The Guardian: Mozart, Brahms and Bach have been enlisted to discourage youths from hanging around shops at seaside towns. Classical music has been piped into Co-op stores at Seaton and Teignmouth in Devon for just over a week, and already youngsters who used to congregate near the doors have gone elsewhere. The supermarket plans to experiment with different types of classical music to see if particular styles are …
Anti-Wal-Mart Sentiments Take On Religious Fervor
USA Today: Wal-Mart's critics, opening a new front in their war on the retail goliath, are borrowing from actor-director Mel Gibson's promotional playbook. Producers of a new documentary, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, will show it at about 1,000 churches, synagogues and religious sites nationwide on Nov. 13 in a bid to force changes in Wal-Mart's employment and other practices. The film, by the director of …
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Put The Gun Down
CNN: Activists want Paramount Pictures to take down billboards promoting the upcoming film "Get Rich or Die Tryin'," claiming the advertisements promote gun violence. The billboards depict Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson holding a gun in his left hand and a microphone in his right. One of the advertisements is next to a preschool. Najee Ali, who organized a rally Tuesday, accused Paramount, which is owned by Viacom Inc., …
Is Creativity Just Another Commodity?
Marc Babej, president of Reason inc., is tired of all the creative window dressing. He skewers Wieden, Crispin, FCB and Publicis for blathering on about "creativity". He also brings to light this classic Ogilvyism: “If you spend your advertising budget entertaining the consumer, you’re a bloody fool. Housewives don’t buy a new detergent because the manufacturer told a joke on television last night. They buy the new …
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Topical Humor Causes Major League Consternation
USA Today: The latest "Got Milk?" commercial hit a little too close to home for Major League Baseball. Poking fun at the league's steroid scandal, the television ad for the California Milk Processor Board talks about a player getting pulled from a game "after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance." In the next scene, a coach pulls a carton of milk from the slugger's locker. "There is nothing …
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Not The Official Version
Shaghaiist: Online do-it-yourself encyclopedia Wikipedia, every lazy blogger’s best friend, will not load in Shanghai without the aid of a proxy server. The site worked yesterday. Most assume the free information source has been blocked by the Chinese government. We can’t imagine why. …
Red Bull Drinkers Have Little Use For Advertising
I love first hand accounts like this. So without further ado, the real story from True at Beyond Madison Avenue. When Target Audiences Attack The other day I was driving on the highway to Chicago. I was behind a Red Bull Energy Drink promotional car, which is basically a modified compact car with a giant Red Bull can on top. Then, a rusty pickup with two teen boys in the front seat comes barreling through the left …
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Really Scare People
Need a costume idea for Halloween? Jaffe Juice points to PETA's suggestion. [NOTE] There ought to be a law against making two posts about PETA in one day, but there isn't. …
Tofu Pie Favored By Resistance
USA Today: Anna Wintour, editor in chief of Vogue magazine, was hit with a tofu pie by anti-fur demonstrators as she attended Paris fashion week. Dan Mathews, vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said the vegetarian tofu tart was retaliation for Vogue's decision to run fur ads while refusing to use PETA's anti-fur messages. The animal rights group offered to pay the same fee, Mathews …
Bell Helicopter Blames Someone Else For Its Tasteless Ad
Reuters: Boeing Co. apologised on Friday for a mistakenly published advertisement for its V-22 Osprey aircraft showing troops dropping onto the roof of a mosque in what appears to be a simulated battle scene. The ad, coming amid rising concern among Muslims over U.S. military action in Iraq and Afghanistan, prompted immediate complaints from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which demanded the …
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