If you want to save money, erase 1-800-555-1212 from your memory. From USA TODAY: Not long ago, the price of a cup of coffee got you a phone number from directory assistance. Now, calling 411 will nick you for the price of a Starbucks coffee. But take heart. A new crop of 800 services is offering free directory assistance. The catch: You first have to listen to a commercial for up to 15 seconds. The newest of the …
Are African-Americans More Likely To Think Arbys And Wake Up With The King?
From the AP: There are far more ads for fast food and snacks on black-oriented TV than on channels with more general programming, researchers report in a provocative study that suggests a link to high obesity rates in black children. The results come from a study that lasted just one week in the summer. Commercials on Black Entertainment Television, the nation's first black-targeted cable channel, were compared with …
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No Women? No Good.
Lu Chekowsky, writing for the Huffington Post, mentions that Creativity magazine is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Their anniversary issue includes a retrospective on the most important advertising figures of the last 20 years. Apparently, Creativity couldn’t find one woman who merited being pictured in a list lauding the “Most Influential Creative Minds of the Last 20 Years.” I let that sink in. And then I got …
Forget “Big Love”…”Mad Men” Is On Its Way
Matt Weiner, who has written scripts for The Sopranos, has a new show in the easy-bake oven. It's called "Mad Men," and will chronicle the fictional lives of ad execs at fictional ad agency, Sterling Cooper in the 1960s. According to Ad Age, Weiner describes the show as, “A lot of f**king and drinking and very, very wry and funny. The people are aware of the fact that what they’re doing is bulls**t.” AMC has …
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Boomers’ Worldview Fused To Rise Of TV
Linda Kaplan Thaler, CEO of Kaplan Thaler reflects on her generation in an op-ed piece for the LA Times: Did boomers really invent protest movements, civil rights or the very notion of challenging authority? Of course not. Americans were subverting norms 200 years before 1946, the year that boomers first touched down on Earth. But through TV, we were the first to have the means to broadcast our ideas in a massive …
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If You’re Not On A Mission, Pick Up The Pace
The 4As are meeting in Arizona this week. Between rounds of golf, the elite men and women of the ad biz will discuss the shifting landscape under their feet, and what to do about it. Here's a preview from the New York Times: The increasing willingness of companies like Coca-Cola, General Motors and Unilever to hire smaller shops is among the most profound changes affecting Madison Avenue. "It's a slight red herring …
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Cargo Drops Its Load
From the newly redesigned New York Times website: The lesson to be learned from the death of Cargo is not that guys don't like to shop, spend money or moisturize; or that Cargo was too gay or too straight; or that the cultural phenomenon of the metrosexual never really existed. The real culprit behind the decision last week to close Cargo, the men's shopping magazine, would have to be the stickers. In each issue for …
Skaters Shred The Web
If you're a skater, Real Simple Syndication (RSS), just got simpler. To keep up on the latest news from Roller Warehouse, and to share that news on your own web site or MySpace page, you can now add a bit of code and presto--instant skater-specific newsfeed. Roller Warehouse: Aggressive Rollerblade Skates On the news ticker, each topic contains the first 30 to 40 words of the article. Clicking on a topic takes you …
