He also suggests that reporters have simply parroted Linden Labs' inflated numbers without question in their gushing profiles of Second Life.

This is the state of business reporting in an age when even the pros want to roll with the cool blogger kids. Got a paragraph that contains only two numbers, and they don't match? No problem! Post it anyway, and on to the next thing.

The prize bit of PReporting so far, though, has to be Elizabeth Corcoran's piece for Forbes called A Walk on the Virtual Side, where she claimed that Second Life had recently passed "a million unique customers."

This is three lies in four words. There isn't one million of anything human inhabiting Second Life. There is no one-to-one correlation between Residents and users. And whatever Residents does measure, it has nothing to do with paying customers. The number of paid accounts is in the tens of thousands, not the millions.

December 27, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

The New York Times explains how Hallmark's new lifestyle book is helping to reach female consumers, deepen its relationship with retailers and offer advertisers value-added exposure for their own brands.

Hallmark Magazine is only in its third issue, but it has already attracted blue-chip advertisers like Kodak and Lindt chocolate. At a time when many magazines are struggling, Hallmark Magazine, published by the greeting card company, is enjoying success largely because it is making its retail assets available for advertising on a regular basis.

Advertisers who buy space in the magazine can put their logos on Hallmark flowers, gifts and cards, including online greeting cards. They can have in-store events at Hallmark’s 4,000 Gold Crown stores and at Hallmark card displays in the aisles of mass retailers like Walgreen’s and Wal-Mart Stores.

“We’ve got these huge retail assets,” said Carol Campbell Boggs, the magazine’s publisher. “And our business model is to leverage those assets.”

December 27, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

December 27, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

John Battelle is pleased with the progress his new firm, Federated Media, made in 2006.

I won't gloat, but I will tell you all this: We beat my year's estimated revenues by nearly 30%, and this fall, we were booking well over a million a month in new business. By mid January or so we'll be announcing an amazing array of new sites joining FM, and I feel very confident that the model is viable. Perhaps FM won't be that model's ultimate expression, but I am so proud of what we've built - more than 100 sites, more than 300 million pageviews a month, a more than eight-figure annual run rate, and nearly 30 amazing people, all working toward one goal - making conversational media and marketing work for authors, entrepreneurs, and marketers. I'm very, very happy with how it's turned out so far.

That's over one million a month in online ad revenue generated from a small selection of popular blogs.

December 28, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

According to The New York Times, art imitates life then life imitates art. Thanks reality television!

Last week, Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue, agreed to allow A&E to film a documentary of the making of its September issue, usually the thickest of the year. Since the curtains were drawn open on the darker details of the genre in “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Ugly Betty,” both of which pattern characters on Ms. Wintour, the real-life players have hardly responded by slinking off stage.

I have yet to view "Ugly Betty" but I did see “The Devil Wears Prada” recently. While watching, I was reminded how fashion and advertising share certain undesirable qualities. Namely insular worldviews, rude people and cut throat behavior. It may make for great viewing, but it's a shitty way to conduct business.

December 28, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Long Zheng writes about the fancy new machine he and many other bloggers received from Edelman, the blogger-friendly PR giant working with Microsoft to help launch Windows Vista.

Microsoft gave out some timely Christmas presents to a bunch of bloggers this year. Brandon LeBlanc got one, Scott Beale got one, Barb Bowman got one, Mauricio Freitas got one, Mitch Denny got one, Zen.Heavengames got one, plus many other bloggers. They seem to have covered everyone from A-list to Z-list, a first in the industry with such a valuable gift, kudos for thinking about the little guys.

Former Microsoft employee, Robert Scoble says, "Now THAT is my idea of PayPerPost!"

BL Ochman calls it a brewing ethics scandal for the PR firm that just endured the Wal-Mart flog flare up.

Ochman also says Microsoft had to send new machines to run Vista, or risk screwing up bloggers existing computers with their new OS.

December 28, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Marshall Sponder writing on Smart Mobs looks forward to the day when he can create content on the fly.

