To support the launch of M&M's Dark Chocolate Candies, the brand introduced its new ad campaign at New York City's famous Guggenheim Museum, with a print ad that interjects the "fun" of M&M's into an admittedly dark masterpiece, Edvard Munch's 'The Scream.' The ad features "Red," the iconic M&M's character, unexpectedly playing hopscotch in the background of the celebrated work of art -- bringing a bit of levity and …
First Person Backlash
Netanel Jacobsson, 38, a former reggae singer and AOL business development executive who now owns a strategic media consulting and business developement agency, is done with A-list bloggers (with two notable exceptions). Most of the so called A–list bloggers have very little to say besides reporting their latest parties, or their other fellow A-list bloggers latest links and posts. Very, very seldom you find any …
The Lubars’ Touch
BBDO, New York and Atlanta, created a new commercial for Cingular wireless that's funny and spot on. Even The Bullshit Observer loves it. "Good casting. Good writing. Sells the product. Makes me laugh." …
Engineers Take It To The Bank In Mountain View
Would you rather build something or help sell something? If you work at Google, apparently you want to be in the former category. According to Valley Wag: Engineers are the real winners. No one's sure just how much richer the geeks are than the ad-sales wonks and other early Googlers, but there's definitely a class divide -- not that anyone acts like it at the office. Let's pretend the above scenario is true. It's a …
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The Voice Of The Customer Will Be Heard
Matthew Creamer writing in Ad Age says: Product reviews written by real people are perhaps the most underappreciated slice of the consumer-generated-media universe, the explosion of which has captivated the advertising and media worlds. But as marketers fixate on getting their virals on YouTube and making friends on MySpace, these relatively unsexy product write-ups have quietly become the most common form of …
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Appliances 101
New York Times takes a look at the back-to-college market, one retailers, online and off, have begun to covet. According to the National Retail Federation, an industry trade group, the fastest-growing back-to-college categories include ones that play to the strengths of online retailers, like consumer electronics, computers and even furniture, which is starting to gain momentum with online consumers. Sears Holdings, …
Punks Do It Themselves
Darryl Ohrt of Brand Flakes for Breakfast wants to know if you've brought the punk rock ethos into your workplace. Here's how he thinks about his own punk youth and its impact on his business life: Within the punk rock credo of my youth were the seeds of a larger business philosophy. Ten years in a boutique design and branding firm has shown me how valuable the punk rock attitude is to a successful brand plan. The …
“The Walls Between Art And Engineering Exist Only In Our Minds”
Fruity Goodness
Click Here, a Dallas-based interactive agency, has launched Fruit Guy Fans, a Fruit of the Loom microsite that busts on the brand's iconic spokesfruit and the indie music scene all in one fell swoop. Like a good indie fan site, this one makes MP3 downloads available. One song hangs on the line, "You can't overlove your underwear." Camp is such a perfect approach to marketing undergarments. [via Random Culture] …
Free Audiobooks
New York Times explores the world of free audiobooks, from services like LibriVox, Telltale Weekly and LiteralSystems. At its worst a free audiobook can sound like a teenager reading aloud in high school English class. At its best it can offer excellent sound quality and skilled narration infused with a passion for the text. In between is a world of competent readings, sometimes spiced with affected accents, mumbled …