from LA Times: Minnesota Atty. Gen. Mike Hatch sued Capital One Financial Corp.'s bank unit Thursday over the ads for its "No Hassle" credit card, which promote a supposedly fixed annual interest rate of 4.99%. Customers who miss a payment deadline or exceed their credit limit can end up with annual interest rates of as much as 27%, Hatch said at a news conference. About 40% of the card's users will be paying higher …
PETA Has Its Way With The Ronald. Chickens Don’t Exactly Celebrate.
from CNN/Money: McDonald's, the world's number one fast-food restaurant and second-largest buyer of chicken, is studying whether to switch its chicken suppliers over to the least-cruel slaughter method, the animal rights group PETA said Tuesday. Controlled-atmosphere killing, or CAK, is a USDA-approved method of slaughter that is described by animal welfare experts as "the most stress-free, humane method of killing …
Continue Reading about PETA Has Its Way With The Ronald. Chickens Don’t Exactly Celebrate. →
Wacky Packs Are Back
Growing up in the 1970s, I was a big fan of Topps' Wacky Packages. At the time, the term "culture jamming" had yet to be uttered, and I never thought of my collection as political in any way. I just thought it was funny and cool. In a Chicago Reader article from June, one of the underground comic strip creators behind the series, Jay Lynch, refutes my innocent kid's worldview. "They change the DNA. They teach kids …
Run Rabbit Run
from Bloomberg: In what may be another sign of consumer fatigue with political correctness, sales of furs--which plunged by a third in the 10 years ending in 1995 amid animal-rights protests--will climb about 15 percent to a record $2.1 billion this year, according to Fernandina Beach, Florida-based research firm Southwick Associates. "If you are fashion aware, you'd like to have an item with some fur on it this …
Whatever Happened To Concern Over Real Issues, Like Poverty?
from Mich News: In recent years the words …
Continue Reading about Whatever Happened To Concern Over Real Issues, Like Poverty? →
One More Reason Bud Needs To Move On
from USA TODAY: The Center for Science in the Public Interest has a problem with Budweiser's anti-Miller advertising. The ads in question feature beer-stealing football referees who lie to and run from police. "One can't help wonder whether the ads also have some other message in mind, namely, that breaking the law and bamboozling law enforcement efforts is a fine way to get a Bud Light," wrote CSPI's George Hacker, …
Continue Reading about One More Reason Bud Needs To Move On →
Christopher Carfi Gets Real
Christopher Carfi has this to say about Real Networks: "How does a company that brutalizes customers, ruins desktops, forces actions, and bombards users with phony upgrade messages stay around? I personally have given up, written off, and completely exorcised Real from my online existence. The only time within recent memory that I've interacted with them in any fashion was during the 2004 debates, where I signed up …
Cattlemen Bring Beef To Supreme Court
from Indianapolis Star: A food fight broke out at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, with justices considering whether the government can force ranchers and farmers to pay for ad campaigns with catchy phrases like Beef: It's what's for dinner" and billboards featuring milk mustaches on celebrities. Farmers are challenging the multimillion-dollar beef promotion program, saying they shouldn't have to pay for ads they …
Continue Reading about Cattlemen Bring Beef To Supreme Court →
Ethical Standards? What Ethical Standards?
from Ad Age: Once again, ad agency executives can be thankful for car dealers. According to a new national poll, the image of advertising professionals has deteriorated in the last year when it comes to honesty and ethical standards. Only 10% of those polled by the Gallup Organization rated ad people's ethics as "very high" or "high," just ahead of car salesmen, the perennial last-place finishers, who scored 9%. Ad …
Continue Reading about Ethical Standards? What Ethical Standards? →
LeBron Rejected By Chinese Official
from Chicago Tribune: China has banned a Nike television commercial showing U.S. basketball star LeBron James in a battle with an animated cartoon kung fu master, saying the ad insults Chinese national dignity. The commercial, titled "Chamber of Fear," shows James in a video game-style setting defeating the kung fu master, two women in traditional Chinese attire and a pair of dragons, considered a sacred symbol in …
Continue Reading about LeBron Rejected By Chinese Official →