I'm not alone in thinking the Ultra Mobile Computers will become the dominant device (and maybe have a phone built into it too) in a year or two. It's one thing to be able to read my Gmail and look at my Webmetricsguru.com blog stats from my TMobile SideKick 3, along with taking photos of my paintings and immediately posting them on my Art Blog. It's quite another thing to write the blog post and post it from my Ultra Mobile PC - which is what I really want to do ..... the thing my SideKick won't allow me to do.

December 29, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

The Wall Street Journal chimes on the shifting dynamics underway in the agency world.

Facing unprecedented upheaval in the advertising and media industries, big ad holding companies and their agency units are rethinking how they're organized. Under pressure from marketers, agencies are starting to restructure operations by aligning their creative sides with less glamorous parts of their businesses such as marketing services -- which include direct mail and in-store advertising -- and media-buying and planning. Moreover, with just about everyone eager to increase the use of Web marketing, traditional agencies are quickly snapping up digital marketing firms or hiring experienced digital staffers.

The Journal goes on to name five "agencies" to watch in 2007: Modernista, Neo@Ogilvy, Universal McCann, Draft FCB and Google. Having Google in this list makes the article's premise all the more real. For Google being mentioned with these other four, proves times truly have changed.

In a separate piece on Digitas, Wall Street's newspaper says:

The world's biggest advertisers increasingly are turning to interactive technologies to define their brand, and the big ad holding companies are snapping up these onetime boutiques. The Publicis deal gives Digitas the global clout to potentially shape the industry's future, say its executives. But the challenge will be to retain its competitive edge in the confines of a traditional advertising company. All this makes Digitas and its chief executive, David Kenny, who will oversee Publicis's overall digital and interactive strategy, worth watching in 2007.

Digitas is said to have 150 positions open, ranging from entry-level associates to directors with at least five years of experience.

December 29, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 0 Comments

Writing in The New York Times, Louise Story takes a stab at what's ahead for advertising:

Not surprisingly, many agencies are focusing on how the digital world will continue nudging the offline world in new directions, and consumer-generated content is in the forefront of everyone’s mind. But ad executives also say they think companies should pay attention to shoppers’ interest in knowing more about the products they buy and to their desire to turn their cellphones and BlackBerrys — gasp! — off sometimes.

Not much earth-shattering there, but then Story buys into the Second Life hype:

At least two Publicis Groupe agencies — Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Leo Burnett — have created virtual ad agencies in Second Life, a Web site that describes itself as “a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents,” and claims to be “inhabited by a total of 2,231,337 people from around the globe.”

If you look at the online story, the first thing you see is a SL screen shot with a caption that reads "Millions of people inhabit Second Life..." Even the New York Times likes to report the numbers unchecked.

December 29, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

30gms, the design blog from London design practice Fibre, looks at the work of Insa, a London graffiti artist.

December 29, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 1 Comments

Yesterday, we drew your attention to Microsoft's ploy to influence the bloatosphere with fancy Ferrari laptops running Vista.

According to one recipient, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Microsoft's PR flacks want the machines back or to be given away. Here's the email Marshall received from Aaron at Edelman:

Marshall,

No good deed goes unpunished, right? You may have seen that other bloggers got review machines as well. Some of that coverage was not factual. As you write your review I just wanted to emphasize that this is a review pc. I strongly recommend you disclose that we sent you this machine for review, and I hope you give your honest opinions. Just to make sure there is no misunderstanding of our intentions I’m going to ask that you either give the pc away or send it back when you no longer need it for product reviews.

Thanks for your understanding, and happy reviewing,

Aaron

All these accusations of misconduct I find a bit odd. Big firms buy influence everyday. Why not just admit it and be out front with it? Why not just say, "Thanks dear blogger for being the blogger you are? Have a machine on us!"

December 29, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 0 Comments

Ariel Waldman is the Digital Insights Analyst for VML in Kansas City. Unlike me, Waldman knew early on on what she wanted to do for work.

