Steven Dubner, author of Freakonomics, is encouraging people to write new six-word mottos for the United States of America. Here are some of the results: A Billion Dollars Makes You President Hubris: it’s not just for Greeks! All your oil belong to us Intelligently designed to constantly evolve Totally oblivious to our own failure I Can’t Believe It’s Not Democracy A strong constitution overcomes bad leadership Burn …
Newsweek Needs Our Help
According to The New York Observer, Newsweek editor Jon Meacham speaking to an audience of about 100 graduate students at Columbia journalism school said, "Look, I need you. I've got people out there risking their lives right now." "It's an incredible frustration that I've got some of the most decent, hard-working, honest, passionate, straight-shooting, non-ideological people who just want to tell the damn truth, and …
IPG Invests In Urban Advertainers
Steve Stoute is is an American record executive, most famous for being rapper Nas's off-and-on manager since 1995. Stoute is also the founder of Translation Marketing, a company that matches pop-star spokespersons with corporations that want to promote their brands. He has worked to pair Gwen Stefani with Hewlett-Packard, Justin Timberlake with McDonald's, Beyoncé Knowles with Tommy Hilfiger, and Jay-Z with …
Let’s Have TXT
TRAINED PROFESSIONALS ARE AVAILABLE TO HELP YOU PRACTICE YOUR SEXY TXTING SKILLS. McKinney's new Valentine's Day campaign for Virgin Mobile encourages one to talk dirty to real live human beings posing as sexy secretaries, housewives, cowboys, firemen, etc. They're positioning it as a "sexy alternative to the real thing." And as a precursor to one's own naughty but nice messages that might go out on 2/14. …
Once In A Lifetime
Katharine Weymouth, a granddaughter of the late Washington Post Co. chairman Katharine Graham and niece of Tina Weymouth, the bass guitarist in the new wave band Talking Heads, has been named chief executive of Washington Post Media, a new division that will oversee The Washington Post newspaper and its online component, washingtonpost.com. Weymouth, 41, will also serve as the newspaper's publisher, the fifth member …
The Garfield Brouhaha
Bob Garfield of Ad Age didn't like reading about how his Super Bowl ad commentary was framed as "retarded" on the interweb's most popular ad blog. So he did what any good citizen of Media 2.0 does—engage. Here's the difference between criticism and whatever it is you and your commenters do: A critic makes judgments supported by analysis and argument, then signs his name and takes responsibility for his words. What …
HOW Redesign Vs. Adweek Redesign
Catharine P. Taylor wants to know what we think of the new Adweek site design. I'm thinking it might be instructive to compare their remodel to HOW's new upgrade. In other trade rag news, something funny's happening in the comments on Brand Autopsy's "Would You Miss Advertising Age?" post. …
Jack’s Secret Weapon
LA Times features Santa Monica agency, Secret Weapon, today. It seems the SW principals took VW's sage advice to "Think Small" to heart. The independent Secret Weapon, with 25 employees, has by design at most three clients at any given time. "I have friends who run big agencies, with 20 clients, and there's always a fire to be put out somewhere," Sittig, Secret Weapon's founder and creative director, said recently. …
Lipitor Ads Go Under The Microscope
If you're old enough to remember the early 80's, then you may recall that Dr. Robert Jarvik's artificial heart was a really revolutionary invention. But Jarvik is now under fire for his ads promoting Lipitor. One ad features him rowing. Only it's not him. It's a body double. As The New York Times reports: The House Committee on Energy and Commerce is looking into when and why Dr. Jarvik began taking Lipitor and …
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Denver Shops Find Their Blogging Groove
When I worked at The Integer Group, I launched KTIG, a now defunct internet radio station. I also helped launch an internal wiki for teams working on the Coors business. But blogs were still new to me back then. Today, following a bunch of links from The Denver Egotist, I landed on Shopper Culture, an Integer blog which looks to be an outgrowth of Meg Kinney's "Exploration of America's Relationship to Shopping." I …
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