Lance Duston of Maine Web Report pointed out that an ad running on the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development website mistakenly features a phone sex number instead of the real number to call for Maine tourism information. The agency that produced the work, Warren Kremer Paino Advertising is now suing him in federal court. They are claiming defamation, libel, and copyright infringement. A better …
Attribute. It’s Not Hard.
There seems to be some sort of attribution problem in the culture today. A Harvard student just had her first book yanked by her embarassed publisher. And Raytheon CEO William Swanson just stopped distributing his popular booklet Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management, after accusations of word for word lifting from an earlier text.. The booklet has attained cult-like status among business leaders, with more than …
Will The Cingular Guy Get To Live?
Kids, back in the old days, there was one phone company: AT&T, also known as Ma Bell. And you rented phones from them. Then, the government decided to breakup Ma Bell into little Baby Bells. Now, Ma's back and she's eating her young. As Ad Age reports: Not only is AT&T -- in the throes of acquiring Cingular owner BellSouth --planning to ditch the Cingular name and ubiquitous, sprightly orange jack, but it will …
Looking In The MySpace Mirror
USA TODAY is running a piece about brands trying to recreate the success of MySpace. Coca-Cola appears to be the most successful imitator to date. More than 8 million people average five hours per month on the site, where they can write about their favorite bands, mix and share music, chat and upload short videos. They can post under "vegos" — pseudonyms, short for "virtual egos" — and rack up points to buy Coke …
Me Oh My
The 1980s were known as the Me Decade thanks to Wall Street greed going mainstream. According to this New York Times piece, the tens might become known as the My Decade, if Madison Avenue has anything to say about it. My, my, my. Madison Avenue has become obsessed with using the word "my" — along with "your" and "our" — in advertising slogans, as well as in the names of brands, products and even a new television …
Safe Happens. And Apparently, Safe Works
USA Today reports that the new VW Jetta ads depicting car crashes are generating interest at the dealers: Volkswagen says that since the ads touting Jetta's crash safety began on April 10, requests for brochures are up 37% at call centers and 56% on the Web compared with the first 15 days of March, and Internet requests for dealer price quotes are up 58%. Here's a couple of questions for all you ROI gurus: Was VW …
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