I technically started coming into the agency I'm at now (VML) after being given a tour when I was 14 because I was deadset on being a graphic designer. I would come in on my spare time after school and on days off to play around with Adobe apps on the Creative Director's computer and be a little "cool hunter" of websites for him. At 16 I became an intern, at 17 I became a contractor, and finally at 20 I was officially hired (I'm fairly tenacious).

This personal account is naturally in response to the meme of the momennt—Five Things You Don't Know ABout Me. By the way, Steve Hall lists his five things in Waldman's comments because Adrants wasn't a good fit for the material. He says, "It's just that I have no venue with which to share my five things. Adrants is hardly a blog anymore. It just uses blog software to publish advertising news and opinion."

I would suggest SteveHall.com but it's already spoken for.

December 29, 2006 by david burn | Permalink | 2 Comments

Even though the Sunday Times arrives in my driveway early each Sunday morning, I don't always make it to the juiciest parts. So I have Three Minds to thank for pointing out this recent NYT Magazine article on Digital Maoism.

Karl Marx famously predicted that industrial capitalism’s individualist ethos would engender its opposite: a new collective consciousness that would ultimately fuel the socialist revolution. But the old dialectician would probably have been shocked to see how much collectivism has flowered in the hypercapitalist Internet economy of late.

The article describes an original essay by Jaron Lanier, the man who came up with the term "Digital Maoism." He is concerned that all things aggregated are not good. That the power of an individual voice is being sacrficied to the collective and that group think is upon us.

Here are some outakes from Lanier's piece:

The question of new business models for content creators on the Internet is a profound and difficult topic in itself, but it must at least be pointed out that writing professionally and well takes time and that most authors need to be paid to take that time. In this regard, blogging is not writing. For example, it's easy to be loved as a blogger. All you have to do is play to the crowd. Or you can flame the crowd to get attention. Nothing is wrong with either of those activities. What I think of as real writing, however, writing meant to last, is something else. It involves articulating a perspective that is not just reactive to yesterday's moves in a conversation.

The artificial elevation of all things Meta is not confined to online culture. It is having a profound influence on how decisions are made in America.

What we are witnessing today is the alarming rise of the fallacy of the infallible collective. Numerous elite organizations have been swept off their feet by the idea. They are inspired by the rise of the Wikipedia, by the wealth of Google, and by the rush of entrepreneurs to be the most Meta. Government agencies, top corporate planning departments, and major universities have all gotten the bug.

Lanier mentions American Idol in his argument and says John Lennon would not have made it past the first round. The man has a point and he knows well how to make it.

What say you? Is "the collective" overstepping its bounds?

December 29, 2006 by Dan Goldgeier | Permalink | 8 Comments

This is pretty good. On PRNewswire, you can see the list of 70 things JWT trendspotters say are "in" for 2007.

"Trends are illustrated by the products and services that exemplify them," says leading trendspotter Marian Salzman, EVP, chief marketing officer of JWT Worldwide and co-author of the new book Next Now (Palgrave Macmillan), a travelogue into the near future. "By examining what resonates with consumers, we can identify the larger patterns that will shape our lives in the years to come."

Here are some of my favorites:

28. Binge Chilling
51. Higher-waisted pants
56. Energy-saving lightbulbs

Well, check out the whole list. And feel free to comment below on anything you think will be "in" or "out" in 2007.

UPDATE: I confess that I'd never heard of "binge chilling" but it's exactly what it sounds like. Next Now -- The Blog explains:

“Zoning Out” and “Me Time” as Entertainment: With leisure time becoming so precious in our time-scarce culture, just zoning out is becoming a form of entertainment all its own. Much of today’s youth participate in “binge chilling,” or going back and forth from doing a lot at once to doing absolutely nothing. Entertainment now has as much to do with being switched off as it has with being switched on.

Next Now, of couse, is Marian Salzman's own blog. Doing a Google search on "binge chilling" doesn't turn up any other uses of the phrase other than on JWT's list and Salzman's blog. So maybe it's proprietary--meaning either JWT did something original, or you have to pay Salzman a nickel every time you say "binge chilling" in a sentence.