TV advertising isn't dead, but it seems like the ad industry is deliberately helping to kill it off. That's the subject of my new column on Talent Zoo. After spending an hour watching Fox News' special on global warming last Sunday, I kept a running list of all the ads I saw--all 32 of them. And all I saw was a waste of ad money. Why was I watching a TV show on global warming and no one tried to sell me a hybrid car …
Big Box May Resize In Wake Of Mother Nature’s Fury
In a move that can only be described as totally unexpected (or better yet, jaw-dropping), Wal-Mart is looking at a new urbanism proposal in Pass Christian, Mississippi--a town decimated by Hurricane Katrina. [via Reveries] …
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A-B Crying In Its Beer (When It Could Be Competing)
According to Ad Age, Anheuser-Busch is asking cable networks to not run a rival’s ads claiming Bud Light has changed. The Miller Brewing Co. ads in question, from MDC Partners’ Crispin Porter & Bogusky use humorous courtroom settings to push Miller’s ongoing claim that Miller Lite has more taste than Bud Light. The ads, one of which features Flavor Flav of Public Enemy, describe Bud Light as having “changed.” The ads …
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Sponsors Slam On The Brakes
According to The New York Times, last weekend outside Phoenix International Raceway, Kurt Busch, the 2004 Nextel Cup champion, received a citation for reckless driving in an incident that involved alcohol. Apparently, Busch behaved in a belligerent manner toward the Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies during the incident. Proof of his intoxication, however, is inconclusive. Given Nascar's decision to allow liquor …
MSM Continues To Hit Snooze Button
Charles Cooper is the executive editor of commentary at CNET News.com. He has an interesting take on MSM's propensity for head in the sand behavior in the face of their rapidly diminishing market share. During a panel discussion on Internet versus traditional media that I attended this week in Santa Clara, tech columnist John Markoff of The New York Times and tech columnist Kara Swisher of The Wall Street Journal …
Flickrization Of Yahoo Well Underway
Business 2.0: “I look at Flickr with envy,” Jerry Yang, co-founder and chief of Yahoo says. “It feels like where the Web is going.” What Yang envies is the community of 1.5 million rabidly loyal users Flickr has cultivated and the vast amount of content they’ve created. Of the 60 million photos uploaded to the site so far, more than 80 percent are public, meaning that anyone can look at them. More than half have been …
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NBA Players Spiff Up Off The Court
USA Today: Menswear designer Joseph Abboud is in negotiations to outfit up to 100 NBA players, according to Marty Staff, the fashion company's president and CEO. Joseph Abboud has an endorsement deal with New York Knicks guard Stephon Marbury to provide a new suit for all 82 games this season. In return, Marbury is in Joseph Abboud ads. Joseph Abboud has forged similar outfitting deals with tight end Jeremy Shockey …
Is Permission Marketing A Flimsy Theory?
Tom Asacker makes some cogent points about wide gulph between what marketing experts recommend and what brand managers continue to do. Consultants and popular marketing bloggers alike (they're often one in the same) increasingly advise brand managers to: 1. Treat customers with respect 2. Do what's in the best interest of potential customers 3. Get rid of the hype and, instead, provide more depth 4. Be …
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All Hail The Rant
The Spunker has turned us on to what appears at first glance to be a great suck-ass new ad blog, Copyranter. I am an NYC ADVERTISING COPYWRITER. I get paid a ridiculous amount of money to be stupid. And then to change my stupidity to something stupider. And stupider. And so on. Like reading funny stupid stuff? Welcome. With that kind of honesty up front, you know the contents of the blog are bound to be equally …
Cheap Swedish Furniture Drives People To Extraordinary Lengths
Most people loathe standing in line, or "on line," as the case may be. Which makes this promotional stunt from Ikea all the more painful to learn about. According to a report in the Boston Herald, more than 2,000 people lined up by for the opening of the Swedish home furnishings chain’s first Massachusetts store. The first five people in line were rewarded gift certificates ranging in value from $500 to …
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