After AOL's fumbling of privacy-rich search data, an act for which they're taking a pounding, customer-centric Google is looking good in this USA Today article on the topic: Google CEO Eric Schmidt has a message for Google users: Your searches are safe. "Our No. 1 priority with our users is trust," Schmidt told some 2,000 attendees at the Search Engine Strategies conference. Safa Rashtchy, an analyst at equity firm …
Some Ad Guys Are Real Creeps
"Quiznos Marketing Exec Arrested in Chat Room Sex Sting" the Ad Age headline rings out, having made its way from the New York Post's newroom. Quiznos' senior VP of marketing, Scott Lippitt, 47, faces at least five felony charges, including criminal attempt at sexual assault on a child; enticement of a child; contributing to the delinquency of a minor; internet luring; and internet sexual exploitation of a child, …
New Rolling Stone Smells Like Old Times
Ad Age reports that Showtime placed a scent-strip ad in the Aug. 24 issue of Rolling Stone to promote the second season of "Weeds," a show where a suburban mother (played by Mary-Louise Parker) sells marijuana to keep the mortgage paid. "It smells like hippies wearing patchouli," said a MediaWorks colleague who got to sniff the ad. Fragrance vendors, whose typical struggles include searching for scents that whisper …
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Beyond Brand Evangelism
According to Newsweek, Peter McBride can take off his polo shirt and maintain his preppy image. McBride, 22, has a Polo pony tattooed on his chest. His decision to brand himself with a brand is increasingly common. Gaje Pou, a New York City tattoo artist, says getting inked with designer or corporate logos is "definitely getting more acceptable." Logo requests range from Chanel and Gucci to Windows and PlayStation. …
Spam And Phishing Are Not Your Problem (Even Though They Are)
Grant McCracken, a man with a Ph.D. in anthropology who has taught at Harvard Business School, examines the way Microsoft and eBay avoid treating problems like spam and phishing that daily impact their customers and their brands. For some reason, Microsoft thought that spam was my problem. How cavalier. Apparently, the author and vendor of my email program was quite happy to expose me to daily difficulty. Maybe …
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Wagging The Valley’s Long Tail
San Jose Mercury News takes a closer look at Nick Denton's Valleywag, a.k.a. Nick Douglas. The 22-year-old college dropout has ruffled Silicon Valley's feathers in the seven months since valleywag.com launched. The site has established itself with a daily quota of 12 items, a mixture of gossip, rumor and wry riffs. Plus, Valleywag gives the technology world something it secretly hungers for -- Hollywood-style …
Pestitcides Are Not Refreshing
Turkish newspaper, Zaman, brings us this twisted story of two beverage behemoths gone bad: India parliament agreed on ban of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo products following last week’s discovery of toxic chemicals in the Indian manufactured cola products. The New Delhi-based Center for Science and Environment said last week that tests conducted on 57 samples found pesticide residues in Coke and Pepsi products that were 24 …
Rising Gas Prices Precipitate Executive Delusions
General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner, in a foolish moment, told USA Today $4.00/gallon gas will not lead to fewer auto sales. Despite the speculation about how high prices could run after the cutoff this week of BP's Alaskan crude, Wagoner says he thinks vehicle sales are unlikely to nose-dive. "We have actually been a little surprised how the market has held up through ... $3-plus gas that we've had here over the past …
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